Holy Fools in Byzantium and BeyondOUP Oxford, 2006 M04 6 - 479 pages There are saints in Orthodox Christian culture who overturn the conventional concept of sainthood. Their conduct may be unruly and salacious, they may blaspheme and even kill - yet, mysteriously, those around them treat them with even more reverence. Such saints are called 'holy fools'. In this pioneering study Sergey A. Ivanov examines the phenomenon of holy foolery from a cultural standpoint. He identifies its prerequisites and its development in religious thought, and traces theemergence of the first hagiographic texts describing these paradoxical saints. He describes the beginnings of holy foolery in Egyptian monasteries of the fifth century, followed by its high point in the cities of Byzantium, with an eventual decline in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. He alsocompares the important Russian tradition of holy fools, which in some form has survived to this day. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Precursors and Emergence | 11 |
2 Insane Saints | 49 |
3 Lechers and Beggars | 66 |
4 Holy Scandal | 104 |
5 The Second Edition of Holy Foolery | 139 |
6 The New Theologians | 174 |
7 Balancing at the Edge | 195 |
10 The Iurodivyi and the Tsar | 285 |
11 Iurodstvo in an Age of Transition | 311 |
12 Iurodstvo Meets Modernity | 345 |
13 The Eastern Periphery | 359 |
14 The Western Periphery | 374 |
Conclusion | 399 |
Bibliography | 415 |
457 | |
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Common terms and phrases
AASS Alexios Andrew the Fool Arsenios ascetic Basil the Younger began behaviour Blazhennyi Byzantine holy Byzantium canon century Christ Christ’s sake Christian church Constantinople cult demons diVerent Drevnei Rusi elder Emesa episode example father feigned fool for Christ’s fool’s foolishness Giles Fletcher God’s Greek hagiographer hermit holy fool holy foolery Ibid icon insanity Ioann Isidora istorii Iurodivogo iurodivyi iurodstvo Ivan Ivan the Terrible John John Climacus legend Leipzig Leningrad Leontios of Neapolis lived madman Malamati man’s manuscripts Messalians mocked monastery monk Moscow motif naked Nikon Novgorod ŒÆd ôeí Orthodox oYcial Paris pious pretended Prokopii prophet provocation Pskov reXects righteous Rostov Russian russkoi Ryde`n saint sanctity secret servants signiWcant SKKDR speciWc spiritual St Petersburg story suVer Symeon Symeon of Emesa Syriac tale Theologian transl tsar Ustiug vita of Andrew Vitalios Wgure word salos Wrst Xesh XVII Zhitie