The hagiography is the biography or history of a saint of the Catholic Church or spiritual leader very prominent in any of the most popular religions exist. It differs from other forms of biographies because it does not contain all its elements nor does it chronologically relate a person's life from birth to death.
On the contrary, the objective of hagiography is soteriological in nature; that is to say, referring to the salvation of the faithful believers of the saint in question. Hagiography has the characteristic that it literally refers to the writings about holy people. The authors of this type of work are called hagiographers.
The hagiography deals with a saint publicly recognized and canonized by the Catholic Church or any other universal church. It differs from hagiology in that the latter deals with the study of saints but collectively, not individually as in the case of hagiography, which focuses on the life of a particular saint.
Etymology
The term hagiography is a compound word derived from the Greek hagios, which means "holy"; and spelling, which means "writing or graphic representation." That is, hagiography is the writing about the saints or holy writing.
The Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language defines hagiography as a “history of the lives of the saints” or an “excessively complimentary biography”.
For its part, the Cambridge Dictionary defines it in one of its meanings as an excessively admiring book about someone. Also conceptualiaza as the description of a perfect person with qualities superior to those he really has.
In another of its meanings it alludes to religious writings that specialize in the lives of holy people.
What do you study?
Hagiography began as the study of the life of Christian saints, but later spread to other religions. Nor did he refer to one in particular, but to the collective study of the holy figures.
Although considered a kind of biography, hagiographic writings bear no resemblance to other forms of biography. Hagiographies do not necessarily attempt to make a historical and chronological account of a saint.
The main objective of hagiographies is to extol the canonized person and to exalt his qualities. Its content is soteriological; that is to say, they seek to transmit a salvific effect (of salvation) in those who read them.
Christian hagiographies generally focus on life and especially on miracles attributed to the saint canonized by the Catholic Church. The same is true of the saints of other Christian religions, such as the Eastern Orthodox and those of the Eastern Church.
Currently, hagiography encompasses the study and writing of biographical works of saints of other non-Christian religions, as well as of other non-Christian religious creeds, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism. All these religions create and keep hagiographic texts.
Content of hagiographic works
Hagiographic works, especially from the Middle Ages, incorporate institutional and local historical data as a record. Traditions and customs, popular cults, among other manifestations are mentioned.
Hagiography usually does not include details that are common in biographies, such as date of birth, family, childhood, studies, etc. Instead of this, the miracles, the life of a saint, his thought, works and other religious details are mentioned.
Hagiography has among its fundamental purposes to make known and highlight the sacred powers of the saint. They are written intended to glorify the person, in which all kinds of negative mention are omitted in the life of the saint.
There may be cases in which the negative realms of the saint are mentioned, but only when the sins committed serve to argue and demonstrate the repentance of those people. Such is the case of the sins that are mentioned of the prophet King David or of Saint Mary of Egypt.
This characteristic of hagiographic works of not containing sins should not be understood as manipulation or propaganda. The argument in this case is that mentioning the sins does not serve or be related to the purpose of the work. Like Christ, saints are not supposed to be sinners either.
Pejorative use of the term
When the term is used in modern works of a non-ecclesiastical-religious nature, the term hagiography takes on a different meaning. It is used pejoratively to describe biographies and stories with excessive flattery.
A good example of this can be the cult of the image that is rendered to dictators in certain political literature, where they are excessively sanctified and exalted. The hagiographic writing qualification is a way of describing and criticizing the lack of objectivity of the author of a biography.
There are figures not necessarily religious who are exalted by their biographers, to whom exceptional merits are attributed. These are people who, without having the merit or the sacred power that wants to be assigned to them, are treated as deities.
Utility
Hagiography is considered useful because it helps to understand the meaning of Christian life and faith despite the artificial, sometimes even extravagant, ornaments used to describe the works and lives of the saints.
In these biographies the Christian vision of God, life, man and the world is contained. However, they should be read taking into account the context and the time in which they were written.
In the Middle Ages the lives of saints were often modeled on those of others from earlier times. Lesser known saints were equated with other prominent holy figures who preceded them.
The saints were credited with the authorship of supernatural events and extraordinary miracles in order to strengthen faith in them and confirm their holiness. The objective was to elevate his goodness and encourage in the faithful the imitation of their virtues.
In hagiography it is not very difficult to distinguish between what is essentially true and what adorns the saint. During medieval times the exaggerated miraculous nature that was added to the saint had an edifying purpose, and even entertainment and amusement as well.
This should not lead to the belief that the miraculous life of the saints is invented, for moralizing or simply literary purposes.
References
- Hagiography. Retrieved March 29, 2018 from newadvent.org
- Hagiography. Consulted of orthodoxwiki.org
- Hagiography. Retrieved from dictionary.cambridge.org
- Hagiography. Consulted of en.wiktionary.org
- Hagiography. Consulted from en.oxforddictionaries.com
- Hagiography. Consulted of merriam-webster.com
- Hagiography. Consulted of dle.rae.es
- Soteriology. Consulted of dle.rae.es