Synaxaria/hagiography + PDF request

[Ádám Gacsályi-Tóth]

Dear All,

Apologies if this is too long: I have been trying to get acquainted with synaxaria and lives of saints in Arabic, and I hope someone can help me out with a few things.

I am aware of the Coptic synaxarion, which was published by Forget and then by Basset; the Melkite synaxaria which is not published at all; and syanaxaria using the Assyrian calendar, but as far I can see, this latter has not been edited and published either? Is there any other synaxarion (in Arabic) that I should be looking for?

Additionally, there is a specific issue that I encountered while reading about a certain saint. In the Coptic synaxarium, the day of the commemoration of this saint is 21 Tuba. But according to other, non-synaxarion manuscripts containing lives of saints, the day of the commemoration of the same saint is entirely different: 6 Kiyahk or 6 Mesra. How come three different dates are given for the same saint within the Coptic calendar, but the saint is not found under two of them in the actual Coptic synaxarium (at least, in the published versions)?

I am also trying to find comprehensive literature on Arabic hagiography in general. I know the Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis, which mentions some publications on Arabic versions of hagiographic works, but it was published in 1910. I have also gone through the Christian-Muslim Relations series and the relevant section of the Copto-Arabic Studies, but I was wondering if you could suggest any other comprehensive work on Arabic hagiography? Additionally, if anyone happens to have Mark Swanson's Arabic Hagiography or Fayez's Vies inédites, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you,

Adam

[A N]

Hi, Ádám!

Certainly you should not forget the Ethiopic Synaxarium, translated by Wallis Budge (1928), and also Bayan's Le Synaxaire arménien de Ter Israël (I-XII, 1910-1930 - I have it in one file, just like Basset's, if you need them). 

What's the name of the saint you're interested in?

Coptic synaxaria are tons of fun, mainly due to Arabic deformation of names, both place and personal. One of the more hilarious occurences is that, on Epip 10, St Theodore of Kyrene becomes suddenly two saints: T. if Pentapolis and T. of "Corinth". (On Paremhat 6 there is also a "Corinth on Cyprus", which is actually Keryneia.) Or, on Paoni 10, a minor character in the vita called Eudemon (a man) unexpectedly gets the same name as the main character of the vita, Dabamon (a woman), which brings a lot of confusion into this entry. 

There are also inexplicable merges of saints (e.g. Roman popes Celestine and Liberius, Epip 3). Or innumerable variants of a saint's name (check e.g. St. Piroou on Epip 2 – 8 variants). Or, how to recognize Apollonius in "Balanah" (Epip 8), or Febronia in "Afrunya/Kafronya" (Epip 1), or Thalassion in "Latsun" (Paoni 17), or Calliopius in "Haboulyous/Hanulius" (Paremhat 4)? Or Tabennisi/Tabenna in "Donasa/Dounaseh/Davanise"?!

If we may assume that e.g. "Patriarch Theophanes of Antioch" (Paoni 25) was indeed some non-Chalcedonian prelate, unattested in any other document but the History of the Coptic Patriarchs, who the hack could be "Acacius, bishop of Jerusalem"?!

There are also some saints whose vitae resemble very much some European hagiographies; for some of them we can say that motifs coincide so much that we can recognize their identity, but with the others it's hard to say: e.g. is the Syriac/Coptic "Hilarius/Helladius/Aladyus" the same as St Basil of Ancyra, or is "Hilaria (a daughter of Zeno)" actually Apollinaria (a daughter of Anthemius)? Could "Philo (Filou), l'évêque de Perse (Faris)" be Abramius/Abraham of Arabela (commemorated on the same day - Meshir 10/February 4)?

However, if you succeed in cracking the names, this sometimes leads to beautiful discoveries of historical facts that are preserved only in these messy documents. For instance, I was amazed that the little-known council of Amastris in Pontus is commenorated as a feast (Paremhat 4) of the council of "Bani-Omar"! 

The tendency to misrepresent the functions of the officials is present not only in the very old vitae, but also in those from the 18-20th cc., which could be easily checked and corrected. 

The further misconstructions and misspellings continue into our days; consider, for instance, the 1968 transfer of a tiny particle of St Mark's relics (that had previously been kept in the treasury of Venitian cathedral, outside the altar!) that has been recently introduced in the Coptic calendar and commemorated on 4 days (Paoni 15, 17-19) as the "Return of St Mark's Relics" (St Mark's relic of the same dimensions was given by the Vatican to the Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria in 1969 without any pomp). You can find in Coptic documents that the document of the relic's authenticity was signed by "Cardinal Porfeer, the deputy of Vatican city", in reality: Petrus Canisius Van Lierde, a titular bishop of Porphyre[on] (Jieh), RCC Guardian of the Relics, Vicar General of the Vatican City. 

