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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On 10/20/11, Terri Morgan sent: > Today, October 20, is the feast of: > Artemius the Great Martyr (d. 363) is an extremely odd case: an Arian commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. He was a high imperial official who became prefect of Egypt and in that capacity persecuted Athanasius and other Catholics as well as pagans. There is no record that he ever transferred his own allegiance to Catholicism. In the reign of Julian the Apostate he was accused of destroying temples and cult images, his property was confiscated and he was beheaded. He is venerated in the eastern church as a martyr - his shrine was noted for miraculous cures. > The megalomartyr Artemius is also known, from the place of his martyrdom, as Artemius of Antioch. His year of death could have been either 362 or 363. That he was accused of destroying (temples and) cult images comes from Theodoret in the fifth century and need not be accurate. The fourth-century historian Ammianus Marcellinus (not a Christian of any persuasion) says that after Artemius had ceased to be _dux_ in Egypt the Alexandrians accused him before the emperor of numerous very serious crimes (whose nature Ammianus does not specify) and that it was for these that he was executed. Artemius' veneration as a saint by Arians is generally thought to stem from his vigorous anti-pagan and -- from an Arian perspective -- anti-heretical actions under Constantius II as well as from his execution by the pagan Julian. Though the causes underlying his initial adoption by Christians of orthodox Nicene persuasion are unclear, it is likely that his reputation for miraculous cures was established very early and that this had a significant role in the spread of his cult. For a discussion of all this and of Artemius' hagiography see Virgil S. Crisafulli and John W. Nesbitt, _The Miracles of St. Artemios_ (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 1-7; also helpful is Philip R. Amidon, tr., Philostorgius, _Church History_ (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), esp. the annotated translations from Artemius' earlier Passiones in Appendices 1 through 3 on pp. 165-184. Artemius' Passiones have him appear before Julian in Antioch and denounce the emperor for his persecution of Christians there. The latter are represented in these texts by the priests Sts. Eugenius and Macarius (who in the earliest of Artermius' surviving Passiones are exiled and die shortly thereafter and who in later Passiones are executed at Antioch). Artemius' notice in the Synaxary of Constantinople omits these two saints. In all accounts Artemius is cruelly tortured, refuses to recant, and finally is executed by decapitation. He is usually but not always depicted as a military martyr. The shrine referred to above is presumably the one that existed in the church of St. John the Forerunner in Constantinople's Oxeia section. Though it is not known with certainty when Artemius' relics were translated from Antioch to Constantinople, to judge from the surviving _Miracles_ they were there by the seventh century. In view of the recent discussion on this list of Christian practices of incubation, it's perhaps worth noting that seekers after healing slept in this church in the hope of being cured by Artemius. Artemius has been commemorated in the Roman Martyrology since Baronio's time. Despite the notice's opening sentence, it could be thought misleading to say of this saint further on therein that he "is venerated in the eastern church as a martyr" -- as though he were not so venerated in the Roman church as well! Artemius (center) denouncing Julian while Sts. Eugenius and Macarius are executed, as depicted in a seemingly later eleventh-century panegyrikon in the Esphigmenou monastery on Mt. Athos (Esphigmenou cod. 14; often called a menologion): http://tinyurl.com/3e924ql Artemius (at right; at left, St. Mercurius of Caesarea) as depicted in a fresco of ca. 1300, attributed to Manuel Panselinos, in the Protaton church on Mt. Athos: http://tinyurl.com/6a2rnqh Artemius (at left; at right, St. Nestor) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1311 and ca. 1322) of the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki: http://tinyurl.com/6agwapc Smaller, full-length view of Artemius' portrait: http://tinyurl.com/3jhjakn Artemius as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo: http://tinyurl.com/3k6dv5y Detail view: http://tinyurl.com/4yyylb8 Artemius' martyrdom as depicted in an October 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/3u53fl2 Artemius (at left; at right, St. Jacob of Beth Lapat / James the Persian) as depicted in the earlier fifteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1406 and 1418) in the church of the Holy Trinity in the Manasija monastery near Despotovac (Pomoravlje dist.) in Serbia: https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/handle/1811/40853 Artemius (at center, between St. Eustratius and St. Polyeuctus of Melitene) in a later fifteenth- or earlier sixteenth-century Novgorod School icon now in the Museum of History and Architecture, Novgorod: http://www.icon-art.info/hires.php?lng=en&type=1&id=810 Artemius as depicted in the early sixteenth-century frescoes (1502) by Dionisy and sons in the Virgin Nativity cathedral of the St. Ferapont Belozero (Ferapontov Belozersky) monastery at Ferapontovo in Russia's Vologda oblast: http://www.dionisy.com/img/322/frag_lg.jpg Artemius (at center, between portraits of Sts. Lupus of Svishtov and Mercurius of Caesarea) as depicted in the earlier sixteenth-century frescoes (1545-1546) by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery on Mt. Athos: http://tinyurl.com/3h4qdoo > Andrew of Crete (d. c740) was a native of Damascus who became a monk in Jerusalem at age 15, went to Constantinople where he became head of an orphanage, and was named archbishop of Gortyn (Crete). He was an important preacher and hymn-writer, credited with introducing the hymn-form known as *kanon* to the eastern liturgy. > See rather 4. July, e.g. no. 4 in this post from 2010: <http://tinyurl.com/3gmgey7>. What valid rationale exists for asserting that 20. October is a feast day of this Andrew of Crete as opposed to his homonym also known as Andrew the Calybite? He's never appeared under this date in either the RM or the Synaxary of Constantinople. > Ambrosius Traversari (blessed) (d. 1439) was born in Portico (Italy) in 1386. In 1400 he entered the Camoldolese order in Florence. In 1431 Ambrosius became the general of the order, an office he held until his death. He was a member of the circle of humanists that had gathered in Florence, and became a very important scholar and translator of the works of the Greek fathers of the church. > See 20. November, e.g. no. 8 in this post from 2010: <http://tinyurl.com/5swlyqu>. Is 20. _October_ reputably attested as a feast day for Traversari? He entered the RM only in 2001 but prior to that his feast was already given in vol. 1 of the BHL as falling on 20. November. 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