The cult of the martyrs Chiona, Irena and Agape of Thessalonica throughout history

This work is a systematic analysis of the contemporary testimonies of the cult of Saints Chionia, Irene and Agape - Macedonian martyrs from the times of Diocletian. To a large extent, it is based on widely known written sources (including monuments of epigraphy), created over the period from the 4th to the 19th century in the western and eastern cultural circles. At the same time, the most extensive of the analyzed texts were — together with the author’s translations — attached to the work in the form of annexes. If necessary, the most important works of art related to the figures of Greek saints and dating from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period were also referred here. In the course of the analysis, the issue of the existence of two versions of the history of the martyrs and the problem of incorrect hagiographic identification of Greek saints with characters with the same names were also taken into account. The entirety of the considerations, however, served to answer an additional question whether — contrary to the postulates of some researchers (including P. Brown, M. Eliade, E. Gibbon) — the development of the cult of martyrs could have occurred independently of the initiative of powerful protectors, acting for economic and political reasons.