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ST JOHN THE BAPTIST: ON RECENT DISCOVERYIN THE MONASTERY ST PROHOROS OF PÈINJA

Branislav Cvetković

B. CvetkovićRegional MuseumSt Kneginje Milice 8235000 JagodinaSerbia

The article discusses identity of a damaged winged figure, painted ca. 1315 on the north wall of the nave in the monastery church of St Prohoros of Pčinja. Discovered in restoration works in 1980s, it was identified as Archangel Michael. Positioned in front of templon it has further been hypothesized that it may stand for patron saint icon. However, the author argues it should be identified instead as St John the Baptist Kephalophoros, which sheds light on dedication issue since hitherto neglected sources provide information that the full name of the monastery used to be St John Prohoros of Pčinja.

Key words: medieval Serbia, hermit saints, Prohoros of Pčinja, St John the Baptist Kephalophoros

Monastery St Prohoros of Pčinja, with its six domed katholikon, lies hidden amongst slopes of the Pčinja river gorge at the Kozjak mountain in Southern Serbia. It enshrines relics of St Prohoros, a holy man from 11th Century.1 He belongs to early Slavic Christian stratum of cults which emerged in the evangelization aftermath of the Balkans.2 The oldest is the cult of St John of Rila which gra-dually became widespread with strong national and royal overtones of the Bulgarian Empire.3 The cults of St Joachim of Sarandapor (of Osogovo),4 St Gabriel of Lesnovo,5 and St Hilarion of Moglena6 remained restricted to their respective regions whereas that of St Prohoros of Pčinja was to become more prominent,7 as witnessed by the sources and recently published research.8 Its significance may be thus comparable to the cult of St Petar of Koriša, the hermit who lived during 13th Century.9

1 Cf. M. RAKOCIJA, Manastir svetog oca Prohora Pčinjskog, Vranje, 1997 (with bibliography).2 On these cults, including Sts Clement, Nahum and John Vladimir, see L. PAVLOVIĆ, Kultovi lica kod Srba i Make-donaca. Istorijsko-etnografska rasprava, Smederevo, 1965, p. 11-42.3 L. PAVLOVIĆ, op. cit., p. 20-25; E. BAKALOVA, A. LAZAROVA, A locus sanctus in Bulgaria: The Monastery of St John of Rila and its sacred topography, in Routes of Faith in the Mediterranean. History, Monuments, People, Pilgrimage Perspec-tives. International Symposium Thessalonike 7-10/11/2007. Proceedings (E. Hadjitryphonos ed.), Thessalonike, 2008, p. 309-327 (with bibliography).4 L. PAVLOVIĆ, op. cit., p. 28-31; V. R. PETKOVIĆ, Pregled crkvenih spomenika kroz povesnicu srpskog naroda, Beograd, 1950, p. 292-293; T. SUBOTIN-GOLUBOVIĆ, Dve službe sv. Joakimu Osogovskom, in Arheografski prilozi, 14, 1992, p. 105-134.5 L. PAVLOVIĆ, op. cit., p. 31-33; S. GABELIĆ, Manastir Lesnovo. Istorija i slikarstvo, Beograd, 1998; V. POPOVSKA-KOROBAR, Lesnovski manastir Sv. Arhangel Mihail i Sv. Gavril Lesnovski, Skopje, 2000.6 L. PAVLOVIĆ, op. cit., p. 40-41; M. MARKOVIĆ, Odblesci kulta Sv. Ilariona Meglenskog u postvizantijskoj umetnosti na Balkanu, in Zbornik Matice srpske za likovne umetnosti, 32-33, 2003, p. 213-221.7 L. PAVLOVIĆ, op. cit., p. 26-28.8 For results, see D. POPOVIĆ, Paying Devotion to the Holy Hermit: the Shrine of St Prochoros of Pčinja, in Routes of Faith in the Mediterranean, p. 215-226. Cf. S. SMOLČIĆ-MAKULJEVIĆ, Two Models of Sacred Space in the Byzantine and Medieval Visual Culture of the Balkans. The Monasteries of St Prohor of Pčinja and Treskavac, in Jahrbuch der Œsterreichis-chen Byzantinistik, 59, 2009, p. 192-197.9 D. POPOVIĆ, The Cult of St Petar of Koriša. Stages of Development and Patterns, in Balcanica, 28, 1997, p. 181-212.

