Jerome's Life of Paul
Jerome (his full Greek name is "Eusebius Hieronymus") c. 347-420 AD was one of the most famous early church fathers. He was from Illyria (Northwestern Greece) and lived under the late Roman Empire. He was well educated in Latin and Greek literature and also studied Hebrew and other semitic languages extensively and studied in the East to complete his masterful translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate).
His _Life of Paul_ was written in the year 374 or 375 during his stay in the desert of Syria, as is seen from ch. 6, and was dedicated to Paulus of Concordia as stated in Jerome's Epistle 10.3.
Sulpicius Severus' Life of St. Martin of Tours
c. 363-425 AD, Severus was from Aquitania (southwstern France near Spain) which was part of the Late Roman empire, and he was well educated in Latin literature. He had excellent rhetorical and legal training and was himself a historian who knew Latin historiography well. For example, he alludes to Sallust's history in the Life of Martin.
These are examples of what we now call hagiography ("sacred-writing") which seems to be a play on biography, since hagiography is writing about lives of holy men and women.
See here for more on the genre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagiography
It is interesting to note that our basic idea of what a legend is comes from medieval collections of stories about saints--these collections were called "legenda" which means "things to be read" because they were read out loud on the saints' days.
As always, consider how to situate these works in the context of other genres and texts that we have encountered.
Why were these texts written? How might they have been received?
What themes and narrative strategies do you see here that we have seen before?
Can you think of any modern day parallels for this kind of narrative?
Katie Burke
ReplyDeleteWhy do they use the term "soldiers of God" when directly after they state that they abstain from fighting? It seems paradoxical.
Jordann Markowitz
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is just because I do not know anything really about Christianity, but didn't Jesus also help sick people close that were close to death? Why would it be that Martin was not seen as the messiah like Jesus?
Sara Welish
ReplyDeleteIs the author of the first narrative rebuking people who are rich for living in luxury instead of living like hermits?
Maeve Tischbein
ReplyDeletePaul seems to survive somewhat miraculously in the desert. Is his survival partly to demonstrate the power of or faith in God? Or it a fictitious detail used to maintain the plot of the story?
Krysta Brown
ReplyDeleteReading all of these fictive works about biblical characters makes me see the Christian bible in a way that I had not before. It is interesting that these stories that seem very plausible, especially when comparing the content of those included in the Bible, are "unquestionably" fiction but those in the Bible are not. It makes me wonder how the canonical works of the Bible made it in there in the first place.
Why was who broke the bread so important that Paul and Anthony argued about it all day?
ReplyDeletepete
Erin Bradley
ReplyDeleteBoth Paul and St. Martin discover their life's calling when they are very young. What other "historical figures" have we seen that discover their calling at a young age?
Steve Fusco,
ReplyDeleteIn section 9 of Jerome's Life of Paul, there is the idea of a wolf leading Antony to the cave where he would find Paul. You also notice the use of a wolf with Romulus and Remus when they were children. What is the purpose of using animals, specifically wolves, to advance a story? Is there some notion that using nature as an explanation for unlikely circumstances somehow justifies it or makes it more believable?
Zander,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the point of the life of Paul is to get people to put their faith in God; but wouldn't that have to consequence of people refusing to believe when their faith couldn't preform the same feats?
Katie,
ReplyDeleteChristians as soldiers is a common metaphor from the New Testament. One can also talk of the shield of Faith and sword of Truth. It valorizes Christianity.
Jordann,
The key difference is that Martin did not claim to do these things on his own; he always credited God and humbled himself--the way Christians typically do. Christians typically view those who claim to be the second coming of God/Christ as quacks except for those who buy into their cult!
Sara,
Yes. Christ told his apostles to not even take a purse with them on their missions--God would provide. He also told Nicodemus that it was easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Refusal of wealth is an important Christian doctrine.
Maeve,
Both, I think. It shows Paul's strong faith in God but also it makes a better story. Remember this is at least based in reality. Hermits like Paul really did live in the desert whether or not little birds brought them their daily Panera delivery. The wolves and birds who serve Paul seem to be acting under God's power through Paul's faith.
Krysta,
Some catholics (and other christians) still believe in the truth of some of these saints' lives such as the life of St. Martin. The Bollandist society keeps historical records of all of them. Still, most Christians see the Bible as somehow inspired by God and thus infallible but saints' lives might be partly true and partly mistaken. The early Church councils established which books are canonical and in the middle ages protestants rejected some of the books included by the catholics--based on the idea that they were not inspired and contained at least some untruths.
Pete,
The day long disagreement over who would serve the bread displayed two ideas. One, both of them were ultimately humble, not wanting to take the lead--a very Christian trait. Two, neither of them was superior to the other even though Antony was far more famous and Paul was older and an earlier hermit.
Erin,
Hercules, Cyrus, Alexander, ...
Steve,
I think that there may be a similar theme in that nature (under divine will) is helping the heroes or saints. The picture of normally harmful animals aiding helpless babies and old men is a kind of ideal of what a world at peace could be. In the christian tradition there is an idea that we could all be at peace, if we could live in harmony with nature.
Zander,
According to human psychology, the more common reaction for Christians is to doubt their faith rather than to doubt God's power--though there are exceptions. Christ said that people could move mountains if they had faith the size of a mustard seed. The implication is that we have no faith or perhaps a microscopic amount. Normal christians would never expect to be capable of the same things as the saints who clearly had some amount of faith.
AR