Hagiography and the Cult of the Saints (CH1449A)

Content

The aim of the unit is to introduce students to the literary genre of hagiography that developed in the 4th century and traces its origins to the Life of Antony attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria. In this unit, students will gain an appreciation of the interrelationship between hagiographical text, liturgy and iconography in establishing the cult of a saint. The unit will follow the developments of the hagiographical genre and the associated cult of the saints, through Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, by focusing on both monastic accounts and martyrologies and finally consider the liturgical implications of hagiography as a means of understanding the role of the saints in the present day.

Learning outcomes

Pedagogy

Articles and lecture notes, video lectures and online discussion forums

Indicative Bibliography

Primary sources:

• Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of Antony: downloadable at https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204
• Budge E. A. W. (trans.), “St Victor Statelates the General”, in Coptic Martyrdoms in the Dialect of Upper Egypt. London, 1914
• Pseudo-Athanasius, The Life and Regimen of the Blessed and Holy Syncletica, Part 1 & 2, ed. & trans. Mary Schaeffer, (Peregrina, 2001 & 2005).
• Ward, Benedicta, Harlots of the Desert, (Kalamazoo, 1987). ###Secondary sources:
• Brown, Peter, The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, Oxford, 1971.
• Coon, Lynda, Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity, Philadelphia, 1997.
• Howard-Johnston, James and Paul Antony Hayward, The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Contribution of Peter Brown, Oxford, 2002
• Papaconstantinou, Arietta, “Historiography, hagiography, and the making of the Coptic ‘Church of the Martyrs’ in early Islamic Egypt”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers (2006): 65-86.
• Papaconstantinou, Arietta, “The cult of saints: a haven of continuity in a changing world?” in Egypt in the Byzantine World, 300-700, ed. Roger Bagnall (Cambridge 2007) 350-67.
• Rotman, Youval, “The Holy Fool as a historical phenomenon,” in Insanity and Sanctity in Byzantium Harvard, 2016, pp. 16-32.
• Talbot, Alice-Mary, “Pilgrimage to Healing Shrines: The Evidence of Miracle Accounts”, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers (2006): 1-40.

Assessment