Download PDF | The Byzantine Saint – 2001 by Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies 1980 (University of Birmingham) (Author), Sergei Hackel (Editor).
247 Pages
Acknowledgements
In the preliminary stages of this project I received invaluable help from members of the Sobornost/ECR editorial board: Dr Sebastian Brock, the Revd Dr Robert Murray SJ, the Revd Norman Russell and the V Revd Dr Kallistos Ware. The Secretary of the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius (our publisher), the Revd Gareth Evans, gave guidance on the business side of the publication. Professor Anthony Bryer made the original proposal that we should consider it, participated in the planning of it, and provided willing and effective help on a number of occasions as the work proceeded. Dr James Shiel and the Revd Norman Russell offered advice on problems of transliteration. The Revd Norman Russell also generously shared in the work of proofreading and compiled the index. But in the end, the editor’s is a lonely task, and his remains the responsibility for editorial deficiencies. Their number will have been augmented by the brave/foolhardy decision to make these papers available well before the year is out in which they were delivered.
Abbreviations
In virtually every case periodicals and serials are cited in accordance with the list of abbreviations given in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 27 (1973), 329-39. Works not listed there are usually cited in full. Recurrent citations of articles or books has led to an uneasy mixture of short titles, op.cit. (where the previous mention of the title was in close proximity) or op.cit. with reference to the antecedent note (where this was further off). There may be some inconsistency, but there should be no lack of clarity. Where page references have been followed by references to paragraphs or lines the subordinate reference is preceded by a full stop. Synopsis 527.28-528.1 thus brings one from page 527 line 28 to the first line of the following page. But if paragraphs rather than lines are at issue, reference to the work itself will immediately reveal it. For the same reason there has been no attempt to distinguish references to page or column from each other.
Introduction
SERGE] HACKEL
HE building of Pachomios’ wall at Tabennisi, with which this symposium opens, speaks of the monastic’s intention to withdraw from the world;! the setting up of the stylite’s pillar involves withdrawal even from such a koinobion as the wall was set up to safeguard. Yet the ascetic’s very separateness made an impact on the society with which he parted ways.” In the evaluation of this separateness the innocent Byzantine might occasionally be misled or manipulated by charlatans, who did their best to blur the distinction between the physical incidentals of ascesis and its ultimate aims.* But in general Byzantine society was not to be disenchanted by that part which Gibbon thought to be the whole. The holy man had his accepted role in high and low society alike.*
For some holy men it was a role which was more or less coterminous with their lives. For others it was to be adapted and extended far beyond death. Their reputation as members of the Kingdom was to outlive the Empire itself. Hagiographers,° hymnographers,° iconographers,’ pilgrims® and patrons of panégyreis? helped to ensure that their memory would be perpetuated. Those who gained recognition as saints!® are not forgotten in those parts of the world which harboured them or their relics.1! To a greater or lesser degree they are commemorated by the Orthodox world at large. Some have gained acclaim in both East and West.
Such acclaim is now tempered by the scrutiny to which (largely Western) scholarship has subjected Lives and reputations. The heritage bequeathed by Rosweyde and Bollandus is a weighty one.'? Both Bollandists and their admirers continue to enrich it.!3 The pious lay observer may be outraged and dismayed by the consequences of their work.!4 But in the end it can only be someone like the dreadful Blemmydes!® or the fake holy man!© who might be interested in the maintenance of spurious reputations.
Scholarship is committed to the establishment of truth. The Church, for her part, should be willing to accept nothing less. This was already the burden of Bollandus’ title page of 1643, where ERVDITIO and VERITAS are prominently displayed and juxtaposed,!” There is always a need to distinguish and to preserve Tradition from traditions.
At the same time traditions, superstitions and myths are justly valued by historians. They provide a vital — often the principal — gauge for a study of the popular mind. A panégyris,!® a memento!? or a mass-produced image”® of a saint is likely to reveal more of this mind than the most stylish Life or mosaic. The Bollandist’s chaff may thus prove to be the social historian’s grain. And the study of the Byzantine saint may become (as often in this volume) the study of his clientele.
Even the superannuated saint may therefore have a humble function to perform; while the dignity of his authentic counterpart (‘in whose companionship the heaven exults; in whose guardianship the earth rejoices; by whose triumphs holy Church is crowned’)?! can never be impugned or diminished.
The Byzantine Saint’:
The XIVth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies
ANTHONY BRYER
SINCE 1967 the University of Birmingham’s Committee for Byzantine Studies (which became a graduate Centre in 1976)! has held an annual course on a Byzantine topic for the University’s Department of Extramural Studies, usually during the last weekend of the spring term. Over the last decade this meeting has assumed the trappings of an international conference under the aegis of the British National Committee of the International Byzantine Association (which meets at it).
