ABSTRACT

Byzantine hagiography provides numerous examples of holy men and women who managed to attain this ideal of renunciation of their families. Of course, family renunciation is a commonplace in hagiography. Among the hagiographical texts in which family is significant, there are two anonymous Lives where it is even more central. These are the Life of Alexios, the Man of God and one of its models, the Life of John Calybites; the second text which influenced the author of Alexios' Life is the Life of the Man of God, a text of Syriac origin in which family is not important. Alexios' Life, which was a best seller' in the middle ages, in both east and west, tells the story of an extremely pious and rich noble man from Rome called Euphemianos and of his equally righteous wife Aglais, a childless couple, who after many prayers are granted a son that brightens their lives.