E07735: In c. 513/515, John Diakrinomenos in his Ecclesiastical History mentions that the emperor Anastasius had a dream vision of *Bartholomew (the Apostle, S00256) who promised to safeguard the new city of Dara (North Mesopotamia). A relic of his was therefore deposited there. Written in Greek in Constantinople.

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posted on 2019-08-20, 00:00 authored by erizos

John Diakrinomenos, Ecclesiastical History, excerpts from Book 9

Ἀναστάσιος ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔκτισε τὸ Δάρας, καὶ κτίσας ὄναρ τεθέαται Βαρθολομαῖον λέγοντα τὸν ἀπόστολον, ὡς αὐτὸς τὴν φυλακὴν ἐπετράπη τῆς πόλεως· διὸ τὸ λείψανον αὐτοῦ ἐκεῖ πέμψας ἀπέθετο.

'The emperor Anastasius founded Daras. When he founded it, he had a dream of Bartholomew the Apostle saying that he had been appointed to be the guardian of the city. For this reason, he [the emperor] had his relic sent and deposited there.'

Text: Hansen 1995.
Translation: Efthymios Rizos.

History

Evidence ID

E07735

Saint Name

Bartholomew, the Apostle : S00256

Saint Name in Source

Βαρθολομαῖος

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Bartholomew_the_Apostle/13729813

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

513

Evidence not after

515

Activity not before

500

Activity not after

515

Place of Evidence - Region

Constantinople and region

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

Constantinople Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoupolis Constantinopolis Constantinople Istanbul

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Saint as patron - of a community

Cult Activities - Miracles

Apparition, vision, dream, revelation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Monarchs and their family

Cult Activities - Relics

Unspecified relic

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).

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.