Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/570

 EPIPHANIUS

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EPIPHANY

field of Issus (Ramsay, Asia Minor, 386; Alishan, Sis- souan, Venice, 1899, 475).

Another Epiphania was a suffragan of Damascus. It is the modern Hamah, on the Orontes (about 60,000 inhabitants). Jesuits and native Mariamet sisters care for its CathoHc popiJation, who are, for the most part, Greek Melchites. For these and for Catholic Syrians, Hamah is miited with Emesa (q. v.).

S. V.ULHE.

Epiphanius, surnamed Schol.\stictts, or in mod- ern terms, the Philologist, a translator of various Greek works in the middle of the si.xth century of the Christian Era. He prepared for Cassiodorus the te.xt of the "Historia Tripartita", a compilation of the works of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. We also have his translation of the commentary of Didy- mus on the Seven Catholic Epistles and that of the "Codex encyclicus", a list of the adhesions of the bishops of the East to the decrees of the Council of Chaleedon, a list dra\\Ti up in 458 by order of the Em- peror Leo I. Epiphanius made several additions to it. He also translated the commentary of Didymus on the Book of Proverbs and that of Epiphanius of Salamina on the Canticle of Canticles. These works are either lost or as yet undiscovered. "He belongs", says Jiilicher, " to the group who, like Dionysius Exiguus, Mutianus, and many unknown others, satisfied the needs of the Latins for translations of Greek theolo- gians."

Bardenhewer. Patrologv (tr. St. Louis, 190S), 532, 557, 636; JClicher in Renlcncyc. der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1907,1, VI, i, 195.

Paul Lej.^t.

Epiphanius of Constantinople, d. 535. Epipha- nius succeedcel John II (518-20) as Patriarch of Con- stantinople. It was the time of the reaction against Monophysitism in the Eastern Empire that followed the accession of Justin I (518-27). Justin was Catho- lic; he let the Henoticon (482) of his predecessor Zeno (474-91) quietly drop, and very soon after his acces- sion he caused a sjiiod of forty bishops to meet under John II at the capital, in order to proclaim a general acceptance of the decrees of Chaleedon throughout the empire, the restoration of Catholic, and the deposition of Monophysite, bishops (P. G., LXXXVI, I, 785). The same synod reopened negotiations with the Roman See after the schism of Acacius (484-519). The reigning -pope was Hormisdas (514-23), and it was on this occasion that he composed his famous formula. On Easter Day, 24 March, 519, the reunion was proclaimed. Severus of .Antioch and the other Monophysite leaders fled to Eg^pt. The papal legates remained at Constantinople till 520. In that year the Patriarch John died, and Epiphanius was elected as his successor. He was then given authority from the pope to reconcile all schismatics and Monophysites who retracted their errors and signed the formula. Epiphanius signed it himself in the first place (Mansi, VIII, 502 sqq.).

Four letters from Epiphanius to Hormisdas are ex- tant, with the pope's letters to him (P. L., LXIII). In the first, from. Hormisdas to Epiphanius (col. 493), the pope complains that he has received as yet no letter and no legate to announce the patriarch's accession. In the second letter (1. c.) the pope requires that three repentant Monophysite bishops, Elias, Thomas, anil Nicostratus, should be restored to their sees, and he appoints Epiphanius to restore them. Epiphanius then writes to Homii.sdas (col. 494-9.5) to announce his succession to the See of Constantinople, as the pope had demanded. He excuses himself for his delay by explaining the difficult circumstances and the disorder that still remain since the Monophysite troubles, and protests his exceeding desire for communion with the Roman See: "It is my special prayer, rao.st blessed Father, to be united to you and to embrace the Divine

