1

Hagiography - The Canon of Holy Men

Vita of Saint Daniel the Stylite

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us
1

In his On the Concept and Functions of Scripture, William Graham argues for the relational
characteristic of scripture, which is to be defined by its function in a religious tradition. Once the
authority of a text is recognized by a community and ratified by future generations of believers, the
text comes to life as scripture.
2
Within this scriptural tradition, it was the response of the faithful that
rendered transformative power to biographies of saints, transforming them into hagiography. As a
genre, these holy biographies communicated virtues for an audience separated from the saints
body by time or space. As a practice, it was a window into the ascetic program of the author. It
revealed the patterns of behavior acceptable for the authors who produce this popular religious
literature from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
3
The Christian writers would find inspiration in
the ascetic lessons within the Scripture and perceive the patriarchs, the prophets or the apostles as
representations of moral exempla. In other words, hagiographical narrations were the how to
manuals for recreating the models embedded in these authoritative writings.
On the one hand, miracles are instruments that complement the fama sanctitatis of a saint by
confirming and enhancing his holiness. On the other hand, these miraculous accounts become
expressions of political programs, theological debates, ecclesiastical structures and even personal
aspirations. Hagiography as a popular genre of production and consumption was the perfect means
to disseminate social, political and theological propaganda to the broad public. Either intentionally
or not, both the author and the holy man in the miracle stories would treat harshly the elusively
defined Christian enemies of Orthodoxy.
4
The heretics were harshly and even violently treated, the
remedy of their astray from the right path requiring complicated rituals. Interestingly, the spiritual

1
John 1:14 KJV
2
William Graham, On the Concept and Functions of Scripture, Central European University Conference on
Sacred Texts and Print Culture (2-4 December 2005, Budapest).
3
Derek Krueger, Hagiography as an Ascetic Practice in the Early Christian East, The Journal of Religion, 79,
(1999): pp. 217-218.
4
Paroma Chatterjee, Problem Portraits: The Ambivalence of Visual Representation in Byzantium, Journal of
Medieval and Early Modern Studies 40 (2010): p. 226.
2

illness of heresy found a counterpart in physical maladies in the hagiographical works. This led to
the emergence of a metaphorical system where views on heresy were connected with spiritual and
physical illnesses.
5


The aim of this essay is to research into the constructed canonical status of hagiography, focusing
not only on its theological authority as a genre, but also on its secular agenda of conveying social
and political standpoints. A narrative genus that connects social and ecclesiastical strata, the analysis
of these holy biographies can range from expressions of Aristotelian pisteis, to popular stories
where imagination and reality intertwine, and even to political or theological propaganda. A relevant
case study is the 5
th
century Byzantine Vita of Daniel the Stylite, saint of Anaplus, contemporary of
the emperors Leo I, Zeno and Anastasius I. The anonymous hagiographer wrote it under the rule of
Anastasius I (430 518), providing valuable information on the cosmopolitan court of
Constantinople, the rise to power of Zeno the Isaurian, but also insights into the theological debate
springing after the Council of Chalcedon (451).
As a genre, this Vita reiterates several topoi already embedded in the tradition of accounting the life
of a holy man in Late Antiquity, blending together patterns which are to be found in the literary
genres of philosophical biography and encomiastic rhetoric. Its typological imagery is tributary to
the Christian scriptures fashioning the miles Christi, especially the letter of Saint Paul, and to other
hagiographical accounts that became canonical in writing and praising the life of a holy man. As
examples, one can mention Athanasius Life of Anthony and the Life of Simeon the Stylite. Saint
Daniels life story fits the pattern of a life consecrated to God from infancy. Born in 409, in the
territory of Samosata, he was offered by his parents to the local monastery at an early age. After
spending 25 years in a Syriac monastery, he was persuaded to go the Constantinople, a second
Jerusalem portrayed as the headquarters of orthodoxy and imperial influence. An admirer of
Symeon the Stylite and a supporter of the Dyophysite movement, Daniel came to Constantinople
right after the conclusion of the Council of Chalcedon.
6
Over a period of nine years, he proved his
virtues and holiness by winning over the evil spirits haunting the church he inhabited, thus gaining
the attention of the multitudes.
7
Upon hearing of his mentors death, Daniel decided to continue his