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There are no extant sources on the earliest history of the site. Information provided by hagiogra-phy of St Prohoros, connecting the church’s erection to Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (1067-1071), which allegedly took place after the former’s “apparent” prophecy of the latter’s suc-cession to the throne, is of a later date and cannot be successfully controlled by reliable sources.10 It must be stressed though, that beside entrance into the reliquary room on the south wall of the nave, there are frescoes from 15th Century which reveal figure of St Romanos the Deacon along that of St Prohoros, obviously reflecting this very plot from the hagiography, also dated itself to 14/15th Cen-tury.11 Notwithstanding Diogenes’ presence in the Balkans, as sustained by various diplomatic ma-terial, there is no reason to press that he was personally involved in establishing of the hermit’s cult, which is a rather common opinion in scholarship.12 One has to keep in mind that identical motif of encounter between a ruler and a hermit can hardly be anything but topos, since it also appears in the vitas of both Joachim of Sarandapor and Gabriel of Lesnovo, with its ultimate source undoubtedly being the Vita of St John of Rila.13

The monastery as it stands today differs much from the original structure, since huge residen-tial buildings for monks’ cells, encircling the inner court, were erected in 19th and 20th Centuries. The restoration works and archaeological excavations have recently disclosed that the oldest church was a single-aisled edifice, probably built in 11th Century, and conceived to accomodate newly es-tablished cult of St Prohoros; as it appears, this church was refurbished during king Milutin’s reign, and then gradually incorporated into a larger one comprising nine compartments; it was massively rebuilt again in 1898, into a construction with one high belfry and six domes, converting the small body of the oldest church into the altar of the new one.14 On the south wall of the old church one may clearly distinguish today three fresco layers, one upon the other, authenticating long and com-plex history of the site.15 Almost all of the extant wall areas are now covered by the wall paintings executed in 1488/9.16

The major, yet unexpected, discovery of early 14th Century frescoes took place during conserva-tion works in the nave in 1980s; after cleaning, these frescoes were partially studied and dated to 1316/7, according to their style and the painter’s signature, Michael (Astrapas).17 Further research has offered somewhat earlier dating, that the church was refurbished in 1307-09, and frescoed in 1315.18 Although the Genealogy of Karlovac, preserved in a manuscript which can be dated to 16th Century,

