Celibate Marriages in Late Antique and Byzantine Hagiography: The Lives of Saints Julian and Basilissa, Andronikos and Athanasia, and Galaktion and Episteme

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Celibate Marriages in Late Antique and Byzantine Hagiography explores the puzzling phenomenon of celibate marriage as depicted in the lives of three couples who achieved sainthood. Marriage without intercourse appears to have no purpose, especially in Christian antiquity, yet these three tales were copied for centuries. What messages were they promoting What did it mean to be a virgin husband and a virgin wife Including full translations, this volume sets each life in its historical context, and by examining their individual and shared themes, the book shows that the tension raised by pitting marriage against celibacy is constantly debated. It also highlights the ingenuity of Byzantine hagiographers as they attempted to reconcile this curious paradox. This book addresses a gap in late Antique and Byzantine hagiographic studies where primary sources and interpretative material are very rarely presented in the same volume. By providing a variety of contexts to the material a much more comprehensive, revealing and holistic picture of celibate marriage emerges.

Reviews

The book is very well written and although it is specialized, it is easy to follow. The book fits its purpose well and the outcomes are clear and well-founded. * INTAMS review - Journal for the Study of Marriage & Spirituality, 18/1 (Spring 2012) *
This is a scholarly, well-written and, above all, humane study. Alwis never loses sight of the fact that she is writing about the most fundamental aspects of the human condition: the urge to love and support, if not protect. She is not afraid to empathize and, indeed, sympathize with the subjects of these tales in their striving to achieve a higher form of life, even at a terrible cost to themselves. Her major success is that she compels her readers to do so, too. -- Rosemary Morris, University of York, UK * The Journal of Hellenic Studies *

Author Bio

Anne Alwis is Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent, UK. Her research interests lie in hagiography, narrative and gender in late Antiquity and Byzantium.