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The lament of the Virgin Mary from Romanos the Melode to George of Nicodemia.

Tsironis, Niki J

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 THE LAMENT OF THE VIRGIN MARY
FROM ROMANOS THE MELODE TO
GEORGE OF NICOMEDIA:

AN ASPECT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARIAN CULT

by

Niki J. Tsironis

A thesis submitted to the

Department ofByzantine and Modern Greek Studies
of King's College London - University ofLondon
for the Degree of
Doctorate of Philosophy

Department of Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies
King's College London
London WC2R 2LS

BIB1
LONDON
1n1v. June1998
Who walked between the violet and the violet
Who walked between
The various ranks of varied green
Going in white and blue, in Mary 'S colour,
Talking of trivial things
In ignorance and in knowledge of eternal dolour...

T.S.Eliot, Ash-Wednesday, 1930

2
 ABSTRACT

l'his thesis deals with the lament of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross from
the fifth to the ninth centuries. The Marian lament is studied with reference to the
growing cult of the Mother of God during the early and middle Byzantine period.
For the purpose of the present study I focused on literary texts with special
attention to the genre of homiletics, an invaluable source for the study of the
Byzantine thoughtworld that has only recently begun to be explored.
The development of the cult of the Mother of God has always been linked
to Christology. In the fifth century, at the time of the Nestorian controversy, Mary
became a focal point for the definition of the way in which humanity and divinity
co-existed in Christ. Similarly, at the time of the Iconoclastic controversy, Mary
became instrumental to the understanding of incarnational theology on the basis
of which the veneration of icons was defended by the Iconophiles. The
importance of Mary in Iconoclasm is testified by the substantial corpus of
homilies and hymns composed in her honour during the eighth and ninth
centuries. Accordingly, the veneration of the Mother of God was propounded by
the Iconophile writers of the period as a synonym of the cult of icons. The reason
for this association was the crucial role of Mary in the circumscription of the
Word that could thus be depicted in matter sanctified at the time of its assumption
by Christ.
Along with the cult of Mary, Iconophile writers drew increasing attention
to the Passion of the Lord as the moment in which his full humanity was
exemplified. The lament of the Virgin came to link the cult of Mary with the
Passion of the Lord. The kontakion of Romanos the Melode was the first instance
when these two themes were combined. After a break of almost two centuries the
lament of the Virgin is encountered in the Iconoclastic period, while the ninth
century witnessed the apogee of this literary theme that was subsequently
incorporated in the liturgical books of the Church and was used as a model by
iconographers.

3
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements............................................................................8
Listof Plates..................................................................................... 11
List of Abbreviations........................................................................13
Introduction......................................................................................16

CHAPTER ONE
THE LAMENT OF THE VIRGIN MARY IN THE EARLY
CHRISTIAN ERA

i. Introduction...........................................................................29
ii. The Heritage of Rhetoric.......................................................29
iii. The Lament in the Old Testament.........................................36
iv. The Age of Typology............................................................40
v. Mary in the New Testament..................................................41
vi. Aspects of Marian Devotion: The Approach of Early
ChristianWriters...................................................................43
vii. The Impassibility of God.......................................................60
viii. The Homily On the Pascha by Meliton of Sardis.................69
ix. Conclusion.............................................................................76

CHAPTER TWO
THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS AND THE FIRST LAMENTS
OF MARY AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS

i. Introduction...........................................................................79
ii. The Feasts of the Virgin and Apocryphal Literature.............83
4
iii. The Council of Ephesus .95
iv. Mary and the Suffering of Christ........................................100
v. The Prosopon of Christ.......................................................104
vi. Syriac Hymnography and Romanos the Melode.................109
vii. Conclusion...........................................................................119

CHAPTER THREE
THE PLACE OF THE VIRGIN IN THE ICONOCLASTIC
CONTROVERSY

i. Introduction.........................................................................122
ii. Sources and Interpretations.................................................126
iii. Chronicles and Acts of Oecumenical Councils...................127
iv. Hagiographical Sources.......................................................146
The Vita of Stephen the Younger.............................149
The Vita of the Empress Irene.................................. 156
The Vita of Peter of Atroa........................................159
The Vita of Irene, Abbess of Chrysobalanton..........161
The Vita of Peter the Athonite.................................167
The Vita of Michael Maleinos..................................173
v. Conclusion...........................................................................176

CHAPTER FOUR
MARIAN LITERATURE OF THE ICONOCLASTIC PERIOD

i. Introduction.........................................................................179
ii. Germanos I of Constantinople and Andrew of Crete..........183
iii. The Literary Opus of Germanos I.......................................187
iv. The Literary Opus of Andrew of Crete...............................191

5
v. John of Damascus .196
vi. Cosmas Maiouma .205
vii. Theodore and Theophanes Graptos....................................209
viii. Theodore the Stoudite........................................................211
ix. The Lamenting Virgin........................................................214
Homiliain Sabbatum Sanctum................................. 220
In Dominici Corporis Sepulturam............................ 223
Theodore the Stoudite, Oratio Catechetica in Sanctum
Magnum Paschalis Diem Dominicum...................... 228
Collections of Hymns on the Mother of God...........231
Stavrotheotokia....................................................... 235
x. Conclusion...........................................................................238

CHAPTER FIVE
THE LAMENT OF THE VIRGIN AFTER THE TRIUMPH OF
ORTHODOXY

iIntroduction.........................................................................241
ii. The Authors of the Post-Iconoclastic Period.......................243
iii. The Triumph of Orthodoxy.................................................250
iv. The Triumphal Virgin.........................................................253
v. The Virgin of Tenderness...................................................260
vi. The Lamenting Virgin.........................................................271
vii. Conclusion...........................................................................290

Epilogue..........................................................................................292
Plates..............................................................................................299
Appendix........................................................................................308

6
Bibliography .311
PrimarySources..................................................................312
SecondarySources..............................................................327
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The greatest debt of any student lies with his mentor. I am greatly

indebted to Professor Averil Cameron who has been a concerned and challenging

tutor; it was she who -while I was still an undergraduate- inspired me to become a

student of Byzantium. I would like to thank her both for her patience and for her

impatience during the time this thesis was in preparation. I extend my thanks to

the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at King's College

London, an ideal and scholarly setting for my undergraduate and postgraduate

years. I was fortunate to have the encouragement and understanding of Professor

Judith Herrin, Director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies, at King's College

London.

Bishop Kallistos has given me invaluable support as I have followed the

hard road leading towards knowledge of Byzantine theology. His lectures at the

University of Oxford, his erudition and theological learning helped me to resolve

many dilemmas. Professor Nikos Oikonomides, of the Institute for Byzantine

Research in Athens, showed unfailing patience and offered encouragement during

the painstaking process of writing up this thesis. My colleagues at the Institute for

Byzantine Research in Athens provided me with a suitable academic environment

within which I could pursue my work. From among these generous abetters, I

should single out Kriton Chrysochoides for his assistance with material

concerning Mount Athos.

8
 Fr loustinos Simonopetrites has been a constant source of inspiration and

support. I am grateful to Professor Athanasios Markopoulos, Professor Andrew

Louth, Dr Sebastian Brock and Dr Leslie Brubaker, all of whom kindly made

their expertise available to me at various points in my research. Also, I am

particularly grateful to Dr Mary Cunningham, an unfailing colleague and friend,

whose contribution to these pages extends far beyond my explicit references to

her published works. I should mention, too, Professor Pauline Allen who

welcomed an amateur to the team which worked on studies of homiletics that will

shortly be published under the title The Preacher and His Audience. Studies in

Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics.

My participation in the seminars held by the Patristic and Byzantine

Society of the University of Oxford proved of great value; the seminars were the

forum in which I was able to learn about the work of other scholars, but also to

present papers that provoked thoughtful responses at various stages of my

research. Thanks are due to Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh for giving me a

modern understanding of homiletics and to Fr Alexander Fostiropoulos, a man of

vision and dedication. Yanni Petsopoulos, John Stuart and Sylvia Rella presented

me with opportunities to personal insights into Byzantine art and invited me to

join them in lengthy and inspiring discussions about Byzantium.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the Leventis Foundation for

the grant of a scholarship for the academic year 1992-1993 and to Mr and Mrs

Constantine Leventis personally for their support of various projects I undertook.

Special thanks are due also to the Alexandros S. Onassis Public Benefit

9
Foundation for awarding me a scholarship for the academic years 1993-1994 and

1994-1995.

The librarians of the Institute for Byzantine Research and the Gennadeion

Library in Athens, as well as Françoise Jeanlin of the St Sergius Institute and the

late Madame Lecco of the BiblIotheque Nationale in Paris greatly facilitated my

research. I would also extend my deep gratitude to the following friends and

colleagues who supported me and offered invaluable comment throughout the

years of my research: Rebecca White, George Vassiadis, Christopher Veniamin,

Nikos Angelis, George Calofonos and Eni Koukoula. I am greatly indebted to

David Turner and to Michael Diakakis who proof-read and commented on an

earlier draft of my thesis and to John Leatham who has been a textual editor and

indefatigable proof-reader of the last draft of my work, as well as to Véronique

Magnes for her support and constructive criticism. Finally, I wish to express

heartfelt appreciation of my parents' unfailing moral and fmancial support which

have enabled me to bring this work to a close. To them I am greatly indebted.

10
 LIST OF PLATES

Plate I

Ivory Panel in the British Museum. Sixth century. Upper register: the Virgin with

an archangel holding a Cross and the three Magi. Lower register: the Nativity.

Plate II

Ivory Diptych with Christ Enthroned and the Theotokos with Christ Emmanuel.

Christ flanked by saints (probably Evangelists) and the Theotokos by the

archangels Michael and Gabriel. Sixth century. Staatliche Museum, Berlin.

Plate III

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Theodore and George and two

Angels.

Encaustic icon. Sixth century. St Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.

Plate IV

The Triumph of Orthodoxy. Constantinople, c. 1400. London, British Museum.

National Icon Collection, no. 18.

Plate V

The Theotokos and Child Enthroned. Apse mosaic, St Sophia, Constantinople.

The mosaic was inaugurated in 867 by the Patriarch Photius of Constantinople.

11
Plate VI

Gold Reliquary Diptych Pendant. Two panels worked in gold repoussé, chasing

and punching. Constantinople ninth to eleventh centuries. Petsopoulos Collection.

Axia Gallery, London.

Plate VII

The Cruc/1xion and Iconoclasts. Chludov Psalter, folio 67r. Circa 870-875. State

Historical Museum, Moscow.

Plate VIII

Front of the Fieschi -Morgan Reliquary. Crucdixion and Saints. Early ninth

century. Cloisonné enamel. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

12
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Journals in the text are cited in italics; all series in plain.

AB =Analecta Bollandiana, Brussels

ACO Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, E. Schwartz (ed.), Argentorati-

Berolini-Lipsiae

B =Byzantion, Revue Internationale.des Etudes Byzantines, Brussels

BBTT =Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations, Queen's University, Belfast

BMGS =Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

BSJEB =Byzantine Studies/Etudes Byzantines

BSGR =Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana,

Teubner, Stuttgart

ByzFor Byzantinische Forschungen, Amsterdam

ByzSlav =Byzantinoslavica, Revue Internationale des Etudes Byzantines, Prague

Contra Imaginum

= Contra Imaginum Calumniatores Orationes Tres (see John of

Damascus in Bibliography)

CFHB =Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, Bonn

CPT Cambridge Patristic Texts, Cambridge 1899-

CQ Classical Quarterly

CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Louvain, 1903-

DOP —Dumbarton Oaks Papers

DThC Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique, Paris

1-,
13
Dsp —Diclionnaire de Spiritualité

ECR —Eastern Churches Review

EHR —English Historical Review

EEBS 7rezrjpIç &atpeIaç Bvctvttv&v £zrov&v, Athens

EO Echos d'Orient

GCS =Die griechischen christlichen Schrzfisreller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte,

Leipzig, 1897-

GrOrthThR

—Greek Orthodox Theological Review, Holy Cross Orthodox Press

HThR =Harvard Theological Review

JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

JEChSt=Journal of Early Christian Studies, The John Hopkins University Press

JRS Journal of Roman Studies

JThS =Journal of Theological Studies

LT =The Lenten Triodion

Mansi Mansi J.D., Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio

MThHE

MEy& H9z ai Opevrz Ep-vidoirat&Ia, Athens

OCA =Orientalia Christiana Analecta, Rome

0DB =Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, A.P. Kazhdan (ed.), 3 vols., New York,

Oxford, 1991

PBR —Patristic and Byzantine Review, New York

PG =Migne, Patrologia Graeca

14
PGL A Patristic Greek Lexicon, (see Lampe in bibliography)

PL =Migne, Patrologia Latina

P0 =Patrologia Orientalis

REB =Revue des Etudes Byzantines, Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines,

Paris

ROC Revue de 1 'Orient Chrétien

RSR =Revue des Sciences Réligieuses, Paris

SC =Sources Chrtiennes, H. De Lubac, J. Daniélou (eds.), Paris 1941-

SubsHag

Subsidia Hagiographica, Brussels

SPBS =Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies

TM =Travaux et Mémoires, Centre de Recherche d'Histoire et Civilisation

Byzantines, CNRS, Paris

15
 INTRODUCTION

The subject of this thesis is the lament of the Virgin at the foot of the

Cross in Byzantine literature from the fifth to the ninth centuries. The Marian

lament is a theme that in itself is absent from the New Testament while the

presence of Mary at the foot of the Cross is attested only in the Johannine Gospel

(19:25-27). The lament of the Virgin has been studied in a brief article by

Margaret Alexiou who also referred to the same topic in her book about the ritual

lament.' Alexiou's studies, however invaluable, do not relate the development of

the lament to the development of the cult of the Virgin Mary which passed

through several stages during the early and middle Byzantine period. The present

thesis aims to study the lament of the Virgin in connexion with the development

of her cult and to examine possible associations between the Marian cult and

contemporary Byzantine theology.

Any researcher attempting an examination of the cult of the Virgin

inevitably faces methodological problems that have preoccupied many

researchers to the present day.2 The Catholic scholar René Laurentin, who has

dedicated most of his work to the study of the Mother of God has also considered

the methodological issues involved in the study of Mary in connexion with

'M. Alexiou, "The Lament of the Virgin in Byzantine Literature and Modern Greek
Folk Song," BMGS 1, 1975, 111-140; eadem, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition,
Cambridge, 1974.
2
See for example René Laurentin, "Un problème initial de methodologie mariale," H.Du
Manoir (ed.), Maria, vol. 1, Paris, 1949, 697-706 and esp. 703-4.
16
subjects (such as the Immaculate Conception -the supreme issue in Roman

Catholic Mariology-, the Avis Salutaires of the seventeenth century, or the issue

of the co-redemption and intercession of Mary) that have interested scholars and

theologians alike from the Middle Ages till now. Laurentin distinguishes two

approaches: the critical or scientific and the mystical. 3 The methodological issues

involved in the study of Mary are due to the few references to the Mother of God

in the New Testament and to the subsequent lack of any substantial doctrinal

formulations by the oecumenical councils of the Church, with the sole exception

of the Third Oecumenical Council (431). Theologians have therefore confined

themselves to the material offered by the Fathers, who drew upon both the

Synoptic Gospels, the apocryphal literature, and Church tradition. I believe that

Vladimir Lossky is the only one who has asserted in so many words that devotion

to the Virgin Mary as a tradition of the Church, sanctioned by centuries of

religious practice, should be considered as prestigious as the 'dogma' itself.4

Lossky considers that dogma and devotion are inseparably linked in the

consciousness of the Church and he adds that "dogma should throw light on

devotion, bringing it into contact with the fundamental truths of our faith;

R. Laurentin, Court traité sur la Vierge Marie, Paris, 1968; E.L. Mascall, "The
Dogmatic Theology of the Mother of God," in idem (ed.), The Mother of God (a
Symposium), London 1949, 37-50 and esp. 37-8 where Mascall shows his awareness of
the complexity of the study of the Virgin and makes a notable effort to define his point
of departure and the perspective from which he tackles the issue. The question of
methodology is also discussed by many other scholars, such as V.Lossky and
G.Florovsky.
V. Lossky, 'Panagia' in J.H. Erion and T.E. Bird (eds.), In the Image and Likeness of
God, CrestwoodNewYork, 1985, 195-2lOaridesp. 196.
17
whereas devotion should enrich dogma with the Church's living experience". 5 In

the present study I hope to prove that the lament and the cult of the Mother of

God are indeed linked to the theological preoccupations of particular periods of

Byzantine history and that this link fully justifies Lossky's position.

Before entering directly into the subjects treated in each chapter of this

thesis it is desirable to divert briefly to consider the issue of continuity between

the cult of goddesses in antiquity and the cult of the Mother of God. Both the

lament and the cult of the Virgin Mary have been the subject of studies that

attempt to demonstrate the continuity between the ancient Greek and the

Byzantine tradition. 6 The cult of the Mother of God has been studied from

perspectives that differ a great deal from one another and which in most cases fail

to establish a link between the historical and the theological currents that

influenced the development of the cult of Mary. Some researchers have focused

on the female goddesses of antiquity,7 while others have adopted a psychoanalytic

The same point of view is adopted by P. Nellas in the introduction to the edition of the
Marian homilies of Nicholas Cabasilas and by A.Yeftits in the introduction to the
edition of the Marian homilies of John of Damascus; see respectively, Nicholas
Cabasilas, H eeo/.L1wp, P.Nellas (ed.), Athens 1989; John of Damascus, H Oeo'rOicoç

A.Yeftits (ed.), Athens, 1970.

6
Alexiou, The Ritual Lament; G. Hoist-Warhaft, Dangerous Voices: Women 's Laments
and Greek Literature, London, 1992.
V. Limberis, Divine Heiress, The Virgin Ma,y and the Creation of Christian
Constantinople, London and New York, 1994. Limberis borrows her main idea (namely
the notion of the Theotokos as a new Pallas Athena) from the article by Averil Cameron
on "The Theotokos in Sixth-Century Constantinople: A City Finds its Symbol," JThS

XXIX, 1978, 79-108. However, it has to be emphasized that the two authors argue from
opposite ends as Limberis stresses the continuity between the cult of pagan goddesses
18
approach. 8 Neither of the two approaches seems to me particularly fruitful in that

they both use methodologies that have been successfully employed in other

disciplines or with reference to other subjects but fail to provide an explanation

that does not simplify beyond recognition the historically interesting features of

the development of the cult of Maiy. A balanced view is offered by Hans Belting

who, on the basis of art-historical evidence, points to the continuity of functions

ascribed to supernatural beings and, consequently, to their artistic representations:

"It is therefore not a question of Artemis becoming Mary or of Asciepius

becoming Demetrius but of which traditional functions the new Christian images

assumed.. .This means that general ideas and practices deeply rooted in human

nature became established in Christianity as soon as it had ceased being on the

defensive and had become the religion of the whole empire."9

The association of the Mother of God with the female deities of antiquity

is a subject that should be dealt with in its own right. For the purpose of the

present study the figure of the Magna Mater, the archetypal female goddess

whose cult was prominent in late antiquity, especially in the geographical area of

and that of the Virgin whereas Averil Cameron clearly opposes such a notion. In her
article Cameron emphasizes the symbolic function of the Virgin in sixth-century
Constantinople and the parallel that could be drawn between the role of Athena Pal lada
in Athens and that of the Virgin in Constantinople, but she does not make any derivative
claim.
8 M. Carroll, The Cult of the Virgin Mary. Psychological Origins, New Jersey, 1986.
9 H. Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of the Image Before the Era of Art, transl.
by E. Jephcott, Chicago and London, 1978, 40.
19
Asia Minor, should be touched on here)° The term 'Magna Mater' designates the

diverse female deities of antiquity who were not confined solely to the Eastern

Roman Empire; the names associated with the cult of the Great Mother are

beyond number." Among the various names of Isis we encounter those of the

'divine mother' or the 'mother of the gods'.' 2 The depiction of Isis with her child

is considered to be the "very type of the Mother and Child across the ages".'3

However, this image of motherhood relates to food and growth.' 4 Studies of the

other female deities of antiquity also show that their outstanding shared

characteristic par excellence is their relevance to fertility, procreation, growth

10
See for example the answer Isidore of Pelusium (d.c. 435) gave to a letter by
Theologius Scholasticus in which Isidore was asked to discuss the relationship between
the Christian Mother of God and the pagan Mother of the Gods. Text in PG 78, cols.
216-217.
Even if one distinguishes Isis from Rhea, Cotys or Cybele, the basic characteristics of
the respective cults remain the same. Limberis, Divine Heiress, 130-134 treats them
separately, but cf. J. Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire, London, 1970, 16-
20; R.S. Kraemer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women 's Religions among Pagans, Jews
and Christians in the Graeco-Roman World, Oxford, 1992.
12
The designation 'Great Mother' was given also to Cybele who was venerated in
Phrygia and to Diana of Ephesus whose cult reached its peak in the third century A.D.
See R.Fleischer, Artemis von Ephesos und verwandte Kultstatuen au.s Anatolien und
Syrien, Leiden, 1973.
to P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750, London, 1971,
142-143, the type of the Virgin Mary with the Child, "the most tender scene in medieval
art", is a Coptic adaptation of the iconographical type of Isis with Horus. See also
Belting, Likeness and Presence, 41 where the author asserts that "the icon of the Virgin
is a striking example of the continuity in the use of images between pre-Christian and
Christian times..." and 58, n.34 and fig. 7.

20
 and nourishment as well as to the protection of cities and villages.' 5 However

striking the similarities that led scholars to the comparative study of the cult of

female deities to the cult of the Mother of God there are important differences

that in my view do not favour a syncretistic approach. The common elements

encountered in the cult of the deities and of the Virgin refer to archetypal needs of

people; their occurrence does not prove at all the dependence of the cult of the

Virgin Maiy on that of female deities of antiquity.

Several scholars have studied the lament with reference to its Graeco-

Roman origins. The rhetorical antecedents of the Byzantine lament of the Mother

of God are emphasized in the study by Holst-Warhaft.' 6 The latter explores the

specific relationship between the lament and women throughout ancient and

medieval history. Warhaft considers lament as an exclusively feminine domain

and suggests that the formal epitaphios logos was introduced by men in an effort

to appropriate this formerly inaccessible field. In contrast with the Hellenistic

background of the cult of Maiy and of the development of the lament, little

attention has been paid to the Jewish background that forms an integral part of the

literary Marian lament.

Tackling the issue of the Christianisation of the empire with specific

reference to the lament, de Martino has suggested that the introduction of the

The reference to fertility is prominent in the ancient Greek lamentations of Demeter

discussed by Limberis, Divine Heiress, 6 1-62.
' Cf. Isidore of Pelusium
(op.cit., cols. 216-217) who argued that the Virgin Maiy
differed from the female goddesses because she was the only virgin-mother whose
offspring caine out of a human pregnancy.
' 6 Holst-Warhaft, Dangerous Voices: Women 's Laments and Greek Literature, passim.

21
lament of the Mother of God was the result of a conscious effort by the first

Christian writers to eradicate pagan lament.' 7 This view was rejected by Alexiou

who used the evidence provided in Greek sources and drew attention to the

Jewish background of the lament.' 8 Biblical laments such as the laments of

Abraham and Sarah for Isaac or the lament of Jephthah's daughter inspired in part

both the learned and the vernacular tradition.' 9 In the case of the daughter of

Jephthah, the subject of virginity plays a key role in the pathos of the story, albeit

from a different point of view than in the laments of the Theotokos. The unnamed

maiden had to be offered as a sacrifice to God in consequence of the vow her

father had made, if the latter were to help him defeat his enemies, the sons of

Ammon. The young girl submits, but asks her father one favour: to let her lament

her virginity with her friends at the mountains of Mizpeh. 2° In this text we see,

E. de Martino, Morte e pianto rituale nel mondo antico. Dal lamento pagano alpianto
di Maria, Turin, 1958, 334-344.
18
Alexiou, The Ritual Lament; Alexiou, "The Lament of the Virgin" 111-140, and esp.
112.
' The lament of Abraham and Sarah is not to be found in the biblical account of the
sacrifice (Gen. 22:16); the lament was inspired by the narrative and was elaborated by
Byzantine authors. H.-G. Beck, Geschichte der byzantinischen Volksliteratur, Munich,
1971, 189-90; Alexiou draws attention to the infiltration of popular elements into
religious tradition and so argues in favour of a dynamic relationship between the learned
and vernacular literature in Byzantium; see, Alexiou, "The Lament of the Virgin," 112.;
M. Alexiou and P. Dronke, "The Lament of Jephtha's daughter: Themes, Traditions,
Originality," Studi Medievali XII, 1971, 819-863. For the iconography of the subject see,
K. Weitzmann, "The Jephthah Panel in the Bema of the Church of St. Catherine's
Monastery on Mount Sinai," Studies in the Arts at Sinai, Essays by Kurt Weitzmann,
Princeton, New Jersey, 1982, 63-81.
20
Judges 11:34-40.
22
 first, that the lament is a function of the community: the maiden does not go to

lament on her own, but with her companions; 2 ' second, virginity becomes the

core of the lament;22 and third, her sacrifice gives rise to an annual

commemoration by the virgins of Israel that lasts for four days.23

The threnos of the Virgin in literature is not the same as in art where it

refers to the lament of the Theotokos over the dead body of Christ after the

Deposition from the Cross. In most cases literary laments are linked to the

passage in the Gospel of John (19:25-27) which concerns the Virgin at the foot of

the Cross. However, as we shall see, there are also examples of literary laments

whose setting is placed before or after the Crucifixion. 24 In the Johannine

21
Judges 11:37: èycbei,uz icai al avveratpIöe /10V ; also a group of women laments
Jesus on his way to Golgotha, Luke: 27-28.
22
Judges 11:38: "and she went with her companions and she bewailed her virginity upon
the mountains."
23
Judges 11:39-40: "And it was a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went
yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year."
24
One of the rare instances in which the lament of the Virgin is introduced in a different
context is the homily on the Presentation of Christ in the Temple by George of
Nicomedia in the ninth century. There, the Mother of God laments as she hears the
prophecy of Symeon about the sword that will pierce her heart. For the prophecy, see
Luke 2:35; text: Homilia in Occursum Domini, (BHGa 1968 - cf. BHG 1967), CPG, vol.
II, No. 227 l=PG 28, cols. 973-1000. The text, initially published in the corpus of
Pseuso-Athanasian homilies, is attributed to George of Nicomedia by H.-G. Beck,
Kirche und Theologische Literalur im byzantinischen Reich, Munich, 1959, 543 and by
H.Maguire, "The Iconography of Symeon with the Christ Child in Byzantine Art," DOP
34-35, 1980-1981, 261-269; idem,Art and Eloquence in Byzantium, Princeton, 1981,98
with reference to art-historical evidence. Artistic representation of the Threnos, as well
as of related themes such as the Virgin of the Passion and the Passion Cycles, appeared
after the end of Iconoclasm, in the tenth and eleventh centuries. See for example R.

Li
reference to the Virgin at Golgotha, Mary is not portrayed as lamenting. The

theme of the tears of Mary derives from apocryphal literature and is first

encountered in Syriac hymnography of the early Byzantine period. Its

development has to be credited to the imaginative and poetic writers of

Byzantium and is linked to the cult of the Theotokos itself.

