6 Hagiographical Renaissance as a Part of the Melkite Renaissance
Makarios ibn al-Zaʿīm’s Contribution
In: Arabic Christianity between the Ottoman Levant and Eastern EuropeSearch for other papers by Sofia Melikyan in
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Abstract
Hagiography, an essential part of ecclesiastical literature, evolved in Arabic among Melkites since the 8th century. Several original pieces from the 9th to the 11th centuries demonstrate its progressive development regarding literary genres and style. In the 17th century, after the “Era of Synaxaria,” this community experienced the so-called Melkite Renaissance. The major figure in this movement was Makarios III ibn al-Zaʿīm, the patriarch of Antioch (1647–1672). This chapter aims to reveal different aspects of his hagiographical activity that could be considered a revival and the development of the earlier tradition. The examination of Makarios’s preface to The Estival Book provides a new identification of the compiler of the Synaxarion of Constantinople. His work is characterized by “hagiographical patriotism,” already witnessed in the early Melkite literature; but in Makarios’s case it is sometimes based on dubious, if not false, identifications or a shifting of emphasis. Makarios also tried his hand at composing his own hagiographical text, to honor a person not venerated as a saint: his teacher, Metropolitan Meletios Karma. In this composition he attempted to use canonical hagiographical models and was presumably relying partly on the most elaborate text from the formative period of the Arabic Melkite hagiography, the Life of Christopher, Patriarch of Antioch.