Furthermore, in Byzantine culture, people had a sense that the world was permeated with sanctity. They believed that the holy could reveal itself at any moment when and where one might not expect.311 Therefore one could never be certain who was a holy fool. Belief in legends of the “secret servants of the Lord,” who could appear in the guise of the worst of ordinary lay people, gave rise to later understandings and narrations of the holy fool.312
