The mosaics of the main apse of the basilica of Eufrasius at Poreč (ancient Parentium, Istria) show four saints approaching *Mary (Mother of Christ, S00033), seated on a throne with the Christ Child on her lap and flanked by angels: from the left, *Maurus (bishop and confessor/martyr of Poreč, S03091), identified by name and bearing a crown; from the right, *Three unidentified martyrs (S03092), two bearing crowns and one, in a gold cloak, bearing a book (possibly *Laurence, deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037). Datable to the mid-6th c.
E08563
Images and objects - Wall paintings and mosaics
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Mosaics of the main apse of the Basilica of Eufrasius
At the centre of the apse, against a gold background, is Mary seated on a throne with the Christ child on her lap, both figures facing forwards. A hand holding a crown descends from clouds above Mary's head.
To the left of Mary is an angel bearing a staff and then a haloed youthful male figure, facing towards Mary and offering a jewelled crown. He is dressed like the angel: sandals over bare feet; a white tunic with two black vertical stripes (clavi); and a cloak (a himation or pallium), which is draped over one shoulder and covers his hands; it is decorated on its lower edge with two identical patterns. To the left of the figure's head, he is identified as 'S(an)c(tu)s Ma/urus' (Saint Maurus).
Behind Maurus is a further figure, without halo, identified by a label to the left as 'Eufrasi/us ep(iscopu)s' (Bishop Eufrasius). He has a short beard and lined forehead. He wears white stockings and open-topped shoes, and a white tunic (again with clavi), and over this a dark brown paenula (an oval cloak with a hole at its centre through which the wearer inserted his head). He carries a model of the church.
Behind Maurus are two further figures: an adult, wearing a wide-sleeved dalmatic (with clavi), who is identified as 'Claudius arc(idiaconus)' (Claudius the archdeacon); and a young boy wearing a gold paenula and dark stockings, and bearing candles, who is identified as 'Eufrasiu/s fil(ius)/ arc(idiaconi)' (Eufrasius, son of the Archdeacon).
To the right of Mary is another angel, also bearing a staff, and three youthful haloed figures, all facing towards the throne; two are dressed identically to Maurus and also offer crowns; the central figure, however, who appears to have a very short stubble-beard, wears a golden cloak and offers a book. The three figures' cloaks are each decorated with two identical Greek letters on their lower edges.
Below the figures, running across the apse, is an inscription of thirteen lines of verse, laid out in four lines of gold mosaic letters, set against a dark blue background:
☩ Hoc fuit in primis templum quassante ruina
Terribilis labsu nec certo robore firmum,
Exiguum magnoque carens tunc furma metallo, //
Sed meritis tantum pendebant putria tecta.
☩ Ut vidit subito labsuram pondere sedem [5]
Providus et fidei fervens ardore sacerdus
Eufrasius s(an)c(t)a precessit // mente ruinam.
Labentes melius sedituras deruit aedes;
Fundamenta locans erexit culmina templi.
☩ Quas cernis nuper vario fulgere metallo, [10]
Perficiens coeptum decoravit // munere magno,
Aecclesiam vocitans signavit nomine ΧΡ(ist)Ι.
Congaudens operi sic felix vota peregit.
'At first this temple, with ruin shaking it, was terrible in its [threatened] collapse, being neither solid nor secure of strength, small, filthy, and then devoid of great mosaic decoration; the rotted roof hung only by the power of grace. Immediately when Eufrasius, provident bishop and fervent in the zeal of faith, saw that the church was about to fall under its own weight, he forestalled the ruin with saintly inspiration; he demolished the ruinous temple in order to set it more firmly. He built the foundations and erected the roof of the temple, finishing what you now see, shining with new and varied mosaic. Completing his undertaking, he decorated it with great munificence and naming the church he consecrated it in the name of Christ. Thus, joyful from his work, a happy man, he fulfilled his vow.'
Text: Degrassi , 37-40, no. 81.
Translation: Terry and Maguire 2007, 4-5.
Description: B. Ward-Perkins
Cult building - independent (church)
Use of ImagesCommissioning/producing an image
Public display of an image
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Children
Source
The 'basilica of Eufrasius' is the southern, and larger, church of the palaeochristian double-cathedral of Poreč. Detailed survey and excavation reveals that Eufrasius partially reused the walls of an earlier church on the same site, but his intervention was extensive and transformational: new columns, capitals and bases in imported Proconnesian marble; mosaic floors; stucco-work; sumptuous opus sectile panels in the main apse; and the mosaics that are the subject of this and several other database entries.The precise dates of Eufrasius' episcopate are unknown, and nothing is known about him before he became bishop of Poreč - the only reference to him in textual sources is to a bishop Eufrasius, who must surely be our bishop, condemned as a defender of the Three Chapters in a letter of Pope Pelagius I of 559. Stylistic analysis of the mosaics, stucco-work and opus sectile, and comparison with very similar datable work in Ravenna (just across the north Adriatic), supports a mid-sixth-century date for Eufrasius' episcopate and his church (Terry and Maguire 2007, 59-69). The relationship between Eufrasius and the Archdeacon Claudius, who also features prominently in the apse, is unknown - but the fact that Claudius' son also bore the unusual name Eufrasius, suggests that the three were close relatives.
The mosaics of the basilica were extensively restored in 1890-1900, which has occasionally led to debate over their authenticity. However, pre-1890 engravings and photos (see Images), as well as detailed close-up investigation by Terry and Maguire, show that the figures and their iconography are substantially intact from late antique times.
