The Myth of Autarkeia: Economic Concerns in Middle Byzantine Hagiography

초록

This paper examines the authorial agency in protecting and furthering the economic success of their monastic community in middle Byzantine period. The Lives of Theodore of Sykeon, Euthymios the Younger, Athanasios of Athos, the Miracula of the Zoodochos Pege, and the autobiographical account from the Monastic Rule of John Christodoulos of Patmos are selected to revisit our understanding of hagiographical narratives. These were evidently authored to interact with material economy of its mother society. Despite authoring the literary genre that should represent the Byzantine imagination of ideal spiritual virtues, hagiographers carefully structured the narrative to boldly protect their community and its future brethren. This paper illustrates the need for furthering our investigation of the authorial role in making individual sanctity, flourishing the protagonist's cult, and the locus sanctus.

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