Hagiographical Works Research Articles

(Re-)Framing Bede‘s Historia ecclesiastica in Twelfth-Century Germany: John Rylands Library, MS Latin 182

This article offers the first comprehensive study of Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS Latin 182, a twelfth-century codex formerly belonging to (and possibly produced at) the Benedictine Abbey of (Mönchen-)Gladbach in Germany. I begin with a full codicological and palaeographical analysis of the entire manuscript, before moving on to a discussion of its contents. These include the Venerable Bede‘s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and the Continuatio Bedae, as well as two hagiographical works copied at the end of the manuscript. I then propose a new possible context of reception for Bede‘s Historia ecclesiastica during the twelfth century, one that interlinked with the prevalent discourses on secular ecclesiastical lordship and monastic reform at Gladbach, as well as, perhaps, in Germany more widely. In doing so, I essentially argue for the possibility that the Gladbach scribes and their audiences may have used and understood the Historia ecclesiastica not only in the conventional context of history and historiography, but also (and perhaps equally important) as an example of the golden age of monasticism which during the later twelfth century was re-framed and re-contextualised as both a spiritual guide and a source of miracle stories.

ТВОРЧА СПАДЩИНА ЦЕРКОВНИХ ІЄРАРХІВ УКРАЇНИ РАННЬОМОДЕРНОГО ЧАСУ ЯК КОНСОЛІДУЮЧИЙ ЧИННИК УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ПРАВОСЛАВ’Я (НА МАТЕРІАЛАХ БОГОСЛУЖБОВИХ І АГІОГРАФІЧНИХ ТВОРІВ)

Ukrainian hierarchs of the early modern age left behind a rich creative heritage, which comprised various works by volume, genre and theme. Their analysis demonstrates the multifaceted interests of their authors, which turned out to be diverse in scope, genre and subject works. First of all, they were liturgical and polemical works, which put the actual issues of theological, dogmatic and ritual nature, that arose in the process of inter-confessional polemics. Important hagiographic works, that raised the authority of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, belonged to Ukrainian ecclesiastical writers-bishops. In addition, their works included works of a secular nature - historical, poetic, dramatic, autobiographical works, study guides, works on moral and ethical subjects. This testifies that their creators in their educational and ideological settings went far beyond their spiritual state. The purpose of this article is an attempt to analyze the creative heritage of the Ukrainian bishops of the early modern age, in particular the works, which served as the consolidating factor of Ukrainian Orthodoxy - liturgical and hagiographic works. It is concluded, that theological and hagiographic works of church hierarchs were an important consolidating factor of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. They performed an important mission of purposeful popularization of the Ukrainian, mainly Kyiv, shrines and elevating the authority of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The fundamental liturgical works, that were necessary to overcome the crisis of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, were created from the initiative and personal participation of Peter Mohyla in the circle of the leaders of the Pechersk cultural and educational circle, he headed out. The release of the four-volume hagiographic encyclopedia of Demetrius Tuptala ("The Life of the Saints") became the highest outgrowth of hagiographic writing in Ukraine and made, as so as the Patericon of Sylvester of Kosovo, a great influence on the development of literary monuments of that time. The popularity of the liturgical and hagiographic works of the main theorists of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy has been witnessed by their widespread dissemination and use among various Christian denominations.

