Vadim B. Prozorov Moscow THE PASSION OF ST. DOMNIUS: THE TRADITION OF APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION IN DALMATIA

St. Domnius (Lat. Domnius, Domnio, Ital. Doimo, Croat Dujam, Duje) was, in fact still is, the holy protector of the metropolis of Salona-Spalato. Late antique Salona, the capital city of the Roman province of Dalmatia was a very important Christian centre in the Mediterranean region without any exaggeration comparable with Ravenna and Aquileia in Italy.1 Spalato (Croat Split) originated very close to ancient Salona and indeed was her successor in respect to ecclesiastical authority when Salona perished in the seventh century. The early history of the Church of Salona is mainly known due two me- dieval Histories — the History of Archbishops of Salona and Spalato written in the mid-thirteenth century by Archdeacon Thomas of Spalato and the anony- mous History of Archbishops of Salona whose earliest manuscript dates back to the early sixteenth century. The latter finishes its narrative in 1185 while the former continues to the middle of the thirteenth century. Both texts are almost identical except some vital interpolations added to the History of Arch- bishops of Salona. Both Histories, the common text as well as supplementary documents, glorified the Church of Spalato and enhanced its apostolic foundation and old metropolitan status. Who else but a bishop-saint, a bishop-martyr could be a more positive proof of the apostolicity of this Church! And indeed the Histories appeal to this figure of a saintly and apostolic founder — St. Dom-

1 See an overview of early Christian antiquities in Salona in E. DYGGVE, History of Salonitan Christianity (Oslo, 1951) (Instituttet for sammenlignende Kulturforskning. Serie A: Forelesninger 21). Besides, there are following useful reports: Forschungen in Salona, veröffentlicht vom Österreichischen Archäologischen Institute. 3 vols. (Vien- na, 1917–1939); Recherches à Salone, publié aux frais de la Fondation Rask-Ørsted. 2 vols. (Copenhague, 1928–33); E. CECI, I Monumenti cristiani di Salona (Milan, 1963); Excavations at Salona, Yugoslavia, 1969–1972 / Conducted for the Depart- ment of Classics, Douglass College, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, by Ch. W. CLAIRMONT, with the collaboration of S. HANDLER AUTH, V. VON GONZENBACH (Park Ridge, N. J., c1975); Salona Christiana (Arheološki muzej — Split, 25.9– 31.10.1994) / Ed. E. MARIN (Split, 1994); Salona: recherches archéologiques franco- croates à Salone / Conduites par le Centre A. Merlin (C.N.R.S., Paris — Sorbonne) et le Musée archéologique de Split, dirigées par N. Duval et E. Marin. 3 vols. (Rome— Split, 1994–2000).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access 220 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum nius. Thomas of Spalato reported only basic facts about Salona’s patron saint.2 His more elaborate Passion was inserted among the supplementary docu- ments in the History of Archbishops of Salona (see appendix).3 According to the Passion, Domnius, a native Syrian from Antioch, was sent to Salona by St. Peter the Apostle immediately after St. Titus had been there. The latter’s mission is mentioned in St. Paul’s Second Letter to Ti- mothy (4.11). At the same time as Domnius Pancratius was dispatched to Sicily, Apollinaris went to Ravenna and Marcus — to Aquileia. Domnius successfully preached in Dalmatia and erected here the first church which he dedicated to genetrix Dei (Mother of God). Disturbed by his progress pagan priests accused Domnius before prefectus urbis Maurilius, lamenting that he was seducing people to overthrow cults of pagan gods. The prefect had him imprisoned and tortured. As all his strict measures failed to make Domnius reject the Christian faith Maurilius tried to bribe him, but the saint was ada- mant and determined to be a martyr. Meanwhile Salonitan Christians support- ing the holy prisoner raised a revolt and many of them were executed by the order of the prefect. At this point the Passion turns to St. Domnius’s miracu- lous power and reports that the prefect along with some prominent citizens of Salona had to approach Domnius asking him to raise from the dead a son of a certain noble widow. Condemning Maurilius’s hypocrisy Domnius worked this miracle. Consequently the number of converts into Christianity increas- ed further. Annoyed pagan priests bribed Maurilius and even threatened him to be punished according to the Roman legislation. Finally, as the Passion goes, Maurilius promulgated the law that sentenced Domnius to death, and the saintly bishop was beheaded. The story of St. Domnius is very simple and recognizable but the back- ground of the Passion is very dim. It caused many questions. First, when did the martyrdom actually take place? Second, when was the Passion compil- ed? And third, when was the cult of St. Domnius tied with St. Peter, i. e. to what time the tradition of apostolic foundation can be ascribed? If the first question can be easily answered, the second and the third ones are more comp- licated since we do not have any positive indication of when the Passion was compiled and when the apostolic legend emerged, and can only suggest some moments in history when the compilation and further development of the legend were most possible. The ancient tradition attributed St. Domnius’s mission to the second half of the first century, and his martyrdom to the time of Emperor Trajan (to be

2 THOMAS ARCHIDIACONUS, Historia Salonitana / Ed. F. RAÈKI (Zagreb, 1894) (Mo- numenta spectantia historiam slavorum meridionalium 26) 8–9. 3 Historia Salonitana maior / Ed. N. KLAIÆ (Belgrade, 1967) 73–75. In fact, seve- ral later versions of the Passion are extant. In general they demonstrate a close simi- larity. D. FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum (Venice, 1751) Vol. 1. 412–427.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access V. B. Prozorov 221 more precise his death was fixed in 107).4 But if all the information available to us is deployed it is obvious that Domnius was martyred sometime under Emperor Diocletian. The grounds for this certainly were found in the text of his Passion. While some names here perhaps have symbolic meanings5 the others can be ascrib- ed to real persons. The strongest argument in favour of the martyrdom of the holy protector of Salona in the fourth century is the fact that so-called Prefect Maurilius of Rome who ordered to execute the saint was found in the list of the governors (presides) of Salona under Emperor Diocletian (between 299– 304). His real name was Ì. Aurelius Iulius and thus he can be easily identi- fied as Domnius’s prosecutor Maurilius.6

4 FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum... Vol. 1. 432. 5 Domnius’s mother’s name is Migdonia which is probably connected with Ma- cedonia, since she is said to be Greek by birth and Mygdonia was a region to the north of modern Thessaloniki (J. ZEILLER, Les origines chrétiénnes dans les provinces romaine de Dalmatie (Paris, 1906) (Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études. Scien- ces historiques et philologiques 155) 28) or with a region around Antioch (Nisibis) which was named after Greek Mygdonia under Alexander the Great (Der Neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike (Stuttgart—Weimar, 2000) Vol. 8. Col. 569). Domnius is said to have been born in Syria and some names of immigrants from Nisibis were discovered on the funeral tombs in Salona (A. CARAMANEO-MATIASSEVICH, Riflessioni sopra l’istoria di S. Dojmo primo vescovo di Salona e martire // Supplemento al Bullettino di arheologia e storia dalmata (hereafter BASD) 23/12 (1900) 5; DYGGVE, History of Salonitan Christianity… 25–30, 81–82, 100, 134; G. ALFÖLDI, Bevölke- rung und Gesellschaft der römischen Provinz Dalmatien. Mit einem Beitrag von Andras Moscy (Budapest, 1965) 83, 113; J. NIKOLAJEVIÆ, O poreklu orijentalnih uticaja u ranokršæanskoj umetnosti u Dalmaciji [On Roots of Oriental Influences on Early Christian Art in Dalmatia] // Çáîðíèê ðàäîâà ôèëîñîôñêîã ôàêóëòåòà 12 (1974) 125–126). The name of a pagan philosopher Pyrgus who had disputes with Domnius can be derived from the Greek word ¿ ðýñãïò (a tower, a dice-box). The name of a late Roman patrician Diginanus (Dignatius in a later version) whose child was raised from the dead by Domnius could come from the Latin word dignitas and indicate his noble status, although the family of Dignatii was known in Rome. His widow’s name Febronia can be associated with the Latin word febris (fever) and symbolize the ill- ness and death of her child (I. BABIÆ, Splitske uspomene na salonitanske kršcanske starine [Spalato’s Memories of Christian Salonitan Antiquities] // Vjesnik za arheo- logiju i historiju dalmatinsku (hereafter VAHD) 85 (1992) 50). The name of Theodo- sius, Domnius’s father, can also have a symbolic significance, at the same time it is a real name although almost unknown in the first century. 6 F. BULIÆ, M. Aurelius Julus. Praeses provinciae Dalmatiae // BASD 38 (1914) 118–119. The confusing reading Julus suggested by Bulic was corrected into Julius (see Cambi’s conclusion in F. BULIÆ, Izabrani spisi [Collected Papers] / Ed. N. CAMBI (Split, 1984) 633). A. JAGENTEUFEL, Die Statthalter der römischen Provinz Dalmatia von Augustus bis Diokletian (Vienna, 1958) (Österreichische Akademie der Wissen- schaften. Schriften der Balkankommission. Antiquarische Abteilung 12) 105, 107,

