Kolloquium

Language enables, structures, and limits our thinking. Although it is notoriously difficult to get into the minds of historical people, one of the ways in which we may attempt to do so is through the language they used. On a general level, this paper will be a methodological exercise, asking the question what we can learn about past perceptions by studying an emic term in its narrative contexts. More specifically, it will ask what we can (and cannot) learn about Byzantine attitudes towards monastic mobility by studying a term for (inner) rest – hesychia – in middle-Byzantine hagiographies of exceptionally mobile monks.

Older research has characterised Byzantine people as being adverse to travel. Monastic travel in particular has been characterised as problematic in Byzantine minds. The paper will contribute to a re-evaluation of these ideas. A semantic and discourse analysis of the term hesychia leads to various insights into the hagiographers’ perceptions of the relation between hesychia, immobility and mobility, and it may reveal diverse value judgements on monastic mobility. In addition to perceptions, the analysisis also revealing for the construction of monastic sainthood. It allows us to see the difficult task of hagiographers at work, that is, to represent in one person two conflicting ideals: to be removed from society while simultaneously serving that very society.