Gateway to the Syriac Saints: A Database Project

This article describes The Gateway to the Syriac Saints, a database project developed by the Syriac Reference Portal (www.syriaca.org). It is a research tool for the study of Syriac saints and hagiographic texts. The Gateway to the Syriac Saints is a two-volume database: 1) Qadishe and 2) Bibliotheca Hagiographica Syriaca Electronica (BHSE). Hagiography, the lives of the saints, is a multiform genre. It contains elements of myth, history, biblical exegesis, romance, and theology. The production of saints’ lives blossomed in late antiquity alongside the growth of the cult of the saints. Scholars have attended to hagiographic traditions in Greek and Latin, but many scholars have yet to discover the richness of Syriac hagiographic literature: the stories, homilies, and hymns on the saints that Christians of the Middle East told and preserved. It is our hope that our database will give scholars and students increased access to these traditions to generate new scholarship. The first volume, Qadishe or “saints” in Syriac, is a digital catalogue of saints or holy persons venerated in the Syriac tradition. Some saints are native to the Syriac-speaking milieu, whereas others come from other linguistic or cultural traditions. Through the translation of their hagiographies and the diffusion of saints’ cults in the late antique world, saints were adopted, “imported,” and appropriated into Syriac religious memory. The second volume, the BHSE, focuses on Syriac hagiographic texts. The BHSE contains the titles of over 1000 Syriac stories, hymns, and homilies on saints. It also includes authors’ or hagiographers’ names, the first and last lines of the texts (in Syriac, English, and French), bibliographic information, and the names of the manuscripts containing these hagiographic works. We have also listed modern and ancient translations of these works. All of the data in the Gateway to the Syriac Saints has been encoded in TEI, and it is fully searchable, linkable, and open.

Searching for the Appropriate Editorial Technique: The Case of Gädlä Śärṣä Ṗeṭros

This article shows the development of a method of editing a hagiographic work at first known by a single text witness only. The protagonist, the monk Śärṣä Ṗeṭros, lived in the fifteenth century and founded the monastery of Däbrä Wärq (eastern Goǧǧam) where he is still venerated as saint. The work is named Gädlä Śärṣä Ṗeṭros and contains the saint’s Vita,his miracles and a mälkǝʿ-hymn. After a brief introduction to the work’s content and its narrative structure, the article reflects the first considerations and ideas on how the work could be edited taking into account the main principles of a scholarly edition and the challenges of working with a single text witness. The article presents the then current state ofresearch while the Addendum outlines substantial changes surfaced soon after the 18th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Dǝrre Dawa 2012.

The influence of the Greek novel on the Life and Miracles of Saint Thecla

Abstract The Life and Miracles of Saint Thecla, a 5th-century hagiographical work, feature many elements recalling the ancient novel. Even if the first part of the text, the Life, must be considered a novel itself due to its dependence on the model of the Acts of Paul and Thecla, some novelistic motifs - especially the use of descriptions, digressions and first-person narrations − appear throughout the whole text. In addition, we also examine the textual evidence of the influence of the ancient novel on this hagiographical text through the analysis of some lexical details which suggest the reading of the ancient novels. The hagiographer uses these elements to rewrite in same cases the original scene of the Acts of Paul and Thecla or to evoke in other scenes the universe of the ancient novel in order to delight his readers.

:Law, Medicine and Engineering in the Cult of the Saints in Counter-Reformation Rome: The Hagiographical Works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556–1605

:<i>Law, Medicine and Engineering in the Cult of the Saints in Counter-Reformation Rome: The Hagiographical Works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556–1605</i>

ЖИТИЈЕ СВЕТОГ ЦАРА КОНСТАНТИНА У ЈЕРМЕНСКОМ СИНАКСАРУ ТЕР ИЗРАЕЛА

Тер Израел, ерудита и црквено лице из Јерменије, почетка XIII столећа компиловао је, на основу ранијих извора, синаксар на јерменском језику за потребе цркве те хришћанске кавкаске земље. Уз неке касније допуне, овај синаксар представља прворазредни извор за црквену историју средњовековне Јерменије. У раду ће бити речи о житију Светог цара Константина Великог које је под 21. мајем, односно по старом јерменском календару 14. мареријем, похрањено у овом синаксару. Ово житије у овом раду биће преведено на српски језик уз неопходне коментаре и анализу самог описа живота цара Константина.

