Saint Anargyroi in the programmes of Middle Byzantine churches with burials

Abstract

The article discusses the tendency to depict the saints anargyroi near the burial places in Byzantine churches. The purpose of the study is to establish possible factors in the formation of such programs. The methodology is comprehensive: the results of iconographic analysis are compared with data gleaned from historical researches and liturgical studies. In the previous literature, the iconographic tendency under study was considered mainly on the basis of Serbian monuments of the 13th to 14th centuries and in the light of literary sources relating the facts of miraculous healings at tombs. In the present study, attention shifts to the ensembles of the period of the Komnenoi and the Angeloi — from the frescoes of Bachkovo to the murals of Panagia Krena in Chios (1197). It is suggested that the inclusion of the images of saintly healers in the decorations of burial sites was stimulated by the texts of the funeral services, such as the ancient prayer Ὁ θεὸς τῶν πνευμάτων καὶ πάσης σαρκός (God of the spirits and of all flesh), on the one hand, and the participation of physicians from the hospital at the Pantokrator monastery in Constantinople in the posthumous commemorations on the tombs of John II Komnenos (1118–1143) and members of his family, on the other. The last factor seems to be most important, and it is given special attention. It is shown that the participation of doctors in memorial services in the monastery of Christ Pantokrator was the result of the intersection in this place of two initially unrelated trends — the growing interest in medicine and increased attention to burials and funeral rites on the part of Komnenian ktetors. In turn, this concern in regard to death and posthumous commemorations is linked to certain aspects of the so-called Evergetine reform movement.