What Makes a Church Sacred? Legal and Ritual Perspectives from Late Antiquity by Mary K. Farag (review)

Abstract

an anachronistic theological term for a text written during the fourth century. Moreover, according to Clark, aghioi could be a tempting reference to some bishops (including the bishop of Rome) who were told of Melania’s intent to give up the marriage by “her parents or other relatives” (28). The above-mentioned lexical substitution appears a bit daring, since it is not attested in the contemporary literature. As already noted, Clark masterfully succeeds in integrating literary sources with archaeological evidence. However, it is worth pointing out a more general aspect. It is not groups who write histories, but individuals. In this case, Gerontius is the only (or almost only) witness of Melania’s actions; for him, as for any biographer, Melania’s life is a story that unfolds in the moment in which it is narrated according to a chronological order. At the same time, there is also a logical order, namely an origin that is simultaneously both a starting point and the raison d’être in the Life. In other words, Gerontius’s compositional decisions still need to be deeply investigated, especially concerning the differences between the Greek and Latin versions (somewhat neglected in Clark’s book). Despite this, the book is a rich resource, especially for teaching. It not only illuminates one dimension of the biographical trajectory of Melania, but it also shows how it is possible to make sense of a short hagiographical text by asking different questions and by using various reading methods. Melania’s journey is not only a crossing of the Mediterranean in the fourth century, but also an opportunity to understand how a story entirely textually mediated can be integrated with the results of archaeology and social history. Roberto Alciati, Università di Firenze