Five Anastasia and two Febroniae: a guided tour in the maze of Anastasia legends

Anyway, for Gotschalcus, the basilica of Apollonia was located in Aquileia. In this respect, the text of LLA that he quoted does not contradict his version. However, at the same time, his text of LLA was almost identical to LLA as we read it now. The anti-Roman censorship of LLA described above (sections 2.1 and 2.2) was not in vain. Now we see that, in Aquileia, the martyrdom of Anastasia was indeed separated from Rome and packed into the Aquileian landscape, and LLA provided a recension of Anastasia's legend that would have been suitable for such usage.

The Aquileian landscape itself did not remain immovable. One can wonder whether the closeness of the commemoration dates of Anastasia and Chrysogonus in Gotschalcus's account already implied the coincidence of the sites of their martyrdoms, that is, identifying Grado with Ad Aquas Gradatas. Even if such a geographical telescopage did not take place in Gotschalcus, it was documented by Andrea Dandolo (1306-1354) in his Chronica per extensum descripta. He provided a short summary of LLA followed with a summary of Passion 1 of the Cantiani and described the martyrdom site of Chrysogonus as ad aquas gradatas, ubi postea Gradi civitas constructa fuit [69, p. 28] (“Ad Aquas Gradatas, where later the city of Grado was built”). This was the final point of the evolution of the Aquileian sacred topography, when the hagiographical coordinates of Anastasia and Chrysogonus eventually coincided: Chrysogonus and Anastasia suffered martyrdom at the same place and (as we know from Gotschalcus) on two successive days. An early phase of this evolution is documented by LLA in its present recension, which is certainly Aquileian.

The phase of this evolution documented by Gotschalcus is closer to LLA, whereas the peculiar date November 23 is an innovation. Unlike Gotschalcus who followed the Aquileian version of the events in Anastasia's burial, the editor of LLA hesitated between two competing versions. Indeed, in the seventh century, it was difficult to choose between Aquileia and Grado.

1.3.5 Conclusion on the Date of the Aquileian Editorial Layer: Seventh Century

Now we have confirmed our understanding of the geography of LLA as a result of deliberate editorship in Aquileia. This editorship must be dated to the seventh century, before 824 (when LLA was translated into Greek), before Bede the Venerable, in an epoch of competition between Aquileia and Grado, roughly contemporaneous but earlier than Passion 1 of the Cantiani.

The Aquileian editorial layer of LLA is certainly posterior to the sixth century. In this century, we still do not have evidence of the entwining of the cults of Anastasia and Chrysogonus or references to the Aquileian Sondergut of LLA. If the contradictory ending of LLA reflects the competition between Grado and Aquileia, which seems to me most likely, the terminus post quem for LLA is 606, when the alternative patriarchate of Aquileia was established in Grado.

1.4 “Chrysogonization” and Fausta

In the Anastasia legend known to us as LLA, a mention of Anastasia's mother Fausta, called by the name and attested to as christianissima and casta, is uniquely contained in a letter from Anastasia to Chrysogonus (in Moretti's edition, [66, p. 110]). If the whole material related to Chrysogonus is an Aquileian addition, our Anastasia loses her Christian mother. This could drastically affect the image of the saint. This problem must be discussed in detail.

1.4.1 St Chrysogonus and gens Anicia

The name of Anastasia's mother according to LLA, Fausta, belongs to the Roman aristocratic family of Anicii ³². This family became connected to the cult of Chrysogonus.

From the very beginning, Passion 1 of the Cantiani proclaims that they belonged to the family of Anicii that goes back to Emperor Carinus (reigned in 283-285): qui de genere Aniciorum, hoc est divae memoriae Carini imperatoris noscuntur progeniti et intra urbem Romam in quarta decima regione generati atque educatiprobantur ³³ (“...who are from the family of Anicii that is known as descendants of Emperor Carinus of divine memory, and who are renowned as being raised and educated in the city of Rome in the fourteenth region”).

Historically, the Anicians were not connected to Emperor Carinus, but they were connected with Aquileia, whereas Emperor Carinus, in turn, was thought, according to one of the popular versions reported by the late fourth-century Historia Augusta, to have been born in Aquileia ³⁴. This historical commentary, however, is still not sufficient for understanding the meaning of this reference to Carinus.

Carinus died after having been defeated by Diocletian, thus perhaps becoming, in the eyes of Christians, the latter's victim. On the opposite site, the pagan author of the Historia Augusta was so hostile toward him that he went beyond the limits of probability in portraying Carinus as a monster [80, pp. 243-245]; this fact would corroborate a highly positive evaluation of Carinus by Christians. The mention of Carinus in Passion 1 is not without parallels in Christian hagiography. In the so-called Roman legend of Cosmas and Damian, Carinus takes the place of Constantine the Great: an edict similar to Constantine's edict of Milan is ascribed to Carinus ³⁵.

