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43-599: The Euthymiac History was written in Greek sometime between about 550 and 750, or perhaps even as early as the early 6th century. A date late in the 9th century has been proposed, but must be rejected. The meaning of the term "Euthymiac" or "Euthymian" is uncertain. John Wortley reads it as a reference to a lost biography of Euthymius the Great . The passages that survive do not belong to the known biography of Euthymius by Cyril of Scythopolis . Its surviving two fragments both cover

86-424: A pejorative reference to biographies and histories whose authors are perceived to be uncritical or excessively reverential toward their subject. Hagiography constituted an important literary genre in the early Christian church , providing some informational history along with the more inspirational stories and legends . A hagiographic account of an individual saint could consist of a biography ( vita ),

129-508: A cave near a settlement of monks at a laura called Pharan , about six miles east of Jerusalem , at Ein Fara in Wadi Kelt . In 411, Euthymius withdrew into the wilderness with a fellow- hermit , - Theoctistus (see below ), living in a rough cavern on the banks of a torrent . When many disciples gathered around them, they turned the cavern into a church and built a monastery which

172-556: A description of the saint's deeds or miracles, an account of the saint's martyrdom ( passio ), or be a combination of these. The genre of lives of the saints first came into being in the Roman Empire as legends about Christian martyrs were recorded. The dates of their deaths formed the basis of martyrologies . In the 4th century, there were three main types of catalogs of lives of the saints: The earliest lives of saints focused on desert fathers who lived as ascetics from

215-560: A largely illiterate audience. Hagiography provided priests and theologians with classical handbooks in a form that allowed them the rhetorical tools necessary to present their faith through the example of the saints' lives. Of all the English hagiographers no one was more prolific nor so aware of the importance of the genre as Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham . His work Lives of the Saints contains set of sermons on saints' days, formerly observed by

258-673: A long quotation from the Pseudo-Dionysian Divine Names . Euthymius the Great Euthymius the Great (377 – 20 January 473) was an abbot in Palestine . He is venerated in both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Euthymius' vita was written by Cyril of Skythopolis , who describes him as the founder of several monasteries in the Judaean desert , while remaining a solitary monk in

301-532: A son at the church of Saint Polyeuctus in Melitene. When the child was born, they named him Euthymius , meaning "good cheer". Euthymius was educated by Bishop Otreius of Melitene , who afterwards ordained him and placed him in charge of all the monasteries in the Diocese of Melitene. In 405/406, at about thirty years of age he secretly set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and remained for some time in

344-432: Is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might consist of a biography or vita (from Latin vita , life, which begins the title of most medieval biographies), a description of the saint's deeds or miracles, an account of

387-604: The Cornish-language works Beunans Meriasek and Beunans Ke , about the lives of Saints Meriasek and Kea , respectively. Other examples of hagiographies from England include: Ireland is notable in its rich hagiographical tradition, and for the large amount of material which was produced during the Middle Ages. Irish hagiographers wrote primarily in Latin while some of the later saint's lives were written in

430-760: The Ecclesiastical History of Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos (14th century). It concerns the Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople (446–449) and Chrysaphius , chief minister of Theodosius II . The same episode in similar language is related in Theophanes the Confessor , but he does not cite the Euthymiac History . It has been suggested that Nikon invented the attribution on the basis of similarities between his text and

473-619: The Euthymiac History . It has been suggested that Juvenal may have invented the doctrine of the Assumption to guard the body of Mary against imperial expropriation, but there is no evidence for the existence of Mary's body as a relic or place of pilgrimage. That a robe purportedly belonging to Mary arrived in Constantinople in a casket at some point before the 7th century is certain, and the Euthymiac History may contain an accurate account of its origin. The speech of Juvenal contains

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516-567: The Ge'ez language are known as gadl (Saint's Life). There are some 200 hagiographies about indigenous saints. They are among the most important Medieval Ethiopian written sources, and some have accurate historical information. They are written by the disciples of the saints. Some were written a long time after the death of a saint, but others were written not long after the saint's demise. Fragments from an Old Nubian hagiography of Saint Michael are extant. Jewish hagiographic writings are common in

