Apostolic Memories: Religious Differentiation and the Construction of Orthodoxy in Syriac Missionary Literature By Jeanne-Nicole Madeleine Saint-Laurent B. A., Gonzaga University, 2000 M. A. University of Notre Dame, 2002 A. M. Brown University, 2006 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religious Studies at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May 2009 Copyright Page This dissertation by Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent is accepted in its present form by the Department of Religious Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date_____________ ______________________________ Prof. Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date_____________ ______________________________ Prof. Ross S. Kraemer, Reader Date_____________ ______________________________ Prof. Stanley K. Stowers, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date_____________ ______________________________ Sheila Bonde, Dean of the Graduate School iii Curriculum Vitae Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent was born on April 3, 1978 in Riverside, CA. She graduated from Gonzaga University in 2000, summa cum laude , with a BA, Honors, in Classics and Religious Studies. She earned an MA in Early Christian Studies in 2002, where she wrote a Master’s thesis entitled “The Vita Tradition of Ephrem the Syrian: a Hagiographical and Theological Analysis.” She was a Fulbright Scholar in Salzburg, Austria from 2002-2003. From 2003-2009, she was doctoral student in the Dept. of Religious Studies at Brown in the area of Early Christianity, with a specialties in Christianity in Late Antiquity and Syriac Christianity. In 2008-9, she was a junior fellow in Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library. She has taught Syriac at Brown and Syriac Patristics for the Pappas Institute at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary. Her publications include “Tools of the Trade: Instrumenta Studiorum ,” coauthored with Joseph Kelley, in D. Hunter and S. A. Harvey, eds., Oxford Handbook of Early Christianity, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 2171-2216; “Early Christianity in Late Antique Austria: Eugippius and Severinus,” in F. Young, M. Edwards, and P. Parvis. eds., Studia Patristica , Vol. XXXIX (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 429-434. She is the founder of Dorushe , a graduate student group for students of Syriac studies. She has presented papers at the North American Patristics Society, the Pappas Patristic Institute Graduate Student Conference, and Dorushe conferences at Princeton University and the University of Notre Dame. Beginning in the fall of 2009, she will be an assistant professor of Religious Studies at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont. iv Acknowledgements I thank my advisor and mentor, Prof. Susan Ashbrook Harvey, for her outstanding guidance, sacrifice, and countless hours of help and one-on-one tutoring that she gave me these past six years of my doctoral work at Brown University. Through her, I found my scholarly voice. I thank my teachers Prof. Ross Kraemer and Prof. Stanley Stowers for their expert critique and support as readers of this dissertation. I thank all three of them, along with Prof. Mark Cladis, for their support in my going to California for a year to dissertate and care for my father. I thank Prof. Joseph Amar for introducing me to Syriac and for teaching me to love Syriac literature when I was a Master’s student at the University of Notre Dame. I thank him, Dr. Chip Coakley, and Rev. Sidney Griffith who welcomed me into their Syriac reading groups during my doctoral studies. I thank George Kiraz for helping me to start the group Dorushe with other Syriac graduate students, and I thank the Hugoye Turkey group of the summer of 2006 for wonderful memories in Tur Abdin. I am grateful to the trustees of Harvard University for a junior fellowship in Byzantine Studies that afforded me to complete my dissertation at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Washington DC. Other scholars who supported me in finishing this dissertation whom I wish to thank include Prof. Walter Stevenson, Prof. Joel Walker, Prof. Scott Johnson, and Dr. Bruce Beck. I thank Prof. Blake Leyerle for introducing me to the world of Late Antiquity and for always encouraging and inspiring me. I thank my spiritual father Rev. Brian Daley, SJ for his constant friendship and guidance. I thank my teachers at Gonzaga University: Revs. Frederick Schlatter, SJ, Ken Krall, SJ, Rev. Antony Via, SJ, Steve v Kuder, SJ, Prof., Bruno Segatta, Drs. Catherine and Michael Tkacz, and Prof. Robert Kugler. All instilled a love for Christian antiquity that sustained me. I thank Gail Tetreault in the Dept. of Religious Studies at Brown for her solid wisdom. I thank my extended family in Austria, especially Prof. Dietmar Winkler, Dr. Henrike Winkler, Familie