Discussion
Eufrasius' surviving dedicatory inscription (in line 12) suggests that his church was originally dedicated to Christ and not to a saint.Four saints (and Mary), however, feature prominently in the apse mosaics, all dressed in the 'philosopher's robes' that were widely used for apostles and often used for other male saints, when they appear in groups and when there was no need or wish to pinpoint their specific roles in life (the classic case is the procession of saints in Ravenna's Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, E06046).
Only one - the saint on the left, who precedes the donors - is identified, 'Saint Maurus'. There is no surviving early hagiography about him, but in later tradition he is said to have been a bishop and martyr of Poreč. An inscription excavated under the altar of the basilica in 1846, that may be earlier than Eufrasius' mosaics, supports that identity (see E08571), as does Maurus' depiction as a bishop in the mosaics set up in 640/642 by Pope John IV at the Lateran in Rome (E08276), and it would be logical for Bishop Eufrasius to represent himself in the mosaics literally following in the footsteps of an illustrious predecessor. There is, however, one puzzling aspect of the depiction of Maurus in Eufrasius' mosaics, for which there is no obvious explanation: he is shown as a fresh-faced and beardless young man, when sixth-century convention (naturally enough) was to show bishop-martyrs as bearded much older men. Maurus is in a position of honour in the mosaic, approaching the enthroned Mary and Jesus from their right; this identifies him as more important than the three saints approaching the throne from the other side.
These three saints are highly anomalous, in not being identified with name-labels, in marked contrast to the thoroughly labelled Maurus and three donors on the other side. The gold background of Eufrasius' apse was extensively replaced in the 1890-1900 restoration (because the original gold tesserae had suffered particularly badly with the passage of time). But no pre-1890 engraving, drawing or photo shows any trace of lettering around these saints, and it can safely be said that they never had labels. The saints are also particularly difficult to identify because they are all dressed in generic, and therefore uninformative, philosopher's robes, rather than in clothing appropriate to their individual earthly lives (which is how male saints in the apses of churches were normally shown - see, for instance, San Vitale at Ravenna [E06047] and SS. Cosma e Damiano at Rome [E08150]).
Some have argued (e.g. Šonje 1982-5) that three local martyrs, named Eleutherius, Proiectus and Accolitus, are the saints represented, and that they did not need to be labelled, because they were so well known. However, as Bratož 1999 outlines (while accepting their identity as Eleutherius, Proiectus and Accolitus), none of these three saints has attested cult at Poreč before the twelfth century, so the association is necessarily extremely speculative.
It is possible that the central figure, in his golden cloak, represents the very popular saint *Laurence (deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037), who in the procession of male saints in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna stands out as the one figure wearing gold (though as his tunic, not his cloak, E06046), and who is also depicted dressed in gold in San Lorenzo fuori le mura, Laurence's burial church outside Rome (E05292). As a deacon, one of whose roles was to read from the gospels during services, it would be very appropriate to show him carrying a book (as he does also in San Lorenzo fuori le mura).
Yet another possible identification exists: *Anastasius (S00853), one of the saints of the mid-seventh-century mosaics in the chapel of St Venantius at the Lateran in Rome, wears a golden cloak over a white tunic, exactly like our Poreč martyr (E08276), and this Anastasius was a saint of Istria or of neighbouring Dalmatia (E01626), making an association very possible.
However, on balance, we believe it is safest to conclude that the identification of these saints will never be resolved - Terry and Maguire (2007, 142-6) indeed argued that they were shown deliberately anonymously, as an act of personal devotion by the donors - and we have chosen to log them simply as 'Three unidentified martyrs venerated at Poreč (Parentium): S03092'.
Bibliography
For Eufrasius:Pietri, C. and Pietri, L., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 2 Prosopographie de l'Italie chrétienne (313-604), 2 vols. (Ècole française de Rome 1999), vol. 1, 671-2, 'Eufrasius'.
For the mosaics and their state of preservation:
Marucchi, O., "Le recenti scoperte nel duomo di Parenzo," Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 2 (1896), pp. 14-26 and tav. I-II.
Terry, A. and H. Maguire, Dynamic Splendor. The Wall Mosaics in the Cathedral of Eufrasius at Poreč, 2 vols, (Pennsylvania State University Press) 2007.
For Maurus and the three unnamed saints of the apse:
Bratož, R., Il cristianesimo aquileiese prima di Costantino, fra Aquileia e Poetovio, Udine 1999, pp. 426-38 and 447-8.
Šonje, A., "I mosaici parietali del complesso architettonico della basilica eufrasiana di Parenzo," Atti del Centro di ricerche storiche di Rovigo 12 (1982-5), pp. 65-138, at pp. 101-2.
Images
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Poreč cathedral, main apse. Photo: Maria Lidova
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Poreč cathedral, main apse: Maurus, Eufrasius and donors. Terry and Maguire, fig. 22
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Poreč cathedral, main apse: the three saints on the right. Terry and Maguire, fig. 43.
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Poreč cathedral, general view of the apse, before the 1890-1900 restoration. Marucchi 1896, tav. I-II.
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Poreč cathedral, detail of the apse, before the 1890-1900 restoration. Marucchi 1896, tav. I-II.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
15/10/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Certain | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Uncertain | S03091 | Maurus (bishop and confessor/martyr of Poreč, Istria) | Maurus | Certain | S03092 | Three unidentified martyrs venerated at Poreč (Parentium) | Certain |
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Bryan Ward-Perkins, Cult of Saints, E08563 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08563