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Orphanotrophos (Greek: ὀρφανοτρόφος) was a Byzantine title for the curator of an orphanage (ὀρφανοτροφεῖον, orphanotropheion). The director of the most important orphanage, the imperial orphanage in Constantinople, established in the 4th century and lasting until the 13th century, eventually rose to become an office of particular significance and ranked among the senior ministers of the Byzantine state.
Contents
History
In the spirit of Christian philanthropy, the Byzantine world showed particular care towards the weaker members of society, including widows, orphans, the sick or the elderly. Orphans were either adopted by foster parents, or sheltered in monasteries or in orphanages, the latter often run by monasteries.
In Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, there was a particularly large orphanage in the northeastern corner of the city, at the site of the ancient acropolis of Byzantium, which eventually came under imperial patronage. According to the Patria of Constantinople, it traced its antecedents to a series of charitable establishments founded in the reign of Constantius II (ruled 337–361) by the patrikios and protovestiarios Zotikos, for which the latter was canonized by the Church. According to a novel by Emperor Leo I the Thracian in 469, Zotikos was the first to bear the title of orphanotrophos. In the 5th century, the priest Nikon and Acacius, later Patriarch of Constantinople (472–488), are known to have been successively orphanotrophoi in the capital, while another future patriarch, Euphemius (489–495) held the post in the provincial town of Neapolis.
The legislation of Justinian I (r. 527–565) often mentions the orphanages and the office of orphanotrophos, but it was not until the reign of his successor Justin II (r. 565–578) that the institution in the capital acquired its definite characteristics: Justin and his wife Sophia, with the aid of a protovestiarios also named Zotikos, built an orphanage near the Church of St. Paul (or SS. Peter and Paul according to Theophanes the Confessor)—probably the church of the same name near the Gate of Eugenios on the sea-wall of the Golden Horn mentioned by Nikephoros Gregoras—and restored the foundation of the first Zotikos, which was possibly converted into a leprosarium. Justin bequeathed an annual stipend of 443 nomismata to the orphanage and made its possessions inalienable. It was probably then that the capital's orphanotrophos began to be appointed by the emperors. As a result, while in the provinces, the post of orphanotrophos continued to be occupied by clergymen, in the capital, it soon became a formal office and was held by members of the secular administrative hierarchy.
In the 9th–11th centuries, the orphanotrophos' role seems to have been limited to the imperial orphanage in the capital, while the provincial charitable foundations were under the supervision of two other officials, the chartoularios tou sakelliou and the megas kourator. The orphanotrophos was responsible for his wards and steward of their fortune until the age of 20, unless they married earlier; he was forbidden from selling his wards' possessions unless by special authorisation; and in case of maladministration was answerable to the Eparch of the City. According to the 10th-century De ceremoniis, the orphanotrophos had the following subordinate officials:
In the Taktikon Uspensky of ca. 843, the orphanotrophos holds the exalted rank of patrikios and comes 37th in precedence, immediately after the chartoularios tou vestiariou, while in the Kletorologion of 899 he comes in 56th place among the dignities conferred by decree, after the epi ton deeseon. The De ceremoniis describes the orphanotrophos' role in certain imperial ceremonies, often along with his wards, who were led to the Emperor's presence, sung chants and received gifts from him. The court ranks conferred to the orphanotrophoi in the 9th–11th centuries were those of anthypatos, patrikios and protospatharios; this was restricted to the secular holders of the office, however, since as a rule, ecclesiastics did not hold a court rank. Several holders of the office, however, combined it with other secular administrative offices. Most famously, the eunuch John the Orphanotrophos rose to become the virtual regent of the Empire in the late reign of Romanos III Argyros (r. 1028–34), before raising his brother Michael IV (r. 1034–41) and nephew Michael V (r. 1041–42) to the throne. John was named orphanotrophos already under Romanos III, and after becoming a monk soon after, he divested himself of his other secular titles and maintained only the former, by which he is known.
The imperial orphanage was restored after being damaged by earthquakes in the late reign of Romanos III Argyros, but had once more fallen into disrepair by the time of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), whose manifold charitable activities included its restoration and the foundation of a veritable township of charitable institutions around it for the blind, lamed and crippled, or elderly. Alexios endowed the institution with considerable revenue, and founded a school where the orphans could receive a free tuition. Alexios' son and successor, John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43), enlarged it further. During the period of the Latin Empire, its fate is unknown, but it is likely that like most Byzantine public buildings it fell into disrepair. As part of his wide-scale reconstruction of the city following its reconquest in 1261, Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1259–82) erected a school "on the grounds of the old orphanotropheion", likely indicating that it had ceased to function for some time by then.
Despite the dissolution of the imperial orphanage, the office of the orphanotrophos survived into the Palaiologan period in its fiscal capacity. As early as the Kletorologion, the orphanotrophos was classed among the fiscal secretaries, the sekretikoi (occupying the 11th place among them), and he apparently succeeded an earlier fiscal official, the "kourator of the Mangana", in his functions. In the early 14th century, Manuel Philes still calls him "the treasurer of imperial means", but the mid-14th century Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos records that the office, although still occupying the 56th place in the palace hierarchy, no longer had a particular function. According to Kodinos, his court dress consisted of a long silk kabbadion, and a domed skaranikon hat covered in red velvet and topped by a small red tassel.
List of known orphanotrophoi
A number of seals of otherwise unidentified holders of the office have also survived. One records a Datos, "orphanotrophos and vestarches", while the others cannot be certainly dated. Two seals also survive of subordinate officials, one of the deacon Michael Tetrapolites, clerk and functionary of the orphanage, and another, dated to the 13th century, of Niketas, Bishop of Ionopolis and chartoularios of the mega orphanotropheion ("great orphanage").