Strategies of Sainthood
Local Saints in Premodern Eastern and South Eastern Europe
The veneration of local saints has been a fundamental component of incorporating newly baptized territories into the Eastern Christian world. Byzantine liturgical practice, hagiography, and iconography provided a rich basis for developing a cult of local saints in pre-modern Eastern and South Eastern Europe. However, most of these components were blended into local strategies for asserting sainthood, specifically tailored to local needs. This workshop will focus on (but not be restricted to) saint-making, ritual, and cult development, veneration and transfer of relics, the establishment of local shines, pilgrimages, transfer of knowledge and practices, and ecclesiastical and political uses of locally defined sainthood. We aim to discuss the dynamic process of saint-making and the veneration of local saints in premodern Eastern and South Eastern Europe through an integrated approach drawing from historical, literary studies and art history.
Convenors: Iulia Nițescu (University of Bucharest) and Ovidiu Olar (IHB)
This event is jointly organized by: The “MOSCULT – Saint-Making and Institutional Consolidation: The Veneration of Metropolitans in 14th–16th Century Muscovy” project, funded by The Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS – UEFISCDI (project code PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2021-0234). MOSCULT is hosted by the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest and addresses the emergence of the local cult of the Moscowbased metropolitans of all Rus’ from the 14th to mid-16th century.
And the The “ORTHPOL – Orthodoxies and Politics: The Religious Reforms of Mid-17th Century in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe” project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant agreement No. 950287).