E07734: John Diakrinomenos in his Ecclesiastical History mentions the miraculous survival during an earthquake of the church which housed the tomb of *Gregory the Miracle Worker (bishop and missionary in Pontus, S00687) in Neocaesarea (northern Asia Minor). Written in Greek in Constantinople, c. 513/515.
online resource
posted on 2019-08-20, 00:00authored byerizos
John Diakrinomenos, Ecclesiastical History, excerpts from Book 8
'At that time, an earthquake was about to occur in Neocaesarea, and a soldier travelling towards the city saw two soldiers heading towards it and another behind them shouting: “Keep the house where the tomb of Gregory lies.” The earthquake took place, and the greatest part of the city collapsed, but the house of the Miracle-Worker survived.'
Text: Hansen 1995. Translation: Efthymios Rizos.
History
Evidence ID
E07734
Saint Name
Gregory the Miracle-Worker (Taumatourgos), bishop and missionary in Pontus, ob. c. 270 : S00687
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Language
Greek
Evidence not before
513
Evidence not after
515
Activity not before
431
Activity not after
513
Place of Evidence - Region
Constantinople and region
Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Constantinople
Κωνσταντινούπολις
Konstantinoupolis
Constantinopolis
Constantinople
Istanbul
Cult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)
Cult Activities - Miracles
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Miraculous protection - of church and church property
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Soldiers
Source
John Diacrinomenus (Ioannes Diakrinomenos) was the author of an ecclesiastical history, which covered the period between the First Council of Ephesus (431) and c. 512. He wrote under the emperor Anastasius (491-518), and is known to have been a moderate Monophysite (hence his epithet Diakrinomenos, ‘the Hesitant’). However, only brief excerpts of the ten books of his history survive. In the 9th century, Photius had access to Books 1 to 5 (Bibliotheca cod. 42).
Discussion
This being a brief extract that survives out of context, we cannot know for certain who the three soldiers who saved the church were. Presumably they are implied to have been three of the soldier-saints popular in Asia Minor and the Near East.
Bibliography
Text:
Hansen, G.C., Theodoros Anagnostes. Kirchengeschichte. 2nd ed. (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte NF 3; Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1995).
Further reading:
Treadgold, W., The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke, 2006), 168-169.