Father Ignatius’ works, which are part of the Carmelite biographical writing, are characterized by extraordinary literary, psychological and cultural values. They are a valuable source of knowledge about the history of the 17th century. They show how Old Polish biographical writings, and, broadly speaking, narrative prose, developed. Like most Carmelite autobiographies of that time, they are parenetic, focusing on inner life and spiritual development of an outstanding individual, that is why their in-depth analysis reveals a model of contemporary spirituality, a desirable model of sanctity. The major hagiographic work by Father Ignatius (and the only printed one) is Żywot i wysokie cnoty W. Matki Teresy od Pana Jezusa Marchockiej klasztorów karmelitanek bosych we Lwowie i Warszawie fundatorki. His other works are known from manuscripts.
Biblical Topoi in the representation of female saints in Medieval South Slavonic literaturesThe theme of female sanctity in Orthodox Slavonic medieval texts is not a frequent subject of study. The article deals with the specific nature of female sanctity in hagiographic and hymnographic texts of South Slavonic literatures, examining texts dedicated to St. Paraskeva of Tarnovo (Paraskeve of Еpibatai), St. Philothea and St. Empress Theophano, whose relics were transferred in the thirteenth century to the then Bulgarian capital of Tarnovo. St. Paraskeva and St. Philothea are canonized as Reverend Saints, while Empress Theophano, not being a nun, is praised as a hermit.The use of the same encomiastic model, namely – the interpretation of archetypal Christian cult of Theotokos the “city patroness,” is of crucial importance in shaping the liturgical cult of the three female saints. On the one hand, this is an interpretation of the Theotokos cult as a glorification of the mother’s womb; on the other hand, it represents the female saint as an “immaculate bride of Christ.” In all these cases one comes across the universal topoi representing sanctity (“luminary” and “torch,” “sun” and “star”). The second important circle of topoi is particularly specific to depictions of female sanctity: “lily,” “dove,” “swallow” and so forth. The third circle of topoi is connected with “masculine behaviour in a female body.” The text presents examples of topoi characteristic of each of these circles. Among universal topoi concerning Reverend Saints (male or female) are their angelic features. The biblical symbols used in depicting types of sanctity express most clearly hierarchy. Another topos which stands out in hagiographic portrayals is that of Heavenly Bridegroom and of female Saints as Christ’s immaculate Brides, guardians of purity, righteousness and immaculateness. Biblijne toposy w wyobrażeniach świętych kobiet w literaturach południowosłowiańskich okresu średniowieczaTemat świętości kobiet w średniowiecznych słowiańskich tekstach prawosławnych nie jest częstym przedmiotem badań. Artykuł poświęcony jest specyficznej naturze świętości kobiet w hagiografii i hymnografii literatur południowosłowiańskich. Analizie poddane zostały teksty poświęcone św. Paraskewie Tyrnowskiej, św. Filotei i św. księżniczce Teofano, których relikwie zostały w XIII wieku przeniesione do ówczesnej stolicy Bułgarii – Tyrnowa. Św. Paraskewa i św. Filotea zostały kanonizowane jako „wielebne święte”, a księżniczka Teofano, w związku z tym, że nie była zakonnicą, jest czczona jako pustelniczka.Użycie tego samego modelu enkomiastycznego, a mianowicie interpretacji archetypowego chrześcijańskiego kultu Bogurodzicy jako patronki miasta, ma kluczowe znaczenie dla kształtowania liturgicznego kultu trzech świętych. Z jednej strony jest to interpretacja kultu Bogurodzicy jako gloryfikacji łona matki, z drugiej zaś, ukazuje święte jako „niepokalane oblubienice Chrystusa”. We wszystkich przypadkach występują także uniwersalne toposy reprezentujące świętość (m.in. kaganek, słońce i gwiazdy). Druga istotna grupa toposów jest szczególnie ważna dla przedstawienia świętości kobiet: lilie, gołąb, jaskółka itp. Trzeci krąg toposów jest związany z „męskim zachowaniem w żeńskim ciele”. W tekście zostały przedstawione przykłady typowe dla wszystkich tych kręgów. Wśród popularnych toposów używanych dla „wielebnych świętych” (mężczyzn i kobiet) pojawiają się także cechy anielskie. Biblijne symbole bardzo jasno wyrażają hierarchię w przedstawianiu typu świętości. W reprezentacjach świętych uwagę zwraca także topos Niebieskiego Oblubieńca i świętych kobiet jako Jego niepokalanych Oblubienic, strażniczek czystości, sprawiedliwości i niepokalania.
