ABSTRACT
Eunuch saints presented Byzantine hagiographers with serious challenges. Thought to suffer from an inherent and egregious lack of self-control, how could members of this marginalized group meet the minimum requirements of good Christian behaviour, let alone aspire to sainthood? Niketas David’s tenth-century Life of Patriarch Ignatios offers one medieval exploration of this question. In depicting his eunuch protagonist as an exemplar of specifically masculine virtues, Niketas suggests a definition of masculinity more complicated than that of the traditional eunuch/ non-eunuch binary current over more than a thousand years of Byzantine history. By locating Ignatios beyond these traditional categories, the Life offers an unparalleled model for integrating non-conforming masculinities within the otherwise strictly gendered norms of Christian hagiography.
