I. Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
Three texts are traditionally connected with the name of Saint Gregentios, archbishop of Taphar, which are either transmitted together or separately: his biography, his laws for the Homerites and his disputation about the true faith with the Jewish law-teacher Herban.l These texts will thereafter be referred to as Bios, Nomoi and Dialexis respectively.2 The question how they are related to each other, that is, whether they were originally written together as a corpus or independently, can be solved only by a discussion of their content and possible circumstances of origin.
1 The Bios
Summary
1 Gregentios is bom as the son of a man called Agapios in Lyplianes in the country of the Avars, a town at a distance of two days from the highway to the northern sea, on a sixth December, the feast day of Saint Nikolaos His mother sees an old bishop in a dream who puts a gospel on the baby's chest. Gregentios is baptised and named after a wise man who lives on a mountain nearby At the age of seven, he comes to school and distinguishes himself by his diligence and piety At the age of ten, he is pushed into a river by a buck, but saved miraculously He retires to the desert; there a holy man appears to him, who instructs him and predicts his future.
Afterthe death of his mother Eusebeia he is given to the priests who had baptised him, and is adopted by one of them who is married, but childless When barbarians attack the surroundings of Lyplianes and the inhabitants flee to the fortress of Korada, Gregentios is outside in the vineyards, but enters unnoticed during the siege together with the holy man through the Rhomanesios gate, and appears in the house of his distressed foster-parents
Some time later, after the retreat of the barbarians, a fiery and a white pillar appear to Gregentios outside the town which turn into visions of the Mother of God and of John the Evangelist, and an angel predicts his future His foster-mother dreams that Saint Paul
1 About another work allegedly written by Gregentios, see below, p. 159.
2 References will be made to the chapters of the Bios (1-10), the Nomoi (N) and the five days of the Dialexis (Α Β Γ Δ Ε), plus line numbers; on the division of the Bios into chapters see below, p. 185. The excerpt of Κ is represented by K, the entry in the Synaxarion of Constantinople by S (on which see below, pp 804 and 810)
I. Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
speaks to him, and that angels clothe him as a bishop and lead him in a procession She tells this dream to some friends on the invitation of a certain Sergios An old man called Niketas explains the dream to her and predicts the conversion of a fourfold people by Gregentios.
2 One day, the holy man from the desert appears and departs with Gregentios for Moryne, where they stay with a man called Sabbatios Gregentios' foster-parents seek him desperately, and a holy fool called Petros adresses him in Moryne and speaks to him about this. When the bishop learns about Gregentios' spiritual gifts, the holy man urges him to depart, and they travel to Antenora, where they stay in to Petrolou in the house of a man called Theodoretos.The bishop of Moryne has Gregentios sought after, but in vain
Gregentios teaches and reads in church; when asked by the Bishop Eulogios, he calls Moryne his native place He is made a deacon and appointed as a lector A pious old woman called Theodora speaks to him about the distress of his foster-parents and exhorts him to steadfastness.
After some time, the holy man appears again and travels with Gregentios to Agrigentum on the island of Sicily, where they stay overnight at a church of the Mother of God at to Protolou, outside of the town When a priest asks him, Gregentios calls Antenora his native place. The bishop of Antenora also has sought him after in vain.
Together with his host, the priest Stephanos, Gregentios visits the hermitage of the pious ascetic Eirene who has died recently Two pine trees stand there which used to bow together with Eirene at prayer When Gregentios approaches her grave, a fiery rod comes out of it which turns into her shape. She resembles the picture which is set up at her grave, and speaks to Gregentios.
On the following day, Gregentios goes to the church of John the Precursor in the west of Agrigentum. On the way, when he wants to visit the chapel of the Mother of God at to Kyritonos, he meets a great crowd of people They listen to a woman who stands on the balcony of her house and either reproaches them for their sins or praises their virtues When she sees Gregentios, she addresses him, reveals his native place and predicts his travel to Egypt and to the Homerites.
3 Shortly thereafter, the holy man appears and departs hastily together with Gregentios, who has not even the time to say farewell to his host They pass Rome by boat and go to Milan, where they stay with a man called Niketas The holy man proceeds to the castle of Largention, which lies at a distance of thirty miles from Milan, and leaves Gregentios on his own.
Gregentios goes to the grave of Saint Ambrose, prays there and reads his writings On the way to the cathedral he is addressed by name by a poor man called Konstantinos. Having arrived there, he meets a monk and a cleric who are discussing the question, whether everyone's way of death is predestined by God or not Gregentios offers them proofs from the Scriptures for both opinions, but does not decide the dispute
Gregentios befriends a boy of fourteen years, called Leon, who attaches himself to Gregentios as his disciple. Soon, though, Leon is taken to Rome by his uncle and is made governor of the district (or town) of Melike, where he is murdered after a short time After having prayed in the chapel of Saint Stephanos, Gregentios has a vision of the underworld in the following night: a man shows him a great and beautiful house where the souls of those, who were killed before their predestined time of death, are kept until the time comes and they are shown their place of rest until the Last Judgement He also sees Leon who asks him to celebrate his memory
4 Again the holy man appears, and when Gregentios asks him for the reason of his long absence, he tells him that he was always invisibly at his side, and also that he was the man who led him through the underworld They travel to Carthage and stay with a man called Konstantinos
Gregentios sees an old woman called Philothea lying under a tree, who does not speak, but utters only barks and sighs He asks the holy man who tells him her story: as a young girl, Philothea was seduced by a young man when she went out for water, but by the intervention of God she came back to her senses and henceforth acted as if possessed, so that the young man was terrified and ran away from her When Gregentios visits her, she speaks to him clearly and wisely without any sign of madness
Together with a young man called Georgios, Gregentios frequently visits a chapel of Saint Anastasia on the north side of the city walls which, according to local tradition, had been built on the property of her family which originated from Rome A holy old woman greets him by name and mentions his native town Lyplianes in the region of Asia close to the country of the Avars When Georgios also wants to hear something about himself, she reproaches him for his sins and also enumerates the names of the women involved.
