ABSTRACT
Studying hagiographical sources as religious historiographies entails shifting the focus of investigation from the portrayed subjects and their lives, per se, to the history of their portrayal and understanding. Thus, given that what is at the core of hagiological studies is not the subjects of the hagiographical sources, but the narratives themselves and their authors, the possibility of verifying and proving beyond doubt the actual existence of either St. Francis or Milarepa, who they “really” were and what they “really” did, is irrelevant. What is central, instead, is the texts’ (and their authors’) claims to historical truth, and the modalities and dynamics of their arguments. All hagiographical sources examined do not simply argue for the actual historicity of St. Francis or Milarepa, but each essentially builds its narrative on the underlying assumption that such an exceptional individual not only truly existed but also effectively realized a superior state of spiritual perfection as understood and described by the source’s author. What in the hagiographical texts becomes a matter for discussion, then, is not a truth-claim to the historicity of St. Francis and Milarepa, or of their attainments, but rather it is how to interpret correctly their lives and teachings.
