Until its despoliation by the warriors of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the relic-collection of Constantinople was the largest and most illustrious of relic-collections in Christendom. “Collection” is not an altogether appropriate word however, for the relics were unevenly distributed among the various shrines of the city. First among these stood the so-called “Lighthouse” church [του Φάϱου] of the Theotokos within the Great Palace, probably founded by the iconoclast emperor Constantine V Kopronymos. This was the imperial relic-collection par excellence, housing (...) such outstanding relics as the Sacred Mandylion from Edessa, the Wood of the True Cross and many other famous relics. The principal churches of the city also had their relics: remains of the “Apostles” Andrew, Timothy and Luke lay beneath the altar of Holy Apostles' Church, the body of John Chrysostom to one side of it. Chalkoprateia housed the girdle [ζώνη] of the Theotokos, Blachernae her shawl [μαфóϱιον] – the list goes on and on. Indeed the impression is given that every significant church, including certain monastic foundations, possessed one or more relic. (shrink)

Marcian (? – ca 474) was appointed oeconomos of the properties of the Great Church by the Patriarch Gennadius (458–471) possibly after serving as the last Novatian bishop of Constantinople. He employed his considerable personal wealth in founding and restoring churches in the capital, most significantly one named Anastasia, incorporating the “small oratory” in which Gregory of Nazianzen had ministered to the faithful remnant of Nicenes during the winter of 379–380: a church with significant Gothic connections. A critical edition of (...) the complete text of the vita (previously only available in the Metaphrastic version, PG 114, 429–456) is here presented and translated. The vita was composed by one Sergius almost certainly some considerable time after the death of Marcian for, although it provides some useful information on the nature of the surviving buildings attributed to him, the little it has to say about the man himself largely consists of conventional miracula rather than of biographical detail – of which there is surprisingly little. Even certain data known from other sources are passed over in silence. On the other hand, the healing properties of the Anastasia church are affirmed with a passage taken almost verbatim from Sozomen. While the vita is in no sense a biography of the saint, it does contain a wealth of information on a fifth-century Constantinople. (shrink)