Viltė Stukaitė

Witnessing the Miracle: the Genesis and Nature of the Early Greek and Roman Rite Catholic Miracle Books

Viltė Stukaitė

Vilnius University

Witnessing the Miracle: the Genesis and Nature of the Early Greek and Roman Rite Catholic Miracle Books

Keywords: religious literature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the icon of Our Lady of Zyrowicz, the image of Our Lady of Trakai, miracles, miracles books

The images of the Virgin Mary, situated within the broader context of other religious cult objects of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, are distinguished by their abundance, canonicity of their forms, and their devotional significance. These sacred images reveal a unique cultural and religious environment shaped by the contact between the Eastern and Western churches in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Venerated by both the Catholic and Orthodox communities, these icons occupied a profound place in the devotional life of the region. In the early 17th century, the development of the practice of veneration of the Virgin Mary contributed to the emergence of the miracle books – printed compilations documenting miraculous events attributed to specific cultic images. These texts served both to affirm the sanctity of particular icons and to promote pilgrimage to associated sanctuaries. The information about the history of the sanctuary, the people who experienced miracles, their number, social status, and religious affiliation, recorded in the miracle books, not only testifies to the history of the place of worship, the practices of devotion to the Virgin Mary by the faithful who belonged to different religious communities, but also provides a deeper insight into the daily life of the faithful in a particular place, as well as the diseases and afflictions that accompanied them. The presentation aims to reveal the genesis and nature of the earliest known miracle books of Zyrowicz and Trakai, as well as to compare the universality and differences of the religious practices recorded in them. Through a comparative analysis of the testimonies, recorded in the Roman Catholic miracle book Kościół Farski Trocki Cudami Przenaświetszey Bogarodzice P. Maryey obiaśniony... (1645) and the Greek Catholic miracle books Historia abo powieść zgodliwa… (1622, 1629), the presentation aims to examine the prevalence of the veneration practices associated with the images of Our Lady of Zyrowicz and Trakai among Catholic and Orthodox communities of the period.