Drawn to the blazing beacon: Visitors and pilgrims to the living holy man and the case of Lazaros of Mount Galesion

Dumbarton Oaks Papers

Volumn 56, Issue , 2002, Pages 213-241

  Greenfield, Richard ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 67650088832     PISSN: 00707546     EISSN: 00707546     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.2307/1291863     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (47)

1. See, e.g., Athanasios, Vita Antonii, G.J. M. Bartelink, ed., Athanase d'Alexandrie: Vie d'Antoine (Paris, 1994)
2. R. C. Gregg, trans., Athanasius, the Life of Antony and the Letter to Marcellinus (New York, 1980), 14: "Moreover when [Antony] saw the crowd, he was not annoyed any more than he was elated at being embraced by so many people.... Through him the Lord healed many of those present who suffered from bodily ailments; others he purged of demons, and to Antony he gave grace in speech. Thus he consoled many who mourned, and others hostile to each other he reconciled in friendship, urging everyone to prefer nothing in the world above the love of Christ."
3. Perhaps the most apposite and helpful discussion of pilgrimage theory is that provided by J. Dubisch, In a Different Place: Pilgrimage, Gender, and Politics at a Greek Island Shrine (Princeton, N.J., 1995), 34-48, since she deals with the phenomenon in the Greek Orthodox context, albeit in modern times
4. see especially pp. 45-46 for her treatment of difficulties inherent in the categorization of "pilgrimage." Also useful for its telling analysis of problems associated with such theory when a living person, rather than a place or object, is the focus of pilgrimage is the discussion by J. Eade and M. Sallnow in the "Introduction" to their Contesting the Sacred: The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage (London-New York, 1991), 1-29
5. See also the brief discussion in G. Frank, The Memory of the Eyes: Pilgrims to Living Saints in Christian Late Antiquity (Berkeley, Calif, 2000), 7-9
6. Peter Brown's work on the holy man is, of course, of unquestionable importance here, although again directed to late antiquity; I return to Brown's views toward the end of this paper. Among his writings see particularly "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity," JRS 61 (1971): 80-101, repr. in his Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1982), 103-52
7. "Town, Village and Holy Man: The Case of Syria," in D. M. Pippidi, ed., Assimilation et résistance à la culture gréco-romaine dam le monde ancien (Bucharest, 1976), 213-20, repr. in Society and the Holy, 153-65
8. Authority and the Sacred (Cambridge, 1995), especially chap. 3, "Arbiters of the Holy: The Christian Holy Man in Late Antiquity," 57-78
9. Also valuable on the same period is S. A. Harvey's work, especially Asceticism and Society in Crisis: John of Ephesus and the Lives of the Eastern Saints (Berkeley, Calif., 1990). On pilgrimage to the living in antiquity see B. Kötting, "Wallfahrten zu lebenden Personen im Altertum," in Wallfahrt kennt keine Grenzen, ed. L. Kriss-Rettenbeck and G. Mohler (Munich-Zurich, 1984), 226-34
10. cf. idem, Peregrinatio Religiosa (Regensburg, 1950)
11. There is no sustained consideration of the topic of pilgrimage to the living in other works on Byzantine pilgrimage, e.g., in R. Ousterhout, ed., The Blessings of Pilgrimage (Urbana-Chicago, Ill., 1990), although Gary Vikan is careful to include reference to it in many of his studies of Byzantine pilgrimage and its art, e.g., "Art, Medicine, and Magic in Early Byzantium," DOP 38 (1984): 65-86
12. or "Byzantine Pilgrims' Art," in L. Safran, ed., Heaven on Earth (University Park, Pa., 1998), 227-66
13. This mirrors a similar paucity of treatment in studies of pilgrimage in other times and places; to take but two examples, in M. L. and S. Nolan, Christian Pilgrimage in Modern Western Europe (Chapel Hill, N.C.-London, 1989) there is scarcely a mention, while among the nine papers collected under the title "Pilgrimage and Modernity" in Social Compass 36.2 (1989), only one, that of E. Pace, "Pilgrimage as a Spiritual Journey," 229-44, deals with the phenomenon
14. H. Delehaye, ed., AASS Nov. 3:508-88
15. For English translation and commentary see R. P. H. Greenfield, The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: An Eleventh-Century Pillar Saint (Washington, D.C., 2000); other versions of the vita are discussed there, 58-61
16. On the layout and construction of his column, see Greenfield, Lazaros, 17-20
17. V. Laz., chaps. 89, 145, 146, 248
18. Further on the use of the term in this context see P. Karlin-Hayter, "Lexicographical Notes," Byzantion 55 (1985): 589-90
19. E. Trapp, ed., Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität (Vienna, 1994- ), s.vv. diakris, diakrinomai; and Greenfield, Lazaros, 185-86 note 422
20. V. Laz., chaps. 36, 111, 128
21. Possible examples may be found in the monk Photios of v. Laz., chap. 84, and the distinguished monk from Constantinople of chap. 252
22. On visits by such people see also R. Morris, "The Political Saint of the Eleventh Century," in The Byzantine Saint, ed. S. Hackel (London, 1981), 48-49