10 For these texts dated to 13th and 15th C., see DJ. TRIFUNOVIĆ, Najstariji staroslovenski životopis svetog Prohora Pčinjskog, in Književna istorija, 100, 1996, p. 358-364; D. PETROVIĆ, Hagiografija ‘Život Prohora Pčinjskog’, in Nissa, 20/3-4, 1991, p. 431-438.11 D. POPOVIĆ, Paying Devotion to the Holy Hermit, p. 219, fig. 4; S. SMOLČIĆ-MAKULJEVIĆ, op. cit., p. 195, fig. 4a.12 On this, cf. S. SMOLČIĆ-MAKULJEVIĆ, op. cit., p. 194-196.13 D. POPOVIĆ, Paying Devotion to the Holy Hermit, p. 217-218.14 A detailled description of the church prior its final rebuilding is provided by P. V. GAGULIĆ, Manastir Sveti Pro-hor Pčinjski, Niš, 1965, p. 26-20. For a survey of all rebuilding phases after recent archaeological research, see D. POPOVIĆ, Paying Devotion to the Holy Hermit, p. 217-218, fig. 3, 5.15 The layers are recognizable on the damaged part of the south wall, above arch of bricks over the large niche with figures of Sts Prohoros and Romanos, cf. D. POPOVIĆ, Paying Devotion to the Holy Hermit, fig. 4.16 For the 15th C. frescoes, see G. SUBOTIĆ, Obnova zidnog slikarstva u Svetom Prohoru Pčinjskom krajem XV veka, in Leskovački zbornik, 29, 1989, p. 9-14.17 G. SUBOTIĆ, D. TODOROVIĆ, Slikar Mihailo u manastiru Svetog Prohora Pčinjskog, in Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta, 34, 1995, p. 117-141, also provide simultaneous analysis of both 14th and 15th C. frescoes. For recent breakthrough on Michael as the son of Eutychios Astrapas, cf. M. MARKOVIĆ, Umetnička delatnost Mihaila i Evti-hija. Sadašnja znanja, sporna pitanja i pravci budućih istraživanja, in Zbornik Narodnog muzeja, 17/2, 2004, p. 95-117; id, The Painter Eutychios – Father of Michael Astrapas and Protomaster of the Frescoes in the Church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid, in Zbornik Matice srpske za likovne umetnosti, 38, 2010, p. 9-34.18 B. TODIĆ, Srpsko slikarstvo u doba kralja Milutina, Beograd, 1998, p. 67-68, 318-319.

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states that the Serbian king Milutin (1282-1321) had the church remodelled,19 an alternative but more substantiated opinion has it that someone else may have stood behind such an effort, since the site itself offers no data on a royal patronage whatsoever.20

The artist’s signature was discovered on a shield of St Demetrios, painted on the north wall of the nave, despite damaged state of the fresco, caused by flames of fire. Between this holy warrior and the templon beam there is one more figure, also badly damaged by fire and loss of paint. Since the figure is shown with wings, it has been firstly identified by G. Subotić and D. Todorović as the monumental figure of Archangel Michael.21 From what could be perceived at the time, these authors concluded that the figure was intentionally painted taller than all other saints in the first zone of the nave (fig. 1). Taking into account the significance of archangels and of their shrines in the By-zantine and East Orthodox art in general,22 the damaged figure was given due interpretation in an-choretic context of the site, since it faces the main cultic fresco icon of St Prohoros from the south wall of the nave.23

However, during the ten days fieldwork in the monastery, which was organized by the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Belgrade) in 2005, I reached a diffe-rent identification of the damaged winged figure. Having used strong lighting device it became pos-sible to ascertain that the damaged winged figure instead of an archangel represents that of St John

19 Stari srpski rodoslovi i letopisi (Lj. Stojanović ed.), Beograd - Sr. Karlovci, 1927, p. 32.20 B. TODIĆ, Srpsko slikarstvo u doba kralja Milutina, p. 318.21 G. SUBOTIĆ, D. TODOROVIĆ, op. cit., p. 124 (drawings of the frescoes between p. 120-121).22 Cf. G. SUBOTIĆ, Pećinska crkva arhanđela Mihaila kod Struge, in Zbornik Filozofskog fakulteta, 8/1, 1964, p. 299-331; D. POPOVIĆ, M. POPOVIĆ, The Cave Lavra of the Archangel Michael at Ras, in Starinar, 49, 1999, p. 103-130. Also, see D. POPOVIĆ, Pustinje i svete gore srednjovekovne Srbije. Pisani izvori, prostorni oblici, graditeljska rešenja, in Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta, 44/1, 2007, p. 253-274.23 Cf. G. SUBOTIĆ, D. TODOROVIĆ, op. cit., p. 131-133.

