Art and Miracle in Medieval Byzantium: The Crypt at Hosios Loukas and its Frescoes (review)

In 1981 Peter Brown set up a model for the examination of the social function of the veneration of the saints in his masterpiece The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. Now Carolyn Connor provides an example of Brown's thesis for the Greek-speaking medieval Christianity. She examines the cult of St. Luke the Younger (d. 953) through the social, political, economic, and military contexts of the art and architecture of the crypt of the Katholikon or Great Church of the monastery of Hosios Loukas at Phokis in Greece.

Connor has already explored the life of the holy man in her work (with W. Robert Connor) on his vita, The Life and Miracles of Saint Luke of Steiris: A Translation and Commentary (Hellenic College Holy Orthodox Press, forthcoming). But in this book she takes a step further.

While the mosaics of structure above the crypt in the Katholikon have been the subject of many studies, the frescoes and furnishings of the crypt have received less attention. Connor remedies this lack. First she presents the art of the crypt. Here she is at her best technically and imaginatively. This should be no surprise for her training is in the history of art. With the author the readers descend the steps and examine the crypt. With the help of architectural diagrams and the author's own photographs of the interior, the readers stand in the crypt with the tombs of Luke and of the founders, the abbots Theodosius and Philotheus. Only once the readers are well-oriented are they ready to gaze upward at the frescoes of the vaults. Connor elucidates her catalogue and photographs of the frescoes with an interpretive essay on the style of and program for the selection of the portraits in the frescoes. Apostles, ascetics, and warrior martyrs adorn the vaults. The apostles echo the conventions of the time; the ascetics correspond to the life of the holy monk Luke; the portraits of the warrior martyrs follow The Painter's Manual but also mirror the interests of the retired military officers who built the crypt and whose portraits as patrons are enshrined nearby.

The frescoes on the upper walls guide the visitors through the events surrounding the passion and death of Jesus. The order of the scenes along the walls supports the meditation of those participating in burials in the crypt. The proximity of the crucifixion and the burial of Jesus to the altar and the scene of the Deesis above the altar with the Dormition on the opposite wall lead the contemplative mourners to the theological truth about the death of their earthly companions.

Once the readers have a clear picture of the frescoes and their program, Connor leaves the world of art and returns her readers to the floor of the crypt to consider architecture and liturgy. She thoroughly describes the tombs of Luke and of the founders, the furnishings of the crypt, the altar and the ossuary vaults for the centuries of monks who finished their lives at the monastery. Once the readers appreciate their surroundings Connor can discuss the actions which took place in this decorated space. Since no distinctive liturgical books survive from the period of the foundation to tell what happened in this particular space, she uses contemporary typika from other nearby monasteries and the Great Euchologium, the rituale of the East, to describe the burial rites for which the crypt was built. Relying on the vita of Hagios Loukas, she supplements this picture with a recreation of the pilgrimages and of the healing cult at the saint's tomb. She describes incubation, instantaneous cures, and healing which took place only after many months. The means of cure included the use of oil from the lamps near the tomb and washing with the moisture exuded from the tomb...