Harvard Divinity School

Response to David Woods

Author(s): James C. Skedros
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Jul., 2000), pp. 235-239
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School
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Response

to

David

Woods

James C. Skedros
GreekOrthodoxSchoolof Theology

The originsof the cult of St. Demetriosareindeedobscure.The earliestindisputable

evidence for the existence of the cult of St. Demetriosat Thessalonikiis the large
five-aisle basilicabuiltin honorof the martyrandlocatedin the centerof this importantportcity. Based uponarchaeologicalandarthistoricalevidence,the basilicacan
be datedto the last quarterof the fifthcentury.lHowever,the writtentraditionof the
cult of St. Demetrios, as preservedin variousmartyrdomaccounts (whose dates
remainproblematic),places the saint'smartyrdomat Thessalonikiduringthe persecution of Diocletian, that is, duringthe first decade of the fourth century, some
one-hundredand seventy five years before the erectionof the saint's basilica.2To
complicatematterseven more, in the earliestsurvivingmartyrologiesdatingfrom
the fourthand fifth centuries,thereis no mentionof a martyrDemetrioswho was
martyredor veneratedat Thessaloniki.Given such lack of historicalevidence, most
scholars,includingI)avid Woods, whose articleappearsin the pages of thisjournal,
have arguedthatSt. Demetriosof Thessalonikiis a fictitioussaintandthatthe origin
of his venerationat Thessalonikiis not to be foundin a historicalindividualwho was
martyredunderDiocletianat Thessaloniki,but rathermust be soughtelsewhere.
In his article, "Thessalonica'sPatron:St. Demetrius or Emeterius?"Woods
offers a fresh look into the beginnings of the cult of the martyrI)emetrios at
Thessaloniki.His solution to the question of the origins of the cult is quite ingelJamesConstantineSkedros,Saint Demetriosof Thessaloniki:Civic Patron and Divine
Protector4th-7th CenturiesCE(HTS47; Harrisburg:
TrinityPressInternational,
1999) 29-39.
2Anapsidalstructurehas been found underneaththe five-aisle basilica and datedto the
fourthcenturyIt is possible thatthis structurerepresentsan earlierthree-aislebasilica to the
memoryof the martyrDemetrios;see VladislavPopovic,"Sirmium:Ville imperiale,"in Akten
des Vll. InternationalenKongressesfur christlicheArchaologie(2 vols.; Rome: Pontificio
Istitutodi archeologiacristiana,1969) 1. 671.
HTR93:3 (2000) 235-39

236

HARVARDTHEOLOGICAL REVIEW

nious.Woodsbeginsby notingthatin one of themartyrdom

accountsof St.Demetrios,
known as the Passio altera, two contactrelics associatedwith the saint are identified:an orarion,or neckscarf,anda ring.Bothof theserelics,accordingto thePassio
altera, were soakedin the martyr'sblood andrecognizedas havinghealingpowers.
Woods takes these two substituterelics as a startingpoint in arguingfor a new
solutionto the originsof the cultof St. Demetrios.Acknowledgingthe unusualcombinationof these two contactrelics, Woods states that,to his knowledge, there is
only one otherinstancewherethese two relics, in combination,are associatedwith
martyrs:theearlyfourth-century
SpanishmilitarymartyrsEmeteriusandChelidonius.
Giventhe similaritybetweenthe namesEmeteriusandDemetrios,the same unusual
combinationof contactrelics associatedwith these SpanishmartyrsandDemetrios,
and the lack of evidence for a historicalmartyrDemetriosof Thessaloniki,Woods
arrivesat the following hypothesis.Sometimeduring379-80, in honorof the new
emperor,the SpanishgeneralTheodosiusI, who hadrecentlymade his residenceat
Thessaloniki,an unknownpersonor personstransferredthe orarionand ring of the
martyrsEmeteriusand Chelidoniusto Thessaloniki.Shortlythereafter,Theodosius
moved his imperialthroneto Constantinople,andthe shrinebuiltto house the relics
of the two Spanishmartyrsat Thessalonikiwas soon neglected. Accordingto the
Passio altera, Leontios,the prefectof Illyricum(c. 412-413), visited Thessaloniki
andwas healedof anailmentaftercomingintocontactwiththerelicsof St. Demetrios.
Woods identifies these relics as the orarion and ring of the Saints Emeteriusand
Chelidonius.In responseto his miraculouscure,Leontiosbuilta basilicaat the spot
where the relics were kept.While excavatingthe areaaroundthe shrine,Leontios,
accordingto Woods, discoveredan inscriptionto the martyrEmeterius,which he
interpretedas preservingthe name Demetrius.Leontios then erected a basilica in
honorof a St. Demetrios,who, on accountof "localfolk memory"which associated
the relics witha militarymartyr,becameSt. Demetriosthe militarysaintandmartyr.
Thus the originsof St. Demetrios.
Woods has offered a new and creative solution to a question that still does not
have a satisfactoryanswer. In particular,Woods should be commended for having raised the very importantissue of the origin of the contact relics associated
with St. Demetrios as recordedin the Passio altera. However, his reconstruction
of the origin of the cult of St. Demetrios has several problems, three of which I
shall discuss briefly.
As is known, thereis no mentionof a martyrDemetriosof Thessalonikiin the
two earliestextantmartyrologies,the SyriacMartyrology(datedto c. 362; Woods
uses the more traditional name of Syriac Breviary) and the Hieronymian
Martyrology(datedto c. 431-450). As Woods himself admits,these martyrologies
do not contain an exhaustive list of historicalmartyrsof the early church.In my
work on St. Demetrios, I attemptedto demonstratethe insufficiency of these
martyrologiesby arguingthatthe calendarof martyrsdepictedon the walls of the