I pellegrinaggi in Terrasanta dei monaci Pietro de Sardinea e Mauro Lapi : tra trattatistica e agiografia

Mauro Lapi (1390-1478), a Camaldolese monk from St. Michael of Murano, wrote an interesting collection of writings centered on the Holy Land after his pilgrimage in 1459. To this day they have remained unpublished and these pages will provide an examination of them. One is a treatise on gratitude and another is about cases of conscience that could happen to Christians in the Holy Land. It is also a note on the expenses incurred during the trip and especially the Itinerarium Ierosolimitanum. This work, in 21 chapters, deals with the theme of pilgrimage from different points of view, from the motivation on going to the Holy Land to spiritual meanings and eschatological Jerusalem. It also urges Christians to undertake the pilgrimage and it provides practical advice including which objects to bring, how to behave when dealing with unbelievers, etc. The Vita donni Petri, another hagiographic work, also reconstructs the pilgrimage of one of his brothers, the Blessed Peter of Sardinia, which he completed in the first decade of the 15th century. It identifies, in his experience, a determinant factor for the growth of his holiness. A translation is included in the chapter devoted to the pilgrimage of Peter.

The Life of the Virgin Mary According to Middle Byzantine Preachers and Hagiographers : Changing Contexts and Perspectives

This article examines the Byzantine homiletic and hagiographical treatment of the Virgin Mary, “Theotokos” or “Birth-giver of God”, seeking to determine why diverse narratives concerning this holy figure began to appear from about the early ninth century onward (assuming, in agreement with Phil Booth’s recent article, that the Greek prototype for the Georgian Life of the Virgin that is attributed to Maximos the Confessor should more probably be dated to the tenth century). The divergences, which may reflect various early apocryphal traditions, follow somewhat generic lines : whereas homilies, which were delivered in the context of liturgical vigils or eucharistic celebrations and incorporated well-known narratives such as the Protevangelium of James and versions of the Transitus Mariae, three Marian hagiographical works reflect a variant version of the Virgin’s legendary biography. The present study seeks not only to identify some of the more important variations in post-ninth-century narrative traditions surrounding the Virgin Mary, but also to examine the didactic purposes of preachers and hagiographers. It is likely both that ongoing Christological discussions played a part in inspiring Byzantine reflection on Mary, as human mother of Christ and intercessor, and that monastic revival caused greater focus on the Virgin’s ascetic and apostolic qualities in this period.

Understanding Emotions in Early Europe eds. by Michael Champion and Lynch Andrew

Reviewed by: Understanding Emotions in Early Europe eds. by Michael Champion and Lynch Andrew Ivan Cañadas Champion, Michael, and Andrew Lynch, eds, Understanding Emotions in Early Europe (Early European Research, 8), Turnhout, Brepols, 2015; hardback; pp. xxxiv, 357; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503552644. This volume engages with the challenges of identifying and interpreting human emotional experience from a position of cultural and temporal remoteness. It does so while acknowledging the fluid nature both of language and of [End Page 203] intellectual and cultural conventions, including social customs and rituals, philosophical or theological frameworks, and literary conventions. The book's fourteen wide-ranging chapters and the editors' lucid Introduction, thus, recognise that, even accepting some human constants, understanding emotion in any period remains a matter for historical inquiry. Though subdivided into three parts – 'Intellectual Traditions', 'Literature', and 'Social History and Material Culture' – the collection's strength lies in the connections between essays, even those in different sections, providing remarkable coherence. An early statement regarding culturally embedded social 'narratives or scripts', for instance, resonates among essays dealing with diverse subject matter and different periods. The first section traces intersections between Classical philosophy and early Christianity, where the conception and discourse of emotions are concerned, and, hence, leads into further consideration of the influence and transformation of these in medieval and early modern Europe. David Konstan's essay on the shift from 'regret to remorse' in late Antiquity argues that pre-Christian 'regret … a primarily intellectual phenomenon', took over two centuries after Christ's death to yield ground to 'remorse', internalised, by contrast, and involving empathy, rather than mere consideration of negative external consequences to oneself (pp. 6–7). Konstan attributes this delayed adoption to the fact that Greco-Roman culture did not see 'human beings as essentially sinful and in need of repentance' (p. 12), and, moreover, that emotionality was distrusted or condemned as contrary to the ideal of rational equanimity (p. 14). Consequently, additions 'had to be made' in late Antiquity, 'specific to Christian Latin': the terms compunctio and contritio (p. 22). Like Jennifer Carpenter's essay on the praise of 'positive emotion' and the furthering emotional community, in the hagiographic work of a Cistercian cantor, Goswin of Bossut, Michael Champion's discussion of Byzantine orator, Michael Psellos, who validated both sincere affection and grief regarding one's loved ones, reflects on the legacy of early Christianity outlined in Konstan's opening essay, illustrating connections among essays. Similarly, there is common ground between Juanita Feros Ruys's discussion of the medieval theological debate about the 'emotional capacity' of demons, on the one hand, and Antonina Harbus's reading of 'embodied emotion' in the representation of Grendel's mother's grief in Beowulf. While Ruys outlines the growing range of emotions attributed to demons, imagined as rejoicing and raging, by turns, medieval theologians cautioned against humanising those fallen beings with 'sadness', a risk notably taken only centuries later when Milton attributed 'sadness' to Satan, potentially associating the devil with 'the divine humanity of Jesus' (pp. 52–53). Harbus, in turn, considers the representation of Grendel's mother's grief, as 'a brief humanizing quality', controlled enough not to make the figure sympathetic, but rather, to establish [End Page 204] that her revenge is 'calculated and evil' and not 'merely instinctive and bestial'(p. 143). Also among the literary essays is Andrew Lynch's discussion of Chrétien de Troyes's Guinevere, a figure defined by her gender and by her status as queen, but presented from a different perspective in the Lancelot romance, which reinterprets Guinevere through attention to her 'emotional life … separated from its former community' (p. 167). Part III, 'Social History and Material Culture', includes Dianne Hall's revealing account of the gendered discourse of fear in early modern, Irish anti-Catholic narratives, and Robert Shoemaker's discussion of the orchestration of fear in eighteenth-century London print, and of its limited affective appeal, as indicated by responses in contemporary diaries. This section also includes a divergent piece, Sandra Bowdler and Jane Balme's anthropological consideration of prehistoric burial customs and what they suggest about our species' emotional engagement with our dead, which they bring into dialogue...

