Levantine Entanglements - Cultural Productions, Long-Term Changes and Globalizations in the Eastern Mediterranean - Terje Stordalen

Levantine Entanglements - Cultural Productions, Long-Term Changes and Globalizations in the Eastern Mediterranean - Terje Stordalen

14. Local Cult, Transforming Miracles, and Global Discourses: Saint George in Lydda

Levantine Entanglements - Cultural Productions, Long-Term Changes and Globalizations in the Eastern Mediterranean - Terje Stordalen

Christine Amadou [+-]
University of Oslo
Christine Amadou (Dr. art., University of Oslo, 2006) is professor in the History of Ideas at IFIKK, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo, Norway. She has written extensively in several fields, especially on late antique Christianity and on subjects from the history of religious and political ideas, and she is a specialist of the Eastern hagiographic tradition. She has also translated from Greek, e.g. “The Life of Macrina” and “The Life of Symeon the Stylite.” Amadou took part in the research group at CAS mainly during the spring of 2015.

Description

This chapter takes the cult of St. George as a case study to approach the entanglements of the local and the global in the premodern Levant. It presents the early traditions and the localization of the cult of St. George, and through miracle accounts and other textual representations from the Early Middle Ages, it explores how the dynamics between local ownership and imperial ideology is present through the history of veneration for St. George. This saint cult’s history is marked by two historical watersheds: The Christianization of the Roman army in the fifth century and the conflicts between Christians and Muslims in the seventh century. St. George is interpreted as a mediator, i.e. a “transforming intercessor” on several levels: between the local and the global, between death and life, and between one place and another. This role is taken to explain the immense popularity of St. George and the spread of his cult.

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Citation

Amadou, Christine. 14. Local Cult, Transforming Miracles, and Global Discourses: Saint George in Lydda. Levantine Entanglements - Cultural Productions, Long-Term Changes and Globalizations in the Eastern Mediterranean. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 424-443 Nov 2021. ISBN 9781781799123. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=38453. Date accessed: 11 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.38453. Nov 2021

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