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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Pope Gelasius I, in a letter of 492/496, mentions a church dedicated to the martyr *Eleutherius (martyr of Rome, S01661) in Histonium (modern Vasto, central Italy). Written in Latin in Rome.

Evidence ID

E06910

Type of Evidence

Literary - Letters

Pope Gelasius I, Letters, Fragment 5 (Thiel) ('Presbyteri, diaconi et', JK 677/JH 1340)

Gelasius Coelestino episcopo.
Presbyteri, diaconi et universi clerici Histoniensium civitatis petitorio nobis suggessere porrecto, in ecclesia beati martyris Eleutherii episcopi, quae in supradictae civitatis paroecia probatur esse constructa, presbyterum qui constitutus fuerat defecisse, atque in eius locum Julianum diaconum ipsius ecclesiae pro celebritate ipsius loci quantocius debere ordinari. [...]

‘Gelasius to Bishop Celestinus.
The presbyters, deacons, and all the clergy of the city of Histonium have informed us in a petition that in the church of the blessed martyr Bishop Eleutherius, which is known to be constructed in a parish of the above-mentioned city, the presbyter who had been appointed has died, and that Julianus, the deacon of the same church, should be ordained in his place as quickly as possible, because of the prominence of the place. ...'


Text: Thiel 1867, 485.
Translation: Frances Trzeciak.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Source

A letter of Pope Gelasius I (492-496). The letter in its surviving form is not dated and could be from any point during Gelasius' papacy. It survives through being included in medieval canonical collections, of which the earliest seems to be that of Anselm of Lucca, compiled c. 1083 (Anselm of Lucca, Collectio canonum 7.79); a partial and inaccurate version appears in the roughly contemporary Collectio canonum of Cardinal Deusdedit (Deusdedit, Collectio canonum 1.174 (142)). See Kéry 1999, 218, 228.

These collections made use of genuine material from the papal archives, but they were not compiled for historical or documentary purposes but as sources of canon law. The compilers therefore frequently edited the original letters to remove material (usually including the date) which was not relevant to the point of canon law they were cited to illustrate. This why these letters are listed in Thiel's collection of papal letters as 'fragments'.



Discussion

The site of Histonium (present-day Vasto) is on the Adriatic coast, on approximately the same latitude as Rome. According to some versions of the Martyrdom of Eleutherius his body was translated to Troia in northern Puglia, closer geographically to Histonium than Rome and on the same side of the Apennines (see E03220).


Bibliography

Editions:
Thiel, A., Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum Genuinae et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a S. Hilario usque ad Pelagium II (Braunsberg, 1867).

Thaner, F.,
Anselmi episcopi Lucensis collectio canonum una cum collectione minore (Innsbruck, 1915).

Wolf von Glanvell, V.,
Die Kanonessammlung des Kardinals Deusdedit (Paderborn, 1905).

Further Reading:
Kéry, L.,
Canonical Collections of the Early Middle Ages (ca. 400-1140): A Bibliographical Guide to the Manuscripts and Literature (Washington DC, 1999).


Record Created By

Frances Trzeciak and David Lambert

Date of Entry

16/09/2022

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S01661Eleutherius, martyr of Rome, and his mother AntiaEleutheriusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Frances Trzeciak and David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E06910 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06910