CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Filimon, Florin |
|---|---|
| Title | Pillar of the Communities: the Lives of Alypius the Stylite |
| Summary | Abstract The thesis deals with one of the holy men who imitated Symeon the Elder in practicing his peculiar form of asceticism. For Alypius, a stylite from Adrianoupolis, a prominent city in Paphlagonia, who allegedly died in the times of Heraclius, three major versions of his biography survived: one anonymous, one redacted by the Symeon Metaphrastes’ team, and one produced by Antonius, a member of the Great Church’s clergy. Little attention has been given to the first two versions, and even less to the Life by Antonius; hence, the present thesis aims to analyze the narrative as it appears in the first two biographies; the one by Antonius is considered only in some crucial aspects, since it is more distant from the anonymous Life, which may be considered the basis of all further reaction. Since besides the titles of the manuscripts used by Hippolyte Delehaye for editing the earliest Life, no chronological information emerges from the text, the main goal of the thesis is to reveal those details that may allow one to determine when Alypius’ earliest biography was written, and likewise, when Alypius lived. In doing so, I analyze various aspects of the Life. Besides the narrative in its entirety, the saintly figures included by the three biographers in the ‘rhetoric comparison’ (synkrisis), the pillar and abandoned necropolis that became a monastic milieu, and, finally, the monastery created around the pillar’s base, its structure, and its dwellers, are at the core of the four chapters of my research. Each of them provides elements that, correlated, offer a probable dating of the anonymous Life and of Alypius. Finally, the thesis argues that one of the MS consulted by Delehaye (MS C), but constantly disregarded at the expense of a clearer text filled with totally unexpected details, gives the original form of the anonymous Life. |
| Supervisor | Perczel, István; Menze, Volker |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/filimon_florin.pdf |
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