Theodore Lector's Ecclesiastical History (28/epitome 435) states that the remains of *Eustathios (bishop of Antioch, ob. c. 337, S01316) were translated from Philippi in Macedonia to Antioch (Syria) in 479/484. Work originally written in Greek at either Gangra, northern Asia Minor, or Constantinople, c. 518/519, but only surviving in later, abbreviated versions.
Evidence ID
E08092
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Victor of Tunnuna, Chronicle s.a. 490 [= Theodore Lector, Ecclesiastical History 28]
Calendio Antiochenus episcopus reliquias prodecessoris sui Eustachii episcopi et confessoris ex Philippopoli Macedoniae colligit et Antiochiam summo cum honore perducit.
'Calendio bishop of Antioch gathered the relics of his predecessor Eustachius, bishop and confessor, from Philippopolis in Macedonia, and brought them to Antioch with the greatest honour.'
Epitome of Theodore Lector's Ecclesiastical History 435
Καλανδίων δὲ αἰτήσας τὸν Ζήνωνα τὸ λείψανον Εὐσταθίου εἰς Ἀντιόχειαν ἤνεγκεν ἀπὸ Φιλίππων τῆς ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ, ἔνθα καὶ ἐξώριστο καὶ ἀπέθανεν. ὅσπερ σὺν πλείστῃ τιμῇ οἱ πολῖται ἐδέξαντο ἀπὸ ιη' μιλίων ἐξελθούσης τῆς πόλεως πάσης, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἡλικίας. οἱ δὲ δι᾿ αὐτὸν μέχρι τότε ἀποσχιζόμενοι τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἡνώθησαν μετὰ ρ' ἔτη τοῦ θανάτου Εὐσταθίου.
'Kalandion, after making a request to [the emperor] Zeno, brought the body of Eustathios to Antioch from Philippi in Macedonia, where he had both been exiled and died. The citizens received it with the greatest honour, with those of every age, so they say, coming 15 miles out of the city. Those who until then had been in schism from the church because of him reunified, 100 years after Eustathios' death.'
Texts (both): Hansen 1995, 121.
Translation: David Lambert.
Liturgical ActivitiesBodily relic - entire body
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Procession
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Crowds
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 in 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 be 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.
Normal practice in the CSLA database is not to have entries for passages from derivative works whose sources are still extant and have entries of their own. This means that entries for the Historia tripartita, which largely reproduces Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret, appear only in occasional cases when Theodore adds information not in his sources. Theodore's Ecclesiastical History, unlike the Historia tripartita, is an original source, and our coverage of it is therefore comprehensive, but the way in which his text has survived means that this can only be done via passages from later writers. Entries for Theodore reproduce the closest surviving version of his text, most commonly the anonymous epitome. Later writers like Theophanes are used only when the relevant part of the epitome is not extant.
Discussion
Eustathios was bishop of Antioch under Constantine, who deposed him and exiled him in about 330, for his unwillingness to compromise with opponents of the Council of Nicaea. The ecclesiastical histories of Socrates (4.14-15) and Sozomen (6.13) claim that he was still alive in the reign of Valens (364-378), when he supposedly ordained Evagrius as the Nicene bishop of Constantinople, and this is echoed in the epitome's statement that the translation by Kalendion (in office 479-484) happened one hundred years after Eustathios' death. However, Theodoret (Ecclesiastical History 3.2) states that Eustathios was already dead by the time Meletios became bishop of Antioch in 360: much more plausibly, in view both of the obvious unlikelihood of someone who had been a senior ecclesiastic in the 320s still being alive forty to fifty years later, and of the fact that other than Socrates and Sozomen there is no positive evidence that Eustathios lived beyond the reign of Constantine. It is known, however, that he died and was buried in exile, as is attested already in the 4th century by both John Chrysostom in a sermon (E02259) and by Jerome, in his De viris illustribus (85).Theodore Lector is the only source to record the translation of Eustathios' remains back to Antioch by Kalendion, its bishop from 479 to 484. His account survives via two later writers: the Latin chronicler Victor of Tunnuna, active in the 560s, who used Theodore's original text but drastically abbreviated it to fit in his brief chronicle (for more on Victor, see the Source section in his entries, for example E00712), and the anonymous compiler of an epitome of ecclesiastical history produced in the early 7th century (also severely abbreviated, though usually, as in this instance, less so than Victor). Through the epitome, the passage is included in later works like the 9th c. chronicle of Theophanes: parts of the epitome only survive through such later use, but this particular passage appears in one of the surviving manuscripts of the epitome itself.
Victor, in naming the city of Eustathios' burial as Philippopolis, is probably in error, since there is no Philippopolis in Macedonia (though there is one in Thracia close-by), whereas Philippi, the city of burial given by the epitome, is indeed in Macedonia. Both Victor and the epitome may, however, be repeating an error by Theodore himself, since according to Jerome Eustathios' tomb was in another town, Traianopolis, to the west of Philippi in the province of Rhodope. The reference in the epitome to 'those who had separated from the church' refers to a local schism in the church at Antioch caused by Eustathios' deposition, though it is not clear whether this really lasted until the later 5th century.
Kalendion, the bishop of Antioch responsible for the translation, was a supporter of the Council of Chalcedon, which put him at odds with the emperor Zeno, who eventually deposed him, and with much of the population of his diocese. It is therefore easy to see why he might have seen the return to the city of the remains of a celebrated past bishop, especially one who had been exiled for resisting the religious policies of the emperor, as a way to strengthen his position.
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).
Record Created By
David Lambert
Date of Entry
09/12/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01316 | Eustathios, bishop of Antioch, ob. c. 337 | Εὐσταθίος | 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, E08092 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08092