BALKAN SAINTS - Mirjana Detelić

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of the eta, but on the other hand Latin ch /k/ for Greek , while elsewhere Middle Greek
/ch/ absolutely prevails, even in Dalmatian toponyms such as Sutmiho (cf. Loma 1990,
7).
Normally, these names with sut- bear witness to very old cults, but here too some
caution is recommended. A recent paper by the present writer deals with the place-name
Sutivan, occuring twice on the Adriatic islands and once in the Lim valley, in the very
heart of the medieval Serbian kingdom. Both insular Sutivans are named after St John
(Sanctus Ioannes), and the same has been held true for the mainland example until
recently when, in a district about 50 miles upstream, on the upper Lim, a homonymous
word sutivan was attested, meaning „a steep, rugged area‟. Similarly, in the neighbouring
regions of Montenegro there is the term su(n)tulija, designating an abyss, a precipice,
which is supposed to go back to Greek synteleia, although the same form occurs
otherwise as a variant of Sutilija „Saint Elijah‟. The following development appears to
have taken place.
Firstly, Greek syntéleia „end, termination‟ received, in a Christian eschatological
context (e.g. Matthew 13:49), the sense of „the end of the world‟, which led further to the
meaning „cataclysm‟, attested in Arumanian. Then the word entered South-Slavic, where
it underwent the semantic shift to „precipice‟: Macedonian sindilija, Serbian su(n)tulija.
The latter form indicates an earlier borrowing than the former and it may have been
mediated by Dalmatian. The change of sense was probably due to the influence of Slavic
propast „downfall, catastrophe; abyss, precipice‟, cf. Serbian dialect sodom „precipice‟
going back to the biblical place name Sodom (Genesis 18-19). Next, the word su(n)tulija
„precipice‟ came to be associated with Sutulija/Sutilija „Saint Elijah‟ by the resemblance
of sound, and also the similarity between the objects denoted, for in the Balkans Elijah
shared aspects of the thunderer deities Roman Jupiter and Slavic Perun in being the
eponym of steep peaks. Finally, this appellative being once reinterpreted as „Saint Elijah‟,
it was in a part of its area transformed into the name of another saint, St John: Sutivan,
presumedly because of the ancient custom of rolling burning wheels down hillsides on
John‟s Nativity feast, which coincides with the summer solstice. The same semantic
association may explain Serbo-Croat sunovrat „precipitation; precipice‟ against Czech
slunovrat, Russian solnovorot „solstice‟. Be that as it may, the question whether Sutivan
on the Lim is named after a St John's church or after a steep slope remains open. Only
archaeological and dialectological research can take it forward (Loma 2001).
If even in such cases, where the hagionymic provenance is obvious, a direct
connection to the saint‟s cult can not be always established with certainty. The
uncertainty is much greater where the adjective „saint‟ is omitted. This tends to be the
rule with Slavic designations, because the place-names of underived type with an explicit
indication of sanctity such as Sveti Stefan „Saint Stephen‟, Sveti RanĎel 'Saint Archangel',
are extremely rare, and the possessive adjectives such as Stepanja, Jovanja, Savina,
AranĎelov-ac largely prevail. In these cases we face the dilemma as to whether the
eponym of the (sacred) place was the saint or a person named after them. The situation
ought to be clear where the dedication coinicides, for example if the churches in Jovanja,
Savina or AranĎelovac are dedicated respectively in honour of St John, St Sava and the
Archangel Michael, but it is ambiguous if Stepanja „Stephen‟s church‟ has for its patron
St Nicholas, say, which is the case with a small medieval church between Belgrade and
Valjevo in north-west Serbia, only mentioned in written sources towards the end of the