Quelques attestations de sacrifices animaux en l’honneur de saints locaux circulant dans l’aire chypriote autour du XIVe siècle
Some Attestations of Animal Sacrifices Offered to Local Saints Circulating in the Cypriot Region Around the Fourteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: Parisinus gr. 2244 and Lugdunensis Vossianus gr. Q 50 contain two collections of veterinary texts, which were copied in the 14th century. These two manuscripts contain practical advice articulated via the saints’ lives who are known to have been widely venerated on Cyprus. These are invoked for obtaining prosperity through animal husbandry, such as sheep and cattle, and for fighting parasites in vineyards and crops. There are six prescriptions, some of which provide the number of animals to be sacrificed on the saint’s feast day. These provide an insight into the everyday realities of the countryside, the periphery of the Byzantine Empire, where the peasants very often relied on the benevolence of God, via the intercession of saints. These texts raise the question as to the long-term persistence of blood sacrifice within the Orthodox Christian religious context, and in the Byzantine world, especially on Cyprus.

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