The “Invention” of the Holy Martyr Enravota

Summary: 

Studying cults of Christian saints as well as providing a reasonable explanation for the absence of such cults in certain parts of the early medieval Balkans are challenging tasks. The obstacles and difficulties are not always a result of some kind of lack of information, but sometimes they are due to the obscure and debatable nature of the accounts in the primary sources. Such is the case of Enravota, the eldest son of Khan Omurtag (814/815–831). He did not inherit the throne and was executed because of his devotion to Christianity. Nowadays, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church commemorates Enravota on March 28, but the initial ambiguities of the cult are rarely discussed. In view of this, the present text tries to achieve as much certainty as possible as to whether his veneration as a saint goes indeed back to the medieval era.

Yanko Hristov (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria)
yanko.hristov@swu.bg

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