5
Ildik Csepregi, The theological other: religious and narrative identity in fifth to seventh century byzantine
miracle collections, www.academia.edu, pp. 61-62.
6
W. H. C. Frend, The Monks and the Survival of the East Roman Empire in the Fifth Century, Past & Present,
54 (1972): pp. 17-20.
7
The Life of Daniel The Stylite, in Three Byzantine Saints: Contemporary Biographies of St. Daniel the Stylite, St.
Theodore of Sykeon and St. John the Almsgiver, trans. Elizabeth Dawes. (London: 1948), media source:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/dan-stylite.asp
3

virtuous carrier and find solitude on a pillar. He mounted his column on the Asiatic shore of the
Bosphorus in 460 and remained there until his death in 493. The only exception was the peaceful
march to Constantinople against the Monophysite usurper Basiliscus. During his stylite asceticism,
he became the confident of emperors Leo and Zeno, healed and counseled from Goth generals to
Armenians eunuchs and acted as a mediator in many conflicting situations.
In other words, the saint could be approached for both village and urban disputes, universal and
intimate requests, his presence summoning the widespread ideals of the Byzantine culture. His
political influence relied on his reputation of sanctity, his ascetic practices conducing to a hidden
power of grace. While bishops had the power to wield the mysteriumn tremendum of the Eucharist
sacrifice, it was the outstretched arms of the holy man that stormed the audience chanting its Kyrie
Eleisons. Being in communion with the unseen world, he had the power to bind and loose and
enjoyed the freedom of speech (parrhesia) in the secular world too.
8
Also, the authority of Daniel
the Stylite was based on his status of stranger in a faction ridden city as Constantinople. In
conformity with this standing, he refused to be ordained priest by the Patriarch and accepted only
when his ordination was done the 'by the hand of God' alone.
9

In this sense, this Vita offers insights into the dynamics between secular and sacred powers, more
precisely into how the emperor could make use of the prestige of a stylite saint. In 466, during the
visit of Gobazes, king of Lazia, to Constantinople, Emperor Leo took him to see the stylite holy
man. The strong impression left by the saints ethos on Gobazes led to the settling of difference and
conclusion of a treaty. Thus, the Syriac speaking saint acted as a mediator between two secular
sovereigns. The recognition of Daniels holiness made possible new diplomatic relations with alien
political and ethnic groups, all merging in the same religious commonwealth.
10
The saints peak of
authority was during the crisis of Basiliscus usurpation (475-376). Since neither the imperial nor the
ecclesiastical powers would make concessions, they required the intercession of the holy man in
order to reassess the unanimity between church and state. This episode reflects the web of political,
religious and military dynamics characterizing the history of the East Roman provinces of the 5
th

century and the function of hagiography as theological propaganda. Since the Council of Chalcedon,
the Monophysite and Dyophysite dispute created rivalries within and between the ecclesiastical and
imperial powers. A supporter of the One-Nature Christology, the usurper king Basiliscus was

8
W. H. C. Frend, The Monks and the Survival of the East Roman Empire in the Fifth Centuryp. 21
9
Peter Brown, The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, The Journal of Roman Studies, 61
(1971), p. 92.
10
Ibidem, pp. 92-93.
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challenged by the Patriarch Acacius. Since Daniel was in favor of Two-Nature Christology of
Antioch and Chalcedon, he reproached Basiliscus for having adopted Jewish ideas"
11
. The cry for
help of the public opinion in the capital was infused with typological metaphors, comparing Daniel
with another Elijah [who] shall put Jezebel and Ahab to shame". In an exercise of power, Daniel
came down from the column and started preaching against the new enemies of Moses (the
Egyptians) and comparing the situation with the persecutions under Diocletian. As a consequence of
Daniels intervention, the 475 Encyclical promoting the One-Nature Christology as Orthodoxy was
annulled, Zeno was back and Basiliscus on his way to prison and death.
12

Furthermore, in the framework of Kendal W. Folkerts differentiation between two types of canon,
hagiography would fit the category of the Canon I. The presence of these normative, authoritative
and educational texts developed and flourished by the force of both secular and religious vectors.
13

