Saints and Hagiography

One of the rarest afflictions to come across within twelfth century English hagiography is the double disability of being deaf and mute; in fact, of the eight hagiographic sources, and two-hundred and ninety-two accounts of individuals, that I have researched for my thesis there are only three sufferers (the equivalent of 1%); and in fact, as separate afflictions, there are only seventeen accounts (6%) of muteness and two of deafness (0.6%).

Of these three joint cases, two individuals are cured and one is punished with these disabilities. But, what is particularly interesting thought is that within these rare examples miracle cures the saintly remedy given does not cure both afflictions automatically.  In the Vita et Miracula Sancta Æbbe Virginis, deafness is cured by Becket but it is not until later that Æbbe restores speech to the man (MAE.4.vii) whilst in Miracula S. Swithuni the boy learns to speak from spending time at the tomb of Winchester’s famous saint.  Two questions immediately spring to mind with regards to the rarity of such accounts; firstly, how likely was it that someone suffering from this double disability would attempt to find a cure and secondly why do the saints appear to be unwilling to offer their full services?

This paper considers how the deaf and mute (and those who were both deaf and mute) are reflected within twelfth-century hagiographies and why these cases are quite so rare.  It will also consider the problems of partial cures and what that meant for both the cults and for the sufferer.  Is the lack of mention due to the fact that these where disabilities that could be lived with or were cures less forthcoming (and therefore the cure-seekers have gone unrecorded)?

"Jutta of Sangerhausen. A ‘new saint’ in the wake of Elizabeth of Thuringia?

Jutta of Sangerhausen (Thuringia/Germany) is a less known representative of the religious movements of the 13th Century Western Europe, a lay woman who spent the last four years of her life as anchoress in the neighborhood of the town Kulm in Prussia (today: Poland) and probably died in 1260. There is no reference to her neither in HERBERT GRUNDMANN’s standard work about the “Religious movements in the Middle Ages” (Berlin 1935/Darmstadt 1977) nor in the books written by KURT RUH and BERNARD MCGINN about the history of mysticism in Western Europe (see Geschichte der abendländischen Mystik, Vol. 2, München 1993 and The Flowering of Mysticism, New York 1998). Not even ANNEKE B. MULDER-BAKKER mentioned Jutta in her recent publication about the “Lives of the anchoresses” (Philadelphia 2005). The reason for this ignorance may be the lack of a modern edition of the sources about Jutta. Now, that a new edition appeared last year (ed. by PETER GERLINGHOFF, Sangerhausen 2006) we finally have the opportunity to situate Jutta in her historical context. Some scholars are of the opinion that Jutta modelled herself on the Hungarian princess and Thuringian countess Elizabeth, a contemporary and compatriot of Jutta who died in 1231 and was canonized as early as 1235. The purpose of this paper is to prove the validity of this claim. My methodological procedure will be a textcritical one. Such an approach is inevitable because all the sources came from the 16th and 17th century. The question is: Couldn’t have been Jutta a ‘new Elizabeth’ before the 17th century? Or do we have to do with a ‘falsification’? In other and less provocative words: Is Jutta a ‘sainte construite’?"

"Representations", N. 129, Winter 2015.

The essay analyzes the project of maintaining the body of V. I. Lenin in the Mausoleum in Moscow for the past ninety years, focusing on the unique biological science that developed around this project, and the unexpected political role this body has performed.

One of the more astounding books produced by Bratslav Hasidism is Liqquṭei tefilot (1822–1827), composed by R. Nathan Sternhartz of Nemirov, which established a whole new genre in Bratslav literature. This article discusses the book's genesis, publication, and primary goals, as well as the controversy it generated. The new Bratslav theology that emerged after the death of Rabbi Naḥman led to disputes, both internal and external, over the role and character of R. Nathan. Examining this particularly obscure chapter in the early history of Bratslav Hasidism sheds light on the movement as it exists today in all its diversity, both ideological and social. Keywords Bratslav Hasidism – Hasidism – Jewish mysticism – Kabbalah

Full Article
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1477285x-12341269;jsessionid=1n5j66dblsols.x-brill-live-03

The article focuses on the Antiochian Menologion (in Arabic: “Book of the Wheel,” Kitāb al-Dūlāb)—a collection of festal homilies and lives of saints for the entire liturgical year (September to August). This extensive work (originally in nine volumes, or “parts,” ajzāʾ) was compiled in the first half of the thirteenth century, by a little-known author Hieromonk (i.e., priest and monk, al-qiss wa-l-rāhib) Yūḥannā ʿAbd al-Masīḥ from Antioch. It is preserved in fourteen manuscripts: Sinai ar. 395-403 and 405-409.  An abbreviated single-volume version of the Menologion is preserved in Sinai ar. 423. The article analyzes the structure and content of the Menologion based on all the available sources, especially on the colophons of these manuscripts.

