Lʼobjectif de cette étude est de saisir le but dʼun discours hagiographique, en fondant lʼanalyse sur la tradition, lʼauteur, le style et le public de certains textes de l'Antiquité tardive. Les auteurs de ces textes, écrits en prose grecque et illustrés par lʼÉloge de Saint Anastase de Georges de Pisidie, suivaient les préceptes de la rhétorique et réélaboraient les canons de la littérature hagiographique. La thèse est divisée en cinq chapitres. Le premier trace une histoire de la réécriture et montre lʼévolution de la technique paraphrastique entre le sixième et le septième siècle après J.-C. Lʼanalyse se prolonge jusqu'aux soixante-dix Miracles de Cyr et Jean par Sophrone de Jérusalem et à lʼÉloge de Saint Anastase par Georges de Pisidie, une métaphrase des actes du martyre, dont le but était de propager les victoires de lʼEmpire chrétien contre la Perse. Dès le deuxième chapitre, lʼattention se concentre uniquement sur lʼÉloge, dont une première traduction italienne est proposée. Le troisième chapitre traite de la diffusion du culte de Saint Anastase après son martyre, advenu le 22 janvier 628 après J.-C. Le quatrième chapitre se focalise sur la technique utilisée par Georges pour réécrire les actes du martyre de Saint Anastase. Le dernier chapitre analyse la structure de lʼÉloge, en essayant de montrer les points où la prose de Georges suit les préceptes de la rhétorique ancienne tardive. Ce travail espère ainsi souligner lʼimportance de lʼÉloge dans la production panégyrique de Georges, dans le contexte de lʼhistoire littéraire du septième siècle après J.-C. et, plus généralement, de lʼAntiquité tardive. / The aim of the thesis is to understand the purpose of an hagiographic discourse, basing the analysis on the tradition, the author, the style and the public of certain texts. These texts (exemplified by the Encomium of Saint Anastasius by George of Pisidia) were written in Greek prose during the period of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium. Their authors increasingly tended to follow the precepts of rhetoric and to rework the canons of hagiographic literature. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first traces the history of rewriting and shows the evolution of the paraphrastic technique between the sixth and seventh centuries AD. The analysis extends up to the seventy Miracles of Cyrus and John by Sophronius of Jerusalem and to the Encomium of Saint Anastasius by George of Pisidia, a metaphrase of the acts of martyrdom, whose aim was to propagate the victories of the Christian Empire against Persia. From the second chapter, the attention is focused only on the Encomium, of which is offered a first Italian translation. The third chapter is a discussion on the spread of the cult of Saint Anastasius, after his martyrdom on January 22, 628 AD. The fourth chapter focuses on the technique used by George to rewrite the acts of the martyrdom of Saint Anastasius. The last chapter analyzes the structure of the Encomium, trying to highlight the points where the prose of George seems to follow more closely the dictates of late antique rhetoric. It is hoped with this to emphasize the importance of a text as the Encomium, within the panegyric production of George of Pisidia, but also the literary history of the seventh century AD and, more generally, of Late Antiquity.

St Cuthbert's literary cult was conceived in the late seventh and early eighth century with the production of three vitae, most importantly Bede's prose Vita sancti Cuthberti. Over the ensuing centuries, the cult stimulated the production of a great wealth of hagiographic material: this thesis analyses the key Cuthbertine works that were written by his Church during a turbulent but also prosperous time, between the ninth century and the end of the twelfth. Each chapter takes as a specific focus one of these texts, using it as a basis for exploring a number of themes pertaining to the cult of St Cuthbert, wider developments in the cult of the saints, and the changing and variable uses of hagiographic and historical writing. The first chapter takes the Historia de sancto Cuthberto as an example of a text combining property records with miracles, and written episodically over a period spanning more than a century, establishing the thesis'€™ triumvirate of themes: the fluidity of texts and of the representation of saints, and the enduring power of the Cuthbertine Church. Chapter Two explores the multifaceted identity that the Cuthbertine Church sought to convey for itself in Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de exordio. The third and fourth chapters focus on two highly flexible and manipulated texts, Capitula de miraculis sancti Cuthberti and Brevis relatio de sancto Cuthberto, which appear in manuscripts together, and often amalgamated: they are used to examine how a saint's image could be changed, and to question our often static notion of a text'€™s identity. The final chapter takes Reginald's Libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus to compare the miracle profiles of all the Cuthbertine texts, contextualising them with formative studies in the cult of saints such as the work of Sigal (1985) and Vauchez (1981). The thesis ends by suggesting that Cuthbert's cult was still thriving at the end of the twelfth century, and continued to do so, in the semi-independent socio-political and cultural sphere of northern England and southern Scotland. The discussions in these chapters are supplemented by four appendices: a table giving detailed synopses and a thematic breakdown of Reginald's Libellus, and a table categorising and comparing the miracles that appear in all these Cuthbertine works provide the basis for exploring Cuthbert'€™s changing miraculous persona; a map charting the locations pertinent to Reginald's Libellus shows the vibrant geographical extent of Cuthbert'™s cult; a table of manuscripts illustrates the various permutations into which these texts may be worked.