The first chapter examines the laments of the Old Testament in an attempt

to identify the Jewish background of the Marian lament. The same chapter

examines the development of the Marian cult during the early Christian centuries.

Special attention is drawn to what could be termed as the 'age of typology', i.e.

the time during which early Christian writers devoted great efforts to the

establishment of continuity between the Old and the New Covenant, i.e. between

the Jewish background of the Old Testament and the persons and events of the

Christian era. The place of Mary in the Gospels and the earliest surviving literary

account of the Passion of the Lord by Melito of Sardis, with special references to

constituents of the lament, are dealt with in the second part of the chapter.

As the present study hopes to show, the lament of the Virgin coincided

chronologically with turning points in the cult of the Theotokos in Byzantium,

such as the Council of Ephesus (431) and the Iconoclastic and post-Iconoclastic

period. The second chapter deals with the development of the cult of the Virgin in

Cormack, Painting the Soul. Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds, London, 1997, 57 (where
the author discusses the rise of double sided icons that depicted on the one side the
Virgin with the Child and on the other the Crucifixion), 113 (for the rise of the
representation of Christ as the Man of Sorrows), and my discussion of this subject in
chapter V.
24
relation to Christology. The Nestorian controversy is perhaps the first instance

when the Virgin Mary was taken as a means for the understanding of Christology

and was subsequently elevated to the status of a symbol of Orthodoxy. Writers of

the fifth century drew attention not only to the figure of the Mother of God and

her virginal childbirth but also to the passion of the Lord. The Incarnation and the

Crucifixion were the two instances that most emphatically demonstrated the

ultimate sacrifice of God. The earliest surviving laments of the Virgin at the foot

of the Cross come from Syria. The most representative authors of the Syriac

Orient, such as Ephrem the Syrian and Jacob of Sarug, are studied with reference

to the celebrated poet Romanos the Melode. Special attention is given to the

kontakia by Romanos and especially to his hymn on Mary at the foot of the Cross,

a text that may be considered as the first surviving fully developed Marian lament

and the one that greatly influenced all subsequent compositions on this theme.

Parallel to the function of the Virgin in the Christological debate of the

fifth century was the role of the Mother of God in the Iconoclastic controversy.

The third chapter examines the as yet undefined place of the Mother of God in the

Iconoclastic controversy on the basis of contemporary historiographical and

hagiographical sources. Although there is insufficient evidence to prove that the

Iconoclasts rejected the veneration of the Mother of God, it is clear that the

veneration of the Virgin Mary acquired a prominent place in the writings of the

Iconophiles. Moreover, the defenders of icons accused their opponents of

rejecting the veneration of Mary, an allegation that was linked to the arguments

employed by the Iconophiles for the defence of images. Within the context of the

25
debate over the artistic representation of the divine, the Virgin Mary was

associated with the cult of images due to her crucial role in the Incarnation of the

Word on the basis of which the legitimacy of the veneration of icons was

defended by the Iconophiles.

The role of the Mother of God in the Iconoclastic period and the way in

which the Theotokos became part of the ideological discourse of the Iconophile

camp is the subject of the fourth chapter. 25 During the eighth and ninth centuries

Iconophile writers produced a voluminous corpus of Marian homilies and hymns

that reveals the association of the cult of the Virgin with the cult of icons. In

terms of style the homilists and hymnographers of the Iconoclastic period place

particular emphasis on the emotions and the senses, whereas in terms of content

they draw attention to the Mother of God and the Passion of the Lord. As in the

example of the fifth century so in the eighth and ninth centuries the birth and

death of Christ are the two instances of his earthly life in which the fullness of his

economy is exemplified. And these were the two instances on which Byzantine

writers focused. The Mother of God was crucial for the Incarnation; how could

she be absent from the Crucifixion? Hence, the lament of the Virgin combines the

two most important points of incarnational theology: the birth of Christ and his

death on the Cross. The Mother of God is thus introduced in the accounts of the

Passion encountered in the homiletic literature of the Iconoclastic period. In the

For Christian discourse as a 'sociolect' fashioned by a sacerdotal class, see R. Barthes,

The Pleasure of she Text, transi. by R. Miller, Oxford, 1990,27-29.

26
fourth chapter the Marian homilies and hymns are studied with reference both to

the cult and to the lament of the Virgin Mary.

The fifth chapter deals with the development of the cult of Mary and of

her lament at the foot of the Cross in the ninth century. The period following the

so-called Triumph of Orthodoxy witnessed the consolidation of the developments

of the previous century. This last chapter focuses on the homiletic and

hymnographical texts of the post-Iconoclastic period in which the fully developed

lament of Mary is encountered. In the homiletic corpus of the patriarch Photius

and George of Nicomedia the Mother of God appears not simply as the lamenting

mother of Christ but as a person that negates the pain, attempts to reverse the

course of the events, surrenders to the will of God and is finally converted into a

new mode of existence. The death of Christ shall bring the salvation of mankind

through the defeat of death. The lament of Mary concludes with the prospect of a

triumph.

The lament of the Virgin forms the pattern upon which the Passion of the

Lord is narrated by the ninth century homilist George of Nicomedia who offers a

unique example of a Marian homily on Good Friday. The lament of the Mother of

God is also the subject of the hymns Joseph the Hymnographer, the near

contemporary of George of Nicomedia, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Marian

lament as developed in the ninth century was to survive in subsequent centuries

until it was finally incorporated into the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church.

Like the epic poems of Homer, the liturgical lament does not have a single author.

Its composition has to be credited to the tradition of the Church which edited the

27
homilies and hymns of the original writers, maintaining the images that expressed

in the most appropriate manner the sorrow but also the courage of the virgin

mother of Christ and the importance of the mystely which brought salvation

through the sacrifice of God's only-begotten Son.

Hence, the present study argues that the development of the lament of the

Virgin Mary echoed on the one hand the growing cult of the Virgin and on the

other hand the growing importance of incarnational theology. The figure of the

Mother of God was essential to the correct and full understanding of the

Incarnation of the Word which lay at the heart of all the Christological heresies

that preoccupied the Byzantine thinkers of the early and middle Byzantine period.

In its perfected form the Marian lament, although lyrical in character, echoes

fundamental premises inherent in Byzantine theological developments.

28
 CHAPTER I

THE LAMENT OF THE VIRGiN MARY IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN ERA

Introduction

The lament of the Virgin Mary did not come properly into being before

the sixth century when Romanos the Melode composed his famous hymn on

Mary at the foot of the Cross (the first surviving example of a Marian lament).26

The early Christian era, however, witnessed the development of the cult of the

Virgin Mary, the retiring figure of the Gospels, who became a central figure of

Christian doctrine. In the present chapter I shall concentrate on the evolution of

Mary's cult during the first Christian centuries and on aspects of the Passion of

the Lord that were gradually linked with the Virgin to produce the fully developed

Marian lament as we shall find it in the Iconoclastic and post-Iconoclastic period.

The lament will be traced back to narratives of the Old Testament that influenced

writers of the Christian era. The second-century work On the Pascha by Melito

of Sardis will be examined as a text germane to the evolution of the imagery and

the features of the Passion hymns and homilies as well as to the figure of the

Mother of God.

The Heritage of Rhetoric

The rhetorical theory of Hermogenes and Aphthonius, to chose two of the

better known and imitated rhetors of Byzantium, set the pattern followed by the

26
Romanos Ic Mélode, Hymnes, J. Grosdidier de Matons (ed.), vol. IV, SC 128, Paris,
1967, 160-184.
29
literati of the Empire in the composition of any literary work, whether

historiography, poetry or homiletics. 27 The elementary rhetorical exercises,

commonly called progymnasmata, that were used by the Byzantines, provided the

material that was used also for the composition of the lament. 28 However, among

the basic categories mentioned by the rhetors, there is no particular exercise that

could have been used as the model for the composition of the lament as such. The

lament embraces features derived from a variety of progymnasmatic forms. In

modem studies of the lament the rhetorical figures have been analysed with

reference to the ancient predecessors of the genre, namely, the monodia, logos

21
W. Jaeger, Early Christianity and Greek Paideia, Cambridge, Mass., 1961; P.
Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism, transl. by H. Lindsay and A. Moffatt, Byzantina
Australiensia 3, Canberra, Canberra 1986; N.G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium,
London, 1983, 18-27; R. Webb, "A Slavish Art? Language and Grammar in Late
Byzantine Education and Society," Dialogos, Hellenic Studies Review 1, 1994, 81-103.
28
The term progymnasmata is encountered in the fifth c. B.C. but it became more
common during the first Christian centuries. The four works that survive and that
formed the basis of Christian education in Byzantium are those by Theon, Hermogenes,
Aphthonius and Nikolaos. The Souda names other authors, but their work has not come
down to us. As Webb suggests, the surviving exercises represent just the skeleton of a
taught course; see R.H. Webb, The Transmission of the 'Eikones' of Philostratos and
the Development of 'Ekphrasis 'from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance, Unpublished
Ph.D., University of London, 1992, 33 n. 12 ; 0. Kennedy, Greek Rhetoric Under
Christian Emperors, Princeton, New Jersey, 1983, 54-56; The progymnasmata served as
a preparation for declamation; D.A. Russell, Greek Declamation, Cambridge, 1983. The
exercises included in the textbook of Aphthonius are 14: fable, narration, chreia,
proverb, refutation, confirmation, commonplace, encomium, blame, comparison,
characterisation, description, thesis and eisphora tou nomou.
paramythitikos, and the more formal epitaphios logos. 29 The lament also borrows

elements from the rhetorical exercises of ethopoiia and ekphrasis performed in

the elaboration of the qualities of the deceased, but also in giving expression to

the grief of the one who laments. Nowadays, although the question of continuity

and discontinuity between ancient Greek and Byzantine tradition still remains an

issue,3 ° scholarship has dealt (though not conclusively) with the extent to which

Byzantine literary tradition is indebted to its Greco-Roman predecessors. 3 ' Can

29
See for example, H. Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium, Princeton, 1981, 91-
108; E. de Martino, Morte e pianto rituale nel mondo antico. Dal lamento pagano al
pianto di Maria, Turin, 1958.
30
Preoccupation with the issue of continuity has not always proved fruitful for the
interpretation of a particular subject; art-historians have recently dealt with the
fundamental issue of 'continuity vs. discontinuity' in Early Christian culture, stressing
the degree of transformation that took place in Late Antiquity. Finney and Mango (P.C.
Finney, The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art, New York. 1994 and M.
Mundell Mango, "Imperial Art in the Seventh Century," in Paul Magdalino (ed.), New
Constantines: The Rhythm of Imperial Renewal in Byzantium, 4th -13th Centuries,
Aldershot, Hampshire, 1994), stress continuity, adopting the point of view of earlier
studies such as S.G. MacCormack, Art and Ceremony in Late Antiquity, Berkeley and
Los Anngeles, 1981. On the other hand, Eisner and Mathews point out the change of
artistic idiom; J. Eisner, Art and the Roman Viewer, Cambridge, 1995, emphasizes the
change of artistic language but particularly the change in the way that the beholder
perceived a work of art. See also, T. Mathews, The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of
Early Christian Art, Princeton, 1993; and W.E. Kleinbauer's review of this book in
Speculum 70, 1995, 937-941.
Among the numerous studies of the subject see D.L. Clark, Rhetoric in Graeco-
Roman Education, New York. 1957; G. Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and its Christian
and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times, Chapel Hill, 1980; idem, Greek
Rhetoric Under Christian Emperors; G.L. Kustas, "The Function and Evolution of
Byzantine Rhetoric," Viator 1, 1970, 55-73 in which the author gives a concise account

31
 we study the lament as a distinct literary genre; even more, does the lament of the

Virgin constitute a sub-genre in itself? After all, the combination of rhetorical

forms was not only legitimate according to the rules of rhetoric, but also was

praised by teachers of rhetoric as important as Hermogenes and Quintillian.32

Some of the most frequently recurring elements in the lament involve the

pattern of antithesis evolved from the happiness of the past and the destitution of

the present, the despair about a future without the beloved person, the injustice

associated with death, the eulogy of the deceased, the despair and loneliness of

the person that laments, and the participation of nature. The contrast between

periods of time, past and present or present and future, derives from rhetorical

monody. According to Menander, the funerary speech should be divided into

three periods of time: the past, where the speaker should eulogise the deceased,

employing the rhetorical form of an encomium, the present, where reference

should be made to the present circumstances, since the speech is more effective if

pity is induced by reference to visible events and present happenings; and the

future where the speaker has to refer to the hopes placed on the deceased by his

family. If the person were young, Menander suggests that the whole lament

of the evolution of rhetoric in Byzantium paying particular attention to the corpus of

Hermogenes and Aphthonius; and more recently, Averil Cameron, Christianity and the
Rhetoric of Empire. The Development of Christian Discourse, Sather Classical Lectures,
vol. 55, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991 (henceforth, Cameron, The Rhetoric of Empire)
passim; Cameron shows how literary forms of antiquity acquired new meaning and were
used in Christian discourse during the first Christian centuries.
32
See G. Kustas, Studies in Byzantine Rhetoric, Analecta Vlatadon 17, Thessaloniki
1973, 15-16; T. Conley, "Byzantine Teaching on Figures and Tropes: An Introduction,"
Rhetorica 4, 1986, 335-3 74.
 should be based on his age and nature. 33 The eulogy of the deceased and of the

person who laments employs elements derived from the rhetorical exercise of

ethopoiia, i.e. the character study. The qualities of the persons lamenting or being

bemoumed are elaborated for the purpose of heightening emotion. Thus, the

injustice of death in the lament of the Theotokos often takes the form of anti-

Jewish polemic since, according to our texts, Jews were responsible for the death

of Christ. Anti-Jewish polemic employs forms derived from rhetorical psogos

(blame). Finally, all the components of the speech, whether in prose or verse, are

expressed within the framework of ekphrasis, which renders the description vivid

in the eyes of the congregation and achieves the main objective of the preacher or

the hymnographer: the emotional involvement arid the participation of his

audience.34 Above all other rhetorical exercises, ekphrasis merits a special place

D.A.Russell and N.G.Wilson (eds.), Menander Rhetor, Oxford, 1981, fl

EirzöeucrLlc&V, Tlepi MovöIaç, XVI, 200-206. Menander of Laodicea takes his model
from Homer's monodies placed in the mouth of Andromache, Priam and Hecuba,
"appropriate to their several characters, as though he wished to prove to us that he was
not ignorant of these matters," 202-203.
L. James and R. Webb," To Understand Ultimate Things and Enter Secret Places:
Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium," Art History 14. 1, March 1991, 1-17 (henceforth,
"Ekphrasis"); H. Maguire, "Truth and Convention in Byzantine Descriptions of Works
of Art," DOP 28, 1974, 111-140; see also the studies by M. Whitby, "The Occasion of
Paul the Silentiary's Ekphrasis of St Sophia," CQ 35, 1985, 2 15-228; R. Macrides and P.
Magdalino, "The Architecture of Ekphrasis: Construction and Context of Paul the
Silentiary's Poem on Hagia Sophia,"BMGS 12, 1988, 47-82.
33
 in the study of the lament, since it is this rhetorical figure that invests threnos

with all its dramatic and emotional weight.35

The term ekphrasis was used by the authors of Late Antiquity and

Byzantium not only for the pictorial representation of works of art, but also for

the vivid representation in words of any event or scene. 36 More particularly,

Christian authors used ekphrasis in order to describe an inner reality and to render

this hidden side of either a work of art or a person vividly 'before the eyes' of the

audience.37 The fact that literary laments served as inspiration for artists to

For a more detailed analysis of ekphrasis with reference to the texts of the ninth
century, see below, chapter IV.
36
H. Maguire, "The Classical Tradition in the Byzantine Ekphrasis" in M.Mullett and
R.Scott (eds.), Byzantium and the Classical Tradition, Birmingham, 1981, 94-102 and
esp. 94-95. For the use of rhetorical ekphrasis as a source for art historians, see K.
McVey, "The Domed Church as Microcosm: the Literary Roots of an Architectural
Symbol," DOP 37, 1983, 91-121 with reference to the Syriac hymn for the inauguration
of the cathedral of Edessa, and cf. A. Palmer, "The Inauguration Anthem of Hagia
Sophia in Edessa: A New Edition and Translation with Historical and Architectural
Notes and a Comparison with a Contemporary Constantinopolitan Kontakion," (with an
appendix by Lyn Rodley), BMGS 12, 1988, 117-167. Palmer and Rodley, providing
convincing argument clearly disagree with McVey's opinion that the symbolic language
of the poem, ascribed to the literary circle of Jacob of Saroug, is suggestive of
architectural forms.
In the progymnasmara of Aphthonius (ed. H. Rabe, Leipzig, 1926, 36-41), dating
probably to the fourth century, ekphrasis is described as Myoç ,rp ujpjuarucoç Uir '6iv
àyinv Evapyoiç ro örtozevov. This definition became the subject of a rhetorical
commentary by John of Sardis in the ninth century (loannis Sardiani, Commentarium in
Aphthonii Progymnasmaza, ed. H.Rabe, Leipzig, 1928, 2 15-230). According to Kennedy
(Greek Rhetoric, 275-77) John's commentaries "are regarded as an early sign of the
resurgence of learning in the ninth century and were well known to his Byzantine
successors." For later commentators of Aphthonius see Kennedy, op.cit., 312 and n. 32.

-3
produce new iconographic types makes ekphrasis in the lament even more

interesting since emphasis is laid on the visual aspect both of the literary and the

artistic compositions. 38 At this point, it is sufficient to note that ekphrasis is

employed in all the laments, either in prose or in verse, with the sole exception of

the short poems which refer to the Mother of God at the foot of the Cross, the

stavrotheotokia. 39 The standard themes of the lament (description of persons,

participation of nature, etc.) are brought to life by means of vivid description that

entails the use of inventive adjectives and metaphors, rhythmical phrases,

antithesis, rhetorical questions, exclamations and above all powerful imagery that

we shall see later with reference to particular texts.

Although the lament does not constitute a literary genre in itself, the

laments of the Virgin in the Byzantine tradition can be studied as a group of texts

characterised by common elements and means of expression. In the following

chapters we shall see the stock of themes and images used for the composition of

the lament, as well as the way in which changes of imagery reflect changes in the

cult itself of the Mother of God.

38
Maguire, Art and Eloquence, 102 if.; however, it appears that word and image were
interwoven in terms of function since the ultimate scope of both was to render the divine
reality vivid before the believer. From the numerous articles on the subject by
H.L.Kessler, see his "Pictures as Scripture in Fifth-Century Churches," in Studies in
Pictorial Narrative, London, 1994, 3 57-392; L. Duggan, "Was Art Really the 'Book of
the Illiterate'?" in Word and Image 5, 1989, 227-251.
The stavrotheotokia included in the Triodion are ascribed to Theodore the Stoudite;
however, writers of the ninth century, such as Joseph the Hymnographer and Leo the
Wise, also wrote short poems about Mary at the foot of the Cross. For discussion of the

35
The Lament in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, lamentation is directed to the Lord of Hosts who is

called upon to deliver the people from misfortune. In the second Book of Kings,

the Shunammite woman saw her son dying in front of her eyes. 4° Instead of

lamenting, she rushed to the prophet of God, Elisha, believing that he was able to

reverse the misfortune befalling her family. She caught the man of God "by the

feet" and compelled him to go to her son who was brought back to life after the

prophet had prayed to God and stretched himself over the young man. 4 ' The

narrative does not allow space for a real lament, particularly since the purpose of

the text is to recount the miracle performed by Elisha. However, the dynamism of

the action distinctly reveals the distress of the mother. When she visits the

prophet, with "her soul vexed in her", she challenges him, reminding Elisha that

she had not asked for the miraculous conception of her son.42

The Lamentations of Jeremiah offer an example of a lament that, although

thematically different from the lament of the Virgin, bears some resemblance to it

stavrotheotokia see below, chapter IV and S. Janeras, Le vendredi-saint dans la tradition

liturgique byzantine, Studia Anselmiana 99, Analecta Liturgica 12, Rome, 1988.
402Kings4.
2 Kings 4:31-35.
42 The Shunammite and her husband were an elderly, childless couple. The woman had
been so good to the prophet that he made her conceive a child miraculously in return for
her kindness in offering him bread each time he was passing by her house and later for
urging her husband to build a room with a bed, a table and a chair, and a candlestick for
the 'man of God'. When Elisha announced to her that she would bear a child, she told
him: "Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid." 2 Kings 4:16.
.'
and shows that it might well have served as a model for the composition of later

laments. The text is divided into two parts; in the first part, chapters 1-3, the

author describes the city as a person weeping while she contrasts the glorious past

to the present: "Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her

miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old." In the second

part, chapters 4-5, Jeremiah speaks directly and pleads with the Lord to appease

his wrath against the transgressions of the city. The Lamentations end with a

supplication to the Lord and an expression of hope for the future. The division

into three periods of time that we saw in monody can be applied to this text as

well.

The Lamentations contain themes and images that will be encountered in

the study of the lament of the Virgin, such as the description of the misfortune

and the misery of the present, the invitation of people to share in the lament,45 and

the detailed account of the destruction afflicted by enemies. The lament implies

Lamentations 1:7.
See Alexiou, The Ritual Lament, 83-85 in which the author discusses laments for the
fall of cities in ancient Greek tragedies, such as Euripides' Trojan Women and
Aesehylus' Persians. Alexiou treats the subject briefly, holding that it does not belong to
the group of ritual, functional laments. I think that at least in the case of laments for
cities in the Old Testament there is a remarkable similarity of themes and treatments in
laments of Mary. Probably this is due to the fact that the lament for Christ supersedes
the narrow framework of a personal lament, as Christ's death is a universal event that
concerns the entire body of the Church. See also, F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Weep, 0
Daughter of Zion: A Study of the City-Lament Genre in the Hebrew Bible, Biblica et
Orientalia 44, Rome, 1993; P. Ferris, The Genre of Communal Lament in the Bible and
the Ancient Near East, Atlanta, 1993.
' Lamentations 1:18, "...hear, I pray you, all people and behold my sorrow."
.3
 loneliness associated with the loss either of a former state, such as prosperity, or

of a beloved person. Jeremiah, like the Virgin, looks for comforters but there is

nobody to share his grief. 46 The person who laments is found alone in a hostile

environment, surrounded by the wrath of his enemies. Youth and virginity are

another two themes around which laments are built, and it is not surprising that,

like the time division of monody, they are to be met with both in ancient Greek

rhetoric and in the biblical text of the Lamentations. 47 The imagely of flowing

tears, and the sword and arrows that pierce the heart of Jeremiah, is mirrored in

standard elements of the lament of the Virgin. 48 The person who laments loses his

strength and sense of hope as he confronts the disaster of the present situation, but

he tries to discern a ray of hope in the future.49 Jeremiah dwells on the endurance

that is advised in the Psalms and trusts that God will answer his supplication.50

The endurance of the lamenting Virgin is one of the themes of the laments that we

shall examine, although in the case both of Jeremiah and of the Virgin, such

46 jbid 1:17, "Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her"; ibid,
1:21, "They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me."
'1
Special reference to the virgins and the young men of Jerusalem is made throughout
the text. I quote the elegant metaphor where the young men of the city are compared to
fine gold: ibid. 4:2, "The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they
esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of a potter!". See also, ibid. 2:2l"my
virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword."
48
Ibid. 1:16, "For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water...";
ibid, 3:12, "He [God] hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow." ibid. 3:13,
"He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter my reins."
49 Ibid, 3:18-26.
5°
The author at this point includes a series of allusions to the Psalms. Thid, 3:21-66.
.,
endurance is not easy; it is rather the result of a painful process that requires a

growth in faith.

The contrast between past and present as well as the compassion of

nature are elements that are also found in other laments for cities in the Bible. In

the lamentation for Tyre, 5 ' the city is personified and the lament develops around

the contrast between its former beauty and prosperity and its present misery. The

same contrast characterises the brief lament for Babylon in the enigmatic text of

Revelation. 52 In the lament for the city of Tyre nature participates in its own way:

"Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea

shall be troubled at thy departure." The ritual dimension of the lament in the

Old Testament is seen in the way in which Joseph laments for his father Jacob.54

The lament lasts for forty days and the funeral for another seven days. The lament

in the Old Testament is not an expression of the 'common' people and is certainly

not the exclusive domain of women. Out of nine examples studied women

participate in only two; in all other cases it is men who lament and the character

of the text does not necessarily correspond to a formal epitaphios in which one

would expect a male orator. The lamentation of king David for Abner 55 is of a

distinctly personal character and the same is true of the lament of Joseph for

Jacob, and Jeremiah for Josiah.

51
Ezek. 26:17.
52 Rev. 18:10.
Ezek. 26:18.
Gen. 50:1-10.
2 Samuel 3:31-33.

39
The Age of Typology

During the early Christian era, the Old Testament did not serve merely as

a pattern upon which Christian writing was modelled. It also presented Christian

authors with the challenge of establishing continuity. In this formative period the

Mother of God was invested with a multitude of epithets, most of them deriving

from the Old Testament. 56 During the 'age of typology' a main concern of the

Christian apologists was to show the link between the Old and the New Covenant

and to derive additional value from the prestige of tradition. 57 This is also a

preoccupation of Matthew's Gospel (5:17) which sacrifices the appearance of

historicity for the model of the Old Testament in trying to prove that Jesus was

the Messiah and the fulfilment of the Law and that the Old and New Testaments

form part of a single revelation. Christ appears saying: "Think not that I am come

to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." 58 It

was during the first Christian centuries that the Mother of God was termed the

Second Eve, perhaps the most popular of all the epithets attributed to her; use of

this attribute multiplied as the centuries went by, since it was felt to transmit the

essential role of Mary in the mystery of salvation, i.e. the reversal of Eve's curse

and the subsequent salvation of mankind. it has been argued by Archimandrite

Ephrem that the 'types' found and attributed to the Virgin by hymnographers and

Typology with reference to Mary will be dealt with below in chapter 1.

" See now F. Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture,
Cambridge, 1997, 192-195 and esp. n. 23 on p. 194.
Matthew 5:17.
40
homilists alike were not the product of a conscious effort, but that the writers,

who almost certainly knew the Scriptures by heart, in contemplating the word of

God drew spontaneously on images and metaphors from the Old Testament. As

he puts it: "Their theology emerges from prayer and contemplation, from 'lectio

divina' in its old sense; it is not the product of what the Fathers, particularly St

Ephrem, call prying or inquisitive investigation."59

In a fallen world Christ appears and redeems mankind; but his redemption

was made possible only through the willingness and obedience of Mary.

Accordingly, Christ was often called the Second Adam, who through his coming,

suffering, death and resurrection made salvation possible for mankind. The key to

the typological reference was Mary's virginity which, it was argued, annihilated

the curse inflicted upon mankind at the Fall, a virginity perceived in terms of the

association between sin, sex and death. 60 It is precisely this association that

dictates the parallel treatment of the subjects of typology and virginity. Within

the linear development of historical chronology we see first the elaboration of

typology in the second and third centuries, followed by the more extensive

treatment of virginity in the fourth century by the Cappadocians and John

Chrysostom.

