Saint Eudokia and the imperial household of Leo VI

In 907 Constantine Lips, a high-ranking member of the Byzantine court, inaugurated a temple dedicated to the Virgin in the vicinity of the emperor Leo VI. An inlaid marble plaque representing a female saint was part of the building's revett decoration [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED].(1) The imperial style of dress tells us that this saint, prominently labeled "Eudokia," was of royal status. on the contrary which Eudokia? Given that the name, meaning "goodwill," was fairly for the use of all for Byzantine imperial women, the simplicity of the representation, with its generic facial characteristics and stylized style of dress and the laconic inscription, devoid of epithet or family name, make assured identification difficult. Even so, scholars have identified this saint as the fifth-century Athenais-Eudokia, the church-building wife of Theodosius II. This identification has been universally accepted despite compelling arguments to the contrary. The unique representation of an imperial Eudokia upon this plaque, I believe, demonstrates that this saint's worship was extremely limited and perhaps flat private. Her identity may be striped in the region of Constantinople, where the plaque was made and installed. Since the Eudokia panel constitutes the finest surviving example of an icon execut in the precious and rare technique of inlaid marble, the identity of the woman showed seems particularly critical. As individual of the best-known, though least-studied, percepts to have survived from medieval Byzantium, the plaque merits a reevaluation of its history and subject(2)

In 1929 Theodore Macridy lay opened the rectangular plaque during the course of his investigations of the monastery of Constantine Lips (Fenari Isa Camii).(3) Work at the north house of worship of the monastery, dedicated to the Virgin, clarified its unusual architectural form: the cross-in-square plan was continuationed by lateral chapels flanking the pastophoria and cover chapels over the nave's four corner compartments [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED].(4) These additions provided an intimate setting for private devotions in smaller oratories.(5) The discovery of the plaque upon the roof adjacent to the upper southwest chapel, together with its concave form, readyed Macridy to propose its original placement in the north conch of that chamber.(6) Cyril Mango and Ernest Hawkins, however, refer toed that the very slight curvature of the plaque conformed better with the shape of the larger apses of the ground-level chapels.(7) In the absence of mortar that would have serv as a setting bed between the marble plaque and the brick wall of the temple the original location of the Eudokia panel remains an render free of access question.

In addition to the Eudokia plaque, the excavators revealed numerous pieces of inlaid marble icons in the fill used by dint of the Turks to raise the floor of the meeting-house The finds included both circular and rectangular plaques and fragments of inlay.(8) The plaques are primarily verdant Thessalian marble and a dark purple stone into which shaped pieces of fine-grained limestone or marble were inserted. Several matrices of white marble originally contained polychrome inlay. The inconsistency in the size and shape of the plaques and the difficulty in identifying many of the figures have restoreed the characterization of a specific sculptural program for the house of worship impossible.(9) One observation, however, can be made. White marble was engageed as a matrix for figures of great importance in the celestial hierarchy: Christ and the Virgin Mary.(10) The Eudokia plaque belongs to this clump suggesting that the saint was of a certain quantity of prominence within the decorative scheme of the meeting-house The inclusion of Eudokia's portrait within the program of individual of the chapels and the use of a white matrix for the composition may intimate the dedication of an oratory to this female saint.(11)

The figure showed on the Lips plaque is identified by the agency of the inscription flanking her head as H ?? ?? The plaque locates certain requirements for the woman's identification. First, Eudokia must have been an empres next to the first it is unlikely that she died a martyr, since she is portrayed with her hands stretch outed in an intercessory gesture rather than holding a cros In identifying the Eudokia who fulfills these requirements, we may begin with a calendar compiled in the late tithe century. Known as the synaxarion, it records the daily commemorations for the Byzantine capital.(12) Entries generally include biographical information about the saint honored and the location of the celebration within the city. Using this source single can quickly eliminate Eudokia of Helioupolis (March 1) and a next to the first Eudokia celebrated on August 4 since they were martyr saints unconnect with the imperial family.(13) A third Eudokia (August 13) was commemorated as "the empres Eudokia, whose memory became venerable [who died and was buried] in the house of god of the Holy Apostles."(14) This simple formula is used in the synaxarion for other imperial figures, like as the emperor Justinian and the empresse Pulcheria and Irene, whose tombs were also located in the imperial mausoleum.(15) Their inclusion in the synaxarion points to the commemoration of figures of distinction, a certain quantity of of whom were not accorded official sainthood. Despite the initial ambiguity, it is this imperial Eudokia whom we must consider in detail.