ABSTRACT
Most historians of Byzantine art know Gregory Nazianzenos through the deluxe editions of his homilies, which oĞen include illustrations of his life. Foremost among these is the ninth-century Paris Gregory (Bibliothèque Nationale, cod. gr. 510), amply discussed by Leslie Brubaker, to whom this volume of essays is dedicated.1 A well-known, three-registered miniature on fol. 542r prefaces the saint’s vita by Gregory the Presbyter, but the illustrations are frustratingly generic: Gregory leaves his family by ship (not possible from Cappadocia), is consecrated as a bishop (of Constantinople?), and is buried (where?). As Brubaker emphasizes, the accumulated detail and lack of specificity bespeak a universalizing interpretation to the life of Gregory.2 Regarded as a saint by both the Eastern and Western churches, his universality seems to have affected the later history of his relics as well. In contrast to miniaturists’ generalized vision of Gregory’s life, in what follows, I shall aĴempt to put Gregory in his place by examining the sites associated with him in Cappadocia and by following the peregrinations of his relics. Finally, I shall look for evidence of special devotion to Gregory in Cappadocia during
1 L. Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (Cambridge, 1999). In my first encounter with Leslie Brubaker in 1980-81, when we were both Junior Fellows at Dumbarton Oaks, she was hot on the trail of ‘Greg Naz,’ writing a dissertation on ‘The Illustrated Copy of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, cod. gr. 510)’, The Johns Hopkins University, 1983, Ph.D. diss. Leslie was very much on my mind when I later (repeatedly) stumbled across relics, architecture, and images associated with Gregory. I dedicate this paper to her with respect and affection – and thanks for the dance.
