Hajnalka Tamas: Hagiography, Liturgy, and Orthodoxy in 5th and 6th Century Aquileia

Although the council of Aquileia is said to have nominally ended the Arian controversy in the Western Roman Empire, the city and its hinterland remained long after the focus of religious controversy. The 5th century Gothic incursions ‘ensured' the continued presence of Arianism, whereas among the refugees from Illyricum, groups of Photinians also settled in the region. This situation was further complicated in the 6th century by the so-called Three Chapters Controversy, setting Aquileia against Rome. Conversely, the Aquileian hagiography composed in this period of quest for identity amidst religious diversity and conflict abounds in elaborate confessional statements with doctrinal and liturgical significance, such as: Passio Donati, Venusti et Hermogenis (BHL 2309), 2.5: "scio unum Deum uiuum et uerum, Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum, qui est trinus et unus Deus." It is the purpose of this paper to examine, through an audience-oriented analysis, the doctrinal content of Aquileian hagiographic texts of the 5th and the 6th century as an identity-forming mechanism. Their appeal to larger audiences through liturgical usage and through the cult of saints rendered these texts suitable to instill a desirable doctrinal content. This paper will highlight the way in which the confessional statements contributed to the substantiation of a (distinct) Aquileian doctrinal agenda in the local religious memory.