204 of travel and stability found in the Life of Gregory of Decapolis and tested the patterns found with examples from the Lives of Euthymius and Elias. The analysis revealed understandings of the target domains of metaphors, which in our analysis were conceptions of life, virtue and perseverance. The analysis did not directly reveal conceptions of mobility and immobility, as they were used as source domains. However, the conceptual connections made between mobility, immobility and virtue in the minds of medieval Greek language users do, indirectly, suggest positive connotations with both immobility and mobility. At the same time, a metaphor conceptualising temptation as movement suggests that movement could also have negative associations. The analysis therefore suggested that metaphors in the Life of Gregory reflect contradictory thought patterns concerning mobility, immobility and movement. Each of the approaches taken in the various chapters revealed discourses on mobility and immobility on multiple levels: on the level of the narrative (chapters 2 and 3) and on the level of specific aspects of language use (chapter 4, and, to a degree, chapter 2). From all these perspectives we could observe a tension between mobility and immobility in the narratives. This tension was related to the construction and conceptualisation of sainthood. The various connections between mobility, immobility and sainthood will be discussed below in the sections ‘(im)mobility and sainthood: the how and why of narrative representation’ and ‘mobility, stability and diverse conceptions of sainthood’. Multivocality and complexity In the general introduction we reflected briefly on modern discourses on mobility, which raised the issue whether we could perceive similar phenomena in the past. They prompted us to take into account the following: 1) assess whether mobility and immobility were perceived as neutral, or whether people had value judgements (and which ones), 2) be attuned to the possibility of a plurality of discourses, rather than trying to construct a single pervasive discourse, 3) ask which factors contribute to particular views on mobility and immobility, and 4) ask whether discourses on mobility and immobility reveal deeper societal concerns of discourse communities. Let us turn to each of these questions in turn. 1. Assess whether mobility and immobility were perceived as neutral, or whether people had value judgements (and which ones). Although it is difficult to judge what people in the past actually thought, it is possible to at least assess how they wrote about monastic mobility and immobility. The authors of the three saints’ Lives represented certain types of mobility as having positive effects on both monks and the people around them. This finding is unsurprising in a genre that aims to celebrate its protagonists: their actions, including their mobility, are presented as positive. Various types of mobility are represented as having positive effects. Educational
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