The miracle De juvene qui Christum negaverat in the pseudo-Amphilochian Vita Basilii and its Slavonic adaptations

The miracle De juvene qui Christum negaverat in the pseudo-Amphilochian Vita Basilii and its Slavonic adaptations The Life of St Basil of Caesarea in Cappadocia ascribed to St Amphilochius of Iconium was one of the most popular examples of hagiographical literature throughout medieval Europe, both East and West. It appears to have been first written, or rather compiled, ca 800 in one of the Greek communities of Northern Italy.1 The particular chapter of the Life with which this paper is concerned was extremely popular in its ownright,and existed also, with varying degrees of modification, independendy of the Life (in the West,forexample, it is found in the Legenda Aurea and the Speculum Magnum, and also provides the subject of Hrosvit of Gandersheim's Basilius). The fact that the Life has long been recognized as spurious no doubt accounts for the m o d e m neglect of it which matches the enthusiasm for it in the Middle Ages. Even at the time of the editio princeps of Amphdochius' works in 16442 its authenticity was already in doubt and there is no modem edition of the whole Life. Migne does not print the Greek text at all, though he does give two separate Latin versions.3 There is, however, a modem edition of the miracle,4 though it is based on only a limited selection of the extant manuscripts.5 The miracle concerns the unnamed servant of one Proterius who falls in love with his master's daughter, who is destined to be a nun. He has recourse to a magician, who advises him to approach the Devil, drawing up for him a document renouncing Christ. With this document the servant is able to summon up demons, who conduct him to the throne of the Prince of Darkness. In return for a written declaration of the young man's apostasy, the Devil inflames the girl with love for him, so that she compels her parents to acquiesce 1 J. Wortley, "The Pseudo-Amphilochian Vita Basilii', Florilegium 2 (1980), 21739 : see pp. 220-22. 2 Franciscus Combefis, SS Patrum Amphilochii Iconiensis, Methodii Patarensis, et Andreae Cretensis Opera omnia, quae reperiri potuerunt. Nunc primum, magnam partem tenebris eruta, Latine reddita, ac recognita, notisque illustrata, Paris, 1644; the Life is on pp. 155-225. 3 Patrologia Graeca, ed. J.P. Migne, 31, rpt Turnhout, n.d., pp. ccxciv-cccxvi, reprints Combefis' version; Patrologia Latina, ed. J.P. Migne, 73, rpt Turnhout, n.d., cols. 293-320, gives the ninth-century version of Ursus. 4 L. Radermacher, Griechische Quellen zur Faustsage, Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Proceedings 206:4, Vienna and Leipzig, 1927, pp. 115^19. 5 Radermacher, Griechische Quellen, p. 236: 'Es war mir jedoch nicht moglich u m des Proterius willen eine Weltreise zu machen' ( ' I could not embark upon a world tour for the sake of Proterius'). 2 R. Cleminson to the marriage by threatening suicide. After some time it is pointed outtoher that her husband does not live as a Christian. She seeks advice from St Basil, to w h o m the young m a n confesses. The saint confines the young m a n for three consecutive periods, during which the penitent is tormented by demons, with progressively diminishing force. Finally St Basil takes him to the church, where the Devd confronts the saint, attempting to prevent him from taking the young m a n into the building and citing the pact that he has signed; but after much prayer on the part of the assembled people, the document comes floating through the air into the hands of the saint, whotearsit up. The basic story of the miracle is clearly much older than the pseudoAmphilochian Life. The locus communis of the pact with the Devil goes back to late Classical times, and it appears in a number of nanatives on a similar theme in Byzantine literature.6 Again, the compiler of the pseudoAmphilochian Life introduces the miracle with the words 'EXXdSiog 5e 6 ev data TT} pv-qprj... 5ir\yr\aax6 p.01, and the following chapter, Tlepi 'Avaaxaaiov •vov Ttpecrfivrepov, opens in a similar manner: Airiyqaaro Se p.oi xai rovro 6...