Mary in the New Testament

Archirnandrite Ephrem Lash, "Mary in Eastern Christian Literature," Epiphany 1989,

310-321, and esp. 311.
60
E. Pagels, Adam, Eve and the Serpent, 2nd ed., London, 1990, 78 if.
41
 The Mother of God is barely mentioned in the New Testament; all

references to her are almost in passing and do not provide much detail concerning

her life.6 ' The earliest reference is to be found in the Epistle of Paul to the

Galatians where Jesus is said to have been "made of a woman". 62 References to

the Virgin Mary in the Synoptic Gospels are minimal. In the Gospel of Mark

there are only two passing references to Mary as the Mother of Jesus. 63 The

Gospels of Luke and Matthew recount the infancy of Christ, and Mary is

mentioned several times. The Gospel of Luke is the richest in references to the

Mother of God who appears in the accounts of the Annunciation, the Visitation,

the Nativity and the Presentation in the Temple. It is perhaps this Gospel that

provides most of the material we possess on the Mother of God, apart from the

apocryphal literature.65 In addition, in the Acts Mary is said to have prayed with

the Apostles in Jerusalem after the Ascension.

61
See J. Samaha, "Mary in the Byzantine Mind," ByzSlav LVffl, 1997, 33 8-342 and esp.
338.
62
Gal. 4:4. The Epistle to the Galatians (A.D. 57), together with the other Epistles of
Paul, is probably the earliest part of the New Testament; if that is true, then this
reference is indeed the earliest dated reference to the Mother of God.
63 M&k3'31 and 6:3.
Luke 1:26-27, 1:34, 1:38, 1:42, 2:7, 2:19; Matthew 1:25, 2:1-12, 2:13 etc.
65
M. Warner, Alone ofAll Her Sex. The Myth and the Cull of the Virgin Mary, London,
1976, 7; Warner considers Luke's Gospel as: "the scriptural source for all the great
mysteries of the Virgin; the only time that she is the heart of drama in the Bible is in
Luke's beautiful verses."
Acts 1:14
42
 In the Gospel of John, Mazy appears at two critical moments in the earthly

life of Jesus: the first at the wedding of Cana and the second at the foot of the

Cross on Golgotha.67 These two moments became focal points of subsequent

Marian study.68 The marriage of Cana, the occasion at which Jesus reveals his

true identity as the Son of God, is a moment of great importance in the earthly life

of Jesus and for the place of his mother. As for the presence of the Virgin at the

foot of the Cross, it became a theme elaborated by hymnographers and homilists

throughout the Byzantine period and will be examined in detail in the following

chapters. Luke and John were the Evangelists who referred most extensively to

the Mother of God. The close relationship of the evangelist Luke with the Virgin

is reflected in the many legends of the icon of the Mother of God that Luke is

said to have painted from life and the legend inspired other such icons.69

Aspects of Marian Devotion: The Approach of Early Christian Writers

In the early Christian centuries, the 'virginity of Mary, defended and

praised to a great extent by the Church Fathers, exemplified the miraculous birth

67
in 2; in 19. M.Thurian, Marie mere du Seigneur, figure de 1 'Eglise, Taizé, 1963.
68
Kallistos Ware, Mary Theotokos in the Orthodox Tradition, Surrey, 1997; Fr John
Breck, "Mazy in the New Testament," Pro Ecclesia 2/4, 1993, 460-472.
69
According to Belting (Likeness and Presence, 49), "Luke ... qualified as a painter of
Mother and Child through his exact description of Jesus' childhood in his gospel." See
the reproduction of the miniature in the Cod. Sinaiticus graecus 233, fo!. 87v dating to
the thirteenth century in Belting, op.cit., fig. 14. For surviving examples of this
iconographic type of a much later date, see K. Weitzmann et.al . (eds.), The Icon,
London, 1982, 370. For a more detailed discussion of the Hodegetria icons see below,
chapter V.
of Christ and the physical reality of the Incarnation of the Word. 7° Early Christian

literature concerned itself largely with interpretation of the Bible and the

establishment of continuity between the Old and the New Testaments while at the

same time performing an apologetic function in refuting accusations of pagans

and Jews and the 'heretical' beliefs of various sects. This is the context within

which the figure of the Virgin was introduced and used as a proof of the virginal

birth of Christ through which the reality of the Incarnation was affirmed. Already

in the second century, Justin Martyr (d. c. 165) and Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 115-

202), basing themselves on the typology of the First and Second Adam found in

Paul,7 ' contrast the disobedience of the First Eve to the obedience of the Second

in a typological context.

70
For a general discussion see P. Sherwood, "Byzantine Mariology," Eastern Churches
Quarterly 14, 1962, 384-409; M. Gordillo, Mariologia Orientalis, OCA 141, Rome,
1954; J.A. Aldama, Maria en la Patristica de los siglos Jy II, Madrid, 1970.
711 Cor. 15, 22: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all be made alive," and again

in I Cor. 15,45: "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul'; the
last Adam was made a quickening spirit." Spourlakou (A. Spourlakou-Eutychiadou, 7I
llavcqIa eeoroicoç Tt5irocXpiarzavucijc Ayióvroç, Ph.D. thesis, Theological School,
University of Athens, Athens, 1990, 24-25) objects to the correspondence of the title
'Second Eve' to the 'Second Adam' on the basis that it has been used by Roman
Catholic theologians in order to prove the role of Mary as corredemptrix. For her, the
term 'Second Eve' refers exclusively to the juxtaposition of the disobedience of the First
Eve to the obedience of the Second. It would be reasonable to reconsider Spourlakou's
thesis taking into consideration the perennial preoccupation of Christian authors with
symmetly, in literature and in art, and to suggest that, without necessarily meaning to
promote the idea of Mary as corredemptrix, the first Christian authors saw an analogy
between the role of Jesus and his mother in the salvation of mankind.
44
 Justin Martyr presented Christ as the eternal Logos of God, through whom

God spoke to the prophets of the Old Testament. Having a strong philosophical

background, Justin sought to interpret the Bible on a basis that would be in

accordance with Christian revelation and reasonable discourse. 72 For him,

Christian revelation was the only true philosophy. 73 Considering miracles

inadequate to explain reality, he employed the prophecies of the Old Testament in

order to show the link between the stories of the Old Testament and the actual

events of the New Testament, the typos and the antitypos. 74 For Justin, Scripture

is viewed as the word of God disclosing divine truth. 75 With reference to Mary,

he defends the virginal birth of Christ, following closely the account of Luke. He

asserts it in a definitive manner as a common belief without seeking an

explanation of the motives that led to the Incarnation of the Word of God. He

views Jesus Christ as both divine and human: in Mary's womb Cosmic Reason

72
Justin's philosophical background was that of eclectic middle Platonism and it was
while a Platonist that he converted to Christianity. He exercised a strong influence on
the Christian apologists Tatian and Athenagoras. See L.W. Barnard, Justin Martyr. His
Life and Thought, London, 1967, vii, 5-10; F.L. Cross, The Early Christian Fathers,
London, 1960, 48-53; H. Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical
Tradition, Oxford, 1966, 1-30; F. Young, Biblical Exegesis, 52-54.
Barnard, Justin Martyr, 36-38.
Skarsaune, The Prooffrom Prophecy: A Study in Justin Martyr 's Proof-Text
Tradition, Leiden, 1987.
" Justin, Dial. lxxxii.3. The
first nine chapters of Justin's Dialogue with Trypho were
edited fairly recently by J.C.M. van Winden, An Early Christian Philosopher. Justin
Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters One to Nine, Philosophia Patrum I, Leiden,
1971. For the rest of the text I used the French edition by G. Archambault, Justin.

45
became accessible to men as a human being of flesh and blood. Justin compares

the virginal birth of Christ with stories about the birth of Perseus, Dionysus and

Hercules,76 considering the former to be more credible because, unlike the pagan

myths, the account of the birth of Christ did not represent the divine having

intercourse with a human woman. 77 Again, an additional argument for the

physical reality of the virginal birth of Christ is that it was foretold by the

prophets of the Old Testament. 78 Justin refers to the prophecy of the 'stone cut

without hands' as indicative of the divine nature of Christ's birth. 79 His birth

from the Virgin was accomplished,

Dialogue avec Tryphon, Textes et documents pour l'étude historique du christianisme 8,

2 vols., Paris, 1909.
76
Justin, I Apol. xxii.5; Dial. lxx.5, lxix. 2-3. The two apologies of Justin were recently
edited by Miroslav Marcovich, lustini Martyris Apologiae Pro Christianis,Patristische
Texte und Studien Bd. 38, Berlin, New York, 1994. See also A.W.F. Blunt, The
Apologies ofJustin Martyr, Cambridge, 1911.
" Justin, IApol. xxxiii; Dial. Ixvii.1, lxx. 1,3, lxxxiv. 1.
Justin often refers to the prophecy of Isaiah, vii. 14 for which see below in chapter I.
The prophecy derives from Dan. 2:34, "thou sawest till that a stone was cut out
without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and
brake them to pieces"; Justin, Dial. lxxvi. 1. The blood of Christ made by God was
prefigured by the blood of the grape. For the prophecy see Deut. 32:13-14, "he made
him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields; and
he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine
and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats with the
fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape"; Dial. lxxvi.2.
In the prophecy the 'blood' of the grape, prefiguring Christ's blood, is seen as the
summit of the abundance God offers to his people in the same way that the Incarnation,
specifically the blood of Christ, is the most precious offering of God to mankind. In the
Dialogue with Trypho Christ is described as the stone or the rock, East, beginning, day,
46
 "in order that the disobedience caused by the serpent might be destroyed

in the same manner in which it had originated. For Eve an undefiled virgin

conceived the word of the serpent and brought forth disobedience and

death. But the Virgin Mary. filled with faith and joy, when the angel

Gabriel announced to her the good tidings that the spirit of God would

come upon her, and therefore the Holy One born of her would be the Son

of God, answered: 'Be it done unto me according to Thy word.' And

indeed she gave birth to him concerning whom we have seen so many

passages of Scriptures were written and by whomGod destroys both the

serpents and those angels and men who have become like the serpent, but

frees from death those who repent from their sins and believe in Christ."
80

In this passage, the Virgin is presented as the Second Eve. The participation of

Mary in the divine plan of salvation rests on her obedient acceptance of the news

announced to her by the angel in the Annunciation. Justin is concerned to

establish a perfect parallel between Eve and Mary and for this purpose he

describes Eve as an undefiled virgin, an assertion that is not to be found in the

account of Genesis. On the contrary, in Genesis (1:28) God ordered Adam and

Eve to multiply and replenish the earth. Justin depicts the Fall as a conception and

birth that brought forth disobedience and death. An inconsistency is to be noted at

this point since the disobedience of Eve was the cause rather than the result of

man, sword, rod, Israel, Jacob, first-born, king and priest, for which see Dial. lxii; C;
cxxviii.
80 Justin, Dial. C.
47
 the Fall. But Justin sacrifices accuracy in order to achieve the typological

reflection in every detail: conception, birth and 'offspring'. Eve and Mary are

both described as virgins who conceive although neither of them by means of

sexual intercourse. The first conceives by the word of the serpent, whereas Mary

conceives by the Word of God. They both produce an offspring: Eve brings forth

disobedience and death, Mary the Son of God through whom God destroys the

offspring of the first Eve. In Justin's account we find the first image of Eve and

Mary conceiving through the ear, a motif that originally derives from mythology

and that was to become a favourite subject of Syriac hymnography. 8 ' The way in

which Justin refers to God destroying the serpent is reminiscent of the way in

which God is revealed in the Old Testament. 82 Writers of subsequent centuries,

such as Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus, et. al., followed both the basic idea

of antithesis between the First and the Second Eve as well as its imagery.

In the work of Irenaeus, Eve is also described as a disobedient virgin and

is contrasted to Mary whose obedience is seen as the cause of the salvation of

mankind:

"And as by means of a virgin who did not obey, humanity was smitten,

fell and died, so by the Virgin who hearkened to the word of God,

humanity once more revived, by life recovered life."83

For discussion see Lash, "Mary in Eastern Christian Thought," 313-314.

For the anthropomorphic expressions of God see below, chapter I, 'The Impassibility
of God.'
83
Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, 3,22,4. Note the parallel between the troparion of the
Resurrection sung on Easter Sunday (Pentekostarion, Apostolike Diakonia, 1984, 1)
where Christ "trampled down death by death" and the passage of Irenaeus where
48
 Irenaeus was concerned with the explanation of Christian doctrine by reference to

Old Testament prophecies. However, his approach to Christian teaching was

more pastoral than theological. He expostulated with the Gnostics, 85 and he

considered human reason incapable of grasping divine truth which can be

approached only through faith. According to Timothy, in his effort to solve the

problem of the boundaries between human reason and divine revelation, Irenaeus

was the first writer to discuss the nature of theology in such detail. 86 But what is

relevant to his understanding of the Virgin is first the application of Old

Testament prophecies for an interpretation of the Gospel and second his

acceptance of Christian revelation as an absolute authority. These are the

assumptions that underlay Irenaeus' treatment of the Virgin in his work Against

Heresies. 87 Mary filled with joy is seen by Irenaeus as a prophetic representation

through the Virgin humanity "by life recovered life". Irenaeus' work Adversus Haereses
consists of five books, all published in the SC series. The third book was edited by A.
Rousseau and L. Doutreleau, Irénée de Lyon. Contre les hérésies. Livre III, 2 vols., SC
210 and 211, Paris, 1974.
This attitude of Irenaeus is particularly prominent in his Demonstration of the
Apostolic Preaching, a work discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century in an
Armenian translation. For a French translation of the work see L.M. Froidevaux., Irénée
de Lyon. Demonstration de laprédication apostolique, SC 62, Paris, 1971. The centre of
his theology was the recapitulation (rvaiceg&aIwazç) of all things in Christ, the Second
Adam. See J.T. Nielsen, Adam and Christ in the Theo10 of Irenaeus of Lyons, Assen,
1968.
85
Heresies, III. For discussion, see G. Vallée, A Study in Anti-Gnostic Polemics:
Irenaeus, Hippolytus and Epiphanius, Waterloo, 1981.
H.B. Timothy, The Early Christian Apologists and Greek Philosophy, Assen, 1973.
87
See for example with reference to the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, Irenaeus, Against
Heresies, ifi, 9,2, 16. With reference to Ps. 84:12, Irenaeus III, 5, 1,20-24 . Other

49

(LONDONI
 of the Church which addresses the MagnfIcat to Christ.88 His preoccupation with

continuity between the Old and the New Testament is revealed in his words,

"the Gospel demonstrates that the God who had spoken to our Fathers...

is the same God. ,,89

For people of the first Christian centuries the flesh of God was a concept difficult

to embrace and so they made various attempts to view the matter in such a light

that it was consistent with their way of thinking. The role of the Virgin in this

process of definition was crucial. The example of Irenaeus, who refuted the

Gnostic doctrine according to which Christ had received nothing from the Virgin,

is of particular importance to the present study. 9° The Virgin, within this specific

typological references to the Virgin are to be found in III, 31, 10 and III, 22, 4. The
subject of the Annunciation is referred to in III, 10, 2.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III, 10, 2, 14-27. In the fourth century and with reference
to the MagnifIcat, Mary would be called a 'prophetess' in a commentary on Isaiah
attributed to Basil the Great. See Basil of Caesarea, Enarratio inprophetam Isaiam, PG
30, cols. 117-668, and esp. cot. 477B. For the dubious authorship of the work see P.
Humbertctaude, "A propos du commentaire sur IsaIe attribué a s. Basile," RSR 10, 1930,
47-6 8. Cf. Gregory of Nyssa, Testimonia Adversus Judaeos, PG 46, cols. 193-233, and
esp. cot. 208.
89
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III, 10, 2, 14-27; by this phrase Irenaeus rebuts the
Gnostics who held that the God of the Old Testament was not the Father of Jesus Christ.
9
°Ibidem, ifi, 31, 1. The same notion is refuted by John of Damascus in his work On
Heresies 31, (De Haeresibus, PG 94, cot. 697). According to this text Christ is said to
have passed through the Virgin, as through a channel, without being affected at all by
her human qualities: Toy SeXpza'rov àir'oiipavo vivoévat riiv aápica, icaz áìç öia
a%ivoç v'çMapIaç SIwrqavaL. Peter Brown (The Body and Society: Men, Women
and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, New York, 1988, 111-114) associated
this notion with the concept that long prevailed in antiquity and according to which
50
context, is presented as the Second Eve through whom salvation was made

possible for mankind, the bridge between Heaven and earth, the ladder that leads

to heaven.

Ignatius of Antioch (beginning of second century) is known for his letters

to the churches, collected by Polycarp, in which he refers extensively to the

importance of the office of the bishop. 9 ' In his theology Ignatius emphasized the

reality of the Incarnation and the motherhood of Mary, therefore opposing the

Docetic heresy. It follows that he insisted on the authenticity of the virginal birth

of Christ.92

One of the first Christian writers to call Mary 'Theotokos' was Origen

(c. 185-210). Following the pattern of allegorical exegesis that was later to

children were produced from the sperm of the father whereas the mother was nothing
but the soil necessary for childbirth.
91
Ignatius wrote seven letters on his way to Rome where he was taken to be tried in the
early years of the second century; his letters were addressed to the churches of Ephesus,
Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, and Smyrna and to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna.
For Ignatius see W. Schoedel, Ignatius ofAnrioch, Philadelphia, 1985. See also the
edition by Th. Camelot, Ignace d'Antioche, Polycarpe de Smyrne, Lettres. Martyre de
Polycarpe, SC 10, Paris, 1969.
92
Ignatius, Eph. 7.2; 18.2; TraIl. 9.1, in which he asserts that Christ was truly born the
son of God and of Mary.
l-fr)fl j'LL4t....
Origen, (All references to the work Contra Celsum are to the
edition by H. Borret, Origène, Contre Celse, vol. I (books I and II), SC 132, Paris, 1967;
vol. II (books III and N), SC 136, Paris, 1968; vol. III (books V and VI), SC 147, Paris,
1969; vol. N (books VII and VIII), SC 150, Paris, 1969; and vol. V (tables and indices),
SC 227, Paris 1976) Origen had a pagan education and was fluent in the arguments of
all currents of Greek philosophy. But he was also a man of the Church (as he describes
himself in Horn. 16 in Luke: H. Crouzel, F. Fournier, P. Périchon, Origène. Homélies
51
flourish in Alexandria, Origen bridged theoretical speculation and Christian

discourse although the way in which his views were upheld by his followers, and

especially by Evagrius of Pontus, resulted in the eventual anathema laid on

Origen by the Second Council of Constantinople (553) during the reign of

Justinian 1Y4 Origen elaborated on the typological references to the Virgin, 95 and

sur S. Luc, SC 87, Paris, 1962). His father had died as a martyr when Origen was very
young, during the persecution of Septimius Severus. See H. Chadwick, The Early
Church, London, 1967 and 1990, 100-102; from the vast bibliography on Origen, see J.
Daniélou, Origen, New York, 1955; C. Kannengiesser and W. Petersen (eds.), Origen of
Alexandria: His World and His Legacy, Notre Dame, 1988; H. Crouzel, Origen, San
Francisco, 1989. Long before Mary, the epithet 'Theotokos' was used with reference to
isis. For earlier references to Mary as 'Theotokos' see G.W.H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek
Lexicon, Oxford, 1961, 639-641 (henceforth, PGL); and the fragment ascribed to Peter I
of Alexandria (d. 311) (PG 18, col. 517 B). Peter was the predecessor of Athanasius of
Alexandria and was among the first who applied not only the title of 'Theotokos' but
also the title 'Ever-Virgin' to Mary. Gregory Thaumatourgos (d. c. 270) is also
important for the development of the cult of the Virgin since be appears to be the author
of homilies in honour of the Mother of God. Although no direct evidence survives, a
vision of the Virgin is related in a panegyric written by Gregcy of Nyssa in honour of
the saint. For the text see De Vita Gregorii Thaumaturgi, (BHGa 715-71 5b), Gregorii
Nysseni Opera X, vol. I, G. Heil (ed.), Leiden, New York, Kdbenhavn, Köln, 1990, 3-5 7,
(=PG 46, 893-957). For the Marian homilies ascribed to Gregory Thaumatourgos see M.
Jugie, "Les homélies mariales attribuées a Gregoire le Thaumatourge," AB 43, 1925, 86-
95.
His method of interpretation is analysed in the fourth book of his work O'z First
Princzples. For discussion see Young, Biblical Exegesis, 82-89. Origen was greatly
admired by the Cappadocians (Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus) who compiled
his Philokalia (Origene, Philocalie, 1-20. Sur les Ecritures, M. Han (ed.), SC 302, Paris,
1983; Origéne, Philocalie 21-27. Sur le Libre Arbitre, E. Junod, SC 226, Paris, 1976).
For the influence of Origen see J. Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology, Historical Trends
and Doctrinal Themes, New York, 1974,35-37.

52
he also defended Mary's virginity and Christ's virginal birth, so answering the

accusations of the Jews and of the pagan Celsus. 96 At the turn of the third century

Christian writers, while stressing the virginity and chastity of the Virgin, did not

hesitate in their polemical writings to present her as a perfectly human mother and

the birth of Christ as a birth like that of any human being. They even went so far

as to suggest that Mary had other children apart from Jesus. 97 In the same manner

the fourth-century writer John Chrysostom does not always view the Virgin in a

favourable light. According to John Meyendorff, the lack of any doctrinal

formulations concerning the Virgin Mary, apart from the title of 'Theotokos'

Origen, Contra Celsum I, 34, 3 (with reference to the prophecy of Isaiah that
Emmanuel would be born of a virgin). See also I, 35,3; I, 3325.
Answering Celsus, Origen says: "And which would be more appropriate as the mother
of Emmanuel, that is 'God with us', a woman who had had intercourse with a man and
conceived by female passion, or a woman who was still chaste and pure and virgin?"
(1.35). Origen, Contra Celsum I, 32-37; I, 69, 20-21; 2.69. Christ's virginal birth is also
asserted in I, 37,2 and I, 37, 11-12. The point was taken up by Epiphanius, Adv. Haer.
78, (ed. K. Holl, Epzphanius. Panarion, vol. III, GCS 37, Leipzig, 1933PG 42, col. 708
D; transi. by F.Williams, The Panarion of Epzphanizzs of Salamis, Book II & III, [Secta
47-80, De FideJ,Leiden-New York, 1987, 60 1-620); Andrew of Crete, &atio in
Circumcisionem Domini et ins. Basilium, (BHG 262), PG 97, cols. 916 B-C, et.al .
Origen also defended Christ's virginal birth against the Ebionites who, in his words, are
of two sorts: those who accept that Christ was born from a virgin and those who hold
that he was not born in this manner but like the rest of people. See Contra Celsum, V,
61, 3 0-32. Cf. M. Cunningham, "The Mother of God in Early Byzantine Homilies,"
Sobornost 10:2, 1988, 53-67.
C1ement of Alexandria (c.160-215), Tertullian (born c. 160) and Origen wrote against
the Doketai, Marcionites and Valentinians who rejected Christ's full humanity;
according to them Christ was only seemingly human. See Tertullian, Adversus
Marcionem, PL 2, cols. 336 A-336C; also, De Came Christi, PL 2, 758B-759D.
3
endorsed at the Council of Ephesus, can be explained by the fact that one of the

greatest Fathers of the Church, John Chrysostom, "found it possible to ascribe to

Mary not only 'original sin', but also 'agitation', 'trouble' and even, 'love of

honour'.98 No one, of course, would have dared to accuse the great Chrysostom of

impiety." This lack of doctrinal formulations concerning the Mother of God is

more satisfactorily explained by the fact that in Byzantium Mariology was never

conceived separately from Christology. As we shall see in the following chapters,

the figure of the Virgin Mary remained a means of understanding the nature and

the implications of the Incarnation right to the end of the Christological debates

in the middle Byzantine period.

The prominent role played by the virginity of Mary did not coincide

simply with the Christological issues of the time, which led to the Councils of

Ephesus and Chalcedon, but also with the ideal of a Christian life that gradually

took shape from the beginning of the third century, i.e. from the time of the

Desert Fathers onwards.' 0° As prefigured in the Song of Songs (4:12), the Virgin

is "an enclosed garden; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." In the fourth century,

virginity becomes a central issue for the monastic ideal and in this context the

98
Chrysostom, In Matthaeum Homiliae,44, PG 57, col. 464; In Johannem (Jn. 2)
homiliae, 21, PG 59, col. 131.
Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology, 148-149.
the sayings of the Desert Fathers, known as Apophthegmata Patrum, see A.-J.
Festugière, (ed.), Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, Brussels, 1961. For the
development of virginity as an ideal of Christian life see Brown, Body and Society,
passim. Averil Cameron discusses the symbolic use of virginity in early Christian
discourse in "Virginity as Metaphor," History as Text, The Writing ofAncient History,
London 1989, 181-205.
54
 Virgin is used as a model for secluded life.' 0 ' A relevant passage has been

preserved in Coptic and printed among the canons of the Council of Nicaea

(325).b02 The prevailing idea of this particular text is that Mary should be the

example for virgins and celibates because of her way of life. A similar idea is

expressed in the writings of Alexander of Alexandria (d. 328), who advises the

nuns of his bishopric to imitate the model of the Virgin Mary, who is the image of

heavenly life.' 03 The example of Alexander is also followed in a homily ascribed

to Athanasius addressed and entitled To the Virgins.'°4 In the early 380s John

Chrysostom comments on virginity in an homonymous treatise in a way that

reflects his strong convictions about the rudiments of the Christian faith.'° 5 In this

'°' Averil Cameron correctly points to the figure of the martyr Thecla (from the
apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla) who acted as a model of virginity much more than
the Virgin herself. See Cameron, "Virginity as Metaphor," 193 and n.50. For the attitude
of the Syriac poet Ephrem towards marriage and virginity see R. Murray, Symbols of the
Churchandthe Kingdom, Cambridge, 1975, 154-157.
102
F. Haase, "Die koptischen Quellen zum Konzil von Nicaea," in Studien zum
Geschichte und Kultur des Alterums, 10, 4, 1920, 50-52.
103
Alexander of Alexandria, while bishop of Alexandria (c.3 12-328), was the first to
oppose Anus' teaching that Christ was not eternal but created by God. He held a local
council of hundred bishops at which Anus' teaching was condemned. The decision of
this council was endorsed by the Council of Nicaea (325). Only very small samples of
Alexander's writings survive; they are published together with those of Athanasius in
H.G. Opitz (ed.), Athanasius Werke, Berlin, Leipzig, 1934-1935, 6-1 1, 19-31.
104
The Coptic version of the homily was discovered and published by Lefort in 1929.
L.Th. Lefort, "S. Athanase, 'Sur la virginité'," Muséon 42, 1929, 197-264; idem, S.
Athanase. Lettresfestales et pastorales en copte, CSCO 150, Louvain, 1955, 73-99
(translation in CSCO 151, 1955, 55-80).
105
For a brief discussion of Chrysostom's Mariology see H. Graef, Mary: A History of
Doctrine and Devotion, London 1963, 74-76.

