133 Representations of travel motivation to imagine that all Gregory’s immediately following destinations, in which he has diverse kinds of interactions with people, were part of this divine plan of ‘illuminating’ others. The hagiographer here thus expects the audience to interpret this passage themselves. They might also have thought of the biblical context of the cited passage. In the Sermon on the Mount according to Matthew (and similar in Mark) the way to ‘enlighten’ others is twofold. In the sermon, the saying is followed by the further explanation: ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven’.434 When the audience would have remembered this Bible passage, the narrative could be interpreted to mean that Gregory should do good deeds for others to see, thus being an exemplar, and inspire others to glorify God. Gregory’s travel motivation here is thus presented as an incitement to reach perfection and please God. In order to achieve this, Gregory must leave his cave and break with his family, and therefore go elsewhere. The rationale behind this, as explained by the author by means of the reference to the Sermon of the Mount, is the need for Gregory to be visible to others. In representing the travel motivation this way, Ignatius constructs Gregory’s sainthood in various ways. That is, he represents Gregory as a holy man through stressing Gregory as an exemplar, as someone with a direct connection to God, and as someone who imitates biblical models. The representations of each these aspects of sainthood – an example, the close connection to God and the connection to biblical models – combined in the travel motivation will be briefly elaborated on below. Because the divine voice includes a conditional clause – ‘if you wish to reach perfection’ – and Gregory is presented to act affirmative (he obeys the command), the narrative implies that Gregory’s intention equals the conditional clause. In other words, Gregory is represented as indeed wishing to reach perfection. Both his desire for perfection and his obedience to the command that would allow him to achieve that represent Gregory as living a life of virtue, namely of obedience to God and of striving to live in the best way possible. This striving towards perfection is not only for Gregory’s own soul, but as the hagiographer indicates, the idea is that Gregory is seen by others, so that others would see Gregory’s good deeds and Gregory would inspire others to glorify God. Thereby he is constructed as an exemplar to others. Living an ideal virtuous life and inspiring others through this lifestyle is one of the most enduring aspects of sainthood.435 In addition, the representation of this travel motivation represents Gregory as someone with a direct close and special connection to God. God chose to send him a direct message, according to the narrative, showing that God has taking a special interest in Gregory and communicates directly to him. The divine voice moreover illustrates that Gregory is receptive of God: he perceived the voice from Heaven (φωνῆς οὐρανόθεν ἐπῄσθετο), and 434 Matthew 5:16 (NIV). In the Greek New Testament: οὕτως λαμψάτω τὸ φῶς ὑμῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὅπως ἴδωσιν ὑμῶν τὰ καλὰ ἔργα καὶ δοξάσωσιν τὸν πατέρα ὑμῶν τὸν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. Edition: Aland et al. (1968). 435 See e.g., Klaniczay (2014). 3
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