The epitome of Theodore Lector's Tripartite History (203 and 227) refers to the Anastasia church in Constantinople as the church of the martyr *Anastasia (martyr of Sirmium and Rome, S00602) in the time of Gregory of Nazianzus (bishop of Constantinople 379-381). From the 7th c. epitome of a work written in Greek at Gangra, northern Asia Minor, c. 511/518.
Evidence ID
E08057
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Epitome of Theodore Lector's Tripartite History, 203
Γρηγόριος ὁ θεολόγος τῆς κατὰ Κωνσταντινούπολιν ἐκκλησίας προέστη, καὶ εἰ μὴ φθάσας τὴν πόλιν ἀνεκαλέσατο, πᾶσα τῆς Ἀρείου καὶ Εὐνομίου λώβης πεπλήρωτο. καὶ πάσας τὰς ἐκκλησίας αὐτοὶ κατεῖχον οἱ ἑτερόδοξοι πλὴν τοῦ εὐκτηρίου Ἀναστασίας τῆς μάρτυρος. ἐπεσκόπει δὲ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν ὁ Δημόφιλος.
'Gregory the Theologian was then leader of the church in Constantinople, and if he had not called back the city first, it would have been completely filled with the shame of Arius and Eunomius. And the heretics occupied all the churches except the chapel of Anastasia the martyr. And Demophilos was bishop of the Arians.'
227
Γρηγόριος ὁ θεολόγος ἐν τῇ νυνὶ ἐκκλησίᾳ Ἀναστασίας τῆς μάρτυρος, εὐκτηρίῳ οὔση μικρῷ, τοὺς ὀρθοδόξους ἐδίδασκεν.
'Gregory the Theologian taught the orthodox in the present church of Anastasia the martyr, then a small chapel.'
Text: Hansen 1995, 73, 77.
Translation: David Lambert.
Cult Places
Cult building - independent (church)
Source
Theodore Lector – Theodore the Reader (Theodoros Anagnostes in Greek), 'reader' being his minor clerical rank – was an ecclesiastical historian active in the later years of the emperor Anastasius (ob. 518) and the reign of his successor Justin I (518-527). Little is known about Theodore's life: he is said by later sources to have been a reader in the clergy of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Hansen 1996, ix). In the preface to his Historia tripartita (Hansen 1995, 1) he states that he wrote it at Gangra in northern Asia Minor. He does not say what brought him to this fairly remote region, but modern historians have conjectured that he had been exiled from Constantinople together with the former bishop of the city Macedonius, who was deposed and exiled to the area in 511 for resisting the emperor Anastasius' alignment with opponents of the Council of Chalcedon (it is evident from his works that Theodore was strongly pro-Chalcedonian). It is possible that Theodore returned to Constantinople after Anastasius' death in 518 and that some or all of his Ecclesiastical History was written there, but this is not known for certain. Nothing is known about Theodore's life after the composition of his histories. See further Hansen 1995, ix-xi; Treadgold 2007, 169-70.Theodore composed two historical works: one, known since at least the 9th century as the Tripartite History (Historia tripartita), is an ecclesiastical history running from the reign of Constantine to the year 439, made up of extracts from the three 5th c. ecclesiastical historians, Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret – hence its name; for a brief analysis, see Hansen 1995, xiii-xv. (The better-known Latin Historia tripartita produced by Cassiodorus was based on a translation of Theodore, but with substantial additions and alterations.) This was followed by an Ecclesiastical History of Theodore's own, covering the period from 439, when his 5th c. sources came to an end, to the death of the emperor Anastasius in 518. Though normally treated in modern scholarship as independent texts, these may have been conceived by Theodore as a single work.
With the exception of books 1 and 2 of the Historia tripartita, Theodore's work does not survive in its original form, but only in fragments and through later writers who used him as a source. Some of these used his original text; however in the early 7th century an unknown compiler produced an epitome of church history, which included Theodore's works, as well as those of various other writers (Hansen 1995, xxxvii-xxxix; Greatrex 2015, 130-39). The epitome does not survive in its entirety, but is partially transmitted in several manuscripts (for details, see Hansen 1995, xxiv-xxix), although these have been described as 'very much different even among themselves' (Kosiński 2017, 112). Gaps in the text can filled by using passages in later writers who used the epitome, such as the 9th c. chronicler Theophanes. Editions of Theodore's works are therefore essentially collections of fragments, which in some cases have been modified twice: by the compiler of the epitome and by the later writers who relied on it, meaning that it is sometimes difficult to judge precisely what comes from Theodore himself.
For general discussion of Theodore's works and the form in which they survive, see Hansen 1995, ix-xxxix, 229-30; Treadgold 2007, 169-74; Greatrex 2015; Kosiński 2017.
Discussion
Theodore's first reference to the church of Anastasia (203) appears in the account of the reign of Valens (364-378) in the Historia tripartita: this is mistaken chronologically, since the tenure of Gregory of Nazianzus (Gregory the Theologian) as bishop of Constantinople (379-381) was not until after Valens' death. The second passage (227) appears in the account of the beginning of the reign of Theodosius (379-395).The foundation of the Anastasia church in Constantinople by Gregory of Nazianzus is attested in many sources, including Socrates (5.7) and Sozomen (7.5), on whom Theodore's references are largely based. They did not link the name with the martyr Anastasia of Sirmium, however, and nor did Gregory when he founded the church: he devised the name Anastasia to symbolise the resurrection (anastasis) of the Nicene church in Constantinople after the period of Arian dominance which Theodore describes (see E01395). Sozomen (7.5), who gives this explanation for the name, offers an alternative which also has nothing to do with the martyr: that a woman who died after falling from a gallery in the church was resurrected there.
The point at which the church became associated with the martyr is not entirely clear, but during the reign of Leo I (457-474) her relics were translated there from Sirmium (see E08019), and it seems subsequently to have been assumed that the church's name derived from the saint. By referring to Gregory's foundation as the church of Anastasia the martyr, Theodore is therefore projecting the association with Anastasia of Sirmium current in his own time back to the foundation of the church in the 4th century. In the second of the quoted passages (227), Theodore's reference to 'the present church of Anastasia the martyr' may indicate that he knew that this was not the original significance of the name, especially as he goes on to quote the two different explanations given by Sozomen.
For a general account of the church, see Janin 1969, 22-25.
Bibliography
Editions and translations:Hansen, G.C., Theodoros Anagnostes, Kirchengeschichte. 2nd ed. (Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller, Neue Folge 3; Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1995).
Kosiński, R., et al., The Church Histories of Theodore Lector and John Diakrinomenos (Bern: Peter Lang, 2020), with English translation and commentary.
On Theodore Lector:
Greatrex, G., "Théodore le Lecteur et son épitomateur anonyme du VIIe s.", in: P. Blaudeau and P. Van Nuffelen (eds.), L'historiographie tardo-antique et la transmission des savoirs (Millennium Studies 55; Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2015), 121-142.
Kosiński, R., "Corpus Theodorianum. Preliminary Propositions for a New Arrangement of Theodore Lector's Legacy," Res Gestae. Czasopismo historyczne 5 (2017), 111-124.
Treadgold, W., The Early Byzantine Historians (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
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
20/11/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00602 | Anastasia, martyr of Sirmium and Rome | Ἀναστασία | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E08057 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08057