Fabrizio PETORELLA (Università di Pisa)
QUIA NON, SICUT VIDET HOMO, VIDET DEUS. CECITÀ E GUARIGIONE NELLA VITA DI SEVERINO DI EUGIPPIO
Keywords: Life of Severinus, spiritual blindness, healing, miracles, Late Antique hagiography.
Abstract: Quia non, sicut videt homo, videt deus. Blindness and Healing in Eugippius’ Life of Severinus. An exceptional source for understanding the events that affected Noricum in Late Antiquity, Eugippius’ Life of Severinus is also, and above all, a hagiographic work which fully respects the canons proper to its literary genre. Its protagonist is thus portrayed as an exceptional saint, able to perform miracles of various kinds which cannot easily be traced back to common patterns. However, it is singular that, in such a multiform context, a specific theme – that of healing from blindness – returns on several occasions, declined in very different manners and contexts. It is precisely the passages of the Life of Severinus devoted to this topic that will constitute the subject of the present article. A careful analysis will allow to identify the fil rouge which links them and to reconstruct the message that Eugippius intends to convey through them to his audience. As will be seen, skillfully re-elaborating a widespread hagiographic topos, the biographer develops a refined discourse on spiritual blindness, within which Severinus’ teachings play an absolutely prominent role.