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Further in the Prologi Paschae ad Vitalem Anni CCCXCV, whose earliest manuscript (Ms. Köln) dates from 798–805, St. Domnius was mentioned as a martyr of the late third century. It says: «In the seventh year of the consul- ship of Diocletian and in the sixth year of the consulship of Maximian (that is 299. — V. P .) Christians suffered the sixth persecution. During this persecu- tion Peter and Marcellinus were martyred in Rome, Domnius and Felix were martyred in Salona».7 Nineteenth century Dalmatian archeologist and histo- rian Frane Buliæ grounding his conclusions on the results of large-scale ar- cheological excavations on the site of ancient Salona thought that St. Dom- nius’s pontificate fell on 284–304 and Domnius was martyred on 10 April 304 in the Salonitan amphitheatre together with four Diocletian’s bodyguards.8 Thus the antichristian laws of the emperors mentioned in the Passion might be in fact the edicts promulgated by Diocletian and Maximian between 25 Fe- bruary 303 and December 304. Most of the scholars preferred to split the basic sujet of the legend and the formal Passion which stated the apostolic tradition. Their dating vacillates from the fourth to as late as the eleventh century. The composition of the Passion perfectly fits in the pattern of the passions called by Hyppolite De- lehaye les passions artificielles, épiques.9 This term designates the passions which were composed considerably later than the events described there took place. Delehaye, having in mind the sujet of the Salonitan legend, considered that its simplicity revealed early emergence, perhaps, in the very time of Dio- cletian’s persecutions.10 Jacques Zeiller dated the preserved Passion at not

113. A. H. M. JONES, J. R. MARTINDALE, J. MORRIS, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (Cambridge—London, 1971) Vol. 1 (AD 260–395) 482; J. J. WILKES, Dalmatia (London, 1969) (History of the Provinces of the Roman Empire 2) 422. His name was discovered on two inscriptions: 1) in Salona (H. DELEHAYE, Santi dell’Istria e della Dalmazia // BASD 23 (1900) 100) — «Fortunae Conservatrici pro salute Mar- ci Aureli Iuli v(iri) c(larissimi) auguris praesidi (sic) provinciae Dassius notarius vo- tum solvit», 2) in Moesia. Besides, there were preases M. Avr. Tiberianus, mentioned on the inscription of Narona c. 280 (JONES, MARTINDALE, MORRIS, The Prosopography… Vol. 1. 912) and Avr. Marcianus c. 277 (Ibid. 557). 7 Prologi Paschae ad Vitalem Anni CCCXCV // MGH. Auctorum antiquissimo- rum. T. IX: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. / Ed. T. MOMMSEN (Berlin, 1892) Vol. 1. 736–738: «Diocletiano septies et Maximiano sexies consulibus Christiani persecutionem sextam passi sunt. in ea persecutione passi sunt Petrus et Marcellinus Romae et Domnius et Felix martyres passi sunt Salona». 8 F. BULIÆ, Po ruševinama stare Salone [Through the Ruins of Old Salona] // Prilog VAHD 79 (1986) 134. 9 H. DELEHAYE, Les passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires (Bruxelles, 1921) 236–316. 10 DELEHAYE, Santi dell’Istria e della Dalmazia… 97 (H. DELEHAYE, Saints d’Istrie et de Dalmatie // AB 18 (1899) 369–411).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access V. B. Prozorov 223 earlier than the tenth — eleventh centuries,11 though he conceded that the legend might date back to the eighth century.12 Most recently Victor Saxer has supposed that the cult of St. Domnius emerged immediately after his martyrdom and during the second half of the fourth century his name was already inserted into the Syrian martyrology.13 But he attributes the motiva- tion of the legend and its author’s attempts to show Domnius as a disciple of St. Peter to the tenth century, when the canon 1 was interpolated in the acts of the council of Spalato in 925. This canon definitely connected the metropoli- tan rights of the bishop of Salona (in that time his residence was long esta- blished in Spalato) with the foundation of the Church in Dalmatia by St. Domnius. Nothing contradicts Delehaye’s opinion which was grounded on his pro- found knowledge of the whole corpus of late antique and early medieval passions.14 The usage of ancient topographical terms and imperial terminolo- gy (Salonae,15 praefectus urbis, mons Masaron,16 leges augustorum, the river Salona designating the medieval and present-day Jader17 etc.), which were out of date by at least the tenth century, supports his conclusion about the early dating of the composition of St. Domnius’s Passion. However, this con- clusion does not clarify the question when the Salonitan apostolic legend emerged. What can be done for the more precise timing of it? I think, looking at similar traditions which flourished in the major Christian centres in the Adriatic that is in Aquileia and Ravenna can shed some light on the mystery. In the end of Late Antiquity and in the beginning of the early Middle Ages some major ecclesiastical centres in Gaul and Italy acquired their own patron saints. They were considered to be disciples of St. Peter the Apostle (other apostles like St. Mark are also mentioned) and founders of their ecclesiasti- cal communities. The main pattern was provided by the letter of Pope Inno- cent I to Bishop Decentius of Gubbio in 416. It says «everywhere in Italy, Gauls, Spains, Africa and Sicily, and on the adjacent islands there is no Church

11 ZEILLER, Les origines chrétiénnes dans les provinces romaine de Dalmatie… 26. 12 J. ZEILLER, Une légende hagiographique de Dalmatie: S. Doimus de Salone // Revue d’histoire et de littérature religieuses 11 (1906) 193–218. 13 V. S AXER, Les saints de Salone. Examen critique de leur dossier // U službi èovjeka. Zbornik nadbiskupa-metropolite Dr. Frane Franiæa / Ed. D. ŠIMUNDŽA (Split, 1987) 298. 14 DELEHAYE, Les passions des martyrs… 15 A plural form of Óáëùíá.— DYGGVE, History of Salonitan Christianity… 5– 6, fig. I, 4–5; WILKES, Dalmatia… 223. 16 FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 1. 415; BULIÆ, Po ruševinama stare Salone… 11. 17 Farlati (Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 1. 415) refers to Chapter 15 from Miho Ma- dij’s History which says that the river Jader near Spalato was called Salonae (flumen Salonae) in the ancient chronicles and poems. BULIÆ, Po ruševinama stare Salone… 11: Croat Solin, Greek Salanchon, Salon, Lat. Jader.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access 224 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum which had not been founded by either Blessed Peter the Apostle or his sacer- dotal successors».18 Later the letter was included by Dionysius the Little in his Collection of the Decretals of Roman Pontiffs and thus was widely known.19 The Church of Arles promptly responded to this message and after 400, perhaps, under Pope Zosimus (417–418), established its metropolitan juris- diction over Southern Gaul referring to the legend of the pupil of St. Peter St. Trophimus who allegedly was the first bishop of Arles.20 Between the mid-fifth and mid-seventh century in Ravenna there appear- ed the legend of the foundation of the Church by St. Apollinaris, another disciple of St. Peter (this compatriot of St. Domnius was named in his Pas- sion). He was first mentioned in the sermon of St. Peter Chrysologus (d. c. 450).21 A hundred years later the Emperor bestowed the title of archbishop on Bishop Maximian of Ravenna (546–556) who fulfilled the project of the ele- vation of the Basilica in honour of St. Apollinaris started by his predecessors. This title was a sign of appreciation of the support which Maximian provided for the Byzantine authority in Italy during the schism of the «Three chap- ters». The popes tacitly recognized this title while they maintained their right to consecrate Ravennese bishops in Rome. But in the seventh century Pope Vitalianus (657–672) formerly acknowledged the archiepiscopal title of the bishops of Ravenna. At the same time Archbishop Maurus (644–673) secur- ed a diploma issued of 1 March 666 by Emperor Constans II Pogonatus who conceded the autocephaly to the Church of Ravenna during the new conflict of Rome and Constantinople over Monotheletism. The imperial privilege was

