Legendary Saints of the Holy Land 2900-HAMC-EL-LSHL
Over the semester, students will examine how “fictional” saints of the Holy Land were constructed through legend, devotion, and material culture, and how their cults shaped sacred geography, pilgrimage, and religious identity across the eastern Mediterranean and early Islamic world. The course introduces methods for interpreting hagiographic texts alongside visual, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, while developing skills in critical analysis, interdisciplinary research, and the study of the interaction between text, image, and sacred space. By the end of the course, students will gain a foundational understanding of late antique and Byzantine saint cults as active forces in constructing authority, communal identities, and lived religious experience. Combining textual, visual, and material evidence in a transcultural perspective, the course situates saintly devotion within broader processes of Christianisation, monasticism, imperial patronage, and the circulation of religious traditions.
Koordynatorzy przedmiotu
Rodzaj przedmiotu
Tryb prowadzenia
Założenia (opisowo)
Efekty uczenia się
By the end of the course, students will be able to critically analyse hagiographic texts and miracle narratives; interpret the interaction between textual, visual, and material evidence; situate saintly cults within broader historical processes such as Christianisation, pilgrimage, and monasticism; compare interdisciplinary approaches from history, religious studies, archaeology, and art history; assess the regional circulation and adaptation of cults; and formulate clear, evidence-based arguments engaging with modern scholarship on late antique and Byzantine religious culture.
Kryteria oceniania
The final grade depends on attendance, active participation in classes, one in-class presentation and a final assignment (curated online exhibition).
No more than 2 absences in the semester are allowed. Absence 2 and will result in additional assignments.
Literatura
The full list of the literature and sources recommended for the course
Digital databases:
• A Digital Corpus of Early Christian Churches and Monasteries in the Holy Land: https://dig.corps-cmhl.huji.ac.il
• The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity (CSLA) database:
• http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/search.php
• The Index of Medieval Art Databse:
• https://theindex.princeton.edu
• Epigraphies of Holy Travel (EPT) database
• Inscriptions recording early Christian deaconesses: https://www.womendeacons.org/women-deacons-we-know-by-name-new/
1) Introduction: Who are the legendary saints of the Holy Land?
Required reading:
Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, translated by John Quinn and Bryson Sewell, https://www.stnicholascenter.org/who-is-st-nicholas/stories-legends/classic-sources/michael-the-archimandrite
Optional:
Di Segni, Leah. “Epigraphic Evidence for Pilgrimage to the Holy Places.” In Pilgrimage to Jerusalem: Journeys, Destinations, Experiences across Times and Cultures, edited by Falko Daim et al., 167–186. Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, 2020.
2) First late antique gender-crossing saint: Pelagia of Antioch
Required reading:
Brock, Sebastian O., and Susan Ashbrook Harvey, trans. “Pelagia of Antioch.” In Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, trans. Brock and Harvey, 41–62. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987.
Optional:
Betancourt, Roland. Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020.
3) Holy martyr-virgin: Susanna of Eleutheropolis
Required reading:
The Life and Passion of Susanna of Eleutheropolis. Translated by Mariana Bodnaruk
Optional:
Wijngaards, John. “Women Deacons in Ancient Christian Communities: Leadership and Ordination.” In Patterns of Women’s Leadership in Early Christianity, edited by Joan E. Taylor and Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, 195–210. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
4) Model of repentance: Mary of Egypt
Required reading:
Kouli, Maria, trans. “The Life of St. Mary of Egypt.” In Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints’ Lives in English Translation, edited by Alice-Mary Talbot, 65–93. Byzantine Saints’ Lives in Translation 1. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996.
Optional:
Papavarnavas, Christodoulos. “Saints’ Mobility and Confinement: Deconstructing Byzantine Stories of (Fe)male Ascetics and Monastics.” Early Medieval Europe 31, no. 3 (August 2023): 459–480.
5) Patron of Palestine: Saint George
Required reading:
Pearse, Roger (ed.) (2020): The Passio of Saint George: Original Apocryphal Form, https://archive.org/details/st-george-passio-original-apocryphal-form-2020
Optional:
Woods, David. “The Origin of the Cult of St George.” In The Great Persecution: The Proceedings of the Fifth Patristic Conference, Maynooth, 2003, edited by D. Vincent Twomey and Mark Humphries, 141–158. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009.
6) Female martyr saint: Saint Barbara
Required reading: Papaioannou, Stratis, ed. and trans. “Passion of the Holy and Triumphant Martyr of Christ Barbara.” In Christian Novels from the Menologion of Symeon Metaphrastes, 213–255. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 45. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Optional:
Resh, Daria, “Subjectivity and Truth in Hagiographical Discourse: The Case of St. Barbara’s Dossier,” in Vincent Déroche, Christian Høgel, Anna Lampadaridi (eds.), L'histoire comme elle se présentait dans l'hagiographie (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Uppsaliensis).
7) Saints Sergius and Bacchus
Required reading:
„The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus,” translated by John Boswell, https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/scotts/ftp/wpaf2mc/serge.html
Optional:
Christopher Walter, The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.