Barlaam and Josaphat

Barlaam and Josaphat , legend popular in medieval times. It corresponds in part to the legend of Buddha. Versions of the story have been found in nearly every language. At the birth of Josaphat (or Joasaph), the son of the Indian king Abenner, it was prophesied that the young prince was destined for greatness not as a royal leader but as a holy man. The king did all that was possible to stop the prophecy from coming true, but the prince, through the teachings of the monk Barlaam, was converted to religion (according to Western legend, Christianity). After the death of Abenner, Josaphat abdicated the throne and lived out the remainder of his days with Barlaam, as a religious recluse.

Bibliography: See the standardized Greek text with translation by G. R. Woodward and H. Mattingly (1914).

Barlaam and Josaphat, a late, 12th-cent. Anglo-Norman romance, interesting as a Christianized version of the legend of Buddha.

Barlaam and Josaphat. Two Christian saints venerated in both the Greek and Roman churches who were the protagonists of a popular medieval religious tale. Around a century and a half ago it was discovered that the story is based on the legend of the life of the Buddha. The name Josaphat is a corruption of the Sanskrit word Bodhisattva, a term applied to the Buddha before he became enlightened. In the Western version of the tale, Josaphat is the son of a king, and on his birth a prediction is made that he will either become a great king or renounce the world to follow a religious calling. His father does all he can to prevent his son following a religious vocation, but on a visit outside the palace one day Josaphat meets Barlaam, an ascetic who gives him religious instruction. Guided by his spiritual mentor Josaphat renounces the world and becomes a great saint. The story thus parallels the life of Siddhartha Gautama at various points, although the theology is adapted for a Christian context and the theme concerns the notion of salvation through faith. There are Greek, Georgian, and Arabic translations of the legend, but it became most widely known in Europe through a Latin version in the 11th and 12th centuries. From the 13th to the 15th century numerous vernacular versions appeared and new forms of the story were produced in prose, verse, and dramatic form.