medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 09/02/11, Terri Morgan sent:
> Basilissa of Nicomedia (d. c300) was born in Nicomedia. At the age of nine she was martyred. She is supposed to have withstood torture so bravely that she even converted the governor of the city to Christianity. Her cult developed especially in Constantinople.
>
All our information about B. is late and of a legendary character: a synaxary notice (BHG 2058) first attested from the late tenth or very early eleventh century and seemingly based upon a now lost Passio; an undated set of liturgical texts for her feast (BHG 2058b), and a fourteenth-century Bios by Nicephorus Gregoras (BHG 2059). This tradition ascribes to her a death under Diocletian, whose persecution began in Nicomedia in 299 but which seems to have been limited to soldiers and to members of the imperial household. For ordinary civilians this persecution began only in February 303, with the first of several anti-Christian edicts prescribing loss of legal standing and the application of torture in the case of those who refused to offer sacrifice to the gods of the state. For B. as traditionally construed, "c300" is thus too early as a date of death; "betw. 303 and 313, supposedly" would work much better.
According to the synaxary notice, the nine-year-old B. was beaten and then was stripped and thrashed with rods and had her ankles pierced. After that she was suspended head-first above a smoky and sulphurous fire, was then thrown into the fire, and after that was exposed to two lions who did not harm her. Her emergence unscathed from these torments is said to have effected the conversion of the persecuting magistrate, who died peacefully shortly thereafter. Still according to this account, B. (who was now free) left the city and, being thirsty, prayed successfully for a spring to arise. Having slaked her thirst, she then stood on a rock, prayed, and passed out of this life. B. was buried at that place; her spring gushes daily and effects marvelous cures for the faithful. Thus far her synaxary notice, except that in at least one witness it is added that B.'s feast is celebrated annually in Constantinople at the monastery of the Theotokos at Blachernae.
In addition to her cult at Constantinople B. was also especially venerated at a church outside of Nicomedia (today's İzmit in Turkey), where certainly by Nicephoras Gregoras' time there was also a fountain of holy water (the term used for this, "hagiasma", is also attested for a more famous fountain in the monastery at Blachernae) corresponding to the miraculous spring of her synaxary notice.
A somewhat murky, gray-tone image of B. as depicted in the late tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613):
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=1544
The detail view here enlarges to give a clearer (cleaned-up?) impression of B.'s face:
http://www.mospat.ru/calendar/svyat1/sep03-vasilissa.html
In Orthodox and other Greek-rite churches 3. September is principally the feast of a much better attested martyr of Nicomedia, its early fourth-century bishop Anthimus (d. 303 or 311/12). A. was put to death either under Diocletian just after the start of the Great Persecution (so Eusebius, _Historia ecclesiastica_, 8. 6 and 13) or under Maximinus (so St. Lucian of Antioch in a fragment preserved in the _Chronicon Paschale_). Justinian erected a basilica over his tomb. At Constantinople he long had a chapel or church in the Chora monastery. The early medieval (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology enters A. under 27. April. That is also where A. was in the RM until its latest revision (2001), which follows the later fourth-century Syriac Martyrology in placing him under 24. April.
Anthimus of Nicomedia as depicted in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (either ca. 1263-1270 or slightly later) of the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/27moqlq
detail:
http://tinyurl.com/29fz55a
A.'s martyrdom as depicted in a September calendar scene in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/3soe2by
A. as depicted (in the roundel at left; the standing figure at center is Antipas of Pergamum) in the earlier fourteenth-century (1330s) frescoes of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/ybd9mq8
A.'s martyrdom as depicted (at left and center) in a September calendar scene in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the narthex in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/3h69uyh
A. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the altar area in the same church at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of recent events, the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's Kosovo province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/ylz5zgq
A. as depicted in a later fourteenth-century fresco (ca. 1378) by Theophanes the Greek in the church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Novgorod:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=ru&mst_id=4042
> Simeon Stylites the Younger (d. 592 or perhaps 596 or 597) was one of the most famous pillar-sitting saints after Simon Stylites the Elder. This Simeon was born in Antioch in c520. Already as a child he was fascinated by stories of the elder Simeon, and at the age of 12 he himself began pillar-sitting. Simeon changed his pillar and location several times, until in 551 he got on a very high pillar in Antioch, where he remained until his death. Because of the many miracles Simeon worked, the hill on which his pillar stood was known as "mons admirabilis." A monastic community grew around Simeon and his pillar - Simeon giving advice from above and his mother Martha organizing and overseeing the building. He stayed on that pillar for 45 years; a great basilica was built around him while he was still sitting there. In total, he lived on a pillar for 68 years.
>
An illustrated, English-language page on the remains of Simeon's (Symeon's) monastery, now the Aziz Simon Manastırı on Samandağ (Simeon's Mountain) in Turkey's Hatay province:
http://www.anadolukatolikkilisesi.org/antakya/en/stilita.asp
Views (from different positions) of the remains of S.'s pillar in the center of the monastery:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/6634520.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/29p7z4r
http://tinyurl.com/2bn3m6p
http://tinyurl.com/3sme952
More views of the monastery are here:
http://tinyurl.com/pdxoze
http://www.flickr.com/photos/necademic/
Simeon / Symeon Stylites the Younger as depicted in the late twelfth-century frescoes (1192) of the church of the Panagia tou Arakou in Lagoudera (Nicosia prefecture), Republic of Cyprus:
http://tinyurl.com/2cqhzp4
S. as depicted (at left; at right, Moses' successor Joshua) in a September calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/3gpjp5m
S. as depicted in a fourteenth-century fresco in the church of the Panagia at Agrelopou, near Kalamoti, on Chios:
http://tinyurl.com/3o3kx5s
Best,
John Dillon
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