The meaning of the connection between the Cantiani and the Anicii could stand to be clarified. As Cecile Lanery noticed, “[c] ette famille etait devenue, pour la Venetie, l'embleme de l'aristocratie chretienne: il n'est donc pas surprenant qu'un hagiographe ait choisi d'y rattacher les trois martyrs d'Aquilee, tout en assignant a ces derniers un parcours qui correspondait a l'aire d'influence des Anicii (Rome, la Venetie)” [50, p. 436, n. 544].

The reference to the fourteenth region of Rome could be another reference to the Anicians and the cult of Chrysogonus: the titular church of Chrysogonus was located in this region, Trans Tiberim, the modern Trastevere. This church had existed since the first half of the fifth century; late twentieth-century archaeological studies did not confirm the hypothesis that a Christian church had existed here already in the fourth century. By the late fourth-century, the second-century Roman domus constructed on this place was, most likely, abandoned and, therefore, available for acquisition by certain members of the Church of Rome ³⁶. The question of mutual relations between the martyr of Aquileia Chrysogonus and the saint of Rome, the namesake of the titulus Chrysogoni, is not as easy as it is often thought. The Roman church, most probably, possessed the relics of her saint since the first half of the fifth century, whereas, in Aquileia (in the village San Canzian d'Isonzo), there were also some relics of St Chrysogonus. This does not mean, however, that these two saints were necessarily not identical ³⁷. St Chrysogonus, like St Anastasia, is also an example of a saint with multiple avatars and multiplying relics... Given that Passion 1 establishes strong links between the cults of the Cantiani and Chrysogonus, it is possible, as Steffen Diefenbach supposed, that the reference to the fourteenth region at the very beginning of the Passion 1 implies the church of Chrysogonus. Diefenbach goes further, supposing that the Roman cult of Chrysogonus was itself a creation of the Aquileian-based branch of the Anicii ³⁸.

Even if Diefenbach's hypothesis about the Anicians as the main supporters of Chrysogonus's cult in Rome is far-fetched, Passion 1 ofthe Cantiani demonstrated a connection between Chrysogonus's cult and the Anicii in a hagiographical tradition not forgotten by the ninth century. This tradition must go back to an earlier period, but not necessarily to the fourth or fifth century, as Diefenbach believes. Nevertheless, such a tradition is hardly posterior to the sixth century, the “Indian summer” that was enjoyed by the aristocracy of Rome under Odoacer and Theoderic ³⁹. After the Byzantine Reconquista of Italia under Justinian, the Roman aristocracy, including the Anicians, lost even a symbolical role in social life ⁴⁰. It cannot be ruled out, nevertheless, that, in Aquileia, the Anicians continued to be socially important throughout the seventh century.

Earlier, one of the most famous Anicians in ecclesiastical history, Demetrias (born ca 398, consecrated as a virgin as of 413, and died under Pope Leo I, before 460) contributed to transmitting to Rome the Palestinian cult of St Stephanus, whose relics were discovered near Jerusalem in 415 (she founded the suburban Santo Stefano basilica in Via Latina) ⁴¹. Nevertheless, nothing similar is known concerning the hypothetical Anicians' involvement in the development of the Roman cult of Chrysogonus, even though we can agree with Diefenbach that such an involvement would have been likely. Be that as it may, it is certain (as Passion 1 of the Cantiani testifies) that the Aquileian cult of Chrysogonus was eventually shaped with reference to the Anicians ⁴².

All that we know concerning the “Chrysogonization” of the cult of Anastasia fits the same pattern. Anastasia's mother's name, Fausta, is certainly a mark of Anastasia's appropriation by the Anicians. Therefore, it could hardly belong to the pre-Aquileian Anastasia legend, as we can demonstrate definitively from the eastern texts.

1.4.2 Anastasia S Pre-Aquileian Mother: A Pagan

One has to notice that, in the Arabic and Georgian versions of the Anastasia legend (Martyrdom of Anastasia and Theodota), there is no mention of her mother at all. Indeed, these versions represent an abbreviated Greek recension. However, such an important detail would hardly have been skipped, had it been present in the complete recension. Anastasia's father in these abbreviated recensions is preserved.

The Greek panegyric to Anastasia ascribed to a certain John (BHG 83b) provides additional data in its first part ⁴³. In one place (ch. 6), Anastasia is praised for becoming Christian despite her pagan ancestors and parents; her mother is explicitly called pagan (ed. B. Kotter [46, S. 291]):

This fragment, where Anastasia's mother is called EUpv^ “pagan woman”, is sufficient for insisting that, in the Byzantine legend, there was no christianissima Fausta, and, therefore, the whole block of Chrysogonus-related content was absent. Within this block, the mention of Fausta was the unique detail that was apparently unconnected to Chrysogonus but important for the image of Anastasia. The entire “Chrysogonization” of the Anastasia legend now becomes explainable as an Aquileian editorial layer influenced by the Anicians. Thus, there are no Anicians and no Chrysogonus in the fifth-century Byzantine legend.

