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144 Kostas P. Kyrris 12

fully. What they had in common were their Christian virtues (Cf. other si-milar cases apud El. A Zachariadou or in par. 30, and Constantina Men-tzou-Meimaris in 'Septieme Congrćs International d’Etudes du Sud-Est Euro-peen’ (Thessaloniąue, 23 aout — 4 septembre 1994), Rapports, Athdnes, 1994, p. 551).

18.    In the 12.c. there was a strong reaction against low-level ascetics many of whom were not genuine and as urban adventurers exploited the cre-dulity of the high classes and undermined the bishops’ authority by setting themselves up as spiritual leaders though they were illiterate frenzied "saints”. Both State and Church favoured the monasterisation of the monks and exer-cised control over them. A striking case is that of Christodoulos of Patmos who was used by Alexios I as his agent for reforming the numerous ancho-rites of the mountain of Kellia in Thessaly and tuming them to the cenobi-tic system that would ensure their landlessness (E. L. Vranousse, Ta Hagio-logika Keimena łon Hosiou Christodoulou, 1966, pp. 128—139). The condem-nation of the holy fools was undertaken by educated bishops, patriarchal officials and high-standing intellectuals such as Eustathios of Thessalonica, Theodore Balsamon, Nicetas Choniates, John Tzetzes, etc. The hagiography of those holy men who were by the establishment has a highly official fla-vour. According to P. Magdalino, "The biographers of Hosios Meletios were a leading theologian and a poet laureate ...; the biographer of Cyril Phileo-tes was one of the monks handpicked by Manuel (I Comnenus 1143—1180) to Staff his new model monastery of Kataskepe, and Cyril is madę to deliver a long tirade against vagrant monks” (The Byzantine Saint, 1981, p. 62). The Life of St. Paraskeve that was written in the Iow style by a layman, was bumed by order of the wise patriarch and fine poet Nicholas Mouzalon (1147 —» 1151). Hagiographical purification and the rejection of the holy men reflect the repressive ideology of the period which included measures against heresy> free thinking and pagan survivals and affected people like John Italos, Basil the Bogomil, Soterichos Panteugenos and other dissidents. Balsamon explain-ed that the Life of St. Paraskeve was bumed because it "had been written by some villager in an amateurish way inappropriate to the angelic life-style of the Saint”; Balsamon's ideał hagiography was that established in the second half of the 10.c. by Symeon Metaphrastes, who had ''adomed the martyrs' acts for the sake of truth” (P.G., 137, coL 733; P. Madgalino, art. cit., pp. 61—62, cf. 51—66). Like Michael Psellos, Balsamon, and obviously Mouzalon, believed that Symeon had improved both the style and the con-tent of the Lives of ascetics and martyrs which he re-wrote, while for H. Dele-haye he was funestissimus homo, devastator (P. Lemerle, Ho Protos Byzan-tinos Humanismos, 1985, pp. 269—270; P. Van Den Ven, La Legende de S. Spyridon Eveque de Trimithonte, 1953, pp. 130—136).

19.    Although Constantine Akropolites, the Megas Logothetes (1296 f.) and hagiographer, unduly called The New Metaphrastes (d. 1321) composed an encomion for an obscure monk in the empire of Nicaea, John the Almsgiver the Younger, the holy man was not favoured in that empire: its main saints are two of its emperors and one of its patriarchs: John III Vatatzes (1222—

1254), John IV Laskaris (1258—1261) and the Patriarch Arsenios (1255—

1259, 1261 — 1265). John III was known as Almsgiver due to his pnusual philan-

thropy and compassion for his subjects. His reputation as a Saint waś increa—