55
work Chrysostom eulogises the virtue of abstinence from sexual intercourse while

at the same time attacking those who rejected marriage altogether -following the

dualistic mentality of the Manichaeans- because such people underestimated the

achievement of those who manage to attain to the virginal state which he equates

with the angelic life. Chrysostom's view of virginity was not always moderate

and his attitude towards women has been a controversial issue. In his treatise On

Virginity he encourages virgins to endure the troubles of virginal life which are

far fewer than the pains and troubles of marriage.' 06 He propagates the same ideas

in his two treatises To a Young Widow and Single Marriage.' 07 In his homily on

the Nativity, Basil the Great states that virginity should be honoured but marriage

should not be despised.'° 8 He describes Mary in terms of the earth out of which

Adam was created, since it was out of her flesh that the Logos became incarnate,

comparing her virginal womb where Christ assumed his human nature to the earth

106
H. Musurillo and B. Grillet, Jean Civysostome. La virginité, SC 125, Paris, 1966.
107
G.H. Ettlinger and B. Grillet, Jean Chrysostome. A unejeune veuve. Sur le marriage
unique, SC 138, Paris, 1968. According to Averil Cameron ("Virginity as Metaphor,"
196-200) the relationship between literary texts and reality cannot be determined on the
basis of these highly rhetorical texts; for an opposite view see P.M. Beagon, "The
Cappadocian Fathers, Women and Ecclesiastical Politics," VigChr 49, 1995, 165-179
and esp. 165. With reference to the treatment of virginity by the Cappadocians see above
and Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, 62 if.; Ch. Christakis, Virginity in
the Cappadocian Fathers, Ph.D. thesis, King's College London, 1996; J.N.D. Kelly,
Golden Mouth, The Story ofJohn Chrysostom - Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop, London
1995,45 if.
108
Basil of Caesarea, In Sanctam Christi generationem,(BHG 1922), PG 31, cols.
1457-1476, and esp. 1464 B.
56
from which Adam was made)°9 It is worth noting that the roots of the whole

discussion about virginity lay more in the dominant preoccupations and trends of

Late Antiquity rather than the New Testament.' 1 ° The only two texts of the New

Testament referring to virginity are in the Gospel according to Matthew (19.12),

"for there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and

there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs,

which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that

is able to receive it let him receive it", and in the first epistle of Paul to the

Corinthians (7.7-9), "For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every

man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that. I say

therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I.

But if they cannot contain, let them many: for it is better to marry than to bum."

In both passages Virginity is presented as a way, but certainly not as the only way,

of Christian life."

'°9 Enarratio inprophetam Isaiam, PG 30, 117-668 and esp.465A; cf. Gregory of Nyssa,
Antirrheticus adversus Apollinarium, F. Muller (ed.), Gregorii Nysseni Opera III, I.
Opera Dogmarica Minora, Leiden, 1958, 13 1-233 (= PG 45, cols.1l24-1269).
110
R. Demos, "Some Comparisons Between Greek and Christian Ideas of Virtues,"
GrOrthThR X, No 1, 1964, 153-160. Note also the captivating imagery (of bridal
images, white garments, lit candles, beauty of and desire for the bridegroom) in which
virginity is associated with the coming of Christ in the hymn that precedes the epilogue
of the Symposium of Method ius (d.3 12). The author employs antithetical imagery to note
the contrast between virginity and married life, linked to the sorrow and pain of earthly
life. See H. Musurillo and V.H. Debidour, Méthode d'Olympe. Le banquet, SC 95, Paris,
1963,310 if.
For discussion on virginity see Brown, The Body and Society, 259-284 and passim;
Averil Cameron, "Virginity as Metaphor," 189; V. Harrison, "Male and Female in
57
 Up to this point we have seen the way in which Mary was viewed by the

early Christian wiiters as well as the way in which early Christian writings on

Mary reflect contemporary preoccupations and intellectual trends. In the centuries

preceding the Council of Ephesus Christian writers expanded and elaborated all

the possible typological references relating to the Virgin. 112 Thus, Mary appears

as the burning bush seen by Moses, the tree of Jesse, the Ark of the Covenant, the

mountain out of which the stone was cut without hands, the manna that fell from

Cappadocian Theology," iT/iS 41, 1990, 441-71; Beagon, "The Cappadocian

Fathers,"165-179. Beagon following Harrison reconsiders Cameron's assumptions
expressed in the above-mentioned article. He argues that the principle underlying the
anthropology of the Cappadocians was one of equality between genders. I would suggest
that his remarks about the different ways that women are portrayed in the works of Basil
and the two Gregorys are certainly valid but the analysis of his data does not always
convince the reader. I found particularly problematic his deduction of general
assumptions on the basis of particular examples derived from the writings of the
Cappadocians in which they refer to women of their immediate environment. One could
also bring to the attention of the reader the sharp difference of tone between the pastoral
writings of Chrysostom and his letters to Olympias. With reference to the anthropology
of Basil the Great see his Homiia in Martyrem Julittam, PG 31, cols. 23 7-262 and esp.
col. 24 lA-C. For the anthropology of Gregory of Nyssa see H.U. von Balthasar,
Presence and Thought, An Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa, San
Francisco, 1995, 135-137; G. Clark, Women in Late Antiquity. Pagan and Christian
Lfestyles, Oxford, 1993, esp. 122 if.; cf. M.Y. MacDonald, Early Christian Women and
Pagan Opinion, Cambridge, 1996, 100; D.F. Sawyer, Women and Religion in the First
Christian Centuries, London and New York, 1996, 150-151.
112
Some of the Old Testament prophecies applied to the Mother of God and associated
with the numerous epithets attributed to her are to be found in: Isaiah 11:1,29:12, 53:20,
Judges 6:36-40, Numbers 17:1-8, Daniel 2:34,2 Samuel 6:7-8, Exodus 7:9, 16:14,
Deuteronomy 9:10, Ezekiel 16:33, 44:2.
58
Heaven, the rod of Aaron, Jacob's ladder and Gideon's fleece. 113 In the following

chapters we shall see how these images were elaborated by writers in later

centuries. Indeed, the typological themes that we found in the writings of the early

Christian thinkers formed the background of all subsequent Marian writings.

Upon this basis, homilists and hymnographers of succeeding centuries fashioned

the portrait of Mary, always adding to it aspects of their contemporary concerns.

In the realm of theological speculation the place of the Mother of God was

dictated by her role in the accomplishment of the divine plan concerning the

healing of Eve's disobedience and the salvation of mankind accomplished

through the death of Christ on the Cross.

113
The burning bush imagery became standard especially after the fourth century. For an
example of its use see Gregory of Nyssa, Orario in Diem Natalem Christ& (BHG 1915),
PG 46, cols. 1128-1149, and esp. col.1136A. Mary is called the tree of obedience in
Irenaeus of Lyons, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, 33. For the image of
manna see Gregory of Nyssa, De Vita Moses, J. Daniélou (ed.), La Vie de Moise, SC
iter, Paris, 1968,2, 139 (PG 44, cols. 297-430, esp. col. 368C). At the time of the
Council of Ephesus, Proclus praised the Virgin drawing upon Old Testament images in
the following words: "the purest fleece of the heavenly rain, from which the Shepherd
put on the sheep...She alone is the bridge of God towards mankind. The dread loom-
beam of the economy, on which the robe of the union was woven; whose weaver is the
Holy Spirit; the spinner the overshadowing power from on high; the wool, the ancient
fleece of Adam; the thread, the immaculate flesh of the Virgin; the shuttle, the ineffable
grace of Him who wore it; the craftsman, the Word who came to dwell through
hearing..." (transl. by E. Lash), PG 65, col. 681. For discussion of Proclus' use of the
typological imagery of the loom see N.P. Constas, "Weaving the Body of God: Proclus
of Constantinople, the Theotokos and the Loom of the Flesh," JEChSt 3:2, 1995, 169-
194. Most of these images are included in the hymns of Ephrem the Syrian; see Lash,
"Mary in Eastern Church Literature," 310-321.
59
The Impassibility of God

In the Old Testament God is very different from the divinities conceived

of by Greek philosophers: he feels anger, jealousy, compassion, pity. He is

challenging and is challenged. In the Psalms the anger of God is directed against

the wicked and is provoked by the misdeeds of his people. In Psalm 7:11, God

gets angry with the wicked and prepares his sword and his bow, the instruments

of death, to attack ' More impressive is the depiction of the anger of God

in Psalm 78:2 1 where it is described by the imagery of fire directed against

Jacob." 5 In the same psalm, God appears not only angry but also jealous of the

idols venerated by Israel." 6 The subject ofjealousy is to be found also in Exodus

20:5, where God declares himself as a jealous God with reference to the idols."7

Jealousy and anger provoked by the veneration of idols are also recorded in

' Ps 7:11-13, "...God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet

his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the
instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors."
115
Ps 78:2 1, "Therefore the Lord heard this and was wrath; so a fire kindled against
Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel."
116
Ps 78:58, "For they provoked him to anger with their high places, moved him to
tealousy with their graven images."
Ex. 20:4-5, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for! the Lord thy
God am a jealous God,..."
60
Jeremiah 44:3.118 In the book of Kings (2 Kings 22:13), the wrath of God is

asserted and feared by the people." 9 But God's anger is balanced by his pity and

compassion for mankind: God often turns his wrath away and does not destroy

the people.' 2° The compassion of God is asserted in Psalm 111:4 but also in the

Lamentations.' 2 ' Despite the misfortune that fell on his city, Jeremiah attributes

the survival of his people to the compassion of the Lord.'22

In the Old Testament, although instructive and hidden from the eyes of his

prophets, God is presented anthropomorphically, where he expresses himself in

terms of human feelings. Certainly, there is no mention of God's suffering in the

Old Testament; suffering -in its proper sense and not as a state that implies

involvement- comes to the fore in the New Testament. God in the Old Testament

is said to experience feelings that would be characterised as human, but they do

not imply passibility because they are not implied by any necessity. God is moved

to anger or compassion by his philanthropy which results from his involvement in

118
Jer. 44:3, "Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to
anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods, whom they knew not,
neither they, ye, nor your fathers."
' 2 Kings 22:13, "... for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us,
because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according
unto all that which is written concerning us."
120
Ps 78:3 8, "But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed
them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath."
121
Ps 111:4, "he hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious
and full of compassion."
Lam. 3:22, "...it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his
compassions fail not."
61
a relationship with man. But this relationship is not necessary for God, just as

God was not motivated by necessity to cause the Incarnation, but by his love for

mankind. The feelings ascribed to God in the Old Testament do not challenge his

identification as God. In the New Testament feelings are experienced albeit from

the perspective of the Incarnate Word of God. In his earthly life Jesus experiences

the whole range of human feelings including anger, sorrow, but most importantly

suffering.

In the New Testament, although the Incarnation of the Word is asserted

(for example in the prologue of John, and especially in Jn 1:14), and the Passion

of the Lord is recorded in detail, there is no clear verbal formulation with

reference to the suffering of Christ. In contrast, Paul and Peter in their epistles

assert the suffering of Christ in a definitive manner. Paul has recourse to the

suffering of Christ in order to demonstrate the reality of the Incarnation and the

fact that, indeed, God assumed fully our own nature.'23 Although God does not

change in his essence, through the words of Paul it appears that his Incarnation,

his sharing of human suffering and temptation, enabled him to be "a merciful and

faithful high priest". In the same epistle (Heb. 5:7-9), Paul considers suffering to

have been a way through which Christ learned obedience and attained to

perfection. Jesus's sharing of our human nature is exemplified at this point

123
Heb 2:16-18. "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him
the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered
being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."
62
through his prayers and tears as he faces death.' 24 Peter asserts the suffering of

Christ as an example given by Jesus for his followers to observe.' 25 Finally, Peter

asserts the suffering itself of Christ and advises Christians to take the same path

that leads to the life that accords with the will of God.' 26 This last formulation

"suffered in the flesh" was to become an essential doctrine in both the Eastern

and the Western Churches.' 27 From the Scriptural point of view it might be

suggested that the God of the Old Testament had knowledge of humanity, for he

was defmed as an omnipotent being, but did not have experience of the fallen

nature of man. If we accept that the distinction between knowledge of a certain

thing or condition and its experience applies to God, we may understand why the

Incarnation marked such a dramatic change in the way that God appears in the

Old and New Testament respectively. More specifically with reference to his

suffering, it seems that in the New Testament suffering represents the most

important experience of Christ's Incarnation: the experience that showed God's

124
Heb. 5:7-9,"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from
death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey him."
125
I Pet. 2:21, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps..."
126
Pet. 4:1, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves
likewise with the same mind: for he that bath suffered in the flesh bath ceased from
sin...,,
127
A. Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition,Fro,n the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon
(451), 2nd revised edition, vol. I, transl. by J. Bowden, London, 1975, 401ff. and 521.
U.)
love and compassion for mankind, while it gave to God the experience of human

suffering through its endurance by Jesus.

For early Christian thinkers the issue of the suffering of God was not a

simple one to deal with. The heritage of Greek philosophers who propounded the

impassibility of God made the question even more challenging and

complicated.' 28 It seems that everybody, pagans and Christians alike, agreed that

passibility is not a quality that can be attributed to God. But within the context of

the incarnational theology of the Early Church the question proved to be more

complicated than that.

Early apologists, such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons, attributed

impassibility to God, but the relation of the suffering of Christ with the Godhead

and its implications do not seem to have been an issue for them.' 29 Both writers

often assert on the one hand the impassibility of God and on the other the

suffering of Christ. Justin Martyr writes:

"He thus revealed to us all that we have learned from the Scriptures by his

grace, so that we know him as the first-begotten of God before all

creatures, and as the son of the patriarchs, since he became incarnate by a

virgin of their race, and condescended to become a man without

128
The pagan Celsus challenged Origen precisely on these grounds, namely that
Christian revelation implies the passibility of God; Origen, Contra Celsum, 4.14-16.
129
See for example, Justin, I Apol. 25.2; Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 2.21.4-
2.23.
64
 comeliness or honour, and subject to sufferin g. Hence, he alluded to his

imminent suffering in this way. ,,130

The same idea is expressed in his first apology in which he states that in

becoming man Christ endured suffering for our sake.' 3 ' Origen generally asserts

the impassibility of God; with reference to Christ he seems to be among the first

thinkers who perceived the delicate nature of the paradox of the suffering of God.

Hence, while affirming the impassibility of Christ he also affirms his Passion.'32

But even when he does not refer explicitly to the suffering of Christ, Origen

understands the assumption of human nature by Christ as an acceptance of human

suffering and death by God.' 33 The suffering of God became an issue during the

Arian debate over the natures of Christ in the sense that if the Logos is passible

then he is not divine. Athanasius of Alexandria maintained that the incarnate

130
Justin, Dial. c.
131
Justin, JApol., 50, 1, trèp pãvyEvOLwvoçàv9po.7roçJraOeiv i)iruezv&..
132
Origen, Contra Ce/sum, IV, 15; ibid, Commentary in Matthew, X, 23, throvOev ó
a8çrçioirAayvzo9i7vaz... (the text is published in PG 13, col. 836 if. and in E.
Klostermann and E. Benz, Origenes Werke. Origenes MatthazLserklarung, GCS 40,
Berlin, 1935-1937.)
Origen, Contra Ce/sum, III, 25, 35-3 8, "for the body born of the body of the virgin
was made out of human matter and was capable of receiving human suffering and
death."

65
Word of God suffered while remaining impassible.' 34 According to Athanasius

the suffering of Christ came as a result of the Incarnation.'35

Christ not only experienced suffering in the Incarnation; he can be said

also to have experienced hell itself. A text that treats the subject of the Descent of

Christ into the Underworld, but not the suffering of Christ as such, is a hymn by

Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413).' 36 Although not immediately relevant to

theopaschism, the hymn of Synesius is interesting in that it employs images that

were later adopted in Byzantine homilies and hymns dealing with the Passion of

the Lord. Synesius was the author of a number of hymns that scholars consider

were used for 'private devotion' rather than on liturgical occasions. Among the

propounders of this view we may note Tomadakis and Mitsakis who in their

studies of the early hymns of the Church noted the difference between the overtly

' Athanasius, Ep.Epict. 6, "And it was strange that he was the one suffering and the
one not suffering. Suffering, in that his body was suffering,...and not suffering in that the
Logos being God by nature he is impassible..."; for the exegetical method of Athanasius
and its importance in the Arian controversy see Young, Biblical Exegesis, 29-32.
135
Athanasius, De Incarnatione Verbi, published in Ch. Kannengiesser, Sur
l'Incarnation du Verbe, SC 199, Paris, 1973; as well as Athanasius' four orations,
Contra Arianos, PG 26, cols. 12-525 and esp. 524 C, Tiv ycq irpoç 'rO y àv9po'rov
ëv(uaLv, avv yvoptaei7vai àvepo)irotç lv övva'rov riv ?róprrrov çikriv ôta rç
OpoiEvijç, ?aroa'rot ilv cbvó4uaaev...
4.V.a riç Ev aapici rapovaIaç veica rqv ?vrocro)rv ol ôI,cazoz thvOuaaav....
136
Synesius was bishop of Ptolemais. Of his numerous hymns only nine survive (C.
Lacombrade, (ed.), Hymnes, Paris, 1978). The hymn in question is published also in the
anthology of Byzantine poetry by R.Cantarella (Poeti Bizanrini, vol. I, Milan, 1948, 34).
For a study of the complicated issues involved in the life and career of Synesius see J.
Vogt, Begegnung mit Synesios, dem Fhilosophen, Priester undFeldherrn, DT1stadt,
1985.
66
devotional-liturgical character of the anonymous hymns that survive in papyri and

the hymns of Clement of Alexandria (d. c.2 15), Methodius of Olympus (d. 312),

Gregory of Nazianzus (b. c.330) and Synesius of Cyrene (d.c.413) which were

thought to fulfil a more 'private' dimension of Christian devotion.' 37 Synesius in

his hymn on the Descent of Christ into the Underworld does not refer either to the

events preceding Good Friday or to the Crucifixion itself. Instead, he relates the

Descent of Christ into the Underworld through a series of vivid images that

derive from pagan imagery.' 38 The Underworld is described as the place guarded

137
Compare for example the early anonymous hymn (Cantarella, Poeti Bizantini 11-12)
that is still used in the Orthodox Church with the first hymn by Synesius of Cyrene
(Synesio di Cirene, Inni, A. dell'Era (ed.), Rome 1968, 33-91). Both hymns glorif' the
Holy Trinity, albeit in a completely different style that dictates a different response in
the audience. Synesius was a student of the Neoplatonist philosopher Hypatia who was
lynched at Alexandria by the Christian mob in the time of the patriarchate of Cyril of
Alexandria (see below); Sokrates, Ecclesiastical Histoiy, 7.13 (So/crates
Kirchengeschichte, G.Ch. Hansen (ed.), Verlag, 1995, 360f.); J. Bregman, Synesius of
Cyrene, Philosopher-Bishop, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1982, esp. 78-92 with
regard to the Trinity in the hymnographic work of Synesius. See also N. Tomadakis,
"Atc9iyruct 6twpopoitotratç Opraic'rticfi; iccd aw.atuci'; ivo'ypwpiaç," in
EEBS 28, 1958, 65-89; idem, FIBvavrtvi 'YjtvoypaçoIa icai rloIiirnc vol. 2,
Thessaloniki, 1993 (henceforth cited as Tomadakis, Byzantine Hymnography);
K.Mitsakis, 1-f Bvcxv-rzvi 'l'uvoypaçoIa, vol. 1, Thessaloniki 1971, (henceforth cited as
Mitsakis, Bantine Hymnography). For a discussion of Methodius' Symposium, see
Averil Cameron, The Rhetoric of Empire, 175-178. With reference to Gregory
Nazianzen and the cultural transformation of Christianity in the fourth century, Jaeger,
Early Christianity and Greek Paideia, 7 8-79.
138
For the evolution of the personifications of Charon see M. Alexiou, "Modern Greek
Folklore and its Relation to the Past: The Evolution of Charos in Greek Tradition," The
"Past" in Medieval and Modern Greek Culture, S. Vryonis (ed.), California, 1978, 221-
236.

67
by the serpent, the feeder of death,' 39 as well as 'Tartara' -the ancient Greek name

for the Underworld- while the mythical figures of Hades and Cerberus, the dog

that guards the souls of the deceased from returning to earthly life, are mentioned

in the poem.' 4 ° Synesius refers to the Virgin with respect to the Incarnation,' 4 but

briefly, without dwelling on the subject.' 42 Interestingly enough, he includes in

his poem images of nature (stars and the moon) shown partaking in the unfolding

of events.' 43 Finally, it should be noted that the poem does not bear any

resemblance either to the text of Melito or to the later Syriac hymns in that it

lacks dramatic action, emotional appeal, and elaboration of the persons

participating in the Passion. The choice of subject by Synesius remains interesting

especially if we consider the fact that Christ's Descent into Hades became a

popular subject much later.' Given the pagan elements echoed in the poetry of

Synesius, it could be suggested that his choice of subject was dictated precisely

by the familiar imagery of the Underworld that lent itself conveniently to the

author for elaboration. This view is further supported by Synesius' inclusion of

the mythical figures of Hades and Cerberus noted above. However, the suffering

X9Ovov y&wv óqnv, line 5; rpoçov &piaXo opom.., line 8.

"° icataç 'bitô Tãptapa, line 16; (bpiv ac rótc / 'At&Lç ó ita?.avycv; lines 19-20;
ccu Xco3Opoç iaxov, line 21.
' yóv ap8vo, line 2, tai Eapevo1, line 11, itcxi iuxp0vou, line 29.
142
Note the parallel with his first hymn (dell'Era, Jnni,33-9l) where, although he praises
the Incarnation and the Nativity, he does not refer to the Virgin as the mother but to God
as the Father of Christ.
' 43 xopoc ipotoç &atpov, line 35; ai&ilp & yEAäa; line 36; &yEito asXãva, line 47.
'"The Harrowing of Hell was used by homilists, hymnographers and iconographers
alike, in order to denote the Resurrection of the Lord. See Kartsonis, Anastasis, 4-7.
68
of Christ would become a central issue in the fifth century, at the time of the

Council of Ephesus.'45

The Homily On the Pascha by Melito of Sardis

The earliest text that refers to the Passion of the Lord is the homily On the

Pascha by Melito of Sardis.' Although the text does not include a lament of the

Mother of God, it is still interesting for the researcher since it includes themes

and images that throw light on the development of the lament. Melito was a

prolific writer of the second century; his various works are listed by Eusebius in

his Ecclesiastical History.' 47 Little is known about his life, apart from the fact

145
See below, chapter II.
146
Meliton of Sardis, Sur la Pdque, 0. Perler (ed.), SC 123, Paris 1966; Meliton of
Sardis: Oz Pascha and Fragments, S.G. Hall (ed.), Oxford 1979.
For the writings of Melito see E. Amann, 'Méliton de Sardes', DThC, vol. X, Paris
1928, cols. 540-547 and esp. 543-546; introduction by Perler, op.cit., 11-15. Although
Melito's theological views were in accordance with the later conciliar developments and
he was also highly praised for his eloquence, his works did not survive and it is evident
that he did not acquire a place in the pantheon of influential writers in Byzantium. The
last direct reference to Melito is to be found in the seventh-century Hodegos of
Anastasius Sinaites. Although Melito in his work propounds a balanced view of the
divine and human natures of Christ, he is thought to have been responsible for a sect
which believed that the human body was created in the image of God but not the human
soul. R.C. White, "Melito of Sardis: Earliest Christian Orator," Lexington Theological
Quarterly 2, July 1967, 84, expressed the view that Melito's heterodoxy accounts for his
exclusion from the corpus of influential writers. See also, A.M. Manis, "Meliton of
Sardis: Hermeneutic and Context," GrOrthThRev 32, No. 4, 1987, 389.
69
that he was bishop of Sardis in the middle of the second century) 48 Melito, was

among the leading figures of the Quartodecimans, who believed that Easter

should be celebrated on the 14th of the month Nisan, that is at the same time as

the Jewish Passover. The practice was associated with the identification of Christ

with the paschal lamb in John According to its French editor, the homily On

the Pascha was written some time between 160 and I 70150 and could have been

14S
The evidence we possess about Melito, and especially Tertullian's attitude towards
Melito, suggests that he fought against the rising heresy of Montanists in Asia Minor.
See W.H.C. Frend, "Montanism: Research and Problems," Rivista di storia e letteratura
religiosa, XXX, Florence, 1984, 52 1-537. He also played an active part in the debate
over the date of the celebration of Easter (for which see below). Méliton de Sardes,
Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, vol. VIII, Paris, 1928, cols. 542-543; A.T.
Kraabel, "Melito the Bishop and the Synagogue at Sardis: Text and Context," in D.G.
Mitten et.al . (eds.), Studies Presented to George MA. Hanjlnann, Cambridge, 1971, 77-
85. Kraabel relates the material that was brought to light during Hanfmann's excavations
of 1962 at Sardis, i.e., a large and prosperous synagogue, to the text of Melito in an
effort to reconstruct his 'social location'. More recently Andrew Manis reconsidered the
hypothesis of Kraabel and related the existence of the Synagogue (which in its turn
implies the existence of a large and powerfi.il Jewish community) to the anti-Jewish
character of the text. See Mariis, "Meliton of Sardis: Hermeneutic and Context," 387-
401. Cf. W.H.C. Frend, "Early Christianity and Society: a Jewish Legacy in the Pre-
Constantinian Era," Harvard Theological Review 76, 1983, 53-71.
149
E.J. Kihnartin, "Liturgical Influence of John 6," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 22,
1960, 1 83-191; Cross, The Early Christian Fathers, 101. The author suggests that the
celebration of Easter as a development of the Jewish Passover was already established in
the first century. See also the discussion by Man is, "Meliton of Sardis: Hermeneutic and
Context," 390. For the transformation of the Pascha, see also G. Dix, The Shape of the
Liturgy, London, 1945, 348 ff.
150
Perler, op.cit., 24.
70
part of the ceremony of baptism that was performed on Good Friday.' 51 The

homily is a typological interpretation of Easter with reference to Jewish

Passover.'52

Scholars have expressed different opinions about the question whether the

text should be read as a whole or as two distinct texts. Hall detects two parts in

the homily: the first (11-45) being an indirect reference to the Jewish Passover

and the second (46-105) a Passover Haggadah. The division is self-evident and

also accepted by Cross and Manis.' 53 However, the last two authors read the text

as a single entity. Manis in particular emphasizes correctly that it is in the second

part that the typological significance of Jewish Passover is developed. He thus

proposes the reading of the text as a single entity. On the other hand, Hall bases

his argument on the Georgian translations of the text; the two separate parts of

this homily were treated by different editors and at different times. In addition to

that, Eusebius in the catalogue of Melito's works lists two works on Easter

'' Perler, op.cit., 24-29. At the time of Melito the celebration of Easter was a single
feast and so 'Good Friday' did not exist in the way that it developed in later centuries;
however, the association of Easter with baptism must have existed at the time. Cross
considers the identification of the text as a 'homily on Good Friday' an anachronisation
given the early date of the work and suggests that even in terms of style it bears more
similarities to a Passover Haggadah. See also, Manis, "Meliton of Sardis: Hermeneutic
and Context," 391; S. Hall, "Meliton in the Light of the Passover Haggadah," .JThS 22,
1971, 29-46.
152
The first part of the homily, after the introduction (1-10), is dedicated to the
typological interpretation of Jewish Passover: the blood of the lamb that protected Israel
is seen as a prefiguration of the salvation of mankind by the blood of Christ.
'"Hail, "Meliton in the Light of the Passover Haggadah," 29-46; Cross, Early Christian
Fathers, 104-105; Manis, "Meliton of Sardis: Hermeneutic and Context," 391-392.
71
(meaning perhaps the two 'parts' of the homily).' 54 Taking into consideration the

arguments on both sides, I would like to suggest a third possible explanation.

