Evidence ID
E04196Saint Name
Elisha, Old Testament prophet : S00239
John the Baptist : S00020Saint Name in Source
Ἐλισσαῖος
ἸωάννηςType of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)Language
GreekEvidence not before
425Evidence not after
433Activity not before
361Activity not after
363Place of Evidence - Region
Constantinople and regionPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
ConstantinoplePlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Constantinople
Constantinople
Κωνσταντινούπολις
Konstantinoupolis
Constantinopolis
Constantinople
IstanbulMajor author/Major anonymous work
PhilostorgiusCult activities - Places
Burial site of a saint - sarcophagus/coffinCult activities - Rejection, Condemnation, Scepticism
Destruction/hostile attempts to prevent veneration of relicsCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
PagansCult Activities - Relics
Bodily relic - bones and teethSource
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
The story of the destruction of the shrine of John the Baptist, and the humiliation of his relics, is known also from Rufinus of Aquileia (Ecclesiastical History, 11.28), who reports that some of the relics lay at the Palestinian city of Sebaste and were rescued by monks. Rufinus adds that the monks sent the relics to Athanasius in Alexandria (E04543). The tomb of Elisha was also known to Jerome who reports that it lay together with the tombs of John the Baptist and the Prophet Obadiah at Sebaste (Ep. 108.13).
It is unknown whether the relics of John’s head, reportedly brought to Constantinople by Macedonianist/Arian monks under Valens, were somehow related to this story (E04052). It is perhaps no coincidence that our author, who, as a resident of Constantinople, must have known John's shrine at Hebdomon, chooses not to talk about it.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., "The Empress Helena, Helenopolis, Pylae," Travaux et Mémoires 12 (1994), 143–158.
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.
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