Fig. 1 St Demetrios and winged figure (drawing: D. Todoroviæ), interpolation: Djordje Filipoviæ

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the Baptist as Kephalophoros (fig. 2).24 Despite loss of the painted areas and with the remaining ones heavily inflicted by fire, it was still possible to recognize typical features of the winged St John the Baptist, who with left hand holds his severed head in a wide golden vessel, while with right hand makes a gesture of blessing (fig. 3). As far as it can be seen, St John was depicted with his bare chest and dressed only in a grey cloak. Since the body’s lower part is also damaged and largely effaced, it is not clear whether St John had scroll in his left hand, which was common yet not mandatory feature of this iconographic type of the winged Baptist.25 It is also not clear anymore if there was a scepter in his hand, another customary detail too. His severed head is represented with a nimbus, as was usual, which is now of dark red colour since the fresco suffered from flames. It can also be discerned that in the oval golden vessel the left profile of St John’s head is pictured.26

Unusual representations of a winged St John the Baptist Kephalophoros emerged late in medieval art, and the earliest preserved examples are those from 13th Century. It has been established that se-veral biblical quotations, from Malachi 3:1, Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2, and Luke 7:27, had influenced formation of this iconographic type of St John the Baptist, referring to him as hermit, the desert angel, messenger of God (angelos, in Greek), prophet, apostle, martyr, precursor of Messiah, and baptist.27

24 For the general report on the fieldwork see B. CVETKOVIĆ, Terenska istraživanja u oblasti Vranja i Pčinje u 2005. go-dini, in Glasnik Društva konzervatora Srbije, 30, 2006, p. 98-101. The new identification is quoted only in D. POPOVIĆ, Paying Devotion to the Holy Hermit, p. 219, n. 29.25 For iconography of the winged St John the Baptist, see M. TATIĆ-DJURIĆ, Ikona Jovana Krilatog iz Dečana, in Zbornik Narodnog muzeja, 7, 1973, p. 39-50; D. VOJVODIĆ, Zidno slikarstvo crkve Svetog Ahilija u Arilju, Beograd, 2005, p. 163, n. 1226 (with bibliography).26 Drawings of frescoes, published by G. Subotić and D. Todorović, present the winged figure in inappropriate height, with mistaken details: the saint’s right hand is shown as the jewelled hem of the archangel’s cloak, while the severed head in the vessel is turned into large decorated clasp that fastens the cloak.27 D. VOJVODIĆ, op. cit., p. 163.

Fig. 2 St John the Baptist Kephalophoros (photo: author)

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To paint a figure in front of a templon beam in the Byzantine art was the way to stress its impor-tance by placing it near the holiest part of a church.28 This can also be said for figures of St John the Baptist.29 Since the actual dedication of the monastery to St Prohoros of Pčinja cannot be the original one, it has recently been speculated that the archangel may have been the original patron saint, but this is an assumption based on the erroneous identification of the winged figure under discussion.30 The hypothesis was also based on fact that the archangels, as patrons of temples, were indeed often represented in front of iconostases, as witnessed by examples in the monastery churches in Çavuşin, Lesnovo, or Koporin.31

Given the figure is now precisely identified, the dedication issue may be approached on fresh grounds. Firstly, it must be stressed that the churches and chapels dedicated to St John the Baptist in medieval Serbia are not numerous. Yet, the preserved ones disclose that in such cases there is always a direct homonymic liaison between a donor and the saint, as proved by paraclesis of St John the Baptist, constructed on the upper floor of narthex in the St Sophia Cathedral in Ohrid, which was the foundation of despotes John Oliver.32 The churches in Štip and Crkolez were also built by