A holy old man called Basileios addresses him in the great church by name A young man called Pothetos, who has come to town from Thrace together with his father-in-law, asks Gregentios to write down his spiritual advice Thereupon Gregentios writes sixteen homilies When reading them, Pothetos deeply regrets his marriage and does not want to return home, but is convinced by Gregentios to do so
The holy man appears again and departs with Gregentios to Rome At a rest on the way in the valley of Patherolymna, when the holy man falls asleep for a short time, the devil appears in the shape of a black pillar with eyes floating above it, but is driven away by Gregentios' prayers
5 In Rome they stay with a man called Benediktas close to the Great Portico On the way to the church of Saint Peter, the monk Abramios greets Gregentios by name and enumerates the stations of his journey, mentioning also Perithoua, the harbour of Milan where Gregentios had landed when travelling there He accompanies him to the church, and Gregentios prays at the grave of the apostle
One day, when Gregentios stays in the chapel of Saint John the Precursor, a visitor has himself announced to the doorkeeper. It is Saint Peter who had been absent when Gregentios was at his grave, because he had gone to Negra together with the Mother of God and the other apostles to succour the martyrs there On the way back he had travelled together with Saint Paul until Tarsos, where Paul separated from him and went to Jerusalem Peter goes with Gregentios to his appartment, and asks him on the way about the holy man who had brought him there. Gregentios says that he does not know his name, but praises his wondrous works Thereupon Peter says that the time has not yet come for Gregentios to know his identity
On the request of the beggar Zacharias, Gregentios heals a young man called Basileios from his eye complaint On the way to the church of Saint Paul a consecrated woman addresses him by name as the prophet of the Homerites In the church Gregentios falls into ecstasy at the grave of the apostle; in the following night he sees Paul leading a procession and presenting him oil and pallia for his future task of consecrating priests and bishops.
On the following day and often thereafter Gregentios visits the church of Christ in the Konstantianai, the first church of Rome which was built by Constantine the Great close to the Patriarchate, and venerates the icon of Christ which is kept there. One day the image is
I Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
surrounded by a fire-glow, Christ moves his eyes as if alive and pours heavenly honey out over Gregentios Shortly thereafter, Gregentios is addressed by a monk called Gregorios on the way back from church, who had seen the encounter with the icon of Christ in a vision and remembers the words which Gregentios spoke at this occasion.
An old slave of Benediktas called Elisabet, who is sexually molested every night by a demon, asks Gregentios for help He writes a formula of expulsion on a piece of paper, and the demon is unable to harm her any more Gregentios goes out for prayer to the church of Saint Bonifatius and Aglais On the way he meets a man called Ioannes, who is thought to be insane because he throws stones on the people passing by Ioannes addresses Gregentios by name He had formerly been a monk in a monastery, but left it fearing the thirst for fame, and decided to live as a fool in Christ
6 In the church of Bonifatius Gregentios learns from a priest that a hermit called Michael lives three miles away from there, and sets out for him on the following day. Michael, who had foreseen his arrival, greets him by name and prophesies his fate When two monks ask him the fate of a friend, he confirms his death to them Michael instructs his disciple to bring Gregentios to another hermit on a mountain, whose foot is six miles and whose summit another thirteen miles to the north of his hut, and the disciple accompanies him until a place called "the Dry Lakes"
Gregentios goes up to the cave of the hermit Artados, who addresses him by name and tells him his past and his future fate in Egypt and the land of the Homerites Doing so he mentions the names of Emperor Ioustinos, King Elesboam and of the Patriarch Proterios, and speaks about the conversion by Gregentios of the four people of pagans, Jews, Homerites and Maurousians After two days Gregentios returns to Rome and to Benediktas, and also visits the hermit Michael and the priest Basileios at the church of Bonifatius on his way.
