Article
Review of T. Arentzen, The Virgin in Song. Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017)
Review of T. Arentzen, The Virgin in Song. Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017)
This chapter explores the different uses of hymn-singing, both liturgical and devotional, as elements of devotion to, and cult of, saints in late antique Greek-speaking Christian communities
This article discusses one of the most peculiar elements of the Diocletianic tradition in Coptic hagiographical texts which is unattested in any other historical sources — namely, the special connection between Diocletian and his favourite god, Apollo. It appears that the authors of Coptic texts used for re-creating the historical setting of the events of the Great Persecution not only the material provided in the works of Christian historiographers, such as Eusebius, Lactantius and John Malalas, but also homiletic and hymnographic material found in other sources. The descriptions of the Diocletian’s connection with Apollo in the Coptic texts contradict the historical evidence (Diocletian’s tutelary deity was Zeus, not Apollo); however, they evince their authors’ knowledge of the references to the cult of Apollo at Antioch in the works of the two most popular Antiochian authors of later period — John Chrysostom and Severus of Antioch. Their homilies in honour of St Babylas of Antioch have been known in Egypt from the relatively early stage and have obviously influenced the Coptic perception of Antioch as a centre of the cult of Apollo; one might also see the how these later episodes — the story of Julian the Apostate and the relics of St Babylas — were re-imagined and re-introduced by Coptic hagiographers into the martyr passions of the Diocletianic period.
The short paper offers a critical assessment of the historical method in the recent Liturgical Subjects by D. Krueger, and extends the discussion into wider reflections on methodology of the studies of Christian liturgy and how they reflect larger shifts in early Christian studies. It is argued that thinking in terms of ‘grand narratives’ and unchanging liturgical patterns is ultimately rooted in the academic agendas of the nineteenth century. It is also suggested that the quest for innovative approaches to liturgical research should account for both new methodologies introduced and the historical insights of traditional scholarship.
The present thesis is a study of Athanasios of Alexandria‘s thought and writings—predominantly pastoral—in the context of ecclesial, ascetic, and liturgical developments in fourth-century Christian communities in Egypt. I explore Athanasios‘ Festal Letters, individual correspondence (primarily the Letter to Markellinos), and the Life of Antony from the perspective of the bishop‘s concerns about the contemporaneous diversity of devotional and liturgical practices of praying and hymn-singing. The central argument of this thesis is that Athanasios had a coherent vision of the ideal Christian prayer and hymnody. For Athanasios, 'orthodox‘ Christians—lay and ascetics, educated devotees and common believers alike—should derive their practices of devotion and liturgy from the Bible—the Psalter and the Biblical odes—rather than other sources. Athanasios‘ programme of devotional and liturgical orthopraxy centred around the Biblical ideal is part of his much broader ecclesiological project of bringing unity to the division-riddled church of Egypt. The bishop conceives of the Scripturally-cued shared patters of praying and hymn-singing as one of the means to unify scattered Christian communities. Although his pastoral programme of a uniform Biblical devotion is not as self-consciously and combatively formulated as e.g. his polemic against the 'Arians‘ or Meletians, it surfaces across his writings with consistency. Targeted against the diversity of modes of prayer and hymn-singing practiced across a variety of doctrinally, ecclesially, and socially different communities, Athanasios‘ pastoral programme of devotional orthopraxy reflected the trends towards unification in the bishop-led Christian culture of late antiquity and contributed to their further strengthening.
This volume arises from the international conference 'Hymns of the First Christian Millennium — Doctrinal, Devotional, and Musical Patterns' held in June 2014 at the Institute of Classical Studies in conjunction with King's College London. The original scope of the conference has been re-scaled to focus particularly on late antique Christian devotion as it manifests itself in hymns; experts on a variety of topics of early Christian hymnody have been invited to boost both specificity and depth of discussion in the proposed volume. The resulting collection of papers covers a range of aspects of literary, social, doctrinal, musicological, and devotional patterns of Christian hymnic texts, their liturgical and pious use in the period of late antiquity.
This article discusses a process that could be defined as ‘exchange of saints’ between Egypt and Syria in the second half of the first millennium. Coptic synaxaria and liturgical books contain commemorations not only of the local martyrs who were born and suffered in Egypt, but also a great number of commemorations of foreign saints who later became appropriated by the Coptic Church, such as a group of the so-called Antiochene saints whose relics were claimed to belong to Egypt either because these saints were martyred in Egypt or because the relics had been transferred to Egypt at some point. The presence of these saints in early hymnographic collections preserved in two manuscripts of the ninth century (M574 and M575 of the Pierpont Morgan Library) provides ample evidence of the continuing and lasting interest of the Egyptian Christians in Antiochene saints. Such enthusiasm could probably be explained by the work of Severus of Antioch (465-538) who did a great deal to promote the exchange of saints between the two communities. The article also examines the seeming absence of reciprocity on the Syrian side and reviews the evidence provided by the early material, such as the hymns attributed to Severus of Antioch, which came down to us in Syriac translation revised by James of Edessa in the seventh century. One of these texts, a hymn dedicated to the Egyptian martyrs, is of particular interest in regard to the ‘exchange of saints’ and shows that the process was in fact reciprocal.
The chapter offers a critical re-consideration of both late antique accounts, and modern scholarly discussions, of the so-called 'heretical hymns' in use in late antique Christian communities.