It is certain that the homily is divided into two parts, as suggested by the

above mentioned scholars. The second part is introduced with the lines 324-327:

"You have heard the explanation of the prefiguration and of its relation; listen in

the same manner to the structure of the mysteiy. What is Easter? It is from what

happened that the mystely took its name; The 'paschein' from the 'pathein'..."

These opening lines separate clearly the first from the second part and reintroduce

the subject. Melito was admittedly a very capable rhetor: would he need to

introduce the second part of his homily in such an explicit way? In addition, the

first part focuses on the suffering of Israel, whereas the second on the suffering of

the Lord; but the end of the second part is imbued with the triumphant tone of the

Resurrection despite the fact that at the time Easter was celebrated as a

commemoration of the Crucifixion, rather than of the Resurrection. The homily

ends with an assertion of Christ as the true Son of God and of his Resurrection

(100-105). Although Easter was celebrated as a single feast, could it not have

been that Melito delivered the first part of his homily on the eve of the feast-day

to prepare his congregation for the feast itself, and preached the second on the day

of Easter?'55

'' Hall, "Meliton in the Light of the Passover Haggadah," 39-45.

C. Chevalier, "Les Trilogies homilétiques dans I'élaboration des ftes Mariales, 650-
850," Gregorianum 18, 1937, 36 1-378. Although the study by Chevalier refers to a later
period, I think that it could well be applied to this earlier phase of the development of
homiletics.
72
 But let us return to the text and to the themes that will be encountered

later in the lament of the Virgin. In the second part of the homily, which is of

more interest to the study of the lament, Jesus remains at the centre of the

narration. He is referred to as the lamb (apvOç), while his mother shares the

typology, being referred to as the ewe (apvcxç).' 56 The elaboration of his person,

work and Passion refers constantly to the framework of the salvatoiy plan of God

in which the Logos fully participated from the very creation of the world and will

participate until the end of time.' 57 The person of Christ is affirmed in the

epilogue where Jesus asserts that it is he who delivered the condemned,

resurrected the dead, destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, etc.' 58 The

paradox of the salvatory mystery forms a considerable part of the pattern upon

which narration is built. More specifically, the themes of the lament that can be

traced back to the homily On the Fascha are the following:

I. Anti-Jewish polemic,

II. Antithetical imagery (light-darkness, slavery-freedom, life-death), and

ifi. Compassion of nature.

In his study of the Paschal Homily, Manis suggests that Melito is

ambivalent towards Judaism.' 59 His understanding of anti-Jewish polemic is to a

great extent historical and the presence of the Jews in the text is explained in

terms of real situations, i.e. the existence of a large Jewish community at Sardis.

156
The Johannine repercussions of the imagery of the Iamb have been noted above.
157
Melito of Sardis, On the Pa.scha,ed. Perler, verses 328-533, verses 65 1-679.
158
ibid, verses 775-786; see also verses 790-800.
159
Manis, "Meliton of Sardis: Hermeneutic and Context," 398.
73
 Given the early date of the Paschal Homily we cannot yet refer to anti-Jewish

polemic as a topos of Christian literature, but we could still propose an

explanation based on the theological preoccupations of early Christian wri6°

Melito in his effort to establish the line of continuity between the Old and the

New Testament, is at the same time obliged to distance himself from this

tradition, which was at once completed and thoroughly renewed by the

Incarnation of the Word of God. The paschal mysteiy is hence described as old in

regard to its prefigurations, but new in regard to grace.'6'

On the other hand, the Jews -once the elect and now the rejected people of

God- offer an opportunity for the writer to elaborate an antithetical pattern

comprising what has once been and what is no more. The contrast of past and

present with reference to Israel implements a reading of the text as a lament, a

lament not for Christ but for Israel.

At the same time Israel offers an opportunity for the author to employ

another typical theme of the lament: the injustice associated with death. In the

case of the Crucifixion the injustice is manifested in an extreme way and is

sharply contrasted to the healing miracles of Christ. This theme would become a

standard feature of subsequent laments; its fully expanded form is to be found in

the laments of the ninth century as well as in the idiomela troparia included in the

160
See M. Taylor, Anti-Judaism and Early Christian Identity. A Critique of the
Scholarly Consensus, Leiden-New York-KöIn, 1995.
161
Melito of Sardis, Oz the Pascha,ed. Perler, verses 423-425: o'riv r' ir&xxzov at
icazvov ro 'roi) icvpIovjivor4piov, iraaazov.tev icara ro y ri)irov, azvov & icara vv
%á,OLV.

74
service of Good Friday.' 62 A feature that was not taken up by subsequent authors

but which added vividness to the text of Melito is the contrast between the

suffering of Christ and the joy of the Jews who celebrate the Passover.' 63 Anti-

Jewish polemic, in relation to the lament, is perhaps the most standard feature of

all subsequent homilies and hymns on the Crucifixion.

The antithetical pattern that we saw with reference to anti-Jewish polemic

is also encountered on a wider scale in the imagery of the Paschal Homily. In the

text light is contrasted with darkness, life with death, sin with adoption and

participation in the kingdom of God, slaveiy with freedom, and the miracles of

the benefactor with the murder of the malefactors. Generally, antithetical patterns

operate concurrently in terms of content and of imagery.

In terms of content the Jews form a separate category: their murder of

Jesus is contrasted with his healing miracles and especially in the text of Melito

the formerly privileged state of Israel is contrasted with the murder of God.IM

Also, with reference to the Jews, the subject of ingratitude is developed and

expressed in antithetical phrases. In much the same way the broader category of

mankind is brought into the picture: its former state of enslavement to death is

contrasted with the salvation of mankind obtained through the sacrifice of the

innocent lamb. Death is associated with sin and darkness, with tyranny and

162
S.Janeras, Le Vendredi-Saint dans la tradition lizurgique Byzantine, structure et
histoire de ses offices, (Studia Anselmiana 99 - Analecta Liturgica 12), Rome 1988; for
the manuscripts of the troparia see 23 7-23 8; texts in 23 8-248.
163
Melito of Sardis, On the Pascha,ed. Perler, verses 571-595.
' Ibid, verses 731-737, OaatAthç roi) 7apcat ?xviperaz &o ôezaç 'Iapca2..I'rtSoç.
75
captivity. The other part of the antithetical pattern is expressed in terms of light,

life, freedom and eternity. 165

Also inspiring for the author is the contrast between the greatness of the

Creator and the meanness of his creature who leads him to his voluntary

slaughter. It is at this point that nature plays an important part, being identified

with the people who in the Biblical laments are called upon to share the grieving

for the deceased.' 66 Nature is called upon to witness the mystery and functions

like the chorus in ancient Greek tragedies. In subsequent laments we shall see the

Mother of God herself calling upon nature to share her mourning. In this early

text emphasis is given to nature in the context of the antithesis Creator-creature,

that is, the life-giver, God, who is put to death by his own creation, man.' 67 The

giver of light is crucified, and the day becomes dark to hide his naked body while

the sun and the stars turn their faces away to avoid the fearful sight. The motif of

nature is encountered equally in hymnography and homiletics and in the

iconography of the Crucifixion.'68

Conclusion

The cult and the lament of the Mother of God in Byzantium are greatly

indebted to both the Hellenistic and -most importantly- the Jewish background to

165
Ibid, verses 489-495.
' Ibid. verses 711-752.
167
Ibid, verses 731-743; note the close parallel of verses 731-735 with the twelfth
idiomelon in Janeras, Vendredi-Saint, 247.
168 See below chapters IV and V.
76
which early Christian writers had recourse in their effort to shape the new faith.

Byzantine writers of the early Christian centuries freely employed Hellenistic

rhetoric as a means of expression, but the development of the cult and the lament

of the Virgin may not be explained solely on these grounds, namely, as a literary

theme. Marian laments echo the theological elaboration of Christian revelation.

More specifically, the lament of the Virgin at the foot of the Cross finds its

inspiration in the laments of the Old Testament, whether for people or for cities.

Biblical laments comprise all the basic elements that were to be used during the

following centuries by Byzantine hymnographers and homilists in their

composition of the lament of the Virgin.

The evolution of the cult of the Virgin during the first Christian centuries

is linked with the development of the typological imagery that proved the Virgin

to be the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. By drawing upon images in

the Old Testament, writers of the early Byzantine period made up for the scarcity

of references to the Virgin in the New Testament. However, the lament of the

Virgin is inextricably linked to the theme of the suffering of God. in the Old

Testament God reveals himself in anthropomorphic terms such as anger or

jealousy, while in the New Testament the Incarnation of the Word is emphasized

by concentration upon his suffering.

The Paschal Homily by Melito of Sardis reflects the typological concerns

of the author's day and can be read as a precursor of the hymnography of the

77
Passion that emerged in ensuing centuries.' 69 The roots of Christian

hymnography, which inherited the long Jewish and Graeco-Roman tradition of

psalms and odes respectively, are conventionally placed in Syria.' 70 The dominant

themes of the lament, that is, anti-Jewish polemic, antithetical imagery, and the

compassion of nature, are all included in Melito's homily, perhaps the earliest

surviving work concerned with the Passion of the Lord. However, the Mother of

God is only briefly mentioned. In the homily by Melito, as well as in other early

Christian writings, the Virgin is always associated with Old Testament

prophecies. The fully-developed lament of Mary was not to appear sooner than

the fifth century, at the time of the Council of Ephesus. As we shall see in the

following chapter, the Marian lament reflected the growth of the cult of the

Virgin that was at the centre of the Nestorian controversy.

169 p Christou, "TO p-yov roO MXitwvoç 11q z Tháa icctI 'AicoXoiOIa to1 flãOouç,"
K)apovouIa 1, ccioç A, 1969, 65-78 and esp. 66; Mitsakis, Byzantine Hymnography, 48-
49; E.Wellesz, A History of Byzantine Music and Hy,nnography, Oxford 1961, 185-186.
' 70 Mitsakis, Byzantine Hymnography, 40-41. From its outset Christian hymnography
had a catechetical character: it was the medium that appealed most strongly to the
people. See M.Lauziêre, "Les Théotokies Coptes," EQ XXXIX, nos 199-200, 1941-
1942, 3 12-327 and esp. 313.
78
 CHAPTER II

THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS AND TFIE FIRST LAMENTS OF

MARY AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS

Introduction

The centuries preceding the Council of Ephesus (431) witnessed the early

growth of the cult of the Virgin Mary, who gradually became a symbol of

Orthodoxy, the true dogma of the Church. In this chapter I will try to give a

concise account of the developments that led to the Council of Ephesus and to the

ratification of the term Theotokos in order to explain the rise of the Virgin's

lament during the fifth and sixth centuries. The growing cult of Mary and the

manner in which she was viewed by the Fathers of the Church gave rise to the

first Christian laments, which originated in the Christian East. In hymnography,

the Syriac tradition is best represented by Ephrem the Syrian and Romanos the

Melode, though the latter lived and composed his works in Constantinople.17'

The prolific Romanos was the author of the hymn Maiy at the Foot of the

Cross,' 72 a text that is central to the study of the lament since it represents the

earliest fully developed example of Mary's lament. His work reflects both the

171
The appreciation Romanos met with in Byzantium is testified by his recognition as a
saint by the Church, which celebrates his memory on October 1St. For the cult of
Romanos in the Greek and Armenian Church, see R. Bousquet, "Le cuite de saint
Romane le Mélode dans l'église grecque et l'égiise arménienne," EQ 3, 1899-1900, 339-
42; H. Delehaye, "Saint Romanos Ic Mélode," AB 13, 1894, 440-442.
172
Romanos the Melode, Hymnes, J. Grosdidier de Matons (ed.), vol. IV, SC 128, Paris,
1967, 160-1 84.
79
course of the cult of Mary and its significance particularly in the fifth century.

However, it has to be emphasized that Marian devotion has always been linked to

Christology. This was also the case in the Council of Ephesus where the epithet

'Theotokos' became symbolic of the debate whose true subject was the way in

which the two natures of the Word coexisted within the historical person of Jesus.

As we shall see, the other central issue of the debate was the age-old question

about the impassibility of God. The impassibility of God was not a new theme

brought to the fore by Christian thinkers. Greek philosophers refer repeatedly to

suffering in connexion with the divine; they associate suffering with emotion and

hence consider both emotion and suffering as feelings exclusive to human beings,

for if they affected also divinities the latter would lack rational control. Pre-

Socratics such as Anaxagoras and Democritus as well as Plato and Aristotle refer

to the notion of vrá9eia. In his third book of the Republic, in which he deals with

death, Plato states that poets should not write on the subject of death and Hades

because in doing so they discourage young men from being brave at war (3.387a-

c). By the same token, Plato banishes laments from his ideal city suggesting that

they should be the task of lowly women so that men might not be tempted to

imitate them (3.387e-388a). And if laments are not fit for humans how much less

so for immortals; thus, Plato concludes, neither grief nor laughter should be

attributed to the divine (3.388). The same strand of thought is followed by

Aristotle who used the word ,rác,o, in its sense of suffering, that is, being subject

to motion. The original source of motion, i.e. of energy, was understood to be the

divine, in other words, the divine was the very origin of the creation of the

80
universe. Motion is associated with mutability, a process passing from non-being

to being; hence, change and birth are closely associated.. In his study of the soul,

Aristotle refers to the intellect as one of the five capacities of the soul. The

intellect is the only 'force' that is not associated with matter. Aristotle attributes

to it practical, theoretical and poetic functions. Practical intellect pursues 'good

living' (eiwxIa - th5azuovIa) in politics and life, whereas the poetic intellect

pursues expression through art. Theoretical intellect is the one relevant to our

subject and Aristotle ascribes to it the study of the universe (OE0Aoyia), the

research of natural laws as expressed in physics, and the study of mathematics.

When he says that the divine is &iraeEç ,cai àv&)oIorrov, i.e. impassible and

immutable, he means that it is not set in motion by any other being. Hence the

divine is in a state of beatitude and does not experience emotion. 174 This theory

was taken up by the Stoics and subsequently by Neoplatonists who thought of

impassibility as an ethical ideal.'75

In Byzantium, the term 'theopaschism' was normally used to designate the

heresy that developed as a branch of monophysitism after the Councils of

173
The other four being the following: 8pF:Jrr1icT, aiaO17rL1cr, Opercritci, icará róirov
,cIviaiv.
174
Metaph. 12, 7.13-1073 A.l 1; On the Soul 1,405 b.20 with reference to the earlier
theory of Anaxagoras, "the only one to hold that intelligence is impassible and that it has
nothing in common with anything else"; I, 408b.25-29; ifi, 430a 18; Cf. N.C. Angelis,
Etre etjustice chez Aristote, Doctorat d'Etat, Sorbonne II, Paris 1989, (forthcoming -
Athens 1998).
175
M. Dragona-Monachou, The Stoic Arguments for the Existence and the Providence of
the Gods, Athens, 1976, 131-156 and passim.
81
Ephesus I, II and the Council of Chalcedon. 176 The doctrine that referred to the
553
suffering of God was endorsed in (at the Council of Constantinople II that

was held during the reign of Justinian) but without producing any positive results

as far as the schism between Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians was

concerned. The theological theme of theopaschism was inextricably linked to the

Christological issues discussed at the Council of Ephesus and it was in this way

that it became a catch-word during the fifth century. The theological issue of

theopaschism was expressed and conveyed to the congregations through the

lament of Mary in which Christ's suffering on the Cross was asserted along with

the proclamation of his two natures, human and divine. Hence, the rise of the

lament will be explained firstly, on the basis of the growing cult of Mary and,

secondly, in relation to the question of the impassibility of God.

176
According to T. Gregory (s.v. "Theopaschitism," 0DB, vol. 3, 2060),
Theopaschitism was first propounded in Constantinople by four Scythian monks as a
solution to the breach between Chalcedonians and Monophysites. See E. Amann,
"Théopaschite (Controverse)," DThC 15, 1946, 505-5 12. Amann gives a concise account
of the issue before 5S3 and also draws attention to the importance to the addition of the
words 'who was crucified for us', of the introduction of the irisagion hymn (holy God,
holy Mighty, holy Immortal) the addition made by the patriarch of Antioch, Peter the
Fuller (d.488) (Amann, op.cit., 506). In the present study Theopaschism is used in the
context not only of the sixth-century debate, but also of the first usages of the
theopaschite formula. For the hymn see G. Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, London, 1945,
451-452. Finally, for a discussion of theopaschism in the Hodegos of Anastasius Sinaites
in the seventh century, see A. Kartsonis, Anastasis, The Making of an Image, Princeton,
New Jersey, 1986; eadem, "The Emancipation of the Crucifixion," Byzance et les
Images, Paris, 1994, 151-187, and esp. 174-178 and Averil Cameron, "The Language of
Images: The Rise of Icons and Christian Representation," The Church and the Arts, D.
Wood (ed.), Oxford, 1992, 1-42.
82
The Feasts of the Virgin andApocryphalLiterature

Feasts of the Virgin were introduced gradually into the official calendar of

the Church during the early Byzantine period. Some of them derive from the

Gospels while others derive from apocryphal literature. The consolidation of

these developments, however, did not occur before the sixth century, or even

later. Since there was not enough detail concerning the Mother of God in the

Gospels, the writers of the early Byzantine period made good the deficiency by

drawing upon apocryphal literature that was produced during the eaiiy Christian

centuries.' 77 The official Church never formally condemned apocryphal literature,

but neither did it accept it as fully canonical. Feasts associated with the Mother of

God, such as the Conception of St Anne, the Birth of the Theotokos and the

Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple were adopted by the Church even though

their origins lay in apocryphal literature. However, according to Nellas, the feast

of the Dormition,' 78 that is also found in apocryphal literature, should be

177
The main body of apocryphal literature was written between the second and the fifth
century, although Byzantine writers continued to produce apocryphal texts until the
fifteenth century.In particular for the the Acta Pilati B, in the Gospel of Nicodemus, see
below. For the function of apocryphal literature within the context of the literary
production of Late Antiquity, see Averil Cameron, The Rhetoric of Empire, 90 and, with
reference to the Theotokos, 98-106.
178
On the Dormition see the classic studies by M. Jugie, La mon et 1 'assomprion de la
Sainte Vierge, Studi e Testi 114, Vatican 1944; A. Wenger, L 'assomption de Ia Très
Sainte Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du Vie au Xe siècle, Archives de I 'orient
chrétien 5, Paris, 1955; M. Van Esbroeck, "Les textes littéraires sur l'Assomption avant
Ic Xe siècle," Les Actes Apocryphes des Apôrres. Christianisme et monde palen, F.
Bovon (et.al .) (eds.), Geneva, 1981.
0-,
considered a development of the feast of St Mary (AyIcL MapIa) celebrated in

Jerusalem at least until the fifth century, and should therefore be disassociated

from its apocryphal sources.' 79 Coptic representations of the Virgin dating from

the fourth and fifth centuries bear inscriptions which describe the Virgin as 'St.

Mary' ( Ayict Mapicx ). The title 'Saint' was subsequently replaced by the

superlative 'All-Holy' (rlavayta - 'YEEpayta), 180 found in representations dating

after the fifth century.'8'

179
The feast of the Dormition was introduced as an official feast at the time of the
emperor Maurice; see the Introduction by Nellas (ed.), in Nicholas Cabasilas,
Theometor, 27. For the development of the feast, see the Introduction by M. Jugie,
Homélies Mariales Byzantines, Textes grecs édités et traduits en latin, P0 19, cols. 289-
438; idem, "La premiere fête mariale en Orient et en Occident, l'Avent Primitif," EQ 22,
1923, 129-152; Averil Cameron, "A Nativity Poem of the Sixth Century A.D.,"
Classical Philology 79, 1979, 222-232 and esp. 230 and n.50; eadem, "The Theotokos in
Sixth-Century Constantinople: A City Finds its Symbol," JThS XXIX, 1978, 79-108; M.
Van Esbroeck, "Le culte de Ia Vierge de Jerusalem a Constantinople aux 6e-7e siêcles,"
R.EB46, 1988, 181-190.
' 80 D. Kalokyris, H &oróoç eiç rrv eiicovoypaçoIav 'Avara.Uç icai ilaeç,
Thessalonica, 1972, 25. Kalokyris suggests that the change in the epithets applied to the
Mother of God came about as a result of theological discussions on Christology and that
this was a way of acknowledging Mary's role in the Incarnation; Cameron, "A Nativity
Poem," 222-232.

Note, however, representations dating to the sixth century, such as in the woollen
tapestry of the Cleveland Museum that bears the inscription 'St Mary'. For the relevant
panel see Averil Cameron, "The Language of Images," plate 3. On the development of
the feasts and the iconography of Mary see C.E. Barber, Image and Cult. Studies in the
Representation of the Virgin Mary in Early Medieval Art, unpublished Ph.D. thesis,
University of London, 1989, 234 and passim; see also the older study by G. Sotiriou, "II
xpttavua icat Buavttvr eiicovoypcupta. 1-I Ehaov tfç Oou," in ee&toyia KZ',
1956, 5-18. Sotiriou discusses the heresies of the Collyridians and the
84
 The Catholic scholar Martin Jugie tackled the question of the

development of the feasts of the Virgin in the East.' 82 Before the Council of

Ephesus there had been a Marian feast that bore some similarity to the later feast

of the Annunciation. This is evident in the homily on the Annunciation by

Abraham of Ephesus in which it is recorded that the feast of the 25th March did

not come into existence before the time of the emperor Justinian (527-565), as

well as in a hagiographical work by Theodore of Petra who wrote the Life of

Saint Theodosius the Coenobiarch soon after the death of the saint in 529. In this

Vita, Theodore records a miracle performed by the saint on the day of the feast of

the Virgin when pilgrims crowded the monastety and there was no food to give

them Theodosius, Theodore relates, multiplied the bread. The hagiographer

wrote: "7tcptoôov uta toü vtcxitot tf lc Oco'r&oD Lv1S uiv tttcXoLEv", that is, "once

Antidicomarianites mentioned by Epiphanius (b. c. 315- d. 403) in his Panarion (

Transi. by F.Williams, The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book II& III, [Secza 47-
80, De Fide],Leiden-New York, 1987, 601-620 and 620-629). Sotiriou considers that the
idealised figure of Mary as a female virgin goddess sprung out of the Hellenic
background of Christianity, whereas the human Mary from its Jewish background. He
also suggests that the iconography of the Virgin can be distinguished by two phases, the
first prior to the Council of Ephesus and the second afterwards. In the first phase the rare
depictions of the Virgin present her holding the Christ Child, sometimes even breast-
feeding, as in the catacomb of S. Callistos in Rome, or in a position of intercession, as in
the bottom of glass bowls also found in the catacombs of Rome (see figs. I and 2 in
Sotiriou). The Virgin in the position of deesis is often flanked by the Apostles Peter and
Paul and bears the inscription 'Ayict Maptcz'. To the second phase Sotiriou ascribes all
the other known types of the Virgin (Hodegetria, Tes Peges, etc).
182
Jugie, P0 19, cols. 289-438. The homilies edited and translated by Jugie are those of
Theodotus of Ancyra and Chrysippus of Jerusalem.
85
a year, according to the liturgical year, we celebrate the memory of Theotokos".

