Pious and Impious Christian Rulers According to Egyptian Historiography and Hagiography: A First Survey of the Evidence

Abstract

An effective way to study the evolving attitude of the Alexandrian patriarchate towards the political power is to trace the image of the good Christian emperor in the multiplicity of its historical representations. In this regard, wide-ranging research is needed on how the see of Alexandria presents itself on the religious and political level over the centuries in the histories and the hagiographical texts produced within the bishopric or in the circles close to it, deeply connected to the institutional and collective dimension of the church.1 In this context the process should be highlighted that leads from the archival activity of the patriarchate to the production of tales, traditions, stories, which are based on the documentation preserved in the archives,2 but are also provided with their own life, their own images, their own grammar. The patriarchate produced historiographical works conceived of as a sequence of documents and polemical narratives, here and there provided with short anecdotes. It also created histories of martyrs and saints, normally connected to this same documentation, but marked by a more pronounced tendency to relate episodes or to express a historical assessment through images and symbols. The permanence and the reworking of the same motifs and images through the ages served the function of emphasizing the sense of continuity and eternal orthodoxy of Alexandria.3 The texts selected in the present contribution are the expression not simply of an individual author, but rather of a network of church relations, in which multiple voices try to emerge – the voices of different groups defending their interests, their traditions, and their contribution to the life of the Egyptian church, such as the clergy, the monks, and engaged laity. I recently investigated4 the changing role of historical