"Un nuevo arrepentimiento": "La conversión de la Magdalena", una comedia inédita de la colección teatral de Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar

Este trabajo se propone dar a conocer la comedia de La conversión de la Magdalena, una obra hagiográfica anónima e inédita que perteneció a la colección teatral de Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar. Se analizarán aspectos formales como las características codicológicas de la copia, su esquema métrico y estructura, así como la visión ideológica que representa y la gestión de la materia histórico-legendaria que constituye su fuente principal. Formará parte importante del estudio el cotejo de esta comedia con una obra homónima anterior perteneciente al Códice de autos viejos.

On Some Sources of the Life of Alexander Oshevensky (The Theme of the Family in the Hagiography)

(1567) is a Northern Russian hagiographical work devoted to the founder of the St. Niсholas Alexander-Oshevensky Monastery, which was located nearby the town of Kargopol. The article analyses hagiographer Theodosius’ techniques for dealing with literary sources, especially with two Byzantine texts, The Ladder by John Climacus and The Life of Alexis the Man of God. Theodosius uses these sources to develop one of the major themes of his own work, that is, the relationship between St. Alexander and his family. The family theme bears ambiguous meaning. On the one hand, the family is rejected from the standpoint of monastic asceticism, but on the other hand, it is rendered as the ultimate value and stronghold of Christian morality.

The Earliest Manuscript of the Coptic Life of Aaron (British Library, Or. 7558 [89] [93] [150

In this article, we offer a first edition of three papyrus fragments in Sahidic Coptic from the British Library (Or. 7558 [89] [93] [150]). They can be dated to the sixth or seventh century on palaeographical grounds and belong to the earliest known manuscript of the Coptic Life of Aaron. Since a complete manuscript of the text survives in a tenth-century paper codex, also preserved in the British Library (Or. 7029), the fragments enable us to compare the text of a Coptic hagiographical work as it was fairly close to the date of its composition, in this case probably the sixth century, with a much later version of the same text. A detailed analysis allows conclusions about both the reliability of the medieval witness and the nature of the changes that the text underwent in the course of its transmission.

