1. The Tradition about St. Eugenios

According to the tradition preserved in the Passio,¹ Eugenios was a young man from Trebizond, who was arrested, tortured and killed by doukas Lysias during the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian (303-305), because he defended the Christian faith or, according to later versions of the text, because he destroyed a local sanctuary dedicated to the pagan god Mithra. He was martyred along with his three companions, Valerianos,Kanidios and Akylas, who often appear in the accounts of the miracles allegedly performed by Eugenios.

2. The Cult of St. Eugenios through the Years

2.1 Early Byzantine Period

The Passio of Eugenios must have been first composed in the Early Byzantine period, when similar cults began to appear and spread in the Pontus.² The earliest reliable reference to his cult in Trebizond is to be found in Prokopios' Buildings³ (6^th century), where an aqueduct dedicated to St. Eugenios is mentioned among Justinian’s building plans; there is also a refenrence in the co-called autobiography of a certain Ananias⁴ of Shirak, Armenia, a scholar who travelled to Trebizond in the early 7^th century and studied by Tychikos, who was teaching ‘at the sanctuary of Saint Eugenia’ (probably an error, instead of Eugenios).

2.2. Middle Byzantine Period

If John Lazaropoulos (14th century) may be considered a reliable source, the cult of St. Eugenios was recognised by the imperial authorities, as the decoration of the monastery dedicated to Eugenios indicates, in 1021/1022, when the Byzantine emperor Basil II travelled to Trebizond. In the 11^th century John VIII Xiphilinos wrote, probably before he had assumed the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, a new version of the Passio, where he included the most recent miracles of St. Eugenios. Those were the basic texts for the saint’s cult in the Late Byzantine period, when a large number of the works dedicated to the saint were created.

2.3. Late Byzantine Period

The fame of Eugenios’ cult spread widely when the Grand Komnenoi established the independent Empire of Trebizond (1204-1461) and adopted Eugenios as their patron and symbol of their State. The miracles recorded in the 14^th century describe an active support to the cult from the first sovereigns of the dynasty, like Andronikos I Gidon (Grand Komnenos) (1222-1235). For example, the captivation of Mālik, the Seljuk emir who besieged Trebizond, was attributed to the intervention of the saint, whose relics were taken in procession around the city walls by the emperor and the metropolitan. In the years of Manuel I Grand Komnenos (1238-1263), coins with the type of St. Eugenios on the one side and an imperial portrait on the reverse were minted. That became the usual form of the silver coins of the Empire of Trebizond (aspra komnenata) from that point on.

There is plenty of information about the saint’s cult from the 14^th-15^th century, when Constantine Loukites, a senior official in the court of Trebizond, wrote an encomium on the saint, and John Lazaropoulos, the later metropolitan Joseph of Trebizond, wrote two collections of the saint's miracles, the Logos and the Synopsis.⁵ More information about the cult and its position in the last centuries of the empire is provided by some hymns to the saint as well as the important liturgical typikon of the monastery of St. Eugenios, written in 1346. The works of Lazaropoulos show the particular attention given to the saint’s cult by Alexios II Grand Komnenos (1297-1330), who is said to have established the feast on the saint’s birthday, June 24, in addition to the traditional celebration day on January 21 (the day of his martyrdom).⁶ Lazaropoulos also recounts that the saint helped Alexios II to eliminate a threatening dragon in the hills near Trebizond. The majority of the ‘recent’ miracles recorded by Lazaropoulos mention the monastery of St. Eugenios. This contradicts Xiphilinos' earlier compilation of the saint's miracles, and it probably reflects either an increased influence of the monastery or the decreased popularity of the cult, while the 14^th century texts prove the monastic and imperial efforts towards its revival.⁷

The monastery of St. Eugenios (now Yeni Cuma mosque) is situated outside the city walls, within a short distance from the city. Its strategic position made it twice the stronghold of enemies of the emperor (both foreign and local). Its last capture resulted in a fire that destroyed the church of the monastery in 1340. The destruction, described by the chronicler Michael Panaretos, did not seem to require a complete reconstruction of the church, seeing as the liturgical typikon⁸ of the monastery was composed only six years later, in 1346, and Alexios III had the ceremonies of his wedding and coronation performed there, in 1349. All similar imperial ceremonies would be normally performed at the metropolitan church of Trebizond (Theotokos Chrysokephalos), but a relation of the imperial court with the monastery of St. Eugenios and its church is attested in the imperial portraits that were visible on the church's western wall (as described by Fallmerayer in 1840).⁹ The monastery also was in possession of an estate (metochion) within the city walls, which may have been scriptorium once.¹⁰

The monastery was particularly important for the cult of St. Eugenios, since the saint’s relics were kept there. According to the typikon, the relics were carried from the katholikon to the metochion on the afternoon of the 17^th of January and returned to the monastery on the eve of the celebration day of St. Eugenios (21 January). The katholikon was also the place where St. Eugenios was said to cure and perform miracles. Those who needed help touched the saint’s relics (his body, which was in a silver coffin, his head, kept separately, and the processional cross) or the secondary objects considered miraculous (oil from the lamps hanging above the grave, myrrh gushing from the grave or ointment prepared from the water used for washing the relics).

3. Visual Representations

3.1. Wall Paintings

Only a few churches in Trebizond maintain their internal decoration, which makes the effort to estimate how often Eugenios and his miracles were represented difficult. It is very likely that there were more representations of the patron saint of Trebizond in the katholikon of the monastery of St. Eugenios, and a significant part of the wall paintings is probably preserved under the white-washed surfaces. In the church of the monastery of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond, there is a representation of St. Eugenios in courtier’s attire, on the southern wall, while the same occurs on the northern wall of the Upper Church at Geyikli, (Sarmaşıklı Kilisesi), as well as on the northern wall of the chapel of St. Elias at the Vazelon Monastery (both in Matzouka). Outside the Empire of Trebizond, it is more likely to find representations of young Eugenios of the Five martyrs of Aravrakon rather than of Eugenios of Trebizond. These two cults, whose origins are probably related to each other, might have been blended into one and the same by the faithful outside the Pontus.

3.2. Manuscripts

Saint Eugenios and his companions are included in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, while his martyrdom is described in the lavishly decorated synaxarion known as the Menologion of Emperor Basil II. A full-page representation of Eugenios, in a manuscript dated 1346 and today kept at Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos (codex Vat. gr. 1199), adorns the introduction of the liturgical typikon of the monastery of St. Eugenios in Trebizond.

3.3. Metalwork

The lid of a reliquary at Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice depicts Jesus giving martyr crowns to Akylas, Eugenios, Valerianos and Kanidios. The four sides of the reliquary are decorated with twelve verses describing the martyrs and the scene depicted on the lid, while they are being asked for intercession on the donator's behalf.

3.4. Coins

Numerous coins of the Grand Komnenoi have also survived. The earliest of them depict a standing St. Eugenios in courtier’s attire, with a long processional cross (on bronze coins he is occasionally depicted with a small martyr’s cross). Coins minted during and after the reign of Alexios II show him on horseback. A similar portrait showing Eugenios riding has been drawn on at least one manuscript, which was probably copied in a scriptorium at the monastery of St. Eugenios or at its metochion in Trebizond.

3.5. Iconography