Burying the Saints Next to the Common Dead: the Burial Habits of the Christian Elite in the 4th c. and the First Translations of Relics

Efthymios Rizos

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Burying the Saints Next to the Common Dead: the Burial Habits of the Christian Elite in the 4th c. and the First Translations of Relics

In: Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity

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Efthymios Rizos

Efthymios Rizos
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 248–264

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004687981_014

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Abstract

This paper explores the connection between the burial habits of the Christian lay elite and the origins of the use of partitioned and transferred relics of saints. On the basis of textual and archaeological evidence, it is argued that the mobility of relics was linked to the desire of powerful Christians to have their dead buried near the saints (ad sanctos). Perhaps emulating the model of the mausoleum of Constantine the Great, the earliest known translations of relics were conducted for the consecration of private funerary shrines in 4th c. Anatolia and Constantinople. Privately sponsored by lay aristocrats in collaboration with bishops and monks, these early translations were opposed by imperial legislation and parts of the Christian community, but they gradually contributed to normalising this controversial practice, until it became an established aspect of public religion by the 5th c.

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Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity

Volume 1: Thematic Perspectives

Series: Late Antique Archaeology, Volume: 13/1

Cover Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004687981

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 18 Sep 2024

Subjects

Front Matter

Bioarchaeology

Treatment of the Body

Mausolea

Funerary Landscapes

Other Memorials: Statue Monuments

Tombs and Spolia in City Walls

Spolia and Civic Memory

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Burying the Saints Next to the Common Dead: the Burial Habits of the Christian Elite in the 4th c. and the First Translations of Relics

Abstract

Citation Info

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Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity

Volume 1: Thematic Perspectives

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