Law, medicine, and engineering in the cult of the saints in Counter-Reformation Rome. The hagiographical works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556–1605. By Jetze Touber. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 178.) Pp. xiii + 33 incl. 41 ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2014. €123. 978 90 04 26513 4; 1573 4188

Law, medicine, and engineering in the cult of the saints in Counter-Reformation Rome. The hagiographical works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556–1605. By Jetze Touber. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 178.) Pp. xiii + 33 incl. 41 ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2014. €123. 978 90 04 26513 4; 1573 4188

Młodość i wychowanie świętego Kolumbana Starszego

Early Medieval Ireland was a scene of intense activity of numerous clergymen, whose life hugely influenced Irish history. Some of these figures are commemorated in an extensive textual legacy − usually in the form of legends or hagiographic works. One of such persons is Saint Columba − an Irish monk living in the 6th century. The oldest text about the history of his life, Vita Sancti Columbae, composed by Adamnan, brings valuable information about the abbot's life. This literary resource constitutes vital research material as it offers an insight, among other things, into the image of the Iro-Scottish ideal of sanctity, as exemplified by the profile of the main protagonist. Columba's exceptional traits manifested themselves already in his youth − or in his prenatal stage, to be precise. Vita contains a lot of examples to prove the magnificence of the monk. The majority of the descriptions contained in the book display features that are typical of this kind of literary source. These typical motives include prophecies as for future acts of the saint-protagonist, description of the miracles he performed and of the education he obtained in a number of monastic communities. Irish monks experienced an enormous need to pursue their intellectual peregrinatio in order to shape their spirituality. The example of the story of Saint Columba's youth can be used to highlight the textual elements that were fundamental in depicting the protagonist in a hagiographic text.

The Epistle of Cornelius, a Monk of the Snetogorsky Monastery

This article deals with the problem of the dating and authorship of the Epistle of Cornelius, a monk of the Snetogorsky monastery, to his spiritual son, the priest Ivan, who decided to marry for a second time “for childbearing.” Nikolai I. Serebriansky dated the Epistle to the 1590s (this dating also was shared by subsequent researchers), based on the assertion that during the life of Ivan the Terrible, Cornelius would hardly have dared to write that tsars who violate the laws of the Church regarding the termination and conclusion of a second marriage would be punished by the birth of an heir who “will trample everything and will be an initiator of every evil deed.” The identification of the sources describing both the heir’s evil deeds and other parts of the text allows us to refine the dating of the Epistle. Cornelius finds arguments for the condemnation of his spiritual son’s decision to remarry not only in Scripture but also in contemporary hagiographic and publicistic works that date back to a period of time from the beginning of the 16th century to the 1540s: the Life of Euphrosynus of Pskov (the Story about Halleluiah), no later than 1510; the Epistle of Maximus the Greek to Fedor Karpov about Leviathan, dated between 1518 and 1525; the Epistle of Mark, patriarch of Jerusalem (from the Excerpt about the Second Marriage of Grand Prince Vasily III), from the 1540s. Such a concentration of works from a specific period of time suggests that the Epistle of Cornelius itself was written at about the same time. Most likely, the Cornelius who is identified as the author of the Epistle is the Cornelius listed as the former abbot of the Snetogorsky monastery in the 1562 record inscribed in the Gospel manuscript from the collection of the Russian State Library, f. 205, No. 29. Monk Cornelius could have written the Epistle no earlier than in 1525 and no later than in 1562, when he was no longer either a monk or the abbot of the Snetogorsky monastery.

