Holiness on the Move: Mobility and Space in Byzantine Hagiography

Description

Holiness on the Move: Mobility and Space in Byzantine Hagiography explores the literary, religious, and social functions of monastic mobility in Byzantine hagiography, touching on aspects of space, narrative, and identity. The ten chapters included in this volume highlight the multifaceted and rich nature of travel narratives, exploring topics such as authorship and audience, narrative structure and function, identity-making and practicalities of and discourse on travel. In terms of geographical span, the case studies cover Constantinople and its hinterland, Asia Minor, mainland Greece, Trebizond, the Balkans, and southern Italy and range chronologically from the end of the sixth to the fourteenth century. The contributions offer novel insights and perspectives on the importance of mobility in the literary construction of holiness in the Byzantine world and the wider medieval Mediterranean, the spatial dimension of sacred mobility, and the ways in which mobility is employed in the narrative construction of hagiographical texts. As such, the volume joins the burgeoning research on sacred mobilities and will interest students and scholars of Byzantine and medieval literature, religion, and history, as well as a wider readership with an interest in the study of space and mobility. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Preface List of contributors List of abbreviations Introduction PART 1 Mobility and Space: Narratological Approaches 1 A Saint in Space: Mobility and Distance in the Life of Cyril Phileotes 2 Space, Narrative, and Compositional Structure: Constructing Authority in the Life of Lazaros of Mount Galesion (BHG 979) 3 Boundaries of Holiness: Biography and Narrative Structure in John Xiphilinos’ Miracula and Passio of St Eugenios of Trebizond 4 “I Went Aboard a Ship and Reached Byzantium:” The Motif of Travel in Edifying Stories PART 2 Monastic Mobility and Identity 5 The Oration on St John of Damascus by Constantine Akropolites (BHG 885) and Its Source (BHG 884): A Spatial Reading 6 Holiness Abroad: Greek Saints and Hagiography in Norman Italy 7 Local Pilgrimage and Historical Identity in Slavonic Hagiography in Greek Translation: Two Accounts from the Archbishopric of Ohrid PART 3 Monastic Mobility: Experience and Representation 8 Pilgrimage in Thirteenth-century Byzantine Greece: The Life of Barnabas and Sophronios 9 Theodore the Stoudite on Exile 10 The Metaphor of Road in Byzantine Hagiography Index