The article is an overview of studies on the theme of childhood and the child as a specific literary hero of old Polish hagiography. Hagiographers tended to render the childhood of the saints within a schematic framework employing an abundant repertoire of rhetoric devices. But hagiography also gives fragmentary descriptions of customs connected with the relations between parents and children as well as with parental care and the bringing up progeny. For hagiographers childhood was above all a foretoken of the saint’s future virtues and works. The child itself, however, was not a suitable paragon to follow so hagiography rarely treated it as a hero in its own right.
In the light of the work O Zwiastowaniu Panny Maryjej Bogarodzice, i wcieleniu Syna Bożego Piotr Skarga emerges as an outstanding rhetorician, hagiographer, biblical scholar and theologian. In it he uses hagiographic arguments aimed at convincing the reader of the heroine’s sanctity. In order to emphasize the significance of the events he describes, Skarga makes frequent reference to The Bible, above all in the domain of inventio. In doing so, he does, of course, remain in compliance with the tenets of the Catholic faith. Because his Lives of the Saints are addressed to a wide readership, and not just to theologians, Skarga consistently avoids all theological inquiry, and is content to accept the Church’s teaching in these matters. By simplifying the problems in this way, his text gains in clarity and conciseness, thereby increasing the chances of achieving his persuasive and didactic objectives, namely, to convince the reader that the Virgin Mary is the holiest of the saints.
The article deals with the iconography of St. Augustine of Hippo in medieval Bohemian art up to the Hussite Wars. The text represents the first attempt of explaining the beginnings of the cult of St. Augustine in the 12th-century Bohemian Lands and also focuses on the oldest depictions of St. Augustine in illuminated Bohemian manuscripts and wall paintings until the year 1420. The paper provides some iconographic details while examining the most relevant examples of the Bohemian depictions and also informs about the earliest examples and gradual dominance of the new iconographic type of St. Augustine as a bishop which replaced the older types of St. Augustine portrayed as an author or a monk.
The significant differences in content, composition and word design in description of The Trinity revelation to St Alexander Svirsky can be established, firstly, according to the role, which the hagiographer was ascribing to the particular fact from the life of The Saint Monk, secondly, according to the miracles functions as a component of the general text of the appropriate hagiography and, thirdly, according to the hagiography stylistics as a whole.
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Istotne różnice w treści, kompozycji i słownej oprawie cudu dotyczącego objawienia się Świętej Trójcy św. Aleksandrowi Świrskiemu, określić można zarówno na podstawie roli, jaką hagiograf przypisywał danemu faktowi z życia Świętego Mnicha, funkcji cudu, jako komponentu całego tekstu danego żywota, jak i stylistyki tego żywota w całości.
The article’s aim is to elucidate the religious transformations of the secular notions of identity and masculinity in Andreas. Andreas is a religious poem composed in Anglo-Saxon England around the ninth century. It is an adaptation of the Latin recension of the Acts of the Apostle Andrew, but the poet uses heroic diction borrowed from Old English secular poetry to rework the metaphor of miles Christi that is ubiquitous in Christian literature. The poet uses the military metaphor to inculcate the Christian notion of masculinity as the inversion of the secular perception of manliness. He draws upon a paradox, attested in the early Christian writings, that spiritual masculinity is true manliness, superior to military masculinity, and that it is expressed through patient suffering and the acknowledgment of defeat. The poem inverts the notions of war and victory to depict the physical defeat of the martyr as a spiritual victory over sin and the devil.