So it attempts to serve British Byzantinists in a peculiarly international field and regularly attracts participants from over a dozen countries. Up to 250 people (the limit of the Symposium’s capacity) come to take part in it. But the Centre has not forgotten that its spring symposia are essentially no more than night schools, open to all who apply in time: furthermore it is recognised that their quality (and the XIVth was regarded as a particularly good meeting) does not depend only on the designated speakers. It is a pleasure also to acknowledge the Centre’s debt to an anonymous benefactor, without whom the symposia could not be held with such gusto. Papers given at earlier symposia are scattered in various journals. Videotapes were made at the VIIth (1973), VIlIth (1974), XIth (1977) and XIIth (1978 symposia; publication of their proceedings as a whole began with the [Xth (1975).
The Centre is most grateful to Dr Sergei Hackel and the editorial board of Sobornost/ Eastern Churches Review for publishing a selection of papers from the XIVth Symposium (22-25 March 1980) in this volume.
The XIVth Symposium
The 1980 Conference was directed by a committee of the Centre’s staff and students: Susan Ashbrook, Dr J. Neville Birdsall, Mary Cunningham, Dr John Haldon and Dr Frances Young, with Professor Anthony Bryer, its Director, as Symposiarch. It took up the theme of the Vth (1971) Symposium, on ‘Asceticism in the early Byzantine World’, at which Peter Brown raised the question of ‘The Role of the Holy Man in the Early Byzantine World’.
Since 1971 the posthumous career of the Byzantine holy man has flourished mightily, not least at the hands of Professor Brown, and it seemed high time to take stock.? But the committee was anxious to open out the topic to the whole phenomenon of ‘The Byzantine Saint’ by calling upon speakers as various as the Byzantine saint himself. Among visitors, two Bollandists, guardians of an awesome tradition of hagiographical scholarship, were especially welcome; but it was intriguing to find that all participants spoke much the same scholarly language. A consensus emerged at the Symposium which is equally recognisable in these pages. The only thing which all Byzantine saints have in common is the source of their spiritual power. But the strength of their authority is marvellously demonstrated by the manner in which the Byzantine saint used it in the world; and it is on this demonstration that these papers concentrate.
Origins and Lives
The first day of the symposium, which was opened by Dr John Ferguson, the new President of Selly Oak Colleges, discussed The Origins and Lives of the Byzantine Saint. The Revd Professor Henry Chadwick (Cambridge) spoke on ‘Pachomios and the Idea of Sanctity’*. This is published below (together with other papers which are asterisked). Dr Sebastian Brock (Oxford and Birmingham)* chaired a session on the pre-Christian origins of the Byzantine saint at which Dr Geza Vermes (Oxford) concluded that principal of ‘Jewish Origins’ was Christ himself; Professor Han Drijvers (Groningen) spoke on ‘Hellenistic and Oriental Origins’*; and Garth Fowden (Washington, now Cambridge) on ‘Pagan Asceticism’. Sam Lieu (Warwick) gave a communication on ‘Buddhist Influence in early Christian Asceticism?’ which will be published as part of a larger work.
A session on the Lives of the Byzantine saint (which was all too brief) was chaired by Dr J. Neville Birdsall (Birmingham). The Revd Flor Van Ommeslaeghe SJ (Bollandist) spoke on ‘The Acta Sanctorum and Bollandist Methodology’*.
Professor Robert Browning (London) considered ‘ “Low-style” Saints’ Lives’*, while Professor Ihor Xevéenko (Harvard and Oxford) gave a paper on ‘ “High-style” Saints’ Lives’ which is to be published (with a textual appendix) in the Analecta Bollandiana, Dr Anna Crabbe (Belfast) spoke on ‘Hagiography and the Narrative Straightjacket’. But it has been agreed this might be more appropriately published with the papers of the XIIIth (1979) Symposium (Byzantium and the Classical Tradition), while the paper which she gave then (‘Polychronius and his Companions — but which Polychronius?’)* would be most at home in this volume. In addition Jelizaveta Allen (Dumbarton Oaks) gave a communication on the “Author Index of Byzantine Literature’ which she is preparing.
The Byzantine Saint in the World
The second day of the symposium concentrated on The Byzantine Saint in the World. Professor Evelyne Patlagean (Paris) gave the main paper on ‘Sanctity and Power’*. Dr John Haldon (Birmingham) chaired a discussion on the Byzantine Saint in Politics, with contributions by Susan Ashbrook [Harvey] on ‘The Politicisation of the Byzantine Saint’*; Professor George Huxley (Belfast) on ‘The Byzantine Saint in Iconoclasm’; and Dr Rosemary Morris (Manchester) on ‘The Political Saint in the Eleventh Century’*. The theme was taken up in communications by Nicholas Couchman (Durham) on ‘The Attitude of Facundus, Bishop of Hermionas, towards Emperor Justinian I in his “Three Chapters Controversy” ’; Dr Lowell Clucas (Munich) on ‘John Italos and John of Damascus’; Dr Paul Magdalino (St Andrews) on ‘The Byzantine Holy Man in the Twelfth Century’*; and Dr Ruth Macrides (St Andrews) on ‘Anti-Palaiologan Saints’ (since revised and renamed)*.
