Soon after their invention, the relics of the protomartyr Stephen
launched an unprecedented career. His bones arrived in Menorca, for
example, and within a short period of time Bishop Severus and his
parishioners got ‘inspired' to make a start on proselytising the Jews -
with success. In North Africa Stephen's relics played a crucial role in
reconciling Donatists and Catholics. These matters are common knowledge.
But maybe this ‘necropolitical' triumph began with the invention itself. Discoveries of relics had often been instrumental to political and promotional campaigns of rulers and bishops. Indeed, Stephen's relics were found - as Lucianus narrates - in a specific ecclesiopolitical context: John II. of Jerusalem received the message of the discovery during the Synod of Diospolis which dealt with the orthodoxy of Pelagius and his teachings. This paper inquires which purposes the relics of Stephen served in the Pelagian controversy.
But maybe this ‘necropolitical' triumph began with the invention itself. Discoveries of relics had often been instrumental to political and promotional campaigns of rulers and bishops. Indeed, Stephen's relics were found - as Lucianus narrates - in a specific ecclesiopolitical context: John II. of Jerusalem received the message of the discovery during the Synod of Diospolis which dealt with the orthodoxy of Pelagius and his teachings. This paper inquires which purposes the relics of Stephen served in the Pelagian controversy.
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