559-674: The Julian calendar this date occurs on 2 February on the Gregorian Calendar ), the day of his death. Theoctistus (also spelled Theoktistos) of Palestine, was an associate of Euthymius. He was an ascetic who lived in a nearby cell at the Pharan lavra . About five years after Euthymius arrived, they went into the desert for Great Lent, and found in a wadi a large cave where they remained praying in solitude for some time. Eventually shepherds from Bethany discovered them, and people from

602-526: The Martyrology of Tallaght and the Félire Óengusso . Such hagiographical calendars were important in establishing lists of native Irish saints, in imitation of continental calendars. In the 10th century, a Byzantine monk Simeon Metaphrastes was the first one to change the genre of lives of the saints into something different, giving it a moralizing and panegyrical character. His catalog of lives of

645-437: The 16th. Production remained dynamic and kept pace with scholarly developments in historical biographical writing until 1925, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (d. 1938) placed an interdiction on Ṣūfī brotherhoods. As Turkey relaxed legal restrictions on Islamic practice in the 1950s and the 1980s, Ṣūfīs returned to publishing hagiography, a trend which continues in the 21st century. The pseudobiography of L. Ron Hubbard compiled by

688-518: The 4th century onwards. The life of Anthony of Egypt is usually considered the first example of this new genre of Christian biography. In Western Europe , hagiography was one of the more important vehicles for the study of inspirational history during the Middle Ages . The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine compiled a great deal of medieval hagiographic material, with a strong emphasis on miracle tales. Lives were often written to promote

731-476: The Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulcheria asked Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem to have relics of Mary, mother of Jesus , sent to Constantinople . Juvenal replied that there were no bodily relics of Mary. Three days after Mary's Dormition , one of the apostles arrived and asked to see inside her tomb . When it was opened, her body was no longer there, only her funeral shroud . Upon being told this,

774-683: The English Church. The text comprises two prefaces, one in Latin and one in Old English , and 39 lives beginning on 25 December with the nativity of Christ and ending with three texts to which no saints' days are attached. The text spans the entire year and describes the lives of many saints, both English and continental, and harks back to some of the earliest saints of the early church. There are two known instances where saint's lives were adapted into vernacular plays in Britain. These are

817-475: The Sikh Janamsakhis ) concerning saints, gurus and other individuals believed to be imbued with sacred power. Hagiographic works, especially those of the Middle Ages , can incorporate a record of institutional and local history , and evidence of popular cults , customs, and traditions . However, when referring to modern, non-ecclesiastical works, the term hagiography is often used today as

860-539: The area began to visit seeking spiritual guidance and bringing food. The monks then built a church. When other monks came seeking instruction, Euthymius and Theoctistus built a lavra over the cave church. Theoctistus became hegumen of the monastery. Theoctistus died at an advanced age in 451 and is commemorated on 3 September. Hagiography A hagiography ( / ˌ h æ ɡ i ˈ ɒ ɡ r ə f i / ; from Ancient Greek ἅγιος , hagios  'holy' and -γραφία , -graphia  'writing')

903-793: The case of Talmudic and Kabbalistic writings and later in the Hasidic movement. Hagiography in Islam began in the Arabic language with biographical writing about the Prophet Muhammad in the 8th century CE, a tradition known as sīra . From about the 10th century CE, a genre generally known as manāqib also emerged, which comprised biographies of the imams ( madhāhib ) who founded different schools of Islamic thought ( madhhab ) about shariʿa , and of Ṣūfī saints . Over time, hagiography about Ṣūfīs and their miracles came to predominate in

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946-532: The cult of local or national states, and in particular to develop pilgrimages to visit relics . The bronze Gniezno Doors of Gniezno Cathedral in Poland are the only Romanesque doors in Europe to feature the life of a saint. The life of Saint Adalbert of Prague , who is buried in the cathedral, is shown in 18 scenes, probably based on a lost illuminated copy of one of his Lives. The Bollandist Society continues

