Преноси реликвија из Византије на Јадран у пероду између VI и XI века

Abstract

The article discusses the transfer of sacred relics from the Byzantine Empire in the cities on the Adriatic coast, in the period between the Justinian reconquest and the epilogue of Byzantine domination in the Adriatic during the eleventh century. Vast building activity of bishop Maximian of Ravenna includes as well the transfer of saints relics from the capital of the Empire to the most important byzantine port of the Adriatic. It is known from his hagiography that bishop of Siponto, Lorenzo, came in Apulia from Constantinople. Prelate brought with him relics of St. Stephen the First Martyr and St. Agatha, and constructed the church in their name in his new diocese. Thanks to the latest researches episcopate of the bishop Lorenzo is datable in the second quarter of the 6th century. At the beginning of the 9th century the new economic, social, political and religious circumstances had provoked, after more than two centuries of silence, the activation of the Byzantine in the Adriatic. This activation was followed by the translations of the relics of saints and by the introduction of the cults of saints originating from Byzantium. It was in that peculiar moment that the relics of St. Anastasia were brought in Zadar (806?), of St. Tryphon in Kotor (809) and the relics of St. Zachariah the prophet in Venice (819). These translations are of particular interest since they reflect different models of the acquisition of sacred relics. It was bishop Donatus who is meritorious for the translation of saint Anastasia relics from the byzantine capital to Zadar. Kotor acquired earthly remains of saint Tryphon by virtue of the nobleman Andreaci who bought the precious relics from Venetian merchants. Of the particular interest is arrival of the relics of St. Zacharias in Venice. In 819, Byzantine diplomatic delegation brought to the Venetian Doge gift sent to him by the iconoclast Emperor Leo V the Armenian. This donation contained relics of St. Zacharias, the particles of the Holy Cross, as well as fragments of the vestments of Christ and the Virgin Mary, that is, as far as is known today, one of the first recorded examples of relics included in the Byzantine diplomatic gift. Relics of St. Zenobius, martyr bishop of the city of Aegea in Cilicia and his sister, Zenobia were brought in Dubrovnik in the year 1012. In about same time Dubrovnik became the seat of eponymous Byzantine thema. In 1022 pope Benedict VII raised ecclesiastic seat of Dubrovnik at the rank of archbishopric. It was in such circumstances that the city chose for the patron St. Blaise, bishop and martyr from Sevastea. His head, according to the local tradition, was found in the 1026 in the Bay of Kotor, from where it has been transferred to Dubrovnik. Above studied cases of translation of saints relics are interpreted in the context of Byzantine relic policy.