The exact date of the introduction of the feast has not yet been defmitely

determined even so it is generally accepted that it was some time during

December, either the Sunday before Christmas or the day after the feast, the 26th

of the month. On her feast day the Virgin is commemorated as a saint, the title of

many of the early sermons being "p.LvIu 'rfç &yicxç Mapcxç".' 83 It seems that

initially the Virgin, the Theotokos, was celebrated only once a year at a time

significantly close to the Nativity. The development of the feast shows that the

figure of Mary attracted the attention of early Christian writers because of her role

in the Incarnation.' 84 The close association of the feast of Mary with the Nativity

183
Early representations of the Virgin bear the same inscription; see K. Weitzmann,
"The Jephthah Panel in the Bema of the Church of St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount
Sinai," Studies in the Arts at Sinai, Princeton, New Jersey, 1982, 63-80 and esp. 67-69.
184
• Vereecken ( "L'Hymne Acathiste: icône chantée et mystére de l'Incarnation en
nombres," B LXIII, 1993, 357-3 87 and esp. 359-360) posits that the content of the
Akathist Hymn that is still sung today during the vigil of the feast of the Annunciation
(on Saturday in the fifth week of Lent) indicates that the hymn could have been
composed for the feast of the Incarnation ("pour Ia fte générale de l'Incarnation"). For
the hymn and the circumstances of its composition see also the earlier study by E.
Wellesz ("The 'Akathistos'. A Study in Byzantine Hyinnography," DOP 9-10, 1955-
1956, 143-174) and the more recent studies by E.Voordeckers ( Verheug UBruid, Altyd-
Maagd. De Akathistohymne van de Byzantnse Kerk, Bonheiden, 1988) who discusses
previous bibliography on the subject and L.M. Peltomaa, "The Tomus adArmenios de
Fide of Proclus of Constantinople and the Christological Emphasis of the Akathistos
Hymn," JOB 47, 1997, 25-37 where the author places the Akathist within the context of
the Christological developments of the fifth and sixth centuries and considers the hymn
as expressive of the Alexandrian Christology of the Logos-sai. For the iconography of
the Akathist see N. K. Moran, Singers in Late Byzantine and Slavonic Painting, Leiden,
1986, 93-103.
86
is echoed in some of the archaic hymns of the Church.' 85 It was only gradually

that the other Marian feasts took hold. The feast of the Annunciation, for instance,

must have been introduced after the Council of Ephesus; according to Fletcher,

its celebration in Constantinople on the 25th March was introduced during the

reign of Justinian. 186

In subsequent centuries the Annunciation and the Nativity were to be

associated with the Deposition from the Cross by both homilists and

iconographers, a vivid juxtaposition being made between the Mother of God

holding Christ first as an infant and then as a dead young man, the paschal

lamb.' 87 Jacqueline Lafontaine-Dosogne examines art-historical evidence in

185
C. Trypanis, "An Anonymous Early Byzantine Kontakion on the Virgin Mary," BZ
58, 1965, 327-331; C. Wessely, "Les plus anciens monuments du christianisme écrits sur
papyrus," P0 18, Paris, 1924, cols. 424-450 (repr. Turnhout, Belgique, 1985);
K.Mitsakis, Byzantine Hymnography, 53, 62-63.
' See A.R. Fletcher, "Three Early Byzantine Hymns and their Place in the Liturgy of
the Church of Constantinople," BZ5I, 1958, 53-65 and esp. 58ff.; Trypanis, "An
Anonymous Early Byzantine Kontakion," 327-331; Trypanis relates the 'Hail' form of
the Akathistos to the 'Hail' of the Annunciation and thus dates both the introduction of
the feast of the Annunciation and the composition of the hymn to the sixth century;
Cameron, "A Nativity Poem ," 228-229 in which the author discusses the relationship
between the Nativity and iconography, as well as the literary aspect of the subject.
According to Cameron, the poem reflects the development of the dogma of the Virgin;
both parts of the poem (the first focused on the Virgin and the second on the Child) lay
emphasis on the theological implications of the Incarnation.
187
H.Maguire, "Truth and Convention in Byzantine Works of Art," DOP 28, 1974, 113-
140; idem, Art and Eloquence, 97-100. Cf., Barber, Image and Cult, 42-52, 121-123 and
passim. Barber makes some pertinent art-historical remarks about the feasts of the
Virgin. However, the author goes further in associating each feast with the development
of a distinct characteristic of the Virgin. He considers that the Birth of the Virgin
87
connexion with apocryphal texts and suggests that the Birth of Mary was first

celebrated in the early part of the seventh century, her Presentation in the Temple

from the first half of the eighth, and the Conception from the end of the eighth or

beginning of the ninth century.'88

The early life of the Virgin, about which nothing at all is said in the

Gospels, is related in The Book of James, known as the Protevangelium of

James' 89 which was written in Egypt. The date proposed for its composition is the

very end of the second centuly.' 9° This text, attributed to James, the "brother of

represents the promise of a changed world, the Hypapante her womanhood, the
Annunciation her role in Orthodoxy and the Koimesis her part as an intercessor. I have
been unable to establish the theological grounds upon which such arbitrary
correspondences are based.
188
Lafontaine-Dosogne, "Iconography of the Cycle of the Life of the Virgin," in P.
Underwood, Kariye Djami, Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and its Intellectual
Background, London, 1975, 163-194 and esp. 164. For discussion of the development of
Marian feasts see also Averil Cameron, "The Theotokos in Sixth-Century
Constantinople," 79-108.
189
K.von Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, Leipzig, 1876, repr. Hildesheim, 1987, 1-
50; standard English edition and translation by M.R. James, The Apocryphal New
Testament, Oxford, 1924. More recent editions: Protevangelium ofJames, in W.
Barnstone (ed.), The Other Bible, San Francisco, 1980; E. Henneke and W.
Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, vol. I, Philadelphia, 1963; see also a less
standard collection of apocryphal writings in J. Pelikan, Christianity: The Apocrypha
and the New Testament, New York, 1989, which does not include the Protevangelium of
James. All references in the present study are to the edition by von Tischendorf, unless
otherwise stated.
190
The text survives in a fourth-century papyrus (Bodmer V), to which Bodmer gave the
title Gennesis Marias. See A. Kazhdan and A. Weyl Carr, s.v. "Protoevangelion of
James," 0DB, vol. 3, 1744-1745. E. de Stiycker, Laforme laplus ancienne du
88
the Lord" (adeiphotheos) who became the first bishop of Jerusalem, relates the

birth of the Virgin to the barren Joachim and Anna, as well as her Presentation in

the Temple by her parents at the age of three. According to the text, Mary

remained cloistered in the Temple until the age of twelve. Her life in the Holy of

Holies is described with a great deal of lyricism that is echoed in inspired works

that drew upon apocryphal literature for their material.' 9 ' The motifs of this early

Christian literature were employed by hymnographers, homilists and artists

throughout the Byzantine period as a permanent source of inspiration.'92

In the apocryphal Acta Pilati, a text that forms part of the Gospel of

Nicodemus, Mary's virginity is defended even by a group of pious Jews who

disagree with the accusations made by their archpriests who maintain that Jesus

was the offspring of an unlawful relationship.' 93 The Gospel of Nicodemus

Protévangile de Jacques: Recherches sur le Papyrus Bodmer 5, SubsHag 33, Brussels,

1961.
191
For the iconographic themes inspired by the Protevangelium of James see Kazhdan-
Weyl Carr, op.cit., 1745. With special reference to the Marian cycle mosaics of Chora
monastery in Constantinople see Lafontaine-Dosogne, "Iconography of the Cycle of the
Life of the Virgin," 163-194. A wider view is expressed in the two-volume study by the
same author (eadem, Iconographie de 1 'enfance de la Vierge dans 1 'Empire byzantin et
en Occident, 2 vols., Brussels, 1964-1965).
192
For recourse to apocryphal writings as models for artistic representation see H.
Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium, Princeton, New Jersey, 1981; R. Cormack,
Writing in Gold Byzantine Society and its Icons, London, 1985,167-169; Lafontaine-
Dosogne, "Iconography of the Cycle of the Life of the Virgin," 163-194; eadem,
Iconographie de 1 'enfance de Ia Vierge, vol. I, passim.
' 93 Acta Pilati A, cap. II, in Tischendorf Evangelia Apocrypha, 224-228. According to
the text, the Jews that did not accept that Jesus was the fruit of porneia were twelve (the
number of the disciples of Jesus).Elsewhere, the text emphasizes the presence of Jews
89
consists of two parts, the Acta Pilati and Christ's Descent into Hell. The first is

dated to the fourth century, the second to the fifth or early sixth century.' 94 The

virgin birth is confirmed by the words of Symeon the prophet, but at the same

time it is qualified by the pain of the sword that will pierce the heart of the

Virgin.' 95 To the Ada Pilati we owe the names of the two thieves that were

crucified with Christ, axg and F&Ntaç, who were included in early

representations of the Crucifixion.' 96 The lament of the Virgin in the Gospel of

who believed in Christ and defended him citing his healing miracles, as for example in
cap. VI, VII and VII, 237-240.
G.C. Ceallaigh, "Dating the Commentaries ofNicodemus," RThR 56, 1963, 2 1-58.
See also W. Schneemelcher, Neutestamentliche Apokiyphen, vol. I, Tubingen, 1987,
395-424.
'95 Acta Pilati A, cap. XVI.2, 276. The prophecy about the sword that would pierce
Mary's heart originates in the New Testament (Luke 2:35, "and a sword will pierce
through your own soul also"); it was not interpreted in the same way by all the Eastern
Fathers. Ephrem the Syrian in his commentary on Jn 20:11-17 and other early Christian
authors interpret the sword as an image of the doubt they considered Mary might have
felt at the Crucifixion about Christ's divinity, whereas later writers saw it exclusively as
a prophecy of the pain. See D.I. Pallas, Die Passion und Bestattung Christi in Byzanz.
Der Ritus, das Bud, Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia, 2, Munich, 1965, 174 if. As an
example of these later writers, see the elaborate treatment of the subject by George of
Nicomedia in the ninth century, originally published as a homily of Athanasius, Homilia
in Occursum Domini, PG 28, cols. 973-1000, and attributed correctly to George by H.
Maguire, "The Iconography of Symeon with the Christ Child in Byzantine Art," DOP
34-35, 1980-1981, 261-269 and esp. 264ff.
'See for example, the eighth-century icon of the Crucifixion from Mount Sinai
(tempera on wood), published in G. and M. Sotiriou, Icones du Mont Sinai vol. I,
Athens 1956, fig. 25 and discussed by K. Weitzmann, "Loca Sancta and the
Representational Arts of Palestine," Studies in the Arts at Sinai, Princeton, New Jersey,
1982, 19-62, and esp. 26 if. In the Sinai icon the thief on the right is named as Demas
90
Nicodemus does not occupy more than a few lines.' 97 John, the beloved disciple,

plays an important role in the Gospel of Nicodemus, informing the Virgin about

the trial and the Crucifixion of the Lord and accompanying her to Golgotha

together with Martha, Mary Magdalen, Salome and other virgins.' 98 Also

noteworthy is the way in which the Virgin addresses Christ as her son and her

Lord, reflected in the /contakion of Romanos discussed below. The same formula

of "my son and my God", with some variations was to be repeated later in the

stavrotheotokia of the Iconoclastic period.

The Marian laments of the fifth and sixth centuries present us with an

interesting problem in that the tender, lamenting mother of Christ of apocryphal

literature and Syriac hymnography corresponds closely to the tender human

character of the Virgin of subsequent centuries, but not to the figure of the Virgin

protectress of Constantinople) Although scholars have pointed to the shift in

the profile of Mary from the Virgin protectress to the human mother, the literature

of the fifth and sixth centuries shows that from its early stages Marian devotion

rather than Dysmas and the Virgin as Ay1IX McpIct (the same is the case in the Chairete
icon from Sinai, op.cit., fig. 25). The centurion Longinus is included in the earliest
surviving example of the Crucifixion, typical of the iconography of the early Byzantine
period; in the fifth-century London ivory Christ is depicted alive on the cross, although
Longinus is seen piercing his side. See Kartsonis, Anastasis, 33 and fig. 1. See also the
mosaic from S.Maria Antiqua in Rome dating to c.750 in Belting, Image and Likeness,
fig. 70 on p.122.
''Acia Pilati B.X, paragraphs 2-4, 302-306.
Ibid, 303.
AveriI Cameron, "The Theotokos in Sixth-century Constantinople," 79-108.
91
focused on both aspects of Mary's person. 20° Hence, we are not dealing with the

linear development but with a simultaneous evolution of both features of Mary's

character (on the one hand strength, and on the other tenderness) which

nonetheless emerged within different contexts. Thus, Mary's tenderness is made

evident in hymnography whereas her strength is more evident in early

representations such as the sixth-century ivory panels from the British Museum

(plate I) and the Museum of Berlin (plate II) or the famous seventh-century

encaustic icon of the Virgin (plate III) from Mount Sinai. Both profiles of the

Virgin previously associated with different phases of the development of her cult

appear in the fifth and sixth centuries and result from the emphasis given to the

person of Mary as a whole. They represent different aspects of the human mother

of Christ and, as we shall see, they accomplished the function of helping

theologians and laity alike to define the person of Christ. But what do we mean

when we refer to the person of Christ? The Nestorian controversy provides us

with an opportunity to follow the first attempts of fifth-century theologians to

define not simply the natures of Christ but also the way in which these natures

coexisted and functioned within the historical person of Jesus. Ephrem the Syrian

and later Romanos the Melode depict the Virgin lamenting at the Foot of the

Cross in a manner that can be explained by the growth of her cult and by the issue

of theopaschism that dominated the Christological debate at the time of the Third

Oecumenical Council.

200 Eadem, "A Nativity Poem ," 230; 1. Kalavrezou, "When the Virgin Mary Became
Meter Theou," DOP 44, 1990, 165-172.
92
 In her study of the lament of the Virgin, Alexiou emphasizes the ritual

elements of the lament and points out their similarity to the vernacular laments of

the late Byzantine period. 20 ' Alexiou draws particular attention to the fainting of

the Virgin as well as to ritual expressions of grief, such as scratching the face

with the nails and beating of the breast. However, ritual expressions of grief are

not necessarily associated with late Byzantine vernacular literature. Such

elements are found in ancient Greek tradition as well as in Byzantine literature of

the fourth century. A very interesting example is provided in the Life of Saint

Macrina, by Gregory of Nyssa. 202 In this fourth-century text, Gregory refers twice

to death rituals: in his accounts of the death of Naucratios and of Macrina herself.

On the death of Naucratios, Macrina is said to have proved her virtue by making

reason dominate sorrow. 203 In this way she gave an example of courage to her

mother who, in turn, did nothing "contemptuous or feminine", such as crying out

against evil, tearing apart her garments, grieving over her misfortune, or opening

201
Note however, that in the early recension of the Acta Pilati the people and the women
who are present at the Crucifixion lament Christ in a similarly ritual manner, beating
their breastlSee Tischendorf, Apocrypha Evangelia, Ada Pilati A. XI. 1, 248. As we
shall see below, all the elements characteristic of vernacular laments derive their content
from hymnography and homiletics of the early and middle Byzantine periods.
202
Gregoire de Nysse, Vie de Sainte Macrine, P. Maraval (ed.), SC 178, Paris, 1971.
203
Vie de Sainte Macrine, 10.1-3. For Macrina see Ch. Christakis, "A Woman Christian
Sage of the Fourth Century: Macrina the Virgin-Philosopher," &ooyIa LXVI, 1995,
330-361.
her lament with mournful wailing. 204 The death of Macrina -whose eyes are

closed according to her wishes by her brother, Gregoiy- 205 is followed by the

description of the funerary rites performed by the virgins who formed the

entourage of the saint.206 The virgins who accompanied Macrina and saw her as a

spiritual mother lament her in a way that bears strong similarities to the lament of

the Virgin,, in that the mourners enumerate the qualities of the saint in a highly

emotional manner. 207 Gregoiy, also troubled and distressed by the sight of his

dead sister and the weeping of the virgins, attempts to calm them, reminding them

of the advice she gave them while still alive. 208 He calls upon them to cease

lamenting and to start singing the Psalms; but their lament was so vociferous that

204
Vie de Sainte Macrine, 10.4-6; see also Gregory of Nyssa, Oratio concolatoria in
Puicheriam, A. Spira, Gregorii Nysseni opera, IX Sermones, Leiden, 1967, 461-472 and
esp. 470, 20-26 ( PG 46, 876A), lcpá ri övayevEç icai uucp6pv%ov...
205
The custom of a beloved closing the eyes of the departed according to the latter's
wish derives from ancient traditions regarding ancient Greek tradition as do the other
funerary rites discussed here see Plato, Phaedo, 11 8a cited by Maraval, op.cit., 79 n.4;
cf. A.C. Rush, Death andBurial in Christian Antiquity, Washington, 1941, 108-110.
206
The solemn death of Macrina is described in Vie de Sainte Macrine, 25, 226-228 and
the sorrow of the virgins, who have remained silent until the moment that Macrina dies
in order not to disturb her, in chapter 26, 228-232. For the silence preceding the lament
cf. Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio in Gorgoniam, PG 35, 813D-8l6A. For a study of death
in Gregory Nazianzen see J. Mossay, La mort et 1 'au-delà dans Saint Gregoire de
Nazianze, Louvain, 1966, and with reference to funerary ritual, 210-215. See also M.
Harl, "Les modèles d'un temps ideal dans quelques récits de vie Pères Cappadociens,"
Le remps chrétien de lafin de l'antiquité au Moyen Age IIIe-XIIIe siècles, Colloques
Internationaux C.N.R.S., Paris, 1984, 220-24 1 and esp. 226.
207
Vie de Sainte Macrine, 26.23-29 (French translation in Maraval, op. cit.. 231-233.)
208
P0k! 27. Macrina had advised them that the only time tears should flow from their
eyes was during prayer, 27.7-9.
94
he had to speak in a loud voice in order to drown it out and be heard.209

Summarising, I suggest that expressions of ritual Lament are prominent in the

fourth centuly, in the writings even of Gregory of Nyssa and the other

Cappadocians who often advised people against these practices.21°

The Council of Ephesus

The Council of Ephesus occupies a unique place in the history of Church

dogma in that it is the only oecumenical council that produced a doctrinal

formulation about the Virgin Mary. Within the context of the controversy,

Mariology and Christology have to be understood as the two sides of one coin.211

209 pj 27.10-12, ... v)ç ö)V Opivov oitwyiç eiç crujtiraOi &'&ôIav /wrarEOeIo7lç.
Ta1)r't2eyov 4ueIovL r7 qov, óiç ày roy fov r6.v 9prvo.w epiiaatz.
210
Gregory of Nyssa, Oratio consolatoria in Puicheriam, 461-472 and esp. 470, 20-26,
where he refers to the scratching of the face with the nails, the tearing of the hair, to
covering it with dust, the beating of the breast with the hands, the throwing of one's self
on the ground, the lamenting and the recalling of the name of the deceased. For a typical
example of a literary lament, though lacking ritualistic expressions see idem, Oratio
funebris in Flacillam imperatricem, op. cit., 475-490 (PG 46, cols. 877-892). Basil the
Great, Homilia de Gratiarum Actione, PG 31, cots. 217-238 and esp. 229C-233B.
Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio XV, In Machaboeorum laudem, PG 35, cols. 911-934 and
esp. 916B; later on,he text the mother of the Maccabees, after witnessing the death of
her sons, utters a prayer instead of a lament (925C-928B).
211
Mariology is a term that bears Roman-Catholic connotations but which, however,
within the particular context conveys the analogy between the study of the doctrine
concerning Christ and the Theotokos respectively. With reference to the Orthodox
approach to the Mother of God and a discussion of'Mariology' see Kallistos of
Diokleia, "The Sanctity and Glory of the Mother of God: Orthodox Approaches," The
Way suppl. 51, 1984, 79-96 and esp. 79-81.
95
Mary served as a key for the understanding of Christ's natures. 212 However, this

should not obscure the importance of the controversy for the cult of Mary

herself.213

Antagonism between Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome was one of

the issues that resolved the struggle between the patriarchs Cyril of Alexandria

and Nestorius of Constantinople.214 The crisis that led to the council of Ephesus

(431) began in Constantinople around 428, while the patriarchal throne was

vacant following the death of Patriarch Siccinius I, who reigned for only one year

212
It might be more accurate to point to the way in which the two natures of Christ
coexisted and related to each other in the historical person of Jesus.
213
For the relationship between Mariology and Christology see J. Pelikan, Imago Del,
The Byzantine Apologia for Icons, New Haven and London, 1990, 128 if.; Bredk, "Mary
in the New Testament," 471-472. The popularity of the cult of Mary at Ephesus was a
factor that determined to a great extent the outcome of the Synod. Nestorius failed to
take this into account when he agreed that the council should meet at Ephesus.
214
The antagonism between the cities of the empire is echoed in a speech that Nestorius
delivered at the church of St Sophia on 13th December 430. I quote: "Isn't the Egyptian
the eternal enemy of Constantinople and Asia?" Cf. N.H. Baynes, "Alexandria and
Constantinople: A Study in Ecclesiastical Diplomacy," JEA 12, 1926, 145-165 (repr. in
Byzantine Studies and Other Essays, London, 1955, 97-115), W.H.C. Frend, 'Popular
Religion and Christological Controversy in the Fifth Century," Religion Popular and
Unpopular in the Early Christian Centuries, XVII, London, 1976, 19-29, K.Hoh.im,
Theodosian Empresses. Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity, Berkeley and
Los Angeles, 1982, 152 and n.27. Holum considers antagonism between the episcopal
sees of Antioch and Alexandria as the true cause of the Nestorian controversy, viewing
the dogmatic issue simply as a diversion invented by Cyril to cover the real issue of the
day. Holum's position does not take into consideration either the importance of the
theological developments of the previous centuries or the way in which politics and
religious issues were interwoven in Byzantium. For the theological background of the
Nestorian controversy see Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, vol. I, 361-439.
96
(426-427). The persons involved in the dramatic developments of the fifth

century included, apart from the patriarchs themselves, the Augusta Aelia

Puicheria, sister of the emperor Theodosius II, Proclus, the unsuccessful heir to

the patriarchal throne in the late 420s and later Patriarch of Constantinople, and

Popes Celestine and Leo. To provide an account of the controversy and its

consequences would fall outside the scope of the present study. 215 However, it is

necessary to consider two aspects of this Christological debate: first, the

relationship of the debate to the cult of the Virgin and second, the issue of
of
theopaschism. It is the significancethese two themes that may explain the rise of

the lament of the Virgin in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Nestorian

controversy demonstrates, on the one hand, the importance that the Virgin had to

the correct understanding of Christology and, on the other, the significance of the

suffering of God in developing and fully appreciating the incamational theology

that was to focus on the person of Christ and the way in which spirit and matter

relate to each other within the historical person of Jesus.

215
The reader can refer to studies by J. Meyendorff, Christ in Eastern Christian
Thought, Washington, 1969; Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, vol. I, 414-519;
and to the more recent systematic study by J. McGuckin, St Cyril ofAlexandria, The
Christological Controversy, Its History, Theology and Texts, Leiden 1994. However, the
study by McGuckin focuses on Cyril of Alexandria and is scarcely just to the views of
Nestorius. Cf. Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, "The Humanity of Christ," The Fourth
Constantinople Lecture (29/30 November 1984), offprint from The Anglican and
Eastern Churches Association, 1985.
97
 To a great extent the controversy was due to the misunderstanding that

arose from the disparate use of tenninology. 216 For instance, Nestorius propagated

the use of the term 'Anthropotokos' or the more compromising term

'Christotokos' as more appropriate to the Virgin who gave birth to the Lord. The

Antiochene exegetical background of Nestorius, a former student of Theodore of

Mopsuestia and faithful follower of the latter's method of Biblical interpretation,

explains his difficulty in accepting the 'paradoxical' formulation of Cyril,

according to which God was born of a woman. 217 The outbreak of the controversy

216
The 'Babel-like' use of the terms physis and hypostasis which were employed in
different senses by the two adversaries in the controversy is a characteristic example.
Cyril used physis in the ancient sense signifying concrete reality or existence, whereas
Nestorius used it in the modern sense of nature, or 'make-up' of a thing. Similarly,
hyposta.sis, an earlier synonym of physis, was used by Cyril to signify the actual
concrete reality of a thing while Nestorius used it in its ancient sense, as a synonym of
physis. The implications of these semantic variations were of crucial importance to the
debate. For the different traditions of Christological terminology see V.C. Samuel,
"Christology and Terminology," The Harp 1, Nos. 2 and 3, 1988, 129-34.
217
The compromising title of 'Christotokos' that Nestorius proposed persuaded the
monastic camp that they indeed had a reason to contest his views since it implied a
theology of 'psilanthropism,' in that it presented Christ as a mere man (as did the
doctrine propounded by Paul of Samosata). Stressing the key words 'strictly speaking',
the adversaries of Nestorius emphasized and mocked the Antiochene principles
underlying the interpretation given by the patriarch and made the following phrase the
rallying cry of their movement: "If Mary is not strictly speaking the Mother of God, then
her son is not, strictly speaking, God." See McGuckin, Cyril ofAlexandria, 27-28. In
428, Nestorius, answering to the famous panegyric on the Virgin delivered by Proclus of
Constantinople, pronounced the following words: "Whoever claims without
qualification that God was born of Mary prostitutes the reputation of the faith...".
Nestorius feared possible accusations by the pagans, who might perceive Christ as yet
another pagan god. At the same time, however, his words betray an uneasiness in
98
was marked by the homily on Mary preached by Proclus of Constantinople in St

Sophia in 428.218 In a way that clearly provoked his opponent, Proclus declares in

the opening lines of his sermon that Mary is the Mother of God, in whom the

union of natures of Christ was forged. Nestorius reacted violently to the

designation of Mary as 'Theotokos', for his Christology with all its implications

was distinctly different to the one propagated by Proclus. The news soon reached

Aiexandria, where Cyril had succeeded his uncle

to the patriarchal throne. 219 With his letter to the monks of Egypt, Cyril entered
220
publicly into the debate

accepting allegory and metaphor as expressions of Christian faith. See F. Loofs,

Nestorius and His Place in the History of Christian Doctrine, Cambridge, 1914, 337-
338.
218
The homily was preached most probably on the feast of the Virgin on the 23rd
December. The date is given by Theophanes, (de Boor), 88. For the text, see Proclus of
Constantinople, De Laudibus Sanctae Mariae, PG 65, cols. 680C - 692B and E.
Schwartz (ed.), ACO I, 1, 1, 103-107 and discussion by Constas, "Weaving the Body of
God," 169-194.
219
Cyril became archbishop on 18th October 412, at the age of 34. His writings reveal a
high level of learning. In his early writings, Cyril is mainly concerned with Biblical
interpretation and works against heretics. Among these writings is a Thesaurus, a work
heavily influenced by Athanasius' Discourses Against the Arians, a Commentary on St
John 's Gospel and a treatise entitled Dialogues on the Trinity. The ecclesiastical
historian Sokrates gives a rather confused picture of the early years of Cyril's
patriarchate. The issues that were at the centre of the clashes in Alexandria were the
confiscation of the Novatianist churches, the strife with the Praetorian Prefect Orestes
and the violence of the crowd which on occasions attacked the Jews of the city and was
also responsible for the lynching of the philosopher Hypatia. However biased Sokrates'
account may be, the presence of the parabalani, the bodyguards of the patriarch, attests
to the troubled atmosphere in Alexandria during the first decades of the fifth century.
99
Mary and the Suffering of Christ

The issue of the single or double subjectivity of Christ which referred to

the way in which the two natures -human and divine- co-existed in Christ, was

argued on the basis of: a) his Incarnation in the womb of Mary and b) Christ's

suffering, death and Resurrection. 22' Cyril used his skills as a Biblical exegete to

draw upon the Scriptures for his arguments in support of Christ's single

subjectivity.222 His originality was revealed in the formulation of the theory of

See Sokrates Kirchengeschichte, G.Ch. Hansen (ed.), Verlag, 1995, book VII, 353 if.
and the discussion by McGuckin, St Cyril of Alexandria, 1-20. Cyril's early Paschal
homilies show his concern over the adoption of Jewish customs by Christians. See also,
R.Wilken, Judaism and the Early Christian Mind: A Study of Cyril ofAlexandria 's
Exegesis and Theology, Yale, 1971, for a discussion of the Jews in Cyril's thought and
work.
220
The letter is translated by McGuckin, Cyril ofAlexandria, 245-261. Henceforth, Cyril
started examining the issues involved in the debate from a Biblical point of view. By
430, Cyril had written his Five Books against Nestorius that circulated in Egypt and
Constantinople. At this point, Andrew of Samosata and Theodoret of Cyrrhus also enter
the debate and become Cyril's intellectual opponents.
221
For the importance of these two themes in the context of the Council of Ephesus and
the Christological developments of the time see Peltomaa, "The Tomus adArmenios de
Fide of Proclus of Constantinople and the Christological Emphasis of the Akathistos
Hymn," 25-3 7.
222
The way that the two natures relate to each other is expressed in the Biblical
metaphors of the Ark of the Covenant, or in the live coal of Isaiah's vision where the
burning bush referred to Mary. Cyril also used as a metaphor the lily and its fragrance,
the precious stone and the radiance it emits, and the body and soul of a man. See
McGuckin, Cyril ofAlexandria, 196 if.
100
communicatio idiomatum. 223 Recognition of this theory legitimised the cross-

referential language that Cyril employed; it was precisely on this basis that he

could assert that Mary gave birth to God and God died in the flesh. 224 The

apparent contradiction served to signify the full appropriation of human nature by

Christ. Although Cyril was the first Christian writer to draw so much attention to

the suffering of Christ, theopaschism was not new to Christian thought. A century

before Cyril, the Cappadocian Gregory Nazianzen related his understanding of the

person of Christ to his suffering within a soteriological context 225 and by the same

token the suffering of Christ became an important presupposition in the

development of Gregory's anthropology.226 Long before the debate over the way

that the natures of Christ related to each other Gregory Nazianzen had put the

whole question in a soteriological perspective, asserting that "both natures are

The communicatio or antidosis idiomaton signified the exchange of properties

between the human and the divine nature of Christ. According to Cyril, Christ fully
experienced the human condition, including feelings such as fatigue, pain and death.
On the suffering of God see L. Gillet, "Does God Suffer?" Sobornost 3:15, 1954,
112-120 and idem, "Looking unto the Crucified Lord," Sobornost 3:13, 1953, 24-33.
' Gregory stated that the deification of mankind that was possible before the Fall would

only be possible after the Incarnation of the Word of God. (Or. 45.9, 38.11) Within this
context, the Fall is seen as the cause of the onto logical corruption of the human nature
and salvation is made possible only through the humanity and suffering of God (&.
45.22, 30.1).
226 See D. Winslow, The Dynamics of Salvation: A Study in Gregory of Nazianzus,
Philadelphia, 1971, 69-73; G. Telepneff, "Theopaschite Language in the Soteriology of
Saint Gregory the Theologian," GrOrthThR 32, No. 4, 1987, 403-416.
101
 one by combination (Ev avyicpáaez) because God becomes man and humanity is
"227
defIed

As a hymnographical theme, the Virgin lamenting at the foot of the cross

combines the two critical aspects of Jesus' earthly life, both of which demonstrate

his love and philanthropy through which redemption was made possible. The

human birth and death of Christ as treated by Syriac writers and Romanos the

Melode reflect the theological concerns of the fifth century. 228 The relationship

between the Nativity and the Crucifixion is artfully expressed by Romanos in the

227
Gregoxy Nazianzen, Epistle 101.21 in P. Gallay (ed.), Grégoire de Nazianze. Lettres
Théologiques, SC 208, Paris, 1974, 70-84 and esp. 44. Deification of mankind was for
Gregory the basic presupposition upon which his whole Christology was built.
Deification, i.e., the union with God, was understood as the ultimate end of
man whose soul was made in the likeness of the divine and hence was naturally moving
towards its union with its prime cause; Oratio Ilapologetica, PG 35, cols. 408-5 14, 2.22
(=PG 35, 432 A-B); Otatio 29.19, (A.J. Mason, The Five Theological Orations of
Gregory ofNazianzus, CPT 1, Cambridge, 1899); 38.11, 39.17, 45.9. Referring to the
way in which the two natures of Christ relate to each other, Gregory introduces the word
a1'pcpactç as understood in its Aristotelian sense, that is not implying fusion or mixture
of the two natures in Christ. He understands the Incarnation as the m)ylcpaazç of two
perfect natures. It was precisely this notion of the two perfects that Apollinarius with his
philosophical background could not accept. Cf., Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 29.19.
"what he was he continued to be; what he was not he took it to himself...".
228
On grounds of theological preoccupations Vereecken ("L'Hymne Acathiste," 361)
suggests Romanos the Melode as the author of the Akathist Hymn. Studying the work of
Romanos from a different perspective, Catafygiotou-Topping notes the same prevailing
themes in the poetry of the Syrian Melode: emphasis on the sacrifice of Christ, the
agony of the Crucifixion and God's absolute philanthropy. Cataf'giotou-Topping, "St
Romanos the Melode: Prince of Byzantine Poets," 73.
102
prediction of Maxy's lament at the Crucifixion. Christ prophesies his death to

Mary who is holding him in her arms as an infant:

"I shall not make you grieve, my servant and my mother. I will make

known to you know what I shall do and I shall take care of your soul, o

Mary. The one that you are holding in your arms, before long you shall see

him with his hands nailed, because I love your race; the one that you are

breast-feeding, others will make him drink gall; the one that you are

embracing, he will be spat upon by others; the one you named Life, you

must see him hanging on the cross and you shall lament my death, but you
229
shall kiss me when I shall be resurrected, [o Mary] full of grace."