NOTE: Yūḥannā ʿAbd al-Masīḥ has now been re-dated to the 11th century. See Alexander Treiger, “The Beginnings of the Graeco-Syro-Arabic Melkite Translation Movement in Antioch,” Scrinium 16 (2020) (in press; open-access online version: https://doi.org/10.1163/18177565-00160A06).

Review
"This excellent study is [...] recommended for academic libraries."
Daniel Scheide, Florida Atlantic University, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, Volume VII, No. 2
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Abstract
It is difficult to ignore the diversity of the kabbalah or both its modest and coarse manifestations over the course of the twentieth-century – phenomena that have latterly garnered considerable attention in both the lay and research literature alike. That said, it appears that the historical background for these current developments, namely the world of the kabbalists in the late 1800s and early 1900s, has yet to merit an in-depth study. The dozens of hagiographies that are now being written by the progeny and admirers of the said kabbalists paint a romantic picture of a “glorious past.” In these books, the early twentieth century is described as a kabbalistic renaissance that is on equal footing with the days of Isaac Luria in Safad. Surprising as it may be, the Hebrew and Yiddish belles-lettres and, following in their footsteps, the research literature from Gershom Scholem onwards has left the impression that kabbalah deteriorated in the beginning of the twentieth century to the point of nearly vanishing of the world stage. According to this same narrative, only the efforts of a few surviving kabbalists—a sort of dying elite—kept the flame from expiring. On those rare occasions in which scholars bring up these practitioners, they are referred to as “the remnants of the kabbalists” or similar epithets. This characterization was painted in even louder colors upon describing the era’s Jerusalem-based kabbalists. At one and the same time, then, there are descriptions of both a great awakening and steep decline. The author’s attempt to make sense of this contradiction is one of the catalysts behind the present study. Its origins aside, the book focuses on the kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot or academies) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society.
Kabbalistic Circles in Jerusalem breaks new ground on the robust activities of Jerusalem’s kabbalistic yeshivot, foremost among them Beit el, Rehovot haNahar, and Sha'ar haShamayim. By virtue of these institutions’ publications and the unearthing of tens of documents and manuscripts that were deposited in sundry archives, the book surveys the daily schedule and methodology of these yeshivot; their methods for disseminating kabbalah books; the dynamics between revelation and concealment that undergirded all the kabbalists’ endeavors; the arrangement of the RaShaSh Siddur’s first print run; the messianic outlooks that were espoused in this community regarding the attempts to discover the Sambatyon River and the lost tribes; and the content and assorted roles of the Tikkunim literature. What is more, the author explores the disagreements between competing groups—most notably, the feud over the extent to which occult wisdom should be exposed to the general public—and the various gradients of Jewish mysticism within these seminaries.
Against this backdrop, shedding light on Jerusalem’s kabbalist circles between the years 1896 and 1948 opens a door to the wider world of the myriad kabbalistic streams in East Europe and Arab lands, the Maghreb included. The foundations that were laid by these yeshivas in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in the Land of Israel at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study
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This book endeavors to fill a lacuna in the literature on early twentieth-century kabbalah, namely the lack of a comprehensive account of the traditional kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society. The foundations that were laid in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in Palestine at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study.

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Abstract (ITA):

Il monachesimo che è giunto fino ai nostri giorni, con le sue caratteristiche maturate nella tradizione latina occidentale nel corso di molti secoli, può apparire uniforme e “standardizzato”. In realtà, quando ci si approccia a una riflessione sulle origini del monachesimo (in special modo pre-benedettino), bisogna necessariamente puntualizzare tutte le differenze e le caratteristiche di ogni contesto cui si fa riferimento: il monachesimo occidentale pre-benedettino, fin dai primi istanti della sua diffusione, si distingue senz’altro per la sua multiformità. Questo contributo si propone proprio di porre in evidenza il particolare “percorso evolutivo” del monachesimo di tradizione latina occidentale, partendo dall’importanza fondamentale delle “radici” e delle auctoritates della tradizione orientale, fino alla conquista dell’unità grazie all’adozione della Regula Sancti Benedicti come testo normativo e all’operato riformatore di san Benedetto di Aniane nel particolare contesto carolingio. In questa direzione unificatrice e riformatrice si inserisce – con un ruolo di assoluto rilievo – la monumentale opera dell’abate di Aniane: il Codex Regularum, autentica summa altomedievale del pensiero monastico.

Parole chiave. Monachesimo, tradizione, Regola, unità, riforma

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Abstract (ENG):

Monasticism, as it  has come to our age, with its features developed in the occidental Latin tradition during the centuries, could seem uniform and “standardized”. Actually, when you undertake a reflection on the origins of monasticism (especially pre-Benedectine monasticism), all differences and features of the context which you refer to have to be clarified: pre-Benedectine monasticism has undoubtedly distinguished itself by its multiformity. This piece of work has exactly the aim to focus on the peculiar “evolution” of monasticism in the occidental Latin tradition, starting from the primary importance of the “roots” and the auctoritates of the oriental traditions, to the conquest of unity thanks to the adoption of the Regula Sancti Benedicti as a normative text and to the reformatory action of saint Benedict of Aniane in the particular Carolingian context. The monumental work of the abbot of Aniane – the Codex Regularum, an authentic summa of the monastic tradition of the Early Middle Ages –  places itself in this unifying and reformatory direction, with an absolutely significant role.

