International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Nikolaos Papageorgiou
Thessaloniki, Greece;
[e-mail]
Saint Joasaph, the Archbishop Symeon of Thessaloniki and the Painter Nephon
This paper refers to the fresco depicting Saint Joasaph and a bishop blessing him, which is 
located at the eastern side of the southwestern pier in the church of Saint Demetrios in Thessaloniki. 
The painting in question was first revealed almost 100 years ago, in the beginning of the 20
th
century. 
P. Papageorgiou, the first one to study it, published his findings in BZ, 1908; in this paper, after 
reading the inscription ΑΓ(ΙΟΣ) ΙΩΑΣ(ΑΦ), he identified the two figures as being Saints Joasaph 
and Varlaam, heroes of the famous byzantine novel. A few years later, G. Sotiriou’s proposition was 
that the two depicted figures were actually Saint Joasaph and the bishop Gregory Palamas. Finally, in 
1942, A. Xyngopoulos in his interpretation, which was widely accepted by most scholars thereafter, 
proposed that the depicted saint is John VI Kantakouzenos, a prince who became a monk later in his 
life and assumed the name Joasaph, while the bishop in question is Saint Gregory Palamas. According 

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to Xyngopoulos, the bishop’s blessing has symbolic meaning: Palamas is actually giving thanks to the 
Emperor on behalf of the Hesychastes, for the Emperor’s support to the doctrine and its followers. 
In my paper in the 34
th
Symposium of the Christian Archaeological Society (2014), I proposed a 
different interpretation, based on elaborate scrutiny of historical sources. In my opinion, the depicted 
saint is none other than John VII Palaeologos, who reigned in Thessaloniki between 1403-1408, and 
became a monk before his death assuming the name Joasaph, just like his great-grandfather, Ioannis 
Kantakouzenos, had done before him. The key elements supporting my interpretation were the 
disease John VII Palaeologos had been suffering from, which compared to that of the biblical Job, 
the important contribution of Symeon, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, to his canonization, as well as 
the information on miraculous healings at Saint Joasaph’s tomb attested from historical sources. As 
for the bishop, my proposition was that he should be either identified with Gabriel (1397-1416/7) 
or with Symeon (1416/1417-1429), both Archbishops of Thessaloniki, with slight precedence of the 
later over the former, since Archbishop Symeon was the one who saw to Joasaph’s canonization.
Modern technology allowed for a more detailed examination of the photographic material, and 
very interesting details came up, which helped me clarify numerous issues concerning the painting. 
Better analysis of the images revealed that the painting was accompanied by various inscriptions. 
Namely, on the Saint’s right-hand side there is an inscription of his secular name, i.e. ΙΩΑΝΝ(ΗΣ) 
ΑΝ[ΔΡΟΝΙΚΟΥ], while to his left there is his monastic name inscribed, i.e. ΙΩΑΣΑΦ. Moreover, I 
was able to read the bishop’s name: [Σ]ΥΜΕΩΝ. This evidence allowed me to identify, with greater 
certainty, the two figures with John VII Palaeologos and the Archbishop Symeon respectively and to 
date the painting between 1416/7-1430. Of equal importance is the inscription bearing the painter’s 
name: EΠΟΙΗΣΕ ΝΗΦΩΝ. I cannot stress the importance of this discovery highly enough; apart 
from learning the name of one more painter, this is the first time the name of an artist connected 
with the artistic milieu of Thessaloniki has ever been discovered in a monument of this kind.