Political ‘expedience’ and peripheral saints: assimilating St. Asteios of Dyrrachion in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition

Abstract

Nearly twenty years after Antony Bryer raised St. Asteios of Dyrrachion from obscurity this article aspires to shed more light on the significance of this little-known saint. Despite the paucity of archaeological evidence, hagiographic texts help reconstruct and contextualize the steps in the institutionalization of a local martyr that appear to reflect the strategic importance of the city. The limited imagery of St. Asteios, including his unexplored portrait from the church of the Saviour at Rubik in modern Albania, are also used to substantiate his emblematic function as the local model of a Christian martyr-hero and, more importantly, his visual 'identification' with the city of Dyrrachion. St. Asteios is known as the first bishop of Dyrrachion (mod. Durres, Albania) who was martyred at the time of the emperor Trajan (r. 98-117). Accused of ravaging idols and refusing to denounce Christ, he was tortured and left to die on a cross by the city walls on 5, 6 or 7 July, depending on the cited athlesis. 1 His death is associated with the martyrdom of seven secondary martyrs, the so-called Peregrinoi. Encouraged by St. Asteios' defiance, they confessed their faith and were drowned in the sea. Their bodies washed up on the coast and were deposited 'in the sand'. 2 Despite his modest profile and scant material evidence of his cult, St. Asteios attracted much scholarly interest. He was raised from obscurity by Anthony Bryer and, later, the Buschhausens, who linked his early cult with the southwest chapel of the Roman amphitheatre at Dyrrachion and placed it in the fifth-sixth century. 3