Vita sanctorum (English spelling)

...general term for books that record the biographies and deeds of Christian saints and martyrs. In the Catholic Church, a distinction is strictly made between the Lives of the Saints (Vita sanctorum, Liber legendarius) and the Lives of the Martyrs (Liber passionarius), but since the record of the first anniversary of the martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (156), which is the second oldest after Stephen's martyrdom in the Acts of the Apostles, there has been a custom of telling the lives of martyrs and saints and celebrating their death anniversaries. To celebrate the anniversary of the death of a saint on each day, a book of martyrs called a melogion and a collection of brief biographies of saints in chronological order called a menaion have also been created since ancient times.

*Some of the terminology that mentions "Vita sanctorum" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…キリスト教の聖人や殉教者の伝記，事績を記した書物の総称。カトリック教会では厳密には聖人伝Vita sanctorum,Liber legendariusと殉教者伝Liber passionariusは区別されるが，《使徒行伝》中のステパノの殉教の次に古いスミュルナの司教ポリュカルポスの殉教1周年祭の記録(156)以来，殉教者，聖人の生涯を語り命日を祝う風習があった。各日にその日が命日である聖人を祝うためにメロギオンと呼ばれる殉教者録や，メナイオンと呼ばれる日付順の聖人の略伝集も古代から作られている。…

※「Vita sanctorum」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報