At the church of Saints Caecilia, Tiburtius and Valerianus, Gregentios meets a young man called Stephanos who comes from a rich family, but gave away all his property, escaped from his parents' house and now lives as a beggar He talks to Gregentios and, blessed, dies soon thereafter
Gregentios takes part in the matins at Saint Peter's and sees the Pope Felix On the way home he meets the holy man again, and they depart together to Augustopolis
7 In Augustopolis they stay with a pious widow called Euphemia After the holy man has left him, Gregentios goes to the cathedral which is dedicated to the Mother of God. A rich man called Andreas invites him, and he becomes sponsor at the first shearing of his son's hair
During the meal after the ceremony a priest, who is also present there, asks Gregentios to tell an edifying story Gregentios relates: At the time of his stay in Milan a rich man was going to die. His house was bombarded with stones by demons day and night, until he confessed his great sin to a cleric, and after his death he found peace in his grave only after the holy eucharist had been celebrated over it
On the market place, which is called Milentos, an Armenian preacher greets him by name and prophesies his travel to Egypt and to the Homerites. When they meet on the next day in the cathedral, the Armenian tells him about his origin from the church of Gregorios at Artazat in Greater Armenia In the evening at his house, Gregentios persuades a man called Ioannes to become a monk
On the way to the church of Saint Mokios in the west of the city, he meets a poor man called Georgios who greets him by name, which he has learned from Gregentios' holy companion, and exhorts him After some days, again the holy man appears and pushes Gregentios to depart
8 Gregentios and the holy man board a ship from Leukas During their travel on the open sea, the holy man makes the northern wind blow and gathers clouds to protect them against the heat of the sun.
When they arrive in Alexandreia, a female slave greets Gregentios by name on the square of Theonas She prophesies to him his vocation by Proterios as the result of a letter from the king of Ethiopia Gregentios and the holy man are hosted at ta Bonkolou by a man called Leontios.
In the monastery of Alexandras and Antonina, Gregentios talks with the abbot, a eunuch called Epiphanios One night, when Gregentios is sitting in the courtyard together with the monk Kosmas, the devil throws stones at them, but is driven away by the prayers of Gregentios Gregentios relates how he landed at Pavia after his departure from the island of Agrigentum and met a priest from the East in a chapel there, who told him the following story: In his native town lived an Arian who insulted the Mother of God often and very heavily She appeared to him again and again in a dream and warned him without success; finally, in the third dream she moved her hands along his arms and legs When he awoke, his limbs were cut away and the stumps had already healed up.
A woman called Archontia greets Gregentios by name when he goes to the church of Saint Menas
9 In the time of Ioustinos Emperor of the Romans, Elesboam King of Ethiopia, Dounaas King of the Homerites and Proterios Patriarch of Alexandreia, Dounaas conqueres the city of Negra in the kingdom of the Homerites, kills the Christians living there together with their leader Arethas, and concludes a treaty with the king of Persia On the request of Ioustinos, Elesboam starts an expeditions against the Homerites, defeats and kills their king and baptises the people. Elesboam asks Proterios to send a bishop; Saint Mark appears to Proterios in a dream and draws his attention to Gregentios Gregentios is brought before Proterios who shows him the letter of Elesboam Proterios consecrates him as a priest and as a bishop against his will, and Gregentios departs together with the envoys of Elesboam
After a short stay in Amlem, the capital of Ethiopia, they cross the sea of Saba to the cave of Medekion and go from there to Taphar They do not meet the king there, because he has gone to Negra to destroy the pagan temples in that town The king builds a church of the Resurrection in Negra at a place called Nephoth, a church of the Mother of God in ta Tademeros and a church of Arethas and the other martyrs close to Arethas' former house. In Taphar he builds the great church of the Holy Trinity at the king's palace, a church of the Mother of God at a place called Dana and a church of the Apostles at the western city gate; in Akana a church of the Resurrection, a church of Saint John the Precursor and a church of Saint Thomas; also churches at Atarph, Legmia, Azaki and Iouze
Elesboam, who has just appointed the son of Arethas as a local ruler in Negra, hears about the arrival of Gregentios and receives him. Gregentios consecrates the churches of Negra and installs a priest in each of them, then he does the same in the other cities
After a stay of 36 months in the kingdom of the Homerites, Elesboam returns to Ethiopia. Before leaving, he appoints Abraam as the new king of the Homerites, whom God has shown to him after a prayer of Gregentios, and leaves an army of 15,000 men behind In
I Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
Ethiopia he gives the throne to his son Atherphotham and retires as a hermit into a small cell on the mountain Ophra
Near the mountain, a young monk is threatened with death by a talking serpent because of his sins, but when he calls Elesboam's name, the serpent is killed by lightning.
Gregentios appoints bishops for all cities of the country and orders the people to be baptised by threat of death penalty, whereupon they all become Christians
The end of the Bios follows after the Dialexis as Ε 709-745.1
Introduction
Although the Bios of Gregentios BHG 705—706i is of highly legendary character, full of contradictions and anachronisms,2 it is possible, by an analysis of its various sources and layers of content, to establish its time of origin, its religious and political tendency
As we will presently see, a number of internal references and some peculiarities of vocabulary suggest that the whole text was written in the mid-tenth tenth century by one single author.3 However, the account about the youth of Gregentios and his travels in chapters 1-8, and that about his mission in Yemen in chapter 9 differ considerably due to the sources used for their composition:
Chapters 1-8 are a hagiographical novel which is staged in a Christian and late Roman setting of undetermined chronology, and which has the main function of providing the missing case history for the following report about Gregentios' mission in Yemeni he departs secretly from his native place, and led by a mysterious holy man, he undertakes a journey through different cities of Italy; at all stations of his way, he meets men or women with prophetic gifts or has visions of saints who predict his future fate in southern Arabia
1 See below, p. 115.
2 It has been called a "roman hagiographique fort suspect" by Sansterre, Moines, 133 Parkes, Conflict, 283-285 called also the frame setting of the Dialexis a "religious novel"; on which see below, p. 93. Peeters, review of Vasiliev, "Zitie", 109 and Gregoire, "Mahomet", 115, call the Bios, in a somewhat melodramatic way, "condamne sans appel".
