Marcian, or Marcianus (Antioch of Syria, 1st century - Syracuse), was a bishop and martyr, venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
According to tradition Marcian was the first bishop of Syracuse; a disciple of the apostle Peter. He is considered the first bishop of the West, as he arrived in Sicily while the apostle was still in Antioch.The same definition is given by scholars C. J. Stallman, The Past in Hagiographic Texts: S. Marcian of Syracuse, in G. W. Clarke, Reading the Past in Late Antiquity, Singapore 1990, pp. 347-365 and Hugo Buchthal, Art of the Mediterranean World: 100-1400 A. D., 1983, p. 61.
Sources on Marcianus are considered late, as they are found only from the Byzantine era (7th century) onward. A Kontakion and an Encomium form the first two hagiographies on the saint,However, the presence of a Marcian of Syracuse in the oldest Western martyrology, dating back to the fourth century, cannot be ruled out: in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, in fact, the commemoration of a martyr named Marciae appears several times, whom several historians have linked to the Antiochian protobishop. Cf. . but the laudatory nature of these literary works makes it difficult to distinguish truthful biographical elements from fantastic ones.; Lancia di Brolo in M. Mastrogregori, Storiografia: rivista annuale di storia, 1997, p. 329; .
An alleged anachronism identified in the text of the author of the Encomium - which would date the martyrdom to a much later time than the apostolic era - and the absence of ancient written or figurative evidence has led many scholars to date Bishop Marcian to no earlier than the 3rd century..
The oldest image of Marcian is found in the catacombs of St. Lucy: it is a fresco dating from the 8th century. Another depiction of him was found inside the so-called crypt of St. Marcian: a Byzantine basilica built over an ancient early Christian complex that tradition has identified as the saint's dwelling and later as his tomb. However, his relics are not found in Syracuse; they are kept in the cities of Gaeta and Messina.
Hagiographic sources
In literature
Seventh and eighth centuries The earliest record of Marcianus, a bishop and martyr with ties to Syracuse, dates back to the second half of the seventh century and is a Kontakion - composed of a poetic homily and a liturgical hymn, like the Akathist in use in the sixth century -. attributed to the hymnographer Gregory,E. Mioni, I kontakia di Gregorio di Siracusa, Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata 1, 1947, 204-206; on the attribution of the kontakion to Gregory cf. Pricoco, Un esempio di agiografia regionale cit., 347, note 66. See for more details . although the Jesuit Gaetani had mistakenly attributed it to the Sicilian Joseph the Hymnographer.. In the Kontakion Marcianus is presented as:
This is followed by an Encomium, datable to the late 7th century and early 8th century, written in Greek and preserved in the Vatican, entitled The Encomium of St. Marcianus,. which takes up and expands on the information provided by the Kontakion. The Byzantine encomiast states that in writing his text he made use of the oral tradition and the writing of a certain Peregrino (or Pellegrino), from whom he learned passages about a Passio - which has not been preserved - that this Peregrino, a disciple of Marcianus, wrote about his mentor..
The precedence of the Kontakion over the Encomium, however, is not unanimously accepted, for example: the philologist and paleographer Mioni believes that the Kontakion is older and dates back to the early years of the introduction of the Greek rite in Syracuse (for Mioni in the 663-8th century).I Kontakia di Gregorio di Siracusa, in «Bollettino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata», n.s., 1 (1947), pp. 1-8. and cf. . In contrast, the scholar Amore believes instead that it is the Encomium that is older, by virtue of its content and by making a comparison, in addition to the Kontakion, with the Life of St. Zosimus (a monk, initiator in 648 of the Greek episcopal series).Koinōnia. Vol. 15, 1991, p. 80. While in the first two documents the Syracusan church appears to be of Petrine foundation, in the Life of St. Zosimus there is no mention of either the martyr or the origins, dating back to the apostolic age, of the said church. However, the dating of this Life, believed to be slightly earlier than the works in which the Marcian tradition or its contemporaries are narrated, remains controversial.For the Life of St. Zosimus as terminus post quem; after which the Petrine tradition would be created, see Daniela Motta, Percorsi dell'agiografia: società e cultura nella Sicilia, 2004, pp. 193-197.
According to Magnano, the failure to mention the Petrine origins would not be proof of the invention of such a tradition, but rather, he argues, they may have been omitted because there was no need to mention them, as they were commonly accepted.P. Magnano, Syracusana ecclesia. Vo. I, 1992, p. 63. Lanzoni, on the other hand, believes that this silence, which he also identified in the earlier extensive correspondence of letters between Pope Gregory the Great and the Syracusan bishop, is proof of the groundlessness of such a claimed ancient origin.. For Amore, it was the Encomium that started the tradition of apostolic origins., n. 5; . For the Petrine definition of the Syracuse church in the cited documents see Koinōnia. Vol. 15, 1991, p. 80.