The study of these vectors allow for a better understanding of the circumstances and motivations
leading to the production of this genre, presently used as a historical source for recreating East
Roman thought and practice. The 5
th
century East Roman Empire was characterized by a strong
ascetic impulse and a diversification of the methods for refashioning the self. Ascetic practices such
as controlled diet, sexual abstinence, renouncing wealth and power or living on pillar tops were
perceived as spiritual exercises for the development of Christian virtues. This road to theosis was
paved with spiritual exercised that would reshape the Self and cultivate qualities such as patience,
courage, obedience or humility.
In a society permeated with the Platonic sense of the ideal and its Christian version of imitatio
Christi, the pilgrimage to the loca sancra was replaced by the visiting of the Holy Man. One of the
reasons must surely have been immediacy, the supplicant being able to converse or negotiate with an
authoritative representative of the heavenly court.
14
It is this characteristic that promotes them as
mediators, problem solvers, confessors and advisers. Thus, this period saw the proliferation of little
centers of power that challenged the hierarchies of Church and state through these holy men.
15

According to the historian Peter Brown, the cradle of the holy man paradigm was the great
province of Syria. If monasticism found its apex in Egypt, the practice of sainthood outside an

11
The Life of Daniel The Stylite.media source: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/dan-stylite.asp
12
W. H. C. Frend, The Monks and the Survival of the East Roman Empire in the Fifth Centurypp. 18-20.
13
Kendall W. Folkert, The Canons of Scripture, in Rethinking Scripture, ed. M. Levering, Albany, pp. 170-179.
14
Richard Greenfield, Drawn to the Blazing Beacon: Visitors and Pilgrims to the Living Holy Man and the Case
of
Lazaros of Mount Galesion, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 56 (2002): pp. 238-239.
15
Idem.
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ecclesiastical structure came from Syria, the place where desert (eremos) and oikoumene
intertwine.
16


Furthermore, another characteristic of this period was the portrayal of the holy man as a living
icon, a tradition inspired by classical models. Hellenistic kings were often portrayed as incarnations
of the Logos, while the Romans triumphators were molded in the image of Jupiter Optimus
Maximus in the Capitoline temple. Such was the case of the holy man starting with the 4
th
century,
this living icon being the reflection of Man created in the image of God.
17
Interestingly, these figures
not only represented laic or divine power, but they also effected it. While the emperor embodied the
principle of law and order, the Christian ascent embodied the presence of God. In this Kantorowicz
frame, a similarity can be drawn to the concept of sacrament, a symbol that both represents and
effects (e.g. bread and the body of Christ, the oil and the Holy Spirit etc.).
18
The episode on the
death of St. Daniel the Stylite clearly expressed the representation of the ascetic saint as an icon. Of
fear that the miraculous work of Daniel may cease once with his life, audience demanded for his
body to be shown before burial. On the orders of the Archbishop, like an icon, the holy man was
displayed to all on every side []
19
. Thus, hagiography became an environment where words
invest the holy man with an iconic quality, where textual portraits created sacred images.
What is more, the author of Daniels hagiography employed a technique characteristic to Christian
hagiography, by stating in the introduction his unworthiness as a narrator and the literary meekness
of his style. This tendency was not confined only to the hagiographical text, patristic writing such as
the one of Saint Augustine or John Chrysostom asserting the same unworthiness in conveying the
divine message.
20
It may be perceived as a rhetoric of false modesty or protestations of humility
21
,
yet it portrayed an image of the Christian authorship of these hagiographical works. Thus, the
practice of writing was intertwined with a practice of authorial self-denigration, a morally-driven
rhetorical choice.
22
In the Socratic dilemma frame, it counted less whether the author was telling the

