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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 1647: Boundaries of Holiness, Frontiers of Sanctity, II

Thursday 9 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:National Science Centre Poland Project 'Epiphanies of Saints in Late-Antique Greek Literature'
Organiser:Julia Doroszewska, Instytut Historyczny Uniwersytet Warszawski
Moderator/Chair:Stavroula Constantinou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia
Paper 1647-aPerfect Failures: Ascetic Lapses in the Late Latin West
(Language: English)
Philip Polcar, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Mittel- und Neulatein, Universität Wien
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Religious Life
Paper 1647-bSaint or Demoniac?: The Limits of the Phenomenon of Holiness in the Life of St Krystyna Called the Strange
(Language: English)
Ewa Cybulska-Bohuszewicz, 16th-Century Polish Language Dictionary, Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Toruń
Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Other, Religious Life
Paper 1647-cHow to Portray an ἅγιος?: The ἔκφρασις of Stephen within the βασιλικοὶ λόγοι of Gregory of Nyssa
(Language: English)
Mattia Cosimo Chiriatti, Departament de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Hagiography, Rhetoric, Sermons and Preaching
Abstract

This tripartite session aims at exploring the boundaries of holiness and their negotiation in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. Due to their intermediate position between God and the ordinary man, holy men need to operate between the spiritual world and this world. The question thus arises what is it that distinguishes them from both of these realms. The papers will address the following issues: how the saints transgress the boundaries of their humanity?; are these boundaries clear or blurred?; what are the markers of the holy?; does their holiness have a spatial dimension as well?