989-522: The genre of manāqib . Likewise influenced by early Islamic research into hadiths and other biographical information about the Prophet, Persian scholars began writing Persian hagiography , again mainly of Sūfī saints, in the eleventh century CE. The Islamicisation of the Turkish regions led to the development of Turkish biographies of saints, beginning in the 13th century CE and gaining pace around

1032-512: The hagiographer's native vernacular Irish . Of particular note are the lives of St. Patrick , St. Columba (Latin)/Colum Cille (Irish) and St. Brigit/Brigid —Ireland's three patron saints. The earliest extant Life was written by Cogitosus . Additionally, several Irish calendars relating to the feastdays of Christian saints (sometimes called martyrologies or feastologies ) contained abbreviated synopses of saint's lives, which were compiled from many different sources. Notable examples include

1075-402: The hero-warrior figure, but with the distinction that the saint is of a spiritual sort. Imitation of the life of Christ was then the benchmark against which saints were measured, and imitation of the lives of saints was the benchmark against which the general population measured itself. In Anglo-Saxon and medieval England, hagiography became a literary genre par excellence for the teaching of

1118-563: The imperial couple requested the garment and, after his return, Juvenal had it sent to Constantinople, where it was placed in a church in Blachernae . The account of the Dormition in the Euthymiac History belongs to the so-called "late apostle" tradition, a collection of independent legends that relate how one apostle arrived late and did not witness the Dormition. Although often called Thomas , that name does not appear to have been in

1161-470: The man, " spahbed "), led the latter and his entire tribe into adopting Christianity, with Aspebetus being baptised as Peter. Maris, Terebon's uncle, financed the construction of a monastery, the tribe settles around it in an encampment, "parembole" in Greek, and Euthymius intervened with the patriarch of Jerusalem , Juvenal , to ordain Peter. Euthymius is credited to be the founder of the monastery, known as

1204-664: The manuscript Sinaiticus gr. 491 of the 8th or 9th century. It was incorporated into the Synaxarion of Constantinople and is also known in Arabic translation. The same tradition, perhaps also drawn from the Euthymiac History , is found in Cosmas Vestitor 's fourth sermon on the Dormition. Another excerpt is quoted in the Pandects of Nikon of the Black Mountain (11th century), whence it found its way into

1247-571: The middle of the 5th century. One excerpt is found in John of Damascus 's second sermon on the Dormition , written between about 730 and 750. The earliest manuscript of the sermon dates to 890. The passage excerpted from the Euthymiac History is usually regarded as an interpolation, although every surviving copy of the sermon includes it. The same excerpt as found in John's sermon is found independently in

1290-564: The miracle Euthymius had performed on Terebon, the name of Euthymius became famous throughout Palestine, and large crowds came to visit him in his solitude, he retreated with his disciple Domitian to the wilderness of Ruba, near the Dead Sea , living for some time on a remote mountain called Marda by the Byzantines - no other than the ancient Masada of Roman-era fame. When large crowds followed him to this place also, he decided to return to

1333-626: The monastery of the Paremboles. Apparently Aspebetus/Peter did indeed become a priest around 427, while also remaining a phylarch , i.e. a tribal chief allied to the Empire. He even received the rank of a bishop with the title "Bishop of Parembolæ", i.e. "of the Camps", given the nomadic nature of his flock, in which capacity he went on to attend the Council of Ephesus in 431. When the report of

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1376-500: The neighbourhood of the monastery of Theoctistus, where he took up his abode in a cavern. Every Sunday he came to the monastery to take part in the divine services. At length, because numerous disciples desired him as their spiritual guide, he founded in 420, on the right side of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho , a laura similar to that of Pharan, the Laura of Euthymius , later known as Khan al-Ahmar. The church connected with this laura