The variety of the Byzantine saint was further demonstrated in a session chaired by Rowena Loverance (Birmingham). The Revd Michel van Esbroeck SJ (Bollandist) spoke on “The Symbolic Saint’*; and Dr Lennart Rydén (Uppsala) on ‘The Holy Fool’*.
Communications were offered on texts. Michael Whitby (Oxford) spoke on ‘The Greek Hagiography of the Emperor Maurice’ (a communication which will form part of a larger work). Dr Warren Treadgold (Munich) discussed “The deservedly unpublished Life of St Eirene the Empress’ — unpublished for it does not exist. The Revd Dr Joseph A. Munitiz SJ (Leuven) presented ‘Self-canonisation: the “Partial Account” of Nikephoros Blemmydes’*,
which he is editing. Dr Hans-Veit Beyer, the editor of Nikephoros Gregoras, spoke on ‘References to the Bible, Patristic Tradition and Religious Experience in a discourse of Gregory the Sinaite’. Mary Cunningham (Birmingham) spoke on ‘The Manuscript Tradition of Andreas of Crete’s Homily on Lazaros’; and George Every (Oscott and Birmingham) on ‘The Lives of the Virgin in PG 120°. Dr David Balfour followed his recent edition of Politico-Historical Works of Symeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica (1416/17 to 1429) with a communication concerning new data on Symeon. Professor Anthony Bryer (Birmingham) described ‘The Hagiogeography of Chaldia’, followed a series of Pontic Group Passions (beginning with the Forty Martyrs) to St Eugenios of Trebizond, and asked why the latter’s companions were not found sites for their cult in the mountain villages of Chaldia until the fourteenth century, when local lords, coastal emperors and Tiirkmen emirs were competing for control of the region.
Cult and Art
The Forty Martyrs were taken up again in a session on the final day which was devoted to The Cult and Art of the Byzantine Saint. This was chaired by Dr Frances Young (Birmingham). Patricia Karlin-Hayter (Birmingham, Dumbarton. Oaks, and now Belfast) argued for the authenticity of the Testament of the Forty (‘The Forty in History’), while Zaga Gavrilovié (Birmingham) discussed the significance of the ‘Forty in Art’ ** [=summarised below].
The saint in art was widely discussed. There was a main paper by The Revd Dr Christopher Walter (Paris) on ‘Iconodule Saints in the Madrid Skylitzes’ (to be published in Revue des études byzantines). Another main paper was delivered by Dr Vera Likhacheva (Leningrad) on ‘The Iconography of the Byzantine Saint in Hluminations of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’**. Dr Likhacheva illustrated her paper with slides of miniatures in manuscripts which are located in the USSR; one of these miniatures is reproduced below.
Communications were given by Dr Nicholas Gendle (Oxford) on ‘The Role of the Ascetic in the development of the Icon Cult, 4th-7th centuries’ (since renamed)*; Dr Robin Cormack (London and Birmingham) on a newly-identified icon of ‘St George seen through the eyes of Crusader painters’ (to be published elsewhere); and Robin Milner-Gulland (Sussex) on ‘The Oxford Lazaros: some new considerations’.
Finally the symposium examined The Cult of the Byzantine Saint. Lucy-Anne Hunt (Birmingham) chaired papers by Dr E.D, Hunt (Durham) on ‘The Traffic in Relics’*; by David Buckton (British Museum) on ‘The Mass-produced Byzantine Saint’**; and by Dr Nancy Sevéenko on ‘The St Nicholas Cycle’ (which she is to publish in a larger work on the subject). Professor Speros Vryonis Jr (UCLA, Athens and Dumbarton Oaks) concluded the symposium with a lively festival, ‘ The Panegyris of the Byzantine Saint’*.
Although symposiasts regretted that Dr Vladimir Vavtinek (Prague) was unable to come and speak, as he and they had hoped, on Sts Cyril and Methodios, the Byzantine saint was celebrated in other ways. David Buckton brought an exhibition of 54 rarely shown Byzantine ivories, steatites, crosses and gems depicting the Byzantine saint from the British Museum, and Nubar Hampartumian displayed 146 seals and coins showing Byzantine saints in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. Catalogues of both exhibitions were given to participants. Through the kindness of the Very Revd Milenko Zebié of St Lazar’s, Bournville, a film of the monastery of Chilandari, Athos, was shown. There were two receptions; and a final feast con-cluded with a performance of Dufay’s Lamentatio Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae of 1454.
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