Table Of ContentOXFORD STUDIES IN BYZANTIUM
Editorial Board
JAMES HOWARD-JOHNSTON ELIZABETH JEFFREYS
MARC LAUXTERMANN PAUL MAGDALINO
HENRY MAGUIRE CYRIL MANGO
MARLIA MANGO JEAN-PIERRE SODINI
JONATHAN SHEPARD
OXFORD STUDIES IN BYZANTIUM
Oxford Studies in Byzantium consists of scholarly monographs and
editionsonthehistory,literature,thought,andmaterialcultureofthe
Byzantineworld.
TheEmbodiedIcon:LiturgicalVestmentsand
SacramentalPowerinByzantium
WarrenT.Woodfin
‘WehavenokingbutChrist’
ChristianPoliticalThoughtinGreaterSyriaontheEveoftheArab
Conquest(c.400–585)
PhilipWood
TillingtheHatefulEarth
AgriculturalProductionandTradeintheLateAntiqueEast
MichaelDecker
TheChronicleofMorea
HistoriographyinCrusaderGreece
TeresaShawcross
OxfordStudiesinByzantium
TheTrophiesoftheMartyrs
AnArtHistoricalStudyofEarlyChristianSilverReliquaries
GalitNoga-Banai
AByzantineEncyclopaediaofHorseMedicine
TheSources,Compilation,andTransmissionoftheHippiatrica
AnneMcCabe
GeorgeAkropolites:TheHistory
Introduction,translation,andcommentary
RuthMacrides
HolyFoolsinByzantiumandBeyond
SergeyA.Ivanov
SimonFranklin
BasilIIandtheGovernanceofEmpire(976–1025)
CatherineHolmes
’
Debating the Saints
Cult in the Age of
Gregory the Great
Oxford Studies in Byzantium
MATTHEW DAL SANTO
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Acknowledgements
ThisstudyisintendedasacontributiontothehistoryoftheChristian
saints’ cult—and of patristic Christianity more generally—in the
Mediterranean world during the final, post-Justinianic phase of late
antiquity. In many ways, it should never have been written. Lured
away during my undergraduate days from torts and contracts by
Peter Brown’s spellbinding evocation of the world of late antiquity,
I devoted myself late to the learning of ancient languages. True
classicists will doubtless judge that the success of that enterprise
remains open to question. A Travelling Scholarship from the Uni-
versity of Sydney, a bursary from the Cambridge Commonwealth
Trustand,slightlylater,anOverseasResearchStudentshipfromHer
Majesty’s Government allowed me the extraordinary privilege of
pursuing the study of late antiquity in one of the world’s truly great
academicinstitutions.
At Cambridge I incurred debts of gratitude almost too many
to remember. I owe the greatest thanks to Peter Sarris, my long-
suffering supervisor who had the distinct misfortune of having a
student metamorphose into a colleague, with the incumbent duty of
parloursmalltalk.AttheFacultyofHistory,RosamondMcKitterick
exercised a guiding hand. The doctoral dissertation that stands be-
hind this study benefited from the learned criticism both she and
AverilCameronbroughttobearasexaminers.Naturally,allremain-
ingimperfectionsandoutrighterrorsoffactorinterpretationremain
whollymy(obstinate)own.ImustalsothankthelateRobertMarkus
for his constant, warm encouragement, and Kate Cooper, Conrad
Leyser, Erica Hunter, Elina Screen, Robert Coates-Stephens, Nick
Denyer, John Marenbon, Chip Coakley, Richard Payne, and James
Howard-Johnston for commenting on various stages of my work.
AgenerouspackageofoffprintsfromPeterBrownofferedatthemost
preliminarystagehascontinuedtoyieldarichharvestofinsightsand
questions. At the University of Sydney, Lyn Olsen, Peter Brennan,
Frances Clark, Françoise Grauby, and Liz Rechniewski taught me
historyandFrenchbeforeleavingAustralianshores,andshouldered
the burden of writing numerous academic references. And I am
profoundly grateful to my secondary teachers (especially Frank
Acknowledgements vii
MacDonald,ElaineBalderston,andStephenWile)atKirraweeHigh
School, whose expertise and intellectual rigour pushed me to think
criticallyataformativestage.
