ABSTRACT
The cult of saints has received much scholarly attention. The relative popularity and prestige of holy figures have usually been examined through hagiography, imagery and in the context of pilgrimage or loca sancta. The role of the homonymous saint is also a factor in determining a bishop’s sphragistic imagery, testifying to some degree of personal choice within the established office of the episcopacy. Metropolitans most often selected the image of the indigenous saint for their seals, whereas their dependent bishops usually did not adopt the iconography of their superiors. Many preferred some type of Marian imagery while others chose their homonymous saint or that of a more proximate cult. Sphragistic imagery paralleled the fractured realities of the ecclesiastical administration of the provinces. The great metropolitan cults appear to be unrelated to the civil and military offices as well.
