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E01137: A fragment of the 6th century calendar, written in Gothic, most probably in Italy, names saints whose feasts were celebrated by the Homoian Church of the Goths in late October and November in the 6th century.

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posted on 2016-02-21, 00:00 authored by robert
Gothic calendar (fragments)

kg¯ þize ana Gutpiadai managaize marytre yah Friþareik[eik]eis
kþ¯ gaminþi marytre þize bi Werekan papan yah Batwin bilaif.
aikklesyons fullaizos ana Gutþiadai gabrannidai

g¯ Kustantei[n]us þiudanis
q¯ Dauriþaius aipiskaupaus [MS aipisks]
ie¯ Filippaus apaustaulus ïn Yairupulai
iþ¯ þize alþyane [MS alþanoine] ïn Bairauyai, m. samana
kþ¯ Andriins apaustaulus


'[October]
23 (Remembrance of) the many martyrs among the Gothic people, and of Frideric.
29 Remembrance of the martyrs who with Werekas the priest and Batwin the minister(?), in a crowded church among the Gothic people, were burned.

[November]
3 Constanti[n]us the emperor.
6 Dorotheus the bishop.
15 Philip the Apostle, in Hieropolis.
19 (Remembrance of) the old women at Beroea, forty in total.
29 Andrew the Apostle.'


Text: Delehaye 1912, 276. Translation: Heather and Matthews 1991, 121-122.

History

Evidence ID

E01137

Saint Name

Werekas, Gothic priest and martyr, ob. 367-375 : S00713 Philip the Apostle, ob. 1st c. : S00109 Andrew, the Apostle : S00288 Batwin, Gothic minister (?) and martyr, ob. 369-375 : S00714 Anonymous Gothic martyrs, ob. c. 365-379 : S00716 Dorotheos

Saint Name in Source

Werekas Filippaus Andriins Batwin Dauriþaius Kustanteinus Kustanteinus Friþareik[eik]eis þize alþyane [MS alþanoine] ïn Bairauyai

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Liturgical texts - Calendars and martyrologies

Language

  • Other

Evidence not before

407

Evidence not after

600

Activity not before

407

Activity not after

600

Place of Evidence - Region

Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Sardinia Sardinia Sardegna Sardinia

Cult activities - Festivals

  • Saint’s feast

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Foreigners (including Barbarians)

Source

This fragment of a Gothic calendar, dating back to the 6th century, survived in an 8th century palimpsest in Milan (Ambros. S 36 sup.). The entry for bishop Dorotheos of Antioch and Constantinople, who died c. 407 shows that the original version was compiled in the 5th century at the earliest and possibly in the East. It was probably based on a Greek calendar but we cannot say which one.

Discussion

The Homoian Church apparently celebrated the feasts of of the apostles (and probably other saints as well) roughly on the same days as the Nicene Church. Andrew the Apostle was normally commemorated at the end of November. According to the early 6th century Calendar of Carthage his feast was celebrated on 29 November; according to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum it was on 27 and 30 November (E05033 an E05036). The Calendar of Carthage does not mention the feast of Philip the Apostle. According to the Martyrium Hieronymianum it was celebrated on 22 April (E04785), 1 May (E04795) or 8 May (E04807), but the Armenian Lectionary of Jerusalem gives the date 15 November (E05186), the same as the Georgian Calendar of Ioanne Zosime (E03927) and the present fragment. The Syriac Jacobite Menologion of Aleppo places it in 14 November, thus just one day earlier than the Gothic calendar (see EXXXXX) The mentions of the feast of Constantine is a rare, though not unique, case of naming an emperor in the ecclesiastical calendar. The name of the emperor is most probably mistaken. 3 November was the day of death of of Constantius, son of Constantine and supporter of the homoiousian, that is mildly Arian, version of Christianity. Thus one can suppose that the original version of the calendar named Constantius whose name was then replaced by that of his better-known father. Interestingly, in another calendar in which the birthday of an emperor was celebrated we find a similar confusion. According to Syriac Jacobite Menologion of Aleppo the feast of 'Constantine, son of Constantine' was celebrated on 15 November (see EXXXXX) Dorotheus (ob. c. 407) was an Arian bishop of Antioch and then Constantinople, and is the only Arian non-Gothic saint named in the extant part of the calendar.

Bibliography

Editions Delehaye, H., "Saints de Mésie et de Thrace,", Analecta Bollandiana 31 (1912), 276. Schäferdiek, K., "Das gotische, liturgische Kalenderfragment – Bruchstück eines Konstantinopeler Martyrologs," Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 79 (1988), 116-137 (with substantial commentary and German translation). English translation Heather, P., and Matthews, J., The Goths in the Fourth Century (Translated Texts for Historians 11; Liverpool, 1991), 119-122.

Usage metrics

    Evidence - The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

    Categories

    Keywords

    S00713S00109S00288S00714S00716S00717S00186S00718S00715S00719History

    Licence

    CC0

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