The Cult Of Saints In Late Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages

Author : James Howard-Johnston,Paul Antony Hayward
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2000-01-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780191544354

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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages by James Howard-Johnston,Paul Antony Hayward Pdf

This book contains eleven essays, prefaced by a general introduction, on a set of related themes: the characteristic traits and diverse functions of holy men; the fashioning of saints out of a small minority of holy men and a number of other individuals of high social status but with more dubious spiritual credentials; the literary processes involved in the construction of hagiographical texts; the role of hagiography in the creation and diffusion of cults; and the worldly interests and other purposes which were served by hagiographical texts and the cults which they propagated. These themes are explored across a wide range of social and cultural milieux, extending from the late antique east Mediterranean through the early medieval Frankish world and Byzantium to Russia and Islam in the high middle ages. The work of Peter Brown, in particular his article, 'The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity', first published in 1971, forms a constant point of reference, acknowledged by the contributors as having irradiated the whole field with fresh, provocative, and illuminating ideas.

Author : Thomas F. X. Noble,Thomas Head
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2010-11-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780271043357

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Soldiers of Christ by Thomas F. X. Noble,Thomas Head Pdf

Author : Raymond Van Dam,Robert Wisniewski,Bryan Ward-Perkins
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2023-06-04
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 2503605583

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Interacting with Saints in the Late Antique and Medieval Worlds by Raymond Van Dam,Robert Wisniewski,Bryan Ward-Perkins Pdf

The cult of saints is one of the most fascinating religious developments of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Christians admired martyrs already in the second century, but for a long time they perceived them only as examples to follow and believed they could pray directly to God, whom they addressed as 'Our Father'. A new attitude toward saints, now considered above all as powerful friends of God and efficient intercessors, started to emerge in the third century. Once this process gained momentum in the Constantinian era, the cult of saints constantly changed and rapidly adapted to new conditions and demands. This evolution highlighted many factors: the popularity of specific saints and the different types of sanctity, the spread of cults and customs, and the ways in which the saints were described, visualised, and represented. This volume seeks to capture the dynamic of these adaptations, showing both those aspects of cult which evolved quickly and those which remained stable for a long time. It studies the evolution of the cults in a broad period from the third to the seventh centuries and in various regions from Gaul to Georgia, with a particular interest in the two greatest centres of the cult of saints: Rome and Constantinople. In response to changing needs and different circumstances, new generations of believers repeatedly modified the cults of established saints, even as they introduced new saints.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2013-02-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004206595

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An Age of Saints? by Anonim Pdf

This volume focuses on the strategies through which secular and ecclesiastical authorities throughout the early medieval world shaped and exploited Christian culture in their own interests, and the simultaneous attempts of rivals and sceptics to resist that same process.

Author : Ottó Gecser,József Laszlovszky,Balázs Nagy,Marcell Sebők,Katalin Szende
Publisher : Central European University Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2010-07-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789633863923

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Promoting the Saints by Ottó Gecser,József Laszlovszky,Balázs Nagy,Marcell Sebők,Katalin Szende Pdf

The studies in this volume concentrate on a complex set of socio-cultural phenomena, the cult of saints, in a variety of regions from Egypt to Poland, with a focus on Italy and Central Europe. The subjects of the contributions range in time from the fourth until the eighteenth century. The diversity of approaches adopted by the contributors—from literary analysis and historical anthropology to archaeology and art history—represents that open and multidisciplinary historical research that characterizes the work of Gábor Klaniczay to whom these essays are dedicated.

Author : James Howard-Johnston,Paul Antony Hayward
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Christian saints
ISBN : 1383016178

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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by James Howard-Johnston,Paul Antony Hayward Pdf

Over the last 40 years, Peter Brown has transformed historians' ways of looking at early Christian saints, with a new, anthropologically oriented approach. This book tests and modifies his ideas in novel ways.

Author : David Morton Gwynn,Susanne Bangert
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 584 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004180000

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Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity by David Morton Gwynn,Susanne Bangert Pdf

This volume in the ongoing Late Antique Archaeology series draws on material and textual evidence to explore the diverse religious world of Late Antiquity. Subjects include Jews and Samaritans, orthodoxy and heresy, pilgrimage, stylites, magic, the sacred and the secular.

Author : Peter Brown
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2014-11-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780226175430

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The Cult of the Saints by Peter Brown Pdf

A new edition of the “brilliantly original and highly sophisticated” study of saint worship after the fall of the Roman Empire (Library Journal). In this groundbreaking work, Peter Brown explores how the worship of saints and their corporeal remains became central to religious life in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. During this period, earthly remnants served as a heavenly connection, and their veneration is a fascinating window into the cultural mood of a region in transition. Brown challenges the long-held two-tier idea of religion that separated the religious practices of the sophisticated elites from those of the superstitious masses, instead arguing that the cult of the saints crossed boundaries and played a dynamic part in both the Christian faith and the larger world of late antiquity. He shows how men and women living in harsh and sometimes barbaric times relied upon the holy dead to obtain justice, forgiveness, and power, and how a single sainted hair could inspire great thinkers and great artists. An essential text by one of the foremost scholars of European history, this expanded edition includes a new preface from Brown, which presents new ideas based on subsequent scholarship. “Informative…demonstrates once again Brown’s genius for sharing with his readers the fruits of not only his own painstaking and meticulous scholarship but also his penetrating understanding of the evolution of Western culture as a whole.”—Religious Studies

Author : Scott DeGregorio,Paul Kershaw
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2020-08-05
Category : Cities and towns
ISBN : 2503565042

