St. Sabas among the Lions:The Wild and the Completely Wild in the Writings of Kyrillos of Skythopolis

The saints’ Lives written by Kyrillos (Cyril) of Skythopolis form a centrepiece in Greek hagiography, not least through the two central Lives of Euthymios and Sabas, respectively. The occurrence of lions in the Kyrillos’ narrative has been noted before, but not with respect to their eschatological and symbolic function, especially in attaching the performance of the saints to landscape and wilderness, and in emphasising the temporal transition from before to after the saintly interventions. Attention is also paid in this article to a distinction in Kyrillos’ vocabulary of wilderness – between... Mehr ...