Also, St Abraham of Faiyum (d. 1914) was born in "Gilda", which is... (Delga?) There are loads of publications about him, but no one cares to investigate this.

One should also beware of some mistakes of the editors. E.g. Basset (Meshir 8) misquotes Zoeg (Catalogus, 1810) and identifies Astir with Pi-Shati(p) (Shutb/Shotep, near Asyut), thus mixing two different saints.

Misspellings and misidentifications are extremely frequent in the American/British edition of the Coptic Synaxarium (1995/2006). 

Unfortunately, the Coptic Encyclopedia did very little to clarify the topography and onomastics of the vitae/synaxaria. The Copts somehow don't seem to care at all!

I believe I've deciphered most of these names (some with the help of the members of the NASCAS mailing list - special thanks to prof. D. Morozov!), so we can keep in touch.

All the best,

Alen

сб, 26 июл. 2025 г., 20:27 Ádám Gacsályi-Tóth <adam.gac...@gmail.com>:

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[Habib Ibrahim]

Dear  Ádám,
For the Melkite Synaxaria, see the database https://bha.uob-dh.org/?q=synaxar

For a literature on the database, see Dannaoui, Ibrahim, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Arabica
An edition is in preparation.

Kind regards,

Habib

[A N]

Hi, again, Ádám! 

The Ethiopian synaxarium is easy to download in one file here:

https://www.tewahedo.dk/litt/cached/The_Ethiopian_Synaxarium.pdf

If you need to cite the pages from the original, you may use the scans from the archive.org: 

https://archive.org/details/bookofsaintsofet0001unse/mode/2up (vol 1, or any other). 

I'm sending you Basset and Bayan that I gathered into one file each, which makes searching much easier. 

As regards Bartanouba, I can only guess it was done for the sake of more even time distribution. 

For Tobi 21 there are 5 readings: Dormition of the Virgin, Hilaria, Gregory of Nyssa, Sophia of Constantinople, and Bartanouba. Even for an average reader of today, this would take cca hour and a half, while for those times that would be around three hours of public reading! I can imagine that they wanted the monks to have some rest and amusement after the Dormition fast and vigils, but it might have turned to be a bit too much - who can concentrate for 3 hours of public reading?! If you've attended any evening of literature or poetry that included a public reading, you know what I mean. Although these are indeed very fine readings, especially the story of Sophia (a superb non-Chalcedonian writing, if we are to believe van Esbroeck and K. Klein; and a different explanation of emergence of Sophia church than the one given on Thout 5!), but who can read three novellas and two ordinary synaxary entries in a row (except us, philological bookworms)! 

For Koiak 6 there is only one long reading (but not too long, perhaps 10 min of reading aloud), and for Mesori 6 the entry would take only a couple of minutes. These are the days that could be used for transferring a text in order to relieve some other overloaded day (i.e. Tobi 21). 

Bartanouba looks like an amalgam of Hripsime (Arbsima - 29 Touth) and Apollonia (without a feast with Copts, although an ancient Alexandrian martyr, mentioned in the History of Coptic Patriarchs), but their feast days don't suggest that Bartanouba could be connected with their cults. 

Is there a sentence in your manuscripts for Koiak 6 and Mesori 6: "Her life ended on Tobi 21"?

Have fun, wish you like with your search!

Alen

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lN65hG-W3f7Z22CqrgDRyv1IYXDPbq8/view?usp=drivesdk

 Le Synaxaire arménien de Ter Israël I-XII (Bayan, 1910-1930).pdf

 

вс, 27 июл. 2025 г. в 11:34, Ádám Gacsályi-Tóth <adam.gac...@gmail.com>:

Dear Alen,

Thank you for taking the time and writing all that useful information down; and yes, if you could send me the Ethiopic and Armenien synaxaria, it would be great.

The saint I was referring to is Bertanouba. As I said, in the (published) Coptic synaxarium, she is found under 21 Tuba, but according to other manuscripts that are not synaxaria, her commemoration is 6 Kiyakh or 6 Mesra, and I do know how to trace the origin of the latter two.

Thank you again,

Adam

вс, 27 июл. 2025 г. в 10:27, Habib Ibrahim <habib....@live.com>:

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[Ádám Gacsályi-Tóth]

Hi Alen,

No, my manuscripts do not say "Her life ended on Tobi 21". In any case, thank you once again for all the incredibly useful information!

Best regards,

Adam

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[Ádám Gacsályi-Tóth]

Dear Habib,

Thank you so much, this is very helpful.

Kind regards,

Adam

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nascas/8b43bd44-1de0-440d-9d0e-f2fdf3d5e37dn%40googlegroups.com.