Relics, miracles and furta sacra: A contribution to the study of Serbo-Bulgarian relations in the 1230s

A contribution to the study of Serbo-Bulgarian relations in the 1230s The enquiry into the cult of relics and its manifestations such as miracle working, transfer of mortal remains and the act of translatio that involves the topos of furta sacra relies on two lives of St Sava of Serbia, one penned by Domentijan (Domentianus), the other by Teodosije (Theodosius). The hagiographic episodes most relevant to this enquiry are certainly those describing Sava's stay in Tirnovo, his death (1236) and the translation of his remains to his homeland (1237). The narrative about the future saint's stay and death in Tirnovo gives conscious hints of the hero's sanctity using various hagiographic devices. Especially interesting to us is the account of the miracle Sava worked in Tirnovo while officiating the Epiphany service at the church of the Forty Martyrs. According to our analysis, the reference to the Epiphany service and the association of the miracle with that particular feast are certainly not an accident. The ideology of the Second Bulgarian Empire attached great importance to the epic victory over the Romaioi at the Battle of Tryavna in 1190, which was commemorated annually on the Day of Epiphany. The Byzantine historians Niketas Choniates and George Akropolites report that the Bulgarians seized the imperial insignia during the battle. It is irrelevant whether Sava's two hagiographers were aware of the importance of the feast or simply reiterated the well-known information about the service celebrated on that day at the church of the Forty Martyrs; what is quite certain is that the great honour of officiating the service-a celebration pregnant with symbolism-was bestowed upon the most distinguished guest and that it was then that, we believe not at all by chance, his miracle-working power was manifested in public-in front of the Bulgarian tsar, all clergy and the notables. As a natural consequence of the power of working miracles manifested in one's lifetime, the holy body of Sava, who passed away shortly afterwards, joined the most highly treasured relics of the Second Bulgarian Empire deposited in the church of the Forty Martyrs. The decision of Bulgarian tsar John II Asen to have Sava buried in his own foundation dedicated to the Forty Martyrs seems to have conveyed unequivocal symbolic messages. Not only that the hagiographer uses the topos of Christ-like haste, a quality of the ideal ruler, to depict the tsar's devout haste (to have Sava's tomb built in stone and marked with imperial insignia) but he also employs the device of connecting the tsar's actions