Behind the Reliquaries of St. Demetrios

This object, currently housed in Moscow, is a reproduction of the original life-sized ciborium (kiborion) that once graced the titular church of Saint Demetrios in Thessaloniki but no longer survives. The reliquary is intricately linked to the evolution and transformations of the cult of Demetrios, seamlessly blending the two stages of this cult.

The cult of St. Demetrios retained its popularity and wide influence throughout the Byzantine Empire for centuries, and Demetrios became the patron saint of the Palaiologan dynasty that ruled from 1261 to 1453.¹ It is miraculous for his cult to have such an impact, especially considering that Thessaloniki, the patron city, is situated next to the primary pilgrimage destination of Byzantine Christians, which was specially dedicated to the Holy Mother, The Holy Mountain of Athos. Secondly, St. Demetrios had never had a confirmed tomb location and had no physical relics remaining. Therefore, clerics of the Church of St. Demetrios made various efforts to rationalize the absence of relics and preached to pilgrims through innovations in the design of reliquaries.

The Holy Mountain of Athos

Thessaloniki is situated near Mount Athos, known as the “Holy Mountain,” closely associated with the Greek concept of “veneration.” This connection stems from a legendary account of how the peninsula was sanctified by the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, who declared:²

Let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved.

The Holy Mountain is renowned for its spirit healing effect, which continues to this day. The monks are reminded of a specific rule that emphasizes the Virgin Mary’s exclusive claim to their devotion, a devotion she would not share with “any of her earthly images” (i.e. women), no matter how revered.³ In the second Charter (typikon) of 1046, confirmed by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, there is a reiteration of the prohibition against beardless youths, eunuchs, and women on Mount Athos, a rule initially established by Tzimisces in the first Charter of Athos in 972.⁴

Who is St. Demetrios?

Historical records indicate that Demetrios was martyred in the early fourth century in one of Thessaloniki’s Roman baths.⁵

His cult quickly gained prominence there from the fifth to seventh centuries. He was imagined and depicted as a consular official who protected the citizens of Thessaloniki from all manner of harm and defended the city from outside attack. Demetrios acted as a patron, an intercessor, a teacher of the faith, and a healer, but also as a fellow citizen. Demetrios’s presence became deeply intertwined with Byzantine urban life, solidifying his position as one of the most emblematic saints of the Byzantine Empire.⁶ However, the cult of Saint Demetrios faced challenges in attracting substantial followers due to the absence of physical relics of the saint. This absence posed potential difficulties for the sustainability of the cult, as relics typically served as the primary connection between the earthly and spiritual realms at saints’ shrines. With physical access unavailable, alternative ways of experiencing and perceiving the saint’s presence had to be developed for the cult to thrive.

Watch an introductory video on the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, video by the YouTube channel: ConnollyCove.

The relic doesn’t matter.

A tradition existed that Demetrios was buried beneath the floor of the bath furnace room on the spot of his martyrdom; however, the tomb’s location, if it ever existed, was never established. John, archbishop of Thessaloniki, in the first half of the seventh century, recounts somewhat skeptically the belief held by some that the tomb of the saint lay beneath the hexagonal, silver-plated ciborium erected in the nave of the church and thought to be the dwelling place of the saint, along the lines of the Roman aedes.⁷

For various reasons, including the desire to retain control of the cult and to amplify the impact of Saint Demetrios, the clergy, particularly John’s predecessor Eusebios (in office ca. 597–603), worked to rationalize the absence of relics. They transformed the absence of physical remains in the city’s cult into a strength rather than a weakness. The absence of portable relics linked to Demetrios allowed his cult to maintain a strong local focus well into the Middle Ages, while other early city-centered cults either waned or became more widespread through the dispersal of their relics.⁸

Demetrios’s cult coped with this gap by firmly rejecting the necessity of physical manifestations of the saint. According to Eusebios’s response to Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602):⁹

It is not the practice, O Emperor, of the inhabitants of God-loving Thessaloniki, as it is of course in other areas, to visibly display the bodies of the martyred saints in order to arouse the souls towards piety through the continued viewing and physical touching of their bodies. On the contrary, we have established the faith intellectually in our hearts and we shudder at the physical view of the relics on account of our deep piety.

That believers do not depend on their physical senses of sight and touch to stimulate their devotion is treated as a mark of superior faith and devotional practices.

