UN EXEMPLU AL DEVOTAMENTULUI FAŢĂ DE DUMNEZEU ŞI ÎMPĂRAT: BAZILICA „SF. COSMA SI DAMIAN” DE LA BIZONE (CAVARNA, BULGARIA)
AN EXAMPLE OF DEVOTION TO GOD AND THE EMPEROR: THE “STS. COSMA AND AMIAN” BASILICA OF BIZONE (CAVARNA, BULGARIA)

Summary/Abstract: The “Sts. Cosma and Damian” Basilica of Bizone (Cavarna, Bulgaria) probably represents a God thanking gesture from the Church of Scythia Minor, for the miraculous healing of Emperor Iustininaus by the two thaumaturge saints. This gesture belongs to the series of imperial foundations (Kosmidion of Constantinopolis, Cyros, Pamphylia) and provincial ones (Gerasa) that were built especially in the oriental part of the Empire. Kosmidion and hagiotherapy are a connection between the asclepieia and the hospital monasteries of the Middle Ages, proving an example of Christianization of pagan peoples and representing an important phase in the diffusion of the cult of the two holy doctors. At the same, the building of the religious edifice of Bizone was a deed promoted by the bishopric of Dionysopolis that this fortress and the metropolitan and archbishop autocephalous see of Tomis probably depended on. By this foundation, the Church of Scythia Minor aimed at eli minating the last forms of resistance of some traditional cults, specific to the Greek – Roman world, and which were manifested along the west – Pontic littoral. If Asclepios and Dioscurii were the deities of the pagan doctors, Sts. Cosma and Damian, together with other anargyroi saints, became the patron saints of Christian medicine.

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