City of Saints: Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages

Rome's transformation into a spiritual center of Western Christianity in the early Middle Ages was not inevitable, but it was due to its interaction with the wider Mediterranean world in the Byzantine period. The city imported dozens of saints and their legends, naturalized them, and physically layered their cults onto its imperial and sacred topography. This analysis reveals a vibrant plurality of voices who shaped a distinctly Roman version of Christianity, and it extends to the end of the ninth century when the city's ties to the Byzantine world weakened.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 08 November 2022
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

The emergence of Rome as the spiritual epicenter of Western Christianity in the early Middle Ages was by no means a foregone conclusion. Following the relocation of the Empire's capital to Constantinople in the fourth century and the turbulent Gothic Wars in the sixth century, Rome faced significant physical, economic, and political depletion. How, then, did this exhausted city, with a limited Christian presence, undergo a remarkable transformation over the course of the sixth through ninth centuries to become an seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of sanctity? Conventional narratives attribute the rise of Christian Rome to the growing influence of the papacy. In her book, City of Saints, Maya Maskarinec takes a different approach, examining how Rome interacted with the broader Mediterranean world during the Byzantine period.

During this time, Rome imported dozens of saints and their legends, naturalized them, and physically layered their cults onto the city's imperial and sacred topography. Maskarinec meticulously documents Rome's spectacular physical transformation, drawing on a wide range of sources such as church architecture, frescoes, mosaics, inscriptions, Greek and Latin hagiographical texts, and less-studied documents that attest to the commemoration of these foreign saints. These sources reveal a vibrant plurality of voices—Byzantine administrators, refugees, aristocrats, monks, pilgrims, and others—who shaped a distinct Roman version of Christianity.

City of Saints extends its analysis to the end of the ninth century, when Rome's ties to the Byzantine world began to weaken. Rome's political and economic orbits shifted towards the Carolingian world, where the saints' cults circulated, further valorizing Rome's burgeoning claims as a microcosm of the universal Christian church.

In conclusion, Maya Maskarinec's City of Saints offers a fresh perspective on the rise of Christian Rome by examining how Rome interacted with the wider Mediterranean world during the Byzantine period. Through meticulous research and analysis, Maskarinec sheds light on the complex processes that transformed an exhausted city into an inexhaustible reservoir of sanctity. Her book challenges conventional narratives and provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of the early Middle Ages and the development of Christianity in Europe.

Dimension: 254 x 178 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781512823721