Compared to Women? The Life of Abraham of Smolensk in the Context of Medieval Visionary Literature
Compared to Women? The Life of Abraham of Smolensk in the Context of Medieval Visionary Literature

Summary/Abstract: Scholars studying the Life of Abraham, written in thirteenth-century Smolensk, have noted its many unusual features. The present paper shows that aspects of the Life that were rare or unique in East Slavonic hagiography were widespread in contemporary Western religious writings, visionary literature in particular. Especially interesting are possible parallels to the writings by Hildegard of Bingen. While the parallels are not extensive enough to argue that Hildegard was known in Smolensk, a general Western influence on the Life’s author Efrem appears likely. A suggestion that such an influence may have reached Efrem through the Smolensk Catholic Church of St. Mary is supported by Efrem’s Marian vocabulary that makes another unusual, and hitherto unnoticed, feature of his text. In addition to investigating possible Western connections, the paper examines the social context of Abraham’s preaching and persecution and proposes a new translation of one passage from the Life.

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