Keywords. Monasticism, tradition, Rule, unity, reform

This paper discusses the role of the Roman amphitheatre in Salona
during the rise of Christianity and subsequent prohibition of gladiator
games. Following the rich history from the times of Roman rule in antiquity, a degradation of once the most glorious edifices of the Roman Empire became prominent. With the rise of Christianity, sanctuaries of the goddess Nemesis were adapted into Christian memorial chapels to honor the martyr’s death of a priest Asterius and of four praetorians, that is, the soldiers of Diocletian’s body guard (Antiochianus, Gaianus, Paulinianus i Telius).
In the beginning of the 5th century, interacting gladiator fights in the amphitheatre were banned by Honorius’ imperial order from the year 404., but gladiator and beast fights continued, because the amphitheatre was in function until the 6th century, after which it was systematically used as a free stone quarry. It is also important to mention the unscrupulous conversion and adaptation of the edifice of Salonitan amphitheatre with the purpose of using it as a defensive fortress during the well-known Gothic-Byzantium wars.

Le lezioni intendono delineare l’evoluzione del monachesimo benedettino in ambito “europeo”, in un arco cronologico compreso tra il VI e il XII secolo. Si analizzeranno, in maniera concisa, alcuni aspetti-chiave:
– le origini e il primo sviluppo a partire dalla vita e dall’exemplum di san Benedetto da Norcia (tratti biografici del Santo, formazione delle comunità monastiche di Subiaco e Montecassino, contesto storico);
– le peculiarità della Regola di san Benedetto (struttura interna dell’opera, argomenti principali, suddivisione in capitoli);
– san Benedetto di Aniane e la grande diffusione “europea” in epoca Carolingia (IX secolo): la riforma e l’unificazione del monachesimo benedettino sotto Carlomagno e Ludovico il Pio;
– il “rinascimento monastico” dei secc. X-XI: da Cluny (909) a Citaux (1098);
– cenni sulle svariate attività in cui i monaci si sono cimentati nel corso dei secoli (arti figurative, architettura e disegno tecnico, ingegneria strutturale e idraulica, musica e canto, istruzione, scrittura e trasmissione dei testi, botanica, erboristeria e medicina, chimica, astronomia, agricoltura e allevamento del bestiame, ecc. ...);
– la fondamentale opera dei monaci a favore della trasmissione della cultura: le biblioteche e gli scriptoria.

Abstract (ITA):

In questo contributo si propone l’analisi di due importanti opere agiografiche relative a due grandi personaggi del Medioevo, fondamentali per le sorti del monachesimo “europeo”: san Benedetto da Norcia (autore della Regula monachorum e fondatore dell’Ordo Sancti Benedicti) e san Benedetto di Aniane (riformatore del monachesimo benedettino altomedievale).
La fonte principale relativa alla vita di san Benedetto da Norcia è il II libro dei Dialogi de vita et miraculis patrum italicorum; i Dialogi sono stati composti da san Gregorio Magno tra il 593 e la fine del 594, in quattro libri; il II libro è interamente dedicato alla figura di san Benedetto da Norcia.
La fonte principale di informazione per delineare la biografia di san Benedetto di Aniane è un racconto agiografico redatto negli anni 822-823 da Ardone Smaragdo, abate di Aniane (783-843), dietro richiesta dei monaci di Inden (Kornelimünster), dove il santo era stato abate dall’817.
Alle figure di questi due grandi santi corrispondono, appunto, due opere agiografiche altrettanto importanti, fonti privilegiate da studiare per conoscere il dipanarsi delle loro vicende biografiche, ma anche meritorie di alcuni approfondimenti su diversi “riferimenti incrociati” che le pongono in stretta correlazione.
Una delle tematiche comuni alle due opere agiografiche muove proprio da alcuni capitoli della Regula monachorum di san Benedetto da Norcia che ci propongono una riflessione sul valore e sull’importanza della conversione nel monachesimo. La conversione, d’altronde, oltre che rappresentare uno dei cardini del cammino di perfezione dell’uomo nel salire metaforicamente, attraverso la penitenza, i gradini della scala humilitatis, è anche uno tra i topoi maggiormente utilizzati e significativi dell’agiografia.
Altro tema, a cui gli autori delle due biografie ricorrono ampiamente, è la descrizione di miracoli  e prodigi operati dai santi, con chiara finalità esegetica/educativa.

Parole chiave: san Benedetto da Norcia, san Benedetto d’Aniane, san Gregorio Magno, biografia, agiografia, conversione, miracolo.

