25 Introduction liturgy of the Hagia Sophia, on the other hand, saints would be commemorated by biblical readings and the reading of a synaxarion only, instead of the reading of a full Life.70 Saints’ Lives may have been read or heard more commonly in monastic contexts.71 They could be read during liturgical services in church, but also during mealtimes in the refectory. At least for cenobitic – that is communal – monasteries, we know from monastic foundation documents (typika) that readings were done during mealtime, mostly from Scripture and from popular monastic texts (e.g., works by Basil of Caesarea or the Divine Ladder by John Climacus). On particular feast days, especially if the founder was celebrated as a saint, these readings included (selections from) saints’ Lives.72 On the feast days of an important saint for the monastery, monasteries could also organise a panegyris, a festival in honour of a saint with both religious and commercial activities.73 These could attract people from outside the monastery as well. The saint’s Life of the celebrated saint could have been read during such occasions as well.74 The main performance contexts from which we know saints’ Lives were recited are thus the following: during monastic and non-monastic liturgies in churches, during mealtimes in refectories and, probably, during saints’ festivals. However, other contexts are imaginable as well: more research needs to be done to get a more comprehensive appreciation of performance contexts and types of readership of medieval Greek hagiography. Types of audiences and readership We may distinguish at least three types of audiences for saints’ Lives that the author would have in mind when writing his text: the audience at the intended occasion or performance context, future scribes copying the text in new manuscripts, and the saint to whom the Life is dedicated.75 The first and the latter type of audience are often addressed in saints’ Lives. The immediate audience is often addressed in the prologues and/or epilogues in a general way as ‘listeners’, which underscores the oral performance contexts of these texts.76 The saint is often addressed in the epilogues: the narrator often ends his narrative with a plea to the saint for intercession before God on his and/or the earthly audiences’ behalf. Some indication of the popularity and spread of hagiographical texts may be gained from the number of surviving manuscripts. 70 Š evč enko (1998), p. 112. 71 Papaioannou (2021), p. 540. 72 Talbot (2017), p. 120. 73 On the markets held during such panegyreis (which may also be non-monastic), see Ritter (2019a), pp. 139–152. 74 Cf. chapter 3, section 3.5.1. 75 Two of the few studies that ask what we can know about (types of) authors and audiences of hagiography specifically, are Efthymiadis (1996); Efthymiadis and Kalogeras (2014). Possibly the 2020 dissertation by Julian Yang may advance our knowledge of audiences of hagiography, but I have not been able to consult this work due to an embargo restricting access until 2025. Yang (2020). 76 τοῖς ἀκροαταῖς in the Life of Gregory, τῶν ἀκουόντων in the Life of Euthymius, ἀκροατὰς in the Life of Elias; Life of Gregory of Decapolis epilogue; Life of Euthymius the Younger 2.3; Life of Elias the Younger 76, line 1656. I
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