The thing about recalling the stories of the various saints is . . . . that the stories themselves are sometimes so inconsistent! For example – today is the feast of St. Moses the Ethiopian (a.k.a – Moses the Black, Moses the Abysinian, and Moses the Robber) his story is one of my favourites and so I look out for more information on him on a regular basis. One source says he retired to Petra (Jordan), where he was murdered. Another source says he was murdered in Scetis (Egypt). One source says it was Berbers who killed him and seven others (but does not mention Petra) another simply says it was a “marauding band of barbarians”.
It might seem at first glance that this is just picking over fine details. And yest on a level it is. To be sure many (if not most) of these stories were recorded after they had been passed down orally for some time, and at some distance from their geographic place of origen. The question becomes – does this make them any less authentic? Does it in any way diminish the value of the story, and the teaching example of the individual commemorated? I don’t believe that it does – our concept of history, and researching history is radically different than that of late antique compilers. What is more their emphasis, their point of reference for these stories was probably slightly different from ours – we are conditioned to see them as factoids, as a means of getting at the historical development of, and biographical bits and peices of the emergence of the tradition we share. The late antique mind, however, probably had a different agenda – radical transformation, the miraculous, and grace filled teaching example. It was in a way a reminder of the power of the Gospel, and the conviction of true believers. Whose to say though that we cannot have both?
One Response to “Hagiographical Hiccups”
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Makes me think of (icons as??) baseball trading cards. The facts are not all that important in a real way: We tell these stories to honour the saints, yes… but we also tell them to spur ourselves on. I think it’s important that we tell these stories for ourselves. I’m happy to hear all Christian communities (even the EOC) naming Saints from the last century – even the last 50 years. It helps to see the holy and heroic in one’s own time, as well as in the distant past.