Procurator Ecclesiae Salonitanae Cover Image

Upravitelj dobara Salonitanske crkve
Procurator Ecclesiae Salonitanae

Author(s): Ante Škegro
Subject(s): History
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the Antiquity, the Salonitan Archbishopric possessed a significant land property, which was administrated and controlled by a special official titled as procurator (procurator Ecclesiae Salonitanae). In the Antiquity procurators in the province of Dalmatia were imperial officials responsible for economic development of the region where they were appointed (e.g. they governed exploitation of led or iron ore etc.). The existence of such officials in the Salonitan Archbishopric is an unique phenomena in the Church of Dalmatia. Procurators in the late Antiquity in the regions of Pannonia and Dalmatia were officials who conducted exploitation of the sliver from the led and iron ore. In the region of Histria they administrated imperial and other major land property. During the fourth and fifth centuries procurators can be found also on Salona as supervisors of wool and textile production. Some of these workshops came to Salona after barbarian invasion in Pannonia, and some of them were placed right in the Diocletian palace in present-day Split. If one can judge by the evidences and traces of vine and olive oil production workshops found near early Christian basilicas, e.g. on Kapljuć or in Manastirine or near Episcopal basilica in Salona etc. I think that it is possible to conclude that the Archbishopric of Salona in the late Antiquity possessed a great and huge land property that included vineyards and olive tree fields. Some researchers estimate that income of these fields was much more than it was needed for liturgical and existential needs of the Archbishopric. Correspondence of the pope Gregory I the Great (590-604) and some other sources witness the richness of the Salonitan Archbishopric. If we bare in mind these facts, it is not surprising that the Salonitan Archbishopric in that time had a need to engage a special official to supervise these vast land properties, and who had the same title as an imperial administrator of the most important economic recourses in the regions of Pannonia and Dalmatia.

  • Issue Year: 2002
  • Issue No: 22
  • Page Range: 19-28
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Croatian
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