Byzantine Hagiography and Hymnography

The close ties which determined the relationship of hagiography with hymnography in Byzantium are reflected in collocations such as ‘synaxarial verses’ or ‘hagiographical hymns’, coined by modern scholars in order to denote literary works with traits from both generic groups, destined for the liturgical offices. ¹ It was Karl Krumbacher, the founder of Byzantine studies, who first pointed out that, apart from being a rewarding task, a comparative study of the two genres was one of the main desiderata in the history of Byzantine literature. Nonetheless, he was conscious that, to achieve this goal, a critical edition of all extant hymnographical works dating from the Byzantine era was required. ² Although this task is yet to be completed, those editions and studies which are available today suffice to establish the mutual influence between the two in terms of content and wording. Almost eighty years after Krumbacher’s assessment, Enrica Follieri, an industrious editor of Byzantine hymnography and hagiography, underscored the difficulty of distinguishing in each case which genre had exerted an influence on the other, and stressed the need for a thorough examination of the hagiographical and hymnographical traditions. ³ It goes without saying that the same phenomenon 286pertains to religious poetry as well, i.e. poetry inspired by personal piety and not destined for liturgical purposes. ⁴ But in this chapter we will focus on hymnography, selecting representative cases which will illustrate this interaction.