Title The orphans of Byzantium : child welfare in the Christian empire / Timothy S. Miller

Published Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, ©2003

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 340 pages) Contents The ancient world -- The new Jerusalem -- Byzantine guardianship -- The Byzantine church -- Abandonment and adoption -- The Orphanotropheion : administration -- The Orphanotropheion : the orphan school -- Did it work? -- The West Summary Historian Timothy Miller argues that it is necessary to look at the history of orphanages, of their successes and failures, and of their complex roles as social institutions for unwanted and homeless children. In The Orphans of Byzantium, Miller provides a study of the evolution of orphanages in the Byzantine Empire. Contrary to popular belief and even expert opinion, medieval child-welfare systems were sophisticated, especially in the Byzantine world. Combining ancient Roman legal institutions with Christian concepts of charity, the Byzantine Empire evolved a child-welfare system that tried either to select foster parents for homeless children or to place them in group homes that could provide food, shelter, and education. Miller discusses how successive Byzantine emperors tried to improve Roman regulations to provide greater security for orphans, and notes that they achieved their greatest success when they widened the pool of potential guardians by allowing women relatives to accept the duties of guardianship. After a thorough discussion of each element of the Byzantine child care system, the book closes by showing how Byzantine orphanages provided models for later Western group homes, especially in Italy. From these renaissance orphan asylums evolved the system of modern European and American religious orphanages until the foster care movement emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century. Miller's study of these systems can provide useful models for reforming the troubled child-welfare system today Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-325) and index Notes English Print version record Subject Alexius I Comnenus, Emperor of the East, 1048-1118. SUBJECT Alexius I Comnenus, Emperor of the East, 1048-1118 fast Subject Orphanages -- Byzantine Empire Child welfare -- Byzantine Empire Guardian and ward -- Byzantine Empire POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Security. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Services & Welfare. HISTORY -- Medieval. Child welfare Guardian and ward Orphanages Waisenkind Geschichte Weeshuizen. Wezenzorg. Byzantine Empire Byzantinisches Reich Form Electronic book LC no. 2002001419 ISBN 9780813220796 0813220793

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