ABSTRACT
This chapter will look at children who are depicted as specifically and individually sacred, although the representations may imply that they also sacralize those close to them. The images raise questions about the way sanctity in children is portrayed and in what contexts. In what senses are the children perceived as sacred, in what situations do they appear, and what visual tools are used to convey their status, identity and relation to the saints and to the divine? Contemporary culture is largely estranged from the idea of children as purveyors of the sacred, and although children can, in secular terms, be idolized or revered, they may not have the equivalent power and authority they held in Byzantium’s religious society. This chapter will explore the nature of that authority, and consider how the representations may have affected or been a result of attitudes towards children and belief and how they may have been integrated into religious or educational practice.