dogmas which were left by the holy Apostles especially to the holy See of Peter, chief of the Apo.stles; for 1 count nothing more precious than them" (1. c). He then draws up a very orthodox profession of faitb according to the decrees of Ephesus and Chaleedon ; he accepts all the dogmatic letters of St. Leo I, and de- clares that he will never name in his diptychs anyone who is condemned by the pope. His second letter (col. 497-99) to Hormisdas praises the emperor's zeal for the Faith, explains the case of many bishops in Pontus, Asia, and the (civil) "diocese" of the East, whom Epiphanius wishes to receive back into com- munion now that they have renounced Monophysi- tism, and mentions a jewelled chalice and other gifts he sends to the pope (this letter is dated 520). Hor- misdas answers (col. 505-6), exhorting the patriarch to persevere in reconciling Monophysites and thanking him for his presents. Epiphanius' third letter relates that a number of Eastern bishops have petitioned the emperor for union with Rome (col. 506-7), and the fourth (col. 507) praises Paulinus, whom the pope had sent to Constantinople as his legate. Migne (P. G., LXXXVI, Pt. I, 783-86) gives the text of the con- demnation of Severus and Peter of Antioch, made by a synod of Constantinople held under Epiphanius. Assemani (Bibl. Orient., I, 619) gives a list of forty- five canons drawn up by this same synod. Epiphan- ius was succeeded by Anthimus I.

Sinclair in Did. Clirist. Biog. {London, ISSO), II. 157-8; Ada SS. (1741), June, V, 164; Baronius, Ann. ercl., ad ann. 520, 521, 533, 535; Ceillier, Hist, des auteurs ecd. (Paris, 1S5S-69), s. V.

Adrian Fortescue.

Epiphany, known also under the following names: (1) rd ^Jri0dwa, or t] ^iri0dwos, sc. ij/x^pa (rarely 4 fiTi^di-fia: though, e. g., in Athanasius, 17 /xiTi)t^ (wicpaveia occurs); ^eo^di-eia: dies epiphaniarum; fes- tivitas dcclaratlonis. manifestationis; apparitio; ac- ceptio. (2) Tiiiipa. Turn rpuiTuiv: dies luminum; dies lavacri. (3) a.yi(pivia, Bcthphania; etc. (4) Fes- tiim trium reginn: whence the Dutch Drie-koningendag, Danish HcIUg-tre-kongersdag; etc. (5) Twelfth Day, Swedish Tretlondedag; etc. — The meaning of these names will be explained below. The feast was called among the Syrians dcnho (up-going), a name to be connected ■nith the notion of rising light expressed in Luke, i, 78. The name Epiphania survives in Befana, the great fair held at that season in Rome; it is diffi- cult to say how closely the practice then observed of buj-ing all sorts of earthenware images, combined with whistles, and representing some tj-pe of Roman life, is to be connected -with the rather similar custom in vogue during the December feast of the Saturnalia. For the earthenware or pastry sigillaria then sold all over Rome, see Macrobius; s. I, x, xxiv; II, xlix; and Brand, "Pop. Ant.", ISO, 183.

I. History. — As its name suggests, the Epiphany had its origin in the Eastern Chvuch. There exists indeed a homily of Ilippoh-tus to which (in one MS. only) is affixed the lemma eh to. Hym 8eo(pa.veia [not i-mipdvaa: Kellner]; it is throughout addressed to one about to be baptized, and deals only with the Sacrament of Baptism. It was edited by Bonwetsch and .\chelis (Leipzig, 1897); ,\chelis and others con- sider it spurious. The first reference about which we can feel certain is in Clement (Strom., I, xxi, 45, in P. G,, VIII, 888), who ^\Tites; "There are those, too, who over-curiously assign to the Birth of Our Saviour not only its year but its day. which they say to be on 25 Pachon (20 May) in the twenty-eighth year of Au- gustus. But the followers of Basilides celebrate the day of His Baptism too, spending the previous night in readings. .\nd they say that it was the 15th of the month Tybi of the ISth year of Tiberius Ca-sar. And some .say that it was observed the 11th of the same month." Now, 11 and 15 Tybi are 6 and 10 January, respectively. The question at once arises: did these