UC Irvine

This paper examines the gendered themes in martyrologies concerning mid-fifth-century Sasanian persecutions. The Sasanian king Yazdgerd II (r. 438-457) introduced polices aimed at further centralizing his authority by forcing his empire’s religious and secular elites to adhere to the Zoroastrian faith. Syriac and Georgian hagiographies which refer to these repressive measures narrate accounts of female martyrs defying patriarchal authority. Armenian sources about Yazdgerd’s policies, on the other hand, mainly emphasize a pious army’s sacred struggle and martyrdom while battling Sasanian forces. By identifying the different manifestations of the same masculine qualities lauded in these texts, I argue that the Armenian narratives of sacralized warfare closely resemble the reactive and gendered themes of the solitary Syriac and Georgian martyr acts, with valorous armies representing militant elements within a larger political body. Following this logic, this study illustrates the central role of narrative in the makings of sanctified violence with the politicization of Christianity. I examine theories regarding late antique violence and the function of gender in early Christian literature. I also demonstrate the value of hagiological texts for the study of the history of the Sasanian Empire.