Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies College of Christian Studies 2015 Hagiography Sunggu Yang George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ccs Part of the Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Yang, Sunggu, "Hagiography" (2015). Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies. 254. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ccs/254 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Christian Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1151 1152 Hagiography I. Judaism II. Christianity III. Islam IV. Literature V. Visual Arts VI. Music VII. Film I. Judaism Although Judaism does not formally recognize saints, hagiography has been part of Jewish litera- ture since early on. Two types can be discerned, roughly corresponding to the distinction between martyrs and confessors in Christian hagiography. Both types have antecedents in biblical narrative, which provided powerful models to later genera- tions. While the books of Maccabees never became part of the HB, the tales of martyrdom they pre- serve had analogies in rabbinic literature and re- sounded strongly with later experiences in Jewish history. The tale of the mother who encouraged her seven sons to be martyred rather than transgress (2 Macc 7) was frequently invoked in medieval Ash- kenaz; it left its mark on prose accounts of the Cru- sade persecutions and on liturgical poetry dedicated to their commemoration, as did the tale of Daniel’s companions in the furnace (Dan 3) and especially that of the aqedah, the binding of Isaac (Gen 22), which was interpreted as having resulted in actual bloodshed and thus made to serve as a model for the most extreme form Jewish martyrdom took in the Middle Ages: the killing of their own children by Jewish parents in order to preclude their forced conversion to Christianity. A second type of hagiographic narrative in Juda- ism revolved around protagonists who testified to the truth of the Jewish religion not in their deaths but in their lives. Like Elijah and Elisha (1 Kgs 16– 22; 2 Kgs 1–13), these were essentially wonder- workers whose miracles demonstrated their partic- ular closeness to God. A subgroup were legends of confrontation between representatives of the Jewish religion and those of other faiths. These could take the form of a contest between their respective su- pernatural abilities (as in Exod 7 : 8–13 or 1 Kgs 18); elsewhere, Jewish victory was ensured by the pro- tagonist’s wisdom and resourcefulness (as in Es- ther). In many cases, at stake in these narratives was the very existence of the Jewish community, which found itself faced with imminent expulsion, forced conversion or worse. Such tales of deliverance were widely disseminated in the various centers of medi- eval Jewry and ascribed to a wide variety of histori- cal figures, such as Judah the Pious (1150–1217) or Rashi (1040–1105) for Jews living under Christian rule and Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) or Abra- ham ibn Ezra (1089–1164) among those in the Is- lamic world. Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 10 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2015 1153 Hagiography 1154 A tendency to compile the legends focused on giae 6.1; Hugh of St. Victor, Didascalicon 4.2; Thomas specific figures into narrative cycles can first be dis- Aquinas, Summa theologiae II–II q. 174 a. 2 obj. 3). cerned about a century before the advent of print. This entry will focus on hagiography as the At that time, narrators also began to flesh out their written accounts of the saints’ lives. Christian hagi- heroes’ biographies with birth legends or childhood ography is not a literary genre (although it is influ- stories, again drawing on biblical models (Judg 13; enced by ancient biography): texts dealing with 1 Sam 1). A number of these cycles found their way saints and sanctity are part of a “hagiographical dis- into printed collections such as Gedaliah ibn course” (Uytfanghe 1988: 155–57). Hagiography is Yaḥya’s Shalshelet ha-qabbalah (Venice 1587) or the thus defined by (1) the protagonist’s relationship to Yiddish Mayse-bukh (Basel 1602); they may have pre- the divine sphere; (2) the aim of making holiness pared the ground for later works such as Shivḥei ha- visible in the world; (3) the specific function of the Ari (about Isaac Luria) or Shivḥei ha-Besht (about Is- discourse (apology, idealization of a person as role- rael Baal Shem Tov), collections of “praise tales” model, instruction or spiritual guidance); and (4) focused on leaders of popular religious movements certain features displaying holiness, for example, which emerged close to their heroes’ own lifetimes. ascetic virtues, divine wisdom, and supernatural Hagiographic narrative has since become a hall- abilities. Related signs of holiness are also found in mark of Hasidism, while the local veneration of Jewish and pagan writings (e.g., Philostratus’ Life saints