Varlaam and Ioasaf: From Legend to Sanctification

The author investigates how The Life of Buddha became a highly successful Christian narrative in the Middle Ages, while also exploring how it was possible for the founder of Buddhism to be celebrated as a saint in Catholic and Orthodox calendars. To this end, the journey of the legend from India to the Western world is traced. Special attention is given to the narrative's circulation in the Romanian space, where it first entered in the Slavonic language. The oldest Slavonic manuscript is a Middle Bulgarian codex from the early 15th century, once kept at Neamț Monastery and now housed in the Library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest. The first, and most valuable, Romanian translation of The Life of Barlaam and Josaphat was made in 1648 by Udriște Năsturel from a Slavonic original. Since then, the work has sparked continuous interest, as evidenced by the numerous manuscript copies in which it circulated, the multiple translations, and its influence in other cultural domains. In the 15th century, when only Slavonic versions of the text circulated in Romanian territory, scenes from the lives of the two ascetics were depicted on the walls of Neamț Monastery, painted by the decorative artists of Prince Stephen the Great.