Author’s Interpretation of Toponyms of the Historical Sources and the Hagiographic Literary Works

Geographical names give us lots of noteworthy information about the historical, geographical, political, economic, religious, cultural, etc. picture of a denotation. Due to this the onomastic data are the valuable sources to study the history, language, dialectology, geography, geology, archeology and ethnography of a country. In Georgia one hardly find a small place without a name. Towns, hamlets, villages, groves, gardens, vineyards, arable fields, hills, mountains, water, grassland, former settlements and sometimes trees, rocks and large rocks are given names. Researchers interested in geographical names accept two basic ways of origin of toponyms: 1. either via the toponimization of appellatives without derivation (which is called semantic word-formation: changing of a lexeme’s status, while the form remains unchangeable) or derivation: 2.transonimization of proper names: transition from one onymic class to another as well as transtoponimization, transhydronimization, and a transoikonymization, etc. The toponyms originated via the first (toponimization) method is called the primary toponyms, and the ones originated via the second (transonimization) method - secondary toponyms. The research goal is to study an author’s interpretation and semantic properties of the geographic names of hagiographic works and historical sources of the 5-10th cc. In the sources under research the authors give us not only the information on the location of any geographic object, but they offer a noteworthy explanation of some toponyms and microtoponyms as well. An author’s etymology has extra linguistic and linguistic character and therefore it is of scientific importance, the motivation - persuasive. Existing standpoints on location and explanation of some geographical names (Darialani, Tsertaisni, Satakhve, Zarzma, Garedja, Divri, Tskhenistsqali) are represented in comment form. On the basis of analyzed material the paper demonstrates that the ancient Georgian artistic and historical written sources show the ways and means of origin of toponyms. The cited episodes highlight the basic principle of toponymic word-derivation - the contents of a name is relevant to an object’s name. This is achieved via the following the grammatical means: 1. elision (either determinatum or determinandum component is elided: tsertaisni ! adgilni tsertaisni; bakta ! adgili bakta). 2. derivation (Sataxve – structurally it is a derived form); 3. word-amalgamation (Sheshistavi, Zarzma, Gareja… are structurally compound two-component entries).

Les mutations de la sainteté de l’ermite Thibaut de Provins aux xiiie et xive siècles : la promotion d’un modèle pastoral séculier au temps des ordres mendiants

This article seeks to understand why the holy Champagne hermit, Thibaut de Provins, who was based in Italy, where he died in the end of the eleventh century, became the subject of rich hagiographic work in French from the thirteenth century onwards, when two Lives in verse and one in prose (revised in the fifteenth century) were written. More surprisingly still, one of the two Lives in verse belongs to a little-developed clerical genre of letters crammed with allusions, and also insists not so much on the hermetic and ascetic life of Thibaut as on his priestly character. This text can be compared with the images which decorate the priory church of Saint-Thibaulten- Auxois, where two statues and a hanging panel show the saint as a priest. Should we see this a wish to promote a model of sanctity better adapted to the context of the fifteenth century ? It is a secular model from an age described as that of the triumph of the mendicant orders, one that did not, moreover, obliterate the first model of Thibaut, to whom the prose texts remained faithful.

Wace. The hagiographical works. The ‘Conception Nostre Dame’ and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas. Translated with an introduction and notes by Jean Blacker, Glyn S. Burgess and Amy V. Ogden. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 169. Texts and Sources, 3.) Pp. v+400. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2013. €131 ($182). 978 90 04 24705 5; 1573 4188

Wace. The hagiographical works. The ‘Conception Nostre Dame’ and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas. Translated with an introduction and notes by Jean Blacker, Glyn S. Burgess and Amy V. Ogden. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 169. Texts and Sources, 3.) Pp. v+400. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2013. €131 ($182). 978 90 04 24705 5; 1573 4188

Veneration, Translation and Reform: TheLivesof Saints and the English Catholic Community, c.1600–1642

This article considers the impact of Catholic reform within the English Catholic community in the first half of the seventeenth century through an examination of hagiographical works published between c.1600 and 1642. In addition to the continuing popularity of regional saints in English Catholic devotion, a significant number of hagiographical texts were produced from the early seventeenth century onward, offering English Catholics a varied subject matter of contemporary and traditional saints. Particular attention is given to hagiographical accounts translated into English, the largest sub-category within this genre of literature. In doing so, this article illustrates that there was a conscious choice made by Catholic reformers and translators to place the cult of saints in England within the wider initiatives of Tridentine reform. This study also considers the accessibility of continental works for an English audience, and stresses the importance of examining the development of English Catholicism in its wider European context.