characteristic of Jewish communities in Is- of Apollonius of Tyana, Porphyrius’ Life of Plotinus, or lamic countries has begun to result in a similarly Jamblichus’ On the Pythagorean Life; see Cox). This substantial literary output since their mass immi- discourse does not necessarily presuppose the exis- gration to Israel. In recent generations, rather than tence of a cult (the “fait liturgique” postulated by expressing a religious minority’s needs vis-à-vis the the Bollandists, see Delehaye: 2; Aigrain: 251–53). majority religion, the focus of hagiography in Juda- With “hagiography” referring to a discourse rather ism would seem to have shifted towards juxtapos- than a specific literary genre, Uytfanghe (2001: ing orthodox and secularized lifestyles within Jew- 1090–91) considers the term “spiritual biography” ish society. to best encompass the essence of the written saint’s life as one of many voices within said greater hagio- Bibliography: ■ Dan, J., “The Beginnings of Hebrew Hagi- ographic Literature,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore 1 graphical discourse, but this again raises the ques- (1981) 82–101. [Heb.] ■ Marcus, E., “The Confrontation tion whether saints’ lives are by necessity “biogra- between Jews and Non-Jews in Folktales of the Jews of Is- phies.” Recently, Berschin (2004) and Pratsch have lamic Countries” (PhD diss.; Hebrew University of Jerusa- analyzed hagiographical topics in order to identify lem, 1977). [Heb.] ■ Rofé, A., The Prophetical Stories (Jerusa- basic structures of hagiography within the texts lem 1982) [Heb.]; ET: id., The Prophetical Stories: The Narratives themselves. about the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible (Jerusalem 1988). Christian hagiography in Late Antiquity is ■ Spiegel, S., The Last Trial (New York 1967); trans. of id., based on biblical reception (see Vos) – not surpris- “Me-aggadot ha-Aqedah,” in Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume (ed. S. Liebermann; New York 1950) 471–547. ■ Yassif, E., ingly, since saints (and martyrs) are by definition Sippur ha-am ha-ivri (Jerusalem 1994) [Heb.]; ET: id., The imitators of Christ. This view does not exclude the Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning (Bloomington, Ind. influence of pagan philosophical biographies. Col- 1999). lections of biographies, such as Eunapius’ Lives of Lucia Raspe the Sophists, display a literary competition between pagan and Christian conceptions of hagiography II. Christianity and holiness (Urbano). Nevertheless, hagiography is sufficiently explained not by its classical and con- A. Greek and Latin Patristics and Orthodox temporary literary sources but by its subject: the Churches special relationship of God through Christ with 1. Introduction. Christian hagiography comprises his saints. every kind of literature on martyrs and saints from 2. Athanasius’ Life of Anthony as Paradigm of the apocryphal gospels and acts on (see Uytfanghe Patristic Hagiography. The Life of Anthony, written 2001: 1154–171). It may also denote “the study of by Athanasius of Alexandria ca. 360, is a good ex- the evidence related to saints and martyrs” (Barnes: ample of this mixture of traditions and functions IX). More specifically, it may refer to the act of writ- discernible in Christian hagiography and it is also ing saints’ lives (Krueger). These lives are thus sub- the first text according to the definition above. This ject to narratological analysis (Gemeinhardt 2014). life (which is presented as a letter “to the monks The notion of hagiography stems from the 17th living abroad”) contains allusions to Porphyry’s Life century. In patristic and medieval times, τ γι- of Pythagoras (Vit. Ant. 14) that have led some schol- γραα/hagiographa referred to OT writings, strictly ars to postulate an anti-neopythagorean bias (Rub- speaking to the books of Wisdom (cf. Jerome’s pro- enson). Others have argued that the life is better logues to the books of Kings, Tobit, Judith, and understood with respect to biblical quotations and Daniel in the Vg.; see also Isidore of Seville, Etymolo- motifs (Bartelink) and to the early Christian martyr- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 10 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2015 1155 Hagiography 1156 ological tradition (Gemeinhardt 2012). Clearly, An- of an equally famous bishop of pre-Constantinian thony’s life is modelled throughout according to times (Life of Gregory the Wonderworker). Early ceno- biblical texts (for the following see Gemeinhardt bitic monastic tradition is canonized in the Life of 2013): Anthony’s conversion to asceticism is pro- Pachomius, which is preserved in Greek and Coptic voked by the story of the rich young man (Matt versions and depicts the founders of many monas- 19 : 21), by Jesus’ exhortation “Do not worry about teries as heirs of the patriarchs, prophets, and apos- tomorrow” (Matt 6 : 34), and by his desire to follow tles.