Friday 17 May 2019

Elisabeth Schiffer: Intercessory Prayer and Early Byzantine Hagiography

It is a standard element in the motif-repertoire of martyrdom accounts as well as of saints’ lives, that someone in need for spiritual support approaches a holy man or woman to ask for his or her intercession. In many instances, such a plea evokes a more or less spontaneous prayer said by the saint. We come across these prayers e.g. in the context of healing miracles but also on other occasions. Especially if the respective saint is a member of the clergy, the words that are put into the saint’s mouth by the hagiographer show similarities with prayer texts that are also known from Byzantine prayer book manuscripts from the late eighth century onward.
This paper will trace back such intercessory third-person prayers in early Byzantine hagiographical texts, i.e. in texts that date from the centuries preceding the earliest Euchologia manuscripts that have come down to us. By studying this narrative form of Byzantine literary production, additional evidence for the circulation of prayer texts—beyond their primary way of transmission—will be provided. Moreover, the close reading of hagiographical texts will also contribute to a better understanding of how these prayer texts were embedded in everyday life in the early Byzantine period.

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