28 For programmatic issues of templons, see G. BABIĆ, O živopisanom ukrasu oltarskih pregrada, in Zbornik za likovne umetnosti Matice srpske, 11, 1975, p. 3-49. Also, cf. The Iconostasis: Origins – Evolution – Symbolism (A. Lidov ed.), Moscow, 2000; Thresholds of the sacred: architectural, art historical, liturgical, and theological perspectives on religious screens, East and West (Sh. Gerstel ed.), Washington D. C., 2006; Ikonostas kao duhovni i kulturni pečat pravoslavnih hrišćana (M. Andrić, V. Vukašinović ed.), Kragujevac, 2007.29 For St John the Baptist in art also, see A. KATSIOTE, Oi skenes tes Zoes kai o Eikonografikos Kyklos tou Agiou Ioan-nou Prodromou ste Byzantine Techne, Athena, 1998.30 B. TODIĆ, Srpsko slikarstvo u doba kralja Milutina, p. 318.31 For the colour plates: N. THIERRY, La Cappadoce de l’Antiquité au Moyen âge, Turnhout, 2002, no. 36, fig. 86; V. POPOVSKA-KOROBAR, op. cit., p. 17; M. RADUJKO, Koporin, Beograd, 2005, p. 44-46, fig. 21-22.32 C. GROZDANOV, Ohridskoto sidno slikarstvo od XIV vek, Ohrid, 1980, p. 62-63; I. M. DJORDJEVIĆ, Zidno slikars-tvo srpske vlastele u doba Nemanjića, Beograd, 1994, p. 158.

Fig. 3 St John the Baptist Kephalophoros (drawing: author), interpolation: Djordje Filipoviæ

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ktêtors namesakes of this patron saint.33 The paraclesis of St John the Baptist in the Ohrid cathedral has finely preserved wall paintings displaying figure of the patron saint exactly in the same position as in St Prohoros of Pčinja, on the north wall of the nave and in front of the templon barrier.34 But, bearing in mind that in the Byzantine and East Orthodox art the fresco icons of St John the Baptist were often painted near templon beams, one has to be cautious when postulating his being patron saint only on the basis of his position in proximity of an altar space.35

A quite similar likeness of St John the Baptist from St Prohoros of Pčinja exists in the same place, for instance, in Psača, yet, the patron saint of this church is not St John the Baptist but St Nicho-las.36 Figures of the winged St John the Baptist Kephalophoros are also painted in this position in the cathedral church of St Acheillios in Arilje,37 St Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki,38 the paraclesis of St Nicholas in Sopoćani,39 the Dormition cathedral church in Gračanica,40 St Niketas in Čučer,41 and in the Virgin’s church in Pustinja.42 Similarly, the non-winged St John the Baptist is also found near the templon beam in St Demetrius in Peć,43 the Virgin’s church in Karan,44 and the nave of the Les-novo monastery.45 The winged St John the Baptist Kephalophoros is painted among the hermit saints in the paraclesis of St Demetrius in Dečani,46 and in various positions in the Virgin’s church in the Zaum monastery,47 the narthex of Lesnovo,48 and the chapel No. 11 in Červen.49

What makes figure of the winged St John the Baptist Kephalophoros in St Prohoros of Pčinja into a possible dedication icon of the church is the way the monastery was referred to in some neglected sources. The detailled chronicle account of the monastery, published by J. Hadži-Vasiljević in 1900, says that “the full name of the monastery is St John Prohoros of Pčinja, but people commonly call it holy old man”.50 This information is in full accordance with feasts celebrated in the monastery. Namely, today the main feast is that of St Prohoros of Pčinja, as the actual patron saint, October 19th.51 The second feast is the Ivanjdan, the feast of the Birth of St John the Baptist, June 24th.52 The third monastery feast is that of St Sabas the Serbian, the most venerated national saint of Serbs, January 14th.53 It is

