Virginia Burrus is the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. She is author of Ancient Christian Ecopoetics and Saving Shame: Martyrs, Saints, and Other Abject Subjects, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Introduction: Hagiography and the History of SexualityCH. 1. FANCYING HERMITS: SUBLIMATION AND THE ARTS OF ROMANCEThe Queer Life of Paul the HermitThe Queer Marriage of Malchus the MonkHilarion's Last LaughProlongations: Fantasies of a FaunReading (as) Another, WomanCH. 2. DYING FOR A LIFE: MARTYRDOM, MASOCHISM, AND FEMALE (AUTO)BIOGRAPHYPraising PaulaRemembering MacrinaConfessing MonicaTestimony to (Woman's) SurvivalFragments of an AutobiographyCH. 3. HYBRID DESIRE: EMPIRE, SADISM, AND THE SOLDIER SAINTDomination and Submission in the Life of MartinSulpicius's PassionThe Hagiographer, the Ethnographer, and the NativeWitnessing AmbivalenceCH. 4. SECRETS OF SEDUCTION: THE LIVES OF HOLY HARLOTSThe Lamb, the Wolf, and the Fool: Mary, Niece of AbrahamSeduction of the Eye: Pelagia of AntiochSacrifice in the Desert: Mary of EgyptThe Joy of HarlotryPostscript (Catching My Breath)NotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"A dazzling series of readings of early Christian hagiographies that will, by turns, delight, confound, illuminate, and challenge diverse historians, theologians, and theorists."-Church History"Brilliant and important. . . . From page one she challenges approaches to hagiography that dismiss ascetic desire as the sublimation of sexuality and a pathological hatred of the body."-Theological Studies"This fine book detects a vibrant eroticism in tales of fourth- and fifth-century saints. Rather than read ancient saints' lives as anti-erotic, or, worse, an-erotic, Burrus reveals a flourishing ars erotica."-Journal of Religion"Burrus's interweaving of ancient and modern voices is as meditative as it is analytical, but the overall effect is to induce the reader into an alternative view of what constitutes the allure of the saintly life. . . . After The Sex Lives of Saints hagiography will never be the same."-Journal of Early Christian StudiesAn engrossing, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable read."-Journal of the History of Sexuality

Virginia Burrus is the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. She is author of Ancient Christian Ecopoetics and Saving Shame: Martyrs, Saints, and Other Abject Subjects, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Introduction: Hagiography and the History of SexualityCH. 1. FANCYING HERMITS: SUBLIMATION AND THE ARTS OF ROMANCEThe Queer Life of Paul the HermitThe Queer Marriage of Malchus the MonkHilarion's Last LaughProlongations: Fantasies of a FaunReading (as) Another, WomanCH. 2. DYING FOR A LIFE: MARTYRDOM, MASOCHISM, AND FEMALE (AUTO)BIOGRAPHYPraising PaulaRemembering MacrinaConfessing MonicaTestimony to (Woman's) SurvivalFragments of an AutobiographyCH. 3. HYBRID DESIRE: EMPIRE, SADISM, AND THE SOLDIER SAINTDomination and Submission in the Life of MartinSulpicius's PassionThe Hagiographer, the Ethnographer, and the NativeWitnessing AmbivalenceCH. 4. SECRETS OF SEDUCTION: THE LIVES OF HOLY HARLOTSThe Lamb, the Wolf, and the Fool: Mary, Niece of AbrahamSeduction of the Eye: Pelagia of AntiochSacrifice in the Desert: Mary of EgyptThe Joy of HarlotryPostscript (Catching My Breath)NotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"A dazzling series of readings of early Christian hagiographies that will, by turns, delight, confound, illuminate, and challenge diverse historians, theologians, and theorists."-Church History"Brilliant and important. . . . From page one she challenges approaches to hagiography that dismiss ascetic desire as the sublimation of sexuality and a pathological hatred of the body."-Theological Studies"This fine book detects a vibrant eroticism in tales of fourth- and fifth-century saints. Rather than read ancient saints' lives as anti-erotic, or, worse, an-erotic, Burrus reveals a flourishing ars erotica."-Journal of Religion"Burrus's interweaving of ancient and modern voices is as meditative as it is analytical, but the overall effect is to induce the reader into an alternative view of what constitutes the allure of the saintly life. . . . After The Sex Lives of Saints hagiography will never be the same."-Journal of Early Christian StudiesAn engrossing, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable read."-Journal of the History of Sexuality

Virginia Burrus is the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. She is author of Ancient Christian Ecopoetics and Saving Shame: Martyrs, Saints, and Other Abject Subjects, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Introduction: Hagiography and the History of SexualityCH. 1. FANCYING HERMITS: SUBLIMATION AND THE ARTS OF ROMANCEThe Queer Life of Paul the HermitThe Queer Marriage of Malchus the MonkHilarion's Last LaughProlongations: Fantasies of a FaunReading (as) Another, WomanCH. 2. DYING FOR A LIFE: MARTYRDOM, MASOCHISM, AND FEMALE (AUTO)BIOGRAPHYPraising PaulaRemembering MacrinaConfessing MonicaTestimony to (Woman's) SurvivalFragments of an AutobiographyCH. 3. HYBRID DESIRE: EMPIRE, SADISM, AND THE SOLDIER SAINTDomination and Submission in the Life of MartinSulpicius's PassionThe Hagiographer, the Ethnographer, and the NativeWitnessing AmbivalenceCH. 4. SECRETS OF SEDUCTION: THE LIVES OF HOLY HARLOTSThe Lamb, the Wolf, and the Fool: Mary, Niece of AbrahamSeduction of the Eye: Pelagia of AntiochSacrifice in the Desert: Mary of EgyptThe Joy of HarlotryPostscript (Catching My Breath)NotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"A dazzling series of readings of early Christian hagiographies that will, by turns, delight, confound, illuminate, and challenge diverse historians, theologians, and theorists."-Church History"Brilliant and important. . . . From page one she challenges approaches to hagiography that dismiss ascetic desire as the sublimation of sexuality and a pathological hatred of the body."-Theological Studies"This fine book detects a vibrant eroticism in tales of fourth- and fifth-century saints. Rather than read ancient saints' lives as anti-erotic, or, worse, an-erotic, Burrus reveals a flourishing ars erotica."-Journal of Religion"Burrus's interweaving of ancient and modern voices is as meditative as it is analytical, but the overall effect is to induce the reader into an alternative view of what constitutes the allure of the saintly life. . . . After The Sex Lives of Saints hagiography will never be the same."-Journal of Early Christian StudiesAn engrossing, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable read."-Journal of the History of Sexuality