Crisis of Empire. Phil Booth

supplicants at Menuthis must not only cleanse themselves of sin but also illuminate their souls through communion. In Miracles 12 the saints repeatedly appear to the anti-Chalcedonian heretic Julian, “warning him to renounce that dogma and to embrace the communion of the catholic Church. And often they carried a goblet full of the holy body and blood of the Lord and ordered him to approach it, seemingly taking communion themselves and summoning Julian to commune with them.”¹⁶⁶ In Miracles 37 Sophronius describes how the blinded heretic John came to the saints’ shrine in search of a cure. “John was sleeping on a bed,” he tells us, “and as he slept he saw himself stood before the tomb of the saints, and he begged for the strength back in his eyes. And as he did this he seemed to see the saints seated before their own tomb in the form and shape of priests. They rose from their seats, and taking John’s hand led him to the divine altar. Standing him there, they offered him the bread that had become the holy and life-giving body of Christ. And after partaking of this, they took again from the mystical table a goblet full of divine milk, and gave it to him to drink. . . . After this they dismissed John and addressed him with these words: ‘See, young man, you have learned the way of true life. In future partake of Christ’s mysteries here.’ For John was of the same doctrine as Theodosius and Severus, and had obtained the rank of subdeacon in their sect.”¹⁶⁷ Waking up John then “immediately partook of the mysteries where he was commanded, setting aside all his previous doctrine and embracing the soul-aiding preaching of the Church. When he had done this as was ordained, on the third day he saw light with his eyes, which followed the immediate illumination of his soul [phōtismos tēs psuchēs].”¹⁶⁸

      In the subsequent miracle, the saints once again demand that a heretic, Stephanus, partake in the orthodox eucharist. Cyrus appears in a dream and says to the patient, “Truly, brother, I want more than anything to hear you saying, as you approach the temple, ‘Amen, amen, Lord.’” Then Stephanus “knew that he was talking about partaking in the mysteries of Christ.” “For,” Sophronius interjects, “this is what we say in response to the priests when they distribute the life-giving and salvific body and blood of Christ God, bearing witness with our own voice and confessing that it is true and called true that it is given by them for our spiritual nourishment [trophē pneumatikē] and release from sins [aphesis hamartiōn].”¹⁶⁹ Stephanus partakes of the Chalcedonian eucharist and is cured of his blindness, yet the disease returns when the saints punish him for intending to revert to his former dogma. Then, “when the divine martyrs saw him sincerely promising and hurrying with all his might to honor his agreement with them concerning the faith, again they appeared to him in a dream, standing at the altar of Christ and offering bloodless sacrifice, which they brought and presented to him. And as he again partook of it they showed him the Church, Bride of the Savior, flashing in bright clothes, divinely ornamented and with an incomparable beauty that it is not possible to describe in human words. And coming forward to the august altar, she herself again took the mysteries of Christ that lay there and offered them to Stephen. And when the saints asked her if what was given sufficed for perfection [pros teleiōsin], she replied with these words: ‘I want him to abound in divine gifts, and to acquire more than what is given. For now I have received him as one who is enlightened, and from now on he shall be called my son.’ And having spoken thus to the martyrs, she hung from his neck a golden cross that shone with radiant precious stones about his chest, providing this as a proof of the illumination [phōtisma] that had been given to him.”¹⁷⁰ Sophronius refers to the event as an “initiation” (mustagōgia).¹⁷¹

      

