“γάλα ἀντὶ αἵματος”—An Unwonted Hagiographic Topos

Abstract

Some Christian texts, and especially hagiographic and hymnographic ones, record a miraculous phenomenon at the violent deaths of several martyrs: from the beheaded bodies, milk flows instead of blood. After a superficial reading of the biographical passages in the synaxaria and iambic stichoi recorded in the Menaia, we can identify at least ten such cases, among which we find well-known saints, such as Apostle Paul and St. Katherine. This article attempts to revisit this unwonted topos of Christian literature, and to list its occurrences in the liturgical texts of the Orthodox Church and Acta Sanctorum.

Keywords

• martyrs
• hagiography
• Christian hymnography
• Acta Sanctorum
• milk
• hypertriglyceridemia