medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Virtually nothing is known for certain about the historical Achillius of Larissa (d. ca. mid-4th cent., perhaps; in English also also Achilles), also called Achillius the Thaumaturge and, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Achillius of Prespa. As he is always associated with Larissa in Thessaly, it is possible that he was a native of that place and that his name was traditional there, honoring the city's famous ancient Greek hero Achilles, though it should be pointed out that in Greek antiquity personal names derived from that of this hero occur elsewhere and that they are recorded with notable frequency from regions around the Black Sea. According to his hagiographic tradition as represented by synaxary notices and by two similar, undated Vitae (BHG 2012, 2013), Achillius was a Cappadocian from a prominent family who was educated in pagan philosophy and Christian religion; after the death of his parents he distributed his fortune to the poor, undertook pilgrimages to Palestine and to Rome, and then became a missionary, arriving ultimately at Larissa where he was acclaimed its metropolitan.
The same tradition -- unsupported by evidence external to it -- has this paragon of learning and virtue be present at the Council of Nicaea in 325, where he vigorously opposes Arius and operates a miracle. He then goes to Constantinople, where he is honorably received by the metropolitan and where he receives titles of dignity from the emperor Constantine and lavish funds for the erection of churches and hospitals in his diocese. Returning to Larissa, Achillius miraculously heals the physically ill and drives demons from the possessed.
At some point in the last decades of the tenth century czar Samuel of the Bulgarians, who had conquered Larissa in 978, translated relics venerated as those of Achillius to an island in Little Lake Prespa in what is now northwestern Greece and there erected in his honor a church intended as the cathedral of Greater Bulgaria. Herewith a page of views of its remains:
https://www.uploadandshare.photos/blog/agios-achilleos-prespes.html
A distance view:
http://tinyurl.com/jdzzx4r
From here Achillius' cult spread widely in the northwestern Balkans. In 1981 human remains believed to be those of Achillius' were found entombed in the diakonikon of this church and were translated thence with great celebration to Achillius' modern cathedral in Larissa.
Today (15. May) is Achillius' feast day in the originally tenth-century Synaxary of Constantinople and in its descendants in modern Byzantine-rite churches. It is also his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Achillius of Larissa:
a) as depicted in the earlier eleventh-century mosaics (carefully restored betw. 1953 and 1962) in the diakonikon of the katholikon in the monastery of Hosios Loukas near Distomo in Phokis:
http://tinyurl.com/oew3f7a
b) as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (1164) in the church of St. Panteleimon at Gorno Nerezi (Skopje municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/jn9pbby
c) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Nicholas of Myra) in the late twelfth-century frescoes (ca. 1191) in the church of St. George at Kurbinovo (Resen municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/paehsta
Detail view (Achillius):
http://tinyurl.com/h4etxcn
This other portrait in the same church is also thought (quite reasonably) to depict Achillius:
http://www.mpc.org.mk/_images/Galerii/Freskopis/IMG_2695.jpg
d) as depicted in the earlier thirteenth-century frescoes (1230s) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension in the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje (Zlatibor dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/yje7o23
Detail view (Achillius):
http://tinyurl.com/yak3r8t
e) as twice depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) in the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
1) at center, betw. St. Pausicacius of Synnada and St. Theodore of Tabennisi, in an overview in the north nave of the saints of the May calendar:
http://tinyurl.com/z8gvw3n
2) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes in the southeast little dome:
http://tinyurl.com/2frr7zb
f) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the prothesis of the church of the Holy Ascension in the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/2ebox7m
g) as depicted (at right in the lower register; at left, St. Clement of Ohrid) in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (1386/1387) in the church of St. Athanasius of Mouzaki in Kastoria in northwestern Greece:
http://tinyurl.com/hm6d7ke
Best,
John Dillon
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