3 See also Sansterre, Moines, 183; in the addenda to Patlagean, "Moines", in Ead., Structure sociale, no. XIII, 3 the author takes a "tradition plus complexe encore" into consideration under the impression of Christides, "War". — On the vocabulary, see below, p. 138.
4 Shahid, "Byzantium", 31 calls these two main sections the Mediterranean and the Arabian part of the Bios. — Stories about the youth of a saint, which were later added to an old account of martyrdom, can often be found in Greek hagiography. An instructive example for such an addition are the Greek and Latin lives of Saint Mamas of Kaisareia BHG 1019 and BHL 5166, where the same ancient text is completed by two entirely different introductions; see Berger, "Viten"
A saint's pious behaviour and his inclination to learning even during childhood^ moreover his secret flight from his country of birth are well-known topic motifs in Christian hagiography.6 Also, the characters of the pious bishop, the visionary man or woman, the possessed, the holy fool, the hermit and so on, which appear in the Bios, are hagiographical set pieces,7 so that there is no actual connection between the different prophecies to Gregentios and the places where they were supposedly made to him
The names given to the various minor persons of the story are mostly of Greek origin or common in the Greek East,8 and it appears that the number of names to choose from was rather limited, since five of them are assigned to two persons at different places.9 These persons have nothing to do with a possible historical framework, but are simply introduced to provide the narrative with a higher degree of plausibility — a goal achieved elsewhere, for example, by mentioning various kinds of trees and plants with their correct botanical names (2.270, 274; 4.7, 318-319; 5.383).
Historical events or names of rulers appear only within the prophecies which Gregentios receives during his travels (2.362; 5.194; 6.136-154) They all refer to the story of the mission in Yemen in chapter 9, which has been described there using a contemporary source from the early sixth century (escpecially 9.1-29). 10 The references in chapters 1-8 have obviously been adopted from there, and this is probably also true for the Pope Felix who is mentioned at Gregentios' stay in Rome rather en passant (6.264), and does not appear again in chapter 9.H
5 See Kalogeras, "Children", 10, where Gregentios is mentioned as an example of a puer senex. The motif also appears in many other hagiographical lives, among which are the Bios of Mamas (see preceding note) and that of Gregorios of Agrigentum (see below, p. 26) Kalogeras dates Gregentios' childhood into the late fifth century, thus obviously accepting the Bios as a 'historical' text
6 Since in this context the search for the hero by his parents and others is stressed, an influence of the Life of Gregorios of Agrigentum seems possible here, see Berger in Leontios Presbyteros, Bios of Gregorios of Agrigentum, 346. — On the motifs, see also Pratsch, Der hagiographische Topos, 90-92, 113-116
7 Mostly these persons are portrayed in a very stereotyped way. The fact that the holy man Abramios at Rome is twice characterised with exactly the same words (5.22-26, 52-55) points to the use of a pre-existing source or of a preliminary draft of the author's own
8 With the exceptions of Benediktes in Rome, see below, p. 34, and Sabbatios in Moryne, see below, p 19 — On Petrolos and Protolos, the eponyms of two places in Antenora and Agrigentum, see below, note 88
9 Niketas in Lyplianes and Milan (1.436 and 3.12), Stephanos in Agrigentum and Rome (2.245, 318, 374, 387 and 6.193, 253), Konstantinos in Milan and Carthage (3.46, 50 and 4.2), Georgios in Agrigentum and Augustopolis (4.102, 191 and 7.195, 279), and Basileios in Carthage and Rome (4.211 and 5.160; 6.132, 183)
10 See below, p 48
11 See below, pp. 48-49.
I. Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
Not only is the external chronology of this whole section entirely obscure, but so also is the internal, for after Gregentios' pious youth, when he is ten years old (1.83), no mention of his age is made again, and it is never stated how long he stays at the various stations of his travels Only his ordinations as a lecturer and deacon in Moryne (2.160, 164) and as a priest in Alexandreia (9.108-109) give us a vague indication, since the minimal age required for these ecclesiastical ranks was twenty-five and thirty years respectively, though exceptions to this rule seem to have been made often. 12
The author of the Bios does not claim to have known his hero personally (1.22-23),13 and he mentions the death of Gregentios at the end of his story (E 740) It would therefore be natural to assume that the Bios was written shortly thereafter 14 A number of details within the text, however, show clearly that the Bios is the product of a much later time, and was composed long after the datable events in southern Arabia which are described in chapter 9:
Gregentios comes from the country of the Avars who invaded the Balkan peninsula around the year 58015, a statement which already contradicts the dating of his alleged mission in Yemen into the time of the Emperor Ioustinos I (518-527) in chapter 9.16 In Rome he venerates the icon of Christ in the Lateran Basilica (5.262-301) which is not attested there before 752; 17 he visits the church of Caecilia, Tiburtius and Valerianus (6.192-193) whose relics were brought there only during the time of Pope Paschalis I (817-824);!8 and the church of Saint Peter, which is described as being within the city walls (5.7), was included there only in the years 848-852.19 Also, the holy man who leads him on his way can most probably be identified with Saint Nikolaos whose great veneration as a 'general saviour' was inexistent before the mid-ninth century.20
