James Walters 

Rochester Christian University

Syriac Hagiographies in the HMML Collection: An Overview 

Recently, I completed a four-year position at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML), where my primary responsibility was cataloging Syriac manuscripts. As such, I was able to work with a number of Syriac hagiographic collections, and I was also able to work closely with colleagues who cataloged manuscripts in other languages to identify relationships between hagiographic texts across linguistic borders. In this presentation, I would like to provide a “big picture” overview of Syriac hagiographical literature in the various manuscript collections that HMML has digitized, including some of the most interesting finds during my time as a cataloger. As part of this presentation, I would also like to help scholars and researchers learn how to find specific texts on the vHMML website. Even with a searchable catalog, though, it’s not always easy for researchers to find texts they are looking for; so I plan to create a comprehensive (or nearly comprehensive) guide for locating specific Syriac hagiographic texts that are found in the vHMML Reading Room. Subsequently, it is my hope that the data collected for this guide can be added to various online reference resources, such as Qadishe: A Guide to the Syriac Saints, in order to make the discovery of manuscript sources for Syriac hagiographic texts easier for future research.