18 PL 20. Cols. 551–552; R. CABIÉ, La lettre du pape Innocent Ier à Décentius de Gubbio (19 mars 416) / Texte critique, trad. et comm. (Louvain, 1973) (Bibliothèque de la Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 58) 18–20: «2. Quis enim nesciat aut non adver- tat, id quod a principe Apostolorum Petro Romanae Ecclesiae traditum est, ac nunc usque custoditur, ab omnibus debere servari; nec superduci aut introduci aliquid, quod auctoritatem non habeat, aut aliunde accipere videatur exemplum? praesertim cum sit manifestum, in omnem Italiam, Gallias, Hispanias, Africam atque Siciliam, et insulas interjacentes, nullum instituisse ecclesias, nisi eos quos venerabilis apostolus Petrus aut ejus successores constituerint sacerdotes. Aut legant, si in his provinciis alius Apostolorum invenitur, aut legitur docuisse. Qui si non legunt, quia nusquam inveniunt, oportet eos hoc sequi, quod Ecclesia Romana custodit, a qua eos princi- pium accepisse non dubium est, ne dum peregrinis assertionibus student, caput insti- tutionum videantur omittere». 19 PL 67. Cols. 237–238. 20 L. LEVILLAIN, Saint Trophime confesseur et métropolitain d’Arles et la Mission des sept en Gaule // Revue d’histoire de l’Église de France 13 (1927) 145–189, esp. 180–189. V. Saxer refers to some parallels between the traditions in Arles and Salo- na: SAXER, Les saints de Salone… 307. 21 Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo 128 // PL 52. Cols. 552–555 (in CCSL 24B / Ed. A. OLIVAR. 790–791). R. BUDRIESI, Le origini del cristianesimo a Ravenna (Ravenna, 1970) 11–17.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access V. B. Prozorov 225 grounded on the forged charter of Emperor Valentinianus III (425–455) grant- ing the metropolitan rights to famous Bishop John of Ravenna (452–494) and on St. Apollinaris’s apostolic legend (BHL 623) which probably was composed shortly before Emperor Constans’s document was issued.22 The legend was later used by Agnellus (805–c. 846) in his Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna. All these facts testify that the Ravennate apostolic tradi- tion was already regarded as a foundation of the special status of the Church of Ravenna by the seventh century. Further some scholars have linked the emergence of the Passion of St. Apollinaris as an apostolic disciple to the events of the fifth and sixth centuries, i. e. to the jurisdictional conflict be- tween the Churches of Ravenna and Milan.23 Unfortunately, this period of Ravenna’s history is meagerly documented and practically as in the case with Salona we do not have much local evidence to definitely tie the use of the apostolic succession in the Life of St. Apollinaris with specific century. In Aquileia, another Adriatic city, an ecclesiastical metropolitanate alrea- dy in the fourth century, St. Hermagoras, the disciple of St. Mark the Evange- list, was venerated as the first bishop. According to his Passion the earliest versions of which were preserved in the codices of the eleventh — twelfth centuries,24 St. Peter the Apostle took active part in the Christianization of Venice and Istria: he sent St. Mark to Aquileia and consecrated Hermagoras as its first bishop. Austrian scholar Rudolf Egger has demonstrated that the holy protector of Aquileia was in fact a mythical person who, due to scribe’s mistakes, might acquire the name of St. Hermogenes of Singidunum (pre- sent-day Belgrade) distorted in one of the manuscripts of the Martyrology of

22 Acta sanctorum. Julii 5. 344–350. The earliest manuscript of the Passio Sancti Apollenaris (Codice fuldense) dates back to the ninth century (G. MONTANARI, Culto e liturgia dal iv al ix secolo // Storia di Ravenna. Vol. 1.2: Dall’età bizantina all’età ottoniana. Ecclesiologia, cultura e arte / Ed. A. Carile (Venezia, 1992) 276, note 1. H. DELEHAYE, L’hagiographie ancienne de Ravenne // AB 47 (1929) 1–30; A. SIMONI- NI, Autocefalia ed esarcato in Italia (Ravenna, [1969]) 75–96. See the principal bi- bliography: J.-Ch. PICARD, Les souvenir des évêques. Sépultures, listes épiscopales et culte des évêques en Italie du Nord des origines au Xe siécle (Rome, 1988) 658–659, n. 266–267. 23 G. LUCCHESI, Note agiografiche sui primi vescovi di Ravenna (Faenza, 1941); O. VON SIMSON, Sacred Fortress: Byzantine Art and Statecraft in Ravenna (Chicago, 1948) 52; M. MAZZOTTI, Per una nuova datazione della Passio S. Apollinaris // Studi romagnoli 3 (1952) 123–129. 24 The earliest manuscript of the Passio sanctorum Hermagorae episcopi et For- tunati diaconi which dates from the eleventh — twelfth centuries was published by R. Egger in Carinthia 1 (1947) 40–55 (BHL 3841). See the list of the earliest manu- scripts and its editions in T. E. A. DALE, Relics, Prayer, and Politics in Medieval Ve- netia. Romanesque Painting in the Crypt of Aquileia Cathedral (Princeton, NJ, 1997) 124, n. 1 to chapter 1.

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Jerome (the fifth century) as Hermagoras.25 The relics of St. Hermogenes the Lector were brought to Aquileia from Singidunum in the early fifth century.26 Egger ascribed the appearance of the Passion of St. Hermagoras to the pe- riod immediately after the destruction of Aquileia by Attila in 452, when the previous tradition could be transformed, and the legend of the holy protector of Aquileia St. Hermagoras, the disciple of St. Mark, could emerge.27 Something more important for us here is that towards the middle of the sixth century the mythical disciple of St. Mark could acquire much more significance. From the mid-sixth century Aquileia was one of the centres of the schism of the «Three chapters» ended in 699, and Aquileian bishops ap- propriated the title of patriarch (since 557). After the Lombard invasion the bishop of Aquileia had to flee and moved his residence to Grado under the Byzantine control. In the first decade of the seventh century the division of the Aquileian clergy over the «Three chapters» led to the establishment of two metropolitan sees — in Byzantine Grado and Lombard Aquileia. In the late eighth century with Charlemagne’s support Aquileia started the cam- paign in order to maintain its patriarchal title and metropolitan prerogatives in Venice and Istria. For the first time Aquileia’s apostolic tradition was expli- citly stated by Paul the Deacon in the eighties of the eighth century.28 As Jacques Zeiller, Richard Adelbert Lipsius and Pio Paschini showed, the Pas- sion of St. Hermagoras composed in the eighth century was a weighty argu- ment for the resolution of the conflict between Aquileia and Grado over metro- politan rights in the province at the synod of Mantua in 827 (?), when Aqui- leia was acknowledged as the first Church in Italy after Rome.29

25 BHL 3838–3844, pp. 572–573. 26 R. EGGER, Der heilige Hermagoras, eine kritische Untersuchung // Carinthia 1 (1948) 208–225. Most Italian scholars have not accepted Egger’s hypothesis: S. TRA- MONTIN, Origini e sviluppi della leggenda marciana // Le origini della Chiesa di Vene- zia / Ed. E Tonon (Venice, 1987) 167–186; G. CUSCITO, Martiri cristiani ad Aquileia e in Istria. Documenti archeologici e questioni agiografiche (Udine, 1992) 17–26. 27 EGGER, Der heilige Hermagoras… 228, 238. Pio Paschini and Silvio Tramontin ascribed the Passion of St. Hermagoras to the eighth century while they dated the Marcian tradition to the sixth century: TRAMONTIN, Origini e sviluppi della leggenda marciana… 167–186; P. PASCHINI, Le fasi di una leggenda aquileiese // Rivista di storia della chiesa in Italia 8 (1954) 161–168. 28 Paul the Deacon, Liber de episcopis Mettensibus // MGH. Scriptores. Vol. 2 / Ed. G. H. PERTZ (Hannover, 1829) 261. 29 MANSI, Conciliorum 14. Cols. 493–499; MGH. Concilia / Ed. A. WERMINGHOFF. Vol. 2: Concilia aevi Karolini (Hannover, 1908) Pars 2. 589f. J. ZEILLER, Les origines chrétiennes dans les provinces Romaines danubiennes (Paris, 1918) (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 112) 34–35; R. A. LIPSIUS, Die apo- kryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden. Ein Beitrag zur altchristlichen Li- teraturgeschichte und zu einer zusammenfassenden Darstellung der neutestamentli- chen Apokryphen (Amsterdam, 1976) Vol. 2/2. 346–347; P. PASCHINI, Sulle origini

