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C16/17/001#54271306

Abstract:

This project aims to analyze and assess the importance of the earliest accounts on the martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste in the beginning of the 4th century AD. The documents (the Passio, the Testamentum, the panegyrics by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa and the homily by"Ephraem Garecus") have both a historical and a literary value and are representative for the development and spread of the Christian martyr cult in Late Antiquity. Their analysis will follow a multifaceted methodology resulting from a combination of the historicalcritical method (esp. Redaktionsgeschichte), literary analysis, preacher-audience analysis andreception history) will reveal the place and influence they exercised in the Christian Church of the late fourth century AD. The dissertation will shed light on the late antique cult of the saints and the hagiobiographical literature generated in this liturgical context in the "Greek East" of the Roman Empire.