Table Of ContentThe Cult of St Anna in Byzantium
The Cult of St Anna in Byzantium is the first undertaking in Byzantine research to
study the phenomenon of St Anna’s cult from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries.
It was prompted by the need to enrich our knowledge of a female saint who had
already been studied in the West but remained virtually unknown in Eastern
Christendom. It focuses on a figure little-studied in scholarship and examines the
formation, establishment and promotion of an apocryphal saint who made her way
to the pantheon of Orthodox saints. Visual and material culture, relics and texts
track the gradual social and ideological transformation of Byzantium from early
Christianity until the fifteenth century. This book not only examines various
aspects of early Christian and Byzantine civilisation, but also investigates how the
cult of saints greatly influenced cultural changes in order to suit theological, social
and political demands.
The cult of St Anna influenced many diverse elements of Christian life
in Constantinople, including the creation of sacred spaces and the location of
haghiasmata (fountains of holy water) in the city; imperial patronage; the social
reception of St Anna’s story; and relic narratives. This monograph breaks new
ground in explaining how and why Byzantium and the Orthodox Church attributed
scriptural authority to a minor figure known only from a non-canonical work.
Dr. Eirini Panou studied art and archaeology at the National Kapodistrian
University of Athens and earned her Ph.D. in Byzantine Studies from the University
of Birmingham (2012). After the completion of her post-doctoral research at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) in 2015, she became adjunct faculty at
the Open University of Patras and Cyprus teaching Byzantine art and Byzantine
public and private life. She is also research associate of the National Research
Centre in Athens. She has produced articles on the cult of saints in Byzantium, on
art, on female patronage, on magic, on theology, on the Protevagelion of James,
and on Byzantine history.
Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies
General Editors:
Leslie Brubaker
Rhoads Murphey
John Haldon
Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies is devoted to the history, culture and
archaeology of the Byzantine and Ottoman worlds of the East Mediterranean
region from the fi fth to the twentieth century. It provides a forum for the publica-
tion of research completed by scholars from the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman
and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham, and those with simi-
lar research interests.
Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, ca. 1040–1130
Alexander Daniel Beihammer
Cyprus Between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (ca. 600–800)
An Island in Transition
Luca Zavagno
A Tenth-Century Byzantine Military Manual
The Sylloge Tacticorum
Translated by Georgios Chatzelis and Jonathan Harris
Writing about Byzantium
The history of Niketas Choniates
Theresa Urbainczyk
The Cult of St Anna in Byzantium
Eirini Panou
Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies
University of Birmingham
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/BBOS
The Cult of St Anna in
Byzantium
Eirini Panou
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Eirini Panou
The right of Eirini Panou to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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ISBN: 978-1-409-47022-9 (hbk)
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Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies Volume 24
Contents
Illustrations viii
Abbreviations x
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 The emergence of the cult of St Anna in Jerusalem and
Constantinople 4
The Probatike and fifth-century ecclesiastical politics
in Jerusalem 4
The church of Mary at the Probatike as Mary’s birthplace 8
The emerging cult of St Anna in Constantinople 11
The Justinianic model of the Probatike in the post-sixth-century
topography of Constantinople: the Pege, the Chalkoprateia and
the Hodegetria 13
Imperial patronage after Justinian I in Constantinople and beyond:
Basil I – Leo VI 15
The text of Theophanes Continuator revisited 16
Justinian I, the Macedonian dynasty and St Anna 18
Conclusions 20
2 Relics – feasts – society 30
Part I. Relics 30
First group: Palestine – St Anna’s relics in the Probatike 31
Second group: from Palestine to France 32
Third group: the relics in Constantinople and Rome –
the Patria and scholarly views 34
The translation according to the Patria 34
The translation from Constantinople to Rome:
scholarly views and evidence 36
vi Contents
The relics in Constantinople in the sixteenth century: the
Pammakaristos church 37
Fourth group: from Trebizond to Athos 37
Conclusions 39
Part II. Feasts 41
The Conception of St Anna/the Kissing of Joachim and Anna:
significance of the feast 41
