Sleep as an Arena for Encountering God. The Meaning of Dreams in "Vita Sancti Danielis Stylitae"
Dominika Łucja Budzanowska-Weglenda
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9030-9583
Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyze how the anonymous author of Vita S. Danielis Styliae presents the meaning of dream and sleeping (but also insomnia) and the variety of dream visions in this hagiographic work. It turns out that sleep played a significant role in the lives of ancient ascetics and was a place, an arena, for encounters with God. It was least important as rest. While Daniel, at the urging of his emperor-friend, ensured proper rest for the visitors and monks gathering at the foot of the pillar, in his struggle for salvation and the crown of heavenly glory, he primarily focused on mortification and overcoming the needs of the body in favor of the needs of the soul. In this case, it is more appropriate to speak of the significance of the ascetic’s insomnia as a means or space for seeking closeness to God. Furthermore, sleep appears as a way for God to speak to man, or more precisely, to foretell his future or even to motivate him to make specific life decisions, such as beginning asceticism on the pillar. Finally, death is compared to sleep-dormition, likely to show that life does not end there; it continues in God, and the witness of the holy monk’s life continually supports those still on pilgrimage to heavenly eternity on earth.
Keywords:
Daniel the Stylite, Vita Sancti Danielis Stylitae, monk-stylite, dream, sleeping, dormition, Christian asceticism, early monasticism, ConstantinopleReferences
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Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9030-9583
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