Title Missionary stories and the formation of the Syriac churches / Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent

Published Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2015] ©2015

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Description 1 online resource : maps Series Transformation of the classical heritage ; 55 Transformation of the classical heritage ; 55. Contents Portraying a missionary narrative in the Syriac tradition -- St. Thomas : missionary apostle to India -- The teaching of Addai : founding a Christian city -- Mari as apostle to the church of Persia -- John of Ephesus as hagiographer and missionary -- Legends of Simeon of Beth Arsham, missionary to Persia -- Hagiographical portraits of Jacob Baradaeus -- Ahoudemmeh among the Arabs Summary "This book analyzes the hagiographic traditions of six missionary saints in the Syriac heritage: Thomas, Addai, Mari, Simeon of Beth Arsham, Jacob Baradaeus, and Ahoudemmeh. Saint-Laurent studies a body of legends about missionaries' voyages in the Syrian Orient and illustrates their shared symbols and motifs. Revealing how these texts encapsulate the concerns of the communities that wrote them, she draws attention to the role of hagiography as a malleable genre that was well suited for the idealized presentation of the beginnings of Christian communities. Hagiographers, through their reworking of missionary themes, assert autonomy, orthodoxy, and apostolicity for their individual civic and monastic communities, posturing themselves in relationship to the rulers of their empire and other competing forms of Christianity. She argues that missionary hagiography is an important and neglected source for understanding the development of the East and West Syriac ecclesiastical bodies: the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Church of the East. Many of these Syriac-speaking churches remain today in the Middle East and India, with diaspora communities in Europe and North America. While Saint-Laurent focuses on late antiquity in Missionary Stories and the Formation of the Syriac Churches, her work opens up further study of the role of saints and stories as symbolic links between ancient and modern traditions"--Provided by publisher Analysis abgar acts of mari ahudemmeh apocryphal narratives biography byzantine christian figures christianity christians church history god and religion hagiography history of faith history india jacob baradaeus john of ephesus middle east missionaries missionary stories orthodox persia religion religious biography religious historian religious history religious scholar sacred history saint stories saint thomas saints simeon of beth arsham syriac church syriac missionaries syriac teaching of addai Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Syriac Christian saints -- Biography -- History and criticism Missionaries -- Middle East -- Biography -- History and criticism Christian hagiography -- History -- To 1500 RELIGION -- Christianity -- Orthodox. RELIGION -- Christianity -- History. Christian hagiography Missionaries -- Biography Middle East Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780520960589 0520960580

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