Appunti per un isolario agiografico. Percorsi di santità attraverso le isole in età medio-bizantina

Essay devoted to the theme of insularity in connection with about 20 hagiographical texts of the Middle Byzantine period. A linguistic and cultural overview about the modern concept of “isolation” in relation with the development of Greek language and the Byzantine hagiographical production is provided. The corpus of texts taken into account – with particular attention for the two Lives of Saint Theodora of Thessalonike, BHG 1737 and Saint Theoktista of Lesbos in the island of Paros, BHG 1723 – emphasizes the Byzantine fortune of the early Christian concepts of eremia and eschatià (separation from the civil world), far from characterizing the experiences of the saints under the aegis of “isolation”. Further remarks are devoted to the literary influence of the New Testament models (typoi) of St John the Theologian and St Paul on Byzantine hagiography.