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Abstract (ENG):

This essay sets out to analyse two important hagiographic works relating to two great characters of the Middle Ages, fundamental for the fates of “European” monasticism: St. Benedict of Nursia (author of the Regula monachorum and founder of the Ordo Sancti Benedicti) and St. Benedict of Aniane (a reformer of Benedictine monasticism in the early Middle Ages).
The principal source relating to the life of St. Benedict of Nursia is Book II of Dialogi de vita et miraculis patrum italicorum; the Dialogi were written by St. Gregory the Great between 593 and the end of 594, in four books; Book II is entirely devoted to St. Benedict of Nursia.
The principal source of information for the biography of St. Benedict of Aniane is a hagiographic story written in the years 822-823 by Ardone Smaragdo, abbot of Aniane (783-843), on a request from the monks of Inden (Kornelimünster), where the saint had been the abbot since 817.
To these two great saints there correspond, precisely, two equally important hagiographic works, privileged sources to study for knowing the stories of their lives, but also deserving some in-depth examination on various “cross references” that create a close correlation between them.
One of the themes common to the two hagiographic works starts precisely from some chapters of Regula monachorum by St. Benedict of Nursia containing a reflection on the value and importance of conversion in monasticism. Moreover, conversion, in addition to being one of the fundamental aspects of man’s pathway of perfection in metaphorically climbing, through penitence, up the steps of the scala humilitatis, is one of the commonest and most significant topoi of hagiography.
Another theme on which the authors of the two biographies dwell at length is description of miracles and prodigies performed by the saints, with a clear exegetic/educational aim.

Key words: St. Benedict of Nursia – St. Benedict of Aniane – St. Gregory the Great –biography – hagiography – conversion – miracle.

תוכן העניינים
פתח דבר
                     
מבוא: הערה על מבטים
         
פרק ראשון: שבחי רודקינסון          
רודקינסון כמו"ל חסידי: טשרנוביץ ולבוב • בין חסידות להשכלה: ז'יטומיר וּורשה • "בצוארו כפתור בלי פרח": ימי פטרבורג • תולדות החסידות ופעילות עיתונאית: קניגסברג • "מחזיקי ומפיצי שפת עבר בכל העולם": ברלין והמבורג • על האנטישמיות החדשה והתיקונים בדת: לונדון • המאבק באנטישמיות: ברלין • עוללות מתנגדי רודקינסון: וינה • פעילות בארץ החדשה: ניו יורק, שיקגו ובוסטון

פרק שני: ספרות השבחים החסידית           
ה"שתיקה" וקדושת הספר • ספרות השבחים בשנות השישים • הערות על גורמי ה"התעוררות • על כמה ממהלכי התקופה • ספרות השבחים מעשה ידי רודקינסון • מקורות ונאמנותם • סיפור שבעל פה, סיפור שבכתב ותיקון מסורות • תגובה לספרות ההשכלה • אמונת חכמים, סיפורי צדיקים ומוסר • רודקינסון כמחבר חסידי, קהל היעד שלו והתקבלות ספריו

פרק שלישי: בין חסידות להשכלה            
הדפסות חוזרות של ספרות השבחים • "תולדות בעלי שם טוב" • הרקע  לכתיבת "תולדות בעלי שם טוב" • מבואות היסטוריים והיחס ליעקב פראנק • מקורות לתיאור החסידות וביקורת על ספרות השבחים • ביקורת על ספרות ההשכלה • הגר"א והחסידות • רודקינסון ה"מאוחר", קהל היעד שלו והתקבלות ספריו • על גורל ספרי "תולדות בעל השם" • קבלה, חסידות ותיקונים בדת • חסידות, פילוסופיה ונצרות

נעילה: רודקינסון והספרות הניאו-חסידית
           
קיצורים ביבליוגרפיים
                                                       
מפתחות

According to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee camp cum shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure of homo sacer, who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (or zoē) in states of exception.

This is a work-in-progress and differently structured version of the article: "ST ADALBERTUS DOMESTICUS. PATTERNS OF MISSIONING AND EPISCOPAL POWER IN POLAND AND SCANDINAVIA IN THE ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURIES" Acta Poloniae Historica
119, 2019

This article explores the ways episcopal milieus on the northeastern peripheries of Europe created and renewed their identities and symbols of episcopal authority by domesticating their immigrant saints during the high Middle Ages. By comparing the examples of holy bishops arriving to Poland and Sweden (St Adalbert, St Sigfrid, St Henry) it studies the episcopal mythopoesis, that is, creation of foundational myths and mythologies as well as their adaptation to specific local needs and changing historical circumstances. The article further probes to what extent these mythopoetic efforts were original or imitative in respect of the Western European episcopal centers and other peripheries. How similarly or differently did the bishops in the “old” and “young” Europe respond to the question: what beginnings do we need today? And what role did the appropriation, commodification, and domestication of holy bishops’ images and body parts play in providing answers to this vital question?

