Bibliotheca 11 Greeks, Latins, and Intellectual History 1204-1500 Edited by Martin Hinterberger and Chris Schabel PEETERS LEUVEN - PARIS - WALPOLE, MA 2011 A NEGLECTED TOOL OF ORTHODOX PROPAGANDA? THE IMAGE OF THE LATINS IN BYZANTINE HAGIOGRAPHY Martin HINTERBERGER The investigation of how Latins are represented in Byzantine hagiog- raphy might be especially useful for the exploration of the Byzantines' attitude towards the Latins. One reason is that hagiography was a powerful tool of propaganda in the framework of ideological clashes. It was powerful because, more than other genres, hagiographical texts presented the exemplary life and conduct. Furthermore, these texts were firmly connected to the cult of saints, so that they reached a wide public by being read aloud at the saint's feast. Such an investigation will also help to contexrualize better the so-called Martyrion Kyprion, a text describing the martyrdom of the thirteen Cypriot monks of Kantara in 1231, on which Chris Schabel, Alexander Beihammer and I have been trying to shed more light for some time now. As I am still at the beginning of my research, my paper will have more the character of a work-in-progress. I have seen a substantial portion of the hagiographical texts of the Palaiologan period, but not all of them. For this reason whatever conclusion I reach must be considered preliminary. By hagiography I mean, in a rather broad sense, texts dedicated to a person venerated as a saint and intended to support the cult of this saint, but I have concentrated on texts which can be characterized primarily as narrative (meaning that I have excluded akolouthies and hymns),' 1. All known texts on Byzantine saints are catalogued in F. HALKlN,Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (Subsidia hagiographica 8a), Brussels 31957, and IDEM, Novum Auctarium Bib/ioth~cM Hagiographica~ Graecae (Subsidia hagiographica 65), Brussels 1984 (= BHG). So far a thorough and general study on Byzantine hagiography has not been accomplished (Stephanos Efthymiadis has announced a comprehensive handbook on the subject in two volumes, which we hope will materialize soon). In addition to the rather short, but informative article by A. KAzHDAN and A.-M. TALBOT, "Hagiography", in: A. KAzHDAN (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary o/Byzantium, Oxford 1991, pp. 897-898, for 130 MARTIN HINTERBERGER My research has been carried out on the basis of a representative sample of texts written during the period 1100-1500, without being exhaustive, of course. I have focused on texts dedicated to saints who lived in the period under scrutiny, but I have also taken into consideration texts on older saints.' Hagiography is strongly connected to, but not dependent on, the appearance of new saints. In contrast to the practices of the Latin Church, in Byzantium there existed no fixed procedure for the can- onisation of saints. 3 The veneration of a certain saint was always more or less a matter of general consent. There are very few cases where the patriarch interfered with the veneration of a particular saint outside of Constantinople. Nevertheless, the Church had the possibility and the means to support the cult of a saint, if it wished. It was, e.g., with the strong backing of Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos that in 1368 Gregory Palamas was officially proclaimed a saint." A few words on the development of the genre may be appropriate. In comparison to the previous two centuries, in the Palaiologan period hagiography was a rather productive genre. There is an enormous number of new versions of old saint's lives (totalling 125 out of ca. 160 texts, i.e., 78%), the bulk of these texts having been written during the early part of our period, especially in the reign of Andronikos 11(1282-1328).5 The majority of new saints' lives fit into a general overview one may consult D.G. TSAMES, A)'toAo)'la TTjr; Oe{)6()o~Tjr; E>e>eATjala" Thessalonica 1999, esp. pp. 19-53. Useful material on Byzanrine saints and hagiography in general is also provided by the Dumbarton Oaks Hagiography Database (http://www. doaks.org/Hagio.html). 2. E. MORINl, "Greci e latini dalle crociare alIa francocrazia nelle fonti agiografiche biz- antine", in: Rivista di Bizantinistica 3 (1993), pp. 183-225, is an insightful study that focuses more on Greek-Latin relationships surrounding the cult of saints than on the hagiographical texts themselves. The article, however, contains interesting observations on the Martyrion Kyprion as well as on the Lift of Sabas, both of which I am going to discuss in detail in the present article. D. ABRAHAMSE, "Byzanrine Views of the West in the Early Crusade Period: The Evidence of Hagiography", in: V.P. GROSS (ed.), The Meetingr ofTwo Worlds: Cultural Exchange between East and West during the Period of the Crusades, Kalamazoo, Mich. 1986, pp. 189-200, also provides interesting information gathered from lZth-cenrury texts. 