Turning Night into Day
Processions in Late Ancient Constantinople (330-518 CE)
Abstract
This article discusses important issues in current scholarship on processional activity in Late Antique Constantinople. The article begins by analyzing John Chrysostom's interest in wresting the dominion of the night from the demons and making it stop being the time of sin to become a time of prayer and a prelude to light. Next, the author analyzes Christian processional activity in dialogue with surviving polytheistic practices and conributes to understanding of the extent to which Constantinople was a Christian city in the early stages of its founding. Secondly, based on the most relevant recent research on John Chrysostom’s struggle to obtain control of the urban space for the Catholic Church against other Christian denominations and against the imperial monarchy itself, the author delves into the efforts of the Empire to maintain control over Constantinople.
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