IMC 2006: Sessions
Session 1107: Re-Reading Hagiography: New Light on Some Well-Known Saints' Lives
Wednesday 12 July 2006, 11.15-12.45
| Moderator/Chair: | Michel Kaplan, UFR d'histoire, Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne |
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| Paper 1107-a | Abbas Moros: Violent Gestures between Brutality and Desire of Healing (unconfirmed) (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Hagiography, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Religious Life |
| Paper 1107-b | The 'Quartodecimans' in Northumbria: Some Problems in Stephen of Ripon's Life of Wilfrid (Language: English) Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
| Paper 1107-c | The Vikings and the Bald King: The Second Phase in the Flight of the Monks of St Filibert (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Monasticism |
| Abstract | Abstract paper -a: Of the curious categories of saints which survive from Late Antiquity, perhaps none has more potential to scandalize the reader than that of the 'holy fools'. Many scholars have already interrogated the comportment of this saint 'scandaleux'. But there is more to be said. Based on Greek and Romanian versions of two important texts : the Life of Symeon Salos and the Life of Andreas Salos, the present study summarizes our knowledge of the peculiar spirituality of the feigned madness and tries to provide an answer to the following questions: 1) Is the violent behavior specific to the 'Fools for Christ's Sake', and 2) Did the tradition of the 'spitting and back-kicking' avva ever die? Abstract paper -b: There remain two contemporary sources on the Synod of Whitby, that is Stephen's Life of Bishop Wilfrid (before AD 720) and Bede's Ecclesiastical History (AD 731). References by both authors basically coincide about the synod itself, but the attitudes towards the Irish traditionalists are quite different. While Stephen accuses them as 'Quartodecimans' (old heretics on Easter flourished in 3rd-century Asia Minor), Bede tries to amend such 'incorrect' information. But when we study extant manuscripts of the Life of Wilfrid, it can be suggested that the attack on the Irish could have some other aspects which are not clearly referred to by Bede in his history. Abstract paper -c: This paper will focus on Ermentarius' De Translationibus et Miraculis Sancti Fiiberti. Its aim will be to discover the motives behind the second translation of the relics and community of St Filibert, from the monastery at St-Philibert de Grandlieu to Cunauld and Messay. This will involve questions of authorial intent, and will investigate the level of involvement of the Viking attacks on Brittany and Aquitaine in the first half of the 9th century, cited by Ermentarius as being the main reason for this and a previous flight of the community. Further factors will include the involvement of high-politics and royal patronage, as well as the tactics involved in the development of a prosperous saint's cult. |