Conflict and war as the “whip of God” in the literature of the Bulgarian Middle AgesThe article focuses on the motif of war as a tool for the realization of God’s plans for people and the sign of His reward, and above all the penalty for human misdeeds, so called “whip of God”. The forms of the presence of the idea of God’s whip, his literary images and the functions it implements, are analyzed. The analysis was carried out on the material of the Bulgarian literature from 10th-15th century. Konflikt i wojna jako „bicz Boży” w literaturze bułgarskiego średniowiecza Przedmiotem zainteresowania w artykule jest motyw wojny jako narzędzia realizacji Bożych planów wobec ludzi i znaku Jego nagrody, a przede wszystkim kary za ludzkie przewinienia, tzw. „bicz Boży”. Analizowane są formy obecności idei „bicza Bożego”, jego literackie wyobrażenia i funkcje, jakie realizuje. Analizę przeprowadzono na materiale bułgarskiego piśmiennictwa X–XV wieku.
St. Simeon – the eternal ruler of the SerbsThe article discusses the development of the cult of St. Simeon (Stefan Nemanja, ca. 1113–1199) in the thirteenth century as a core of the ruler’s ideology and a mirror of the political changes in Serbia. The main task is to discover when, how and why the founder of the Nemanidi dynasty became the first and eternal ruler of the Serbs, analyzing the choice of the biblical motifs and quotations in the introductions and in a number of other selected places in the main ideological texts of the period: two Hilandar Monastery charters, one written from the Grand Zhupan Stefan Nemanja himself in 1198, the other – written in 1207/8 by his son, Stefan the First-Crowned as well as three Vitae of St. Simeon, written by his sons St. Sava and St. Stefan and by the Hilandar’s hegumenos Domentian. The study applies the approach of biblical thematic clues, proposed by Ricardo Picchio, hitherto unused for these sources, and takes into consideration also some results obtained through the investigation of early Slavic Orthodox texts from the point of view of the same concept.One conclusion which was arrived at is that the same tradition of biblical exegesis concerning the concepts of the Unfailing Mercy and Continuity of the Apostleship and the motifs of Conversion/New Nations and the Blessed Generation of the Upright, is consistently used in Serbian text for the same purpose – the affirmation of one’s own saints and, through their cults, confirmation of own “institutions of salvation” (ruling dynasty, church organization, liturgical language) as proceeding directly from God. In the three Vitae of St. Simeon different inherited models and patterns are adopted, corresponding to different versions of Ideal Ruler and of legitimization in changing political circumstances in Serbia and in European South-East in the thirteenth century. The last version, long lasting in Serbian political ideology, can be found in Domentian’s Vita (1265), commissioned by the grandson of St. Simeon, Urosh I (1243–1276) to re-confirm the legitimacy of his reign and the independence of the Serbian state after the reconquest of Constantinople in 1261. In this Vita, St. Simeon is presented as the First and Eternal Ruler of the Serbs through development of apostolic connotations in his cult, based on the concept of Unfailing Mercy, with an addition of the motifs of the Conversion/New Nations and the Blessed Generation of the Upright. As a result, St. Simeon becomes the True Baptizer of the Serbs and the First Subject of the Covenant made between God and Serbs ensuring their Salvation through the Christian Rule. Św. Symeon – wieczny władca SerbówTematem artykułu jest rozwój kultu św. Symeona w XIII wieku jako jądra ideologii władzy i lustra przemian politycznych w Serbii. Głównym zadaniem jest odpowiedź na pytanie, kiedy, jak i dlaczego założyciel dynastii Nemanjiciów stał się pierwszym i wiecznym władcą Serbów. Analizie poddane zostały wybrane motywy i cytaty biblijne, zawarte we wstępach do głównych tekstów ideologicznych pochodzących z omawianego okresu – Karty Chilandarskie opublikowane przez wielkiego żupana Stefana