Sainthood, Animals, and Techne from Byzantium to Britain

Abstract

Numerous scholars have examined the first millennium of Christianity using the divisional categories ‘Greek East’ and ‘Latin West’. Such terminology is of value insofar as it distinguishes between the episcopal centres of Constantinople and Rome, and the administrative and theological linguae francae of their respective jurisdictions. However, the literary representations of holy ascetics by the Greek and Latin Christian communities and their religious inheritors during this time—commonly referred to as hagiographies—very often reflect shared spiritual values, aspirations, and worldviews. The complementarity of these representations in hagiography is especially evidenced by their attribution of a similar redemptive effect on animals and the environment to anchorites and coenobites. To be more exact, the monastics are depicted as having taken on a role first established by Christ through His Incarnation. Following Benedicta Ward and Elizabeth M. G. Krajweski, I will refer to the restorative role on the part of not just Christ but also His saints using the appellation ‘New Adam’. In this thesis, I will attempt to demonstrate that the Byzantine, Continental, and Insular portrayals of ascetics as redeemers of the created order attest to a shared spirituality and common perception of reality on the part of two vast regions often categorised independently.