Sketching Guthlac as a Model of Monastic Virtues: Vercelli Homily XXIII, Guthlac A and the Vita Sancti Guthlaci

The Vita Sancti Guthlaci represents an interesting Anglo-Latin hagiographic text. Written by a monk called Felix between the 736 and 740, the Vita contains life and deeds of Guthlac, one of the first Anglo-Saxon (and Mercian) saint. The Vita should have had a wide reception in Anglo-Saxon England, as demonstrated not only by the relatively high number of manuscripts containing Felix's text, but also by the corpus of Old English translations and rewritings of Guthlac’s life. Unrelated rielaborations of the Vita, the Old English texts are focussed on specific events of Guthlac's life, as the eremitic choice and the fight against the demons. The paper aims at giving a comparative reading of the Vercelli sermon dedicated to Guthlac (Vercelli XXIII). Short prose text based on chapters XXVIII-XXXIII of Felix's Vita, the Vercelli sermon shows a well planned re-reading not only of Felix’s narration, but also of the figures of St. Guthlac and St.Bartholomew, Guthlac’s heavenly patron. Exaltation of Guthlac's virtues, the sermon describes Guthlac as an example of stableness and moderation, which emphasises the content of the Latin source.