Vie de S. Macaire l'Egyptien: Edition et traduction des textes copte et syriaque

Saint Macarius the Egyptian (c. 300 390) was one of the earliest monks in Egypt, whose virtue and spiritual exploits gave rise to various tales and sayings, preserved notably in the Apophthegmata patrum. Some hundred years later, his life was recounted anew in the form of hagiography (i.e., life of a saint), and was then diffused in various languages of the Christian Orient: Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Greek, Georgian and so forth. It is extremely rare that such a multilingual tradition of a text is studied together in a detailed fashion, and this is precisely what is presented in this book; accompanied by its Coptic and Syriac versions newly reedited, this book constitutes a 'multilingual pack', so to speak, of the Life of Macarius the Egyptian. In addition to this aspect which is rather concerned with Macarius of the legend, this book also provides a commentary which deals with the life which was really lived by the 'historical Macarius', as well as with the Life seen as a literary (especially hagiographical) work. This book will give impetus, it is hoped, to the study of various other texts of the Christian Orient which are handed down to us in multilingual transmissions, as it can be said that the Christian Orient presents a kaleidoscopic view of Christianity, i.e., Christian unity presented in multiple diversity.