Spatial Paths to Holiness: Literary ‘Lived Spaces’ in Eleventh-Century Byzantine Saints’ Lives
Authors:   Uppsala university, Veikou Myrto 
Published: December 2024

This book explores literary spatialities, that is the notion of space and its agency in comprehending the deeper plot and meaning of two eleventh-century Byzantine hagiographical texts: the Life of St Lazaros from Mount Galesion, written by Gregory the Cellarer (Γρηγορίου του κελλαρίτη Βίος Λαζάρου τοῦ ἐν τῷ Γαλησίῳ), and the Life of St Symeon the New Theologian, written by Niketas Stethatos (Νικήτα Στηθάτου Βίος Ἁγίου Συμεὼν τοῦ Νέου Θεολόγου). The study proposes a narratological inquiry of the broader meaning of ‘spatialities’ in Byzantine texts, which focuses upon the employment of a ‘spatial’ language or ‘spatial’ narrative techniques and strategies. In this direction, it adopts an interdisciplinary methodological toolbox shared among literary, spatial and anthropological studies. The interdisciplinary approach of the study aspires to outline the field of spatial studies as an area of research, where traditional approaches to hagiography (literary, historical, anthropological) can be combined through their common and inherent ‘cultural component’.

The rationale of this study is based on the conception of the Byzantine world as made of spaces that were constantly formed and transformed by people according to their cultural agenda and the political changes. Henri Lefebvre’s concepts of ‘perceived, conceived and lived social space’ are used towards a reconstruction of the experience of spaces through their particular literary expressions so as to allow an insight on Byzantine society and culture. Spaces as well as social practices, which are spatially enacted and performed, are reflected in the narratives. By means of the spatial-narratological inquiry, this book aims to answer questions around the process and the meaning of holification. What kind of experiences does the process of holification of a human, as conveyed by literature, implicate? What corporeal senses and what corporeal and subsequent mental changes are implied by the texts to have been engaged in this process? How do different notions of space serve as ‘vehicles’ for the literary expression of these empathetic experiences, senses, and changes? How are literary spatialities used as narrative devices by Byzantine authors in order to persuade their audience about the existence and the meaning of holification?

In this work, it is argued that an emphasis on either the horizontal or on the vertical axis was a main component of distinct narrative strategies employed by the two Byzantine authors in order to demonstrate two different stories of holification. In specific, it is proposed that the two stories display two different local knowledges of a single world system (Byzantine, Christian and Mediterranean), which emerged in a subjective and situational way and were expressed through two different theological approaches to monastic asceticism. Last but not least, due to its central role in the narratives, space is scrutinized as a vehicle for the reception of the texts: it is argued that the dynamic and flexible narrative landscape, offered to an ideal reader by the two hagiographical texts, diachronically serves as a multi-dimensional and multi-functional device for teaching a Christian human faith and practice.