Hagiography

Setsuwa and Self Writing: Witnessing Death in Hosshinshū

by Alari Allik

A Comparative and Structuralist Reading of the Ahl al-Kahf: From a Christian Cult of Saints to a Qur’ānic Eschatology Against Saint Cults

by George Archer

The Makings of a "Perfect Woman": Tracing the Wife of Pharaoh Before, Through, and After the Qur'ān

by George Archer

The Martyrdom of Saint Margaret-Retold by Pastor Per Grunnet

by Per Grunnet

Il doctor disertus dal rex Persarum / Francesco e il Sultano nella Legenda Sancti Francisci versificata di Enrico d’Avranches

by Francesco Marzella

in «Nuova Rivista Storica», 2012 II,  forthcoming

L'anello del re e il «Paradiso» dell'Evangelista. Genesi di un episodio della «Vita sancti Edwardi regis et confessoris» di Aelredo di Rievaulx

by Francesco Marzella

published in 'Hagriographica' XVIII (2011), pp. 217-61.

The legend of the ring given by St. Edward the Confessor to St. John the Evangelist is probably the most famous of the... more The legend of the ring given by St. Edward the Confessor to St. John the Evangelist is probably the most famous of the stories that appear in the hagiographical dossier of the English saint, and the first instance of it had seemed to be in Aelred of Reivaulx's Vita sancti Edwardi regis et confessoris. However, a variant version of the story was found by Marc Bloch in an epitome of Osbert of Clare's Vita beati Eadwardi regis Anglorum. Now for the first time the complete text of this variant version (published with this article) is identified in a manuscript kept in Lambeth Palace Library. This discovery leads to new insights, and points to the conclusion that this version, wich derives many motives from visions of the other-world and tales of journeys to the Earthly Paradise, is probably the oldest and was interpolated in the biography written by Osbert before the canonization of Edward the Confessor (1161). Aelred therefore was not the first author to tell the legend, but reshaped it to fit his new biography of the saint.

L’écriture de l’amitié spirituelle dans l’œuvre hagiographique de Thomas de Cantimpré (1200 - ca. 1265/1270), Médiévales

by Anne-Laure Méril-Bellini Delle Stelle

à paraître/forthcoming

Résumé :
Les mulieres religiosae des Pays Bas méridionaux du XIIIe siècle ont été le centre de réseaux sociaux... more Résumé :
Les mulieres religiosae des Pays Bas méridionaux du XIIIe siècle ont été le centre de réseaux sociaux animés par un sentiment d’amitié spirituelle. De nombreuses vitae en témoignent, particulièrement celles de Thomas de Cantimpré. Pour comprendre l’importance de l’amitié spirituelle, celles-ci offrent un champ d’études exceptionnel et permettent de saisir, à travers l’écriture de ce sentiment, la nature de celui-ci et son rôle dans le milieu dévot. L’analyse du vocabulaire mis en œuvre, ainsi que la comparaison de deux manuscrits de la Vie de Lutgarde d’Aywières permettent de répondre en partie à ces questions. Enfin, l’examen des bénéficiaires de cette mise en scène littéraire de l’amitié spirituelle rend plus clair le rôle de la vita en tant que texte et en tant qu’objet, dans les réseaux de relations et notamment dans les liens d’amitié.
In the thirteenth century Southern Low Countries, the mulieres religiosae were the mainspring of social networks, nourished by a feeling of spiritual friendship. It’s displayed by many vitae, such as those written by Thomas of Cantimpré. To grasp the significance of spiritual friendship, those vitae offer an exceptional look-out post and allow us to catch, through the writing of this feeling, what are his nature and his role within the devout circle. Through the vocabulary and the study of two codices of the Vita of Lutgarde of Aywières, we can partly answer to these questions. At last, analyzing who take advantage of this writing of spiritual friendship make us understand which part played the vita, as text and as object, within the social networks, particularly for the friendship’s links

Review of Neil Xavier O'Donoghue, The Eucharist in pre-Norman Ireland (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011)

by Salvador Ryan

Review of Katja Ritari, Saints and Sinners in early Christian Ireland (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009) for Oenach: Reviews 3:2 (2011)

by Salvador Ryan

“Once Upon a Time There Was a Saint …”: Re-evaluating Folklore in Anglo-Latin Hagiography

by Hilary Powell

Folklore, 121: 2 (2010), 171-89.

This article examines methods for identifying folklore in hagiography. Using hagiographical materials from... more This article examines methods for identifying folklore in hagiography. Using hagiographical materials from eleventh-century and twelfth-century England, it critiques the current trend of equating folklore motifs with oral transmission and argues in favour of a “performer-centred” understanding of folklore and hagiographical composition.

