St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki: Civic patron and divine protector (4th-7th c. CE)

The late antique city of Thessaloniki claimed particular devotion to a local Christian hero and martyr of the early fourth century named Demetrios. Hagiographical texts depict Demetrios as a young Roman citizen who was arrested, jailed, and martyred during a visit by the emperor Galerius to Thessaloniki in the first decade of the fourth century. A popular local veneration of the saint quickly developed; by the middle of the seventh century St. Demetrios was venerated as divine patron and protector of Thessaloniki. This dissertation seeks to analyze the process of how the martyr Demetrios, who was one among several early fourth-century martyrs of Thessaloniki, rose to the status of divine urban patron.;This thesis argues that the popularity and rapid expansion of the cult of St. Demetrios was due to a combination of several factors: (a) the intra-muros location of the saint's basilica, (b) the absence of the bones of the saint, (c) Thessaloniki's success in withstanding the sixth and seventh-century sieges of the Avars and Slavs, and (d) the conscious effort by civic leaders, especially the early seventh-century archbishop of Thessaloniki, John, to cast St. Demetrios as a religious and civic symbol of Thessaloniki.;This dissertation is expressly focused upon explicating the processes involved in the formation of a martyr cult. It presents evidence for the involvement of ecclesiastical elites in creating an official cult out of, and in relation to, the popular religious sentiments of local believers. In addition, the cult of St. Demetrios is shown to have developed in a manner quite different than other contemporary martyr cults. Wider implications for the history of martyr veneration in Early Christianity are therefore extracted.;Through the examination of archaeological, art historical, and textual evidence the cult of St. Demetrios is shown to have originated as a popular, non-elite, veneration of a local martyr. Of the numerous interventions of St. Demetrios, the martyr is best known for his powers of healing, the care and concern he shows the city and its citizens in times of famine and disease, and his defense of the city from barbarian attacks.