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

Some forty-five years ago, I began working on philanthropia in the Byzantine Empire. My original plan was to produce a series of monographs on the concept itself and its practical application through institutions, such as hospitals, xenones (hospices), orphanages, homes for the aged, and other. It was my mentor, the late professor Peter Charanis, who emphasized that we need one comprehensive volume that presents a holistic icon of philanthropy and philanthropic institutions in the Byzantine Empire, a scholarly book, that can also be read by the educated public. "Later in your life," he said, "you may want to expand on every one of your book's topics." Thus the nature and content of my Byzantine Philanthropy and Social Welfare book (Rutgers University Press, 1968). For a number of reasons, my original plan did not materialize.

I am pleased, indeed, that now younger scholars, such as Timothy Miller and John Thomas, have been working on philanthropic institutions and religious foundations in the Byzantine Empire. The Orphans of Byzantium is a very important contribution to Byzantine social and family history. In a way, chapters in my Byzantine Philanthropy and Social Welfare have become extensive monographs for Dr. Miller. Like his other works, The Orphans of Byzantium commends Professor Miller as an indefatigable researcher and leading social historian of the Byzantine era.

The Orphans of Byzantium is an original book, extensively researched, well documented, and readable, of value to students and teachers of Byzantine civilization, and the history of philanthropy and welfare. It demonstrates that Byzantine society (including the Imperial Court, individuals, especially the clergy and the Church in general) was greatly concerned with the fate of orphans, and that it did much to ameliorate their condition and determine a fair future for them. His evidence refutes the views of those who maintain that Christianity, in this case Byzantine Christianity in particular, did little different from ancient societies, which abandoned children and, with the exception of orphans of wars, attempted very little for the protection, the rights, and welfare of children.

Following a lengthy and illuminating introduction, the book includes nine chapters, an appendix, bibliography, and index. As background information, Dr Miller reviews the attitude of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds toward orphans and deserted children. Throughout his book he emphasizes the tremendous role that Christian teachings and the Church played in the welfare of children. But he also rightly reminds us that Byzantine civilization, including its social ethos, rested "on the incomparable heritage of Hellenic civilization," that "the Greco-Roman world also helped to shape the ideas the Byzantines held about orphans and the methods they adopted to assist these children" (pp. 22-23).

The third chapter is devoted to the great Orphanotropheion of Constantinople, whose foundation was attributed to Saint Zotikos (fourth century). Dr. Miller has identified the Saint Zotikos orphanage with the great Orphanotropheion renewed by Alexios Komnenos in the twelfth century. Anna Komnena, however, refers to this Orphanotropheion as an institution built close to the "very large church dedicated to the great Apostle Paul," thus St. Paul's Orphanage. The question remains whether Constantinople had two major orphanages, St. Zotikos, placed on the Asiatic coast, and St. Paul's on the Acropolis of old Byzantion.

Legislation, literary and hagiological sources, but also a variety of seals (for a number of relevant seals see my Byzantine Philanthropy and Social Welfare, 1st ed., pp. 252-256; 2nd ed., pp. 183-185) indicate that there were many orphanages throughout the Empire. Orphanages but also other philanthropic institutions were founded by individuals, members of the imperial court, but primarily by churchmen. Other chapters include "The Byzantine Church"; "Abandonment and Adoption"; "The Orphanotropheion: Administration" (a chapter that could be combined with chapter three); "The Orphan School," and more. The chapter "Byzantine Guardianship" includes much original material, relying...