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For a long time the Roman popes who had actually suggested this pattern to their fellow bishops did not recognize the tradition of apostolic foundation of other Churches. This is evidenced by the letters of Popes Zosimus and Leo I (5 May 450) to the bishops of Southern Gaul concerning apostolic foun- dation of the Church of Arles, and by the letter (558–560) of Pope Pelagius I to Exarch John of Ravenna concerning the claim of the bishop of Aquileia to the title of patriarch.30 However the legends of holy martyrs continued to circu- late and turned into local traditions or even gained wider European approval. For example, St. Bede popularized the legend of St. Apollinaris of Ravenna and finally the Roman Church firstly referred to it under Pope Gregory VII.31 In the eighth — eleventh centuries even minor Churches in Italy acquired their patron saints, who were considered to be disciples of the apostles, mainly of St. Peter and St. Paul.32 Since the eighth century the prominent Italian sees tried to switch to the strategy of the highlighting of their associations with the apostles (or cults) different from St. Peter (or St. Peter’s): in Aquileia with St. Mark, though St. Peter’s disciple, in Ravenna with St. Andrew, St. Peter’s brother, in Milan with St. Barnabas, the co-worker of St. Paul).33 Regardless of the local background the emergence of the apostolic le- gends can be very often explained either by the ambition of a particular Church to establish metropolitan rights in its province or by the maintenance of some special privileges and relations with Rome. In Arles and Aquileia as well as in Ravenna the apostolic traditions being a part of the Churches’ opposition to Rome later turned to be crucial arguments against the ambitious claims of the Church of Milan.34 The Passion of St. Domnius is very similar to its Italian counterparts.35 The sujet and some topoi of the Passion of St. Hermagoras of Aquileia are

della chiesa d’Aquileia // Rivista di scienze storiche 1 (1904) 24–26; P. PASCHINI, La Chiesa aquileiese ed il periodo delle origini (Udine, 1909) 36; P. PASCHINI, Storia del Friuli (Udine, 19532) Vol. 1: Dalle origini alla metà del duecento. 35–37. First Pa- schini thought that the council influenced the hagiographer but later he adopted the opposite stance. L.-S. LE NAIN DE TILLEMONT, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire eccle- siastique des six premiers siècles (Venice, 1732) Vol. 2. N. 6. 497–498, 507–508; Acta sanctorum. Julii 3. 250–252, c. 9. 30 EGGER, Der heilige Hermagoras… 225–232. 31 F. LANZONI, Le diocesi d’Italia dalle origini al principio del secolo VII (an. 604) studio critico (Faenza, 1927) (ST 35) 737–748. 32 Ibid. 78–79. For later similar examples in other parts of Europe (Metz, Trier, Reims, Paris) see: E. EWIG, Spätantikes und fränkisches Gallien (München—Zürich, 1979) Vol. 2. 64–74; FLODOARDUS, CANONICUS REMENSIS, Historia Remensis ecclesiae // PL 135. Col. 32. 33 PICARD, Les souvenir des évêques… 698–699. 34 Acta sanctorum. Septembris 7. 10–22. 35 SAXER, Les saints de Salone… 308.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access 228 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum especially close to the Passion of the first Salonitan pontiff. It is important to note that the three sees actually had special relations. In particular, there is some evidence that the Aquileian and Ravennese cults indeed existed in Chri- stian Salona. According to his Passion exiled St. Apollinaris worked many miracles in Salona.36 Aquileian saints Hermogenes, Fortunatus and Anasta- sius was also venerated here.37 Since the cult of the first bishops was closely tied with the struggle for metropolitan rights, can we indicate any moment or period in the history of the Church of Salona when, as in Aquileia and Ravenna, the emergence of its own apostolic legend would be most beneficial to the promotion of its prima- tial ambitions in Dalmatia? At this point I should turn for a while to the que- stion of when the Church of Salona acquired the metropolitan status. The old Salonitan tradition attributes the authorship of the Passion of St. Domnius to Bishop Hesychius of Salona (the early fifth century). Some fea- tures of St. Domnius’s legend can be really ascribed to the time not earlier than the fourth or fifth centuries, e. g. Trinitarian arguments deployed by Domnius in the dispute with a philosopher Pyrgus and the dedication of the church to Mary, Mother of God. Dedication of churches to Mary was quite unprecedented for the fourth century (to say nothing of the first). Even in the beginning of the fifth century Bishop Hesychius dedicated a new basilica to Christ and only later the double dedication to Christ and Blessed Mary was introduced.38 Bishop Hesychius was the most noted leader of the Church of Salona after Domnius.39 He was in touch with his prominent contempora- ries — John Chrysostom40 and Augustine who in response to Hesychius com- posed a treatise on the last days.41

36 Codex pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis // Rerum Italicarum scriptores / Ed. L. MURATORI (Bologna, 1924) Vol. 2. Part 3/1. 25. 37 In the Breviary of the Church of Spalato (1291) there is a feast of St. Fortunatus and St. Domnio on April 11 (DELEHAYE, Santi dell’Istria… 90): «In Salona sancti Domnionis episcopi et Fortunati et aliorum CCXL martirum», Martyrology of Jero- me. April 18 is a feast day of St. Hermogenes: «Salona ciuit. Septimi diaconi. Uictu- rici. et alibi Hermogenis». Hippolyte Delehay thought that this should be St. Hermo- genes martyred on December 10 in Egypt (DELEHAYE, Santi dell’Istria… 89, 104). 38 DYGGVE, History of Salonitan Christianity… 36; N. CAMBI, The cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Salona and Split from the fourth till the eleventh century in the light of archeological evidence // De Cultu Mariano Saeculis VI–XI. Acta Con- gressus Mariologici-Mariani Internationalis in Croatia Anno 1971 Celebrati (Rome, 1972) Vol. 5. 43–71 (repr.: Bogoslovska smotra 44/2–3 (1974) 273–292); J. PELIKAN, Mary Through the Centuries. Her Place in the History of Culture (New Haven— London, 1996) 55–65. 39 FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 1. 417. 40 PG 52. Col. 715. 41 PL 32. Cols. 899–925. J.-P. BOUHOT, Hesychius de Salone et Augustin // Saint Augustin et la Bible / Ed. A.-M. La Bonnardière (Paris, 1986) 229–250.

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The letter of Pope Zosimus (21 February 418) to Bishop Hesychius has special significance.42 Bishop Hesychius asked papal admonitions concern- ing the procedure of the ordination of monks and lay people. In his reply the Pope instructed Hesychius to inform bishops of Dalmatian and neighbouring provinces of the papal views.43 Zosimus’s choice of the bishop of Salona as a papal messenger has often been interpreted in the historiography as an indi- cation that Hesychius acted as a metropolitan bishop of Dalmatia.44 Personal- ly I doubt if the text of the letter gives us sufficient evidence for such a defi- nite conclusion. But I am quite convinced that already in the sixth century the Church of Salona indeed had a metropolitan status. For the beginning of the sixth century we have the acts of the councils held in Salona in 530 and 533 which were preserved in the sixteenth century manuscript of the History of Archbishops of Salona. My research on the pro- blem of their reliability demonstrated that their agendas correspond in many points to the agendas of the contemporary councils in Europe (mainly in Italy and Gaul) and there is no reason to doubt their reliability.45 At these councils Bishop Honorius of Salona is shown as a real acting metropolitan of Dalma- tia.46 He is called a papa and archbishop. The latter designation is an obvious anachronism, that is, an interpolation of the later period when metropolitan bishops were necessarily granted by archiepiscopal title. But the metropoli- tan status of the Bishop of Salona in the early sixth century is also testified by other sources.

42 PL 20. Cols. 669–673. 43 Excerpts from the papal letter were included into the Decretum Gratiani (Ñor- pus Iuris Canonici / Ed. I. H. BOEHMER (Halae Magdeburgicae, 1747) Vol. 1. Cols. 182–183), distinctio 59: «...nos ne quid meritis dilectionis tuae derogaremus, ad te potissimum scripta direximus, quae in omnium fratrum, et coepiscoporum nostrorum facies ire notitiam, non tantum eorum, qui in ea provincia sunt, sed etiam qui vicinis dilectionis tuae provinciis adjunguntur». 44 FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 1, 301; A. S. DABINOVIÆ, Kada je Dalmacija pala pod jurisdikciju carigradske patriaršije? [When was Dalmatia subjected to the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople?] // Rad JAZU 239 (1930) 179. Dyggve and Wilkes named Hesychius the metropolitan bishop of Dalmatia (DYGGVE, History of Salonitan Christianity…; WILKES, Dalmatia… 430). 45 Â. Á. ÏÐÎÇÎÐÎÂ, Ïîçäíåàíòè÷íàÿ è ðàííåñðåäíåâåêîâàÿ èñòîðèÿ Ñàëîíñêîé öåðêâè â îòðàæåíèè àíîíèìíîé «Ñàëîíñêîé èñòîðèè» [Late Antique and Early Medieval History of the Church of Salona through the Anonymous Salonitan Hi- story] (Candidate dissertation, Moscow State University, 1997); Â. Á. ÏÐÎÇÎÐÎÂ, Ñîáîð 530 ãîäà â Ñàëîíå è ïðîáëåìà äîñòîâåðíîñòè äîêóìåíòîâ, âêëþ÷åííûõ â Áîëü- øóþ Ñàëîíñêóþ èñòîðèþ [The Council of Salona in 530 and the Problem of the Reliability of the Documents Included into the Greater History of Salona] // Âåñòíèê Ðîññèéñêîãî ãóìàíèòàðíîãî íàó÷íîãî ôîíäà 3 (2000) 48–61 (http://www.krotov. org/acts/06/530salo.html). 46 Historia Salonitana maior… 77–85.

