The Life of St. Leo of Catania: Some Thoughts on Its Various Redactions in the Light of a Hitherto Ignored Source

In recent decades, there has been vigorous debate concerning the mutual relationship and chronological priority of the two redactions of the Life of St. Leo of Catania BHG 981 (an Italo-Greek Vita which has been thought to be a censored form of a now lost earlier text of iconoclast origin) and 981b (probably a Constantinopolitan text). Paying attention to a hitherto overlooked source, a new comparative analysis of some passages of these two texts may provide useful arguments in this regard and shed light on the background of one of the most picturesque episodes of the narrative.