IMC 2014: Sessions
Session 827: Texts and Identities, VII: Saints' Cults and the Practice of Hagiographical Writing in the Early Middle Ages
Tuesday 8 July 2014, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Utrecht / Faculty of History, University of Cambridge |
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| Organisers: | E. T. Dailey, Amsterdam University Press / Arc Humanities Press / Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien |
| Moderator/Chair: | Jamie Kreiner, Department of History, University of Georgia, Athens |
| Paper 827-a | Voluntary Martyrdom in Early Christianity and the Deaths of Agonice (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Latin |
| Paper 827-b | The Silence of Hagiography in the Holy City: A 'Suspicious Genre' in Early Medieval Rome (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Latin, Religious Life |
| Paper 827-c | The Ritual of Writing: Hagiography and Cult in the Carolingian World (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Religious Life |
| Abstract | The cult of the saints was an essential part of the religious world of late antique and early medieval Christians. The papers in this session deal with the hagiographical writings connected to it, demonstrating how cult and ritual were sustained and influenced by textual practices. Tamar Rotman uses a comparison of different versions of the story of the martyr Agathonice as transmitted by the Greek and Latin recensions of her martyr acts, in order to explore the phenomenon of voluntary martyrdom and the attitudes of late antique Christians towards it. Giorgia Vocino addresses an intriguing problem in the study of early medieval hagiography, namely the apparent lack of interest in the compilation of saints' lives in the holy city itself, Rome, during the Lombard and the Carolingian period. She discusses possible reasons for the silence of Roman hagiography, as well as the potential for future historical and philological research. Joanna Thornborough's paper focusses on the function of hagiography within the practices and rituals connected with the cult of saints in the Carolingian period. Using St Kilian as a case study, she suggests that written saints' lives could serve a similar function to that of relics. The texts can be thought of as forming part of the ritual process, acquiring a spiritual significance of their own and thus being able to export a saints' cult beyond the bounds of the community. |