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The mid-sixth century Church of Salona imitated Aquileian example in its relations with Rome. After the Ostrogothic domination and Arian infesta- tion in Dalmatia the schism of the «Three chapters» separated the Salonitan metropolis from the Roman Church under Bishops Frontinianus, Peter and Probinus (the latter later replaced Bishop Paulinus of Aquileia).47 In the se- cond half of the sixth century Dalmatia returned to the communion with Rome and the Salonitan bishops were bestowed with the pallium, a sign of their metropolitan dignity, by the Pope. However this province still was a source of disturbance for the Roman pontiffs. The Salonitan bishops under Gregory the Great were negligent, corrupt and not complying.48 They were very clo- sely linked with the Church of Ravenna and the Byzantine administration and often rejected to subject themselves to the Roman Pope. This alienation of the Church of Salona from Rome in the sixth century created a situation quite similar to Ravennate and Aquileian ones and the Church of Salona needed to establish metropolitan prerogatives on the solid basis of the apo- stolic legend. There is some evidence that in sixth century Salona the cult of St. Dom- nius was already tied with the cult of St. Peter. The latter’s relics brought to Salona from Rome were deposited in the Basilica in the cemetery in Manasti- rine (coemeterium legis sanctae christianae), where St. Domnius and his suc- cessors were buried.49 In 640s after the alleged destruction of Salona by the barbarians and translation of St. Domnius’s relics to Rome the mosaic in the Lateran Chapel of St. Venantius in Rome represented him as a bishop to the right of Christ just after St. Peter and John the Baptist.50 As we know from the narratives of Constantine Porphyrogenitus and later of Thomas of Spalato Salona was ruined by the Avars and the Slavs of the Avar Empire.51 Soon after this event, as Thomas reports, the archiepiscopal organization of Salona was renewed on a new site — in the palace of Empe- ror Diocletian — by a certain John of Ravenna sent by the pope.52 This could

47 BULIÆ, Po ruševinama stare Salone… 46–47. 48 THOMAS ARCHIDIACONUS, Historia Salonitana / Ed. F. Raèki (Zagreb, 1894) 24–28. On the correspondence of Pope Gregory I with Dalmatia see F. BULIÆ, S. Gregorio Magno papa nelle sue relazioni colla Dalmazia — a. 590–604 // Supplemento al BASD 27 (1904); R. A. MARKUS, Gregory the Great and His World (Cambridge, 1997) 156–159. 49 E. DYGGVE, History of Salonitan Christianity… 74; E. MARIN, Civitas Splendi- da Salona. Geneza, profil i transformacija starokršcanske Salone [Civitas Splendida Salona. Genesis, Profile and Transformation of Early Christian Salona] // Salona Christiana (Arheološki muzej — Split, 25.9–31.10.1994) / Ed. E. Marin (Split, 1994) 46–54, 56–58. 50 G. BOVINI, I mosaici dell’oratorio di S. Venanzo a Roma // XVIII Corso di Cultura sull’Arte Ravennate e Bizantina (Ravenna, 1971) 141–154. 51 THOMAS ARCHIDIACONUS, Historia Salonitana… 30. 52 According to the History of Archbishops of Salona, it was John IV (640–642).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access V. B. Prozorov 231 have happened approximately in the middle of the seventh century.53 The pope consecrated him and transferred all privileges of Salona to the Church of Spalato.54 Archbishop John as a real metropolitan of Dalmatia and Sclavo- nia «restored churches, appointed bishops, established parishes» and started the missionary work in the territories of Dalmatia.55 One of the components of John’s programme, according to Thomas, was the translation of the bodies of SS. Domnius and Anastasius (a martyr from Aquileia in the beginning of the fourth century and member of the holy Salo- nitan doublet)56 from Salona to Spalato’s church of the Virgin Mary. Thus the

53 THOMAS ARCHIDIACONUS, Historia Salonitana… 33: «Venerabilis ergo Johannes cepit clerum et populum exhortari, ut archiepiscopatum ciuitatis antique intra se in- staurare deberent». Nada Klaiæ argued that the story about John of Ravenna was the legend and there was no metropolitan organization in Dalmatia until the first council of Spalato (925), although the idea of the establishment of the metropolitanate was delivered by Pope John VIII. She identified John of Ravenna with Archbishop John of Spalato under whom the tenth century councils of Spalato were held. (N. KLAIÆ, Ivan Ravenjanin i osnutak Splitske nadbiskupije [John of Ravenna and the Founda- tion of the Archbishopric of Spalato] // VAHD 65–67 (1971) 209–249; N. KLAIÆ, Povijest Hrvata u ranom srednjem vijeku [A History of the Croats in the Early Mid- dle Ages] (Zagreb, 1971) 122–125, 238). Ivo Goldstein considered John of Ravenna the personification of the fact that the metropolis of Salona — Spalato was restored by the pope. The time of that event, according to Goldstein, is unknown (I. GOLD- STEIN, Hrvatski rani srednji vijek [Croatian Early Middle Ages] (Zagreb, 1995) 135– 139). Radoslav Katièiæ tried to prove that Thomas of Spalato’s story was based on certain old sources, and proposed new arguments in favour of the authenticity of the persons involved into the restoration of the metropolis of Salona by John of Ravenna (R. KATIÈIÆ, Vetustiores Ecclesiae Spalatensis Memoriae // Uz poèetke hrvatskih poèe- taka (Split, 1993) 99–130; N. BUDAK, Prva stoljeæa Hrvatske [The First Centuries of Croatia] (Zagreb, 1994) 83–86). 54 THOMAS ARCHIDIACONUS, Historia Salonitana… 33: «Ipsi [John of Ravenna] concessum est a sede apostolica, ut totius dignitatis priuilegium quod Salona antiqui- tus habuit, optineret ecclesia Spaltensium». 55 THOMAS ARCHIDIACONUS, Historia Salonitana…: «Etenim per Dalmatie et Scla- vonie regiones circuendo restaurabat ecclesias, ordinabat episcopos, parochias dispo- nebat, paulatim rudes populos ad informationem catholicam attrahebat». In the catalo- gue of the archbishops (Ibid. 35) Thomas writes: «Fuerunt autem in ecclesia Spalaten- si archiepiscopi multi, quibus ex priuilegio Salonitane ecclesie omnes episcopi supe- rioris et inferioris Dalmatie obediebant utpote suffraganei ab antiquo». Certainly we should remember that Thomas’s aim was to show the antiquity and priority of the metropolitan Church of Spalato over all the bishops of Dalmatia and Croatia. The very word suffraganeus used by Thomas was being introduced from the end of the eighth century (History of the Church / Ed. H. JEDIN (Kent, 1991) Vol. 3. 288). 56 P. B ROWN, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Late Christianity (Berkeley, 1982) 97. Delehaye’s article on St. Anastasius was published in BASD 21 (1898) 57–72. Three versions of the Life of St. Anastasius are represented in FARLATI,

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access 232 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum right of the bishopric of Spalato as a successor to the archbishopric of Salona was definitely established.57 Thomas highlighted the continuity of ecclesia- stical organization as he pointed out that despite their residence in Spalato (since the time of John of Ravenna) the archbishops still «were called not of Spalato but of Salona».58 Obviously, this relatively short period of transition in the seventh century was the time, when the Church needed the tradition of its holy protector most. The bishopric on the new site was going to reinforce metropolitan rights of the Church of Salona on the apostolic foundation. The history of the following centuries is obscure due to the lack of infor- mation. We can only suppose that it was the period of accommodation of various Slavic and non-Slavic peoples in the Balkans and attempts of the Byzantine administration to secure the remains of its authority at least on the Adriatic coast.59 This period in Dalmatia was marked by the emergence of the bishopric of Nin (ancient Nona) close to Zadar, the capital of Byzantine Dalmatia. Seem- ingly this bishopric was founded sometime in the mid-ninth century, perhaps under Pope Nicholas I (858–867).60 The first bishop of Nin known to histo-

Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 1. 720–725. On its eleventh — twelfth century manuscripts see R. EGGER, Die Passio Sancti Anastasii und ihr Fortleben // Forschungen in Salona (Vienna, 1939) Vol. 3. 131–148. 57 THOMAS ARCHIDIACONUS, Historia Salonitana… 34. 58 Ibid. 35: «Ipsi autem archiepiscopi non spalatenses sed salonitani appella- bantur». 59 I. GOLDSTEIN, Bizant na Jadranu od Justinijana I. do Bazilija I. [Byzantium in the Adriatic from Justinian I until Basil I] (Zagreb, 1992). 60 This famous fragment of the letter of Pope Nicholas I was included into the Decretum Gratiani. There were a lot of opinions concerning the foundation and sub- ordination of the bishopric of Nin in historiography. Several scholars put the date of the foundation in the seventh century: FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 3. 123; Vol. 4. 205; T. SMIÈIKLAS, Hrvatska povijest [Croatian History] (Zagreb, 1882) Vol. 1. 155, 188. However, most of the authors fixed the establishment of the bishopric of Nin in the ninth century: 1) Priruènik izvora hrvatske historije [A Handbook of the Sources of Croatian History] / Ed. F. ŠIŠIÆ (Zagreb, 1914) Vol. 1. 190–191: the early ninth century, the suffragan of Spalato; 2) F. RAÈKI, Nutarnje stanje Hrvatske prije XII. stoljeæa [The Situation in Croatia until the Twelfth Century] // Rad JAZU 116 (1894) 41–42 and S. RITIG, Povjest i pravo slovenštine u crkvenom bogoslužju [History and Right of the Slavonic Language in the Liturgy] (Zagreb, 1910) Vol. 1. 131, 149: under Pope Nicholas I (858–867), the suffragan of Spalato; 3) M. PEROJEVIÆ, Ninski biskup Teodozije [Bishop Theodosius of Nin] // Prilog VAHD 1 (1922) 1–37, assum- ed that the bishop of Nin (the bishop of the Croats), a former chorbishop, received the title of bishop in the mid-ninth century and was subordinated to the patriarch of Aquileia; 4) M. BARADA, Episcopus Chroatensis // Croatia sacra 1 (1931) 161–215, wrote that the bishopric of Nin was founded between 864 and 867 under Croatian Prince Domagoj, when Dalmatian cities supported Patriarch Photius, whereas the

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access V. B. Prozorov 233 rians was Theodosius who lived in the second half of the ninth century and was translated to the metropolitan see of Salona.61 Emperor Basil I (867–886) reestablished the Byzantine authority over all the Dalmatian cities. Probably at that time their ecclesiastical organisation was separated from the Roman Church. But there is sofar no evidence that it was joined to the patriarchate of Constantinople. At least, there are no Dal- matian bishops in the lists of the suffragan sees of the patriarchate.62 The problem of the ecclesiastical organization of Dalmatia and Croatia was the main issue on the agenda of the councils of Spalato in 925 and 928.63 Their acts were preserved earliest in the sixteenth century manuscript of the History of Archbishops of Salona and their reliability was questioned many times. I tried to verify it and demonstrated that in some issues their agendas corresponded to the contemporary or slightly earlier councils and synods in Gaul, Germany and Italy and there was no need to falsify these acts.64 They named Bishop Gregory of Nin who was present at the council «the bishop of the Croats».65 It means that at that time the bishopric of Nin was the ecclesia- stical centre of the Croatian state and its bishop somehow represented Croa- tian flock of the Dalmatian metropolitanate. Bishop Gregory even claimed metropolitan rights over Dalmatia and Croatia and challenged the metropoli-

Croats remained loyal to Rome. The bishop of the Croats was subordinated to the pope, since Dalmatian cities were not under the jurisdiction of Rome, and, although the bishop of Spalato had the title of archbishop, he was not a metropolitan of Dal- matia; 5) KLAIÆ, Povijest Hrvata u ranom srednjem vijeku… 232–239, posed a hypothe- sis, according to which, the bishopric of Nin was founded under Croatian Duke Trpi- mir, somewhere in the mid-ninth century, and supervised by the patriarchate of Aqui- leia; 6) N. BUDAK, Prva stoljeæa Hrvatske [The First Centuries of Croatia] (Zagreb, 1994) 92–96, referring to the fact that the Church of Nin continued to exist from Late Antiquity, pointed out that the archpriest of Nin may have been under the jurisdiction of Zadar. He thought that the bishopric of Nin was founded by the clergy of Nin without the pope’s consent. However, it was later subordinated to the Roman Church. 61 Codex diplomaticus regni Croatiae, Dalmatiae et Slavoniae. T. 1: Diplomata annorum 743–1100 / Continens, ed. M. KOSTRENÈIÆ, J. STIPIŠIÆ, M. ŠAMŠALOVIÆ (Za- greb, 1967) (hereafter CD) 16, no. 12. 62 Vizantijski izvori za istoriju naroda Jugoslavije [Byzantine Sources of the Hi- story of the Peoples of Yugoslavia] / Ed. J. FERLUGA et al. (Belgrade, 1966) Vol. 3. 1–4. 63 Historia Salonitana maior… 95–106. Canons 1, 2, 3; canons 8, 9, 11 and 12 deal with the cases of particular bishoprics, although the two last canons have great importance for the ecclesiastical organization of Dalmatia and Croatia in general. 64 V. P ROZOROV, The Councils of Split in 925 and 928: An Attempt at a Comparat- ive Approach. Abstract of the M. A. Thesis // Annual of Medieval Studies at the CEU 1994–1995 / Ed. M.-B. L. Davis, M. Sebõk (Budapest, 1996) 68–69; ÏÐÎÇÎÐÎÂ, Ïîçäíåàíòè÷íàÿ è ðàííåñðåäíåâåêîâàÿ èñòîðèÿ Ñàëîíñêîé öåðêâè... 65 We can suppose it from the introduction to the letter of Pope John X to the Dalmatian bishops (CD I, no 25. 35).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access 234 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum tan status of the Church of Spalato. There is no evidence of the legality of this claim, and the anonymous composer of the conciliar texts, a partisan of Salo- na — Spalato, asserted that the bishop of Nin never had the primacy in Dal- matia. This demarche of the bishop of Nin gave the council of 925 an opportuni- ty to confirm in its acts the rights of the Church of Spalato for the legacy of ancient Salona. According to the canon 1, the primacy of the archbishop of Spalato in Dalmatia and Croatia and his right to convoke councils and conse- crate suffragan bishops were confirmed by the authority of the patron saint of Salona — Spalato and the disciple of St. Peter, St. Domnius himself.66 This authority was translated from declined Salona together with the relics of the martyr. This canon is the first direct reference to the Salonitan tradition of aposto- lic succession apart from the Passion of St. Domnius. The conciliar argu- mentation echoes the reference of the synod of Mantua to the apostolic le- gend in the debate of Aquileia and Grado. This decision of the council of Salona coincided with the revival of the interest towards this theme in the late eighth and ninth century Europe.67 The falsified preface to the acts of the council in Nicaea, included in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, clearly con- nected the foundation of all the archbishoprics (in the initial sense of this institution) with the activities of the Apostles, thus suggesting the pattern of proving the primatial rights for the other metropolises.68 It is interesting to note that, whatever political reasons, the liturgical ca- lendar of Spalato, perhaps, retained the memory of the early version of St. Domnius’s martyrdom. The Calendar of the Church of Spalato of 1291 (sup- ported by the Statute of Spalato of 1312) had two separate feasts, connected with St. Domnius. It celebrated the memory of St. Domnius the Bishop on April 11, and dedicated May 7 to St. Domnius the Martyr.69

66 CD I, No. 23, p. 23: «Quoniam antiquitus beatus Domnius ab apostolo Petro predicare Salonam missus est constituitque, ut ecclesia ipsa et civitas ubi sancta eius membra requiescunt inter omnes ecclesias provintie huius primatis habeat et metro- polis nomine super omnes episcopatus legitime sortiatur, ita dumtaxat, ut ad eius iussionem episcopi, qui per divinam gratiam cathedram ipsam retinuerint, et sinodus celebretur et consecratio episcoporum; quia dicente domino: ubi fuerit (corpus) illuc congregabuntur et aquile». 67 Paul the Deacon, Liber de episcopis Mettensibus // MGH. Scriptores. Vol. 2 / Ed. G. H. PERTZ (Hannover, 1829) 261. 68 PL 130. Cols. 251–253. 69 A. BERTOLDI, Breviario ad uso della chiesa di Spalato già Salonitana // Archivio Veneto 85–86 (1886) 221–251; Statut grada Splita [The Statute of Spalato] (Split, 1985) 11, cap. 5. The epigraphic material and one more or less reliable manuscript of the Martyrology of Jerome established the exact date of Domnius’s martyrdom on April 10 (not 11) (SAXER, Les saints de Salone… 299–300).

