Crisis of Empire. Phil Booth
Sophronius, Miracles 2.2–3 [Marcos 247]. On the importance of faith (and the rejection of doubt) within the Miracles see also Maraval (1981) 384–87.
151. Sophronius, Miracles 69.6–7 [Marcos 393]. Cf. Sophronius, Miracles 48.4 (two-year wait), 48.8 (three-year wait).
152. Cf. ibid. 1.12–13 [Marcos 246], in which the saints cure the “vainglory” (to kenodoxon) of a patient’s soul through ordering him to wear a sackcloth (“which the very poor wear because it is very cheap”) and to carry drinking water on his shoulders “to the weaker brothers.”
153. Sophronius, Miracles 13.3 [Marcos 270]. Cf. Sophronius, Miracles 42.4 [Marcos 344], in which the saints’ surgery is said to “keep off all accidie and disease.” For the importance of patience cf. Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 1; Miracles of Artemius 27.
154. On “persuasion” and “punishment”’ see Sophronius, Miracles 12.7–8 [Marcos 266] on the heretic Julian: “Sometimes also [the saints] disputed with him over dogma, proclaiming the truth heralded in the Church, and swore that here was the true proclamation of our God, Christ. But when they had done all these things and more, and could not persuade Julian, who did not want to be persuaded, again they renewed his former illness.”
155. Sophronius, Miracles 36.8 [Marcos 324].
156. On the “spiritual meaning” of illness within the patristic tradition more broadly see Larchet (1991) trans. Breck and Breck 55–77.
157. Sophronius, Miracles 29.1 [Marcos 298].
158. Sophronius, Miracles 35.5 [Marcos 320]. Cf. Sophronius, Miracles 42.6 [Marcos 345]: “Certain people arrive here in need of a greater correction (paideia), and others again others deserve to be healed quickly.”
159. Sophronius, Miracles 17.1 [Marcos 276].
160. See Sophronius, Miracles 28 and 49. Cf. ibid. 17.2 [Marcos 276]: “And I will recall one or two in the present narrative who received no help from the saints. So that knowing their zeal for faith and hatred of base deeds, men may hurry to please them both in life and in faith.” [Marcos 276].
161. See Sophronius, Miracles. 37.10 [Marcos 332f.]. Cf. Sophronius, Miracles 13.7–8. For incredulity preventing cure cf. Miracles of Thecla 25; Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 21.
162. Sophronius, Miracles 16.4 [Marcos 275].
163. Sophronius, Miracles 11.9 [Marcos 264]. For comment see Schönborn (1972) 196–98.
164. On this aspect of Sophronius’s theology see Schönborn (1972) 141–47. It should be noted, however, that there is no indication within Sophronius’s Miracles that the author thinks in corresponding terms of either “one” or “two” Christological wills, as I was tempted to think in Booth (2009). Cf. below pp. 197, 265
165. Sophronius, Miracles 65.4 [Marcos 385].
166. Sophronius, Miracles 12.7 [Marcos 266].
167. Sophronius, Miracles 37.3–4 [Marcos 330f.].
168. Sophronius, Miracles 37.5–6 [Marcos 331]. Cf. Sophronius, Miracles 36.22 [Marcos 327]: The heretic Theodore “immediately entered the sanctuary [phōtistērion] and partook of the mysteries of Christ, and in partaking of the mysteries illuminated his soul.”
169. Sophronius, Miracles 38.4 [Marcos 333f.].
170. Sophronius, Miracles 38.10–11 [Marcos 335]. Cf. 39.10–11 [Marcos 338]: “For as [the heretic Menas] slept, he saw the saints at the blessed sanctuary and mystical, heavenly table, as if participating in the holy mysteries. They turned, and when they saw that he was not following, they turned to him, and holding rods in their hands they struck him hard and revealed to him the reason for his punishment: ‘When you see us entering into communion,’ they said, ‘why do you not partake with us? If you want to stay in our home, follow what we ordain. Where we enjoy the Master’s nourishment, there you also participate.’ And they pointed to the holy table with outstretched fingers. . . . When he woke up, he was racked with pains and had bruises as if he had been struck while awake, which bore witness to the will of the saints. Whence he got up and immediately took communion and threw off the pains of his trials. And having illuminated his soul with the grace of true faith, he gained the goodwill of the saints for the future.” See also the extra text of Sophronius, Miracles 39.5, preserved in Latin at PG 89:3, 3574A (with Gascou [2006] 146f.), referring to the eucharist in the context of the heretic Peter’s conversion.
