Belligerent Saints: Violence in Eastern Christian Hagiography (session #5088), panel at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 9–11, 2024

As the war in Ukraine has demonstrated, the lives of the saints, especially the Byzantine military saints, continue to be weaponized in favor of wars of conquest. While violence done to saints features prominently in the martyr accounts and is ubiquitous in hagiographic texts, some saints perpetrated acts of violence, whether against themselves, demons, or most- surprisingly, other people. The cults of the so-called military saints in Byzantium and their transmission have been the most thoroughly investigated; however, other saints and their engagement in violent acts remain relatively understudied. Exploring these neglected examples will help us to interrogate Christianity's relationship to violence and to better understand how the cult of the saints contributed to social change in Byzantium.

We invite papers that explore questions about saints as enactors of violence. While we welcome submissions about military saints, we are especially interested in papers that examine lesser-known belligerent saints who have no cultic association with the military. In addition to studies based on individual vitae, we welcome contributions that explore hagiographical dossiers that appear in metaphrastic collections, synaxaria, menologia, as well as stories about saints appearing in historiographical sources and material. Proposals should explore themes of valorization of, witnessing of, and responses to violence as well as the conceptual boundaries between spiritual and physical violence. Proposals might consider against which groups saints commit violence and how these groups change according to time and place; whether individuals are targeted by saints; what kind of institutional or property damage is committed by saints; in what ways are acts of violence held up as exemplary. Outside of these possible topics, proposals on any topic related to violence and sanctity will be considered.

Submissions should be made through the conference website.

Questions should be directed to the session organizers: Dan Berardino, University of California, Berkeley (daniel_berardino[at]berkeley[dot]edu) and Nick Churik (nchurik[at]princeton[dot]edu).