ABSTRACT
It is perhaps only in a volume in honor of Peter Brown that one can explore such seemingly disparate issues as the force of writing (and its erasure), the weight of sin (and its removal) and the role of holy men in connection with both. These phenomena elucidate the value attached to handwriting and the handwritten document in Late Antiquity and beyond. They demonstrate how traditional legal and economic concepts and terminology found an echo in late antique Christianity. And they show in a most concrete way how the intercessory power of a holy man can continue beyond the grave, whether his own or that of others. The evidentiary basis for this inquiry consists largely of hagiographical narratives, exhortations from the monastic milieu, prayer books and the occasional anecdote from historical writing. My study focuses on the period from the fourth to the eighth century, but the pious practices established at that time radiated into later periods in Byzantine history, evidence from which will also be considered.1
