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A Historical and Theological Overview on the Hagiography: A Focus on the Life of Women Saints

Received: 27 October 2022    Accepted: 21 November 2022    Published: 29 November 2022
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Abstract

This paper attempts to demonstrate a historical and theological overview of hagiography by focusing on the life of women saints. The hagiographies of saints were written by different scribes in different periods of time in the progress of hagiography. In Christianity, the life of sanctity and canonization are not related to gender but the virtuousness of one’s life. Any one, male or female, who had devoted life unto God and lived a saintly life is honored by the Church and venerated as a saint. As a result the Church does not have men saints only but also has many great women saints. This act of veneration is demonstrated by the writing of their hagiographies, consecrating churches and monasteries in their names and celebrating the feast days of men and women saints. So the recognition of sainthood in the church is a matter of the sanctity of one’s life. But we cannot confuse sanctity of life with the role of men and women in the Church. Any male or female who has lived an exemplary life and reached a higher spiritual level could be recognized as a saint. The main objective of this article is to investigate the origin and development of hagiography in the Christian world with a historical and theological overview on the life of women saints. It is a part of the preliminary dissertation work of Corresponding author’s at Addis Ababa University on a prominent Ethiopian women saint with the title of “Gädlä FƏqƏrtä KrƏstos: Critical Edition with Annotated Translation.”

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 10, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20221006.13
Page(s) 352-359
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Women Saints, Women Hagiography, Ethiopic Hagiography, Origin and Development

References
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  • APA Style

    Zewdie Gebreegziabher, Abba Petros Solomon. (2022). A Historical and Theological Overview on the Hagiography: A Focus on the Life of Women Saints. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 10(6), 352-359. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221006.13

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    Zewdie Gebreegziabher; Abba Petros Solomon. A Historical and Theological Overview on the Hagiography: A Focus on the Life of Women Saints. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2022, 10(6), 352-359. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221006.13

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    Zewdie Gebreegziabher, Abba Petros Solomon. A Historical and Theological Overview on the Hagiography: A Focus on the Life of Women Saints. Int J Lit Arts. 2022;10(6):352-359. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221006.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20221006.13,
      author = {Zewdie Gebreegziabher and Abba Petros Solomon},
      title = {A Historical and Theological Overview on the Hagiography: A Focus on the Life of Women Saints},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {10},
      number = {6},
      pages = {352-359},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20221006.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221006.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20221006.13},
      abstract = {This paper attempts to demonstrate a historical and theological overview of hagiography by focusing on the life of women saints. The hagiographies of saints were written by different scribes in different periods of time in the progress of hagiography. In Christianity, the life of sanctity and canonization are not related to gender but the virtuousness of one’s life. Any one, male or female, who had devoted life unto God and lived a saintly life is honored by the Church and venerated as a saint. As a result the Church does not have men saints only but also has many great women saints. This act of veneration is demonstrated by the writing of their hagiographies, consecrating churches and monasteries in their names and celebrating the feast days of men and women saints. So the recognition of sainthood in the church is a matter of the sanctity of one’s life. But we cannot confuse sanctity of life with the role of men and women in the Church. Any male or female who has lived an exemplary life and reached a higher spiritual level could be recognized as a saint. The main objective of this article is to investigate the origin and development of hagiography in the Christian world with a historical and theological overview on the life of women saints. It is a part of the preliminary dissertation work of Corresponding author’s at Addis Ababa University on a prominent Ethiopian women saint with the title of “Gädlä FƏqƏrtä KrƏstos: Critical Edition with Annotated Translation.”},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    AB  - This paper attempts to demonstrate a historical and theological overview of hagiography by focusing on the life of women saints. The hagiographies of saints were written by different scribes in different periods of time in the progress of hagiography. In Christianity, the life of sanctity and canonization are not related to gender but the virtuousness of one’s life. Any one, male or female, who had devoted life unto God and lived a saintly life is honored by the Church and venerated as a saint. As a result the Church does not have men saints only but also has many great women saints. This act of veneration is demonstrated by the writing of their hagiographies, consecrating churches and monasteries in their names and celebrating the feast days of men and women saints. So the recognition of sainthood in the church is a matter of the sanctity of one’s life. But we cannot confuse sanctity of life with the role of men and women in the Church. Any male or female who has lived an exemplary life and reached a higher spiritual level could be recognized as a saint. The main objective of this article is to investigate the origin and development of hagiography in the Christian world with a historical and theological overview on the life of women saints. It is a part of the preliminary dissertation work of Corresponding author’s at Addis Ababa University on a prominent Ethiopian women saint with the title of “Gädlä FƏqƏrtä KrƏstos: Critical Edition with Annotated Translation.”
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Author Information
  • Department of Philology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  • Department of Philology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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