R82098: The World of Orthodox Sainthood (Autumn)
Dr Monica White, monica.white@nottingham.ac.uk
Lecture: Monday 2:00-3:00
Seminars: Thursday 5:00-6:00, Friday 9:00-10:00
The enthusiasm for Valentine’s Day and Father Christmas is an example of the continuing
legacy of the cult of saints in contemporary society. But who were the original St Valentine
and St Nicholas? What can their lives tell us about the culture they lived in, and how were
they venerated before the invention of chocolate hearts and the Christmas tree?
This 10-credit module will introduce students to the cult of saints in the Eastern Orthodox
world. Using original sources from late antiquity and the middle ages, we will examine the
major types of saints and how they were venerated. The module will start with figures from
the New Testament, and will move on to martyrs, monks, bishops, missionaries, saintly
princes and others. The semester will be divided equally between Byzantium and the
Orthodox Slavs (Bulgarians, Serbs and Rus), and students will be encouraged to discuss the
continuities and changes between these cultures in seminars and coursework.
The module will consist of a weekly lecture and seminars. The lectures will introduce types
of saints and the historical and cultural contexts in which they arose. In the seminars, we
will discuss original written sources about particular saints and the icons associated with
them. Student presentations will also take place during the seminars. Over the course of the
semester, students will learn the basic tools needed to conduct research on saints, and will
be expected to use these in their coursework. All readings will be in English.
Assessment
Assessment is by one essay of 2,000 words (40%), one 10-minute seminar presentation (20%)
and a one-hour written exam (30%). Students’ participation in seminars will count toward
10% of their final mark.
Full marks for seminar participation will be awarded to students who are well prepared to
discuss the assigned readings. It is strongly recommended that you read a few of the
secondary sources for each topic as well as the primary sources. A good way to prepare for
seminars is to make a list of 4-6 questions and points to bring up.
The presentation will involve picking a saint in consultation with me. You should introduce
the basic facts about the saint, the texts and images associated with him/her and his/her
veneration. You will be assessed on the presentation itself and your response to questions.
The saint must not be one we are studying in class, and everyone must choose a different
saint. Saints will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis.
The essay should be broader in scope than the presentation and should study more than
one saint. Although you may make reference to the saints discussed in the assigned
readings and presentations, they may not be a main topic of the essay. A list of topics will
be circulated, or you may develop one in consultation with me. You will, in any case, be
expected to discuss your plan with me at least once during office hours.
The exam will cover terms, concepts and iconography. There will be a vocabulary section, a
section of questions which should be answered in one or two sentences, and a section on
identifying basic iconographic motifs.
Weekly Topics and Readings
28 September: Introduction & New Testament
Readings
•one or more Gospel books (any modern edition)
No seminars 1/2 October
5 October: Guest lecture by Dr M. Cunningham (Department of Theology and Religious
Studies) on the origins of Christian ideas about sanctity and mysticism (taught together
with the Asceticism and Sanctity module in the Department of Theology and Religious
Studies)
note change of location to Trent C7
Readings
•Book of Acts 6:8-7:60
•Life of Perpetua and Felicity in Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs OR
www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html
•Life of George: www.ucc.ie/milmart/BHO310.html
Seminars 8/9 October: Martyrs
12 October: iconography workshop (taught together with Asceticism and Sanctity module)
note change of location to Trent C7
Readings
•Life of Anthony: prologue, sections 1-24, 44-50, 67-94 in editions edited by R. Gregg, T.
