08 — The Sources

Almost everything known of St. Simeon reaches us through four medieval Serbian Lives, two of them written by his own sons — the same source-family the St. Sava collection reads. This section sets out the four Lives and their dates, distinguishes their registers and dependence, and weighs their hagiographic character, so that the documented Nemanja can be told apart from the venerated Simeon without dissolving either.

Tradition: Serbian Orthodox

Contents

• The Four Lives — St. Sava’s Life of St. Symeon (c. 1208), Stefan the First-Crowned’s Life (c. 1216), Domentijan (1264), and Teodosije (c. 1290–1320): who wrote them, when, and what each is for.
• Hagiography Weighed — the source-critical discipline: reading Lives written by a saint’s own sons in a doxological register, distinguishing the documented deeds from the miraculous cult, and the peculiar problem of a father made a saint by his son.

See Also

• St. Sava: The Sources — the same source-family, read for the son
• The Myrrh-Gusher — the cult these sources attest
• St. Xenia: Hagiography vs. History — the repository’s flagship source-critical statement