Seventh-Century Popes and Martyrs: The Political Hagiography of Anastasius Bibliothecarius

by Bronwen Neil

This is the 2nd volume in the series Studia Antiqua Australiensia, produced within the Ancient History Documentation Research Centre, Macquarie University. This collection of Latin texts, published in a new edition with an English translation, draws on the rich hagiographical corpus of Anastasius, papal diplomat, secretary and translator in late ninth-century Rome. The texts concern two controversial Pope Martin I (649-653), whose opposition to the imperially-sponsored doctrines of monoenergism and monothelitism saw him exiled to Cherson where he died in 655, and Maximus the Confessor, an Eastern monk condemned to suffer amputation and exile to Lazica for similar reasons in 662. The author seeks to place these works in their political context, namely the growing hostility between the eastern and western churches in the late ninth century, and to assess Anastasius's contribution to the deteriorating relations between the two through his translations of hagiography.

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

Bronwen Neil is the Burke Senior Lecturer in Ecclesiastical Latin at ACU Brisbane, and acting director of the Centre for Early Christian Studies in first semester, 2012. In the eleven years since she received her doctorate from Australian Catholic University, Dr Neil has made significant achievements in the study of early Christian history. Her publications reflect a rare command of a broad range of areas, including Greek and Latin text edition, Byzantine theology, the cult of martyrs, hagiography and bishops of Rome in the fourth to ninth centuries. An Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (2001-2005) resulted in a monograph published by Brepols in the new series Studia Antiqua Australiensia (2006). In 2009 Dr Neil published Leo the Great in the Routledge series The Early Church Fathers. Dr Neil’s expertise has been recognised by invitations to contribute various chapters to books and Festschriften and several articles to encyclopediae and dictionaries, including Encyclopedia of Biblical Reception (vols. 2 and 3, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011) and the forthcoming Dictionary of Late Antiquity (Oxford University Press). She is currently completing a book (with P. Allen) on Crisis Management in Late Antiquity: The Evidence of Episcopal Letters, and another on the letters of Pope Gelasius I (492-496).

Reviews

[Nevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing for those looking for a translation from this time period about Pope Martin I. However, the reading level was more academic than I was expecting and I had to look up some more supplemental information to truely appreciate the work provided. This is book is more a critical discussion of the manuscript preservation and contents, while I was hoping for more history, the translations of Latin texts made it worth while for me in the need. Definitely a happy purchase and read for me.