Lives of the Saints definition of Lives of the Saints in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Lives of the Saints

biographies of clerical and lay persons canonized by the Christian church. Such works began to be written in the Roman Empire as stories about Christian martyrs (martyrology).

Beginning with the fourth century, the three basic types of collections of lives began to appear: minei, lives arranged in a calendar fashion, of an extended length suitable for reading in religious services; sinaksari, shorter lives, also arranged in calendar fashion; andpateriki, collections of lives selected by their compilers. The Byzantine writer Simeon Metaphrastes reworked many of the lives in the tenth century, giving them a didactic and panegyric character. His collection served as a model for both eastern and western hagiographers. Creating idealized saints, they moved farther and farther away from the real circumstances of their lives and wrote stylized biographies. At the same time, the works absorbed a number of literary subjects and poetic images, many of them preChristian (myths about battles against dragons, for example), as well as medieval parables, short stories, and anecdotes.

The lives of the saints first came to Old Rus’ after the introduction of writing and were transmitted by way of the South Slavs or in translations from Greek. However, in the llth century, the lives of the first Russian saints, Boris and Gleb and Feodosii Pecherskii, were written down firsthand. In the 16th century, Metropolitan Makarii greatly expanded the number of Russian saints and directed the compilation of their biographies, which were collected in the so-called Velikie Chet’ i-Minei (12 vols.).

The lives of,the saints served, and in some cases, continue to serve, the purposes of religious and political propaganda. To a degree this type of literature has value as a historical source. It is particularly suited for the study of the history of culture, reflecting as it does the various social ideas and aesthetic standards of its day. The subjects of some lives have been reworked by later writers—for example, A. I. Herzen’s Legend, written in 1835, is based on the Life of St. Theodore.

REFERENCES

Kliuchevskii, V. O. Drevnerusskie zhitiia sviatykh kak istoricheskii istochnik. Moscow, 1871.
Serebrianskii, N. Drevnerusskie kniazheskie zhitiia. (Obzor redaktsii i teksty.) Moscow, 1915.
Likhachev, D. S. Chelovek v literature drevneiRusi. Moscow, 1970.
Ranovich, A. Kak sozdavalis’ zhitiia sviatykh. Moscow, 1961.

A. N. ROBINSON

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No references found	Haphazard among the sermons and homilies, the travels, the lives of the Saints, the Fathers, the histories of the church, were old-fashioned novels; and these Philip at last discovered. Of Human Bondage by Maugham, W. Somerset View in context An officer who saw me, with a jealous eye, reading the LIVES OF THE SAINTS to the mistress of the house, entered suddenly and without being announced. The Three Musketeers by Dumas, Alexandre View in context Assenting, on probable evidence, to so many of the judgments of the religious sense, he failed to see the equally probable evidence there is for the beliefs, the peculiar direction of men's hopes, which complete those judgments harmoniously, and bring them into connection with the facts, the venerable institutions of the past--with the lives of the saints. The Guardian by Pater, Walter Horatio View in context	LiveDistro livelock lively LiveMotion liveness Livenka Liver liver failure Liver Fluke liver phosphorylase Liveright, Horace Liverii Darkshevich Liverii Osipovich Darkshevich livering Livermore Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice Liverpool Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d earl of Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd earl Liverpool, Second Earl of Liverpool, University of liverwort livery livery companies Lives of the Caesars Lives of the Saints LiveScript livestock Livestock Breeding Livestock Breeding of the Forest-Steppe and Polese, Institute of Livestock Breeding, Institute of Livestock Farm Livestock, Fattening of Livestock, Judging of liveware LiveWire Professional Livia Livia Drusilla livid living living area Living Chess Game Living Church Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park living fossil living hall Living Matter Living Newspaper living room living stair hall Living Theater	lives in hope lives in hope lives in hope lives in hope lives in sin lives in sin lives in sin lives in the past lives in the past lives in the past lives in the past lives it up lives it up lives it up lives it up lives like a king lives like a king lives like a king lives like a king lives like a lord lives like a lord lives like a lord lives like a queen lives like a queen lives like a queen lives like a queen Lives of the Caesars Lives of the noble greeks Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Lives of the Noble Romans Lives of the Saints Lives of Urban Children and Youth lives off lives off lives off lives off lives off the fat of the land lives off the fat of the land lives off the fat of the land lives off the land lives off the land lives off the land lives off the land lives on lives on lives on lives on lives on nerve ends lives on nerve ends lives on nerve ends lives on nerve ends lives on nerves lives on nerves lives on nerves lives on nerves lives on the fat of the land lives on the fat of the land lives on the fat of the land lives out lives out lives out

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Haphazard among the sermons and homilies, the travels, the lives of the Saints, the Fathers, the histories of the church, were old-fashioned novels; and these Philip at last discovered.

Of Human Bondage by Maugham, W. Somerset View in context

An officer who saw me, with a jealous eye, reading the LIVES OF THE SAINTS to the mistress of the house, entered suddenly and without being announced.

The Three Musketeers by Dumas, Alexandre View in context

Assenting, on probable evidence, to so many of the judgments of the religious sense, he failed to see the equally probable evidence there is for the beliefs, the peculiar direction of men's hopes, which complete those judgments harmoniously, and bring them into connection with the facts, the venerable institutions of the past--with the lives of the saints.

The Guardian by Pater, Walter Horatio View in context