| Abstract [eng] |
This masterʼs thesis systematically examines the use of ʽsaint and animalʼ motif in three hagiographical works of St. Jerome – lives of Paul, Malchus and Hilarion. Jerome was the first author to introduce the genre of saintsʼ lives (vitae) into Latin literature and thus improvised by skillfully manipulating his rhetorical and literary knowledge as well as his personal experiences and impressions of the turbulent times of Christianityʼs formative years. Through an analysis of the most important episodes where the three saints encounter different types of animals, the work shows fundamental influence of biblical and classical texts on Jeromeʼs literary imagery and vocabulary. These episodes are also extensively compared with identical narratives and images in other hagiographical stories, written both earlier and later, this way trying to identify Jeromeʼs adherence to hagiographical conventions as well as his originality in this respect. Comparative analysis suggests that the treatment of ʽsaint and animalʼ theme in vita Pauli, vita Malchi and vita Hilarionis can be described as traditional regarding Jeromeʼs use of common hagiographical topoi, but they are mostly applied in an inconsistent and unconventional way. Despite using many images that were not taken over by later hagiographers, Jeromeʼs influence on the formation of canonical hagiographical motifs in Western tradition is indisputable. |
