Focus on Byzantine Sources. An Attempt at a Hagiographical Reconstruction. A.V. Bugayevsky (Moscow)

The tradition of carefully registering numerous miracles performed by St Nicholas after his death goes down fifteen centuries back. The sources of this tradition, evolving from the early Byzantine writings, present an indubitable interest for theologians as well as historians. From generation to generation the most ancient texts about St Nicholas' miracle-making were copied by scribes and translated into many languages, later they were published and reprinted regularly.

The degree to which these numerously copied and translated texts correspond to the ancient Byzantine written monuments is a big question because through a series of compilations and translations considerable changes had been introduced into the narratives about St Nicholas' Byzantine miracles. Occasionally, such changes in the text were conditioned by the need to cut the story or to relate only the gist of it. In other cases the scribes and translators added their own embellishments and episodes to the text to enhance the impact of the miracles despite the fact that they distorted the originals in this way. Quite often personal names and certain place names mentioned in the miracles were misspelled or even omitted altogether. Correct spelling of place names in St Nicholas' miracles is of particular importance for establishing the geography of the veneration of St Nicholas in the various parts of the Byzantine Empire.

In the preparation of the present collection of St Nicholas' Byzantine miracles we aimed at reconstructing as comprehensively and precisely as possible the events related in the narratives about the saint's miracle-making, and also resurrecting the historical landmarks, place names and their descriptions. To achieve this task we studied the entire available body of ancient Greek texts on St Nicholas as well as translations into Slavic languages; and we supplied the resultant hagiographic reconstructions with reference notes and comments on the relevant Byzantine written monuments and the fundamental monographs on Byzantine history we resorted to in our studies. It should be noted that a considerable number of miracles we published in this edition have never been translated from the Greek before. These texts remained extant only in the handwritten Greek manuscripts and were made public by the noted German hagiographer Gustav Anrich in the early 20-th century. The Byzantine miracles collected in the present edition are part of the fundamental work that will include The Life of St Nicholas, tales of the miracles performed by the Archbishop of Myrrah in Byzantium and other countries, and the narrative about transporting his relics to the city of Bari. The present collection includes only half of the above-mentioned texts.