The shadow of the future: Ritual and eschatology in the early Byzantine city (AD 394--404) (Saint John Chrysostom)

This dissertation represents an effort to contextualize an early Byzantine sermon by John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople (398--404), delivered during the translatio of some anonymous martyrs' relics. The procession extended from the Great Church to the suburban martyrium of the Apostle Thomas at Drypia, located near the ninth milestone of the Via Egnatia. The first chapter sets the stage by examining three themes to establish the cultural background against which the ritual and text must be juxtaposed. They include the development of a new ideology of the imperial office under Theodosius I (379--395), expressed after the defeat of the "pagan" army of Eugenius at the Frigidus River. Section 2 of the same chapter picks up with its aftermath, discussing the evidence for the martyrdom of a band of Cappadocian missionaries in the Alps, whom the communis opinio considers to be the saints translated to Drypia. The final section of chapter 1 explores the evidence for the expression of social and cultural discontinuities in terms of eschatological language. Chapter 1 represents the investigation into the "past" contexts of the sermon, and chapter 2 explores its "present," that is, the situation in Constantinople at the time of the sermon's composition. After a brief historical orientation, chapter 2.2 links the procession with the liturgical innovations of the late fourth century, and 2.3 presents a reconstruction of the route of the procession and the significance of topographical features. Chapter 2.4 presents Edessa, home of St. Thomas, as an ideological model for the capital in the context of the Arian controversy. Chapter 3 continues the argument with a view to the "future," specifically Chrysostom's employment of the eschatological image of the river of fire. The use of fire in late antique ritual, especially as a symbol of purification, is also the topic of chapter 3.2. I conclude, in chapter 3.3, that the sermon must be read not only with an eye to ongoing pagan-Christian hostilities, or the Arian crisis, but also in light of the influx of "Messalian" ideas into Asia Minor, to which Chrysostom's homily at Drypia is an attempt to respond.