1419-486: The original life stories of their first saints, e.g. Boris and Gleb , Theodosius Pechersky etc. In the 16th century, Metropolitan Macarius expanded the list of the Russian saints and supervised the compiling process of their life stories. They would all be compiled in the so-called Velikiye chet'yi-minei catalog (Великие Четьи-Минеи, or Great Menaion Reader ), consisting of 12 volumes in accordance with each month of

1462-405: The popular heroic poem, such as Beowulf , one finds that they share certain common features. In Beowulf , the titular character battles against Grendel and his mother , while the saint, such as Athanasius ' Anthony (one of the original sources for the hagiographic motif) or the character of Guthlac , battles against figures no less substantial in a spiritual sense. Both genres then focus on

1505-784: The saint's martyrdom (called a passio ), or be a combination of these. Christian hagiographies focus on the lives, and notably the miracles , ascribed to men and women canonized by the Roman Catholic church , the Eastern Orthodox Church , the Oriental Orthodox churches , and the Church of the East . Other religious traditions such as Buddhism , Hinduism , Taoism , Islam , Sikhism and Jainism also create and maintain hagiographical texts (such as

1548-517: The saints became the standard for all of the Western and Eastern hagiographers, who would create relative biographies and images of the ideal saints by gradually departing from the real facts of their lives. Over the years, the genre of lives of the saints had absorbed a number of narrative plots and poetic images (often, of pre-Christian origin, such as dragon fighting etc.), mediaeval parables , short stories and anecdotes . The genre of lives of

1591-591: The saints was introduced in the Slavic world in the Bulgarian Empire in the late 9th and early 10th century, where the first original hagiographies were produced on Cyril and Methodius , Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav . Eventually the Bulgarians brought this genre to Kievan Rus' together with writing and also in translations from the Greek language. In the 11th century, they began to compile

1634-438: The study, academic assembly, appraisal and publication of materials relating to the lives of Christian saints (see Acta Sanctorum ). Many of the important hagiographical texts composed in medieval England were written in the vernacular dialect Anglo-Norman . With the introduction of Latin literature into England in the 7th and 8th centuries the genre of the life of the saint grew increasingly popular. When one contrasts it to

1677-402: The text in John of Damascus, including the figure of Pulcheria. The interpolator who added the excerpt to John of Damascus's sermon specifies that he is excerpting from chapter 40 of the third book of the Euthymiac History . This interpolation was made early in the history of the text and so achieved a wide distribution. According to the excerpt, at the time of the council of Chalcedon in 451,

1720-575: The tradition of Egyptian monasticism . He nevertheless played a decisive role in helping the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451) prevail in Jerusalem, in spite of the majority of the monks in the region opposing it. Euthymius was born in Melitene in Lesser Armenia , in a pious family of noble birth. According to Christian tradition, his parents, Paul and Dionysia, had prayed for

1763-511: The year. They were revised and expanded by St. Dimitry of Rostov in 1684–1705. The Life of Alexander Nevsky was a particularly notable hagiographic work of the era. Today, the works in the genre of lives of the saints represent a valuable historical source and reflection of different social ideas, world outlook and aesthetic concepts of the past. The Oriental Orthodox Churches also have their own hagiographic traditions. For instance, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church hagiographies in

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1806-592: Was dedicated in 428 by Juvenal, the first patriarch of Jerusalem . Euthymius settled there for the rest of his life. When the Fourth Œcumenical Synod (451) condemned the errors of Eutyches and Dioscorus , it was greatly due to the authority of Euthymius that most of the Eastern recluses accepted its decrees. The Empress Eudoxia was converted to Orthodoxy through his efforts. The Church celebrates his feast on 20 January (for those Orthodox Christians who still go by

1849-508: Was placed in the charge of Theoctistus. Euthymius, despite retaining his solitary lifestyle, gave direction for the others. Next, he is credited with establishing the monastery of Caparbaricha in 422. Cyril of Skythopolis is describing how a miraculous cure effected by Euthymius for Terebon, the son of the Saracen chief called "Aspebetus" by Cyril (in fact probably the Persian title of

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