The Religious Lives of Children and Adolescents

Ensuring Childbirth in Byzantium:Deviant and non-deviant practices

“…Between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Theophylaktos, Metropolitan of Ochrid, testified to the magical methods available to women in his time. He referred to infertile couples turning to astrology 45 , and praises the mother of the Virgin Mary, St Anne, because she did not seek a medical cure for her infertility -as recorded in the second-century Protoevangelion of James (ἐλιτάνευσεν τὸν Δεσπότην […] ἐπάκουσον τῇς δεήσεώς μου 46 )-nor did she wear an amulet, drink a potion (πόμα) or resort to magic, but simply prayed 47 . Theophylaktos speaks disparagingly of both magical and medical practices, as both apparently demonstrated lack of faith in God.…”

The Syriac World

“…These were often wholly informal arrangements, as so much of Syriac monastic life could be. They were not always the result of rebellion or rupture in a family, although Syriac hagiography also engaged that trope (Vuolanto 2009;Hatlie 2006).…”