In the following stanza, Mary after having heard these words starts lamenting

Jesus and wishes not to witness the slaughter of her son. Jesus pleads with her to

cease ctying in a way reminiscent of the hymn Mary at the Foot of the Cross. The

text reads:

"Cease crying over what you know not, mother; if that [i.e. his sacrifice] is

not accomplished, all those for whom you intercede to me will not be

saved, [o Mary] full of

The theme echoes Cyril's theopaschite doctrine, i.e. the suffering of Christ as the

supreme act of redemption. The paradox does not concern solely the language

employed but also is a reflection of real situations in all their vastness.

Concentrating on the suffering of Christ, Cyril stated that indeed God suffered in

229
Romanos the Melode, On the Nativity II, St. 16, 108, ( my translation).
230
Ibid St. 17, 108, (my translation).
1
I U.)
the flesh since the pain and the death on the cross were experienced by his human

nature, which was fully appropriated by the divine. For Cyril, this is the way in

which salvation is made possible. In the words of Irenaeus of Lyons who

influenced both Athanasius the Great and Cyril of Alexandria, "God became man

so that man could become God".23'

The Prosopon of Christ

The communicatio idiomatum was nothing more than an attempt to make

intelligible the person of Christ in a concrete and realistic way, i.e. the way in

which Christ experienced the reality of the Incarnation during his earthly life, a

subject that subsequently gave rise to further theological speculation. It is

important to bear in mind that the concept of the person lies at the core of

Christian ecclesiology.232 According to Nestorius' 'prosopic theory' 233, in Jesus

' For the impact of Cyril's thought on Christian philosophy see McGuckin, Cyril of
Alexandria; 224.
232
We have already seen the way in which Gregory Nazianzen's doctrine of the
Incarnation influences decisively his anthropology. With reference to Theopaschism,
Gregory writes that the "Church of God has been gathered together by the suffering of
God for us"; cf. V. Lossky, "The Theological Notion of the Human Person," in J.H.
Ericson and T.E. Bird (eds.), In the Image and Likeness of God, Crestwood, 1985, 111-
123; J. Zizioulas, "Personhood and Being," in Being as Communion, Crestwood, 1993,
27-65 and esp. 40-41 and 56 if.; Ch. Yannaras, ToirpOawiro icai ôtpüiç; Athens, 1987,
21; idem, llàirav8po.nrIa roi 5ucazuuaroç Athens, 1998, 18.
The term prosopon has to be understood in the sense it had for the fifth-century
patriarch and is not to be confused with modem psychoanalytical approaches. Nestorius
employed the term to signify the perceptible characteristics of a nature, whereas Cyril
used it as referring to the hypostatic centre of a human being. For the background of the
104
there existed two distinct ousiai, one human and the other divine, each of them

possessing its own characteristics. Both ousiai are united in the person (prosopon)

of the historical Jesus, but Nestorius stresses that theological terminology should

be applied with extreme care in order to avoid blasphemy, over-simplification or

confusion, a statement that echoes clearly his Antiochene exegetical background

of literal exegesis. In his apology, the Book (or Bazaar) of Heraclides, Nestorius

explains that "the Lord assumed the form of a slave for his prosopon, but not for

his nature, and not by any changing of essence." 234 Nestorius understood that any

being consists of its ousfa (the 'essential self'),235 and the prosopon (the outward

appearance of the ousia). But when he referred to the Incarnation, he understood

that the human ousia of the Logos existed alongside the divine one, since man

cannot become God and God cannot become a slave in the determining essence of

his being. 6 So, Cyril and Nestorius essentially agreed on the existence of the two

'ousial' or 'natures' in Christ.

term see Grillmeier, op.cit., 396, 402, and for its use in the Council of Ephesus, ibid,
487. See also McGuckin, Cyril ofAlexandria, 144 ff.; M. Begzos, "Oaicz iccd llpóaw7to
a'ri Maatwvuci cat a'ri Biavttvt 'Ava'ro?," Parnassos 57, 1995, 13-30.
G. Driver and L. Hodgson, The Bazaar of Heraclides, [The Book of Heraclides],
Oxford, 1925, 230; The Book of Heraclides was written by Nestorius at the time of his
exile, after the Council of Ephesus. Cf. the study by M. Jugie, Nestorius et la
controverse nestorienne, Paris, 1912 and R.C. Chesnut's more recent, "The Two
Prosopa in Nestorius' Bazaar of Heraclides," fT/iS 29, 1978, 392-408; J. McGuckin,
"The Christology of Nestorius of Constantinople," FBR 7, 1988, 93-129.
The term 'nature' is employed as an alternative term for ousia. M. Anastos,
"Nestorius was Orthodox," DOP 16, 1962, 119-140, esp. 126.
2 Anastos, "Nestorius was Orthodox," 127.
105
 The core of the issue was the way in which the two natures of Christ

related to each other. Responding to this question, Nestorius held that they were

related by conjunction (avv&pEta), a term that meant that at point the

distinction of the two natures was maintained. Therefore, we should apply the

term when referring to the human actions of Jesus and the term

God when referring to his divine actions, i.e. his miracles. 237 In order to express

his Christology Nestorius embarked on a debate so heavily weighted with

terminology that it resulted in being misunderstood; 238 moreover, his Christology

was far too cerebral to be appreciated by his contemporaries.239 While Nestorius

237
In order to complete his Christology, since he rejected the union of natures, Nestorius
turned towards the will of the human nature of Jesus. His will, Nestorius held, was
absolutely free and as such it was obedient and in accordance with the will of the Father.
238
Anastos, "Nestorius was Orthodox," 119-140. The author suggests that by keeping
his distance from the controversy the modem reader may apply the criteria of
Orthodoxy, as expressed at the Council of Chalcedon, to the teaching of Nestorius and
see that, finally, it is in accordance with the definition of Orthodox faith. That may be
true, but I would suggest that the essence of the controversy itself was precisely the
definition of ideas and terms that could only have been settled through the dialectic
developed between the two patriarchs.
239
The painstaking adherence of the Antiochene exegetical school to the intellectual
examination of terminology was definitely not an attitude that could win over the
masses. On the contrary, the allegorical interpretation employed by the Alexandrians
was far more appealing to people who were more competent to perceive theological
speculation through poetic language rather than through analytical thought. According to
Frend, ("Popular Religion and Christological Controversy," 20-2 1) "as in the Man
controversy, Alexandria spoke for the majority. Athanasius' ability to interpret subtle
theological concepts successfully to people of an entirely different religious and cultural
outlook from himself was perfected by Cyril"; Anastos, "Nestorius was Orthodox," 119-
106
argued for a double-subjectivity Christology, Cyril insisted on the hypostatic

union. It was precisely the use of the term 'union' (henosis) that led Cyril's

opponents to accuse him of being an Apollinarist; but Cyril did not argue for a

mingling, or confusion of the two natures of Christ but for a union without

mixture or confusion. His doctrine of hypostatic union as expressed in his work

On the Creed (De Recta Fide) was essential for the soteriology of the Church.24°

If it was not God himself who assumed the form of a slave, then the Incarnation

would be ineffectual. 24' By the same token, if it was not God that was made man,

140. Nestorius, being unable to ascribe the divine actions to the historical Jesus,
eventually depicted him as a leader and moral guide.
240
For the text, see L.Wickham (ed. and transl.), Cyril ofAlexandria. Select Letters,
Oxford 1983, 94-131. After the Council of Chalcedon and the schism between
Chalcadonian and non-Chalcedonian Churches, there were numerous attempts to breach
the dogmatic gap. One of them was made by Severus (d. 538), the Monophysite bishop
of Antioch. Severus represented the moderate Monophysite Church, asserting the single
nature of Christ but nonetheless without rejecting his humanity. He was educated in
Alexandria and Beirut and he was tonsured a monk; he became bishop of Antioch in 512
but held the post for only six years until 518 when he was deposed for his Monophysite
beliefs. He contested the beliefs of Julian of Hal icarnassus and the Aphthartodocetae
who held that the body of Christ was incorruptible, stressing the divinity of Christ while
at the same time accepting his humanity. For the numerous homilies of Severus see Les
Homiliae Cathedrales de Sévère d'Antioche, R. Duval et.aI. (eds.), 17 vols., Paris, 1906-
1976. See also, W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysize Movement, Cambridge,
1972, 20 1-295; J. Lebon, Le Monophysitisme Severien, Louvain 1909; and recently, I.
Torrance, Christology after Chalcedon: Severus ofAntioch and Sergius the
Monophysite, Norwich, 1988.
241
The same point was emphasized by Gregory Nazianzen in his Epistles 101 and 102.
The main idea expressed was the following: "that which has not been assumed has not
been healed...that which is truly united with God is saved... Adam is completely saved
only by complete union with him who has been born in completeness..." For Gregory the
107
 then the Eucharist would also be void of its fundamental meaning for the Church,

i.e. redemption through communion of the very flesh and blood of God. 242 For

Cyril, who was a faithful partisan of Alexandrian exegesis, Christ's single-

subjectivity could not be better expressed than through a paradoxical language in

accord with the nature of the mystery of the Incarnation itself. Consequently, he

was determined to defend the term 'Theotokos'. The same paradoxical language

is echoed in the other key phrase of the debate, that the Lord "suffered

impassibly" (&taeoç itaOEv). Cyril's theopaschite doctrine is affirmed in the

twelfth anathema with which he concludes his third letter to Nestorius:

"If anyone does not confess that the Word of God suffered in the flesh,

was crucified in the flesh, and tasted death in the flesh, becoming the first-

born from the dead, although as God he is life and life-giving, let him be

anathema."243

suffering of Christ on the cross reinstates humanity to its former state, i.e. its state before
the Fall. Cf. Epistle 101, Oration 33.9. Cyril in his turn was asking, how could God have
saved what he did not assume; see Grillmeier, op.cit., 416-417.
242
notion of 'dynamic soterio logy' was the fundamental concern of the Alexandrian
school, evidenced by Athanasius' De Incarnatione. The theory of deification was of the
essence and formed the core of Cyril's theology. For Athanasius' soteriology see G.
Telepneff and J. Thornton, "Arian Transcendence and the Notion of Theosis in Saint
Athanasius," GrOrthThR 32, No 3, 1987, 271-284. For the importance of the teaching of
Athanasius in the theology of Cyril see Grillmeier, op. cit., 414-415. For the
ecciesiological implications of the Eucharist see J. Zizioulas, "Eucharist and
Catholicity," in Being as Communion, 143-169 and esp. 151ff.
243
Cyril of Alexandria, Third Letter to Nestorius, transi. in McGuckin, Cyril of
Alexandria, 266-275, esp. 275; see also, op. cit., the Explanation of the Twelve
Chapters, 282-293 and esp. 292-293.

108
But in the meantime Nestorius had persuaded Theodosius II to summon an

oecumenical council. This would be the Third Oecumenical Council of the

Church. Nestorius, enjoying the backing of the emperor, had earlier provoked

Cyril to start a face-to-face dialogue; but he had obviously underestimated the

importance of the place where the synod would be convened, the ancient city of

Ephesus.2'

Syriac Hymnography and Romanos the Melode

The sixth century presents a contradictory picture of the Virgin Mary: on

the one hand, there is the testimony of the tender and human mother depicted in

the hymn Mary at the Foot of the Cross by Romanos the Melode from the early

part of the century; 245 on the other, there is the majestic, distant figure of Mary,

who emerges as the protectress of Constantinople. In this section we shall study

Mary as portrayed in the hymns of the Syriac poets and Romanos. Biographical

information about Romanos the Melode is very slight. 246 According to the

244
See above and Holum, Theodosian Empresses, 162 if. For an account of the events
that took place during and after the Council see Grillmeier, op. cit., 484 if.
245
For the kontakion see Romanos the Melode, Hymnes, J. Grosdidier de Matons (ed.),
vol. IV, 160-184. For the dating see J. Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le Mélode et les
origines de lapoésie religieuse a Byzance, Paris, 1977, 243 if.
246 Mo of the biographical information about Romanos the Melode derives from
various accounts in synaxaria and a late Vita published by Athanasios Landos (
Auapr&thv IariipIa, Venice, 1641). The Vita according to Grosdidier de Matons
(Romanos le Mélode et les origines de lapoésie religieuse a Byzance, 159-160) follows
the account in a synaxarion. Cf. Averil Cameron, "Disputations, Polemical Literature
and the Formation of Opinion in the Early Byzantine Period," Dispute Poems and
Dialogues in the Ancient and Medieval Near East, G.J. Reinink and H.L.J. Vastinphout,
109
Typikon of Constantinople, Romanos was born in Emesa of Syria, became a

deacon in the church of the Anastasis in Beirut, and some time during the reign of

Anastasius went to Constantinople where he remained until the end of his life.247

The brief references in synaxaria but also in menologia to Romanos associate the

poet with the Virgin in two respects: first, they state explicitly that upon his

arrival in Constantinople Romanos went to the monastely of the Virgin Ev roiç

Kipov, and, second, they attribute his writing of religious poetly to the miraculous

talent granted to him by the Mother of God herself.248 The date of his birth and

death is uncertain although Bany Baldwin suggests that we must date his death

prior to the reign of Justinian but after 555 A.D.249 Romanos' sources, although

they cannot be determined with any certainty, may lie in Syriac poetry but the

depiction of the Virgin in this particularly tender and human way by Syrian poets

has so far been explained on grounds only of literary influence. The influence of

Syriac hymns on Byzantine hymnography has long been the subject of scholarly

Leiden, 1991, 91-108. See also the Introduction by Grosdidier de Matons (Romanos the
Melode, Hymnes, vol.1, SC 99, Paris 1964, 13-14). For a chronological investigation of
some of the hymns of Romanos see E. Catafygiotou- Topping, "The Apostle Peter,
Justinian and Romanos the Melode," BMGS2, 1976, 1-15.
247
A. Dmitrievskij, Opisanie liturgiceskich rukopisej, vol. I, Kiev, 1895, 10. See also
Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le Mélode et les origines de lapoésie religiezse a
Byzance, 160-161.
248
Drnitrievskij, op. cit., 10. Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le Mélode et les origines
de lapoésie religieue a Byzance, 160-162.
249
Barry Baldwin, s.v. "Romanos the Melode," 0DB, vol. 3, 1807-1808. See also J.H.
Barkhuizen, "Romanos Melodos: on Earthquakes and Fires," JOB 45, 1995, 1-18.
110
research.25° The first laments of the Virgin in Syriac hymnography are attributed

to Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373) and Jacob of Sarug (c. 451_521).251 In a poem

250
In their search for the origins of religious poetry in Byzantium scholars working on
Byzantine hymriography have turned to the Syriac Orient since Byzantine
hymnographers were undoubtedly influenced by hymns by celebrated Syriac
hymnographers, as we shall see below, with reference to the Marian lament. However,
the whole issue is not a simple one. See the concise article by S. Brook, "Syriac and
Greek Hymnography: Problems of Origin," Studies in Syriac Chrzstic,izity, London 1992,
77-81. For Syriac Christianity, see H.J.W. Drijvers, "Early Syriac Christianity: Some
Recent Publications," VigChr 50, 1996, 159-177 and the articles by the same author
published in History and Religion in Late Antique Syria, London, 1994. The Greek
speaking world was introduced to isosyllabic poetry by translations of Syriac religious
poetry; at the end of the fourth century, Jerome states that he knew some of the works of
Ephrem the Syrian in Greek translation. See the discussion by Brock, "Greek into Syriac
and Syriac into Greek," 1-17; on the origins of the kontakion see P. Christou, "14
r'vEa; 'rob Kovtcu&m," Kieronomia 6, vol. ii, 1974, 273-350 and esp. 281 if.
251
For the debt of Byzantine authors to Syriac hymnography in the eighth and ninth
centuries see N.J. Tsironis, "George of Nicomedia: Convention and Originality in the
Homily on Good Friday," Studia Patristica, vol. XXX, 1997, 332-336. Ephrem the
Syrian was born at Nisibis c. 306 and died at Edessa in 373. He served the Church as a
deacon and wrote in Syriac but his works, most of them in verse, were translated into
many languages and exercised an unprecedented influence on Greek hymnography.
Ephrem combined elements of pre-Nicene Christianity, such as Encratism and
Gnosticism, as well as elements of Judaism and employed them within a Christian
framework in a distinctly symbolic way. It has been suggested that Ephrem's choice of
metrical form was not accidental. Sozomenos states that "...because Ephrem saw the
Syrians being enchanted by the beauty of poetry and the rhythm of music and gradually
getting used to heretical doctrines, he decided to employ Harmonios' metres, in spite of
the fact that he did not have a Greek education, and he composed new hymns in
agreement with the teachings of the Church on his [Harmonios'] patterns..." (transl. K.
Mitsakis), Sozomenos, III, 16,7, [J. Bidez (ed.), Histoire Ecclésiasrique, Paris, 1983
(with French transl. by A.J. Festugiere)J. For a more recent critical edition see J. Bidez
ill
that was to be read during Saturday vespers in Holy Week the celebrated

hymnographer Epbrem the Syrian elaborates the theme of the lament.252 In this

hymn the Virgin approaches the cross and speaks to the Lord without expecting a

response. It is a silent lamentation, and one of the first attempts to reveal the

human aspect of the salvatory mystery.

Jacob of Sarug was born in Mesopotamia (at Kurtham) and was educated

in Edessa before being ordained bishop of Batnan in 51 9253 Among his numerous

and G.Ch. Hansen, Sozomenus Kirchengeschichte, 2 vols., GCS, Berlin, 1995; cf. K.
Mitsakis, "The Hymnography of the Greek Church in the Early Christian Centuries,"
JOB 20, 1971, 31-49 and esp. 37-39. Mitsakis explains monastic opposition to
hymnography in the early Christian centuries on the grounds of its association with
unorthodox doctrines, op.cit., 39-42. For the vast bibliography on Ephrem see S. Brock,
"Syriac Studies 1971-1980. A Classified Bibliography," Parole de l'Orient 10, 198 1-
1982, 320-327. For Edessa, 'the Athens of the East' at the time of Ephrem see Drijvers,
"Early Syriac Christianity," 173-175 and notes 29, 30.
252
D. Caillau, S.Patris nostri Ephraem Syri Opera, IV, Paris, 1844, pp. 440-444; also
introduction to the hymn by Romanos, Marie a la Croix Grosdidier de Matons (ed.), SC
128, p.144. It is not certain that the hymn was written by Ephrem since many of the
hymns attributed to the Syriac hymnographer are spurious. See S.Brock, "Greek into
Syriac and Syriac into Greek," Journal of the Syriac Academy ifi, Baghdad 1977, 1-17
and esp. 13; C. Emereau, "Saint Ephrem, Docteur de l'Eglise et l'histoire littéraire de ses
oeuvres," EQ 20, 1921, 29-45, (repr. 1971). For Ephrem's use of typology see R.
Murray, "Mary, the Second Eve in the Early Syriac Fathers," ECR 3:4, 1971, 372-384;
idem, Symbols of the Church and the Kingdom, 144-150. For Ephrem, Mariology was
closely related to the Incarnation; both subjects formed the core of his theology. Ephrem
elaborated all the 'types'of the Virgin mentioned in the Old Testament (Eve, Rachel,
Tamar, Ruth, the table of the Law and the Ark of the Covenant, are all to be found in his
Hymns on the Nativity 8.13; 13.2-5; 9.7-16; 15.8; 16.12).
253P Martin, "Un évêque poéte au V et au VI siècle ou Jacques de Saroug, sa vie, son
temps, ses oeuvres, ses croyances," RSE 34, 1876, 309-3 52, 385-419; S. Brock, "Jacob
112
metrical homilies there is one on the Dormition in which he includes a passage

that relates the lament of the Virgin. The text reads as follows:

"Many sorrows has your mother borne for your sake, and all afflictions

surrounded her at your Crucifixion. How much sorrowing, how much

weeping and how many tears of suffering did her eyes shed at your

funeral... How many terrors did the mother of Mercy experience when you

were buried and the guards of the sepulchre turned her away, so that she

could not approach you!"254

Although authorship cannot be easily established and the manuscript tradition of

the Syriac texts is often so complicated as to make the study of these texts a

domain reserved for the specialist, it is rather probable that the first attempts to

compose Mary's lament were made in the Syriac Orient. 255 Certain scholars

of Serugh on the Veil of Moses," Sobornost 3:1, 1981, 70-85, and esp. 70-71 with notes.
See also, R. Chesnut, Three Monophysite Christologies, London, 1976, 113-141 and
esp.126 if, where the author points to the importance that Jacob placed in the humanity
of Christ, at one point saying even that the Word was embodied in Adam who was
created not just in the image of the Father (the 'Great Mind'), but "in the image of the
human Jesus that was to come to earth."
254
The hymn elsewhere provides evidence of the introduction of the feast of the
Dormition, but most interestingly for the present study it introduces the lamentation of
the Mother of God at the crucifixion and the burial of the Lord. Jacob of Sarug, Hymn
on the Dormition of the Mother of God, in Baumstark (ed.) OC 5, 1905, 9 1-9. See also P.
Mouterde, "Deux hornélies inédites de Jacques de Saroug," Mélanges de 1 'Université de
S.Joseph 26, 1944-1946, homilies on Mary at the foot of the cross in 9-14, 23-28.
255The Coptic the otokza were not collected before the seventh century, although they
may have been composed long before. Given the uncertainty concerning their date of
composition I shall not include them in the present study; their development should be
the subject of a separate study. See Lauzière, "Les Théotokies Coptes," 3 12-327. For
11
II)
argue that Romanos was heavily influenced by Ephrem although this is not easy

to prove.256 In the case of the hymn on Mary at the Foot of the Cross, it is

possible that Romanos was inspired by a hymn written by Ephrem to be read

during vespers on Saturday in Holy Week. 257 This hymn contains a lament of the

Virgin that is thought to be the immediate precursor of Romanos' kontaldon. In

the case of Ephrem, however, Mary's lament is silent and all the striking elements

of Romanos' kontakion, namely the dramatic setting and the dialogue between the

Virgin and Christ, are absent.258

In Romanos' hymn Mary at the Foot of the Cross, the Virgin appears as

a human mother who laments her dying son. The scarce references to the Virgin

as the &jivç in Melito give way after a few centuries to the fully-fleshed human

Mother of God who plays the central role in the hymn of Romanos. Apart from

literary production in Palestine see R. Stichel, "Homiletik, Hymnographie und

Hagiographie im Fruhbyzantinischen Palästina," JOB 44, 1994, 3 89-406.
256 c•
Emereau, Saint Ephrem le Syrien. Son oeuvre littéraire grecque, Paris, 1919, 103-
107. For a more sceptical approach, see Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le Mélode et les
origines de lapoésie religieuse a Byzance, 23-30 and 254-255; W.L. Petersen, The
Diatessaron and Ephrem Syrus as Sources of Romanos the Melodist, CSCO, vol. 466,
Leipzig,l986. H. Hunger ("Das Lebenspendende Wasser. Romanos Melodos, Kontakion
9 (Oxf=19 SC): Jesus und die Samariterin," JOB 38, 1988,125-157) traces the sources
of Romanos to Greek models. It would be reasonable to suggest that Romanos drew
material from both Greek and Syriac sources.
257
Caillau, S.Pazris nostri Ephraem Syri Opera, vol. IV, 440-444.
258
For a comparison of the two laments see Alexiou, "The Lament of the Virgin in
Byzantine Literature and Modem Greek Folk Song," 114-115; S. Brock, "Dramatic
Dialogue Poems," IV Symposium Syriacum: Literary Genres in Syriac Literature, OCA
229, 1987, 135-147; Averil Cameron, "Disputations, Polemical Literature and the
Formation of Opinion in the Early Byzantine Period," 91-1 08.
114
the hymn Mary at the Foot of the Cross, 259 features of the lament may be detected

in the hymn On Abraham, as well as in the hymns on the Annunciation, the

Passion of the Lord and the Resurrection. In a comparative reading the lament of

the Virgin and that of Sarah present a striking similarity of attitudes that supports

Alexiou's position about the importance of Biblical laments. 26° Both Sarah and

the Virgin address their sons with a similar vocabulary and in a tone that is

emotionally charged. 261 Both laments make use of the contrast between different

periods of time, namely, past and present, where the past was full of promises and

joy whereas the present is full of delusion that makes the promises of the angels

null and void. 262 In the hymn Mary at the Foot of the Cross, Romanos employs a

vocabulary that is reminiscent of the homily On Pascha by Melito of Sardis.263

259
This hymn is perhaps the one that has attracted more scholarly attention than any
other hymn (with the sole exception of the kontakion on the Nativity). See Alexiou,
"The Lament of the Virgin in Byzantine and Modern Greek Folk Song," 113-118.
260
Alexiou and Dronke, "The Lament of Jephtha's Daughter," 8 19-863 and above,
chapter I.
261
Sarah laments her miraculous birth (st.4.6) that was announced by the angel of God
(st.7). The same emphasis on the maternal relationship is noticed in Mary's lament (St. 1,
6bis. 5-9). Nature also plays an important role in both hymns (Abraham St. 13 - Mary at
the Foot of the Cross st.16). Concern for the pure sacrifice is also echoed in the words of
Abraham (st.12.4-5) and Christ (6.1-2) respectively. Sarah and the Virgin address their
Sons as the 'light' and the 'dawn of my eyes' (Abraham st.1O.4 - Mary at the Foot of the
Cross st.2.8). Finally, although Sarah and the Virgin ask the victims of the sacrifice to
respond to their love and grief (Abraham 15- Mary at the Foot of the Cross passim),
Sarah eventually gives her consent to the act (Abraham St. 14), but Mary does not.
262
Cf. second hymn On the Nativity, vol. H, 88-111. In this hymn we find the counterpart
of 'my son and my God'; Christ calls Mary 'my servant and my mother', st. 16. The
subject of Mary's maternity serves to recapitulate the whole theology of the Incarnation
115
 We have already seen that nature is a standard theme of the lament. The

references to nature in the hymn Mary at the Foot of the Cross are not voiced by

the Virgin and they are not as elaborate as elsewhere in the work of Romanos.

