Military Saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900–1200 Monica White Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19564-5 - Military Saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900–1200 Monica White Frontmatter More information

Military Saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900–1200

The rulers of the Byzantine Empire and its commonwealth were protected both by their own soldiers and by a heavenly army: the military saints. The transformation of Saints George, Demetrios, Theodore and others into the patrons of imperial armies was one of the defining developments of religious life under the Macedonian emperors. This book provides a comprehensive study of military sainthood and its roots in late antiquity. The emergence of the cults is situated within a broader social context, in which mortal soldiers were equated with martyrs and martyrs of the early Church recruited to protect them on the battlefield. Dr White then traces the fate of these saints in early Rus, drawing on unpublished manu- scripts and other under-utilised sources to discuss their veneration within the princely clan and their influence on the first native saints of Rus, Boris and Gleb, who eventually joined the ranks of their ancient counterparts.

monica white is a lecturer in Slavonic Studies at the University of Nottingham, where she teaches Byzantine and Rus history, the history of the Orthodox Church and Orthodox sainthood.

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19564-5 - Military Saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900–1200 Monica White Frontmatter More information

Military Saints in Byz a ntium a nd Rus, 900–1200

Monica White University of Nottingham

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data White, Monica, 1976– Military saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900–1200 / Monica White. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-19564-5 1. Christian patron saints–Cult–Byzantine Empire. 2. Christian martyrs–Cult–Byzantine Empire. 3. Byzantine Empire–History, Military–1081–1453. 4. Byzantine Empire–Church history. 5. Byzantine Empire. Stratos. 6. War–Religious aspects–Christianity–History of doctrines–Middle Ages, 600–1500. I. Title. BX4659.B9W55 2013 274.7′03–dc23 2012033991

ISBN 978-0-521-19564-5 Hardback

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Contents

List of illustrations page viii Acknowledgements x A note on translations, transliterations and names xii List of abbreviations xiv General map of Rus in the late pre-Mongol period xvi

Introduction 1 1 The pre-history of the military saints 13 2 The formation of the martyr-warrior ideal 32 3 The collective cult of the military saints 64 4 The military saints in early Rus 94 5 Boris and Gleb and the martyr-warrior ideal in Rus 132 6 Military saints under the house of Suzdal 167 Conclusion 201

Appendix 1: Feast days of the principal military saints 206 Appendix 2: Reigns of Roman and Byzantine emperors mentioned in the text 207 Appendix 3: Simplified genealogy of the Riurikids 209 Appendix 4: Rus churches and monasteries dedicated to patronal figures 210 Appendix 5: Rus churches and monasteries dedicated to non-patronal figures 217 Bibliography 222 Index 241

vii

Illustrations

1 ivory triptych from the Palazzo Venezia, Rome (Alinari Archives, Florence) page 79 2 Steatite icon of the Hetoimasia (Hétimasie et saints militaires © RMN-GP (Musée du Louvre)/Daniel Arnaudet) 83 3 ivory icon of Demetrios (© 2012. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum ofA rt/Art Resource/Scala, Florence) 86 4 Frontispiece of the Psalter of Basil II (© 2012. Photo Scala, Florence) 92 5 Seal of Iaroslav Vladimirovich (© Valentin Yanin and Petr Gajdukov, photograph by Ken Walton) 112 6 Seal of Mstislav Iurevich (© Valentin Yanin and Petr Gajdukov) 116 7 Zmeevik featuring George and Theodore (Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo by Yuri Molodkovets) 126 8 Carved relief from Kiev featuring George and Theodore (© 2012. Andrea Jemolo/Scala, Florence) 129 9 Seal of Rostislav Mstislavich (© Valentin Yanin and Petr Gajdukov) 155 10 Byzantine enamel icon of Demetrios (© 2012. Photo Scala, Florence/BPK, Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin) 158 11 rus enamel pendants with unidentified martyrs (Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo by Yuri Molodkovets) 160 12 Metal icon from Riazan (© Riazan Historical-Architectural Museum-Reserve, photograph by Ken Walton) 164 13 Cathedral of St Demetrios, Vladimir: George (© M. S. Gladkaya) 188

