Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta

: Reinterpretacija na krilatata zmija (drakon) v hristijanskata tradicija; (bugarski) V statijata se razgležda edin ot motivite v ukrasata na Divoševoto evangelie ot XIV v. - tozi na krilatija drakon (na mesta s kozja glava) i podobnata na nego ukrasa v sr'bski, gr'cki i ruski r'kopisi, povlijani v svojata dekoracija ot romanskoto izkustvo, koeto ot svoja strana interpretira rannohristijanski motivi, vlezli v r'kopisnija repertoar na gr'ckite kodeksi ošče prez X-XI v. i otnovo pojavili se v k'snovizantijskata tradicija.

: Relativement à la nomination d’eustathe Maléïnos comme stratège d’antioche et de Lykandos; Starting from the observation that the relations between Phocas and Maleïnoi were not good during the reign of Nicephorus II, given the fact that a) the Maleïnoi did not support Nicephorus Phocas in 963, b) the first revolt against him originated from his close relative Gregory Maleinos and that c) the accession to the throne of Nicephorus II did not mean the subsequent rise in the military hierarchy for the Maleïnoi, we will examine, in this study, the version according to which Eustathius Maleïnos could have been appointed as general of Antioch and Lykandos by John I Tzimiskes.

: Relics, miracles and furta sacra; A contribution to the study of Serbo-Bulgarian relations in the 1230s The enquiry into the cult of relics and its manifestations such as miracle working, transfer of mortal remains and the act of translatio that involves the topos of furta sacra relies on two lives of St Sava of Serbia, one penned by Domentijan (Domentianus), the other by Teodosije (Theodosius). The hagiographic episodes most relevant to this enquiry are certainly those describing Sava's stay in Tirnovo, his death (1236) and the translation of his remains to his homeland (1237). The narrative about the future saint's stay and death in Tirnovo gives conscious hints of the hero's sanctity using various hagiographic devices. Especially interesting to us is the account of the miracle Sava worked in Tirnovo while officiating the Epiphany service at the church of the Forty Martyrs. According to our analysis, the reference to the Epiphany service and the association of the miracle with that particular feast are certainly not an accident. The ideology of the Second Bulgarian Empire attached great importance to the epic victory over the Romaioi at the Battle of Tryavna in 1190, which was commemorated annually on the Day of Epiphany. The Byzantine historians Niketas Choniates and George Akropolites report that the Bulgarians seized the imperial insignia during the battle. It is irrelevant whether Sava's two hagiographers were aware of the importance of the feast or simply reiterated the well-known information about the service celebrated on that day at the church of the Forty Martyrs; what is quite certain is that the great honour of officiating the service-a celebration pregnant with symbolism-was bestowed upon the most distinguished guest and that it was then that, we believe not at all by chance, his miracle-working power was manifested in public-in front of the Bulgarian tsar, all clergy and the notables. As a natural consequence of the power of working miracles manifested in one's lifetime, the holy body of Sava, who passed away shortly afterwards, joined the most highly treasured relics of the Second Bulgarian Empire deposited in the church of the Forty Martyrs. The decision of Bulgarian tsar John II Asen to have Sava buried in his own foundation dedicated to the Forty Martyrs seems to have conveyed unequivocal symbolic messages. Not only that the hagiographer uses the topos of Christ-like haste, a quality of the ideal ruler, to depict the tsar's devout haste (to have Sava's tomb built in stone and marked with imperial insignia) but he also employs the device of connecting the tsar's actions with the well-established pattern of the ruler standing firm in the faith of Christ to build an imago pietatis as well known and required in that particular place in the text. The latter obviously helps the holy remains-referred to in both hagiographies much before the reference to the revelation of hero's sanctity through the elevation of his incorrupt body-to obtain the status of relic. In that respect, the power of sepulchral dust constitutes a distinctive feature of Sava's sanctity-it testifies to the miraculous power of the place itself even after the body was removed, continuing until the ban placed on Sava's cult after the death of John Asen (1241). The ultimate proof of sanctity is the discovery of the incorrupt body after its elevatio. That is exactly what happened, after the holy one himself had appeared in the tsar's dream prompting the translation and thus the elevation of the body from the first grave. The apparition of the holy one in the form of 'a terrifying vision' came as a consequence of the request made by the Serbian side: king Vladislav, the tsar's son-in-law, had come to Tirnovo to solicit Sava's return to Serbia. As the Bulgarian side was unwilling to part with the prestigious relics, preparations for their translation began clandestinely and in great haste. To describe the events that ensued, Domentijan, the writer of the earlier of Sava's two lives, uses a recognizable narrative: the account of the furtum sacrum is placed in the framework of a parallel he was familiar with. Domentijan uses an interesting metaphor to offset the vague circumstances surrounding the event. By likening Sava's relics to the epitome of the most precious relic - the icon of the Virgin with child, well known after the apocrypha concerning the birth of Christ, he in fact uses the language of apocrypha to bypass several important topoi contained in the narrative of furta sacra. The motif in question is that of the clandestine translation of relics amidst great fear and haste and the flight from the city (the 'Persian' story used by John of Damascus in his Homilies on nativity). The purpose of the hagiographic story is to function as a double parallel. On the one hand, the holy one's relics are likened to the oldest icon taken in its symbolic, apotropaic meaning-as the shield of the fatherland and a sign of God's grace-and on the other, the story is a framework, a recognizable model of finding a parallel, used by the hagiographer to evade further clarification of the circumstances and details of the famed furtum sacrum. It is for this reason that Domentijan's emphasis on the motif of likening appears quite expectable: 'in the same way the children of this Holy One, overwhelmed by great fear and in great haste, fled secretly from the city of Tirnovo'. Teodosije's account is much more straightforward: quoting the words of the Bulgarian tsar, he overtly accuses the Serbian king of having stolen the holy one's relics and the Bulgarians notables of having been bribed, and his account seems to match the reality much more. Viewed in the context of analysis of the symbolic language of political messages, the accounts of the two hagiographers become a telling testimony to the multilayeredness of medieval texts and to the possibility of their various interpretations.