Nemanję (św. Symeona) w 1198 roku i jego syna Stefana Pierwszego Koronowanego w 1207/1208, a także trzy Żywoty św. Symeona napisane przez jego synów: Sawę i Stefana oraz chilandarskiego mnicha Domentiana. W artykule zastosowano nieużywane dotąd w badaniu takich źródeł podejście zaproponowane przez Ricardo Picchio, a także uwzględniono wyniki badań nad wczesnymi tekstami pochodzącymi z obszaru Slavia Orthodoxa, a prezentującymi podobny punkt widzenia.Z przeprowadzonej analizy wynika, że serbskie teksty mówiące o Nieustającym Miłosierdziu, Continuum Apostolstwa, a także Konwersji/Nowym Narodzie i Błogosławionym rodzie sprawiedliwych odwołują się do tej samej tradycji biblijnej egzegezy i stosują ją w podobnym celu, a mianowicie afirmacji własnych świętych i legitymizacji – za pomocą ich kultu – własnych „instytucji zbawczych” (rządzącej dynastii, organizacji kościelnej, języka liturgii) jako danych bezpośrednio od Boga. W trzech żywotach św. Symeona zaadaptowano trzy różne modele i wzory korespondujące z różnymi modelami Idealnego Władcy i strategiami legitymizacji w zmieniających się okolicznościach politycznych w XIII wieku w Serbii oraz Europie południowo-wschodniej. Ostatni wariant, żywotny w serbskiej ideologii politycznej, można odnaleźć w żywocie napisanym przez Dometiana (1265), a zamówionym przez wnuka św. Symeona, Uroša I (1243–1276), w celu ponownego potwierdzenia zasadności jego panowania oraz niezależności państwa serbskiego po podboju Konstantynopola w 1261 roku. Św. Symeon został w nim zaprezentowany jako Pierwszy i Wieczny Władca Serbów dzięki rozwinięciu konotacji apostolskich w jego kulcie, opartym na koncepcji Nieustającego Miłosierdzia. Dodano tu także motywy Konwersji/Nowego Narodu i Błogosławionego Rodzaju Sprawiedliwych. W rezultacie św. Symeon staje się Prawdziwym Chrzcicielem Serbów i Pierwszym Wykonawcą Przymierza ustanowionego między Bogiem a Serbami dla ich zbawienia przez regułę chrześcijańską.
The Ethiopic martyrdom of Anthony Rawh, attested in two relatively ancient manuscripts is a hagiographical text set in the Muslim Arab world. As such, it is an example of the perception that Christian Ethiopia had of the Muslim world at the time. This article offers some amendments to the printed edition and a few general remarks about the place of this text within the Ge’ez literary tradition.
In her paper Hagiografie v 10. a 11. Století, Marie Bláhová of Charles University in Prague examines the early history of the development of this genre. First, she discusses what hagiography is and when and under what circumstances this branch of the Latin literature was born. The author points out to the ancient roots of hagiography (the second century). Next to the history and the causes of the emergence of hagiography, the paper presents the development of its forms and changes in the choice of types of holiness, which could be included in such works since the late antiquity until the eleventh century. Marie Bláhová has presented readers with a wide panorama of centers and individuals distinguished in creating and rewriting hagiographic literature, noting their role at the time of birth of a given work and its subsequent dissemination. This panorama is made up of activities of both various centers and literary circles in older Europe, i.e., Empire, England, France, Italy, and in Central Europe, namely Hungary, Czech and Poland.
Women saints disguised as men are a special case of hagiographic heroines. They do not achieve a higher social status or have privileges resulting from being a man. Besides the presentation of saints: Maryna, Eufrozyna, Eugenia and Apollinara, based on Żywoty świętych [Lives of the Saints] by Piotr Skarga, this article attempts to respond to the questions concerning the sense of their efforts. Did they struggle to hide their biological sex to free their sexuality, or did they want to achieve a special sanctity reserved exclusively for men? Yet another reflection is connected with the manner of presenting these ambiguous heroines as well as the assessment of their behaviour carried out by the author of Żywoty świętych.
