Placidia Palace
Encyclopedia
Papal apocrisiarius
The apocrisiarius or apocrisiary was the legate from the Pope to the Patriarch of Constantinople, circa 452-743, equivalent to the modern nunciature.-Nomenclature:...
(the ambassador from the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
to the Patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
), and the intermittent home of the Pope himself when in residence at Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. The apocrisiarius held "considerable influence as a conduit for both public and covert communications" between Pope and Byzantine emperor.
The residence of the apocrisiarius in the Placidia Palace dates to the end of the Acacian schism
Acacian schism
The Acacian schism between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches lasted thirty-five years, from 484-519. It resulted from a drift in the leaders of Eastern Christianity toward Monophysitism, and Emperor Zeno's unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the parties with the Henotikon.-Chronology:In the...
in 519. The ambassador was usually a deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
of Rome, and held an official position in the Byzantine imperial court. Anachronistically, the building can be referred to as the first nunciature.
Construction and localization
The palace was built by Galla PlacidiaGalla Placidia
Aelia Galla Placidia , daughter of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, was the Regent for Emperor Valentinian III from 423 until his majority in 437, and a major force in Roman politics for most of her life...
, near the ta Armatiou quarter in the tenth district of the city between the Gate of the Plataea and the Monastery of the Pantokrator.
The palace of Galla Placidia was one of several aristocratic residences (oikoi) built in the city's northwestern region during the late 4th and early 5th centuries. The tenth district included the palaces built by the Augusta
Augusta (honorific)
Augusta was the imperial honorific title of empresses. It was given to the women of the Roman and Byzantine imperial families. In the third century, Augustae could also receive the titles of Mater castrorum and Mater Patriae .The title implied the greatest prestige, with the Augustae able to...
Aelia Eudocia
Aelia Eudocia
Aelia Eudocia Augusta was the wife of Theodosius II, and a prominent historical figure in understanding the rise of Christianity during the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. Eudocia lived in a world where Greek paganism and Christianity were still coming together...
, the nobilissima Arcadia (sister of Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
), while the nearby eleventh district included the house of Augusta Pulcheria
Pulcheria
Aelia Pulcheria was the daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and Empress Aelia Eudoxia. She was the second child born to Arcadius and Eudoxia. Her oldest sister was Flaccilla born in 397, but is assumed she had died young. Her younger siblings were Theodosius II, the future emperor and...
and the Palace of Flaccilla (palataium Flaccillianum). These mansions formed a counterpart to the old-established aristocratic center of the eastern parts of the city, formed around the Great Palace
Great Palace of Constantinople
The Great Palace of Constantinople — also known as the Sacred Palace — was the large Imperial Byzantine palace complex located in the south-eastern end of the peninsula now known as "Old Istanbul", modern Turkey...
; however, Most of these mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
s in the northwestern districts seem to have been only in use as seasonal retreats.
The tenth district also included 636 domus insulae all together. Other landmarks of the tenth included the Baths of Constantius and the Nymphaeum
Nymphaeum
A nymphaeum or nymphaion , in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs....
.
Vigilius
The palace was occupied by Pope VigiliusPope Vigilius
Pope Vigilius reigned as pope from 537 to 555, is considered the first pope of the Byzantine Papacy.-Early life:He belonged to a aristocratic Roman family; his father Johannes is identified as a consul in the Liber pontificalis, having received that title from the emperor...
, the first pope of the Byzantine Papacy
Byzantine Papacy
The Byzantine Papacy was a period of Byzantine domination of the papacy from 537 to 752, when popes required the approval of the Byzantine Emperor for episcopal consecration, and many popes were chosen from the apocrisiarii or the inhabitants of Byzantine Greece, Byzantine Syria, or Byzantine Sicily...
, in 547 during a papal visit to Constantinople. In 550, Vigilius decided that the Placidia Palace was not secure enough for his needs, and moved into the basilica of St. Peter of Hormisdas. From the basilica, Vigilius drafted a document of excommunication of Patriarch Menas and his followers, signed by another dozen Western bishops. Upon its publication, Comitas Dupondiaristes, the praetor of the Plebs, was dispatched to the basilica to arrest Vigilius and the African bishops with him. According to one account, Vigilius clung to the altar, and as the guards attempted to drag him, it toppled, nearly crushing him. The praetor withdrew, leaving several bishops injured. The next day, a group of Byzantine dignitaries convinced Vigilius that no more harm would be done to him if he returned to the Placidia Palace, which he did. There, Vigilius was more or less placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
. On the night of December 23/24, 551, Vigilius fled across the Bosporus
Bosporus
The Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...
to the Church of St. Euphemia in Chalcedon
Chalcedon
Chalcedon , sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari . It is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy...
. In February, the other bishops, but not Vigilius, were arrested. On June 26, the pope and the emperor reconciled and Vigilius returned to the Placidia.
Although he was in the "immediate neighborhood" during the Second Council of Constantinople
Second Council of Constantinople
The Second Council of Constantinople is recognized as the Fifth Ecumenical Council by the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Old Catholics, and a number of other Western Christian groups. It was held from May 5 to June 2, 553, having been called by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian...