JAMES C. SKEDROS

237

Rotunda at Thessaloniki depict three martyrs who were commemorated at

Thessaloniki but whose names do not appear in the Syriac or Hieronimian
Martyrologies.Woods has challenged these three examples. Woods may be correct in pointingout thatone of these martyrs,Therinos,ought to be identifiedwith
The
the martyrTirinus,who is commemoratedon June7 in theSyriacMartyrology.3
martyrs,
fictitious
as
dismisses
Woods
Leo,
and
Onesiphoros
two other martyrs,
thus claiming that they cannotbe used in supportof the argumentthatthere were
historical martyrsveneratedat Thessaloniki whose names did not appearin the
early martyrologies.Onesiphoros,who is pairedwith Porphyriosin the Rotunda
mosaics, is to be identifiedas the companionof the apostlePaul (2 Tim 1:1S18),
andthereforeis a fictitiousmartyr.HereI am in agreementwith Woods. As for the
martyrLeo, however, there is simply no knowledge of this martyroutside of the
Rotundamosaics. To claim, thathe is a fictitious martyrseems too simplistic.4
Woods suggests thatI have chosen the wrongexamplesto demonstratethatthe
early martyrologiesdo not preservecomplete lists of martyrs.Rather,whatneeds
to be shown is that these early martyrologiesomit the name of a martyrwho was
celebratedin a metropolitanareafor which the martyrologieslist other martyrs.I
should like to offer just such an example.
St. Basil the Great,the fourth-centurybishopof Caesareaof Cappadocia,delivered five panegyricalhomilies dealing with martyrsthat have survived. These
consist of homilies on the martyrsJulitta,Barlaam,Gordios,the Forty Martyrsof
Sebaste, and Mamas. The martyrJulittawill serve as an illustrativeresponse to
Woods. No specific date for the homily on Julittais given, yet it most likely dates
between 370 and 379 when Basil served as bishop of Caesarea.The homily was
deliveredon the feast day of the martyrin the city of Caesarea.Basil tells us that
the martyr'srelics lie near the entranceinto the city. The location of her shrine
outside the city walls suggests thatthis shrineis most likely her burialsite and not
a shrinehousing substituterelics, which would have been the resultof a translation
of relics. Basil even mentionsa springthat flows out from the groundaroundthe
martyr'stomb, clearly acknowledgingthe sacred natureof the site.SAll of this
suggests thatJulitta'sshrinewas not of recentdate but that it most likely dates to
the first half of the fourthcentury.

3Therinoswas commemorated at Constantinople along with St Demetrios on May 6 and with

St. George on April 23. For the Greek Passio see AnalectaBollandiana100 (1982) 63-78.
4Woods states that the names of fifteen martyrs have survived from the mosaics of the
Rotunda However, of these fifteen martyrs only thirteen of the accompanying inscriptions are
currently identifiable, a fourteenth has been sufficiently reconstructed, while the fifteenth (the
martyr paired with Ananios) cannot securely be identified; see, Denis Feissel, Recueil des
duIlle au Vlesiecle (Athens: Ecole Franvaise d' Athenes,
de Mace'doine
inscriptionschre'tiennes
1983) 103-10.
5Hom Jul 2., PG 31. 237-61.

