E04195: Philostorgius in his Ecclesiastical History, reports that the emperor Constantius II (r. 337-361) had the relics of Andrew (the Apostle, S00288), Timothy (disciple of Paul,S00466), and *Luke (the Evangelist, S00442) transferred to Constantinople and buried at the shrine of the Holy Apostles. Written in Greek at Constantinople, 425/433.

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posted on 2017-10-20, 00:00 authored by erizos

Philostorgius, Ecclestical History, 3.2

(Summary in Photius)

Ὅτι Κωνστάντιον δι’ ἐπαίνων ἄγει καὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν φησὶν αὐτὸν δομήσασθαι τὴν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει καὶ οὖσαν καὶ καλουμένην μεγάλην. καὶ δὴ καὶ Ἀνδρέαν τὸν ἀπόστολον ἐκ τῆς Ἀχαΐας μετακομίσαι ἐπὶ τὸν ναὸν ὃν οὗτος ἐξῳκοδομήσατο, τὸ κοινὸν τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐπιφερόμενον ὄνομα οὗ πλησίον καὶ τὸν πατρῷον τάφον ἱδρύσασθαι· ναὶ δὴ καὶ Λουκᾶν τὸν εὐαγγελιστὴν ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς Ἀχαΐας εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ μετενεγκεῖν τέμενος· ἀλλὰ καὶ Τιμόθεον τὸν ἀπόστολον ὡσαύτως ἐξ Ἐφέσου τῆς Ἰωνίας εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν ἀνακομίσαι περιώνυμον καὶ σεβάσμιον οἶκον.

‘He heaps praise upon Constantius and says that he built the church in Constantinople that is justly called “the great” [i.e. Saint Sophia]. In addition, he brought the apostle Andrew over from Achaia to the church that he had built and that is called after the apostles in common. Next to it he erected his father’s tomb. Not only that; he also translated the evangelist Luke from Achaia to the same sacred precinct. The apostle Timothy as well he likewise brought over from Ephesus in Ionia to that same renowned and august house.’

Text: Bidez and Winkelmann 1981.
Translation: Amidon 2007, 38.

History

Evidence ID

E04195

Saint Name

Andrew, the Apostle : S00288 Luke, the Evangelist : S00442 Timothy, the disciple of Paul the Apostle : S00466

Saint Name in Source

Ἀνδρέας Λουκᾶς Τιμόθεος

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

425

Evidence not after

433

Activity not before

337

Activity not after

361

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

Major author/Major anonymous work

Philostorgius

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Monarchs and their family

Cult Activities - Relics

Bodily relic - unspecified Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries Transfer, translation and deposition of relics

Source

Philostorgius was born in Borissus of Cappadocia in c. 368, and lived from the age of twenty in Constantinople, where he became a follower of the Anomaean theologian Eunomius. His twelve-volume Ecclesiastical History, now largely lost, appeared between 425 and 433. In 402/3 a continuation of the Church History of Eusebius of Caesarea had been produced in Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia, who recounted the period from the Council of Nicaea to the death of Theodosius I in 395. Rufinus presented Nicene Christianity as the Orthodox faith which was oppressed by the Arian emperors and restored by Theodosius I (379-395). Philostorgius offered a radically different, pro-Arian, reading of the 4th century theological disputes, portraying Nicene heroes like Athanasius of Alexandria and Basil of Caesarea in a negative manner. His work may have triggered the mid 5th century boom in Greek ecclesiastical historiography, represented by the Nicene ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Philostorgius’ original text is only known from a summary in the 9th century Bibliotheca of Photius, and from fragments in a later version of the Greek Martyrdom of Artemios (E06781). A partial reconstruction of Philostorgius’ Ecclesiastical History, based on Photius and the fragments, has been produced by Joseph Bidez and Friedhelm Winkelmann. Winkelmann’s text is available in English translation by Philip R. Amidon. Philostorgius is also the author of the Martyrdom of *Loukianos of Antioch (E00).

Discussion

Philostorgius is the earliest source mentioning the translation of the relics of Andrew, Timothy, and Luke to Constantinople under Constantius II.

Bibliography

Text: Bidez, J., and Winkelmann, F., Philostorgius, Kirchengeschichte; mit dem Leben des Lucian von Antiochien und den Fragmenten eines arianischen Historiographen. 3rd. ed. (Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 21; Berlin, 1981). Translations and commentaries: Amidon, P.R., Philostorgius, Church History (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007). Bidez, J., et al., Philostorge, Histoire ecclésiastique (Sources chrétiennes 564; Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2013). Further reading: Mango, C., “Constantine's Mausoleum and the Translation of Relics,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 83 (1990), 51-61. Marasco, G., Filostorgio: cultura, fede e politica in uno storico ecclesiastico del V secolo (Studia ephemeridis "Augustinianum" 92; Rome: Institutum patristicum Augustinianum, 2005). Treadgold, W.T., The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 126-134.