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Item Details
Title:
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HOLY FOOLS IN BYZANTIUM AND BEYOND
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By: |
Sergey A. Ivanov, Simon Franklin (Trans) |
Format: |
Hardback |

List price:
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£132.50 |
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for
further information.
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ISBN 10: |
0199272514 |
ISBN 13: |
9780199272518 |
Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS |
Pub. date: |
1 April, 2006 |
Series: |
Oxford Studies in Byzantium |
Pages: |
496 |
Description: |
The image of St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square is a familar Russian landmark. Yet few people know what made Basil so famous. He was a saint who wandered about naked, bullied passers-by, brawled in the market-place, and once even smashed a revered icon. Saints such as Basil overturn the conventional concept of sainthood - what, we may ask, is saintly about them? This book aims to solve the mystery by exploring the figure of the holy fool in Byzantium and inlater Russian history. |
Synopsis: |
There are saints in Orthodox Christian culture who overturn the conventional concept of sainthood. Their conduct may be unruly and salacious, they may blaspheme and even kill - yet, mysteriously, those around them treat them with even more reverence. Such saints are called 'holy fools'. In this pioneering study Sergey A. Ivanov examines the phenomenon of holy foolery from a cultural standpoint. He identifies its prerequisites and its development in religious thought, and traces the emergence of the first hagiographic texts describing these paradoxical saints. He describes the beginnings of holy foolery in Egyptian monasteries of the fifth century, followed by its high point in the cities of Byzantium, with an eventual decline in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. He also compares the important Russian tradition of holy fools, which in some form has survived to this day. |
Illustrations: |
2 halftones |
Publication: |
UK |
Imprint: |
Oxford University Press |
Returns: |
Non-returnable |
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