12 As fixed by Ioustinianos, Novella 123.13; Trullanum, ch. 14 and 15.
13 But see below, p 35 the episode with the miraculous icon in the Lateran Church (5.272301), which was allegedly told to the author by the saint himself This section is probably based on another source which the author failed to adapt completely to the new context.
14 See the arguments forthe date of the Dialexis below, p 91
15 See Pohl, Awaren\ about the occupation of the region around Ljubljana (see below, p. 14) ibid 148
16 On which see below, p. 48. — Szädeczky-Kardoss, "Paralipomena", 512-513 tried to solve this problem by suggesting the province of Moesia on the lower Danube as Gregentios' country of origin, and by assigning the attack of the Avars, which is mentioned subsequently, to the Bulgars
17 Liber Pontiflcalis, I, 443.2-3.
18 ibid., II, 56.22-31 — These earliest possible given dates have been established by Patlagean, "Moines", 593 Another argument of minor importance is that Gregentios goes to sing a kanon at church in Agrigentum (2.254-255), a form of ecclesiastical poetry which became popular only in the eighth century.
19 See below, pp 34-35
20 Anrieh, Hagios Nikolaos 460-466; Sevcenko, Life, 18-24 — See also below, p 11-13
Jean-Marie Sansterre's argument that the stress which is put on Gregentios' veneration of icons indicates a date not long after the end of Iconoclasm in 843,21 js acceptable only as a terminus post quern after that date, and actually some elements of dating in the Nomoi and the Dialexis point to a time of composition in the late ninth century, or even later.22 in addition to the story of the Lateran icon, there is also the scene at the grave of the ascetic Eirene at Agrigentum where special attention is paid to one central idea of icon worship, that of the similarity between picture and prototype (2.305-310).23
As we will see below, the mention of the monastery of Alexandros and Antonina in Alexandreia and its abbot Epiphanios (8.53-60) is an allusion to Constantinople in the middle of the tenth century and offers a clear proof that the Bios was written at this time.24 On the other hand, a safe terminus ante quem for the Bios is provided by the fact that an excerpt of it, which is already based on a short version of the text, appears in the Synaxarion of the church of Constantinople by the middle of the eleventh century 25
The Bios also contains a number of edifying stories which are inserted into it without actual connection to the plot, and a theological debate supposedly held in Milan about the predestination of the manner of death (3.63-202) The point of controversy in this discussion is resolved only some time later by a vision of Gregentios in which he travels to the underworld (3.368-397).26
At the end of the long introductory section before Gregentios' departure to Arabia, the author's method of endowing the narrative with the desired extent by inserting edifying stories reaches a new dimension: whereas the heroes of these episodes had before appeared themselves and come into contact with Gregentios, two anecdotes are narrated during his stays in Augustopolis and in Alexandreia, which Gregentios himself had heard earlier on his travels from others, and which have nothing to do with the sequence of the story (7.55-115; 8.140-209)
One of the most bewildering characteristics of the Bios of Gregentios is the fact that obviously its plot has been attached to an itinerary which was taken from other sources, a procedure which can also be observed in other hagiographical texts
A typical case is, for example, the legendary Bios of Alexandros of Drizipara, a work of unknown date which is staged in the time of Maximianus (286-305) 27 There the saint is