3. A.-M. TALBOT, "Canonization", in: KAzHDAN, The Oxford Dictionary ofByzantium, p. 372; R. MACRIDES, "Saints and Sainthood in the Early Palaiologan Period", in: S. HACKEL (ed.), The Byzantine Saint: Unioersity of Birmingham 14th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, London 1981, pp. 67-87, esp. pp. 79-87. 4. MACRIDES, "Saints and Sainthood", P: 83. 5. A.-M. TALBOT, "Old Wine in New Bottles: The Rewriting of Saints' Lives in the Palaeologan Period", in: S. CURÖC and D. MOURIKI (eds.), The Twilight of Byzantium. A NEGLECfED TOOL OF ORTHODOX PROPAGANDA? 131 one of the following two categories: lives of heroes of the anti-union- ist struggle and lives of heroes of the Hesychast movement. We may already record that in terms of numbers, anti-Latin hagiography, in the sense of hagiographical texts promoting saints who had struggled against the Latins, virtually does not exist. In most texts in which Latins do appear, they are merely mentioned and are not really the centre of arrention. The keywords I looked for in these hagiographical texts were pri- marily AIX't'LVOC;and 'hIXAOC;.6In Byzantine texts, the word AIX't'!:voc;is used in two senses: firstly, AIX't'LVOC;means the speaker of Latin or refers to the geographical provenance of a person, and could thus be translated as "Westerner". Secondly, Aoc't'i:'voc;refers to the denomina- tion, meaning an adherent to the Church of Rome, what we now call a Roman Catholic. In the texts I have examined so far, before the year 1200 the word AIX't'i:'vosrefers primarily to ethnic provenance or to linguistic identity, and in many cases it is specified which of the two is meant.I It is only after ca. 1200 that the word primarily character- izes adherents to the Roman Catholic Church." 'I't'IXAOC;,on the other Aspects of Cultural and Religious History in the Lau Byzantine Empire. Papers from the Colloquium Held at Princeton University 8-9 May 1989. Princeton, NJ 1991, pp. 15-26, esp. pp. 16-17. On the Lives of new saints see A.E. LAIou-THOMADAKJS,"Saints and Society in the Late Byzanrine Empire", in: EADEM(ed.), Charanis Studies. Essays in Honor of P. Charanis, New Brunswick, NJ 1980, pp. 84-114. 6. On the general usage of AClT!:VO<; in Byzantine texts (with special focus on historic- graphical texts) see J. KODER,"Latinoi - The Image of the Other according to Greek Sources", in: CA. MALTEZOUand P. SCHREINER(eds.), Bisanzio, Venezia eil monda franco-greeo (XIII-XV secolo). Atti del Colloquia lnternazionale organizzato nel centenario della nascita di Raymand-joseph Loenertz O'P. Vmezia, 1-2 dicembre 2000, Venice 2002, pp. 25-39 (with further bibliography). See also A. KAZHDAN,"Latins and Franks in Byzan- tium: Perception and Reality from the Eleventh to the Twelfth Century", in: A.E. LAIou and R.P. MOTTAHEDEH(eds.), The CrusatUs from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, Washington, DC 2001, pp. 83-100, who discusses the terrns AClTLVO<; and «pP"YY0<; and their origin. The term «pP"YY0<; is of minor significance in hagiographical texts of the period under investigation here. 7. E.g., AClTLVOL TO y£vo<; in the Life ofNikon (shortly after 1042), ed. D.F. SULLNAN, The Lift of Saint Nikan, Brookline, MA 1987, 74, 1 (p, 250) where the text refers to two brothers from Aquileia, and T"ijv YA(;,TTClV AIXTLVO<; in John Rhodios, Life of Christo- doulos (ca. 1140), ed. K. BOINES,'A;eo).ovOia If(!UTOV oaiov ;eat Ow<PO(!OV1laT(!OC;~!1iiw X(!law6oVAoV TOV OaVIWTOV(!YOV, Athens 1884, ch. 20 (p, 132, 10). 8. Nota bene, this is true only for the material I have used for the present investigation. In the texts used by KODER,"Latinoi", in mosr cases AClTLVO<; points to ethnic provenance. This difference, ar least in parr, is due to the different subject that each genre, hagiography or historiography, focuses on. The term <l>payyo<; is only rarely used, mostly as a synonym 132 MARTIN HINTERBERCER hand, primarily refers to Italian provenance, but also more generally to Western origin. Sometimes 'hOtMr; is used as a synonym of Aln'i:vos in its meaning "Roman Carholic"." Whereas these two words may also be used in a neutral sense when exclusively referring to local provenance, the term &~uf.L("1)r;, "the user of unleavened bread", is clearly polemical. It is interesting to note that it was this very dog- matic difference, the usage of unleavened bread for Holy Commun- ion, and not any other (papal primacy for instance) that led to the creation of an abusive term for the Latins." Naturally, Latins appear only in texts referring to saints who some- how made contact with LatinsIW esterners. Before the age of the Cru- sades, this means primarily saints of Southern Italy and the neigh- bouring Peloponnese.