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There is nothing strange that the Church celebrated two feasts of St. Dom- nius. But I find it suspicious that in his History Thomas of Spalato tries to specifically explain why Spalatians had two festivals in honour of St. Dom- nius. He reported that once upon a time certain pilgrims from Spalato stole the body of St. Domnio of Fidenza (Domninus, Ital. Donnino), a martyr of the early fourth century, and since that time there was a confusion of St. Domnius of Salona and St. Domnio of Fidenza who were both venerated in Spalato.70 Though we know St. Domnio of Fidenza, we have no evidence, apart from Thomas’s explanation, that his relics were ever brought to Spala- to. Thus the historian’s remark can be explained as an attempt to reconcile the conflicting traditions of Domnius the Martyr and Domnius the Apostolic Bishop. To sum up, I have tried to demonstrate the striking similarity of the deve- lopment of the apostolic tradition in Dalmatia with apostolic traditions in Ravenna and Aquileia. They probably emerged as a strong argument in fa- vour of the autonomy of the Churches in their tensions with Rome in the fifth and sixth centuries and were further developed in order to secure the leading status of the Churches in their provinces in the seventh — tenth centuries. I think that this comparison supports the hypothesis that the apostolic tradi- tion in Salona could emerge as early as in the sixth century, when the Saloni- tan Church started to play the role of the real metropolis of Dalmatia, had some tensions with Rome vaguely echoed in the available sources and finally in the first half of the seventh century moved to the new site — the palace of Diocletian, present-day Split. In conclusion I would like to highlight the fact that the figure of St. Dom- nius and the question of apostolic succession did in no way lose their signifi- cance in the modern history of Dalmatia and Croatia. The versions of St. Domnius’s Passion were first published by a promi- nent Jesuit Daniele Farlati in his Illyricum sacrum in the mid-eighteenth cen- tury.71 He did not doubt that the martyrdom and the Passion dated back to the first Christian centuries and all the components of the narrative were reliable.72 Farlati’s tradition domineered the eighteenth and nineteenth century historio- graphy. It totally ignored the suggestion of an early eighteenth century Farla-

70 Acta sanctorum. Octobris 4. 988–992; BHL 2264–2267. 341–342. His feast day is October 9. His name appears in the Martyrology of Jerome and the Martyrolo- gy of Rabanus Maurus (776 or 784–856). See also G. LAURINI, San Donnino martire e la sua cittá (memorie storiche) (Borgo S. Donnino, 1924); LANZONI, Le diocesi d’Ita- lia… 803–805. 71 FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 1. 412–427. 72 Ibid. 408: «…nec dubitarie sint, quin exemplaria illa germana fuerint atque incorrupta, unde Acta S. Domnii, veluti in varios rivos diducta, sine ulla falsitatis admistione, tam pura et sincera manarunt».

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access 236 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum ti’s precursor Ante Karamaneo-Matijaševiæ (1658–1721) (Farlati called him oppugnator Actorum S. Domnii)73 who demonstrated that Domnius could only be a martyr of the period of Diocletian and Maximian’s persecutions. In the end of the nineteenth century Dalmatian archeologist and historian Don Frane Buliæ challenged Farlati’s misattributions.74 Buliæ’s dating of mar- tyrdom of St. Domnius to the fourth century led to a heated discussion with partisans of the previous point of view, mostly local clergy (Ivan Devich, Petar Kaer, Ivan Markoviæ)75 and met full support of prominent scholars of that time (Hyppolite Delehaye, Jacques Zeiller and Furio Lenzi).76 The Con- gregation of Rites in the Vatican accepted Buliæ’s argumentation in 1899,77 although debates were still going and acquired political character.78 It is im- portant to note that the crux of the problems lay in the sphere of ecclesiastical authority and political orientation. As local proponents of St. Domnius the apostolic disciple were the Italianized citizens of Dalmatian towns, they were

73 A. CARAMANEO-MATIASSEVICH, Riflessioni sopra l’istoria di S. Dojmo primo vescovo di Salona e martire // Supplemento al BASD 23/12 (1900) 12, 15, 17; FARLA- TI, Illyricum sacrum… Vol. 1. 410–411. 74 F. BULIÆ, Storia e leggenda di S. Domnione o Doimo, vescovo e martire di Salona e delle sue reliquie. Saggio storico — critico // Supplemento al BASD 24/1–2 (1901). The same opinion was expressed by DELEHAYE, Santi dell’Istria e della Dal- mazia… 95–100. F. BULIÆ, J. BERVALDI, Kronotaksa solinskih biskupa [The Catalogue of the Salonitan Bishops] // Bogoslovska smotra 1–4 (1912) 15, 19. 75 Don G. DEVICH, Apologia del festeggiamo il nostro patrono san Doimo, disce- polo di san Pietro, primo vescovo di Salona le cui sacre e venerate ossa riposano a Spalato (Spalato, 1900). 76 DELEHAYE, Saints d’Istrie et de Dalmatie… 393–411; IDEM, L’hagiographie de Salone d’après les dernières découvertes archéologiques // AB 23 (1904); ZEILLER, Une légende hagiographique de Dalmatie: saint Domnius de Salone… 193–218, 385– 407; J.S.B.L. (J. BERVALDI), Sveti Dujam. Biskup i mucenik solinski. Povjesno-arheo- loška rasprava [St. Domnius, the Salonitan Bishop and Martyr. Historical and Archaeo- logical Study] (Split, 1906); J. BERVALDI, Alcune osservazioni ai due ultimi opuscoli del sac. Pietro Kaer e del P. G. M. intorno a S. Doimo vescovo e martire di Salona (Fiume, 1910); F. LENZI, San Domnio, vescovo e martiri di Salona (†303) (Roma, 1913); F. BULIÆ, Razvoj arheoloških istraživanja i nauka u Dalmaciji kroz zadnji mi- lenij [The Progress of Archeological Research in Dalmatia through the Last Millen- nium] // Zbornik Matice Hrvatske o tisucoj godišnjci Hrvatskog kraljevstva (Zagreb, 1925) Vol. 1 / Ed. F. LUKAS. Part 1. 158. 77 BULIÆ, Razvoj arheoloških istraživanja i nauka u Dalmaciji... 148. 78 (Don K. ŠEGVIÆ), Storia e leggenda di S. Doimo e Domione vescovo e martire di Salona e delle sue reliquie. Saggio storico-critico // Supplemento al BASD 24 (1901); I. MARKOVIÆ, Nešto o sv. Dujmu. Poslanica ... otcu Petru-Krstitelju Baèiæu (Some Words on St. Domnius. The Letter …to Father Petar-Krstitelj Baèiæ] (Split, 1906); Don P. KAER, San Doimo, vescovo e martire di Salona nell’archeologia e agiografia (Sebenico, 1908).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access V. B. Prozorov 237 highly concerned with the growing Croatian nationalism and wished to stress and maintain the historical identity of Dalmatia. Quite contrariwise the tenth century events in Dalmatia were used by the politicians in the twentieth century. Bishop Gregory of Nin who lost his case at the council of Spalato in 925 gained the status of a symbolic figure in Croatia. The partisans of the Croatian national idea represented him as a fighter for the national Church and national state. The Croats in Dalmatia in opposi- tion to the strong Italian influence regarded him as a symbol of the struggle for their national identity and at the same time for the union of all the South- ern Slavs under Croatian leadership. The Gregorian myth culminated during the celebration of the millennium of the Croatian kingdom which was thought to be established in the time of the council of Spalato in 925. The festivities in Dalmatia were crowned by the opening of a monumental statue of Bishop Gregory sculptured by a famous Croatian artist Ivan Meštroviæ. The monument was inserted into the very heart of Split. It was erected in the Peristyle of the Palace of Diocletian, close to the entrance of the Cathedral where the relics of St. Domnius were deposited. The Italianized clergy of Split regarded this act as a challenge to the ancient metropolitan rights and the authority of Spalato and openly protested. Later the image of Gregory of Nin was deployed in the Yugoslav propa- ganda against the Vatican concordat and the Papacy which was associated with the political interests of Italian fascists in the Balkans. In fact, when Dalmatia was occupied by Italian troops Gregory’s statue was removed and restored only after the end of the World War II on a new site, namely out of the Palace of Diocletian, near its Golden Gate. Gregory of Nin is still passing by the entrance of Old Split, the citadel of St. Domnius, and never comes in.

