From Asceticism to Love

The Transformations of Saint Alexis’ Legend in Western Europe through the 13th Century

Abstract

This article considers some relevant textual changes occurred in the most important Latin versions of Saint Alexis’ legend between the 10th and 13th centuries. The aim is to understand the transformation of the story in the passage from its original byzantine context into Western Europe. The main thesis argued is that there were two fundamental adaptation procedures. The first one consisted in reinterpreting Saint Alexis as a predecessor of the eremites who assumed voluntary poverty during the High Middle Ages. The second interpretation lay in understanding this saint’s story by the model of the so called amor de lonh (distant love), which was very common amongst the courtly poetry and narrative from the 12th century on.