Christian Novels from the Menologion of Symeon Metaphrastes

Description

A landmark of orthodox Christianity, Symeon Metaphrastes's tenth-century Menologion is one of the most important Byzantine literary creations. This was a liturgical book, usually in multiple volumes, that included various texts regarding the saints--mostly Passions (martyrdom accounts, or martyria) and Lives (biographies, or bioi)--arranged according to the sequence of feast days in the fixed Byzantine liturgical year that began on September 1. Its primary purpose was the provision of a text dedicated to each saint on his or her feast day to be read aloud during liturgical services (usually vigils, especially in monasteries, but also in urban churches). From the vast corpus of Metaphrastes's menologion, the following six texts were edited and translated into English for the first time in this volume: Life, Conduct, and Passion of Saints Kyprianos and Ioustina; Life and Conduct of Saint Pelagia of Antioch; Life, Conduct, and Passion of the Holy and Glorious Martyrs Galaktion and Episteme; Miracle Concerning Euphemia the Young Maiden; Passion of the Holy and Triumphant Martyr of Christ Barbara; Life, Conduct, and Passion of the Holy Martyr of Christ Saint Eugenia and Her Parents. These texts are united by the central role played by female protagonists; women who test social expectations take center stage. More importantly, these texts belong to a particular type of hagiographical story included in the original Metaphrastic collection, which we can view as "Christian novels."-- "Created in the tenth century, most likely as an imperial commission, the Menologion is a collection of rewritings of saints’ lives originally intended to be read at services for Christian feast days. Yet Symeon Metaphrastes’s stories also abound in transgression and violence, punishment and redemption, love and miracles. They resemble Greek novels of the first centuries of the Common Era, highlighting intense emotions and focusing on desire, both sacred and profane. Symeon Metaphrastes was celebrated for rescuing martyrdom accounts and saints’ biographies that otherwise may have been lost. His Menologion, among the most important Byzantine works, represents the culmination of a well-established tradition of Greek Christian storytelling. A landmark of Byzantine religious and literary culture, the Menologion was revered for centuries—copied in hundreds of manuscripts, recited publicly, and adapted into other medieval languages. This edition presents the first English translation of six Christian novels excerpted from Symeon’s text, all of them featuring women who defy social expectations."--

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