Chastity stripped bare: On temporal and eternal things in the Sacra Parallela

The only known illuminated copy of the Sacra Parallela (Paris, BnF, gr. 923) presents a unique rendering of Basil the Great in the company of two female personifications, identified here as lust and chastity. Adopting as its ideological premise the social visions of Basil and John Chrysostom on wealth and poverty, this essay argues that the peculiar image is informed by two interrelated monastic concerns - earthly possessions and the desire of the flesh - and participates in a discourse on issues of earthly wealth and sexual abstinence.