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This book explores how late antique miracle collections depict Christian saints as subversive, theatrical tricksters who blur the boundaries between sacred and profane, human and divine.
Readers will gain a fresh perspective on the cultural and theological imagination of Late Antiquity through a detailed analysis of Greek hagiographic texts. Doroszewska combines literary, religious, and anthropological approaches to show how saints functioned as shape-shifting, paradoxical figures - divine jesters who used ambiguity, humour, and disruption to communicate the sacred. The chronological framework of this study spans from the fifth to the seventh/ eighth century, exploring the emergence, heyday, and eventual decline of miracle collections following the Arab conquest. The volume demonstrates that idiosyncrasies in the characterization of the saints in these texts form a coherent model when approached with the template of the trickster paradigm, offering readers a new understanding of sainthood in late antique Christianity.
Trickster Saints and Their Manifestations and Miracles in Late Antique Hagiography is suitable for scholars and students of late antique Christianity, hagiography, religious studies, classical studies, and those interested in the intersections of literature, folklore, and cultural history.
List of contents
Abbreviations x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Manifestations and Miracles of Saints: The Context 3
Trickster Paradigms 10
"By the Fear of God, the Saint Is an Impostor!" 13
PART 1
Manifestations: Schema: The Looks 19
1 Boundary Crossers: Ambiguous and Ambivalent Personalities 21
Human or Divine? 23
Dead or Alive? 24
'Real' or Dream-Like? 26
Corporeal or Incorporeal? 35
Sacred or Profane? 39
Salvific or Destructive? 43
Tricky Sainthood 48
2 Shape-Shifters: 'True Guises' and Disguises in Performative Saintly Manifestations 54
Saints and Icons 55 Conventions 57 The Saints' 'True Guises' and Costumes 59 'True Selves' of Kyros and Ioannes 65 Saints in Monastic Garments 67 Kyros and Ioannes in Monastic Garments 67 Other Saints in Monastic Garments 69
Saints in Military Attire 71
Saints as 'True Doctors' 76
Conclusion 81
Disguises 82
Physicians 83
Staff of the Sanctuary 87
Clerics and Presbyters 89
Men of Rank and Power 91
Friends and Acquaintances 94
The Saints' Namesakes 95
Strangers 97
"Transformation as Clothing"? 98
Saint Actors 103
Theatrical Imagery, Theatrical Imagination 105
Shape-Shifting and Polymorphy 108
Conclusion 112
PART 2
Miracles: Schema: The Plots 127
3 Sacred Bricoleurs 129
Relics and Presence 130
Healing Touch 132
Contact Relics: Holy Oils 135
Other Organic Products as Contact Relics 141
Icons as Relics: The Image and the Paint 143
Subversively Simple Medicines: Groceries and Plants 144
Tricky Simplicity as a Bricolage: Conclusion 147
4 Mischief-Makers and Trick-Players 154
The Schema
: Plots, Scenarios, and Riddles 156 Riddles 163 Mutual Healing Scenarios 164 Other Tricky Treatments 167 Playful Penalties 168 Healing Tricks and Their Background 173 Parallel Punitive Pranks 1785 Situation-Invertors and Taboo-Breakers 185
Saints' Topsy-Turvy Interventions 186
Just(ified) Theft 186
Sanctified Fornication 192
Society Upside Down 194
Authorities Overthrown: Physicians 194
Heretics Converted 198
The Noble Humiliated, the Low Elevated 198
Subversive Gospels and the Saintly Taboo-Breakers 200
6 Conclusion: Divine Jesters as Messengers and Interpreters of God 205
Bibliography 211
Index 229
About the author
Julia Doroszewska is a research fellow at the Faculty of History, University of Warsaw, Poland. She is the author of
The Monstrous World: Corporeal Discourses in Phlegon of Tralles' "Mirabilia" and has published widely on liminal phenomena in Greek and Roman pagan and Christian cultures.