Keywords: bishops, hagiography, episcopal attributes, relics, mythopoesis, secondary mythologization, domestication, taming, holy husbandry, St Adalbert of Prague, St Sigfrid, St Henry of Finland, Gniezno

Jonatan Meir, “The Politics of Printing the Book Sefer Likutei Tefilot"

This essay discusses one of the more astounding books produced by Bratslav Hasidism – Likutei Tefilot, composed by R. Nathan Sternharz of Nemirov between 1822 and 1827. Notable enough for its content alone, the book also established a whole new genre in Bratslav literature, a fact requiring examination of the book’s genesis, the context of its printing, and its primary goals, as well as the controversy that erupted around it. The new Bratslav theology that emerged upon the death of Rabbi Nahman at the end of 1810[, and which was articulated in Likutei Tefilot,] carried with it a number of ramifications for the small group that had begun to gather around the tsadik, including the eruption of disputes, both internal and external, over [the role and character of] Rabbi Natan of Nemirov. This is a particularly obscure chapter in the history of Bratslav Hasidism, which as a whole remains under-explored by modern scholars; a careful examination of the initiation and crystallization of Bratslav Hasidism in its early stages will shed light on the movement as it exists today in all its diversity, both ideological and social.

Abstract (ITA):

Il corpus delle opere gregoriane, insieme alle tradizioni diffuse sul territorio e da esse originate, rappresentano utili tasselli nel tentativo di comprendere i meccanismi di diffusione del carisma monastico in Sicilia. Proprio la figura di Gregorio Magno evoca in Sicilia un passato di fondazioni monastiche, ordinate – secondo quanto narrato dalla tradizione – personalmente dal pontefice. I Dialogi di Gregorio Magno, scritti a circa quarantacinque anni dalla morte di san Benedetto, si configurano come una raccolta di miracula narrati in forma di dialogo tra un narratore e un interlocutore, secondo una ben consolidata convenzione letteraria. Il messaggio di Gregorio Magno si fonda sull’esaltazione delle opere e della vita dei santi presentate alla popolazione romana dopo anni di devastazione e di povertà come nuova speranza di rinascita. Grazie all’opera di Gregorio Magno la vita di san Benedetto è destinata a diventare un modello da imitare per gli uomini del tempo e per le generazioni future. A circa settecento anni di distanza dall’opera di Gregorio Magno, nel XIV sec. ecco comparire l’interessante opera di Fra Giovanni Campolo (Iohanni Campulu), frate Minore messinese: un volgarizzamento dal latino al siciliano dei Dialogi composto su richiesta di Eleonora regina di Sicilia. Sette secoli separano i Dialogi di Gregorio Magno e l’opera di Fra Campolo, un lungo arco cronologico all’interno del quale il carisma monastico benedettino si è diffuso e consolidato in Sicilia, facendo costantemente memoria delle proprie auctoritates e della propria tradizione e “attualizzandone” i contenuti con una traduzione dal latino al siciliano.

Parole-chiave (ITA):

Gregorio Magno, Dialogi, Sicilia, monachesimo, san Benedetto da Norcia

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Abstract (ENG):

The late antique and early Christian corpus of dream-stories, visiones and miracula formed an integral part of the cultural context of Gregory the Great’s day and age. The corpus of Gregorian works, along with the traditions spread throghout the island, are helpful insights for understanding the spread of monasticism in Siciliy. The Gregory the Great’s Dialogues, written some forty-five years after the death of saint Benedict of Nursia, to wich is dedicated the entire second book of Dialogues, have contributed – also in Sicily – to the spread of the Benedictine monasticism. At about seven-hundred years away from the Gregory the Great’s work, in the 14th century appears the interesting work of Fra Giovanni Campolo, a vernacular translation of the second book of the Dialogues from Latin to Sicilian.

Key-words (ENG):

Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Sicily, monasticism, saint Benedict of Nursia

Abstract (ITA):

Il monachesimo, fin dalle sue più remote origini, può essere definito anche come un fenomeno sociale profondamente radicato nel territorio. Per rendersi conto di quanto possa essere stretto il rapporto tra i monaci e il territorio in cui essi si insediano, è sufficiente notare con quanta cura e sapienza i monaci di ogni epoca abbiano generalmente scelto i luoghi in cui edificare i propri edifici e luoghi di culto, e quanto spesso, nella tradizione, nelle memorie locali, nelle tipiche “cronache” monastiche, un’abbazia, un priorato, un convento, siano diventati veri e propri punti di riferimento per le vicine popolazioni, così come un segno di forte connotazione di una località (spesso ancora oggi riscontrabile in molti toponimi).
Il contributo passa in rassegna alcuni topoi ricorrenti nella vita monastica: il loro significato si spinge ben oltre l’evidenza, perché mette in relazione il mondo monastico con le sue radici legate alla separazione dal mondo (contemptus mundi) e all’ascesi penitenziale che si è propagata dal mondo orientale a quello occidentale.
Lo spazio a cui facciamo riferimento non è solo quello rappresentato dall’ambiente in cui nascono e si sviluppano gli insediamenti monastici o, meglio, non ne rappresenta l’unica implicazione: che lo spazio non agisca semplicemente da sfondo alla vicenda monastica, ma di questa sia, al contrario, strumento e forma, è dimostrato dalle innumerevoli leggende sulle fondazioni dei monasteri.

