Book excerpt: This Companion is the work of an international team of specialists and represents the first comprehensive survey ever produced in the field of Byzantine hagiography. This first volume covers the authors and texts of the four distinctive periods during which Greek Byzantine hagiography developed, as well the hagiography produced in Oriental and Slavic languages and in geographical milieux around the periphery of the empire, from Italy to Armenia. This volume is an essential resource for the scholarly community of Byzantinists, Medievalists, historians of religion and theorists of the narrative.