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HARVARDTHEOLOGICALREVIEW

Turning to the Syriac Martyrology,martyrsof Caesareaof Cappadociaare

mentionedon six separatedates.6However,thereis no mentionof the martyrJulitta.
The tenth-centuryMenologion of Basil II gives the date of July 30 for her feast
day. It would appear,therefore,that the martyrJulittais an example of how the
Syriac Martyrologyomits the name of a historicalmartyrwho is commemorated
at a city for which the martyrologylists other martyrs.The conclusion is rather
simple: the SyriacMartyrologydoes not preservecomplete lists of historicalmartyrs for some metropolitanareas.
A second majorproblemwith the origins of the cult of St. Demetrios,and my
second criticism of Woods's thesis, is the reliance upon the various martyrdom
accountsof the saint for evidence of the origin of the cult. There is very little disagreementthat the literaryaccountsof the Passions of the saint cannotbe read as
strictlyhistoricaldocumentsbutratherbelongto the categoryof epic Passions.7This
does not mean thatthese martyrdomaccountsdo not containelementsof historical
veracity. However,even if one were to granta very generoushistoricalreadingto
the Passions,the majorobstaclein using themas a sourcefor the originsof the cult
of St. Demetriosis thatthe Passionsarehagiographicaltexts and areextremelydifficultto date.These martyrdomsaccountsstill awaitcriticaleditionsandevaluation.
The problemwith Woods's hypothesis,as is the problemwith any discussionof the
originsof the cult of St. Demetrios,is its dependanceuponthe Passio altera, one of
threeversionsof the martyrdomof St. Demetrios.8It is in the Passio altera where
the two substituterelics the orarion and ring are introduced.Woods argument
that"thePassio altera provesthe existenceof an orariumanda ringat the centerof
the cult of a militarymartyr,Demetrius,at Thessalonica"relies too heavily uponthe
Passio altera as well as misunderstanding
the historicaldevelopmentof the cult of
St. Demetriosat Thessaloniki.
ThePassio alteracontainssevenepisodesor eventsnotfoundin thePassioprima
or "shorterversion"of themartyrdomof St. Demetrios.It is my contentionthatthese
seven episodes, one of which is the introductionof the orarion and ring of St.
Demetriosas contactrelics withhealingpowers,aresimplyintendedto enhancethe
authorityandstatusof the cult of St. Demetios.9 Theyhavebeen introducedinto the
martyrdomstoryof St. Demetriosas proofof the divine authorityof the saint,and,
therefore,theirhistoricalvalue mustbe approachedwith caution.
Finally, Woods's associationof Emeteriusand Demetrios is based, in part,on
the identityof Demetriosas a militarysaint.In fact, thereis absolutelyno evidence
6March2, Gordianos;May29, Cyril;July 12, Dios; July 13, Dios the Presbyter;November
3, Germanos,Theophilosand Cyril;and November23, Veronikios
7Skedros,Saint Demetriosof Thessaloniki,60 n. 66.
8Fora detaileddiscussionof the Passions,see ibid., 60-70
9Ibid.,66 I have arguedextensively for this in explainingthe additionof the Sirmium
subplotto the Passio altera, see esp. pp. 22-29.

JAMES C. SKEDROS

239

to indicate that St. Demetrioswas veneratedas a militarymartyrearlierthan 600

CE.Survivingiconographicevidencein the Basilicaof St. Demetriosin Thessaloniki
does not depict the martyrin any militarygarb.Rather,the saint is shown as an
intercessor(standingin the orans position) or a protector(of children!)wearinga
traditionalchlamys or tunic with an embroideredtablion, indicatinga high social
rankor status.Woods arguesthat it was the "local folk memory"of Emeteriusas
a military martyrthat, added to a misreadingof a non-existent inscription,produced the militarymartyrDemetrios duringthe first quarterof the fifth century.
However, the developmentof St. Demetriosinto a militarysaint was gradual;the
pivotal point coming duringand afterthe Slav-Avarsiege of Thessalonikiin 586
CE. It was the presenceof the Slavs in the Balkansat this time and throughoutthe
seventh centurythat was the real impetusfor the transformationof St. Demetrios
into a military martyr.l On the contrary, the early cult of St. Demetrios at
Thessalonikidid not identify the martyras a militarysaint.
It is refreshingto read a well-argueddiscussion of the origin of the cult of St.
Demetriosthatdoes not rely upon the traditionalview thatthe cult had its origins
in the martyrDemetriosof Sirmiummentionedin the SyriacMartyrologyfor April
9. Woods has offered an attractivehypothesisbased upon the contact relics the
orarion andring identifiedin the Passio altera. Unfortunately,his thesis cannot
be supportedby the existing evidence. It places undueemphasison the completeness of the early martyrologies, relies upon a hagiographical text of dubious
historicalvalue, and misunderstandsthe trajectoryof the cult of St. Demetrios at
Thessaloniki.Without any firmer evidence, the origins of the martyrDemetrios
should remainin the city in which he continuesto be veneratedto this day.

'Ibid., 105-32