The contributions of this volume proceed from a panel entitled “Syriac Hagiog- raphy: Between Cult and Literature,” that we organized at the 12th Symposium Syriacum, held in Rome on 19–24 August 2016.1
The panel and this book reflect an increased interest in the field of Syriac hagiography over the last twenty years. This interest resulted in substantial developments in two significant areas. First, there has been a noticeable growth in the number of hagiographical texts made available to the scholarly commu- nity both through critical editions and translations into modern languages. Sec- ond, following the rise of digital humanities, we have been witnessing the cre- ation of several electronic, open-access, online tools that facilitate the study of Syriac saints and hagiographical texts from different perspectives. This renewal echoes the expansion of the field prompted one century ago, at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, by scholars such as Paul Bedjan, Addai Scher, François Nau and Paul Peeters. They carried out monumental works of editing, translating and organizing Syriac hagiographi- cal sources.