In John’s Miracles of St. Demetrius, requests by the emperors Justinian (r. 527– 65) and Maurice (r. 582–602) for relics of the saint to be sent to the capital proved fruitless. Without explicitly denying its existence, John’s predecessors excavated “at a spot within the revered church where they believed the sacred relics lay,” though they refrained from disclosing this location in their formal responses to the emperors.¹⁰ The excavation remained unfinished, disrupted by what they deemed divine intervention, and thus, the existence of Saint Demetrios’s tomb remains unverified.¹¹ There were numerous miracles recorded that tried to prove that it was the saint’s will that his relic did not want to be disturbed.¹² As loyal servants to the saint, the clerics of the church claimed that it was a concrete fact that the church of Saint Demetrios was at the location of the martyrdom; however, they had to obey the order and will of the saint to not reveal and find the exact location, which would anger the saint and was considered a profane act. It is evident that Demetrios’s remains, though they were thought by some to be located below the basilica, were not available to the faithful for veneration.

Therefore, the veneration of the saint became location-specific, centering on his ciborium. This focus on the ciborium flourished before the later discovery of Demetrios’s myron (a combination of perfumed oil and blood), which marks the second phase of the cult of St. Demetrios.

Lie or Miracle?

In the early centuries of Demetrios’s cult, emphasis was placed on creating captivating iconic representations of the saint to engage the visitor spiritually. However, as the cult evolved, there was a noticeable shift towards a yearning for direct physical contact with the saint’s actual remains. While the visual aspect—both in its physical and symbolic aspects—had been central in the early phase, the later phase became centered on the tangible traces of the saint’s sacred body, accessible through touch and scent. This transformation was solidified with the introduction of myron.¹³

The existence of myron immediately changed the central veneration of the cult. According to documentation from the church, this is the exact same time that the silver ciborium was rebuilt into the marble ciborium.¹⁴ Without any record on how the myron appeared and why the original silver ciborium needed to be restored, one possibility is that in the early tenth century, the church experienced a devastating fire, and the clerics seized this chance to claim that they miraculously discovered the myron of the saint.

The production of myron not only definitively confirmed for believers that the saint’s burial lay beneath the basilica (while keeping the body itself concealed), but the flowing oil also allowed pilgrims to obtain portions of this newly generative body in ampullae or reliquaries for personal devotion. This distribution of myron marked a turning point, making the cult of Demetrios truly universal for the first time.¹⁵ His newfound popularity, facilitated by the myron that, as an eleventh- to twelfth-century epigram described, “irrigates entirely the face of the oikoumene,” meant that Demetrios’s sacred powers were now accessible far beyond the central hub of Thessaloniki, within miniature, surrogate loca sancta.¹⁶

Pilgrims’ Experiences with St. Demetrios’s Reliquaries

Ciborium

The history of the ciborium is ambiguous, for it had been damaged and rebuilt multiple times throughout the Middle Ages.¹⁷ Ciboria were traditionally symbolic structures housing sacred objects or signifying sacred presence.¹⁸ The one associated with Demetrios served as a visible reminder of the saint’s presence within his basilica, creating a specific focal point where this presence could manifest.¹⁹ Acting as a vessel of sorts, the ciborium carried the responsibility of materializing the saint’s invisible presence in a defined location, providing a focal point for the hopes and prayers of the faithful. Behind the design of the ciborium as a reliquary was the idea of creating a space in which privileged devotees might hope to encounter the saint in spirit, which is exactly the same as the real ciborium in the church.²⁰

The reliquary ciborium is a portable object in the shape of the original Thessaloniki ciborium with images and inscriptions recording the patron and depictions of St. Demetrios and Saints Nestor and Loupos on different sides. The ciborium reliquary serves as a central mediator between the physical ciborium with Demetrios’s absent body, the saint and the patron, and the realms of heaven and earth. It encapsulates the most sacred places of the basilica into a portable package, offering a simulated encounter with these holy sites beyond their physical location. In doing so, it connects its courtly audience not only to the church and the saint but also to all those throughout time who have sought his blessing.

Krabbation

It is worth noting that in the subsequent reliquaries related to Demetrios, ciborium-based styles rarely appeared again and the form was almost entirely replaced by reliquaries in the form of krabbation. Krabbation reliquaries are fire-gilt silver, rectangular boxes, representing sarcophagi, with the remains of suspension loops, implying they could be worn as pendants.

The krabbation design is consistent with a description found in the Miracles. On its outer lid, an image of an orant Demetrios is depicted, while a second image of the saint lies beneath with closed eyes and hands crossed over his chest. Generally, the reliquaries retain traces of hinges, suggesting that small doors, similar to those on the outer reliquary, once concealed both this second image and the compartment for the relic.²¹ Often inscriptions on the side labeled the contents as “holy myron, holy blood.”²²

