Storytelling as Spiritual Communication in Early Greek Hagiography: The Use of Diegesis

Abstract

Storytelling as Spiritual Communication in Early Greek Hagiography: The Use of Diegesis* Claudia Rapp (bio) Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia from 467–497, had a special way of reading the Holy Scriptures: What he had read through once, he repeated from memory. So that his reading of Holy Scripture might not be a mere rapid running through the words, he portrayed in his acts the passage that he had read. If he read a book of the Prophets, one saw him, having set aside the book, transformed from reader into prophet. If he had read the books of the ancient law, he proceeded, a worthy emulator of Moses, just as if bands of Israelites were following him through the desert. Or if his Scriptural guide, tempering the severity of the Law, had revealed the sweetness of the Apostle’s words and the love and tenderness of Christ’s passion, speech sweeter than the honeycomb immediately flowed from his lips. In fine, his life made manifest the lessons he had learned from the Sacred Scriptures.1 This powerful description by Epiphanius’ biographer Ennodius shows the impact the Holy Scriptures could have in bringing about an immediate transformation of the reader. While the phenomenon of lectio divina has been the subject of several important studies, hardly any work has been done regarding hagiographical stories and their effect on the [End Page 431] audience. The present essay is intended to open up this new field of investigation by proposing some preliminary observations on the implicit spiritual value of hagiographical writing as writing. Hagiographical texts play a significant and very particular role in the process that joins the author and his audience in their participation in the sanctity of the holy man or woman. It is this process, which I would like to call “spiritual communication,” that is explored in this article, based on the evidence of the Greek hagiographical production of the fourth to seventh centuries. The multifaceted connections that tie together the saint, the hagiographer and his work, and the audience are implicit in the topoi commonly encountered in the prefaces to hagiographical works. When hagiographers reflect on their role, they usually explain that they were prompted to take up their pen because of their desire to preserve the precious memory of the saint for posterity. Quite often, the hagiographer is a disciple of the saint and thus can claim for himself the status and authority of an eyewitness of the events he describes. As a disciple—or even if he had no direct contact with the living saint, but profited from the saint’s miraculous powers indirectly—he may also be motivated to undertake his work because he feels an obligation of gratitude to the saint. In this way, the hagiographer presents himself as the prototype of the saint’s clientele, and hence as a model for the ideal audience of his own text. Further, as a recipient of benefits from the saint, the author also assumes for himself the role of witness of the saint’s miraculous abilities. Connected with this is another topos, the invocation of the saint in the preface to a vita. A hagiographer who protests his inability to do justice to the saint’s accomplishments in his writing and prays to the saint to inspire him and to guide his pen, effectively presents his own text as a miracle brought forth through the intercession of the saint. He casts himself in the dual role of beneficiary and proclaimer of this miracle, and involves his audience as witness, thus proving the efficacy of the saint while lending authority and authenticity to his own writing. A further method to validate a text and to enhance its communicative function is the use of a particular kind of storytelling. This article was prompted by the observation that many Greek hagiographers of the fourth to seventh centuries refer to their writing as a diegesis, and to their activity as diegeisthai. Assertions of this kind are so frequent that the word diegesis in this context appears to have a special meaning which merits further investigation. These connotations are discussed in the first part of this article, which is based on the relevant passages...