The Orphans of Byzantium: Child Welfare in the Christian Empire (review)

As a sequel to Miller's The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire, this work is a study of the historical development of institutionalized care for orphans in the Byzantine world. The author pays special attention to the development of the Orphanotropheion, the great orphanage of Constantinople, and traces the history of this institution from its beginnings during the reign of Constantius II (337-361) to the mid-fourteenth century. Where evidence allows, he answers intriguing questions concerning the organization and effectiveness of a system of child welfare that pre-dated, inspired, and often guided many of the developments found in late medieval and Renaissance western Europe. Given the ambiguity of the term "orphan" both in ancient and modern usage, Miller focuses his study on children who lost both parents.

Witnessing to the often hidden yet crucial involvement of women in child welfare throughout history, Miller introduces the essential themes of his study by unpacking Anna Komnena's dense prose in praise of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I. Anna described his efforts at rescuing orphaned refuges from the hands of Turkish raiders in 1116. He did this by enforcing reformed laws of guardianship, relying on support structures developed in episcopal and monastic group homes with educational facilities for children, and, where necessary, placing the remaining boys and girls in the capital's main orphanage, the Orphanotropheion, to secure both their instruction in Christian doctrine and their initiation into Hellenic civilization.

Following these main themes Miller traces changes in the laws of guardianship in the Byzantine Empire throughout the centuries, evaluates the success or failure of the respective reforms, and examines the use of private and public orphanages, which conjointly created an integrated system of care for orphans. In contrast to other philanthropic efforts, the Byzantine child welfare system focused less on building large institutions than on reforming guardianship laws as a way of encouraging relatives to remain involved in the lives of children after their parents' death.

In chapter 2 Miller discusses the evidence for orphan care in ancient Greece and Rome and contrasts practices in that world with Jewish and Christian efforts, which received their moral imperative from the notion of God as father of orphans. Chapter 3 combines a study of the earliest history of the Orphanotropheion, possibly originally an Arian foundation, with an investigation of aspects of the practical consequences of the developing Christian conscience that increasingly cultivated the virtue of charity. Bishops and widows, known as graptai in later sources, played leading roles in caring for orphans, while newly established orphan choirs served both the educational needs of the children and the liturgical needs of episcopal and parish churches.

A study of the changes of the imperial legislation between 312 and 472 C.E., which made it increasingly difficult for orphans to find guardians who were willing to assume the burden of raising the children, leads into a detailed discussion of aspects of continuity and change in guardianship laws in chapter 4. Probably "the most sweeping reform of the Roman guardianship system" was caused and implemented by Justinian's Novella 118 in 543 C.E., which finally and effectively opened guardianship to women.

Chapter 5 amply illustrates the broad and sustained involvement of the Christian Church in caring for the needs of orphans. Under the auspices of bishops and monks, orphan schools provided for the proper education of the children, and sermons and religious tractates exhorted the faithful to contribute financially, materially, and spiritually to the upkeep and flourishing of the institutions. Bishops, priests, deacons, and monks at times became guardians of orphaned children of relatives and friends although the laws of both church and state proscribed this practice.

Chapter 6 considers the issue of child abandonment and investigates the effectiveness of imperial legislation and church efforts at...