Чудеса херсонесских епископов в контексте раннехристианской агиографической традиции / Miracles of the Bishops of Chersonesos in the Context of Early Christian Hagiographical Tradition

Abstract

The article is devoted to the concept of miracles in the “Lives of Holy Bishops of Chersonesus” and the “Miracle of St. Capiton”. Miracles in the people’s representation of the early Middle Ages proved clearly the advantages of the preached religious doctrine and served as the main argument of sanctity. The resurrection of adolescent after baptism by the Holy Bishop Basileus is analyzed in the perspective of “baptism of the dead” in the Early Christian heresies. The miracle with the entry of Bishop Capiton into the fire symbolically dates back to the Old Testament narration about miraculous deliverance of three young men in the “fiery furnace”. The description of the miracle is very close to the ceremony of fiery initiation. Similar plots are found not only in Byzantine, but also in Latin sources, as well as in the later Islamic tradition. The information about miracles and supernatural phenomena helped to construct the sacred topography of Chersonesus—Cherson.

Keywords

• Chersonesus—Cherson
• Lives of Saints
• Byzantine hagiography
• Early Christianity
• the sacrament of baptism