Реликвии в византийском и поствизантийском каноническом праве

Abstract

The attitude of Byzantine law to the relics, icons and liturgical vessels was based on two main items: the norms of the Roman law concerning the protection of graves and the veneration of the sacred from one side and the canon law of the Church which adopted and developed these notions from Christian point of view, from other. The canon law prohibited the alienation of sacred objects in all cases excepting the help to the poor or emergency for the Empire. The veneration of relics started much earlier than the veneration of icons and provoked a number of contradictional laws. From one side the tymboryhia was absolutely prohibited and the icons should stay in those churches to which they were dedicated. From other, the division and transmission of relics became a usual practice from the III century. Stealing of relics and other sacred objects, strictly prohibited by both imperial and canon law became a usual and even legalized practice, which later was formed in pious legends about transmission of relics. Meanwhile one should notice that stealing of sacred objects dedicated to a church was regarded by the Byzantine and Postbyzantine law as sacrilege while stealing of such objects from a private individual was only a theft. The same happened with the sale of relics and venerated icons. Though there existed a lot of laws and synod rules prohibiting it, we have numerous facts of buying and selling of parts of relics both in Byzantine and Postbyzantine periods, which was explained as a donation or change. Another aspect concerning the use of relics was the prohibition of burials in the churches. In the early period there was no definite difference between the graves of martyrs and of the other Christians, though there existed a custom to bury the martyrs in churches. Later with the raising veneration of the martyrs’ relics the canon law forms a prohibition of burials inside of churches, the Holy tables of which were consecrated on the relics of martyrs. The Holy tables of the churches were consecrated on relics from the early Byzantine period. In the iconoclastic period this tradition was interrupted and was not obligatory. The seventh canon of the Seventh Ecumenical council definitely postulated the necessity of presence of relics in consecrating of Holy tables. The using of antimension in liturgy was from necessity widely spread in the period of iconoclasm and later became a common and even obligatory practice.