171. Sophronius, Miracles 38.11 [Marcos 335].
172. Sophronius, Miracles 31.1 [Marcos 306].
173. Sophronius, Miracles 31.2–3 [Marcos 306f.]. On paganism in the text see also Sophronius, Miracles 54.6 (a woman who refuses to eat pork “because of the death of Adonis”), with Marcos (1975) 142 n. 101, and cf. the Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 2, in which the saints force a Jewish woman to eat pork.
174. Sophronius, Miracles 31.3 [Marcos 307]. On this phenomenon see Gascou (2006) 108 n. 618. For Sophronius’s concern for ritual purity cf. the Hellenophile Gesius’s baptism at Sophronius, Miracles 30.2 [Marcos 302; cf. Odyssey 4.511]: “And when he rose out of the divine bath he impiously pronounced that line of Homer, ‘Ajax perished when he tasted the bitter water.’”
175. Sophronius, Miracles 32.1–2 [Marcos 308].
176. Sophronius, Miracles 32.5–6 [Marcos 309f.].
177. Sophronius, Miracles 32.9 [Marcos 311].
178. Sophronius, Miracles 32.10 [Marcos 311]. On ritual purity see also Egyptian Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 32, in which a supplicant prepares for the eucharist through fasting.
179. Cf. however Sophronius, Miracles 56.3–4, in which the saints offer a “blessing” (perhaps the eucharist) to a patient in the shrine’s toilets.
180. On the similarity of the eucharist to baptism in Sophronius’s Miracles see Déroche (2002) 171 n. 16; Csepregi (2006) 107.
181. See Sophronius, Miracles 11.8 (John the Deacon acts as interpreter). On the problem of dream interpretation in the various miracle collections see Déroche (2000) 160–62.
182. See Sophronius, Miracles 12.7, 32.7, 36.13, 37.3, 37.9. For the saints as clerics cf. Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 18. On the Miracles of Artemius, however, see Woods (2000).
183. See also the saints’ performance of a quasi baptism in the shrine’s bath complex at Sophronius, Miracles 52.3–4; cf. ibid. 8.15. For the appropriation of liturgical acts by other saints cf. Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 21; Miracles of Artemius 32, 41.
184. For the date see Dagron (1978) 17–19. It should be noted, however, that not all the miracles within the Miracles of Thecla concern incubation.
185. For the dates of the first three collections (Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 1–26), see Booth (2011a).
186. For the text’s date and composition (which still requires further examination) see Haldon (1997) 33–35; pace Nesbitt (1997) 7f.
187. For the date see Lemerle (1979–81) vol. 2, 79f. Like the Miracles of Thecla, however, not all miracles contained within John of Thessalonica’s Miracles of Demetrius concern incubation. For further miracle collections of the period see Déroche (1993) n. 1, to which we can perhaps add at least some of the miracles associated with St. George; see Festugière (1971) 259–67; Hoyland (1997) 89–91.
188. Miracles of Thecla 4 [Dagron 296].
189. Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 16 [Deubner 141]. Cf. for similar statements Miracles of Cosmas and Damian 6 [Deubner 111] and 26 [Deubner 167f.].
190. See the words of patients at Miracles of Artemius 5 (Crisafulli and Nesbitt 86: “I was diseased in the testicles and waited upon saint Artemius in the Church of Saint John the Baptist at Oxeia, and my sin prevented me from being healed”) and 35 (Crisafulli and Nesbitt 184–86: “My children, my sins are impeding me; I am not worthy to obtain a cure on account of my deeds.”).
191. Miracles of Thecla 6