The Greek panegyrist did not preserve the name of Anastasia's mother. Perhaps she passed unnamed in his source, although this is not certain.

1.4.3 The Cult of Chrysogonus in Byzantium

The conclusion about the first appearance of Chrysogonus in the Anastasia legend being only in Aquileia can be corroborated with the data on the Byzantine cult of Chrysogonus.

Fig. 1

The Roman feast of Chrysogonus on November 24 (this date of his martyrdom is preserved in LLA, BHG 81, and Martyrologium Hieronymianum) is present in the Synaxarium of Constantinople ⁴⁴, but is absent from the Typikon of the Great Church (ca 900). However, it was present already in the mid-tenth century first recension of the Synaxarium, since it follows from its presence in the Armenian version ⁴⁵.

Even then, in the tenth century, Chrysogonus did not in any case become a popular saint. There is only a single indication of his relative popularity. In the Life of St Andrew the Fool, in the scene when St Andrew was recalled to a feat of foolishness in Christ by St Anastasia (ch. 2), Anastasia appeared to him in a group of five women and one elder; the women were Theodota, Irene, Agape, Chionia, and Anastasia herself, while the elder was obviously Chrysogonus. The whole group becomes identifiable, once the name of Anastasia is pronounced. Chrysogonus, in accordance with LLA and BHG 81, is represented in this scene as a leader of the group ⁴⁶. This scene is, however, an exception in Byzantine hagiography.

The actual late ninth- and tenth-century liturgical tradition of Constantinople was formulated in the Typikon of the Great Church. On December 22, the women alone were commemorated, without a mention of Chrysogonus: aB^qaig xqg аy^аg Avaaramag каі auv aurfl aytov yuvaiK&v [58, p. 142] (“the contest of saint Anastasia and with her saint women”). This title of the respective entry is repeated in the Greek recension of the Synaxarium of Constantinople of Vaticanus gr. 2046 (12^th cent., not taken into account in the edition by Delehaye) and the Slavonic version ⁴⁷. This notice refers to a more complete legend than the Martyrdom of Anastasia and Theodota; it implies that Irene, Agape, and Chionia are not forgotten. Chrysogonus, however, is absent from this list of the legend's headliners. In other recensions of the Synaxarium of Constantinople, the long title of the entry mentioning, after Anastasia, Chrysogonus and the women, is a later addition to the earlier form of the title mentioning Anastasia alone, which is preserved in some Greek recensions as well as in the Armenian and Georgian versions ⁴⁸.

These facts demonstrate that, in the liturgical tradition of Constantinople, there was no specific veneration of Chrysogonus, even among the companions of Anastasia. It is only about the twelfth century when the situation began to change, and some recensions of the Synaxarium of Constantinople acquired, on December 22, a separate entry on Chrysogonus and/or a mention of the martyrdom of Chrysogonus at the end of the entry of Anastasia. Oddly enough, according to these sources, Chrysogonus was decapitated in Nicaea [23, pp. 335-338].

Therefore, for the pre-twelfth-century Byzantine cult ofAnastasia the Widow, Chrysogonus was one among other companions of Anastasia, but not among the exceptional characters of her legend equal to her four women companions. The plot line of Chrysogonus seems to be completely unknown in Byzantium before the translation of LLA in 824; up to this date, there was no trace of any cult of Chrysogonus at all.

1.4.4 Conclusion: No “Chrysogonization” in Byzantium

The Byzantine legend of Anastasia did not include the plot line of Chrysogonus. Therefore, the Latin translation of this legend that became available in Rome did not contain it either.

The part of LLA related to St Chrysogonus is an addition made by the Aquileian editor in the seventh century.

This editor kept in mind the interests of the Anician family. This is why he introduced “the most Christian” Fausta, the bearer of a recognisable Anician cognomen, instead of Anastasia's “original” mother who was a pagan, perhaps unnamed.

Now we become authorized to conclude that the original Constantinopolitan legend of Anastasia consisted of three major blocks:

1) the Roman core;

2) the legend of Theodota, and

3) the legend of Irene, Agape, and Chionia.

The Roman core was free from Aquileian connotations, unconnected to the titulus Chrysogoni church in Rome, and unrelated to St Chrysogonus at all. It was unrelated to the Anicians either.

The pre-seventh-century legend ofAnastasia the Widow is recoverable from LLA through subtraction ofthe elements related to St Chrysogonus and restoring to Anastasia her “original” pagan mother.

2. The Roman Hagiographical Substrate. I: Non-Anastasian Legends

Before the translation of the relics of St Anastasia from Sirmium to Constantinople, Anastasia was certainly venerated as a saint in Rome. We know very little about this cult. Our further investigation of it will proceed along two paths. At first, in the present section, we will study the legends belonging to the Roman core of the Byzantine Anastasia legend but only those that could not be behind the name choice of Anastasia. Then, in the next section, on the second path of investigation, we will trace the Roman presixth century cult(s) of a saint (or saints) called Anastasia.