The ‘miracle of childbirth’: the portrayal of parturient women in medieval miracle narratives’

by Hilary Powell

published in 'Social History of Medicine', 2012

This paper explores how tales of difficult births found in medieval miracle narratives can contribute to our... more This paper explores how tales of difficult births found in medieval miracle narratives can contribute to our understanding of the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in twelfth-century England. While rare in the early collections, pregnant and parturient women are increasingly visible in the miracula from the later twelfth century. This paper seeks to explain why childbirth miracles began to appear more frequently and became more medical in character. The discussion centres on the two miracle collections belonging to St Thomas of Canterbury, written by Benedict of Peterborough and William of Canterbury in the 1170s. Explanations for the more frequent appearance of childbirth miracles are found, not in the changing relationship between humans and saintly intercessors, nor in the contemporary interest in the maternity of the Virgin Mary but in the specific context of the cult of St Thomas and the new emphasis given to lay testimony.

A Saint as a Mediator between a Bishop and his Flock. The Cult of Saint Bononius in the Diocese of Vercelli under Bishop Arderic (1026/7-1044)

by Immonen Teemu

Viator 39, 2 (2008), 65-92.

This article concentrates on the relation between the writing of hagiographical texts about Saint Bononius (d. 1026)... more This article concentrates on the relation between the writing of hagiographical texts about Saint Bononius (d. 1026) and their actual political, social, and religious contexts in the diocese of Vercelli. Bononius's cult came into existence at one of the crucial turning points in the history of the medieval Italy, when the structures of central government handed down from the Carolingian age were breaking down and new local centers of power were taking their place. Vercelli had traditionally held a privileged position in the German emperors' Italian policy, but as a consequence the agitation connected to the remodeling of society was more violent here than in many other regions of regnum Italiae. In this situation Arderic, the bishop of Vercelli, seems to have sought reconciliation with the local anti-imperial aristocracy, and it appears that the cult of Saint Bononius played a major role in the bishop's conciliatory politics. The author argues that Arderic used the cult to heal the wounds resulting from tumultuous recent history in two ways. First, references to the painful events of recent history, in which Bononius had also been involved, were omitted from the hagiographical texts and attention was directed to the less inflammatory aspects of the saint's life. Second, the saint was represented in the texts as an arbitrator between adversaries, protector of the powerless, and one who appeased the anger and the arrogance of the powerful. Thus, the article is directly connected to the discussion on the role of the literacy in the ways in which the societies of the medieval West contemplated their past, thus shaping their identity and their perception of the present.

Hagiographic and Hymnic Representations of Women, Dress, and Identity in the Early Christian East

by Jenny Bledsoe

Published in the undergraduate journal Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee, 2012.

In the early Christian East, as now, dress indicated conformity or nonconformity to social norms, projecting and... more In the early Christian East, as now, dress indicated conformity or nonconformity to social norms, projecting and sometimes concealing the individual’s gender and religious identities in a social context and indicating their position in the Church hierarchy. In the vitae of female saints Pelagia of Antioch, Anastasia, and Mary of Egypt and the hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, dress also functioned as a textual device to illustrate fundamental changes in the life of the individual Christian and, especially in the case of Ephrem, to convey theological truths about virginity and the relationship between Christ and humanity to an audience of believers. Texts such as the hagiographies and hymns explored in this article were not merely enjoyable for readers or listeners. Rather, such texts were used in liturgy or at least closely associated with ecclesiastical life, and thus they were instructive of the proper ways in which the authors thought ordinary Christians ought to live.

An East Syriac Book in the library of St.Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai: the case of M20N from the ‘New Finds’

by Grigory Kessel

Review of Raineri, Gli Atti etiopici di Giorgio il nuovo

by Alessandro Bausi

Review of Osvaldo Raineri, Gli Atti etiopici del martire egiziano Giorgio il nuovo († 978) (Studi e Testi 392, Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1999), in “Aethiopica. International Journal of E-thiopian Studies” (Hamburg), 5 (2002), pp. 276-282.

Review of Colin, L’Homélie sur l’église du Rocher

by Alessandro Bausi

Review of Gérard Colin, L’Homélie sur l’église du Rocher attribuée à Timothée Aelure. Texte éthiopien et traduction (Pontificio Istituto Orientale, Patrologia Orientalis Tome 49 – Fascicule 2 – N° 218, Turnhout, Belgique: Brepols, 2001), in “Orientalia Christiana Periodica” (Roma), 68 (2002), pp. 477-483.

Program Workshop: "Mirakel und Magie"

by Alexandra Kaar

Santità e spettacolo: dimensioni ‘teatrali’ nella Vta di Ilarione e in altri testi della letteratura agiografica tra IV e V secolo

by Leonardo Lugaresi

The Cynewulfian version of the "hoptasia" - presentation

by Tibor Tarcsay

To be presented before the SEAS Scholarly Circle

Following on Pamela Gradon's article, an in-depth investigation of the possible sources and motivations behind... more Following on Pamela Gradon's article, an in-depth investigation of the possible sources and motivations behind Cynewulf's "Huns and Goths and the Frankish people, and Hugas".

Apostolic Geography: The Origins and Continuity of a Hagiographic Habit

by Scott Johnson

In *Dumbarton Oaks Papers* 64 (2010) 5–25