APPENDIX Passio Sancti Domnii (according to the HISTORY OF ARCHBISHOPS OF SALONA)

SANCTUS DOMNIUS EPISCOPUS, natione Antiocenus, patre Theodosio ex Syria, matre vero Migdonia ex Grecia, quos cathecuminos fecit et baptizavit beatus Petrus apostolorum princeps qui primus sedit in cathedra episcopatus ur- bis Antiocene, ubi Domnius puer septem annorum divinitus inspiratus, relictis parentibus et huius mundi diviths, secutus est apostolum. Tempore vero Claudii placuit beato Petro visere populum Cesaree, in cuius fenibus quodam a domino potestatem ligandi atque solvendi suscepit. Inde abiens peragravit Sebastem Capadotiam, Galatiam, Pontum, Bithiniam, Ephesum, Pat- mos, Athenas, demum ad hostia Tyberina applicuere ingressi sunt. Ubi beatus Petrus multis iam ad fidem Chrysti conversis alias quoque orbis terre partes ab erroris pernitie liberare cupiens, Pancratium destinavit in Siciliam, Appolinarem Ravenam Marcum evangelistam Aquilegiam Domnium vero multis coram positis

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access 238 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum dixit: Ecce fili, ab infantia tua mecum ingressus et egressus es; omnem doctrinam catholicam didicisti. Pete littus maris adriatici et, recto cursu trans mare contra boream vectus veniens in Dalmatiam, que per te non post multos annos Chrysto creditura est. Vade, pax dei sit tecum. Domnius igitur satis prospero cursu mare emersus, Salonas devenit Christique misteria publice ac palam exponere cepit. Ad cuius predicationem multi, corde compuncti, Christo crediderunt, quos omnes in flumine Salono baptizabat. Quendam Pirgum falsum philosophum secum disputantem, cum a suo errore non posset in sua obstinatione reliquens, verbum dei populis predicabat spiritu sancto operante et sermonem confirmante. Ecclesiam in honorem. sancte dei ge- nitricis Marie in eadem urbe construxit pulcherrimo opere, ubi sacerdotes dei, presbiteros et levitas ceterosque sacri ministerii ordines in ea ordinavit. Quibus per Dalmatiam dimissis brevi onmem ferre provinciam diabolo ereptam deo lucra- tus est. Post multum vero temporis, cum iam dominus servum suum ad coronam et triumphum certaminis provehero vellet, accidit prefectum urbis Maurilium nomi- ne ad predictam civitatem Salonarum venisse, missum a senatu totas provintias Orientis iudicare. Qui cum civitatem intrasset, sacerdotes templorum occurerunt ei dicentes: Seductor quidam Romana urbe profugus ad hanc urbem venit, qui culturam deorum nostrorum non cessat subvertere et Jesum quendam a iudeis crucifixum summum deum astruere. His superba mente prefectus auditis beatum Domnium ad se accersiri iussit, cui et dixit: Ex quo genere es tu aut de qua civitate oriundus? Beatus Domnius respondit: Patre Syro, matre vero Greca progenitus, in civitate Antiocena educatus; ibidem lavacrum regenerationis a beato Petro apos- tolo suscepi et ab eodem ad hanc provinciam missus pro salute animarum veni. Tunc prefectus iussit eum recludi in carcere quousque exquireret, quibus eum modis aut ad culturam deorum revocaret aut crudelissimis tormentis interire face- ret. Peractis quibusdam negotiis et educto eo de carcere, cepit multis sermonibus suadere, quatenus pecunia accepta atque inter amicos eius ascriptus denegaret ac this sacrificaret. Tunc beatus Domnius igne divino succensus dixit: Insane Mauri- li, pecunia me movere speras cum ego multo majus patrimonium sponte relique- rim, ut cum Christo paupere pauper viverem. Non est opus chrystiano diviths istis, sed fide atque virtute, quibus divitie nunquam interiture parantur in celo. Videns autem prefectus omnia que temptaverat in cassum cedere, expoliari hominem iussit et fustibus nudum cedi. Dum autem Domnius cederetur, fit chrys- tianorum concursus ad pretorium, insultant Maurilio frementes pre dolore et op- probriantes, quod inique ageretur hominem innocentem per ludibrium suppliciis opprimi. Ille vero, ira percitus, repente emissa armatorurn manu, quadraginta quinque ex his conprehensos nolentesque idolis sacrificare, statim capite truncari iussit. Quorum corpora, noctu a fidelibus inde sublata, ad radices Massaron monte humata sunt. Per eos dies, dum talia geruntur, Febronie vidue filius, cuius pater nomine Diginanus urbis Rome senator fuerat, deffunctus est. De cuius morte tam prefec- tus quam ceteri Salonarum cives mestiores facti, beatum Domnium submisso ca- pite ac sedata voce poscebant, dicentes: Nunc apparebit virtus Chrysti tui, si in nomine eius, quem tu dicis mortuos suscitasse, cecos illuminasse, demonibus im-

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:33:37AM via free access V. B. Prozorov 239 perasse, hunc poteris mortuum suscitare. Ad hec vir dei respondit prefecto: Licet noverim cor tuum a diabolo obcecatum, ne credens salvus fias, propter eos tamen, qui crediderunt, vel qui credituri sunt, ut agnoscant veritatem Chrysti, exurgere hunc feciam. Tunc iuxta cadaver flexit genibus, manibus vero atque oculis in ce- lum sublatis cum orasset, imperavit mortuo in nomine Chrysti, ut resumpto spiritu sese in pedes errigeret atque iterum vivere super terram inciperet. Vix verba finie- rat et adolescens: tam facile surrexit, ut non a morte suscitatus, sed quasi a somno expergefactus videretur. Quo viso miraculo plurimi ad fidem Chrysti conversi sunt. Sacerdotes vero templorum videntes, quod tanta turba senum, iuvenum, mulierum ac parvulorum ad hoc miraculum confluxerat, quanta theatralibus ludis vel sacrificiis olympici Iovis vix unquam convenerat, omnes maiores natu, vel quorum auctoritas pollebat, in pretorium congregare fecerunt et data pecunia pre- fecto suggesserunt ei atque dixerunt: Non consideras quantum hic magus, presti- giis suis seducens populum, tibi quoque, nisi caveris, maximum conflat detrimen- tum et certum interitum. Nam si eius vite peperceris, populum usquequaque su- bvertentis, senatus Populusque romanus iudicabunt te contrarium legibusque augustorum et donabunt te proscriptioni et morti, nec erit, qui possit succurere tibi. Tunc Maurilius, donis obcecatus ac perversis seductus consiliis, firmato in malum animo, dedit legem: Domnium contrarium legibus imperatorum contempto- rem deorum, iubemus capitalem subire sententiam. Mox lictores eum aprehen- sum extra ciuitatem, ut decolloraretur, eduxerunt. Ubi cum diu in oratione ge- nuflexo procubuisset, unus ex ministris Sathane, impetu facto, amputavit caput eius nonis maii. Historia Salonitana maior / Ed. N. KLAIÆ (Belgrade, 1967) (SANU, Posebna izdanja 299) 73–75

SUMMARY

¬‡‰ËÏ ¡. œÓÁÓÓ‚ ÃÓÒÍ‚‡ Ô◊≈Õ»◊≈—“¬Œ —¬. ƒŒÃÕ»fl: œ–≈ƒ¿Õ»≈ Œ¡ ¿œŒ—“ŒÀ‹— ŒÃ œ–≈≈ד¬≈ ¬ ƒ¿Àÿ÷»»  äàííîé ñòàòüå èññëåäóåòñÿ àãèîãðàôè÷åñêàÿ òðàäèöèÿ îñíîâàíèÿ Ñà- ëîíñêîé öåðêâè, êîòîðàÿ âåñüìà ðàíî íà÷àëà ïðåòåíäîâàòü íà ðîëü ìèòðîïî- ëèè ïðîâèíöèè Äàëìàöèÿ. Åå ïðèòÿçàíèÿ áûëè îñíîâàíû íà ëåãåíäå î ìèñ- ñèè ó÷åíèêà ñâ. àïîñòîëà Ïåòðà ñâ. Äîìíèÿ (èëè Äîìíèîíà) â Äàëìàöèè è ñîçäàíèè èì öåðêîâíîé îðãàíèçàöèè â Ñàëîíå. Àâòîð äåìîíñòðèðóåò âåðî- ÿòíîñòü òîãî, ÷òî ëåãåíäà î ñâÿòîì ïîêðîâèòåëå Ñàëîíû îáðåëà ÷åðòû, õà- ðàêòåðíûå äëÿ å¸ âåðñèè â àíîíèìíîé «Áîëüøîé Ñàëîíñêîé èñòîðèè» óæå ê VII â., à ãëàâíîå, óæå òîãäà ìèññèÿ ñâ. Äîìíèÿ â Äàëìàöèè áûëà ñâÿçàíà ñ èìåíåì ñâ. àïîñòîëà Ïåòðà è, òàêèì îáðàçîì, ñëóæèëà îñíîâàíèåì äëÿ ñà- ëîíñêîé òðàäèöèè àïîñòîëüñêîãî ïðååìñòâà.

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