The Synaxarion of Constantinople as Historiography

The Synaxarion of Constantinople as Historiography 

Stratis Papaioannou

The premise could be put forward that the Synaxarion of Constantinople, though rarely acknowledged as such by its modern students, was among the most important historiographical works ever produced in Byzantium. The present paper will test the validity and consequences of accepting such a premise, especially in regard to the ways in which “historiographical” texts flirted with fiction in premodern literatures like that of Byzantium. At that, two lines of questioning will be pursued: what were the effects of including “historical” data into a liturgical book such as the Synaxarion, and conversely what kinds of legends and literary fiction were reinvented as authorized past for Byzantine readers and listeners of Synaxaria?

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