Uncertain dating A separate discussion is the Martyrium sancti Libertini episcopi Agrigenti et s. Peregrini, a Latin text,Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, n. 4909. Cfr. Acta Sanctorum, nov. I, p. 607. due to its controversial date of origin. Some scholars date its author to the second half of the 5th century,. while according to others he would not be earlier than the age of the Byzantine encomiast.For the late date see, for example, Biagio Pace, Arte e civiltà della Sicilia antica: Barbari i bizantini, 1949, who on p. 18 states: The text of this work was first published in the 17th century in Gaetani's Vitae Sanctorum Siculorum.Gaetani received it from his brother, Constantine, who in turn had found it in an Abbey in Farfa. The text has recently been edited by the hagiographer Scorza Barcellona. See for more details . In the Martyrium in question, Marcian is recognised as bishop - Syracusanae ecclesiae Martianus episcopus - but there is no mention of him being a Petrine bishop.
Rizzo states that it is precisely the absence of the reference to his Petrine origins - according to the scholar, it is a legend born in the Byzantine era - that allows one to date the hagiographer to the fifth century. He also states that if the hagiographer is really to be dated to the Vandal age, the martyrs are to be considered of pre-Constantine age.
8th and 9th century
Written in the 8th century, and already widespread in the 9th,Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 1978, p. 417. the Vita Sancti Pancratii di Taormina. contains biographies of Marcianus, Pancras of Taormina and Birillus of Catania. This Vita is defined by hagiographic critics as fable-like, full of fanciful elements.See, for example, the mentions of the Vita Pancratii in M. Capaldo, ; ; and , who defines the content of the document as "a hagiographical romance good and proper." It is certainly posterior to the Encomium,See ; , who date the writing of the work during the persecution of iconoclasm. in which Pancras does not yet appear, who would be compared to Marcian from this very Vita.Europa orientalis, Vol. 2, 1983, pp. 7-13; Archivio storico siracusano, Vol. 4-6, 1958, p. 179.See Siracusa e Taormina nell'agiografia italogreca, in :
Lanzoni assumed that the Synaxarion of Constantinople drew its Sicilian source from this document..
However, the hagiographer Van Esbroeck argued that a legend of Pancras already existed originally, datable to the 6th-7th century, devoid of the fable elements included in the Vita written in later times.Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa, vol. 28, 1992, p. 42. It would have been known to Theodore the Studite, who in his work on the Taormina martyr also ignores a parallel life of Marcianus and Pancras.Byzantion: Revue Internationale Des Études Byzantines, 2001, p. 201; .
Such a legend would have originally contained only the Petrine mission, thus it would have been devoid of the territorial dispute between the bishop of Syracuse and the bishop of Taormina that instead characterises the Life of the pseudo-Evagrius.Several scholars claim that there is an overt desire in the Vita Pancratii to prove that the church in Taormina is older than the church in Syracuse. This claim has led to speculation that the work was written after the Islamic conquest of Syracuse (878) when Taormina remained the last center of power of the Byzantine empire in Sicily. See . However, it could be a simple municipal rivalry carried ideologically in the confrontation between the two saints: The literary work of Marcianus and that of Pancras, however, represent the basis on which several other later legends were formed.
10th century onwards
Of later date, and therefore most likely dependent on the earliest works, are other literary versions in which Marcian of Syracuse is mentioned.
Symeon the Metaphrast in his Commentary on Saints Peter and Paul, attributed to him (around the 10th century), confirms the constant unitary reference of the Sicilian bishops. Metaphrast in his text says that Marcian of Syracuse was ordained bishop by the Apostle Peter together with Pancras of Taormina and Birillus of Catania. The Byzantine hagiographer also claims that the apostle Peter, in addition to ordaining the aforementioned bishops, came himself to the island of Sicily.Acta Sanctorum, Junii V, 411ss.
In this regard, a calendar of Syracuse saints written on parchment in Gothic or Gallic characters, and therefore called Gallican Calendar, found in the Syracuse catacombs in the 17th century but dating back to 1152, arouses curiosity.M. Mancaruso, Kalendarium Sanctorum fidelissimae urbis Syracusarum, Palermo, 1704 and cf. Serafino Privitera, Storia di Siracusa, ed. 1879, p. 495. It reports the visit of St Peter to the city, commemorating it on the 30th of June, specifying that at that time St Marcian was still alive.Costantino Cajetano in Vita S. Gelasii, Orlend. O. Gaetani, Isagoge, C. Gaetani, De origine... According to later accounts, the apostle would have visited many places in Sicily, but this is not confirmed by any ancient source.See, for example, L. C. Grasso, Della introduzione e successivo progresso della religione cattolica in Sicilia, ed. 1845, pp. 35-38, whose text confirms so much literary evidence from late authors about the supposed passage of the Apostle Peter to Sicily. The Acts of the Apostles only report the apostle Paul's stay in Syracuse for three days, without saying what happened in that short span of time, in the year 61.At 28, 12-13.
In the Eastern tradition
The name of Marcianus, martyr of Syracuse, appears in the Eastern liturgical books under the dates 30 or 31 October and 9 February. As a dependant of the Eastern liturgy, the 9th-century Marcian calendar of Naples records him on 30 October.Delehaye, Hagiographie Napolitaine cit., 36. 38. He also appears in the Capuan Codex of 991, the Menei of Grottaferrata and the Typikon of Saint Bartholomew.Cf. Amore, s.v. Marciano, vescovo di Siracusa cit., 694.