23. eadem, "The Byzantine Aristocracy and the Monasteries," in The Byzantine Aristocracy, IX to XIII Centuries, ed. M. Angold (Oxford, 1984), 115; eadem, Monks and Laymen in Byzantium 843-1118 (Cambridge, 1995), 104-6
24. On the eulogiai from the Wondrous Mountain, see G. Vikan, "Art, Medicine, and Magic in Early Byzantium," DOP 38 (1984): 73-74
25. idem, Byzantine Pilgrimage Art (Washington, D.C., 1982), 39-40
26. idem, "Byzantine Pilgrims' Art," 258-60
27. J.-P. Sodini, "Nouvelles eulogies de Syméon," in Les saints et leur sanctuaire à Byzance, ed. C. Jolivet-Lévy et al. (Paris, 1993), 25-33
28. trans. R. M. Price, A History of the Monks of Syria by Theodoret of Cyrrhus (Kalamazoo, Mich., 1985), 160-76
29. trans. E. Dawes and N. H. Baynes, Three Byzantine Saints (New York, 1977), 7-71
30. See, for some examples among many, the Life of Peter of Atroa, ed. V. Laurent, La vie merveilleuse de Saint Pierre d'Atroa, SubsHag 29 (Brussels, 1956), chaps. 51, 77
31. Life of Luke of Steiris, ed. and trans. C. and R. Connor, The Life and Miracles of St. Luke of Steiris (Brookline, Mass., 1994), chap. 22. Cf. all those, important and unimportant, who visit Maximos Kausokalybites, ed. F. Halkin, "Deux vies de S. Maxime le Kausokalybe, ermite au Mont Athos (XIVe s.)," AB 54 (1936): 38-112
32. See, e.g., Luke of Steiris, chap. 27; Theodore of Sykeon, chap. 142; or Maximos Kausokalybites, Life by Niphon, chap. 4
33. For confession and absolution see, e.g., the women who visit Luke of Steiris, chap. 28, or the murderer of a fellow traveler there, chap. 30; also the woman who goes to John Eleemon, chap. 46. For spiritual therapy and counseling see, e.g., the case of the lapsed superior who seeks out Peter of Atroa for pardon, chap. 28; the wrestler Epiphanios visiting George of Choziba, ed. G. House, AB 7 (1888): 95-144, 336-72, trans. T. Vivian and A. N. Athanassakis, The Life of Saint George of Choziba and the Miracles of the Most Holy Mother of God at Choziba (San Francisco-London, 1994), chaps. 16-18
34. Thus the bishop of Corinth checks out Luke of Steiris, chap. 42, as do two strategoi of Hellas, chaps. 58-59; the imperial kourator, Eustathios, visits Peter of Atroa for a blessing before going to his estates, chap. 57; the chartoularios and future emperor Maurice visits Theodore of Sykeon, chap. 54, as does Domnitziolos, the nephew of the emperor Phokas, when going on campaign, chap. 120, and the consul Bonosos, chap. 142. Basil Apokaukos seeks Nikon's help, chap. 40, as does John Malakenos when he is arrested by imperial agents, chap. 43, although in both cases Nikon agrees to visit them. There are many such visits in the Life of Cyril Phileotes, including the emperor Alexios I and members of his family and entourage, e.g., chaps. 34-35, 46-48, 51, 53. Matrona of Perge was beset in Beirut by men and women, but "especially noblewomen," ed. H. Delehaye, AASS 3 (Brussels, 1910): 790-813, trans. J. Featherstone in Talbot, ed., Holy Women (as above, note 131), 18-64, chap. 19, cf. chaps. 22 and 26. Maximos Kausokalybites was visited by the emperors John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakuzenos, Life by Niphon chap. 4, Life by Theophanes chap. 21, and also by the patriarch of Constantinople Kallistos, Life by Niphon chap. 7, Life by Theophanes chap. 22. Athanasios of Meteora was unimpressed by the behavior of the caesar Prealebos when he visited him, ed. N. A. Bees, "Symbole eis ten historian ton monon ton Meteoron," Byzantis 1 (1909): 237-70, chap. 18. Compare the request by Isaac II for the prayers of the stylites and other holy men of Constantinople when he was in danger of being overthrown, recorded by Niketas Choniates, J. L. van Dieten, ed., Historia (Berlin-New York, 1975), 383
35. See also Malamut, Route, 199-205, 219-26
36. Morris, "Political Saint," 48-49
37. eadem, Monks and Laymen, 104-7
38. eadem, "Byzantine Aristocracy," 113-16, where she sums up the situation as regards the consultation of holy men by aristocrats involved in political intrigue and the like: "But however significant this activity was for the political life of the Empire, it centered on the granting of advice, essentially the same process as the few simple words of guidance given to a community stricken by drought or to a peasant suffering from diabolical visions," p. 116
39. see also Malamut, Route, 205-7
40. See also R. Macmullen, Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven-London, 1997), 136-38
41. V. Laz., chap. 87. Cf. Frank, Memory, "Glowing Faces," 160-65
42. Brown, "Holy Man," 148
43. Brown, "Holy Man," 151
44. For other criticisms and suggestions of directions in which Brown's work on the holy man may be fruit-fully developed, see J. Howard-Johnston and R A. Hayward, eds., The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1999); especially relevant there are the papers by Averil Cameron and Philip Rousseau, 27-59
45. R. Stirrat, "Place and Person in Sinhala Catholic Pilgrimage," in Eade and Sallnow, eds., Contesting the Sacred (as above, note 3), 122-36
46. Stirrat, "Sinhala Pilgrimage," 131
47. Stirrat, "Sinhala Pilgrimage," 133