Vivian, A. Athanassakis, R. Meyer OR www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vita-antony.html
Seminars 15/16 October: Monks
19 October: Bishops & Church Fathers
Readings
•Life of Porphyry of Gaza in Head, Medieval Hagiography OR
www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/porphyry.html sections
No seminars 22/23 October
26 October: Repentant Harlots & Female Ascetics
Readings
•Life of Mary of Egypt in Talbot, Holy Women of Byzantium OR
www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/ATHWC.html
Seminars 29/30 October: discussion, iconography
9 November: Byzantine Missions, Conversion of Slavs
Readings
•Life of Constantine in Kantor, Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes
Seminars 12/13 November: presentations, discussion
16 November: Bulgaria
Readings
•Life of St Naum, Life of St John of Rila in Butler, Monumenta Bulgarica
Seminars 19/20 November: presentations, discussion
23 November: Rus
•The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery in Heppell, discourses 1, 4, 5, 20, 32 OR
Zenkovsky, Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles and Tales, sections 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
Seminars 26/27 November: discussion, iconography
30 November: Serbia
•Life of Stephen Nemanja in Kantor, Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes
•Life of Sava in Butler, Monumenta Serbocroatica
Seminars 3/4 December: discussion, iconography
7 December: Saintly Princes
•The Narrative, Passion, and Encomium of Boris and Gleb in Kantor, Medieval Slavic Lives of
Saints and Princes OR Hollingsworth, The Hagiography of Kievan Rus, pp. 97-116
•Tale of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander [Nevsky] in Zenkovsky,
Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles, and Tales
No seminars 10/11 December
Essays due 11 January 2010 by 3:00 in SMLC office
Assigned Readings: Print (available in Hallward Library short loan)
•Any modern edition of the New Testament
•Athanasius, The Life of Saint Antony, ed. R. Meyer (Longmans, Green & Co., 1950)
----The Life of Antony, ed. R. Gregg (Paulist Press, 1980)
----The Life of Antony: The Coptic Life and the Greek Life, ed. T. Vivian and A. Athanassakis
(Cistercian Publications, 1989)
•T. Butler, ed., Monumenta Bulgarica (Michigan Slavic Publications, 1996)
•T. Butler, ed., Monumenta Serbocroatica (Michigan Slavic Publications, 1980)
•T. Head, ed., Medieval Hagiography: an Anthology (Routledge, 2001)
•M. Heppell, ed., The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery (HUP, 1989)
•P. Hollingsworth, ed., The Hagiography of Kievan Rus (HUP, 1992)
•M. Kantor, ed., Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes (Michigan Slavic Publications,
1983)
•H. Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (OUP, 1979)
•A.-M. Talbot, ed., Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation
(Dumbarton Oaks, 1996); online version:
http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/ATHWC.html
•S. Zenkovsky, ed., Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles, and Tales (Meridian, 1974)
Note: DO NOT use the 1963 edition.
Assigned Readings: Online
•Life of Perpetua and Felicity: www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html
•Life of George: www.ucc.ie/milmart/BHO310.html
•Life of Anthony: www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vita-antony.html
•Life of Mary of Egypt:
www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/ATHWC.html
•Life of Porphyry of Gaza: www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/porphyry.html
Extra Primary Sources: Print and Online (available in Hallward Library)
•S. Brock, S. Harvey, eds., Holy Women of the Syrian Orient (UC Press, 1998)
•S. Cross, O. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, eds., The Russian Primary Chronicle (Medieval Academy of
America, 1953)
•E. Dawes, N. Baynes, eds., Three Byzantine Saints (Mowbrays, 1977)
•R. Doran, ed., The Lives of Simeon Stylites (Cistercian Publications, 1992)
•Eusebius, Life of Constantine, ed. A. Cameron and S. Hall (OUP, 1999); online version:
www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vita-constantine.html
•Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Saints’ Lives www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook3.html
•D. Krueger, ed., Symeon the holy fool : Leontius's Life and the late antique city (UC Press, 1996);
online version: http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft6k4007sx&brand=eschol
•D. Lang, ed., Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints (Allen & Unwin, 1956)
•The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: An Eleventh-Century Pillar Saint:
www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/Laz1.pdf
•J. Moschos, The Spiritual Meadow, ed. J. Wortley (Cistercian Publications, 1992)
•Palladius, The Lausiac History, ed. R. Meyer (Longmans, Green & Co., 1965)
•N. Russell, ed., Lives of the Desert Fathers: The Historia Monachorum in Aegypto (Cistercian
Publications, 1981)
•B. Ward, ed., The Harlots of the Desert (Cistercian Publications, 1987)
•B. Ward, ed., The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Cistercian Publications, 1984)
Secondary Sources (available in Hallward Library)
New Testament & Early Church
•V. Burrus, Late Ancient Christianity: A People's History of Christianity (Fortress Press, 2005)
•H. Chadwick, The Early Church (Penguin, 1993)
•L. Guy, Introducing Early Christianity (InterVarsity Press, 2004)
Martyrs
