ABSTRACT
While the Christianization of the Roman Empire as a whole is told and retold in Byzantium by ecclesiastical historians, later accounts of the Christianization of particular places or regions have to be sought in hagiographical narratives. Instead of celebrating the Emperor Constantine as the founding figure of a Christian Empire, it is in the nature of hagiographical accounts as biographical narratives that they highlight the role of a particular holy man as he brings Christianity to a well-defined region. In this extended sense, they can be said to function as local histories. This contribution examines the Christianization of Gaza as told in lively detail in the Vita of Porphyry of Gaza, a text of highly questionable historical accuracy. Nevertheless, this account has acquired almost canonical status in the scholarly and popularizing accounts of the process of Christianization of the Later Roman Empire. This example demonstrates the necessity of subjecting established narratives of conversion, ancient and modern, to careful scrutiny.
