Cult Transfer and Literary Transformation in Hagiographic Legends

during the First Millennium

Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford
15 February 2019

Rome, San Clemente. The relics of St Clement are brought to Rome from the Crimea

Religious cults can be affected, transformed, or even obliterated by their transfer from region
to region. The cults of saints and their related customs, legends, images, and relics, could
travel away from their place of origin, following waves of migrations or networks of
ecclesiastical, political, social, and commercial contacts. Transfer could transform a cult, or
affect indigenous cults through their contact with imported ones. This workshop will examine
the paradigm of cult transfer as a historical tool for our understanding of literary
transformation in Byzantine Greek hagiography and its related linguistic traditions, in all its
different manifestations.

The event is organised by Anna Lampadaridi and Efthymios Rizos, and supported by the British Academy Newton
International Fellowships, the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, the Maison Française d'Oxford, and UMR 8167 Orient
et Méditerranée Paris (équipe Monde byzantin).

The Oxford Centre

for Byzantine Research


 Programme

9.30-10.00: Stephanos Efthymiadis (Open University of Cyprus)

Transfers of cults and transformations of legends as reflected in Ninth- and Tenth-Century
Constantinopolitan Hagiography

10.00-10.30: Anna Lampadaridi (Newton International Fellow)

The legend of the monk Hilarion of Gaza between West and East

10.30-11.00: Laura Franco (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Observations on the Metaphrastic Vita of St Hilarion (BHG 755)

11.00-11.30: Break

11.30-12.00: Anne Alwis (University of Kent)

The Cult of Saint Ia of Persia

12.00-12.30 : Xavier Lequeux (Société des Bollandistes)

Le périple du martyr Mamas, de Césarée à Langres (IVe-XIIe siècles)

12.30-13.00: Efthymios Rizos (University of Oxford)

Saint Julian of Cilicia and Antinoopolis

13.00-14.00: Break

14.00-14.30: Mirela Ivanova (University of Oxford)

Inventing Slavonic: Recasting Constantine-Cyril in the Life of Methodios

14.30-15.00: Bryan Ward-Perkins (University of Oxford)

The hagiographical theft of cults in Late Antiquity