Hagiography

The hagiography or hagiography ( from Greek ἅγιον hagion "holy" and γράφειν grafein "write" ) both the representation of the lives of saints as well as the scientific study of such depictions.

Scientific controversy surrounding the term " hagiography "

To divorce these meanings a recent suggestion would be to only the former as hagiography, the latter, however, be described as hagiology. As Hagiologion or Hagiologium a more or less scientific output with descriptions of life and studies is referred to the Holy accordingly.

In a figurative sense, the term hagiography or the adjectival use referred hagiographic a biography, which is the one described as "holy " in the sense of a prototypical stick people without blemish and the reader appreciate him both as an ethical model, on the other hand, as the cultic worship of God's elect presented. Since such a representation often one-sided enkomiastische trains having an uncritical and euphemistic tendency, neglects the historical source criticism and not strictly rationalist notion of truth is bound, the expression can also be used in pejorative meaning. Since the Reformation, and strengthened since the 19th century, faced increasingly strange with the onset of historical source criticism and the enforcement of an imprint from the natural sciences rationalist notion of truth to the idea of ​​the supernatural, the hagiography came more and more to fundamental criticism. Against this sweeping condemnation was looking for the carried by the Jesuit Order companies in the Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum which to defend the hagiography through critical examination and collection of tradition.

From a scientific perspective, the literature, the term is rejected hagiography of the Middle Latin Berschin Walter, who pointed out that historical truth can not be a genus- and certainly not a quality criterion. Instead of hagiography was therefore to speak of biography. On the other hand, results from the hagiographic intent, a certain hagiographic discourse, referred to by Berschin as biblical background style, the recourse reflected on certain literary models, biblical exempla and hagiographic topoi. Within this hagiographic discourse now shows a second difference of the hagiography to the ancient biography. The latter had, as Albrecht Dihle has shown the morally autonomous individual taken not from history, but the interest of philosophical ethics as a model for their output. But in so far lies in the hagiographic conception of divine intervention as a metaphysical power in the historical and biographical processes is a fundamental difference. Since this right tool for the Holy God and each hagiography to a piece of history of salvation, a testament to the gracious self-revelation of God in history and for the redemption of the pledged promises of salvation. Importance gained by this new view that is just the particular unique event itself, while the ancient biography was primarily interested in the generalized moral attitude that manifested itself in an event. Prerequisite for this development was the fact that the biography had developed under the special conditions of the Roman Empire already a genre of historiography.

History

The history of Christian hagiography began in the 2nd century biographies of martyrs, ascetics and monks. In the Middle Ages, the heyday of hagiography, there were biographies of almost all the saints of the Church. Alone in the Latin -speaking area lists the Bibliotheca Latina Hagiographica with their supplements more than 10000 numbers. An important collection of legends of saints of the Middle Ages is the resulting 1263-1273 Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Voragine. In the early modern period was followed except the already mentioned Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists collections such as the sanctuary (Volume 1-2, Venice 1474 ) of Boninus Mombritius ( 1424-1502? ), De Vitis Sanctorum probatis from Al. Lippomano olim [ 1551-1560 ] conscriptis nunc primum emendatis et auctis (Volume 1-6 Cologne 1570-1576 ) of Lawrence Surius ( 1522-1578 ) and the Acta primorum martyrum sincera (Paris 1689) of Thierry Ruinart.

Historical knowledge content

The historical knowledge of the interest of a hagiographic research today is usually less in the authenticity of the tradition, but in the study of collective memory or the use of same as well as in social and historical issues mentality. Even in the context of research on the history of monasticism, the Order and monasteries, dioceses and other church institutions and to legitimation of power and rule representation of the medieval and early modern nobility and kingship play hagiographic sources a significant role.

Source types

Hagiographic sources vita, passio, miracula, translation report, letter, Holy directory, calendar, martyrology or Menologion and Synaxarion and liturgical sources such Antiphonary, Sacramentary, book of hours, finally cult historical sources as relics directories, reliquaries and them pasted labels ( Authentiken ) Memorien, altars and Altartituli, sculptures and Pictorial representations.

Vita: This source hagiographic research has evolved from the documents ( acta ), and the presentation of because of their faith, sentenced to death people ( passio ); later life descriptions were ( vitae ) of the martyrs written. When the persecution of Christians took off, took the attention to the features of a saint in the lives of confessors ( confessores ), ascetics and bishops to so that their hagiographic vitae as a source historiography served. The term vita is also used in a more general form of the tradition of a life change.

Passio originally referred to the Martyriumsbericht, but is used early without distinction synonymous with Vita and used for non- martyrs.

Miracula: A striking example of hagiographic historiography is the tradition of miracles in the Life of a human being. A plausible miraculum ( Report of a miracle ) as a criterion for canonization is indeed preserved in hagiographical sources with preference, however, have not provided. Miracle collections, often as the second part of a vita or passio, therefore, are a common form of literature.

Translation report describes the collection of bones (elevation), transfer (translation ) and burial of the Holy ( Depositio ) at the place of cultic worship. Translation reports are often the earliest cult products. You can independently, often in letter form, or as part of a vita or passio occur.

Building a classical hagiography

Hagiographies were traditionally short texts which were arranged in a chronological anthology after the commemoration of the saints. You should be a model for Christian ways of life. The classic hagiography followed a fixed scheme.