Parole chiave: Monachesimo, Montecassino, montagna, eremo, clausura, deserto, tempesta, approdo.

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Abstract (ENG):

Monasticism, starting from its remotest origins, can also be defined as a social phenomenon deeply rooted in the territory. In order to realise how close the relationship can be between monks and the territory in which they settle, it is sufficient to notice with what great care and wisdom monks in every epoch generally chose the places in which to put up their buildings and places of worship, and how often, in the tradition, in local memories, in the typical monastic “chronicles”, an abbey, a priory or a convent became a real reference point for the local population, as a sign of strong connotation of a place (often still today verifiable in many place names).
The paper examines some recurrent topoi in monastic life: their meaning goes well beyond the evidence, because it connects the monastic world with its roots linked to separation from the world (contemptus mundi) and to penitential ascesis propagated from the oriental world to the western one.
The space to which we refer is not only the one represented by the milieu in which monastic settlements arise and develop or, more exactly, it does represent its only implication: that the place does not simply act as a backdrop to monastic vicissitudes, but instead is their instrument and form, is demonstrated by the innumerable legends on the foundations of the monasteries.

Key words: Monasticism, Montecassino, mountain, hermitage, seclusion, desert, storm, landing place.

Questo breve ciclo di lezioni è rivolto agli studenti della Laurea Specialistica in “Antropologia culturale ed etnologia” e della Laurea Specialistica in “Filosofia”. Esso intende delineare alcuni caratteri basilari della società medievale, partendo dall’analisi del concetto di societas altomedievale, fino ad arrivare – attraverso un percorso consequenziale – al particolare punto di vista della cosiddetta “antropologia monastica” e alla caratterizzazione della figura del monaco medievale in ambito “europeo”, in un arco cronologico compreso tra il VI e il XIII secolo.
A tal proposito verranno presi in esame, in maniera concisa, alcuni aspetti-chiave:
- Da Oriente a Occidente: le radici orientali del monachesimo della tradizione latina occidentale;
- L’agiografia e la valenza comunicativa ed educativa dell’exemplum: le Vitae di san Benedetto da Norcia e di san Benedetto di Aniane;
- La nozione di Regola e le peculiarità della Regola di san Benedetto;
- San Benedetto di Aniane e la riforma del monachesimo benedettino in epoca Carolingia (IX secolo);
- Il “rinascimento monastico” dei secc. X-XI: dai Cluniacensi (Cluny, 910) ai Cistercensi (Cîteaux, 1098);
- Il XIII secolo e l’affermazione degli ordini mendicanti: i Predicatori (cioè i Domenicani), i Minori (cioè i Francescani), gli Agostiniani e i Carmelitani. Dal monastero al convento, dall’eremo alla città, dal monaco al frate;
- La fondamentale opera dei monaci a favore della trasmissione della cultura: le biblioteche e gli scriptoria;
- I campi in cui i monaci si sono cimentati nel corso dei secoli: arti figurative, architettura e disegno tecnico, ingegneria strutturale e idraulica, musica e canto, istruzione, scrittura e trasmissione dei testi, botanica, erboristeria e medicina, chimica, astronomia, agricoltura e allevamento del bestiame, ecc. ...

RESUMEN: Teniendo en cuenta la acción misericordiosa de Dios en los hombres y la respuesta de éstos a Dios, se pasa revista tanto al don de la conversión (fruto de la misericordia divina) como a las obras de misericordia impulsadas por esa misma conversión. Mencionando a varios conversos famosos, son recordados desde una visión cronológica otros más desconocidos, destacando algunos testimonios recientes y ciertos casos especiales de acción misericordiosa de Dios.  PALABRAS CLAVE: Conversión, misericordia, obras de misericordia, caridad.
ABSTRACT: Using as a point of departure the merciful action of God toward human persons and their response to God, this article examines both the gift of conversión (as a fruit of divine mercy) and the works of mercy undertaken as a result of this conversion. A number of famous converts are mentioned, with emphasis on recent testimonies and certain special instances of the merciful action of God. KEY WORDS: Conversión, mercy, works of mercy, charity.

In Syria, there are two dominant scholarly opinions on ritual self-flagellation, which rest on different understandings of health and healing, and which form the topic of the first part of this chapter. The second examines miracle stories and ritual practices, which are both symbolic and productive of healing and sustain the legitimacy of the shrine of Sayyida Zaynab. The chapter looks at how Twelver Shi'is in Syria prior to the Arab Spring responded to the ambiguities surrounding the female Shi'is saint Sayyida Zaynab. Proponents of self-flagellation draw on 'traditional' medicine and argue that self-flagellation derives from cupping and constitutes a miraculous healing practice. Donating blood focuses on the community-not on individual devotees and the question of sainthood. The transactional aspect of the relationship between saints and Shi'is is highlighted in the ritual of nidhr (making religious vows) and in the sponsorship of majalis 'aza'.

