Saints at the Limits: Seven Byzantine Popular Legends

"The texts in this volume Passion of Boniphatos; Life of the Man of God, Alexios; Life of Markos the Athenian; Life of Makarios the Roman; Passion of Christopher; George, the Great Martyr, which includes the Passion of George and also the Miracles of George ; Passion of Niketas were never gathered together in a single collection in Byzantium. The connecting threads, however, that unite these popular legends are multiple. All of them, often with cross-references and in mutual influence, tell stories that configure various dimensions of the "limits" as experienced or conceived in Byzantium: the borders, that is, which separated cultural insiders from outsiders. These borders take, as we shall see, different forms, designating the powerful and the outcasts,the real and the imaginary, the human and the beyond human. They also point to a spectacular reversal of expectations, since what stands at first glance outside borders is projected as the ideal. The stories, with their interlocking themes, will speak for themselves to the modern reader. Yet the texts were to some extent linked also in Byzantine ritual culture and in their textual forms and modes of transmission. In short, they are connected by the usually low-register Greek in which they are told; by the manuscripts (often provincial and usually liturgical in which they were transmitted, sometimes in proximity with one another and other similar legends; and by the implied suspicion or straightforward rejection that they often received from those promoting official orthodoxy. All these texts thus gesture toward what we sometimes call the "apocryphal," as opposed to canonical, Christian traditions, and the "popular," as opposed to more learned, religious expression"--
A collection of medieval tales of Byzantine saints, including some rejected by the Church, translated into English for the first time.The legends collected in Saints at the Limits, despite sometimes being viewed with suspicion by the Church, fascinated Christians during the Middle Ages—as related cults, multiple retellings, and contemporary translations attest. Their protagonists span the entire spectrum of Byzantine society, including foreigners, soldiers, ascetics, lustful women, beggars, and the sons and daughters of rulers. They travel to exotic lands, perform outlandish miracles, suffer extraordinary violence, reject family ties, save cities, destroy absolute rulers, and discover the divine. Some saints, like Markos the Athenian, are forgotten nowadays; others, like Saint George the Great Martyr, still command a wide appeal. Each, however, negotiates the limits of Byzantine imagination: the borders that separate the powerful from the outcasts, the real from the imaginary, the human from the beyond human. These stories, edited in Greek and translated into English here for the first time, continue to resonate with readers seeking to understand universal human fears and desires in their Byzantine guise.
The legends collected in Saints at the Limits, despite sometimes being viewed with suspicion by the Church, fascinated Christians during the Middle Ages—as cults and retellings attest. These Byzantine Greek stories, translated into English here for the first time, continue to resonate with readers seeking to understand universal fears and desires.