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34 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURES

Christian Europe once

celebrated the story of

Buddha without even

knowing it

By Jana Igunma

The Buddha as Josaphat became a saint in medieval Europe with his own and Georgian have been discovered.
feast day: November 27. The story became commonly known
as Barlaam and Josaphat in medieval
Europe. The name Josaphat, in
Persian and Arabic, spelt variously
Budasf, Budasaf, Yudasaf or
Iosaph, is a corruption of the title
Bodhisattva which stands for
Buddha-to-be, referring to Prince
Siddhartha who became Gotama
Buddha with his enlightenment.

Illustration of Josaphat’s, or the Buddha with the Greek lettering
Bodhisattva’s, renunciation of the ΒΟΔΔΟ – Boddo for Buddha –
world in a German printed version were found on gold coins from
from Augsburg, circa 1470 CE. the Kushan empire dating back to
He takes his leave from Barachias the second century CE. Buddha
(left), whom he made king and then was mentioned in a Greek
embarks on the path of an ascetic source, Stromateis, by Clement of
(right). | Credit: British Library Alexandria as early as around 200
A mention of the legend of Barlaam
Jul 04, 2019 · 08:30 pm CE and another reference to Buddha
is found in St Jerome’s Adversus and Josaphat in a marginal
illustration in a manuscript
Europeans became increasingly Jovinianum written in 393 CE. A
famously known as the ‘Theodore
interested in the cultures and religious legend inspired by the
Psalter’, although the story itself
religions of Asia, or what they narrative of the Life of Buddha was
is not narrated here. Theodore,
later called the Orient, as a result well known in the Judaeo-Persian
proto-presbyter of the Studios
of trade relations throughout the tradition and early versions in
Monastery in Constantinople, made
first millennium CE. Images of Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian
the manuscript in ancient Greek for