21 Sansterre, Moines, 133-134; see also below, p 44
22 See below, pp. 85 and 89.
23 On this, see below, p. 28; Gregentios' veneration of icons in general is also mentioned at 1.75 and 3.242
24 See below, p. 40.
25 Synaxarium CP, 328.8-331.11, and below, p 810 See Fiaccadori, "Proterio", 304-305, and below, p. 44.
26 On this, see below, pp 132-133
2V Bios of Alexandros of Drizipara, 143-159; the text is tentatively dated by the editor into the fifth or sixth century, see ibid 120; but see also the following footnote
I. Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
arrested in Rome, but then brought via Carthage to (eastern) Illyricum where he suffers his martyrdom at Drizipara/Büyük Kari§tiran in Thrace. For the description of the way from Sardike/Sofia to Drizipara and beyond to Tzorollon/forlu, apparently a fourth-century itinerary or road map has been used containing not less than sixteen place names in their correct geographical order On the other hand, a motif is presented neither for the travel to the East nor for the detour to Carthage;28 nothing is said about the sea travels which would be necessary for a visit to northern Africa, and no place name in Illyricum appears in the text before Sardike is mentioned
In our case, however, the itinerary is geographically confused and therefore has caused some irritation in scholarly literature:29 Gregentios travels within one day (!) from his native city Lyplianes/Ljubljana in the country of the Avars (1.31-33 ec.)30 to Moryne/ Murano (2.5-97), then to Antenora/Padua (2.98-223)31 and Agrigentum (2.223-396),32 from there by boat to Pavia (mentioned in a retrospective at 8.140)33 an(i to Milan (3.1-523),34 then to Carthage (3.523 - 4.315),35 by foot on land to Rome (4.3156.276)36 and from there via Augustopolis (7)37 to Alexandreia in Egypt (8).38
This itinerary is certainly not the reminiscence of a bishop's travels through the Roman dioceses, as it has been assumed,39 but has mainly the function of giving a structure to the various encounters and visions by introducing occasional changes of location It is therefore a typical example for the "hagiography of travel" which became a literary fashion in the ninth century.40
The route of the itinerary is, as it seems, the result of a schematic combination of two sources, of which the first describes a journey westward from modern Slovenia through northern Italy to Milan, and the second a journey from Agrigentum to Carthage
28 The fact that Carthage appears here as a station on the way from Italy to the East clearly points to a date of composition after the Roman reconquest in 533, or rather afterthe Slavic invasion on the Balkan peninsula in 582, after which the direct route over Greece became practically impassable The confused geographical notions of the text, which is, in this respect, quite similar to the Bios of Gregentios, suggest that it was actually written even later and probably in the East On Carthage in the itinerary of Gregentios see below, p 31
29 As in Sansterre, Moines, 200
30 See below, pp 14-15
31 On these places, see Patlagean, "Moines", 586 note 14-15, and below, p. 17-19.
32 See below, pp. 26-28.
33 See below, pp.21-22
34 See below, pp 20-21
35 See below, pp 31-32
36 See below, pp 33-33
37 See below, pp 23-25
38 See below, pp 39-40
39 Patlagean, "Moines", 596
40 On this phenomenon see Efthymiadis, 'Ταξιδιώτες", 160, 162-164 — On the motif of travel and pilgrimage in Byzantine hagiography see also Yannopoulos, "Peregrinations"; Pratsch, Der hagiographische Topos, 150-154
and Rome By this method, Gregentios receives a very extensive ficticious biography which is more than eight times longer than the partially historical section of the Bios in chapter 9 — a biography, however, containing no biographic details which might be traced back behind the literary activity of the author.4!
The peculiar construction of the Bios along a ficticious itinerary of its protagonist has also the effect that the various visions and prophecies play an important part in the story, while miracles do not Miracles in which Gregentios is involved, or which are worked by him, are the following: as a boy, Gregentios is saved miraculously from being drowned in a river (1.84-112), and is invisible to the barbarians when they attack his naive town (1.261-269) Two times, on the way to Rome and in Alexandreia, he drives away the devil by his prayers (4.315-334; 8.133-209), and he heals the sick Basileios and the possessed Elisabet in Rome (5.160-185, 339-362) A number of other miracles, such as that of the holy ascetic Eirene and the two pine trees (2.266-291),42 of Saint Nikolaos during the sea travel (8.1-15),43 and of the young monk and the talking serpent (9.257-280), are told within the course of the story, while others are, as mentioned above, only loosely connected to it, such as the story of the sinful man in Milan who is attacked by demons throwing stones (7.55-115),44 and the miracle which was worked by the Mother of God on an Arian (8.140-209).45
Gregentios' secret escape from his native country and his way from town to town and from land to land also could have served as a pretext to add another well-known motif to the story, namely that of a saint's recognition by his family or friends after a long time of absence 46 However, the motif is not introduced, although it appears in fact in one of the author's literary models, the Bios of Gregorios of Agrigentum.47
Gregentios' Invisible Guide
The itinerary is bound together by the figure of the holy man who leads Gregentios away from his native country and appears to him eight times before his departure to Egypt, pressing him to continue on his way (2.1-5, 85-97, 218-223, 377-382; 3.493-
41 Sansterre, Moines, 136.
42 See below, p. 28.
43 See below, p 13
44 The catalogue of his sins (7.78-89) has a parallel in the catalogue of demons in Theodora's vision in the Bios ofBasileios the Younger a, 16.14-28.11; on which see below, pp 40-41
45 See below, p 22
46 On the development of which see Boulhol, Άναγνωρισμός.
47 Leontios Presbyteros, Bios of Gregorios ofAgrigentum, ch. 25, 45 and 50, and Berger, ibid. 65.
I. Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
500; 4.309-313; 6.267-274; 7.280-297) 48 He is often invisible to all persons except Gregentios (2.102-106), and sometimes even to him, for once, when Gregentios asks him where he had been so long, he says that he had always been invisibly at his side (3.505-518)49
Although the holy man himself announces his arrival together with Gregentios in the town "which the Lord has allotted to us" (2.91-92), and although we are told later that he left him at some point (5..2), a concluding scene which we should expect, in which the holy man says farewell to Gregentios and reveals his identity, does not follow in the text of the Bios as we have it today, and it is probable that it never existed Gregentios himself, at least according to the Bios, never learns who his invisible companion is However, it cannot have escaped the notice of an attentive reader that he is nobody else than Saint Nikolaos of Myra.
