Publications

Publication details [#11072]

Vecoli, Fabrizio. 2007. Samuel de qalamoun et la fin de la parrhèsia dans l'hagiographie égyptienne [Samuel of qalamun and the end of parrhesia in Egyptian hagiography]. 17 pp.

Abstract

'The Life of Samuel of Qalamun' is a very useful text, because it points out the difficult relationship existing between different religious worlds in a period of great cultural transformation. This Life tells about a saint of the seventh century, who lived in Egypt, in the region of Fayyum. The text has been written by Isaac the presbyter, a monk of the monastery of Al-Qalamun, four generations after the Saint's death, which is likely happened around 700 A. D. Therefore the Life of Samuel belongs to the ninth century. A big section of the text is dedicated to the saint's stay in the "Masgx" 's country. Masgx were an ethnic group of raiders and plunderers whose origins were Libyan or maybe Berber. All scholars who have studied that hagiography were astonished by the total lack of references to Islam, despite of the clear historicity of the source. Without calling into question Masgx's historicity, even if information about them is very indefinite, the whole story seems to be a metaphor, a programmatic story aiming at proposing a model of conduct for Christian people who suddenly became a minority. Islam is underlying the functions of the text and the intentions of the author. He proposes a spirituality opposite to parrhesia of previous centuries and a story of heroic resistance without any great final conversion. (LLBA, Accession Number 19031715, (c) CSA [2008]. All rights reserved.)