Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mwo1vc5w3y
The hagiographic heritage of the Nin Church and its relation to the hagiographic tradition of the Salona-Split Church: conflict between the Salona-Split and Nin bishops with respect to the founding of the metropolitanate in historical and hagiographic literature
Zvjezdan Strika
orcid.org/0000-0002-1014-8231
; Augsburg, Germany
Abstract
In Croatian hagiographic literature, the Salona-Split church and the Nin church take an indispensable place. Salona takes pride in its early-Christian martyrs, whereas the Nin church is content with a somewhat narrower range of its hagiographic heritage. Historia Salonitana Maior informs us that the metropolitanate in Dalmatia with the seat in Split was founded (restored) in the first half of the 10th century. Thanks to favourable political circumstances, Bishop John of Split managed to defeat its rivals (Formin of Zadar and Gregory of Nin) and assume the office of the metropolitan bishop. Latin hagiographic literature on St. Domnius’s martyr’s death assumed at this historical moment the key role. Its content supported the strivings of the Split church; the First Council of Split held hence that Apostle Peter had sent Domnius to Salona to preach, and prescribed that the church and the city in which his bones had been laid to rest enjoyed priority. Regardless of justified doubt concerning the authenticity of the Council provision, hagiographic heritage invents neither events nor persons; it only presents the development of church structures in its own fashion. It is a witness of Christian civilisation, speaking even when other sources become silent.
It was thanks to the hagiographic tradition related to St. Domnius that the Split church became the seat of the metropolitanate. It is however not only so that it refers to the apostolic tradition. There is moreover the hagiographic triad: bishop Anselm, virgin Marcela and deacon Ambrose, who all supported the Bishop of Nin. They unite three major institutions within their triad: the cathedral, i.e. the bishop; the female Benedictine convent of the church of St. Mary; and the male Benedictine monastery of St. Ambrose. Furthermore, they were in direct contact with the apostles. Bishop Anselm arrived in Nin upon Apostle Paul’s personal directions. Deacon Ambrose and cousin Marcela supported his apostolic activity. The Nin tradition has it that Anselm was one of the seventy-two Disciples of Christ, whom Jesus had sent two by two to every place he intended to visit (Luke 10, 1). It was him who arrived in Nin, where he preached with great success, built a church, and consecrated it in honour of the Holy Trinity. Anselm’s cousin Marcela, servant with Lazarus’s sister Martha, arrived in Nin after a round journey: Martha, exiled from the Holy Land, took refuge in Marseille, where Marcela continued to live in her company. Only after Martha had died, Marcela came to Nin.
Keywords
church structures in Dalmatia; Split–Nin relations; Salona-Split metropolitanate; hagiography of the Nin church; Anselm; Marcela; Ambrose
Hrčak ID:
191094
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2017.
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