ABSTRACT
Demetrius’s dossier is extant in four chronologically distinct clusters: the earliest traditions survive in Greek and Latin patristic writings; a Sahidic Coptic encomium constitutes a second stratum of evidence; Arabic sources readily segregate themselves into “early” and “late” Arabic traditions, reflecting the final evolutionary stages of Demetrius’s hagiographic program. Notably, all the texts surveyed in the “northern” or Bohairic Coptic dialect, which dominated Coptic literature beginning in the tenth century, reflect late Arabic motifs, and may be addressed in tandem with those sources. At each phase, the number of texts along with the diversity of hagiographic episodes and embellishments associated with the archbishop increased. Hence, one may argue that the sheer volume of evidence at each stratum may function as a rough gauge indicating Demetrius’s popularity at various historical junctures.
