Saint Daniel of Sketis. A Group of Hagiographic Texts Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Abstract: This volume is a new edition with a parallel English translation of eight Greek stories related to Daniel of Sketis: 1) Abba Daniel from Sketis; 2) Abba Mark the Fool; 3) The blind man; 4AB) A holy and chaste young woman; 5) The woman who pretended to be a drunkard; 6) Eulogios the Stone-cutter; 7) Andronikos the Money-dealer and his wife Athanasia; 8) Anastasia Patrikia. The stories deal with secret saints and holy cross-dressers in sixth-century Egypt. Daniel of Sketis is portrayed as an important monastic authority who knows or discerns secret holiness, and who himself is a secret saint. There are many different redactions of the texts, which are preserved in a great number of MSS. The present edition is based on four related MSS: Scor. R.II.1 (Revilla 21), Par. gr. 919, Mosq. Synod. gr. 345 (Vlad. 342), and Vat. gr. 858. They contain the redactions of two similar Daniel dossiers included in collections of hagiographical material and of the Apophthegmata Patrum. The Introduction discusses, among other things, the diversity of texts mentioning an Abba Daniel associated with Sketis, as well as the theme of secret holiness which is common to all the stories edited here. Details of the contents, as well as textual matters and questions of interpretation and grammar, are discussed in the Commentary. The volume ends with indexes.