Hagiologia a inne dyscypliny naukowe

For this reason the present paper is first illustrating the evolution of thought ± from hagiography to hagiology. The question is articulated about the justified legitimacy of the introduction of the notion of "hagiology". The distinctness of the subject of research, which itself often demands application of the new methods, certainly proves the right to introduce the notion of "hagiology" into hitherto existing hagiographical researches. Having this on mind, the next question arises: how far the subjects of hagiology and hagiography converge between themselves? If holiness as a God’s gift has always points towards man, then in some regard the subject of hagiography coincides with that of hagiology. Introducing more precise distinctions, one should say that the exact meaning of "hagiography" would designate the popular biographies of saints, "scientific hagiography" would indicate the biographies of the saints, whose life has been investigated on the basis of formal criteria accepted by Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Hagiology instead would mean the realm of the knowledge, which in scientific way examines the sources and elaborates the main issues concerning holiness. It seems that more important difference can be seen in the methodology of researches themselves than in the subject of hagiography and hagiology. The popular narration, used often by chroniclers in the biographies of the saints, should be rather replaced by more objective and scientific narration. In order to create the scientific narrations hagiologist should acquire comprehensive knowledge, which covers a large range of scientific subjects: the Bible, Tradition of the Church, hagiography, spiritual theology, liturgy, history of the Church, psychology, etc. It is why the present paper subsequently shows the relations between hagiology and the above mentioned theological and humanistic subjects. Author is aware that the connection between hagiology and the others scientific disciplines is much wider and calls for more extensive studies. It can be said that the above paper is a small compendium in the examined subject and recognises the need to carry on further studies in this field.