Aussermaier, Reinhard and Jovita Koppler, Christine Sontag, and Anneliese Weinmar and family. I thank my larger “family” in California: Toni Warnshuis, all the Mulherins, the Dekkangas, Rose Schwartzberg, Faith Manners and Sr. MaryAnne Huepper, and the Frazees. The support and love of my friends carried me constantly throughout my graduate studies. I thank Katy Tyzkiewicz Ramsey, Ann Alokolaro Fennessy, Kate Brayko Gence, Cindy Lobosky, Beth Tyzkiewicz, Eileen Jacxsens Lapington, Gina Pernini, Emily Holt, Erin Shields, Carly Dokis, Mimi Beck, Kathleen Celio (and family!), Prof. Arthur Urbano, Amy and Mark Rainis, Chris Fiori, Jaime Hawk, Jennifer Closson, Yasmin Redoblado, Katie Chidester, Rosa Sevilla, Jill Frazee, Jim Lee, Bert Fitzgerald, Joel Wichtman, Cheryl Healey, Brett Wayman, Scott Kmack, Liz Watson, Joanna Joly, Prof. Scott Moringello, Dr. Jack Tannous, Prof. Miriam Goldstein, Kyle Smith, Jeff Jackson, Tenny Thomas, Kelsey O’Keefe Billows, Erin O’Malley, Donna Bach, Franceska Fairbanks Robinson, Alison Gregoire, Patrick Cashman, the Salvan family, the Edelman family, Mary Cawley, and Steve Walker. I thank my running partners Prof. Andrew Scherer and Dr. Graham Wilkin. Special thanks go to Shane Intihar, who read my entire dissertation from Guam and caught many important errors. Thanks to Angel, Mark Slater, and Serbio at Michel Richard’s Citronelle for “helping” me through the final stages of completion. vi I thank my friends and colleagues at Dumbarton Oaks, Dr. Fotini Kondyli, Vitaly Permjakovs, Prof. Stratis and Samantha Papaioannou, Dr. Myriam Hecquet-Devienne, Dr. Rina Avner, Yuliya Minets, Dr. Isabella Sandwell, Prof. Panagiotis Roilos, with special thanks to Prof. Jan Ziolkowski, Dr. Alice-Mary Talbot, Dr. Debra Stewart Brown and Prof. Irfan Shahid. Finally, I thank my wonderful family. I thank my grandmother of blessed memory, Louise Saint-Laurent, for teaching me to find joy in small things. I thank the Nichols and McDevitt families. I thank my nephews Kyle and Sean Dickey whose short lives taught me the meaning of the appreciating each day. I thank my brother-in-law, Ryan Dickey for his great outlook and sense of humor, my beautiful sister Marie-Louise Dickey for her inspiring love and supportive friendship, and my godson and nephew, Luke George Dickey, for his smiles. I thank my mother, Michaeleen Saint-Laurent, who never stopped believing in me and sent me a card every week since my first day of college. Her gentleness and unconditional love modeled Christ for me. Finally, my best friend, my father, Prof. George E. Saint-Laurent, did not live to see the completion of this dissertation. This work is a product of how he raised me: to love learning, be faithful to God, find joy in the sharing of your gifts, and see scholarship and teaching as service and vocation. I have more gratitude to him than I could ever express with words. I dedicate this dissertation to both my parents in thanksgiving for their selfless love. vii ABBREVIATIONS AB Analecta Bollandiana ACO Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum , ed. Schwartz. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1924-40. New ed. J. Staub, 1971. AMS Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum , ed. P. Bedjan. 7 vols. Paris/Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1890-97. Repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1968. ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt BJRL Bulletin of John Rylands Library BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies CAH Cambridge Ancient History CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium Scrip. Syr. Scriptores Syri Sub. Subsidia DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers FC Fathers of the Church GCS Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller HE Historia Ecclesiastica HTR Harvard Theological Review JAAR Journal of the American Academy of Religion JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies JRS Journal of Roman Studies viii JTS Journal of Theological Studies LCL Loeb Classical Library NPNF Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers OC Oriens Christianus OCA Orientalia Christiana Analecta OCP Orientalia Christiana Periodica OLA Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta PG J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca PO Patrologia Orientalis PS Patrologia Syriaca SC Sources Chrétiennes SCH Studies in Church History SH Subsidia Hagiographica SP Studia Patristica SPCK Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge VC Vigiliae Christianae ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Curriculum Vitae v Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 Chapter One: An Apostle of Great Price: Sanctification of Thomas and the Template of Syriac Missionary Legends 41 Chapter Two: The Teaching of Addai : Icons of City, Apostle, and King 72 Chapter Three: The Acts of Mari and the Construction of East