•A. Hartney, Gruesome Deaths and Celibate Lives: Christian Martyrs and Ascetics (Exeter, 2005)
•W. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (OUP, 1965)
Bishops & Church Fathers
•C. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (InterVarsity Press, 1998)
•C. Rapp, Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity (UC Press, 2005)
•A. Sterk, Renouncing the World Yet Leading the Church (HUP, 2004)
Monks
•D. Chitty, The Dessert a City (Blackwell, 1966, 1995)
•G. Gould, The Desert Fathers on Monastic Community (OUP, 1993, 2002)
•W. Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (OUP,
2004)
Holy Fools
•S. Ivanov, Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond (OUP, 2006)
Repentant Harlots & Female Ascetics
•L. Coon, Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity (University of
Pennsylvania, 1997)
•R. Krawiec, Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery (OUP, 2002)
•L. Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers (Paulist Press, 2001)
Byzantine Missions & Conversion of the Slavs
•D. Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1500 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
1971, 1974; Phoenix Press, 2000)
•A.-E. Tachiaos, Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica (St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001)
Bulgaria
•R. Browning, Byzantium and Bulgaria: A Comparative Study Across the Medieval Frontier (Temple
Smith, 1975)
•F. Curta, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (CUP, 2006)
•J. Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century
(University of Michigan, 1983, 1991)
•J. Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman
Conquest (University of Michigan, 1987)
•P. Stephenson, Byzantium’s Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 9001204 (CUP, 2000)
•M. Kusseff, ‘St. Nahum’, Slavic & East European Review, 29 (1950), 139-50
Rus
•J. Fennell, The Crisis of Medieval Russia, 1200-1304 (Longman, 1983)
•J. Fennell, A History of the Russian Church to 1448 (Longman, 1995)
•S. Franklin, J. Shepard, The Emergence of Rus, 750-1200 (Longman, 1996)
•J. Meyendorff, Byzantium and the Rise of Russia (CUP, 1981)
•D. Obolensky, Six Byzantine Portraits (OUP, 1988)
Serbia
as above for Bulgaria and Rus, plus
•G. Soulis, The Serbs and Byzantium during the Reign of Tsar Stephen Dusan (Dumbarton Oaks,
1984)
Saintly Princes
•N. Ingham, ‘The Sovereign as Martyr, East and West’, The Slavic & East European Journal,
17/1 (1973), 1-17
Iconography
•J. Baggley, Doors of Perception: Icons and their Spiritual Significance (St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 1987)
•M. Quenot, The Icon: Window on the Kingdom (St. Vladimir’s Seminar Press, 2002)
•A. Tradigo, Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Getty, 2006)
General
•S. Hackel, ed., The Byzantine Saint (Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, 1981)
• F. Halkin, ed., Bibliotheca hagiographica Graeca (Société des Bollandistes, 1957)
•A. Kazhdan, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3 vols.), (OUP, 1991)
Further electronic resources
http://homepage.mac.com/paulstephenson/trans.html
A great selection of Byzantine texts in translation, including a few vitae.
http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu:8080/exist/paul/data/paul_main.html
Life of Paul the Simple: parallel English, Greek and Slavonic texts!
http://www.archive.org/details/livesserbiansai00hankgoog
A unified menologion published by the Serbian Orthodox Church in the mid-19th
century based on disparate medieval texts.
http://faculty.washington.edu/dwaugh/rus/rusprim.html
A collection of sources from early Rus and Muscovy, including a few vitae.
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/corinthians/theclabackground.stm
A site with texts and scholarship about Thecla, the first female martyr.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook3.html
This site has a large number of primary sources, including many western ones. DO
NOT use the western ones, in particular the Golden Legend. If in doubt, ask me.
Note that the link to Holy Women of Byzantium no longer works, but the book is in
the library. Please make copies so everyone can use it.
http://www.voskrese.info/spl/index.html
This is an encyclopedia with entries about many Orthodox saints, some of which
have links to primary sources. Most of these sources are fine to use, but DO NOT
cite the entries themselves because the encyclopedia is still in draft form.
http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/typ000.html
Translated monastic typika from Byzantium.
http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/translations_byzantine_saints_lives.ht
ml
Bibliography which allows you to search by date or saint’s name. It has information
about the publication and translation of vitae.
http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/women_in_byzantium.html
Bibliography on women in Byzantium, including many saints.
http://www.sage.edu/faculty/salomd/nyssa/index.html
A site devoted to St Gregory of Nyssa. The ‘texts’ link has some of his homilies on
saints.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/bmgs/ug/mod0910/z309
The site of a module vaguely similar to ours at KCL. Under ‘course content’ at the
bottom of the page there are weekly topics, each of which has a page with links and
bibliographies.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
The ever reliable Catholic encyclopedia, with many entries on Orthodox saints.