Abstract

Christian hagiography and iconography had their inception at the same time during Late Antiquity, and they developed with much the same representational dynamic in common. The writing of hagiography was for the purpose of perpetuating the historical memory of people by representing their life as holy. Iconography had much the same interest, except the “writing” of this image (which is literally what iconography means) was pictorial in its representation. Hagiography’s ineluctable association with iconography may give us an impetus in our contemporary context for considering its residual impact upon the West’s historically-effected consciousness, particularly in the way that the image of holiness is portrayed in both of these mediums of writing.