The krabbation reliquaries of St. Demetrios contain multiple layers of iconography and sensory experiences, a quality referred to as “iconographic plurality.”²³ The reliquaries’ layers offer a progression from an exterior displaying an image of the saint to an interior showcasing a repoussé Demetrios, creating a distinction between inner and outer spaces. Additionally, the owner observes a transition from life to death. Externally, one can see the saint as he exists in Paradise—alive, resurrected, and glorious, depicted in vibrant colors. Internally, one can encounter his earthly existence as an entombed body exuding myron. The stark division between the living and dead is evident—they are never simultaneously visible; one replaces the other as the object is opened and handled. The reliquary itself signifies a shift from the visual to the tangible as its doors are opened. By sliding lids, twisting screw caps, and flipping open tiny metal doors, perhaps even tracing the contours of the repoussé copies of the saint’s body, the devotee prepared for their physical encounter with the myron and blood relics held within. This tactile approach aims to guide physical perception towards a spiritual understanding of the precious substances inside, such as the crust of blood or drops of oil, viewed as healing and sacred. These actions, unfolding in time through the user’s active engagement, can be seen as a prelude to a final ritual act: the application of the myron relic to the body.²⁴

Conclusion

The reliquaries of Saint Demetrios in both forms reflect the development and the ideology of the cult behind them. The objects intertwine with the needs of devotees as well as produce multisensorial experiences for pilgrims.

Bibliography

Bakirtzis, Charalambos. “Pilgrimage to Thessalonike: The Tomb of St. Demetrios.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 56 (2002): 177-178. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291861.

Ćurčić, Slobodan. “Late Byzantine Loca Sancta? Some Questions Regarding the Form and Function of Epitaphioi.” In The Twilight of Byzantium: Aspects of Cultural and Religious History in the Late Byzantine Empire, edited by Slobodan Ćurčić and Doula Mouriki, 251-72. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Gothóni, René. “The Healing Quality of Pilgrimage to Mount Athos.” Archive for the Psychology of Religion 23, no. 1 (2000): 132-143. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23909948.

Hahn, Cynthia. “Loca Sancta Souvenirs: Sealing the Pilgrim’s Experience.” In The Blessings of Pilgrimage, edited by Robert Ousterhout, 85-96. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990.

Hahn, Cynthia, and Holger A. Klein. Saints and Sacred Matter: The Cult of Relics In Byzantium and Beyond. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2015.

Katz, Melissa R. “Marian Motion: Opening the Body of the Vierge Ouvrante.” In Meaning in Motion: The Semantics of Movement in Medieval Art, edited by Nino Zchomelidse and Giovanni Freni, 63-91. Princeton: Princeton University Department of Art and Archaeology; Princeton University Press, 2011.

Laura, Veneskey. “Truth and Mimesis in Byzantium: A Speaking Reliquary of Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki” Art History 42, no. 1 (February 2019): 17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8365.12412.

Lemerle, Paul. Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de Saint Démétrius et la pénétration des Slaves dans les Balkans. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1979-1981.

Russell, Eugenia. St. Demetrius of Thessalonica: cult and devotion in the Middle Ages. Vol. 6 in Byzantine and Neohellenic Studies. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010.

Skedros, James Constantine. Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki: Civic Patron and Divine Protector, 4^th-7^th centuries CE. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1999.

Taronas, Katherine. “Art, Relics, and the Senses in the Cult of Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki.” Gesta 62, no. 2 (Fall 2023): 153-86. https://doi.org/10.1086/725871.

Walter, Christopher. The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.

Image Credits

Header image. Constantine X Doukas and Eudokia Makrembolitissa on the Reliquary of St. Demetrios, eleventh century, today in Moscow. Photo by John Autoreianos, August 20, 2022. Source: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constantine_X_Doukas_and_Eudokia_Makrembolitissa_in_St._Demetrius%27_reliquary,_Moscow.jpg. Public Domain.  

Fig. 1. Mount Athos, photo by Horia Andrei Varlan, January 15, 2010. Source: Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/10361931@N06/4275823625. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 Deed.

Fig. 2. Twelfth-century mosaic of St. Demetrios, formerly in the Golden-Roofed Monastery of Kyiv, now in the Tretyakov Gallery of Moscow. Source: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_of_salonica.jpg?uselang=en#Licensing. Public Domain.

Fig. 3. Saints Nestor and Loupos on the Reliquary of St. Demetrios, eleventh century, today in Moscow. Photo by Shakko, June 22, 2015. Source: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S.Demetrius%27_reliquary_made_for_Constantine_X_Ducas_(1059-67,_Kremlin)_by_shakko_01.jpg. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed.

Figs. 4-6. Krabbation reliquary of St. Demetrios, eleventh century, today in the Cathedral of St. Stephanus and St. Sixtus in Halberstadt, photos from museum-digital:deutschland, https://nat.museum-digital.de/object/861407. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed.

Fig. 7. Pilgrim interacting with reliquaries of St. Demetrios, original art by Yuqi Liao.

The Author

Yuqi Liao is an art enthusiast, technophile, and digital artist, who studies Art History and Computer Science at Vassar College.