This landmark edited collection offers a new series of studies of power, religion and language in the literature of the Slavic Christian world. The focus is on how saints became symbols of power during conversion and the process of transition to Christianity. Studies of locally venerated saints provide a road into early Slavic societies because saints and their cults existed and were sustained for a wide variety of reasons. Rulers and church-leaders alike needed symbols and narratives to maintain and expand their power, and hagiographies allow us to study how this power was brokered, shared and grasped by elites. Collectively, the authors in this volume pursue the idea that saints are an outward expression of Christianity becoming embedded and localized in the newly Christianized societies of East and Central Europe.

The period covered here stretches from the Macedonian dynasty in Eastern Rome (c. 800) to the rise of Muscovite rule in Russia (c. 1600). The main focus is on the Slavic religious traditions but, as this volume demonstrates, Greek and Baltic traditions were also significant.

This book will be essential reading for researchers and students interested in the religious and cultural history of Eastern Europe, the cult of saints, and the rise of Christendom.