33 I. M. DJORDJEVIĆ, op. cit., p. 162, 187. For monastery of St John the Baptist in Jašunje, built in 1516/7, see G. SUBOTIĆ, Zidno slikarstvo Svetog Jovana Preteče u Jašunji (1), in Leskovački zbornik, 27, 1987, p. 23-37; id, Zidno sli-karstvo Svetog Jovana Preteče u Jašunji (2), in Leskovački zbornik, 31, 1991, p. 17-30.34 C. GROZDANOV, op. cit., p. 62-63, fig. 9; I. M. DJORDJEVIĆ, op. cit., p. 158, fig. 52.35 See n. 24 above.36 I. M. DJORDJEVIĆ, op. cit., p. 174.37 D. VOJVODIĆ, op. cit., p. 163-164, fig. 20.38 A. TSITOURIDOU, He entoichia zografike tou Agiou Nikolaou ste Thessalonike, Thessalonike, 1978, p. 43-44, fig. 16.39 V. J. DJURIĆ, Sopoćani, Beograd, 1991, p. 170; B. ŽIVKOVIĆ, Sopoćani. Crteži fresaka, Beograd, 1984, p. 35.40 B. TODIĆ, Gračanica. Slikarstvo, Beograd - Priština, 1988, p. 127-128, fig. 75.41 M. TATIĆ-DJURIĆ, op. cit., p. 43, fig. 5.42 S. PEJIĆ, Manastir Pustinja, Beograd, 2002, p. 99, fig. 67.43 G. BABIĆ, op. cit., p. 32.44 G. BABIĆ, op. cit., p. 33, fig. 20.45 S. GABELIĆ, op. cit., p. 123, fig. 52.46 M. MARKOVIĆ, Pojedinačne figure svetitelja u naosu i paraklisima, in Zidno slikarstvo manastira Dečana. Građa i studije (V. J. Ðurić ed.), Beograd, 1995, p. 252, n. 92.47 G. BABIĆ, op. cit., fig. 29; C. GROZDANOV, op. cit., p. 110.48 S. GABELIĆ, op. cit., p. 198-199, fig. 100.49 L. MAVRODINOVA, Stennata živopis v Bulgaria do kraja na XIV vek, Sofia, 1995, p. 60, fig. 87.50 J. HADŽI-VASILJEVIĆ, Sveti Prohor Pčinjski i njegov manastir, in Godišnjica Nikole Čupića, 20, 1900, p. 63; id, Južna Stara Srbija. Preševska oblast, Beograd, 1913, p. 373.51 P. V. GAGULIĆ, op. cit., p. 93-94.52 P. V. GAGULIĆ, op. cit., p. 94.53 P. V. GAGULIĆ, op. cit., p. 94.

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therefore possible to assume that the feast of St John the Baptist and his fresco icon in front of the templon present traces of the original dedication of the oldest church. True, in the monastery court there are also remnants of a chapel of St John near the main church, but it is not known whether this was St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, or some other saint of that name, nor it is known what period this particular dedication belongs to.54

But the way the so called kivot, the small reliquary room, positioned in the heart of the actual katholikon is joined with the nave of the oldest church, may be of some importance for dedication issue.55 The specially defined space for the saint’s shrine is detached from the rest of the building, similarly as in the shrine of Hosios Loukas in Phocis.56Above the small door connecting nave with kivot there is the main fresco icon of St Prohoros, painted in bust form, just as in Phocis, as typical patron saint icon put above entrance into a church or chapel.57 The wide shallow niche of the south wall, which originally must have been the place for relics of St Prohoros in the 11th Century church, does look as the miniature façade of a chapel. Though the fresco belongs to the 15th Century layer, it most certainly repeats the older one. Originally placed above the reliquary, and subsequently above the entrance door into the specially built room for the relics, the icon of St Prohoros is facing the figure of St John the Baptist Kephalophoros, the model saint of all the hermits, and probable patron saint of the monastery on the Pčinja river.

54 For the chapel, see P. V. GAGULIĆ, op. cit., p. 45.55 For description of this space, see P. V. GAGULIĆ, op. cit., p. 41-43.56 N. CHATZIDAKIS, Byzantine Art in Greece – Hosios Loukas, Athens, 1996, fig. 95, 212.57 H. MAGUIRE, The Icons of their Bodies. Saints and their Images in Byzantium, Princeton, 1996, p. 66-68, 93-99, fig. 60, 78-80.

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