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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture 17. November is also the feast day of: Gennadius of Constantinople (d. 471). A priest of Hagia Sophia at the time of his election in 458 as patriarch of Constantinople, G. is probably best known for his encyclical letter of 458 or 459 condemning simony. He received the monophysite patriarch Timothy II of Alexandria (Timothy "Aelurus") in an attempt to bring him over to Chalcedonian orthodoxy and, when that failed, probably had a major role in persuading the emperor Leo I to banish him from his see. Similarly, Gennadius supported the Chalcedonian patriarch of Antioch Martyrius against the machinations of the monophysite Peter the Fuller, whose usurpation of that see led in short order to Leo's banishing him at Gennadius' request. His numerous commentaries on books of the Bible, now surviving only in fragments, led his contemporary Gennadius of Marseille to praise him both for his writing ability and for his sharp intellect. The later sixth-century historian Theodore Lector relates that Gennadius 1) healed the hand of a painter that had shriveled after he (the painter, that is) had portrayed Christ with the attributes of Zeus, 2) correctly predicted the death on the following day of the contumacious priest Charisius, and 3) experienced a vision in which the devil informed him that he could make no headway against the church whilst Gennadius lived but would succeed in this once the patriarch had died. Gennadius' reputation for sanctity and defense of orthodoxy survived into the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, when St. Neophytus the Recluse penned an Encomium of him (BHG 667; betw. ca. 1170 and 1214) underscoring these aspects of the saint's life. Neophytus further relates, in an account now and perhaps always unsupported by earlier testimony, that toward the end of his life Gennadius, not wishing to die in Constantinople under heretical rule, secretly left Constantinople, visited the Holy Land, went on to Cyprus in an attempt to find the former hermitage of St. Hilarion of Gaza, and died of cold and exhaustion on a 20. November in the mountains near Paphos. Still according to Neophytus, who seems to have been creating patriarchal precedent for his own life as an hermit in the same vicinity, Gennadius' body, once found, was recognized by the bishop of Paphos and given honorable burial, after which it remained on Cyprus as the heretical emperor Anastasius (Anastasius I; r. 491-518) was unwilling to have it returned to the capital. Orthodox churches generally celebrate Gennadius on 17. November, his day of death as recorded in the Synaxary of Constantinople (which latter also has commemorations of him with different sets of patriarchs on 20. November and 25. November). Some celebrate him on 31. August. Gennadius has yet to grace the pages of the RM. Gennadius (at right; at left, his immediate predecessor St. Anatolius of Constantinople) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by the court painters Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George at Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: http://tinyurl.com/3hgz9ff This blog post (with text in Greek followed by the same matter in English) offers expandable views of the remains of Gennadius' church at the village of Moronero in Kallepia (Paphos prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus: http://tinyurl.com/74rf9sm Slightly earlier views of the same church: http://tinyurl.com/7rjrgdj http://tinyurl.com/7ydp477 http://tinyurl.com/867q3ug http://tinyurl.com/7hpzd97 http://www.flickr.com/photos/philphotography/5253379787/ http://tinyurl.com/6smebjs Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html