viii

List of illustrations ix 14 Cathedral of St Demetrios, Vladimir: Theodore (© M. S. Gladkaya) 189 15 Cathedral of St Demetrios, Vladimir: Boris and Gleb on horseback (© M. S. Gladkaya) 189 16 Cathedral of St Demetrios, Vladimir: Boris and Gleb holding crosses (© M. S. Gladkaya) 191 17 Cathedral of St George, Iurev-Polskoi: frontal portraits (© G. K. Vagner, photograph by Ken Walton) 195 18 Cathedral of St George, Iurev-Polskoi: Mother of God and military saints (© G. K. Vagner, photograph by Ken Walton) 195 19 icon depicting Novgorod’s victory over Suzdal (detail) (© T. Tsarevskaya) 202

Acknowledgements

The dedication of this volume is an expression of my gratitude to the mentors and friends who have guided me in my study of Byzantium, Rus and Russia. Simon Franklin, who supervised the original version of this study as a doctoral dissertation, deserves special thanks for his encouragement, patience, advice and generosity with books ever since receiving an unsolicited telephone call from Tver about the possibility of com- ing to Cambridge to study with him. A number of other teachers have also inspired and helped me in countless ways: Phil Pomper, Susanne Fusso, Bob Whitman, Priscilla Meyer, Duffy White, Irene Aleshkovsky, William McCarthy, Jonathan Shepard, Philip Pattenden, Predrag Matejic and M. A. Johnson. Anything of value in this study is largely the result of their dedication as teachers and scholars, although any mistakes are of course entirely my own. The logistical difficulties associated with producing this book could not have been surmounted without help from numerous quarters. A schol- arship to enable me to attend the Medieval Slavic Summer Institute in 2001 furnished me with essential research skills, which were put to use during a trip to Russia funded by a Lightfoot Grant from the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge. The PhD was completed thanks to a Gunn Studentship from Peterhouse, University of Cambridge and work on the book continued during a Research Fellowship at Clare College, Cambridge, a Mellon Fellowship at Stanford University and a lectureship at the University of Nottingham. Further research trips were supported by the Dean’s Fund of the Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham. This fund, along with research funds from the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies and the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, helped offset the costs associated with the illustrations. Hospitality and general moral support during visits to libraries in Cambridge, London and Berkeley were kindly provided by Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe, Piers Baker-Bates and the White, Gordon and Hill families. Alexei Gippius x

Acknowledgements xi went to extraordinary lengths to secure copyright permissions for illustrations of Rus materials. Tim Hill, Linda Gordon, Polly McMichael, Emily Finer, Mary Cunningham, Doug Lee and Liudmyla Sharipova helped immensely by reading and correcting the draft, providing translations and books and assisting with technical matters. My editor, Michael Sharp, has been a great source of encouragement and support, while man- aging not to express dismay at continuing delays. Finally, the comments of two anonymous reviewers did much to improve the book’s arguments and structure. Earlier versions of parts of Chapters 5 and 6 appeared in the follow- ing publications, respectively: ‘Byzantine Visual Propaganda and the Inverted Heart Motif’, Byzantion, 76 (2006), pp. 330–63 and ‘A Byzantine Tradition Transformed: Military Saints under the House of Suzdal’, The Russian Review, 63/3 (2004), pp. 493–513.

