The Paschal Chronicle records that in 391, the head of *John the Baptist (S00020) was discovered and brought to Constantinople, and that the emperor Theodosius founded a church for the relic. Written in Greek at Constantinople, c. 630.
Evidence ID
E07956
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Major author/Major anonymous work
Pascal Chronicle
Paschal Chronicle, s.a. 391
Ἐπὶ τούτων τῶν ὑπάτων Θεοδόσιος Αὔγουστος εὑρὼν τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ παρά τινι γυναικὶ Μακεδονικῇ ἐν Κυζίκῳ διαγούσῃ, ταύτην ἀνακομισάμενος καὶ ἐν Χαλκηδόνι τέως ἀποθέμενος, τελευταῖον ἐκ βάθρων οἶκον οἰκοδομήσας ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ ἁγίου ἐν τῷ λεγομένῳ Ἑβδόμῷ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως ἔν αὐτῷ τὴν τιμίαν κεφαλὴν τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ ἀπέθετο μηνὶ περιτίῳ πρὸ ιβ' καλανδῶv μαρτίων.
'In the time of these consuls Theodosius Augustus found the head of St. John the Baptist at the house of a certain Macedonian woman living in Cyzicus, recovered it, and laid it to rest for a time in Chalcedon. Finally he built from the foundations a church in the name of the saint at the so-called Hebdomon of Constantinople, and in it he laid the precious head of the Baptist, in the month Peritius, day 12 before Kalends of March [18 Feb.].'
Text: Dindorf 1832, 564.
Translation: Whitby and Whitby 1989, 54.
FestivalsBodily relic - head
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Anniversary of relic invention/translation
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
RelicsBodily relic - head
Discovering, finding, invention and gathering of relics
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Construction of cult building to contain relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Women
Heretics
Source
The Chronicon Paschale (paschal or Easter chronicle) is a chronicle compiled at Constantinople in the first half of the 7th century. It covers events from the creation of the world up to the anonymous author's own time. The Chronicle probably concluded with the year 630 (see Whitby and Whitby 1989, xi), though the surviving text breaks off slightly earlier, in the entry for 628. The traditional name for the Chronicle originates from its introductory section, which discusses methods for calculating the date of Easter. The Chronicle survives thanks to a single manuscript, Vatican, Gr. 1941 (10th c.), on which all other surviving manuscripts depend. The only critical edition remains that of Ludwig Dindorf (1832).The chronicler uses multiple chronological systems to date events: Olympiads, consular years, indictions, and years from the Ascension, as well as using Roman, Greek, and sometimes Egyptian dates (see Whitby and Whitby 1989, x). Numerous literary sources are utilised for the period before the author's own time, including well-known historical sources such as Eusebius and John Malalas. We have not included entries for material in the Paschal Chronicle which simply reproduces material in earlier sources already entered in our database.
Discussion
This account reflects one of two versions of the discovery of the head of John the Baptist: that it occurred in the reign of Theodosius I (r. 379-395) and that the head was translated to Constantinople. The alternative, more widespread, account, according to which the head was discovered at Emesa in Syria in 453, also appears in the Chronicle (E07961).The description of the woman who possessed the head as 'Macedonian' indicates that she was an adherent of the Macedonian heresy (a variant of Arianism), not that she came from Macedonia, as is fully clarified in the longer account of the incident by Sozomen (E04052). The Chronicle's account as a whole is clearly based on Sozomen. However, unlike Sozomen it gives a precise date for the deposition of the head at the church built for it by Theodosius (18 February 391). On the church, which was at Hebdomon, just outside Constantinople, to the west of the southern end of the land-wall, see Janin 1969, 413-415.
Bibliography
Edition:Dindorf, L., Chronicon Paschale (Bonn, 1832).
Translation:
Whitby, M., and Whitby, M., Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD (Translated Texts for Historians 7; Liverpool, 1989).
Further reading:
Janin, R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l'empire byzantin. I: Les églises et les monastères de la ville de Constantinople. (2nd ed.; Paris, 1969).
Record Created By
David Lambert
Date of Entry
01/09/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστής | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E07956 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07956