When Saint Peter meets Gregentios in Rome, he asks him about this invisible man and then tells him that the holy man is also the one who had put the Gospel on his chest immediately after his birth (5.124-126). Gregentios is born on the sixth December, the feast of Saint Nikolaos (1.40) The man, who appears to Gregentios' mother in the following vision and puts the Gospel on the baby's chest, must be identified with this saint, though this is not explicitely stated by the Bios, for he is described as a bishop with a white robe and the Gospel in his hands (1.41-58).50
Saint Nikolaos became one of the most popular saints of the Orthodox Church from the ninth century onwards, and was regarded as being second in rank only to Christ himself and to the Mother of God In the scene just mentioned, Saint Peter also says to Gregentios: "It is of no benefit for you for the time being to understand who this man ist, that your mind may not be overwhelmed by fear." (5.147-148) That Saint Nikolaos of Myra is higher in rank and more awe-inspiring than Saint Peter, is also indicatedd by the fast that the latter, before his visit to Gregentios, announces himself to the doorkeeper and tells him his name, and Gregentios understands his real identity at once and speaks freely to him (5.63-159)
48 A similar role is played, for example, by the monk Markos in the Bios of Gregorios of Agrigentum, see Berger, ibid 24 — On the motif of a travel by twos, but neither alone nor in a larger group, see Yannopoulos, "Peregrinations"
49 A saint's ability to make himself invisible is a frequent motif in middle-Byzantine hagiography Gregentios himself enters his native town unnoticed during a siege, together with his invisible guide; see below, p 16 For comparable scenes, see the Bios of Konstantinos Iudaios, 638E-639A The saint's invisibility is mentioned also in the Bios of Antonios Neos, 213.29-214.9; Bios of Saint Nikon, 128.20-21; for additional examples, see the Dumbarton Oaks Hagiographical Database (http://www.doaks.org/Hagio.html)
50 The cross he holds in his right hand (1.43) is no standard element of the iconography of Saint Nikolaos Where the saint is shown alone or in a group, he is usually dressed as a bishop, has a Gospel in his left hand and raises his right hand with a blessing gestus On the iconography of Saint Nikolaos, see Sevcenko, Life.
1. The Bios 13
Unlike most other saints, Nikolaos is not invoked in special situations or dangers, but has the function of a 'general saviour' who helps in all kinds of trouble.51 The episode, in which Gregentios is saved from being drowned in a river by a mysterious man who lifts him out of the water (1.84-104), should therefore also be connected to Saint Nikolaos. Since Saint Nikolaos is also the special patron of sailors,52 the holy man's behaviour during sea travels can be regarded as an additional argument for the identification with Saint Nikolaos, for it is told on two occasions that he calms storms, cares for favourable winds and gathers clouds which protect the crew against the heat of the sun (5.137-143; 8.1-15)
In the Bios, Nikolaos is mentioned by name only at the birth of Gregentios, and as the patron of a chapel in Moryne (2.51)
An instructive parallel for the role, which is played here by Saint Nikolaos, is the Bios of Petros Scholarios, a semi-legendary saint of the mid-ninth century whose biography was later blended with that of Saint Petros Athonites into the Bios BHG 1505: Petros falls into Arab captivity and is deported to Samarra in Mesopotamia. As the result of his invocation, Nikolaos appears several times to him in visions, frees him miraculously and brings him to Rome. There, the pope to whom Saint Nikolaos has revealed his arrival makes him a monk.53
Visionaries and Holy Fools
According to the Bios, Gregentios himself is surprised how often he encounters visionaries, but, as the hagiographer says, this has been arranged for him by God for his spiritual education (4.245-248)
It is mostly not said in the Bios how the various visionary men and women learn about Gregentios before they first see him, with two exceptions: In Rome, the monk Gregorios sees Gregentios in a dream before he actually meets him (5.302-325),54 and the arrival of Gregentios in Alexandreia is revealed to the Patriarch Proterios by Saint Mark (9.46-54). In the other thirteen cases, 55 we may assume that the invisible holy
51 Anrieh, Hagios Nikolaos, 496-498.
52 For the maritime tales connected to Saint Nikolaos, see Anrieh, Hagios Nikolaos, 415-420; Sevcenko, Life, 95-103
53 Lake, Early Days, 18-23; on the relations between the two persons and their biographies, see Papachryssanthou, "La Vie ancienne"
54 On this vision, see also below, p 30
55 These are Petros in Moryne (2.58-62), Theodora in Antenora (2.196-206), Konstantinos in Milan (3.50-56), the nun in Carthage (4.123-149), Abramios, a pious woman and Ioannes in Rome (5.9-15, 193-201, 380-383), Michael and Artados outside Rome (6.14-20, 118-119, 135-154), the Armenian and Georgios in Augustopolis (7.139-157, 201-202), the slave girl and Archontia in Alexandreia (8.40-43, 218-240)
I Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar
man, i.e. Nikolaos, has appeared to the visionaries previously and told them about Gregentios.