In every period in history the definition of insanity is pertinent, and its meaning is different. We owe this perception to a large movement in the scholarship of the nineteen-sixties and seventies that changed our concept of what constitutes sanity and insanity. This scholarship examined the ways in which such concepts were formed as part of the medical, mental, social, cultural, but above all political settings. A number of important studies on psychology and psychiatry, whether in the fields of social sciences, the humanities or medicine (by Michel Foucault, Roy Porter, William Bynum, Gladys Swain, Marcel Gauchet, Franco Basaglia, among others), has radically changed the way we look at insanity. These studies brought insanity out of the individual dimension, and made it a social, cultural and political phenomenon. In a way, the wave of study of psychiatry of the sixties and seventies was a reply to the development of psychoanalysis in the first half of the twentieth century, which concentrated on the psychological dimension in the individual. These new directions of thought shifted the understanding of what constitutes insanity from the individual to the social and political dimensions. Nevertheless, they still placed the individual in the center, affected by the social settings, mental constructs and politics. This perspective was conditioned by the link between psychology and medicine, according to which the insane person was perceived as sick.
The present study chooses a different line of investigation. In a way, it goes in the opposite direction in focusing on societies which sanctified what we consider today as insanity. These societies looked for spiritual values in abnormal, in-sane, behavior, and legitimized it by attributing a unique spiritual character to figures who portrayed it. In this they were changing the social and cultural norms related to abnormality and normality. A parallel process can also be detected in contemporary societies. Only few decades ago, people in Western societies who turned to healers, clairvoyants, and mediums were considered to be themselves not in their right mind. Today, not only is such behavior legitimized, but this is even becoming a norm. These so-called ‘new age’ phenomena express the invasion of the religious sphere into modern secular societies. We do not call them ‘religious,’ but ‘spiritual’ in order to reject the religious establishment and its historical framework. However, such expressions of spirituality have long been the realm of the religious sphere. The question is why secular societies today have become more and more inclined to adopt and legitimize these expressions of spirituality, and justify their functionality.

In the Roman and Byzantine Near East, the holy fool emerged in Christianity as a way of describing individuals whose apparent madness allowed them to achieve a higher level of spirituality. Insanity and Sanctity in Byzantium examines how the figure of the mad saint or mystic was used as a means of individual and collective transformation in the period between the birth of Christianity and the rise of Islam. It presents a novel interpretation in revealing the central role that psychology plays in social and historical development.

Early Christians looked to figures who embodied extremes of behavior-like the holy fool, the ascetic, the martyr-to redefine their social, cultural, and mental settings by reading new values in abnormal behavior. Comparing such forms of extreme behavior in early Christian, pagan, and Jewish societies, and drawing on theories of relational psychoanalysis, anthropology, and sociology of religion, Youval Rotman explains how the sanctification of figures of extreme behavior makes their abnormality socially and psychologically functional. The sanctification of abnormal mad behavior created a sphere of ambiguity in the ambit of religious experience for early Christians, which brought about a deep psychological shift, necessary for the transition from paganism to Christianity.

A developing society leaves porous the border between what is normal and abnormal, between sanity and insanity, in order to use this ambiguity as a means of change. Rotman emphasizes the role of religion in maintaining this ambiguity to effect a social and psychological transformation.

Jewish mysticism has many forms. In his epochal Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem however defined Luranic Kabbalah, Sabbatianism, and Hasidim as three different stages in the same process of mystical articulation. In his wake, various scholars of Jewish Thought have since pursued the interrelationship of the two latter ones: Wherein lie the possible origins and sources of the Hasidic movement within the Sabbatean movement? How and which respect can the formation of the Hasidic movement be understood as a (critical) response to the Sabbatean and Frankist movements? And what role played the Baal Shem Tov, the paradigmatic figure and founder of Hasidism, and his circle in this regard?
The aim of this workshop is to shed light on these questions by an attempted close reading of a central and foundational source of Hasidism, the Shivhei ha-BeSHT (In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov).

The workshop will be held by Prof. Dr. Jonatan Meir of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Prof. Meir is currently associate professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His
research interests include the History of the Jews in Eastern Europe, Jewish Polemics, Jewish Mysticism, the Haskalah Movement, Hasidism, and Contemporary Kabbalah. Among his most recent publications are: Rehovot ha-Nahar: Kabbalah and Exotericism in Jerusalem (1896-1948), Jerusalem, 2011; Michael Levi Rodkinson and Hasidism, Tel Aviv, 2012; Imagined Hasidism: The Anti-Hasidic Writings of Joseph Perl, Jerusalem, 2013.