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Cities, Saints, and Communities in Early Medieval Europe by Scott DeGregorio,Paul Kershaw Pdf

This book honours the scholarship of English historian Dr. Alan Thacker by exploring the insular, the European and, more broadly, the Mediterranean connections and contexts of the history and culture of Anglo-Saxon England in the age of Bede, and beyond. It brings together original contributions by leading European and North American scholars of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages working across a range of disciplines: history, theology, epigraphy, and art history. Moving from the Irish Sea to the Bosporus, this collection presents a linked world in which saints, scholars, and the city of Rome all played powerful connective roles, creating communities, generating relationships, linking east to west, north to south, and present to past. As in Thacker's own work, Bede's life and thought is a central presence. Bede's attitudes to historical and contemporaneous conceptions of heresy, to the Irish church, and the evidence for his often complex relationships with his Northumbrian contemporaries all come under scrutiny, together with groundbreaking studies of his exegesis, christology, and historical method. Many of the contributions offer original insights into figures and phenomena that have been the focus of Dr. Thacker's highly influential scholarship.

Author : Robert Wisniewski
Publisher : Amsterdam University Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2020-10-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9789048541010

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Christian Divination in Late Antiquity by Robert Wisniewski Pdf

In Late Antiquity, people commonly sought to acquire knowledge about the past, the present, and the future, using a variety of methods. While early Christians did not doubt that these methods worked effectively, in theory they were not allowed to make use of them. In practice, people responded to this situation in diverse ways. Some simply renounced any hope of learning about the future, while others resorted to old practices regardless of the consequences. A third option, however, which emerged in the fourth century, was to construct divinatory methods that were effective yet religiously tolerable. This book is devoted to the study of such practices and their practitioners, and provides answers to essential questions concerning this phenomenon. How did it develop? How closely were Christian methods related to older, traditional customs? Who used them and in which situations? Who offered oracular services? And how were they treated by the clergy, intellectuals, and common people?

Author : Maya Maskarinec
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2018-04-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780812250084

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City of Saints by Maya Maskarinec Pdf

City of Saints explores how Byzantine Rome naturalized saints from throughout the Mediterranean world to build a new sacred topography. As a result, an exhausted city with a limited Christian presence metamorphosed into the spiritual center of Western Christianity.

Author : Peter Brown
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2009-02-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780226076386

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The Cult of the Saints by Peter Brown Pdf

Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the cult of the saints was the dominant form of religion in Christian Europe. In this elegantly written work, Peter Brown explores the role of tombs, shrines, relics, and pilgrimages connected with the sacred bodies of the saints. He shows how men and women living in harsh and sometimes barbaric times relied upon the merciful intercession of the holy dead to obtain justice, forgiveness, and to find new ways to accept their fellows. Challenging the common treatment of the cult as an outbreak of superstition among the lower classes, Brown demonstrates how this form of religiousity engaged the finest minds of the Church and elicited from members of the educated upper classes some of their most splendid achievements in poetry, literature, and the patronage of the arts. "Brown has an international reputation for his fine style, a style he here turns on to illuminate the cult of the saints. Christianity was born without such a cult; it took rise and that rise needs chronicling. Brown has a gift for the memorable phrase and sees what the passersby have often overlooked. An eye-opener on an important but neglected phase of Western development."—The Christian Century "Brilliantly original and highly sophisticated . . . . [The Cult of the Saints] is based on great learning in several disciplines, and the story is told with an exceptional appreciation for the broad social context. Students of many aspects of medieval culture, especially popular religion, will want to consult this work."—Bennett D. Hill, Library Journal

Author : Christine Walsh
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 174 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2017-05-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781351892001

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The Cult of St Katherine of Alexandria in Early Medieval Europe by Christine Walsh Pdf

St Katherine of Alexandria was one of the most popular saints in both the Orthodox and Latin Churches in the later Middle Ages, yet there has been little study of how her cult developed before c. 1200. This book redresses the balance, providing a thorough examination of the way the cult spread from the Greek-speaking lands of the Eastern Mediterranean and into Western Europe. The author uses the full range of source material available, including liturgical texts, hagiographies, chronicles and iconographical evidence, bringing together these often disparate sources to map the way in which the cult of St Katherine grew from its early stages in the Byzantine Empire up to c.1100, its transmission to Italy, and the introduction and development of the cult in Normandy and England up to c.1200. The book also includes appendices listing early manuscripts containing Katherine's Passio and including key original texts on St Katherine of the period. This study will be welcomed by scholars of medieval history and the history of medieval art, and as a case-study for all those with an interest in the development of medieval saint's cults.

Author : Dominic Janes
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 1998-02-19
Category : Art
ISBN : 0521594030

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God and Gold in Late Antiquity by Dominic Janes Pdf

From the conversion of the emperor Constantine in the early fourth century, vast sums of money were spent on the building and sumptuous decoration of churches. The resulting works of art contain many of the greatest monuments of late antique and early medieval society. But how did such expenditure fit with Christ's message of poverty and simplicity? In attempting to answer that question, this 1998 study employs theories on the use of metaphor to show how physical beauty could stand for spiritual excellence. As well as explaining the evolving attitudes to sanctity, decorum and display in Roman and medieval society, detailed analysis is made of case studies of Latin biblical exegesis and gold-ground mosaics so as to counterpoint the contemporary use of gold as a Christian image in art and text.

Author : Peter Brown
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 1989-10-25
Category : History
ISBN : 0520068009

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Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity by Peter Brown Pdf

With the blend of art and learning that is the hallmark of his work, Peter Brown here examines how the sacred impinged upon the profane during the first Christian millennium.