Byzantium

Despite the unhistorical nature of Katherine’s Passio, its composition provides the most obvious sign that a cult commemorating the saint had begun to develop by the end of the eighth century. It is not, however, the only indication and in this chapter other evidence for the origins of the cult in the Byzantine Empire is examined. ¹ None of this evidence is contemporaneous with the supposed martyrdom of Katherine in c.305, although some of it does pre-date the emergence of the written Passio. Unfortunately, the oldest piece of physical evidence, which is sometimes cited to demonstrate that Katherine was being venerated by the fifth century, is highly questionable. It consists of a terracotta ampulla, one of a collection of so-called ‘Menas ampullae’ held in the Museum of the Campo Santo Teutonico, or German School, in Rome. ² St Menas, an Egyptian soldier in the Roman army, was believed to have been martyred c.303 and would have been an approximate contemporary of Katherine. ³ There is little historical evidence for Menas, but this did not prevent his shrine at Karm Abu Mina, south-west of Alexandria, from becoming a major early Christian pilgrimage centre. Menas ampullae have been found on a number of sites in Italy, Gaul and Spain. Each ampulla bore on its obverse (front) face a representation of St Menas while the reverse carried a variety of images or decoration. In a catalogue produced by the Campo Santo Teutonico the reverse of the ampulla in question is described as depicting a feminine head half turned to the right with only the contour of the face and wig, the inset of the eyes and the throat being recognizable. ⁴