Eikon

Marcian the Oikonomos

Our Venerable Father Marcian, Presbyter and Steward of the Great Church of Constantinople

Righteous · Priest · b. early 5th century, at Rome — d. c. 471, at Constantinople

Commemorated 10 January — Repose of Marcian the Oikonomos; kept within the afterfeast of the Theophany

Marcian (early fifth century – c. 471) was a presbyter and the oikonomos (steward, treasurer, and administrator) of the Great Church of Constantinople in the age of the patriarch Gennadius. Born at Rome and educated at Constantinople, he inherited great wealth and spent the whole of it, together with the offerings that passed through his hands as steward, on the building, rebuilding, and adorning of churches — chief among them the great church of Saint Anastasia and the church of Saint Irene by the sea — so that he is remembered as one of the notable church-builders of the imperial city. A man of prayer, almsgiving, and personal austerity beneath the cares of his great office, he was glorified by God with wonders, and reposed about the year 471. He is kept on January 10, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.

Steward of the Great Church

Marcian was born, the tradition says, at Rome, of a family of the old nobility, and was brought as a young man to Constantinople, where he received a thorough education and entered the service of the Church. Ordained presbyter, he was appointed oikonomos — the steward or treasurer of the Great Church (the patriarchal church of the capital, in the years before and around the building of the first Hagia Sophia) — an office of great responsibility, charged with the administration of the church's properties, revenues, and works. He held it under the patriarch Gennadius (458–471), in the reign of the emperors Marcian and Leo, and won a name for the exactness, the honesty, and the largeness of heart with which he discharged it.

The builder of churches

Marcian had inherited a great fortune, and to it were added, in the way of his office, large sums; and the whole of it he turned to the service of the churches. He is remembered above all as a builder and restorer of sacred buildings. He raised again from decay and richly adorned the great church of Saint Anastasia in Constantinople — the church associated with Gregory the Theologian's ministry in the city — completing and beautifying it; and he built or rebuilt the church of Saint Irene by the sea, and had a hand in many others. The tradition tells that at the dedication of one of his churches, having given away everything, he wore his own rich garment beneath his vestments and gave even that to the poor; and that once, when a great fire threatened one of the churches he had built, his prayers turned back the flames. Beneath the splendour of his benefactions he kept a life of prayer and strict personal poverty, spending on himself nothing of what he lavished on the house of God and on the needy.

Repose

Marcian reposed in peace at Constantinople about the year 471, honoured as a righteous steward who had made the wealth of the world into a treasure in heaven. He was glorified by God with the gift of wonders, and his memory was kept in the churches he had raised. The Church commemorates him on January 10.

Feast and commemoration

Marcian is kept on January 10 (church date; Old Calendar civil January 23), within the afterfeast of the Theophany, together with Gregory of Nyssa and Dometian of Melitene. The Greek and Slavic calendars agree on the day; the Orthodox Church in America commemorates him as "Saint Marcian the Presbyter in Constantinople."

Iconography

Marcian is depicted as a priest — in the phelonion and epitrachelion of a presbyter rather than the omophorion of a bishop — often bearing a model of a church in his hands, the sign of the builder and benefactor, or a scroll. No identity-verified pre-1900 image of Marcian has been secured for storage here; the entry is noted as wanting an icon.

Disputed questions

  • Not to be confused with the several other Marcians of the calendar: with Marcian the Reader, the notary martyred at Constantinople with Martyrius the Subdeacon under the Arians (kept October 25) — a different Marcian of the same city and an earlier age; with Marcian, hermit of Cyrrhus (the fourth century, kept November 2); and with Marcian, bishop of Syracuse, the apostolic-age hieromartyr (kept October 30). This Marcian is the presbyter and steward (oikonomos) of the Great Church of Constantinople and builder of churches, kept January 10.

Sources

  1. Synaxarion of Constantinople and Greek Menaion, January 10 — the life of Marcian: his Roman birth and education, the office of oikonomos of the Great Church under Gennadius, the building and adorning of the churches of Saint Anastasia and Saint Irene, the almsgiving and the wonders, and the repose.
  2. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, January 10 (consulted live for enumeration and the traditional life) — "Saint Marcian the Presbyter in Constantinople," his devotion of his inheritance to church-building.
  3. The Byzantine tradition of the churches of Constantinople (Saint Anastasia, Saint Irene) — for Marcian's benefactions and their setting in the fifth-century capital.