Four of these holy men and women, namely Petros in Moryne (2.52-84), the anonymous woman in Agrigentum (2.340-376), Ioannes (5.380-445) and Stephanos (6.202-237) in Rome, and in addition also Philothea in Carthage to whom no prophecy is ascribed (4.6-53), are portrayed as saloi, that is, as holy fools who hide their spiritual gifts behind a mask of folly, or at least they display characteristics of this type of saint
The first holy fools appear in sixth-century Syria — the well-known Bios of Symeon Salos by Leontios of Neapolis being a work of the mid-seventh century56 —, but the saloi continued to exist in later times, until in the tenth century the literary cliche was further elaborated in Constantinople by the composition of two ficticious biographies, that of Saint Andreas Salos and that of Basileios the Younger.57 A clear textual parallel between the Bios of Gregentios and that of Basileios the Younger demonstrates that the Bios of Gregentios, as well as the other parts of the Dossier, was written in Constantinople in the mid-tenth century.
58
Lyplianes and Korada
The first of the supposed main sources for the itineraries of Gregentios, which will hereafter be called the northern Italian source, is unknown from any independent tradition, and we can conclude its existence only from the Bios of Gregentios It must have described a travel from Ljubljana in modern Slovenia, through Friuli and Venetia to Milan, touching Murano, Padua and Pavia
The native place of Gregentios, Lyplianes, is probably identical to Ljubljana in Slovenia, as the location in the country of the Avars and the apparently short distance from there to northern Italy suggest.59 The 'highway to the northern sea' at a distance of two days from Lyplianes may be the Roman road usually called the via Iulia Augusta, which began at Aquileia, ran along the Tagliamento river to the north and then across the Alps into Noricum,6 0 and the 'northern sea' is identical to the Baltic Sea.
56 On the saloi in general, see Ivanov, Vizantiyskoe yurodstvo-, Id., Holy Fools·, Gagliardi, "Saloi"; Deroche, Etudes·, on the saloi in the Bios of Gregentios, see now Ivanov, Holy Fools 148-151
57 Bios of Andreas Salos; Bios of Basileios the Younger, on their dates and internal relationship see Ryden, "The Life of St Basil" — On the holy fools in this time see Ivanov, Holy Fools, 139-173; Deroche, Etudes, 203-213.
58 See below, pp 40 and 43 — On the parallels of vocabulary between the Bios of Gregentios and that of Andreas Salos see below, p 138
59 But see below, p 25
60 See Krahwinkler, Friaul, 15-18
The Slavic settlement Ljubljana was founded on the site of the Roman town of Emona which had developped out of a Roman Castrum. Emona was destroyed by the Huns in 452, but resettled thereafter on a modest scale in the later Roman and Ostrogothic Age A great part of the population of this and of other towns in the region, however, took refuge in new settlements in badly accessible mountain regions.6i Finally, Emona fell into the hands of the Avars, probably between 577 and 599.62 it is not mentioned thereafter under its old name, 63 and it seems that the formerly fortified area was not continuously inhabited from the Roman to the Slavic period.64
Since the name Ljubljana is not attested in any other text before the middle of the twelfth century,65 the Bios of Gregentios is by far the earliest source where it appears
More difficult to identify is the fortified site (άστυ) called Korada where the inhabitants of Lyplianes take refuge during a barbarian attack (1.243) The search for a suitable place name, which can possibly have been distorted to Korada in the tradition of the Greek text, leads to no secure result An identity with the former Roman military base of Carrodunum/Pitomaca is impossible, for it lay at a distance of 160 km east of Ljubljana and thus closer to the centre of Avar power, 66 and it is also difficult to imagine that the ancient name should have stood in the same source in which Ljubljana appears under the new one. But there are two other candidates, lying much closer to Ljubljana, namely Carnium/Kranj (Krainburg) and Korinj: Carnium or Carniola, which has preserved its old name until today, lies 25 km to the north of Ljubljana and appears in sources of the seventh and eighth centuries as a Langobardic border fortress against the Avars and Slavs.6? Korinj lies 35 km to the south-east and is actually one of the sites where recent excavations have revealed the existence of a sixth-century refugee settlement.68
6 1 A list of such settlements in present Slovenia is given by Buora & Plesnicar Gee, Aquileia Emona, 58-60, and Ciglenecki, "Archaeological Investigation", 119-122
62 On the possible time of abandonment, see also Plesnicar-Gec, "Architektur"
6 3 Sasel, "Emona", 576-568; Krahwinkler, Friaul, 73 and 232: in 572/77 bishop Patricius of Emona was present on a synod in Grado, and in 599 we find a bishop named Ioannes in Novigrad/Cittanova in Istria who had taken refuge there after his evacuation from Pannonia, and probably had been the last bishop of Emona.
6 4 No Slavic remains from the early phases were found on the territory of former Emona which was probably resettled only in the eleventh or twelfth century, see Sasel, "Emona", 560-561 — On the history of the region in the Early Middle Ages, see Stih, "Strukture"
65 1144 in the German, 1146 in the Slovenian form, see Stih, "Ljubljana".
6 6 In the late Roman Age, Carrodunum was a station on the highway along the Drava river and an important strategic point, see Ihm, "Carrodunum"
6 7 Tomaschek, "Carniola"; Hödl, "Krainburg" — On the archaeological remains from this time there, see Martin, "Sax und Gürtel"
6 8 Ciglenecki, "Archaeological Investigation", 122-125; also Buora & Plesnicar Gee, Aquileia Emona, 59
