Translatio beati Chrysogoni martyris as a Narrative Source of Early Croatian History

Legendarni opis prijenosa relikvija sv. Krševana, koji je iz nekoga starijeg predloška prepisao monah Zoilo, sin Ivanov, 1498. godine pokazuje sve značajke srednjovjekovne hagiografske literature. Na temelju unutarnjih i vanjskih kritičkih zapažanja iznosi se pretpostavka da su svečeve relikvije prenesene u Zadar tijekom 7. ili samim početkom 8. stoljeća, ali je sam sadržaj translacije literarno i stilski prerađivan i dotjeravan tijekom minulih stoljeća; latinski jezik odgovara periodu 12./13. stoljeća. Premda pisan u tradicionalnom žanru translatio ossis, ipak tekst prenosi na sebi svojstven način povijesna zapažanja važna za ranu hrvatsku povijest: u Zadru je još tijekom ranoga srednjeg vijeka u Justinijanovoj tradiciji gradski biskup prvi čovjek grada, a lokalna aristokracija nije se još uspjela nametnuti gradu. Po kopnenom zaleđu koje autor podrugljivo naziva oblast Marab (provincia qui dicitur Marab), naselili su se novi narodi koji su djelomično kršćani, ali su još uvijek pod snažnim poganskim utjecajem svojih pređa. Među njima nalazi se jedan biskup koji pak nema ono dostojanstvo, čast i ulogu kao što je to imao njegov kolega u susjednom Zadru. Spomenuti je biskup mogao biti samo biskup Nina jer niti jedno drugo mjesto u samom zaleđu Zadra nije imalo sve preduvjete za razvoj biskupske službe. Samim time Nin bi imao svojega gradskog biskupa još prije dolaska Franaka. Rodovsku je zajednicu predvodio „senio“ i predaja ga, kako bi ponizila stanovnike oblasti Marab, naziva stari Mirmidonac. Ovaj nije u izvornom smislu riječi „star“, nego predstavlja rodovskog starješinu, a nikako kneza kada se Hrvatska pod franačkim utjecajem transformira u kneževinu karolinškog tipa.The Translatio beati Chrysogoni martyris, which was copied from some older copy by monk Zoilo the son of Ivan in 1498, unifies, as far as its content goes, the familiar features of Medieval hagiographic literature: inventio – translatio – miracula. One episodes flows into another episode: first the building of the church in honor of the saint which is connected to the discovery and the transport of the saint’s reliquaries. The next episode is the theft of the reliquaries which was done by three monks and their fate in the mysterious land of Marab, especially the reaction of its inhabitants who are known as the Myrmidones. A report concerning an Aquila moneyman who out of gratitude bequeaths a rich gift to the building of the church in the saint’s honor was incorporated into the tradition. On the basis of inner and outer critical evaluations the hypothesis has been put forward that the saint’s reliquaries were transported to Zadar during the 7th or at the beginning of the 8th century but the content itself of the translation has been literarily and stylistically modified and upgraded during the last centuries. The Latin version dates to the 12/13th century. Although written in the traditional genre, translatio ossis, the text records in its own distinct fashion historical observations which are significant to early Croatian history: during the early Middle Ages in the Justinian tradition the city bishop in Zadar was the most prominent person in the city and the local aristocracy did not yet manage to impose itself on the city. New peoples, who are partially Christian but are still under the powerful pagan influence of their ancestors, settled the hinterland which the author mockingly designates as Marab land (provincial qui dicitur Marab). Amongst them was a bishop who does not have the dignity nor the role that his colleague had in the neighboring city of Zadar. The said bishop could only have been the bishop of Nin because there was no other place in the hinterland of Zadar with preconditions for the development of the bishop’s service. On the basis of this Nin would have had its city bishop earlier than the arrival of the Franks and the Nin bishopric would have existed before them. The clan community was headed by a „senior“ and traditional accounts, in order to humiliate the inhabitants of the Marab province, call him the „old Myrmidone“. He is not an „elder“ in the original sense of the word but a senior in the clan and in no way a duke during the period when Croatia under Frank influence is being transformed into a principality of the Charlemagne type