From bishop to saint? The memory of Saint Cyprian in Vita Cypriani (Carthage, third century)

• Grant number: 15/09725-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: January 01, 2016
• End date: August 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Rossana Pinheiro-Jones
• Grantee: Victor Andrade Godoy
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this research, I intent to discuss the relations between memory and sanctity in the Vita Cypriani, probably produced on 259 and conventionally attributed to Pontius, Saint Cyprian's deacon. Through epistles and treatises from the period, historians discussed the theology, the episcopate and the martyrdom of Saint Cyprian, elected bishop of Carthage on 248-249 and crowned martyr on 258. However, the Vita Cypriani still lacks the due attention. Thus, I intent to analyze the memory of Saint Cyprian in the Vita Cypriani and the relations that memory sustains, firstly, with the sanctity required by the hagiographical genre and, secondly, by the memory already possessed by Pontius' audience, chronologically close to the Carthaginian bishop and martyr. Through a methodology preoccupied with the hagiographical formal precepts and with the relations between author, subject and audience I hope to elucidate the arguments through which Pontius produced the memory of Saint Cyprian in the Vita Cypriani, arguments, now it is known, susceptible to restraints of form and of content imposed by late-antique Greco-roman society. (AU)