A note on translations, transliterations and names

Assimilating the texts, names and conventions of two pre-modern languages into a work of English prose presents a number of difficulties. Although every effort has been made to ensure consistency, grey areas remain. Quotations from Greek and Slavonic sources have been translated by the author unless otherwise indicated, with references to both the original texts and any published translations given in the notes. Titles of secondary sources and individual words in Greek and Slavonic languages have been transliterated using the modified Library of Congress system. The only exception to this system is made for individual Slavonic words used in the body of the text, such as ‘Rus’, ‘Iaroslavl’, and so on, which are written without apostrophes denoting palatalisation. (Different systems used by other authors, however, have not been changed in quotations.) For pre-modern written works with generally accepted English, Latin or Greek titles, those have been used throughout (hence, Tactical Constitutions, The Primary Chronicle, De Obsidione Toleranda, Strategikon). Less widely known works are designated by the titles given by their first publishers (hence, Mémorandum inédit sur la défense des places, ‘Two Military Orations of Constantine VII’). Works published only in the original language or with more than one generally accepted title have been given in an English translation by the author (hence, Tale and Passion and Enkomion of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb, ‘Martyrdom of the Holy and Honourable Great Martyr George’). If a Greek or Slavonic personal name has an English equivalent, it has been used (hence, Andrew rather than Andrei Bogoliubskii, Constantine VII rather than Konstantinos VII, Clement of Ohrid rather than Kliment of Ohrid). An exception has been made for the name Iurii, which, des- pite being a form of George, sounds significantly different. For names with no English equivalent, the Greek or Slavonic forms, rather than a Latin form, have been used (hence, Komnenos rather than Comnene,

xii

A note on translations, transliterations and names xiii Demetrios rather than Demetrius). In the interest of consistency, saints are referred to by the Greek forms of their names even when discussing their Rus cults, although Rus people with the same names are referred to by the Slavonic forms. Finally, because of the frequency with which saints are mentioned, the title ‘St’ has been dropped, except when referring to church dedications.

Abbreviations

AASS Acta Sanctorum AB Analecta Bollandiana ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt BHG Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca BMGS Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift CFHB Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers DOS dumbarton Oaks Studies DOt dumbarton Oaks Texts EO Echos d’Orient HLEul harvard Library of Early Ukrainian Literature HUS Harvard Ukrainian Studies ian imperatorskaia akademiia nauk IaRK iazyki russkoi kul’tury JÖB Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik MB Menologium Basilianum MSON Menaea Septembris Octobris Novembris. Ad Fidem Vetustissimorum Codicum OC Oriens Christianus ODB The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium PG Patrologiae cursus completus, series graeca PSRL Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei PVL Povest’ vremennykh let REB Revue des études byzantines REG Revue des études grecques RGada rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv drevnikh aktov RNB rossiiskaia natsional’naia biblioteka

xiv

List of abbreviations xv ROBMSt rukopisnyi otdel biblioteki moskovskoi sinodal’noi tipografii SA Sovetskaia arkheologiia SAI Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov SEC Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae SH Subsidia Hagiographica SKK Slovar’ knizhnikov i knizhnosti drevnei Rusi, vol. I, X–pervaia polovina XIV v. TM Travaux et Mémoires TMM The Medieval Mediterranean: Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500 TODRL Trudy otdela drevnerusskoi literatury tth translated Texts for Historians VV Vizantiiskii vremennik

A tlantic 0 250 500 750 km Ocean Lapps 0 100 200 300 400 500 miles

White Sea Komi

Norway Sweden

Dv in a U

Finns a

Ladoga Beloozero M Ests

a o e S Novgorod u

i c Pskov a n m t a Iaroslavl l a t g a l K B o Rostov a Balts Ksniatin V Nizhnii Suzdal Iurev- Novgorod i Polskoi n Polotsk Dmitrov Vitebsk Vladimir s Moscow Murom Bolghar Minsk Smolensk ka O Riazan Volga Bulgars

V i Poland s RUS t u Pripyat

l Turov a a lg Liubech Vo Bohemia Chernigov Kursk Ca rp Peremyshl Kiev a Belgorod th Pereslavl Do Mordvins ia Galich D n n n ie M D pe o n r Do Magyars ie ne u s ts n t e t a r i Sarkel n Pechenegs s Itil Serbia Khazars Da Tmutarakan nube Bulgaria Samandar Black Sea C C a u a c a s Constantinople Georgia s u p s i a n

Byzantine Empire

Athens S e

Map 1 General map of Rus in the late pre-Mongol period