Myenjoymentand,Ihope,thequalityofmyPhDwereimmensely
enriched through a Rome Award from the British School at Rome
andtravelgrantsfromtheBritishInstituteinAnkaraandUniversity
ofCambridge.Theseenabledmetoengageinawaythatwasdeeply
inspiring with the material remains of the world this study evokes.
(Thefirstalsoallowedmetomeetmywife,butthatisanotherstory.)
A summer at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library allowed me to
hone my Greek in the most congenial setting. Above all, election to
thefellowshipofTrinityCollege,Cambridge,broughtwithitoppor-
tunities and privileges that I once couldn’t have imagined. I owe the
Master and Fellows of that college immense thanks for their con-
fidenceinmyprojectandforputtingatmydisposaltheresourcesand
tranquillitytopursueitasfarasthispublication.
In turning a rather unruly dissertation into a somewhat more
coherentbook,IthankElizabethJeffreysandtheanonymousreaders
at Oxford University Press. I am also grateful to Hilary O’Shea,
Cathryn Steele, Desirée Kellerman, and Catherine Macduff for their
help and patience. In the matter of obtaining photographic permis-
sions, I thank Anne-Laure Ranoux, Chef du Service Images et Ress-
ourcesdocumentaires,MuséeduLouvre;KaterinaBiliouri,Museumof
Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki; Father Justin, St Catherine’s Mon-
astery;andtheMuseumandTreasuryofMonzaCathedral.
Finally,IthankmyfamilyandfriendswithoutwhomIwouldhave
givenuplongago.Mymotherandfatherprovidedunstintingmoral
support when it was tempting to pack it all up and go home. Phil
BoothandPeter Turner,the bestof friends andintellectual sparring
partners,madeasolitarytaskintoasharedendeavour.Otherfriends,
whether at Cambridge or in Australia, were also an invaluable sup-
port.IonlyhopeIhaverememberedtogivesomethinginreturn!Last
but certainly not least, I am grateful to my wife, Gitte Lønstrup
Dal Santo, an accomplished historian in her own right, who has
encouraged and challenged me in every way since that first autumn
inRome.Ithankherwithallmyheart.
It remains only to note that the grandes lignes of the first
chapter first appeared in the Journal of Early Christian Studies
17 (2009) 421–57, and Chapter Three’s discussion of saints’ images
viii Acknowledgements
appears in a fuller version in the Journal of Late Antiquity 4 (2011)
31–54. The conclusion builds on my article published in Age of
Saints? Conflict, Power and Dissent in Early Medieval Christianity
(Leiden:Brill,2011).
MJD
June2011
Canberra,Australia
Contents
ListofFigures x
Abbreviations xi
Introduction:GregorytheGreatandthesaints’cult
inlateantiquity 1
1. GregorytheGreatandEustratiusofConstantinople:
TheDialoguesontheMiraclesoftheItalianFathersas
anapologyforthecultofthesaints 21
2. ThefourthdialogueofPopeGregorytheGreat:Theearly
ByzantinecontextofaLatindisquisitiononthesoul 85
3. Contestingthesaints’miracles:Thewitnessofearly
ByzantineLivesandmiraclecollections 149
4. Thesaints’inactivitypostmortem:Soulsleepandthe
cultofsaintseastoftheEuphrates 237
Conclusion: Debatingthesaints’cultintheageofGregory
theGreatandMuhammad 321
Epilogue:VisualizingtheGod-guardedempirewiththeSinai
IconoftheVirginandChild 337
Appendix: AnastasiusofSinaiandPseudo-Athanasius,
QuestionandAnswerwriters 343
Bibliography 357
Index 395