      Conversely, those pagans and heretics who approach the eucharist without abandoning sin are punished. In Miracles 31 Sophronius relates the tale of one Theodore, who “while in the temple of the saints, after partaking in the life-giving mysteries of Christ—and whence motivated I do not know: either with something urging him on to anger or inflamed by some great mania and burning with the movement of simmering blood around the heart—the wretched, sorry man insulted the Divine by blaspheming, not by simple words or by abusing him as if he were a fellow slave but by sucking up air through the nostrils and making a noise like some terrible thunder, which forced everyone who was present, who saw it, and who unwittingly heard it, straightaway to shudder.”¹⁷² Sophronius then comments: “Many Christians do this, [not] realizing that they are blaspheming, as I see it; for they are completely unaware of what they are doing. If they understood it properly, they would not do it after a myriad tortures. Perhaps it is not pointless to describe this evil. For perhaps when some learn its nature, and that it is an invention worthy of pagan impiety, they will protect themselves against such folly. Porphyry says that when the pagans offer their polluted sacrifices to idols, they sneeze violently and produce such a noise through a forceful, powerful inhalation of the breath, [thinking that they thus] compose a sacred hymn. . . . This, then, is the nature of such noises, which exist for the service of demons, and which force those who produce them imperceptibly to celebrate the impure demons.”¹⁷³ Returning to his tale, Sophronius thus relates how “Theodore used this loathsome and demon-pleasing noise after [taking] the food of immaculate communion, and immediately was deprived of his sight and blinded, finding a vengeance to accompany his blasphemy.”¹⁷⁴

      The same emphasis upon ritual purity occurs most emphatically within the next miracle, which again concerns a pagan. The silver seller Agapius is convicted of idolatry in Constantinople but flees to Alexandria, “thinking that he could here lie low and be hidden.”¹⁷⁵ When he is then afflicted with paralysis (“the work of justice”), some people advise him to go to Saints Cyrus and John for a cure. Fearing lest in his unwillingness he be unveiled as a pagan (“for the wretched man was pretending to be a Christian”), Agapius acquiesces and travels to their shrine.¹⁷⁶ “Not long after,” says Sophronius, “who he was became known to the [other] patients, for as in the manner of heresy he refused to partake of the life-giving mysteries, and much murmuring against him arose among those in the temple. When he realized this, wanting to avert suspicion, he partook of the holy mysteries of Christ. And swiftly after his participation in them, a savage demon fell upon him, exactly as Satan attacked the traitorous Judas after he took the bread that the Savior gave, having dipped it. . . . Tortured by the demon and continuously under its spell, even while asleep, if indeed he did sleep, he was convicted of approaching the mysteries not with faith but with hypocrisy.”¹⁷⁷ Those around Agapius realize that the demon will soon kill him, and they remove him from the temple to travel to Alexandria to die. “But when he had left the saints’ temple, and traveled a short distance, he breathed his last in much pain, and thus obtained a death worthy of his impiety, for the demon choked him on the road.”¹⁷⁸

      For Sophronius the eucharist is the central marker of membership within the Chalcedonian Church. It has, moreover, a powerful and emphatic spiritual effect: it provides “illumination of the soul,” “spiritual nourishment,” “release from sins.” There is, however, a central paradox, for although Sophronius of all miracle authors devotes most space to the eucharist, and although he regards eucharistic participation as the central medium through which the boundaries of the orthodox group are constructed, it is nevertheless notable that mention of the eucharist within the Miracles of Cyrus and John occurs only in those cases where the supplicant is a heretic or a pagan (Miracles 12, 31, 32, 36–39). Eucharistic communion thus provides an initial moment of spiritual enlightenment in a context of conversion, but in no other instances (where the orthodox credentials of a supplicant are assumed) is there any mention of participation in the shrine’s eucharistic rituals. For most subjects, therefore, the purification of the soul (and thus appeasement of the saints) is achieved not through communion with Christ in the eucharist but through communion with Christ in ascetic imitation.¹⁷⁹ Although the eucharist occupies a privileged position as a fundamental expression of orthodox belief, as a permanent mode of spiritual enlightenment (and thus also as a strategy for saintly appeasement) it here seems ineffective.¹⁸⁰

      THE MIRACLES IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

      The general restriction of the eucharist within the Miracles of Cyrus and John is symptomatic of a broader marginalization of clerical personnel and ecclesial context within Sophronius’s scheme. Enigmatic dreams, it should be noted, are exceptional, and only once do we glimpse a possible clerical arbitration