A Story of Reinvention: St Artemius as a Reflection of Byzantine History (4th-14th centuries)

This paper explores, over the course of a millennium, the multiple transformations in the memory of St. Artemius, a 4th-century Byzantine saint, still widely celebrated today in Eastern Mediterranean. The evolution of his memory presents a paradoxical case: that of a historical heretic persecutor who ultimately came to be revered as a champion of orthodoxy, yet one who endorsed various sanctoral facets – including that of a healer of testicular hernia and genital diseases – and who traversed three continents in order for his cult to gain acceptance. The trajectory of the saint over the centuries thus highlights the strategies employed by successive hagiographers to promote a problematic cult to various Christian audiences. Through this case study, the paper draws on hagiographic, narrative, and iconographic sources to examine the flexibility of hagiographic codes and commemorative practices between Late Antiquity and the Late Middle Ages, when a saint’s memory could be adapted, magnified, or erased in response to evolving needs. In this context, the continual reinvention of St Artemius’ memory also offers a unique lens through which to examine the religious, political, and social transformations experienced by the Byzantine Empire from the 4th to the 14th centuries.