(553), Vigilius refused to either attend or send a representative. Claiming illness, Vigilius refused even to meet with the three Oriental patriarchs who travelled from the Council to the Placidia Palace. The next day, Vigilius conveyed to the Council a request to delay for 20 days—a request that likely would have struck the Council as "strange" because the matter had been under discussion for 7 years, during which Vigilius himself had been in residence in Constantinople. The emperor's second delegation to Vigilius—of bishops and lay officials —was similarly unsuccessful. From Constantinople, Vigilius published a Constitutum (or memorial to the Emperor), condemning the Council.
Gregory
The future Pope Gregory IPope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
resided in the Placidia Palace during his apocrisiariat, where he was eventually joined by a group of monks from his order—making the palace "virtually another St. Andrew's." During Gregory's tenure, the palace was the site of a trial conducted by Tiberius II of a group of alleged Satan worshipers, including Gregory, patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...
, and Eulogius, the future patriarch of Alexandria
Patriarch of Alexandria
The Patriarch of Alexandria is the Archbishop of Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation of Pope , and did so earlier than that of the Bishop of Rome...
. When they were acquitted, perhaps as the result of bribery, a riot involving 100,000 persons erupted in the city. The Placidia Palace, as well as the palace of Patriarch Eutychius, were attacked by the mob, requiring the emperor himself to intervene and restore order.
Anastasios
One of the complaints of the Lateran Council of 649Lateran Council of 649
The Lateran Council of 649 was a synod held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran to condemn Monothelitism, a Christology espoused by many Eastern Christians...
against the Patriarch of Constantinople read: "He has done what no heretic heretofore has dared to do, namely, he has destroyed the altar of our holy see in the Placidia palace." The anathema alludes to the "reign of terror" to which the Roman church had been subject from 638 to 656: Roman clergy had been exiled, the treasury plundered, and the apocrisiarius himself kidnapped and exiled. The altar was destroyed in 648 or 649. Pope Martin I
Pope Martin I
Pope Martin I, born near Todi, Umbria in the place now named after him , was pope from 649 to 653, succeeding Pope Theodore I in July 5, 649. The only pope during the Byzantine Papacy whose election was not approved by a iussio from Constantinople, Martin I was abducted by Constans II and died in...
's apocrisiarius, Anastasios, was prohibited from celebrating mass in the palace in the mid-seventh century. This sanction was imposed by Patriarch Paul II as a result of disagreements over Monotheletism.
Agatho
The palace was used by the large delegation of Pope AgathoPope Agatho
-Background and early life:Little is known of Agatho before his papacy. A letter written by St. Gregory the Great to the abbot of St. Hermes in Palermo mentions an Agatho, a Greek born in Sicily to wealthy parents. He wished to give away his inheritance and join a monastery, and in this letter...
at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680-681). The emperor provided the delegation with a variety of luxuries, including a string of saddled horses to convey them to the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae
Church of St. Mary of Blachernae (Istanbul)
Saint Mary of Blachernae is an Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul...
.Ekonomou, 2007, p. 217. They participated in a procession at that church on the first Sunday after their arrival.
Constantine
Pope ConstantinePope Constantine
Pope Constantine was pope from 708 to 715. With the exception of Antipope Constantine, he was the only pope to take such a "quintessentially" Eastern name of an emperor...
occupied the palace in 711, during the last papal visit to Constantinople in 1250 years.
End of papal use
The popes continued to have a permanent apocrisiary in Constantinople until the time of the Byzantine Iconoclasm edict of 726. Thereafter, popes Gregory IIPope Gregory II
Pope Saint Gregory II was pope from May 19, 715 to his death on February 11, 731, succeeding Pope Constantine. Having, it is said, bought off the Lombards for thirty pounds of gold, Charles Martel having refused his call for aid, he used the tranquillity thus obtained for vigorous missionary...
, Gregory III
Pope Gregory III
Pope Saint Gregory III was pope from 731 to 741. A Syrian by birth, he succeeded Gregory II in March 731. His pontificate, like that of his predecessor, was disturbed by the iconoclastic controversy in the Byzantine Empire, in which he vainly invoked the intervention of Charles Martel.Elected by...
, Zacharias, and Stephen II
Pope Stephen II
Pope Stephen II was Pope from 752 to 757, succeeding Pope Zachary following the death of Pope-elect Stephen. Stephen II marks the historical delineation between the Byzantine Papacy and the Frankish Papacy.-Allegiance to Constantinople:...
are known to have sent non-permanent apocrisiaries to Constantinople.
The office ceased having any religious role in the 8th century, although it continued to be regularly occupied well into the 10th century. Circa 900, the office began being referred to as a syncellus
Syncellus
Syncellus may refer to:* an office in an Orthodox Church roughly equivalent to that of an episcopal vicar in the Roman Catholic Church.People named Syncellus:* George Syncellus...
. A permanent envoy may have been re-established after the reconciliation of 886. A syncellus, unlike an apocrisiarius, was a representative to the emperor, not the patriarch. These ambassadors continued into the 11th century, even after the East-West Schism
East-West Schism
The East–West Schism of 1054, sometimes known as the Great Schism, formally divided the State church of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively...
.
Further reading
- Emereau, A. "Apocrisiarius et apocrisiariat." Echos d'Orient 17 (1914-1915): 289-97.