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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


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


The Paschal Chronicle records that the deposed emperor Maurice and his family were captured at the church of *Autonomos (martyr of Nicomedia, S00016) at Praenetus near Constantinople in 602, and that one of his officials, Comentiolus, was executed near the shrine of *Konon (potentially any of three martyrs of this name: S00177, S00429, or S00430). Written in Greek at Constantinople, c. 630.

Evidence ID

E07968

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Paschal Chronicle, s.a. 602

Ἐκρατήθη δὲ Μαυρίκιος Τιβέριος μετὰ τῆς γυναικὸς καὶ ὀκτὼ τέκνων αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸv ἅγιοv Αὐτόνομον, πλησίον Πραινέτου· καὶ τῇ κζ' τοῦ αὐτοῦ μηνός, ἡμέρᾳ τρίτῃ, ἐσφάγη πλησίον Χαλκηδόνος αἰτὸς Μαυρίκιος καὶ Τιβέριος καὶ Πέτρος, Ἰουστῖνος καὶ Ἰουστινιανός [...] καὶ Κομεντίολος ὁ πατρίκιος καὶ στρατηλάτης καὶ αὐτὸς ἐσφάγη πέραν πλησίον τοῦ ἁγίου Κόνωνος πρὸς θάλασσαν, καὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο κυνόβρωτον.

'Maurice Tiberius, together with his wife and eight of his children, was seized at St. Autonomus, near Praenetus. And on the 27th of the same month [November], a Tuesday, Maurice himself was slain near Chalcedon, as were [his sons] Tiberius, Peter, Justin, and Justinian ... Comentiolus, the patrician and magister militum, was also slain on the far side, near St. Conon by the sea, and his body was eaten by dogs.'


Text: Dindorf 1832, 694.
Translation: Whitby and Whitby 1989, 143.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)
Cult building - monastic

Non Liturgical Activity

Seeking asylum at church/shrine

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Monarchs and their family

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

The emperor Maurice and his family fled from Constantinople during the night of 22/23 November 602, and crossed to the Asian side of the Sea of Marmara, where they took refuge in the shrine of the martyr Autonomos at Prainetos, near Nicomedia (on which see Janin 1975, 86-7). They were seized from there by Phocas' men and taken to Chalcedon, across the Bosporos from Constantinople, where Maurice and his sons were put to death (for another account of this incident, see E00007 and E00050).

After describing the killing of the emperor and his sons, the chronicler mentions various other members of Maurice's family and government who were killed after Phocas' seizure of power. The killing of one of these, the military commander Comentiolus, is specified as having taken place near the shrine of Konon. This was located at Sykai (Galata) on the far side of the Golden Horn, which is attested on a number of occasions in the
Chronicle and elsewhere (see E05729, E07975), but without providing certainty as to which of multiple martyrs named Konon it was dedicated to (see Janin 1969, 283-4).


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).

Janin, R.,
Les Églises et monastères des grands centres byzantins (Paris, 1975).


Record Created By

David Lambert

Date of Entry

02/09/2020

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00016Autonomos, martyr of NicomediaΑὐτόνομοςCertain
S00177Konon, gardener and martyr of Magydos of PamphyliaΚόνωνUncertain
S00429Konon, martyr of Iconium ΚόνωνUncertain
S00430Konon, martyr of Isauria ΚόνωνUncertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E07968 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07968