: Republikanski Rim u političkoj misli Mihaila Psela; (grčki) Στο Βυζάντιο το ενδιαφέρον τόσο για την ιστορία της δημοκρατικής Ρώμης και των αρχαίων ελληνικών δημοκρατικών πόλεων, όσο και για τα πολιτειακά τους συστήματα ήταν πάντα αμυδρό. Από μια πρώτη ματιά το ίδιο ισχύει και για την 'Ιστορία Σύντομο του Μιχαήλ Ψελλού. Στο παρόν άρθρο εξετάζεται αν η δημοκρατική Ρώμη επηρέασε την πολιτική σκέψη του Ψελλού. *Με το θέμα αυτό πρώτα ασχολήθηκα το 2003 στη μεταπτυχιακή διπλωματική εργασία "Ιστορία Σύντομος του Μιχαήλ Ψελλού", που εκπόνησα κατά τη διάρκεια των μεταπτυχιακών σπουδών μου στο Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών υπό την επίβλεψη του καθηγητή Α. Μαρκοπούλου. Θα ήθελα από την θέση αυτή να τον ευχαριστήσω για τη βοήθεια που μου προσέφερε τότε, όπως και για τις παρατηρήσεις που έκανε για το παρόν άρθρο. Εννοείται ότι τα λάθη που παρέμειναν είναι δικά μου.

: Retour sur le dossier du monastère de la Théotokos Éleousa à Stroumitza; The monastery of the Theotokos Eleousa at Stroumitza in Macedonia, founded by the bishop of this city at the end of the 11th century is an original one. Despite it was a little monastery, despite its scarce endowment, a part of the documents it issued or received reached us, even its cartulary carried out by the Athonite monks of Iviron, transcribed about 150 years ago, cannot be found any more. This article tries to reconstitute the history of these archives and points out where this monastery, which became a metochion of Iviron, is mentioned.

: Sacred and profane topography in a medieval Serbian parish - an outline; This article presents a basic research scope of the social importance of microtoponyms and topographical features of villages and their precincts, which in the Middle Ages were organized as parish communities. The social space of the rural environment is segmented by different entities important for the social and religious life of the local community, such as a parish church with its yard, a cemetery, other churches and chapels in the fields and groves, freestanding crosses, certain bodies of water or some marked trees, typically the oak. The issue of the methods of analysing medieval sources of different provenience and fragmented data is of major importance. In order to understand the sources properly, we have to be aware of the social segmentation of a medieval society, from which diverse interpretation and functions of the cultural artefacts and performances (rituals, festivities) originated. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177032: Tradition, innovation and identity in the Byzantine world]

: Saint Luke of Steiris in the exonarthex of the church of the Treskavac monastery and his cult and representation in the middle ages; The study investigates the portrayal of St. Luke of Steiris in the exonarthex of the church of the Treskavac Monastery (between 1334 and 1343), identified as St. Loukas the Stylite in earlier literature. Based on the extant representations, it is noticed that St. Luke of Steiris had a clearly defined appearance of face and clothing, but also that he was not often portrayed. A review of the development and expansion of his cult is provided by comparing artistic evidence and written sources. Finally, the paper asks from which of the major Byzantine centers of culture and art the practice of representing St. Luke of Steiris, with all the features common in his iconography, came to be accepted in the Serbian milieu, which seems to have occurred in the time of King Milutin (1282-1321). [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036]

