215 Conclusion elements in the construction of sainthood. Mobility and immobility are therefore essential source domains for the construction and conception of sainthood in conceptual metaphors. In this metaphorical thinking, aspects of sainthood are either constructed as development (politeia is a journey) or as stability (inner stability is immobility). However, the way in which the hagiographer conceptualised sainthood on the narrative level did not determine the choice for metaphors. In other words, the metaphors that connect virtue to movement and development are not exclusively expressed in the Life of Gregory and Euthymius, where in the narrative the mobility of the monks correlate to their transformative development towards sainthood. Nor is the conceptual metaphor that connects immobility to virtue (and the opposing metaphor connecting movement to temptation) exclusively found in the Life of Elias, in whose Life the hagiographer focusses less on a connection between the saint’s mobility and a development towards sainthood, but instead represents his saintly qualities as unchangeable and derived from God. On the contrary, we find both conceptual metaphors – politeia is a journey and inner stability is immobility – expressed in all three texts. This suggests that both ways of thinking – associations of both movement and immobility with virtue, of development and stability with sainthood – were deeply ingrained in these discourse communities. The embodied nature of conceptual metaphors as well as the long tradition of continued use of these metaphors may have contributed to the occurrence of both in all three Lives: these age-old conceptual metaphors still worked for ninth- and tenth-century language users and reflected and shaped thought of the hagiographers and the wider discourse communities to which they belonged. Final concluding thoughts This study contributes in various ways to the field of Byzantine studies and to related fields. Firstly, by studying discourses on monastic mobility and immobility, we were able to perceive themes and values that were considered of great importance to Eastern Roman monastic culture, particularly spiritual integrity and development. Secondly, this study has contributed to the history of the cults of saints and examined how in the specific time and place of the ninth and early tenth century in the Eastern Roman Empire some individuals in society were considered to be more special than others. This investigation has contributed to our understanding of the authorial techniques hagiographers used to construct these individuals as saints and allowed us to perceive which ideals were projected on these individuals. Thirdly, this study has illustrated how hagiography can be approached from different angles to study the same questions. This thesis has particularly advocated to use emic terms and categories to understand the past in careful combination with etic categories of analysis. Finally, I hope to have contributed to viewing the past as equally multivocal and complex as the present by uncovering a diversity of perceptions and discourses on (im)mobility in Eastern Roman monastic contexts. C
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