Saturday 11 April 2015

Katherine Milco: Facta Moresque Posteris Tradere: The Influence of Roman Biography on Early Christian Hagiography

In this paper, I argue that Roman biography serves as an important literary antecedent of early Christian hagiography.  Specifically, I examine the prologues to the Passion of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, Pontius the Deacon’s Life of St. Cyprian, and Paulinus of Nola’s Life of St. Ambrose in order to demonstrate that their similarities in content, language, and tone are also discernable in the prologue to Tacitus’ Agricola, a species of Roman biography.  Since the function of the prologue in Roman biography was to justify the author’s intention to present a Roman statesman as worthy of praise and emulation, I argue that Christian hagiographers adopted this literary practice in order to style the Christian saints as models of sanctity.  I will further argue that utilizing this literary practice was a sensible move on the part of early hagiographers, since hagiography was designed to foster the development of an ecclesial community founded on Gospel values just as Roman biography was designed to promote a civic community grounded in Roman ideals.  Through an examination of the relationship between Roman biography and Christian hagiography, this paper will contribute to scholarly discussions on the early Christian practice of adopting and transforming elements of Roman culture in light of the Gospel message.

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