In the versions of the Finnish vernacular Ballad of the Death of Bishop Henry (Piispa Henrikin surmavirsi), there are several unclear parts. The part consisting of the Bishop’s instructions for his coachman where to hide and from which place to observe his death is one of them. In one of the versions, the Bishop first mentions a stone as a hiding place, however, immediately realizes its unsuitability. Thereafter he suggests an oak tree (along with a horse in one of the versions). In diverse versions, there is also a dichotomy between listening and watching. The verse kun ei kilpiä kivessä (‘there is no shield in the stone’) is clearly an etymologizing adaptation of the folklore verse kirves kilpesty kivehen / kivestä (the axe rebounded from the stone / slid off the stone) from the epic cycle on Väinämöinen. Putting a stone in contrast with a tree, and transplanting a folklore verse about a stone as an agent of a serious injury into the context of a shield has a symbolic motivation: the medieval Christian symbolism operating with the axiological scale between the inanimate (the stone) and animate (the tree, the horse) matter, and the Christianized part of the Finnish folklore attributing the mere hearing/listening to the devil (Hiisi etc.) and the seeing/watching to God. Thus, the Bishop’s instructions might be comprehended in three ways, all of them interconnected with concern for the hagiographic testimony: as an effort for the sake of the witness’ survival, as an effort to find the proper place for observation of the sacrifice, and finally as an effort to maintain the proper axiological position to pass on the testimony
The focus of the present paper is the terms θεωρία and ὀπτασία presented in the Greek text of Life of St Anthony the Great by St Athanasius of Alexandria and their translation representation in the Old Church Slavonic versions of the text. The terms are approached diachronically, i.e. in through history of Classical and post-classical Greek literature, thus providing the necessary cultural background for their usage and context. Each term, then, is commented in its exact attestation in the Life, providing also the corresponding translations and their wider context. The translation renderings are further analyzed in perspective of the lexical material in the classical Old Church Slavonic corpus as well as with material from texts and sources, thus aiming at contextualizing them in wider lexicological perspective.
Usage of the word ‘contemporary’ in the title of this article persuades to think of issues which were undertaken by editors of this volume: is emotiveness belong only to texts published by contemporary media, or do we have to accept her limitation to media discourse, or would it be considered in wilder terms and draw attention to variety of ongoing discourses. From this point of view it undoubtedly attracts attention to religious language (characteristic for particular countries and contemporary used), which is still undefined and fragmentarily described. From this perspective author analyses the hagiography language which is included in the most recent edition of Bulgarian monastery on the Saint Athos Mount. The author wonders how influential the exigence of contemporary recipient can be or how the writing tradition. Cited numerous examples try to prove that the religious language of Bulgaria is traditional and refers to inheritance of Old Church Slavonic.
This article is devoted to the one of the best known female rulers of medieval Serbia – princess Milica, wife of the prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, who had lost his live during the famous Battle of Kosovo Field in 1389. After the death of her husband, Milica founded the Ljubostinja monastery and became the nun Jevgenija. She was a close friend to the famous Serbian poet Jefimija, who accompanied princess Milica in the diplomatic mission to the Sultan’s court in 1398/1399. She died in 1405. She was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church. She appears also – as „tsaritsa Milica” – in Serbian folklore (epic poetry).
Another Version of the Vision of Ernest of Pardubice by Konrad of Megenberg: The vision of the youth of Ernest of Pardubice has so far been known from his legendary biographies. Helmut Ibach drew attention to the existence of this vision in the treatise by Konrad of Megenberg Commentarius de laudibus B. V. Mariae. The author of the study deals with the context of this vision and compares it with the description of Ernest’s life by Vilém of Lestkov. Konrad of Megenberg included this experience of Ernest’s in the series of exempla on the correction of the sinner, from his own vision.
The present study is devoted to the systematization of genres of religious style from the point of view of communicative-pragmatic and categorical-textual aspects. The communicative-pragmatic approach is based on the components of the communication situation. The categorical-textual approach is based on the analysis of the essential features of the text. These approaches open the possibility of analyzing the text material “beyond” the language. This is important in the context of bilingualism of religious communication. Communicatively-pragmatic approach allows us to reveal the genre-forming features of Russian religious texts and their Church Slavonic counterparts.
The article focuses on the cult of women saints in the spiritual life of the Blessed Dorothy of Montau. The material under discussion is the earliest biographical sources of the Blessed, especially "Liber de festis" and "Vita" by Dorothy’s confessor, John of Marienwerder. Dorothy venerated holy virgin martyrs, (e.g. her patron saint, St. Dorothy), saints worshipped by the Teutonic Order (St. Elizabeth of Hungary) and other holy women, e.g. belonging to the laity like the Montau recluse herself (St. Brigdet of Sweden, St. Mary Magdalene). The forms of the cult mentioned in the sources analysed vary from prayers and meditations to the imitationof the saints and some aspects of their lives.
The aim of the article is the presentation of Blessed Dorothy of Montau as a role model for the laity in the Polish-language hagiography of the 17th and 18th centuries. The material under discussion includes separate texts dedicated to the Blessed, biographies included in the then collections of the lives of saints, examples inserted in the period sermons and calendar entries
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