medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The first saint entered under today in the Roman Martyrology is Modestus of Jerusalem (d. 634?). After the Persians captured and sacked Jerusalem in 614 the patriarch St. Zacharias, who had been imprisoned and who was going to be brought back to Persia by victorious army, chose Modestus, the hegumen of the monastery of St. Theodosius near Bethlehem, to stand in for him in his absence. Modestus labored to restore the buildings, finances, and services of Jerusalem's ravaged church, a task in which he is said to have been assisted by an enormous gift in cash and in kind from the patriarch of Alexandria, St. John the Eleemosynary (John the Almsgiver, John the Merciful).
Leontius of Neapolis' Bios of the latter worthy styles Modestus as patriarch. Those who think this accurate (rather than hyper-polite or merely misinformed) consider that Zacharias must have died soon after his removal from Jerusalem (the Palestinian-Georgian calendar in cod. Sinaiticus 34 records Zacharias as having died in captivity) and that when this became known Modestus formally became his successor. The more usual view is that Zacharias returned with Heraclius and the True Cross (in 630) and that Modestus succeeded as patriarch after Zacharias' somewhat later death. The year of Zacharias' death is uncertain; if one can trust the _Annals_ of Eutychius of Alexandria (d. 940), Modestus was named patriarch in his own right by Heraclius and served in that capacity for only nine months; he was succeeded by St. Sophronius of Jerusalem.
St. Photius the Patriarch quotes fragments from two sermons by Modestus and says that he has read a third, on the Dormition of the Theotokos. An encomium on the Dormition that circulated medievally under Modestus' name (CPG 7876) is now dated to the late seventh or early eighth century, too late to have been written by him but early enough to have been the one referred to by Photius. Also unlikely to be authentic is a prayer under Modestus' name for the blessing of animals that is widely used in Orthodox churches (Modestus is traditionally a protector of livestock). Relics believed to be Modestus' are kept in the Prodromos skete on Mt. Athos, in the Vlatodon monastery in Thessaloniki, and in several Coptic churches. The aforementioned, presumably pre-Byzantine Palestinian-Georgian liturgical calendar enters Modestus not only under today but also on 29. March and 17. May. In the initially tenth- and eleventh-century Synaxary of Constantinople Modestus of Jerusalem is entered under 19. October. Some Byzantine-rite churches still celebrate him on that day; others celebrate him on either the 16th or the 18th of December.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Modestus of Jerusalem:
a) as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (1164) in the church of St. Panteleimon (Pantaleon) at Gorno Nerezi (Skopje municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/3lvhh7r
http://tinyurl.com/on7bx4x
b) as depicted in two places in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/22) in the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
1) on a pillar:
http://tinyurl.com/2dltdev
2) between other holy hierarchs (St. Spyridon the Wonderworker and St. Polycarp of Smyrna):
http://tinyurl.com/2bayqva
Detail view (Modestus):
http://tinyurl.com/cgn69t4
c) as depicted (at far right) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George at Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/ow5cdye
Best,
John Dillon
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