16
Peter Brown, The Rise and Function..., p. 92.
17
Peter Brown, A Dark-Age Crisis: Aspects of the Iconoclastic Controversy, The English Historical Review, 88
(1973), p. 15.
18
James A. Francis, Living Icons: Tracing a Motif in Verbal and Visual Representation from the Second to Fourth
Centuries C.E., The American Journal of Philology, 124 (2003), pp. 575-600.
19
The Life of Daniel The Stylite.media source: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/dan-stylite.asp
20
See J Pelikan, Divine Rhetoric. The Sermon on the Mount as Message and as a Model in Augustine, Chrysostom,
and Luther, Crestwood, St Vladimirs Seminary Press, 2001.
21
Derek Krueger, Hagiography as an Ascetic Practice, p. 221, main source: A.J. Festugire, "Lieux communs
litteraires et themes de folk-lore dans l'hagiographie primitive," Wiener Studien 73 (1960).
22
Ibidem, pp. 220-222.
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truth about his writing virtues. It was rather his claims to inadequacy that became an expression of
virtue, his writing being an ascetic performance per se. In other words, the writing of a saints
hagiography becomes more than a simple description of the ascetic. Its prologues become the locus
of a rhetoric
that betrays ascetic conventions in the hagiographical works. The recurrent topoi were expressions of
ideals of religious practice, the virtues ascribed to the main character of the narration being practiced
by the author through writing. The conformation to a model of composing saints biographies and to
the ritualized habits of hagiographical composition became a form of asceticism too. In other words,
the practice of writing acquired the same role as the ones of fasting and praying, namely ways to
ascetic performance.
23
Such is the case with the prologue of Saint Daniels Vita, where the
anonymous 5
th
century author compares himself and his "witless and unskilled" literary style to the
glory of Daniel the Stylite, the one who received the mantle of the great Symeon the Stylite. The
rhetorically skillful authors described himself unworthy of the task of narrating the great deeds of the
ascetic by stating that "I thought good to take in hand to recite of the labors of the holy Daniel, yet I
do so with fear; for this man's way of life was great and brilliant and marvelous, whereas I am but
witless and unskilled.

Furthermore, Christianity was based on a covenant between the divine and the community of
believers, an agreement that acquired social and political form mainly once with its official
recognition in the 4
th
century. In this sense, confession to the one, true God was a matter of
communal expression rather than individual belief.
24
Such was also the case of the practice of
asceticism, whose claim to solitude was constantly challenged by need for an audience. Take the
case of the hagiographers invitation addressed to the reader to observe and practice the virtues of
the saint he is narrating about.
25
Just like the Aristotelian rhetorics required a pathos
26
, the potens
needed a crowd. For example, Saint Daniel directed the masses to the palace of Hebdomon in a
strong classical theatrical performance, giving proofs of several miracles on the way. Interestingly,
the audience in hagiography is the collective character that strikingly resembles the masses in
ancient theatrical performances.
The same source of inspiration can be ascribed to the image of the saint as the athlete of Christ.
The challenges he undergoes, the public victories in intense competitions, make the saint worthy of

23
Ibidem, p. 232.
24
Robert L. Wilken, Review to Garth Fowden, The Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in
Late Antiquity, The Journal of Religion, 75 (1995), pp. 271-272.
25
Derek Krueger, Hagiography as an Ascetic Practice, p. 221,
26
See J Pelikan, Divine Rhetoric, Crestwood, St Vladimirs Seminary Press, 2001.
7

the Late Roman gladiators glory.
27
Daniel the Stylite is presented as a soldier of Christ, while the
sign of the cross, the genuflections and the prayers are his weapons. The hagiographer follows the
rhetorical pattern of the panegyric, accounting the great deeds performed by his hero during the
spiritual battles against the devils as a substitute for the encomiastic discourse praising a generals
victories. Hagiography incites the imagination of the readers, the lives of the holy men being filled
by constant struggle with demons and working miracles. These catchy narratives of unusual rituals
of casting demons would not have been so extravagant in the Eastern provinces of the 5
th
century.
This world was dominated rather by the Greek demonology than by the Christian one. In this
framework, hagiography informs the reader that the world is overwhelmed with daimones eager to
corrupt Christians. Yet, salvation comes from the holy man who received the charismatic power to
cast out and order daimones, a clear typology of Jesus casting out demons in Luke 6:36, 91.
28
What
is more, anthropological research brings forward innovative ideas on the relation between the
possessed, the community and the exorcist. The possession is an individual experience, yet
hagiography develops a dialogue between the community, the possessed and the holy man, each
having their own role. In the case of Saint Daniel, secrets are reveals and mischievous plans are
brought to surface once possession takes place. The Vita abounds in demonic attack on the saint,
who publicly shows his power and authority over evil, in struggles staged as a Greek theatrical scene
worthy of public applauses.
29

