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This book explores representations of saints in a variety of Latin and Greek late antique hagiographical narratives, such as saints’ Lives, martyr acts, miracle collections, and edifying tales. The book examines techniques through which the saints featured in such texts are depicted as heroes and heroines, i.e., as extraordinary characters exhibiting both exemplary behaviour and a set of specific qualities that distinguish them from others. The book inscribes itself in a growing body of relatively recent scholarship that approaches hagiographical accounts not just as historical sources but also as narrative constructions. As such, it contributes to the development of a scholarly rationale which increasingly values imaginative and fictional aspects of hagiography in their own right, with the aim of answering broader questions about narrative creativity and ideology. For instance, individual chapters examine how hagiographical accounts mobilize and capitalize on earlier literary and rhetorical traditions or narrative models. These questions are specifically addressed to explore the narrative construction of characters. The chapters thereby encourage us to acknowledge that many hagiographers were more skilful than is often accepted.

Hagiographie latine --- Hagiographie byzantine --- Christian hagiography --- Heroes --- Saints --- Women heroes --- Heroines --- Hagiography, Christian --- Hagiography --- Persons

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The cult of saints is one of the most fascinating religious developments of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Christians admired martyrs already in the second century, but for a long time they perceived them only as examples to follow and believed they could pray directly to God, whom they addressed as ‘Our Father’. A new attitude toward saints, now considered above all as powerful friends of God and efficient intercessors, started to emerge in the third century. Once this process gained momentum in the Constantinian era, the cult of saints constantly changed and rapidly adapted to new conditions and demands. This evolution highlighted many factors: the popularity of specific saints and the different types of sanctity, the spread of cults and customs, and the ways in which the saints were described, visualised, and represented. This volume seeks to capture the dynamic of these adaptations, showing both those aspects of cult which evolved quickly and those which remained stable for a long time. It studies the evolution of the cults in a broad period from the third to the seventh centuries and in various regions from Gaul to Georgia, with a particular interest in the two greatest centres of the cult of saints: Rome and Constantinople.  In response to changing needs and different circumstances, new generations of believers repeatedly modified the cults of established saints, even as they introduced new saints.

Christian saints --- History of doctrines --- Christian hagiography --- Christian martyrs --- Cults --- Icons --- Manners and customs --- Middle Ages --- Antiquities --- Cult --- Religious aspects --- 201 A.D.-700 A.D. --- Europe --- Culte des saints --- Intercession --- Christian saints. --- Christian hagiography.

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The sixteenth century was a time of great religious turmoil in Europe, during which the critical positions within the Catholic Church led to a definitive break between Christians. One of the major controversies pertained to the cult of the saints, since in 1523 Martin Luther denied the mediating role of the saints and repudiated what he considered excesses in their devotions.The studies presented in this volume examine the impact of the Reformation on hagiography in the Hispanic sphere. They investigate how theological positions and controversy were projected onto literature, and how literature incorporated theological discourse, explicitly or implicitly. Unsurprisingly, the Catholic Church reaffirmed the hagiographical tradition, but to what extent was hagiographical literature, specifically Hispanic literature, affected by reformist approaches? This book explores issues less evident and hitherto neglected: for example, Hispanic Catholic authorities and authors, influenced by the denunciations of the excesses of the cult of saints and hagiographical “fables,” publicly declared the purging of apocryphal elements in saints’ lives; in practice, however, they grappled with the difficulty of applying theoretical criteria to such an enormous subject. As a result, certain contradictions arose between these criteria and the commitment to the hagiographical tradition, which some even sought to expand and update. This complex tension is brought out by the studies gathered here in the fields of hagiographical prose in Catalan, Portuguese and Spanish, in Iberia and in America, without neglecting the role of the theater in the dissemination of saints’ legends.

Reformation --- Christian saints --- Religious literature, Spanish --- Christian hagiography --- Biography --- History and criticism --- Spain --- Church history --- History and criticism.

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In this book, Nathan Howard explores gender and identity formation in fourth-century Cappadocia, where pro-Nicene bishops used a rhetoric of contest that aligned with conventions of classical Greek masculinity. Howard demonstrates that epistolary exhibitions served as 'a locus for' asserting manhood in the fourth century. These performances illustrate how a culture of orality that had defined manhood among civic elites was reframed as a contest whereby one accrued status through merits of composition. Howard shows how the Cappadocians' rhetoric also reordered the body and materiality as components of a maleness over which they moderated. He interrogates fourth-century theological conflict as part of a rhetorical battle over claims to manhood that supported the Cappadocians' theology and cast doubt on non-Trinitarian rivals, whom they cast as effeminate and disingenuous. Investigating accounts of pro-Nicene protagonists overcoming struggles, Howard establishes that tropes based on classical standards of gender contributed to the formation of Trinitarian orthodoxy.

Christian literature, Early --- Christian hagiography --- Masculinity in literature. --- Greek authors --- History and criticism. --- History --- Masculinity (Psychology) in literature --- Masculinity --- Cappadocian Fathers --- Fathers of the church, Greek. --- Religious aspects --- Christianity. --- History. --- Correspondence.

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En ne retenant des deux Vies de saint Roch publiées par les bollandistes que ce qui s’accordait avec l’Histoire, en dépit de leurs incohérences, l’érudition s’était employée jusqu’ici à construire la « biographie vraisemblable » d’un pèlerin thaumaturge de la deuxième moitié du XIVe siècle. Outre de nouvelles vitae, l’auteur investigue de manière exhaustive toutes les autres dimensions négligées d’un dossier hagiographique complexe : celles de la liturgie, des archives civiles, des reliques et de l’iconographie. Il en publie et analyse un corpus exceptionnel de documents inédits, dont certains précèdent les récits de plusieurs décennies. Il en ressort une figure inattendue et bien différente de celle qui résultait du traitement traditionaliste et trop exclusif des documents littéraires. Elle s’enracine dans celle d’un évêque mérovingien d’Autun, se « rénove » sous l’effet de la peste dans la liturgie languedocienne de la fin du XIVe siècle, puis se dédouble dans l’iconographie italienne de la première moitié du XVe siècle. Elle s’inscrit enfin dans un roman du dernier tiers du siècle, plusieurs fois remanié, que le nouveau vecteur de l’imprimerie propulsera à travers toute l’Europe, en deux décennies à peine. Cette vaste enquête heuristique, conçue dans le strict héritage de l’hagiographie critique, apporte encore une contribution méthodologique et épistémologique originale à la stemmatique des réécritures, à l’étude des faux « vols pieux » de reliques et à l’exploitation de l’iconographie. Elle entend aussi alimenter la réflexion sur la notion de dévotion populaire et sur les phénomènes et les groupes sociaux qui la génèrent. Publié avec le concours de la Fondation Universitaire de Belgique,de la Fondation André Vauchez (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres),et du Centre d’études médiévales de Montpellier (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3)

Christian church history --- Rochus [s.] --- Christian saints --- Christian hagiography. --- Rochus, --- Rochus conf. Montepessulanensis --- Christian literature --- Christian saints in art. --- Biography --- History and criticism. --- Hagiography. --- Saints. --- 600 A.C.-1500 A.C. --- 235.3 --- 235.3 Hagiografie --- 235.3 Hagiographie --- Hagiografie --- Hagiographie --- Roch, --- Culte.