Evidence ID
E05481Saint Name
Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople, ob. 449 : S02069Saint Name in Source
FlavianusType of Evidence
Literary - LettersLanguage
LatinEvidence not before
451Evidence not after
451Activity not before
451Activity not after
451Place 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
IstanbulCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Monarchs and their familyCult Activities - Relics
Bodily relic - entire body
Transfer, translation and deposition of relicsSource
A letter from the eastern empress, Pulcheria, addressed to Leo the Great and composed in 451. This letter was transmitted as part of Leo the Great's letter collection, as Letter 77.Discussion
For several years, Leo was a vociferous opponent of Eutyches – an advocate of the docetist theory that the body of Christ was not made of human flesh. He supported another of Eutyches’ opponents - Flavian, the bishop of Constantinople – who was deposed at the second council of Ephesus in 449. Flavian died shortly afterwards. In 451, the mood changed against Eutyches. Flavian's body was honoured in Constantinople and interred in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Throughout the previous two years, Leo had petitioned the imperial family to organise a synod to overturn the decisions of Ephesus. This synod was held at Chaledon in 451, and is the synod referred to in this letter
Throughout several other letters, for example Letters 79, 82 and 88, Leo refers to Flavian as a bishop of holy memory and frames him as a persecuted and saintly hero. Leo was a strong opponent of Eutyches and supporter of Flavian (see e.g. E05480).Bibliography
Text:
Leo the Great, Epistolae, Patrologia Latina 54 (Paris, 1846).
Translation:
Lett Feltoe, Charles, Leo the Great. Gregory the Great, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 12 (New York, 1895).
Further Reading:
Demacopoulos, George E., The Invention of Peter: Apostolic Discourse and Papal Authority in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia, 2013).
Price, Richard, and Whitby, Mary (eds.), Chalcedon in Context: Church Councils 400-700 (Liverpool, 2009).
Salzman, Michele R., "Leo’s Liturgical Topography: Contestations for Space in Fifth-Century Rome," Journal for Roman
Studies, 103 (2013), 208-232.
Thacker, Alan, "Patrons of Rome: the cult of Sts Peter and Paul at court and in the city in the fourth and fifth centuries,", Early Medieval Europe, 20:4 (2012), 380-406.
Wessel, Susan, Leo the Great and the Spiritual Rebuilding of Rome (Leiden, 2008).
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