The "anonymous Passio S. Dionysii", which is listed by the Bollandistes as BHL 2178, was apparently composed by a monk of Saint-Denis in Paris during the abbacy of Waldo (806-814).  It drew substantially on the earlier, eight-century Passio of the saint (BHL 2171), and was used in turn by Hilduin of Saint-Denis, in his widely influential account of the martyrdom of St Dionysius (BHL 2175).  Although it did not circulate widely, the "anonymous Passio S. Dionysii" occupies an important position in the hagiographical dossier of St Dionysius, because it is the earliest text to associate the Parisian martyr with the Dionysius of Athens who, according to biblical Acts (17, 34) was converted by St Paul, and is the earliest text to describe the saint's miraculous cephalophory, according to which, following his decapitation, he carried his head for two miles from the place of execution to his final resting-place.  The article includes a new critical edition, together with an English translation and a thorough historical commentary of this text.

Abstract (ITA):
Quando si pensa al monachesimo medievale, subito lo si collega alla Regola di san Benedetto da Norcia. Questo riferimento è sicuramente fondato, ma allo stesso tempo
non scontato. Il “dominio” della Regola benedettina nel monachesimo occidentale fu per lungo tempo meno assoluto di quanto generalmente si possa pensare. In realtà, oltre naturalmente al suo innegabile pregio intrinseco (già riconosciuto da Gregorio Magno), la Regola ha dovuto fronteggiare, per così dire, un’agguerrita concorrenza, attraversando un vero e proprio processo di selezione.
L’immagine di un Medioevo monastico interamente benedettino è, dunque, un luogo comune che, in particolare, ha lusingato per lungo tempo la storiografia italiana, alimentando il mito di san Benedetto padre del monachesimo occidentale, della civiltà religiosa medievale, dell’Europa tout court.
In realtà, l’osservanza benedettina trovò una diffusione largamente “europea” solo a partire dall’età carolingia, grazie all’opera riformatrice di un patrizio visigoto, Benedetto abate di Aniane, che ridusse i monasteri dell’Impero all’unità legislativa applicando le direttive politiche di Carlomagno e Ludovico il Pio. Prima di allora, infatti, tra il V e l’VIII secolo, numerose regole circolavano nell’Occidente; una trentina di esse sono pervenute sino a noi proprio grazie alle opere di san Benedetto di Aniane.
A partire dall’epoca carolingia (IX secolo) questo multiforme patrimonio legislativo interno al mondo monastico comincia lentamente a ridimensionarsi, per fare posto alla Regola di san Benedetto: la prima parte di questo lungo periodo, fino
all’età carolingia, vide il lento, ma progressivo diffondersi della Regola benedettina, che finì con l’introdursi nei monasteri di quasi tutta l’Europa e restarvi, per circa seicento anni, l’unico codice concretamente applicato.
In questi secoli l’espansione monastica subì arresti e talvolta anche arretramenti, a causa di rivolgimenti politici, di guerre e invasioni, anche di crisi disciplinari e spirituali interne alle comunità; ma poi si riavviò e la “rete” delle fondazioni finì col raggiungere le regioni estreme dell’Europa.
Nel corso dell’VIII secolo la Regola benedettina muove dalle piccole comunità della Sabina, nell’Italia centrale, viene accolta in grandi monasteri italiani come Bobbio e Novalesa, valica i confini della penisola, arrivando a San Gallo, a Reichenau, in Inghilterra, nel regno franco: qui san Benedetto di Aniane ha dato vita a un vasto movimento riformatore e unificatore delle norme alla base del cenobitismo benedettino nell’Europa carolingia. Per volontà di Carlomagno (742-814) e del suo successore Ludovico il Pio (778-840), il nobile di origine visigota Benedetto di Aniane (747 ca.-821), al secolo Vitiza di Maguelone, fa della Regola di san Benedetto (imposta come unico codice disciplinare e liturgico) lo strumento principe di un grande progetto di unificazione religiosa e culturale.
La fonte principale di informazione per delineare la biografia di san Benedetto di Aniane è un racconto agiografico redatto negli anni 822-823 da Ardone Smaragdo († 823), abate di Aniane, a richiesta dei monaci di Inda (Kornelimünster), dove il
santo era stato abate dall’817.

The topic and role of shame and honour in Ælfric’s Vitae has hardly been problematized. This lacuna in the scholarship is perhaps the more surprising in view of the fact that both concepts appear to play a prominent role, not only in many of Ælfric’s hagiographical narratives, but also in Anglo-Saxon hagiography in general.

"Bremmer argues that, contrary to previous work which detected a move in Anglo-Saxon society from a pre-conversion Germanic honour-shame culture to a Christian-based guilt one, there is ample evidence in late Old English saints’ lives for the survival of an honour-shame culture. Indeed, according to Bremmer, values of honour and shame abound in biblical and early hagiographical stories, and it is these notions of shame which are inverted by saints and worn as badges of honour in their martyrdom."

Year's Work in English Studies 2016