In the end, hagiographys canonical status steamed not from council deliberations or official
decisions of church authorities, but rather as a consequence of social and cultural vectors. The rise of
the holy man as an authoritative figure and asceticism as a virtuous practice outside the ecclesiastical
structures created a need for an accessible literature that would disseminate examples of moral
virtue. On the one hand, these holy men attained their popularity through their status as master-
bricoleurs
30
, being the connecting element between local and regional environments, ecclesiastical
and imperial powers, between Prince and Popper. On the other hand, their holy biographies
overcame time and space, social status boundaries and challenged ecclesiastical hierarchy. Once
with their increase in popularity and appeal to the masses, they became a means of theological and
political propaganda. A hagiographers work was never an objective endeavor, religious and secular

27
Peter Brown, The Rise and Function..., p. 94.
28
Dayna S. Kalleres, Oh, Lord, Give This One a Daimon So That He May No Longer Sin: The Holy Man and
His Daimones in Hagiography, in Archiv fr Religionsgeschichte14 (2013), pp. 206-209.
29
Peter Brown, The Rise and Function..., p. 94.
30
Dayna S. Kalleres, Oh, Lord, Give This Onep. 230, main source: David Frankfurter, Syncretism and the
Holy Man in Late Antique Egypt, JECS 11 (2003), pp. 339385.

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standpoints being reflected between the lines of the narrative. However, writing hagiography was
per se an ascetic practice, the words on a sheet of paper becoming prayers. In other words,
hagiography did not follow the orthodox path to canonization, if there is such a thing, yet its
functional importance to audiences, holy men, authors, emperors and popes, even historians surely
makes it a genre with canonical status.


Bibliography
THE LIFE OF DANIEL THE STYLITE, IN THREE BYZANTINE SAINTS:
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHIES OF ST. DANIEL THE STYLITE, ST. THEODORE OF
SYKEON AND ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER, trans. Elizabeth Dawes. (London: 1948),
media source: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/dan-stylite.asp

Baynes, Norman H., The Vita S. Danielis Stylitae:, The English Historical Review, 40 (1925),
pp. 397-402
Brown, Peter, A Dark-Age Crisis: Aspects of the Iconoclastic Controversy, The English
Historical Review, 88 (1973), pp. 1-34.
Brown, Peter, The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, The Journal of
Roman Studies, 61 (1971), pp. 80-101.
Csepregi, Ildik, The theological other: religious and narrative identity in fifth to seventh
century byzantine miracle collections, www.academia.edu, pp. 61-62.
Chatterjee, Paroma, Problem Portraits: The Ambivalence of Visual Representation in
Byzantium, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 40 (2010), pp. 222-247.
Frankfurter, David T. M., Stylites and Phallobates: Pillar Religions in Late Antique Syria,
Vigiliae Christianae, 44 (1990), pp. 168-198
Francis, James A., Living Icons: Tracing a Motif in Verbal and Visual Representation from the
Second to Fourth Centuries C.E., The American Journal of Philology, 124 (2003), pp. 575-600.
Frend, W. H. C., The Monks and the Survival of the East Roman Empire in the Fifth Century,
Past & Present, 54 (1972), pp. 3-24.
Frazee, Charles A., Late Roman and Byzantine Legislation on the Monastic Life from the
Fourth to the Eighth Centuries, Church History, 51 (1982), pp. 263-279.
Graham, William, On the Concept and Functions of Scripture, Central European University
Conference on Sacred Texts and Print Culture (2-4 December 2005, Budapest).
Greenfield, Richard, Drawn to the Blazing Beacon: Visitors and Pilgrims to the Living Holy
Man and the Case of Lazaros of Mount Galesion, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 56 (2002), pp. 213-
241.
Folkert, Kendall W., The Canons of Scripture, in Rethinking Scripture, ed. M. Levering,
Albany, pp. 170-179.
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Krueger, Derek Hagiography as an Ascetic Practice in the Early Christian East, The Journal of
Religion, 79, (1999), pp. 217-218.
Kalleres, Dayna S., Oh, Lord, Give This One a Daimon So That He May No Longer Sin: The
Holy Man and His Daimones in Hagiography, in Archiv fr Religionsgeschichte14 (2013), pp.
205-235.
Pelikan, J, Divine Rhetoric. The Sermon on the Mount as Message and as a Model in Augustine,
Chrysostom, and Luther, Crestwood, St Vladimirs Seminary Press, 2001.