1700TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. DOMNIUS

Motif: Relief Martyr's of St. Domnius, Cathedral in Split Salona, standing in the place of today’s Solin in the vicinity of Split, used to be the capital of the large Roman province of Dalmatia, the borders of which in the north reached as far as the edges of Panonia. Various pagan cults used to be worshipped in this cosmopolitan city. Starting from the 1st century, there was also a small Christian community living in Salona. With the passage of times, this community was going to receive the status of a bishopric. In the course of occasional persecutions in Salona, many Christians suffered martyrdom. The bloodiest persecutions were those taking place at the time of Emperor Diocletian. Some of the martyrs, among them a number of soldiers, were murdered in front of the bloodthirsty spectators in the amphitheatre of Salona. The martyr Anastasius (called St. Staš in the local dialect), a dyer who had come from Aquileia, was thrown into the sea with a millstone tied to his neck. At the time of Diocletian in the year 304, the bishop of Salona called Domnius, Doimus (Duje or Dujam in the local dialect) also fell victim to the persecutions. He had also, like numerous other heralds of the Faith, come from the East, from Syria. An epitaph has been preserved mentioning bishop Domnius. Another epitaph mentions a nephew of his. Like the other martyrs, bishop Domnius has not renounced his faith, which cost him a cruel martyrdom: beheading. According to the legend, there were forty-five other martyrs from Dalmatia who had fallen victims in the same persecution. The pious members of the Christian community took his body and furtively buried it outside the city walls. The grave of their bishop and martyr turned into a place of worshipping the sacred memory. Next to the martyrs’ graves, eminent members of the Christian community of Salona used to be buried, particularly church dignitaries. The entire locality was given the name Manastirine (in the local dialect the name is derived from the word monastery). Following the acceptance of Christianity as a recognized and tolerated religion after the edict of Milan in 313, the locality turned into one of the main Christian centres of old Salona. Within its walls a cathedral was built, and outside the city a number of basilicas where martyrs used to be buried and furtively worshipped. On the Manastirine locality, in the place of the earlier, more modest chapels, the so called memories, a magnificent basilica was built around which a spacious graveyard was spread. After the destruction of Salona at the beginning of the 7th century, the basilica at Manastirine had also fallen into ruin, though it never stopped being remembered as the place of the burial of the bishop and martyr Domnius. At the beginning of the 7th century, fearing the advent of barbarians, the relics of the martyrs from Salona were transferred to Rome. But the inhabitants of Split, the settlement that developed next to the nearby Diocletian’s palace, have never forgotten the Christian tradition of Salona. The legends from Split render the transfer of the bodies of St.Domnius and St. Anastasius to Split. Since the Early Middle Ages, St. Domnius was worshipped as the patron saint of Split. The Split cathedral was originally a pagan temple, where Emperor Diocletian was probably buried, but now, at the two altars with two sepulchres, the bodily relics of the two martyrs from Salona are being worshipped. Since the Middle Ages up to our times St. Domnius and St. Anastasius have been central topics of the religious and cultural life of Split. Numerous pages in Latin, Italian and Croatian have been written about these two saints. Furthermore, many compositions, prayers, hymns, even an oratorio have been written, and St. Domnius has got mentioned in many epitaphs. His cult has spread outside Split. Special attention, naturally, has been paid to the saints’ tombs – altars in the cathedral. St. Domnius’s tomb has been built by master Bonino from Milan in 1427, while the other one, St. Anastasius’s, was carved in stone by Georgius Dalmaticus (Juraj Dalmatinac) in 1448. St. Anastasius is presented with the millstone, the attribute of his martyrdom. On the other hand, St. Domnius is presented in many pictures in his bishop’s attire, with a palm branch in his hand indicating the glory of martyrdom. Frequently we find St. Domnius holding the city of Split in his palm, often depicted very authentically. As a matter of fact, genuine cities must necessarily have their patron saints, and Split is actually looking after his earthly relics. The Split bishopric has in the course of time been raised to the status of archbishopric, thus inheriting the traditions of the one from the times of Salona. Moreover, the Split archbishops used to have the title of the primate of Croatia. The long tradition of Split is veritably remarkable, and it is no wonder that the citizens of Split are proud of their patron saint.