: Saint Petka the hosia - Saint Petka the martyr; The cult of the holy recluse Paraskeve (Petka) of Epibatai (October 14th) was translated to medieval Serbia by the middle of the XIII century at the latest, as attested by the oldest Serbian transcription of her service (Archive of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts no. 361). However, there are two other martyrs of the same name - Paraskeve of Rome (July 26th) of Paraskeve of Ikonium (October 28th). The three holy women of the same name undeniably caused a confusion which has also been reflected in a number of Serbian manuscripts. This text deals with two Serbian copies of the service from manuscript no. 516 from the National Library of Sofia (end of XIII - beginning of XIV century; November 8th) and manuscript no. 34 from the collection of the monastery of Dečani (end of XIV - beginning of XV century). Both services, regardless of the dates to which they are assigned, are dedicated to Paraskeve the martyr. A careful comparison of the two services showed that there was a cross-over of services dedicated to two martyrs. Particularly interesting are the combined canons, in the odes of which part of the troparia are dedicated the holy woman from Ikonium and part to the martyr saint from Rome. Differentiation was achieved by adopting contents from the vitae of both martyrs in question. Textological differences are also apparent in the translations of parts of the service common to the services of both saints. Structural, textological and differences in content can be observed in a comparative analysis of both services. In part, this study relies also on the Serbian transcription of the service for July 26th dedicated to Paraskeve of Rome (Sofia, National Library no. 118). This service is also dedicated to the martyr Paraskeve. The material presented in this paper indicates all the complexity associated with the cults of three eponymous saints - the three holy Paraskeves (Petkas). .

: Saint Sisoes above the grave of Alexander the Great. A monastic theme of post-Byzantine art and its examples from the 17th century Serbian painting; The depiction of St. Sisoes above the grave of Alexander the Great was formulated at the end of the 15th century. The image in question is a visual interpretation of a short song («I see you, grave»), and it was often painted in the churches throughout the Balkans during the next two centuries. With references to the textual basis of this iconographic theme, as well as its meaning, the article is devoted to insufficiently studied Serbian examples of frescoes of St. Sisoes above Alexander’s tomb, preserved on the walls of several churches painted in the first half of the 17th century. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu]

: Sandaljeva udovica Jelena Hranić; (francuski) Mena grandit et fut élevée dans la maison de ses parents (1368-1386). La plus belle partie de sa jeunesse elle passa comme épouse de Djurdje II Stracimirović et dans un règne autonome sur Zêta au nom de son fils mineur Balsa (1403-1411). Son âge mûr elle consacra à son deuxième mari, duc Sandalj (1411-1435). Les dernières années de sa vie elle uecnt comme veuve (1435-1443) jusqu'à sa mort en âge de soixante-quinze ans. De toutes ces périodes notre attention fut uniquement fixée, en vue des matériaux édits et inédits d'archivé à Kotor, et à Raguse (Dubrovnik), à son veuvage pendant lequel elle avait montré, en dépits de son âge, une énergie impressionnante. C'est surtout son engagement en matières de finance qui est mérite de notre admiration. Elle prenait des intérêts de la somme que Sandalj avait déposé sous son nom et aussi elle-même, elle déposait de l'argent et des valeurs différentes à Dubrovnik et à Kotor. Si elle n'arrivait pas à faire tout elle-même, elle le faisait par ses employés (élèves, notaires), envoyés et confidents. Une partie de l'argent gagné en ces opérations bancaires elle utilisait aussi pour son progrès spirituel: elle fondait des églises, reconstruisait celles qui étaient vieilles et en mauvais état, s'occupait des moines et jouissait en lisant la littérature monastique et autre, elle gardait des reliques de saints et menait des longues et intéressantes conversations avec l'abbé Nikandar sur les questions en ce temps-là fréquemment disputées: sur les questions d'aumône, de monachisme, de la vie cénobite et de la vie anachorète. Comme les autres princesses serbes (mère Milica, Mena Serska, qui est devenue plus tard en religion Jefimija et la reine Mena Anzujska) elle aussi a eu la vie pleine de succès d'une femme très travaillante, très intelligente, qui avait en plus une très bonne éducation et qui était remplie de l'espoir de trouver le chemin qui l'emmènerait vers la «vie éternelle».

: Sava, Stefan Radoslav and Demetrios Chomatenos; The paper analyses once again, based on written sources, the relationship between the uncle - the first Serbian archbishop, and his nephew - the second Serbian king of the Nemanjić dynasty. It also explores their relations with the Ohrid Archbishopric, i.e. its then archpastor Demetrios Chomatenos. Chronologically, the paper spans two decades between the foiled attempt at marrying Nemanja’s heirs with the Angeloi of Epiros by the middle of the second decade of the 13th century and Radoslav’s withdrawal from the historical stage by the middle of the fourth decade of the same century. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu]

: Secular life's behaviours and debauchery among nuns; In the present study, the homily 'Oμιλία πρòς μοναζούσας• εỉς τò pητòν τον θείου Παύλου, τό, ενσχημόνως περιπατεĩτε by the patriarch of Constantinople Kallistos I, given by two mss. codices of Mt. Athos, the codex 8 of Hilandar monastery (ff. 324r-329r) and the codex 1074 of Panteleemon monastery (ff. 206v-210v), is edited for the first time. In the edited homily patriarch Kallistos addresses to the nuns of a particular monastery (probably in Constantinople). The content of the homily makes it clear that the patriarch had received specific accusations, according to which these nuns had given up the basic principles of monastic life and had been seized with passions totally opposite to the monastic oaths they had taken.

Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta

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