Anthemius

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ANTHEMIUS

The name of many saints, ecclesiastics, and statesmen in the Church. The following are significant:

(1) Anthemius (Anthemus, Attenius, Aptemius) of Poitiers, St., is named as 13th in the Episcopal List, which according to L. Duchesne is subject to great caution during this period. Nothing is known of his life, but his feast has been celebrated in the dioceses of Poitiers and Saintes since the 17th century. There is no authentic document supporting the claim that he died in Jonzac c. 400.

Feast: Dec. 3.

(2) Anthemius, prefect of the Orient under Arcadius (fl. 400–414), undertook a successful embassy to the Persians, served as magister officiorum and patrician (406), and directed the government of the empire when Theodosius II became emperor in 408 at the age of seven. He was praised by St. john chrysostom for his rectitude (Patrologia Graeca 52:699). He pushed the Huns beyond the Danube, organized a fleet, furnished Constantinople with a protective wall (413), and erected the Baths of Honorius and the church of St. Thomas. In 414 he ceded the government to Empress Pulcheria and disappeared from history.

(3) Anthemius of Constantia, Cyprus (fl. end of 5th century), is renowned for having discovered the body of St. Barnabas in 488. He used the occasion as a support for the claim of apostolicity, and therefore independence from Antioch, for the Church in Cyprus. The account of this miraculous event, written by Alexander, a 6th century monk of Cyprus, in his encomium of St. Barnabas describes the finding as a result of a dream and states that a copy of the Gospel of Matthew was found on Barnabas's chest. Emperor Zeno exempted Cyprus from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Antioch, and Anthemius built a basilica and established the feast of St. Barnabas on June 11.

Bibliography: (1) p. de monsabert, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 525. r. aigrain, Catholicisme 1:626. (2) l. brÉhier, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 525–526. (3) Acta Sanctorum June 2:444–446. r. aigrain, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 526–527.