Scholarly views on the development of the feast 42
Celebration in Constantinople 43
The Nativity of Mary: significance of the feast 43
Origins in Palestine 44
Scholarly views on its development in Constantinople 44
Spread in Constantinople 45
The Entry of Mary 46
Development of the feast 46
The Dormition of St Anna and the feast of Sts Anna and Joachim 47
Part III. Social approaches 48
Hagiography: St Anna and Iconophilia 49
Hagiography: Anna and childbirth 51
Histories: Anna and Iconophilia in Theophanes’s Chronographia and
the Patria of Constantinople 53
Church calendars, hagiography and histories: women at the church of
the Blachernai 55
Demonstration of Orthodoxy: Annas in monasteries – the Synodikon of
Orthodoxy 57
Martyria of various Annas in Constantinople: the Russian
travellers 59
St Anna the Virgin 59
Martyrs and mothers named Anna 60
St Anna of Leukate 60
Conclusions to chapters 1 and 2 61
3 The visual evidence 79
Egypt – Cathedral of Faras (eighth to tenth century) 79
Santa Maria Antiqua: the Three Mothers 81
Southern Italy – crypt of St Christine (tenth century) 86
Cappadocia (tenth to thirteenth century) – the earliest extensive
Mariological cycle 88
The Marian cycle in the chapel of Joachim and Anna at Kızıl Çukur 88
Anna and Joachim’s iconic portraits 90
Anna as mother 90
Contents vii
Glorification of Christ – incarnational role – healing qualities 91
Healing 93
Intercession – Deesis 93
Constantinople (tenth to fourteenth century) 95
Ethiopia (thirteenth century) 95
Mainland Greece (tenth to fifteenth century) 96
Central Greece 97
Peloponnese 97
Greek islands (excluding Crete) 100
Crete 102
Anna as a mother 104
Anna suckling the Virgin 105
Anna holding the Virgin 113
Christological associations: Anna and Joachim and
the Mandylion 121
Christological associations: Anna and Joachim,
the Mandylion and the Annunciation 124
Icons – book covers 127
Fulfilment of prophecies 127
Military saints 129
Donors 129
Icons from Crete 130
4 The cult of St Anna in Byzantium: overview 148
Bibliography 153
Index 183
Illustrations
1.1 Inscription naming Amos as deacon of the church of
the Probatike, fi fth or sixth century (Photo credit: author) 7
3.1 St Anna, Faras Cathedral (Photo credit: National Museum
of Warsaw) 80
3.2 The Three Mothers, Church of Santa Maria Antiqua
(Photo credit: Stephen J. Lucey) 82
3.3 St Anna with the Virgin, Crypt of St Christine (Photo credit:
Linda Safran) 87
3.4 St Anna, Church of Panagia Kalomoiriani, Rodovani
(Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 103
3.5 St Anna holding Mary in the templon, Church of St Anna,
Anisaraki (Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive,
University of Mainz) 106
3.6 St Anna and Mary, Church of St Anna, Anisaraki (Photo credit:
Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 107
3.7 St Anna and Mary on external wall, Church of St Anna,
Anisaraki (Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive,
University of Mainz) 108
3.8 St Anna, the Virgin, Joachim, Church St George, Herakleion,
Pediada, Avdou (Photo credit: Diogenes Papadopoulos
© Angeliki Lymberopoulou and Vasiliki Tsamakda) 109
3.9 St Anna (northern wall), Church St George, Lassithi, Ierapetra,
Kavousi (Photo credit: Diogenes Papadopoulos © Angeliki
Lymberopoulou and Vasiliki Tsamakda) 110
3.10 St Anna and Mary, Church of All Saints, Merambello
(Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 111
3.11 St Anna nursing the Virgin, Church of St Panteleimon,
Bizariano (Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive,
University of Mainz) 112
3.12 St Anna holding Mary, Church of Mary, Fodele (Photo credit:
Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 114
3.13 St Anna with the Virgin and female saints (northern wall),
Church St John, Rethymnon, Mylopotamos, Axos (Photo credit:
Diogenes Papadopoulos © Angeliki Lymberopoulou and
Vasiliki Tsamakda) 115
Illustrations ix
3.14 St Anna with Mary, St Antonios and St Penteleeimon Church of
St John, Lassithi, Merambello, Kritsa (Photo credit: Diogenes
Papadopoulos © Angeliki Lymberopoulou and Vasiliki Tsamakda) 116
3.15 St Anna in the apse St Anna’s chapel, Church of Mary,
Kritsa (Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive,
University of Mainz) 117
3.16 St Anna with Mary, nave, Church of Mary, Kritsa (Photo credit:
Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 118
3.17 St Anna with the Virgin, Church of St Anna, Fourni
(Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 119
3.18 St Anna in the apse with the Virgin, Church of Chromonastiri
(Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 120
3.19 St Anna and Archangel Michael, Church of the Saviour
(Transfiguration), Chania, Kisamos, Kefali (Photo credit:
Diogenes Papadopoulos © Angeliki Lymberopoulou and
Vasiliki Tsamakda) 123
3.20 St Anna in medallion, Church of St George, Sklavopoula
(Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 125
3.21 St Anna in medallion, Church of St Demetrios, Leivadas
(Photo credit: Stavros Maderakis Archive, University of Mainz) 126
