St. Konon of Pamphylia: Scales of Veneration and Local Identity in Late Antiquity

Abstract

Abstract:The cult of saints in late antiquity was built on oral tales of persecuted heroes from the distant past, which from the mid-fourth century began to transform into a literary genre. Though universal, regional, and local cults frequently dwelt in harmony in Christian communities in late antiquity, local veneration of saints served as a symbol of distinct identity, ethnic pride, and local patriotism. The following study examines the veneration of a certain saint, Konon, whose name appears in a dedicatory inscription located on the mosaic floor of a sixth-century private church, on the outskirts of a remote village in Galilee. Out of three martyrs that bore this name, the most suitable to be the Galilean saint is the one who was martyred in the third century in the town of Magidos in Pamphylia. According to his martyrology, Konon of Magidos confessed during his interrogation that he was born in the town of Nazareth in Galilee and that he is related to Christ.In the fifth and even the sixth century, Christians were still a minority in eastern Lower Galilee, a territory that was part of the newly established province of Palaestina Secunda and they needed to contend with Jewish demographic dominance in the region, a reality that drove them to look for local expressions of identity. By applying the concept of scales to the cult of saints in local communities, I stress that recently Christianized Galileans embraced Konon as a venerated saint, and by doing so they turned him into a symbol of Galilean identity and a token of their local "Galilean patriotism."