E03591: Marcellinus Comes states in his Chronicle, written in Latin in Constantinople, 518/534, that when John Chrysostom (bishop of Constantinople, ob. 407, S00779) died in exile in Komana (northern Asia Minor), the people buried him at the tomb of Basiliskos (martyr of Komana, S00388), after being instructed to do so by Basiliskos in their dreams.

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posted on 2017-08-23, 00:00 authored by dlambert

Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle

I. Theodosii Iunioris et Rumoridi
[...]
Iohannem Constantinopolitanae civitatis episcopum, cui supradicti sex antistites incassum aemuli fuere aliosque triginta sibimet episcopos conscivere, nolente Arcadio principe in Cuccusum Armeniae oppidum exulem miserunt eumque post annum in villam, quae Comana in regione Pontica dicitur, de exilio in exilium relegarunt. hunc ibidem mortuum religiosa orthodoxorum plebs in atrio Basilisci episcopi idemque martyris ab eodem martyre in somnis
ammonita in novum moxque repertum sepulchrum recondidit.

'1st indiction, consulship of Theodosius the younger and Rumoridus [= 403]
[...]
The six bishops mentioned above were unsuccessful rivals of John, the bishop of the city of Constantinople, and they were in league with another thirty bishops. Against the will of the emperor Arcadius, they sent him into exile in the town of Cuccusus in Armenia, and after a year relegated him from one exile to another, at a villa called Comana in the Pontic region. When he died there the religious people from among the orthodox buried him in the new and recently discovered tomb in the church of the bishop and martyr Basiliscus, after being directed in dreams by the martyr.'

Text: Mommsen 1894. Translation: Croke 1995.

History

Evidence ID

E03591

Saint Name

Basiliskos, martyr of Komana, ob. 304-306 : S00388 John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, ob. 407 : S00779

Saint Name in Source

Basiliscus Iohannes

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

515

Evidence not after

535

Activity not before

407

Activity not after

407

Place of Evidence - Region

Constantinople and region

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Constantinople

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Constantinople Constantinople Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoupolis Constantinopolis Constantinople Istanbul

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult Activities - Miracles

Miracle after death Apparition, vision, dream, revelation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

Source

Marcellinus (PLRE II, 'Marcellinus 9') was an imperial official at Constantinople under the emperors Anastasius, Justin, and Justinian. The epithet Comes ('Count') is his official rank. He came originally from the province of Dardania in the western Balkans, and wrote in Latin. Marcellinus' Chronicle was a continuation of the chronicle of Jerome, covering events from the 370s to 518. It was subsequently updated to 534 by Marcellinus himself, and to 548 by an anonymous continuator. Marcellinus dates events by indictions (the fifteen-year tax cycle used in the later Roman empire) and by the consuls of each year.

Discussion

Marcellinus compresses into a single entry (for 403, the date of Chrysostom's deposition as bishop of Constantinople) the exile of John Chrysostom, his death, and a miracle associated with his death. In fact, he was deposed in 403, exiled to Armenia in 404, and died in 407. In an earlier entry (for 398) Marcellinus recounted the appointment of John Chrysostom as bishop of Constantinople, giving a brief account of Chrysostom's earlier career. The entry emphasises his piety and distinction as as a writer, but does not in itself depict him as a saint. In the same entry, Marcellinus mentions mentions that Chrysostom incurred the enmity of a number of powerful bishops: Theophilus of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Acacius of Beroea, Antiochus of Ptolemais, Severianus of Gabala, and Severus of Chalcedon (the 'six bishops mentioned above' at the beginning of the entry under discussion). The story of the miraculous vision of the martyr Basiliskos at the time of John Chrysostom's death originates from the account written shortly afterwards by Palladios of Helenopolis (E02400). However in that version it is Chrysostom himself who experiences the vision.

Bibliography

Edition: Mommsen, T., Marcellini v.c. comitis Chronicon, in: Chronica minora saec. IV V VI VII (II) (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores antiquissimi 11; Berlin, 1894), 60-108 English translation and commentary: Croke, B., The Chronicle of Marcellinus: Text and Commentary (Byzantina Australiensia 7; Sydney, 1995). Further reading: Croke, B., Count Marcellinus and His Chronicle (Oxford, 2001).