ЖИТИЈЕ ПАТРИЈАРХА НИКИФОРА ЦАРИГРАДСКОГ ОД ИГЊАТИЈА ЂАКОНА КАО ИЗВОР ЗА БЛИЖЕ ДАТОВАЊЕ ВРЕМЕНА НАСТАНКА „КРАТКЕ ИСТОРИЈЕ“
Abstract
Ignatios, deacon and skeuophylax of the Great Church of Holy Wisdom is
renowned as one of the most fruitful writers of the first half of the IX century and among
other works, as the author of two vitae, namely those of the patriarchs Tarasios and
Nikephoros. Ignatios’ vita of the patriarch Nikephoros (806 – 815) is listed among
hagiographies of a higher literary level and is referred to “as a synthesis composed of
rhetorical, biographical, theological and historical elements”. Precisely these biographical
and historical elements which Ignatios the Deacon interpolated in to Nikephoros’ vita can
be helpful in an attempt to date more closely the “Short History”, especially since it is
almost certain that Ignatios was a younger contemporary of the patriarch Nikephoros,
referring to him in the prologue of the vita as his “son”, a remark which has more than one
layer of meaning and message.
Hitherto, all analysis concerning the date of the “Short History”, were, naturally,
based on “internal indications” present in the text, suggesting a wide time span from 780
until 828. Ignatios the Deacon’s „Life of the patriarch Nikephoros“, however, contains two
notices that might indicate a narrower time span, between 787. and 806, as the date when
Nikephoros might have written his „History“.
Namely, when referring to Nikephoros’ seclusion on the opposite shore of the
Bosporus, that could have happened as early as in 787., after the Seventh ecumenical
council, Ignatios states that the future patriarch devoted himself not only to prayer and the
reading of Scripture, but also to secular studies. It is worth noticing, that hereafter, Ignatios
gives a very similar description of Nikephoros’ rhetorical style as is present in Photios’
„Bibliotheca“ regarding Nikephoros’ narration in „Short History“. The above mentioned
secular studies of Nikephoros, which he conducted while leading the ascetic life, we are
inclined to accept as a brief notice regarding the work on the “Short History”, or at least as
a preparation for the writing of his historical work.
The second notice, a more explicit one, presented by Ignatios refers to the time
when Nikephoros was made patriarch by the choice of Emperor Nikephoros I, who, having
in mind Nikephoros’ „virtues and his crucial contribution in both spiritual and secular
writings“, proclaimed him patriarch of Constantinople.
Mention of „secular writings“ seems to be an authentic data, since these are not a
common part of a topos of erudition which is, in Byzantine hagiography, often attributed to
a saint as one of his virtues or as a foretoken of his sainthood. How ever, the reason why
Ignatios avoided mentioning it directly remains unclear. May be it is due to the literary
form of his high styled vita of the patriarch Nikephoros, which he did not want to disrupt.
Due to this information provided by Ignatios the Deacon, especially after
comparing some of them to the words of Photios in his “Bibliotheca” regarding the “Short
History”, we would suggest that Nikephoros perhaps started his work on writing the „Short
History“ in 787, a labor that was completed before he was elected patriarch of
Constantinople in 806.
References
Nicephori archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani opuscula historica, ed. C. de Boor
Leipzig, 1880; repr. New York 1975.
C. Mango, Nikephoros Patriarch of Constantinople, Short History, Text,
translation and commentary, Washington D. C. 1990.
N. Oiconomidès, Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles,
Introduction, texte, traduction et commentaire, Paris 1972.
Photius, Bibliothèque, ed. R. Henry, vol. I ("codices" 1 - 84) Paris 1959.
Литература
P. J. Alexander, The Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople, Oxford 1958.
J. B. Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire II, Amsterdam 1966.
S. Efthymiadis, On the Hagiographical Work of Ignatius the Deacon, JÖB 41
(1991) 73-83.
S. Efthymiadis, The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon,
Birmingham 1998.
A. Kazhdan, A History of Byzantine Literature (650 - 850), Athens 1999.
C. Mango,The Breviarium of the Patriarch Nikephoros, Byzance: Hommage à A.
N. Stratos II, Athens 1986, 539-552.
C. Mango, The Correspondence of Ignatios the Deacon. Text, translation, and
commentary, Washington D. C. 1997.
W. Ohnsorge, Konstantinopel und der Okzident, Darmstadt 1966.
P. O’Connel, The Ecclesiology of St Nicephorus I (758-828) Patriarch of
Constantinople, Rome 1972.
P. Speck, Kaiser Konstantin VI II, Münich 1978.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium III, A. Kazhdan et al. (eds.), New York –
Oxford 1991.
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