Linked with the paradox of the life-giving mystery that forms the core of the

hymn, nature is evoked in the prooimion of the hymn On the Passion.2M In the

famous prooimion of the first hymn On the Nativity, the Virgin and nature occupy

the opening verses of the composition. Particular emphasis is given to the

Incarnation of the Word by a virgin, 265 while personified nature "makes

accessible a cave to the Inaccessible." 266 The miracles of Christ that are often

included in homilies on Good Friday and in related hymns of the middle

Byzantine period are elaborated in the hymn On the Passion, on the basis of the

antithetical structure that permeates the whole kontakion. 267 Anti-Jewish polemic

and Christ himself prophesies his crucifixion and her lament. Mary, hearing these words,
laments for the future and Christ consoles her imploring her to understand the purpose of
the Incarnation (St. 16-18). Within the context of the contrast between past and present
see the New Testament theme of Christ's loneliness at the Crucifixion, also to be found
in apocryphal literature (st.3.7-9). In subsequent laments the theme will be applied to the
Virgin who is left alone.
263
See, for instance, the use of the word àuvac in st.1 and 11. Adjectives deriving from
the typological associations of the Mother of God are to be found in most of his hymns.
264
Romanos the Melode, Hymnes, vol. IV, On the Passion, 202-231.
265
Ibid. vol. II, On the Nativity, prooimion, 50.
266
Ibid 50; note the careful choice of the antithetical words: cctt f y to ainatov
pocftw itpoayEt. The opening verses of the prooimion are inscribed on the scroll that
Rornanos is given to hold in iconography. See E. Catagiotou Topping, "St Romanos
the Melode: Prince of Byzantine Poets," GrOrihThR )(XIV, No 1, 1979, 65-75;
eadem, "St Romanos: Ikon of a Poet," GrOrthThR XII, No 1, 1966, 92-111.
267
On the Passion, St. 5, 8, 10.
116
is not particularly prominent in the hymns studied up to this point, although in the

hymn On the Passion Jews are described as 'ferocious people, thirsty for blood'

and are compared to a lion that clawed the soul of Christ the lamb.268

Romanos did not simply make Mary the focus of the hymn Mary at the

Foot of the Cross but, interpreting the Scriptures freely, he also made her the

recipient of a promise by Jesus that she will be the first to know about the

Resurrection. 269 However, in the first hymn On the Resurrection it is the myrrh-

bearing women who witness his Resurrection and who bring the good news to the

disciples.27° The paradox of the Resurrection is associated with to the virginal

birth and Christ is declared to be the Second Adam; by the same token the Virgin

is declared to be the Second Eve. The Virgin's status is exalted to the point that

the poet says that Eve became the servant of Mary. 27 ' In the second hymn On the

Resurrection, Romanos relates the story of the Incarnation to the Resurrection and

asserts Mary and Christ to be the typological counterparts of Eve and Adam.272

With reference to the lament, it is interesting to note a lament that differs

thematologically but which employs the same contrast between past and present:

268
Ibid, St. 13. Instances of anti-Jewish polemic are also evident in the hymns On the
Resurrection; see for example the fourth hymn On the Resurrection, St. 8-10. The
designation of Jews as ferocious and blood-thirsty beasts, evokes the imagery of
accounts of martyrdom in the early Church and will be encountered as a standard feature
of the laments of the post-Iconoclastic period.
269
Mary at the Foot of the Cross, st.12, 2-3.
270
On the Resurrection I, vol. IV, 380-421.
271
On the Resurrection II, vol. IV, 430-451, st.20.
272
Romanos elaborates the typological epithets of the Virgin in the third hymn On the
Nativity, vol. II, 118-129.
117
it is Hades lamenting his destruction, recalling the happiness of the past in the

third hymn On the Resurrection. 273

The dramatic setting and the dialogue between the persons of the 'drama'

are the most original and typical features of Romanos' work. 274 The dialogues

between Abraham and Sarah, Maiy and Christ, Maiy Magdalen and Christ, the

Virgin and the Angel in the Annunciation, represent instances that do not only

achieve a dramatic effect but also reveal a dynamic relationship between the

Biblical personages.275 In the verses of Romanos poetry and theology converge in

a distinct way. Moreover, Romanos as the poet who praised the Mother of God

was to be included in the iconography of the feast of the veil of the Virgin,

commonly called the Pokrov.276

273
On the Resurrection III, vol. IV, 460-481, st. 8 and passim. For the image of the
destruction of the gates of Hades see S. Brock, "Some Aspects of Greek Words in
Syriac," Syriac Perspectives on Late Antiquity, London, 1984, IV 80-108, and esp. 98.
274
According to Topping, "Romanos' interest in artistic form is manifested in the
symmetry and intricacy of his kontakia, in which meter, diction, imagery, theme, and
mood are articulated with the precision of a mosaicist," (my emphasis) in "St Romanos
the Melode: Prince of Byzantine Poets," 70. For a detailed study of Romanos' language
see K.Mitsakis, The Language of Romanos the Melodist, Munich 1967. Romanos
marked the change of attitude towards hymnography, renewing and enriching the
tradition already shaped by Ephrem the Syrian. For the kontakion as a metrical sermon
and the ill-defined boundaries between prose and poetry in early Christian hymnography
see Mitsakis, "The Hymnography of the Greek Church," 39, 47-48.
275 Catagiotou Topping, "St Romanos the Melode: Prince of Byzantine Poets," 72.
276
Moran (Singers in Late Bantine and Slavonic Paintings, 126-127) traces the
development of the feast of the Veil of the Virgin in iconography and notes that "in
Pokrov paintings the Nativity kontakion by Romanos is often inscribed on a roll in his
hand."
118
Conclusion

In this chapter I have tried to trace not only the literaiy sources of the

lament of the Virgin, but also to explain the rise of the lament in early Christian

times. The lament of the Mother of God emerged as a result of the growing

importance attached to the person of the Virgin. It is essential to emphasize that

the cult of Mary sprung from the need of the first Christian thinkers to define the

person of Christ, his natures and the way in which they coexisted within the

historical person of Jesus. The theological concerns of the first Christian thinkers

have been discussed with reference to the two matters that I consider to be the

mainsprings of the rise of the lament, namely the veneration of the Virgin Mary

and the debate over the suffering of God. The way in which the first Christian

writers viewed Mary as well as the way in which she was portrayed in apocryphal

writings of the early Byzantine period echo the development of her cult, as

witnessed in the development of her feasts. Especially prominent in Syriac

hymnography, which was a source of inspiration for Byzantine hymnographers

and homilists is the figure of Mary, the Second Eve. The most celebrated poet of

Byzantium, Romanos the Melode, writing in the sixth century, expressed in his

kontakia the growing devotion to the Mother of God and the theological

developments that had marked the fifth century.

The role of the Virgin was of crucial importance to the fuller

understanding of the Incarnation of the Word. It was within this context that the

epithet 'Theotokos' applied to Mary and questions regarding the suffering of God

119
came to the fore in the fifth century during the Nestorian controversy. The debate

between the two patriarchs, Cyril and Nestorius, although Christological in its

essence, focused on the designation of the Virgin as Theotokos and on the

suffering of Christ. These two formulations recapitulated the paradoxical nature

of Christianity as interpreted by the Alexandrian exegetical school in opposition

to the literal approach of the Antiochenes. The term 'Theotokos' and the Twelfth

Anathema of Cyril, that 'God has suffered in the flesh' would be ratified at the

Council of Ephesus in 431.

In the centuries that followed the Council of Ephesus the Virgin appears

on the one hand as the imposing patron saint of the imperial city who would

shield it until its downfall 277 and on the other hand as the tender mother lamenting

at the foot of the cross. Both images reflect the importance attached to the person

of the Virgin during the period of the Nestorian controversy that concluded in the

Council of Ephesus and which granted Mary the title Theotokos. The Virgin

would retain both aspects of her cult as protectress and mother in subsequent

centuries, although in the Iconoclastic period particular emphasis would be put on

the human rather than the supernatural aspect of Mary's personality. Hence, the

development of the cult of the Virgin should not be conceived of as evolving in a

linear manner, one quality or attribute of the Virgin succeeding another, but as a

gradual exploration of the person of the Virgin for the fuller comprehension of the

The depiction of the Virgin on lead seals dating to the pre-Iconoclastic period in
which she is seen standing or en buste holding Christ in front of her in a roundel or in
the type of the Hodegetria recalls her attributes as the protectress of Constantinople; see
N. Oikonomides, Byzantine Lead Seals, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., 1985, 10.
120
Christian mystery. The emphasis placed on the Incarnation and the suffering of

Christ during the Nestorian controversy resulted in the emergence in literature of

the Virgin lamenting at the foot of the cross whom we found in the hymns of

Romanos and that would be revived as a theme of the next and last Christological

debate in the Byzantine Church: Iconoclasm.

121
 CHAPTER III

THE PLACE OF THE VIRGIN IN THE ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY

Introduction

In the previous chapter I focused on the cult of the Virgin and on the issue

of theopaschism in order to explain the rise of the Marian lament in the fifth and

sixth centuries. In this chapter I shall concentrate on the period of the last

Christological debate of the Byzantine Church, namely Iconoclasm, leaving aside

the intervening period of the sixth and seventh centuries.278 Admittedly

Iconoclasm is a period that suffers from what Brown termed as a 'crisis of over-

explanation' •279 My intention is not to add yet another interpretation to the

numerous explanations that already exist.28° The present chapter will focus on

278
The reason that dictated this choice was the existence of comprehensive studies both
of the cult of Mary and of the issue of theopaschism in the period in question by Averil
Cameron and Anna Kartsonis respectively. For the cult of Mary in the sixth and seventh
centuries see Averil Cameron "The Theotokos in Sixth-Century Constantinople: A City
Finds its Symbol," JThS XXIX, 1978, 79-108; eadem, "A Nativity Poem of the Sixth
Century A.D.," Classical Philology 79, 1979, 222-232; eadem, "The Virgin's Robe:
Elites and Icons in Late Sixth-Century Byzantium," Past and Present 84, 1979, 3-35.
For the issue of theopaschism with special reference to the work of Anastasius Sinaites
see A. Kartsonis, Anastasis. The Making of an Image, Princeton, 1986; eadem, "The
Emancipation of the Crucifixion," Byzance et les Images, Paris, 1994, 15 1-187.
279
P. Brown, "A Dark Age Crisis: Aspects of the Iconoclastic Controversy," EHR
LXXXVIII, 1973, 1-34, repr. in Brown, Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity, London,
1982, 25 1-301 and esp. 254.
280
some recent studies on the issue of Byzantine Iconoclasm see D. Turner, "The
Origins and Accession of Leo V (8 13-820)," JOB 40, 1990, 171-203. From an art-
historical perspective but with an insight into literary texts, see the studies by R.
122
Iconoclasm as a Christological rather than a political or social controversy. The

socio-political aspect of the complex phenomenon of Iconoclasm will be omitted

not because it is considered to be of lesser importance but because it cannot help

us in our investigation of this obscure territory, the place of the Mother of God in

the Iconoclastic controversy.

The period of Iconoclasm is perhaps the most complicated and

controversial period of Byzantine history. Scholarly views on Byzantine

Iconoclasm alter - as new evidence and interpretations are set forth by

modem researchers. 28 ' Scholarship today does away with the absolute distinctions

Cormack, Writing in Gold: Byzantine Society and its Icons, London, 1985; idem,
Painting the Soul. Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds, London, 1997. K. Parry (Depicting
the Word. Byzantine Iconophile Thought of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries, Leiden,
New York, Köln, 1996) offers a modern theological interpretation of Iconoclasm
concentrating on the theological issues involved in the cult of icons. See also J.M.
Sansterre, "La parole, le texte et l'image selon les auteurs byzantins des époques
iconoclastes et posticonoclastes," Testo e imagine nell 'alto medioevo, Settimane 41,
Spoleto 1994, 197-240; M.J. Mondzain, Image, icône, économie. Les sources byzantines
de 1 'imaginaire contemporain, Paris, 1996.
281
In this respect the study by Gero (S. Gero, Byzantine Iconoclasm During the Reign of
Leo III with Particular Attention to the Oriental Sources, CSCO 346, Louvain, 1973;
idem, Byzantine Iconoclasm During the Reign of Constantine V with Particular
Attention to the Oriental Sources, CSCO 384, Louvain, 1977) that brought to the
attention of researchers the evidence deriving from oriental sources was very useful.
Note also the difference of approach between the study by E. Kitzinger ("The Cult of
Icons in the Age Before Iconoclasm," DOP 8, 1954, 83-150) with its distinct emphasis
on religious practice and the idea of 'popular religion' and the recent article by Averil
Cameron ("The Language of Images: The Rise of Icons and Christian Representation,"
The Church and the Arts, D. Wood (ed.), Oxford, 1992, 1-42) in which the author
123
of previous generations, entering into more detailed studies and perceiving

Iconoclasm as of greater complexity. 282 To summarize the basic events that

marked the Iconoclastic controversy in Byzantium is unnecessaiy since there

already exist detailed studies on the subject; moreover, such a summary would

fall outside the scope of the present study.283

The place of the Mother of God in the Iconoclastic period is a subject that

has received little attention and about which no definitive conclusions have been

drawn as yet. Usually the veneration of the Virgin is studied together with the

veneration of the saints and their relics since this is the formula employed in the

literary sources. 284 As far as modem scholars are concemed some hold that the

Theotokos was greatly venerated by the Iconoclasts while others maintain that

interprets the rise of the cult of images in terms of an evolution and redefinition of the
cognitive system of Byzantine society.
282
For a concise account of the various explanations of Iconoclasm see Brown, "A Dark
Age Crisis," 251-301 and esp. 25 1-254 and Averil Cameron, "The Language of Images,"
18-20.
283
See above. For a detailed study of the relationship between Byzantium and the Arabs
see A.Grabar, L 'Iconoclasme byzantin. Dossier archéologique, Paris, 1957; P.J.
Alexander, The Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople, Oxford, 1958, and for different
aspects of the Iconoclastic period the volume of collected essays edited by A.Bryer and
J. Herrin, Iconoclasm, Birmingham, 1977.
284
Parry, Depicting the Word, 191-201; J. Wortley, "Iconoclasm and Leipsanoclasm:
Leo ifi, Constantine V and the Relics," ByzFor VIII, 1982, 253-279. For the similarity of
perception and function between relics, saints and icons see Belting, Likeness and
Presence, 59-61 and Brown, "A Dark-Age Crisis," 266-284. However, Belting (op.cit.,
5 8-59) points to the difference between the iconography of the Virgin and that of the
saints.
124
her cult was rejected along with the cult of icons and relics of saints. 285 Parry's

views on the issue are expressed in a rather confusing way. Citing Averil

Cameron's article on "The Theotokos in Sixth-Century Constantinople", Parry

attempts to find an explanation for the excessive veneration of Mary by the

Iconoclasts! In his words: "Perhaps the exalted status accorded to the Mother of

God by the Iconoclasts should be seen in relation to her special cult as protector

of the city of Constantinople. In his homilies on the Mother of God, the Patriarch

Germanos refers to Mary in highly exalted terms, emphasising her role as

intercessor in the life of every Christian" 286 (my italics). There is no doubt that

Parry knows that Germanos was not an Iconoclast, but in his discussion - -

seems to be establishing Iconoclastic positions while drawing arguments from

Iconophile sources. The above quotation demonstrates his confuSion in so far as

the specific matter is concerned. Although bringing interesting themes to the fore,

such as the veneration of the Virgin and its relationship to the cult of the saints

and their relics, Parry falls to present them within the framework of any particular

argument. Moreover, the fact that Parry deals with the complicated issues of the

veneration and the intercession of the Theotokos, the saints, the cult of relics and

285
Two representative examples are George Ostrogorsky and Kenneth Parry.
Ostrogorsky considers that the Iconoclasts were against the cult of the Mother of God.
His views on the issue are elaborated in the volume of collected essays in Serbian; G.
Ostrogorsky, 0 Verovanfima i Shvatanjima Vizantinaca, Belgrade, 1970. I would like to
thank Sanya Mesanovic from the Institute of Byzantine Research in Belgrade who
helped me with the translation of the Serbian text. On the other hand, Parry (Depicting
the Word, 191-192) in his confusing nineteenth chapter presumes, on grounds that are
not stated clearly, that the Iconoclasts were accused of excessive veneration of Mary.
286
Parry, Depicting the Word, 191.
125
the cult of icons within the limited space of one chapter does not help him to

illuminate his subject and especially the place of Mary in the Iconoclastic

controversy. It has to be noted that Parry's confusion mirrors the disordered state

of research, at least in respect of the place of the Virgin in the Iconoclastic

controversy. It is a fact that no unchallenged conclusion has yet been reached

regarding the opposing views of Mary taken by the two sides in the last

Christological debate in Byzantium. This is the very issue that will be discussed

in the present chapter.

Sources and Interpretations

The impression one gains from sources contemporaneous with the

Iconoclastic period that refer to the Mother of God is rather a confusing one since

both sides claim to be 'orthodox' on the basis of virtually the same arguments, in

other words the correct understanding of the Incarnation. Each side accuses the

other of being a follower of Nestorius, Eutyches, and such others, using the same

terminology but obviously interpreting it differently. With reference to the Virgin

we encounter statements that can be taken to declare the unconditional devotion

of the Iconoclasts to the Mother of God. On the other hand, the Iconophile

response to those statements reveals a clear mistrust of the sincerity of them.

Later we shall examine closely the manner in which each side accuses the other of

disrespect towards the Mother of God. Whatever the final conclusion, it is clear

that the veneration of the Virgin attracted the attention of both sides and was a

bone of contention throughout the controversy.

126
Chronicles and Acts of Oecumenical Councils

Let us first examine the evidence provided by historiographical sources.

There is no uniformity in the Iconoclastic policies enforced by imperial authority

during the Iconoclastic period. It is well known that the first Iconoclast emperor

Leo 111(717- 741) in his early years presented himself as a supporter of

Chalcedonian Orthodoxy. Once he had ascended the throne of Constantinople he

moved gradually towards Iconoclasm with hesitant steps.287 As we shall see in the

287
It should also be noted that since icons were not yet identified with Orthodoxy and
the theology of images was still in the making the Definition of the Council of 754 is
strictly speaking free of anti-Chalcedonian statements. It was only after the restoration of
icons that Iconoclasm would be considered as a heresy on the grounds of misinterpreting
incarnational theology as defined in the pre-Iconoclastic Oecumenical Councils. For the
beginning of the controversy and the legend of the destruction of the image of Christ
above the Chalke Gate of the palace, see M.-F. Auzépy, "La destruction de l'icône du
Christ de la Chalcé par Leon ifi: propagande ou réalité?", B LX, 1990, 445-492 and esp.
480-492 where the author after a detailed comparative analysis of the sources explains
how the legend came into being after the Empress Irene had raised an image of Christ
over the Chalke Gate. Cf. C.Mango, The Brazen House: A Study of the Vestibule of the
Imperial Palace of Constantinople, Copenhagen, 1959, 170-174. Gero, Byzantine
Iconoclasm During the Reign of Leo III, 141-142 and 212-217 (appendix SB: The
Destruction of the Chalke Image); W. Hörandner, "Visuelle Poesie in Byzanz," JOB 40,
1990, 1-42 and esp. 13-15; Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century, 84-91; Cormack,
Writing in Gold, Ill if.; M. Whittow, The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600-1025,
Hampshire and London, 1996, 139 if.; Averil Cameron, "Images of Authority," 3-35;
J.F. Haldon, "Some Remarks on the Background to the Iconoclastic Controversy,"
ByzSlav 37-38, 1976-1977, 161-184; P.J. Alexander, "An Ascetic Sect of Iconoclasts in
Seventh-Century Armenia," Religious and Political History and Thought in the
Byzantine Empire, VII, London, 1978, 151-160. Cf. K. Ringrose, "Monks and Society in
Iconoclastic Byzantium," BS/EB 6, 1979, 130-151 and esp. 149; N. Garsolan,
"Byzantine Heresy. A Reinterpretation," DOP 25, 1971, 85-113.
127
course of the present study the Iconoclasts repeatedly declared their belief in the

canons of the Oecumenical Councils although their declarations have to be treated

with a certain degree of caution. The Iconoclasts repeatedly declared their belief

in the Chalcedonian Creed as well as in the Mother of God but resented the

consequence of these beliefs, namely the possibility of the representation of the

divine in matter.

Most of our sources refer to the period after 744. However, Theophanes

refers repeatedly to the Mother of God and her intercession before the

endorsement of Leo's Iconoclastic policy. Apart from the few references to the

Virgin as protectress of Byzantium during the reign of Heraclius, Theophanes

refers to the intercession of the Mother of God during the war of Leo III against

the Arabs in the years 717 and 718.288 In August 717 the Byzantines managed to

frustrate the fleet of the Arab caliph Maslama with the aid of Greek fire while in

the following year -after a particularly severe winter- "many calamities befell

them [the Arabs] at that time and made them learn by experience that God and the

all-holy Virgin, the Mother of God, protect this city and the Christian

Empire.. ,,289

Leo was succeeded on the imperial throne by his son Constantine V (741-

775) who is known as the most steadfast opponent of images both in theory and

in practice. The Iconoclastic council of 754 presided over by Theodosius, bishop

288
C. Mango and R. Scott (eds.), The Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor. Byzantine
and Near Eastern History AD 284-8 13, Oxford, 1997, 544-546, [henceforth abbreviated
as Theophanes (Mango)], = Theophanes (de Boor), I 395-398.
289 TransJ Mango and Scott. Theophanes (Mango), 546= (de Boor), I 397-398.
128
of Ephesus, was summoned by the emperor in order to invest Iconoclasm with the

authority of oecumenical recognition. 29° If we compare the views expressed in the

flxtç of Constantine V and those set forth in the definition of the

Iconoclastic council of 754, it becomes evident that the views of the emperor

were tempered by the assembly in which 338 bishops participated. 29 ' The

emphasis on spiritual worship deriving from Jn. 4:24 is attested in the first tome

of the Iconoclastic Horos quoted in II Nicaea 292 Man is said to have been

seduced and, from the exalted worship that befits God, to have fallen to the

290
When Leo III asked Patriarch Germanos to accept his Iconoclastic views the latter
told the emperor to summon a council to determine the issue. In the council of 754
Patriarch Germanos was anathematized along with John of Damascus -the so-called
Mansur- and George of Cyprus. The proceedings of the Iconoclastic council have not
survived but they can be reconstructed from the minutes of II Nicaea (787) in the sixth
session of which the Definition of 754 was read by Gregory, bishop of Neocaesarea, and
refuted section by section by the synod. For the anathematization of the three
iconodules, see J.D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio, vol.
Xffl, Graz, 1960, 356 if. (henceforth cited as Mansi); M.V. Anastos, "The Argument for
Iconoclasm as Presented by the Iconoclastic Council of 754," Late Classical and
Medieval Studies in Honor ofA.M Friend, K. Weitzmann (ed.), Princeton, 1955, 177-
188. The absence of a patriarch at the council of 754 is particularly emphasized by
Theophanes (de Boor), I, 427 if.; cf. E. J. Martin, A History of the Iconoclastic
Controversy, London, 1930, 46.
291
Text in H. Hennephof (ed.), Text us Byzantinos Iconomachiam Pertinentes in Usum
Academicum, Leiden, 1969, 52-57. See also Anastos, "The Argument for Iconoclasm,"
177-188; J. Hussey, The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire, Oxford, 1986, 39-
40. Hussey correctly notes that the presence of the bishops was rather a political gesture
and that it did not necessarily imply their Iconoclastic beliefs.
2fl
Jn 4:24, "God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth." For the Iconoclastic Horos see Mansi XIII, 216.
129
degrading and material worship of creatures. 293 Clearly opposing the Iconoclastic

statement, Theodosius of Amorium declared in the proceedings of the Seventh

Oecumenical Council: "I accept that the face of Christ and of the Holy Theotokos

can be depicted in matter. In the same way I accept that we should allow the

images of saints and martyrs, so as to acknowledge their fights and deeds."294

Iconoclasts rejected the veneration of images on Christological grounds, accusing

the Iconophiles of being either Nestorians or Monophysites, and in any case

claiming that they distorted the doctrine of the Incarnation. 295 As we shall see

below, the Mother of God became the symbol of Orthodoxy upheld by the

Iconophiles precisely because she embodied the principles of incarnational

theology on the basis of which the veneration of images was defended.

The prohibition of the veneration of images was extended to the Mother of

God and the saints although in these cases there was no issue of divine nature

293
Mansi XIII, 225 D, 229 A, D, E.
294 Mansi XII, 1014 C-D, Theodosius pleads with the saints to intercede on his behalf to
God so as to find mercy on the Day of Judgement. "I accept, says Theodosius, in
churches all icons of the saints and of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy Theotokos
made out of any material, whether gold or silver and of any colour; so that his [Christ's]
economy according to the flesh may be known to all. In the same sense I accept the
depiction of the deeds of the saintly and renowned apostles, of the prophets and the
martyrs, so that their achievements and their fights shall be known in m)vrojAoç ypaçoi

for the stimulation and the edification of the people, and especially of the most simple
ones."
295
Mansi XIII, 241 E, 244 D, 245 D; Anastos, "The Argument for Iconoclasm," 179, n.
16; concerning the accusation of Arianism see Averil Cameron and Judith Herrin,
Parasraseis Syntomoi Chronikai, 25-26, 68-69 and notes on chapters 1, 7 and 10.
130
involved, as in the case of Christ. 296 In his writings John of Damascus accuses the

Iconoclasts of not merely rejecting the veneration of icons of Christ (something

that might have made sense) but, by extending the prohibition to the Virgin and

the saints, also proving that they reject the honour that is ascribed to them;

something that nobody has ever dared commit since the beginning of the world.297

For the Iconoclasts, the Virgin was thought to be beyond the status of humanity

since she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and through her the

unapproachable light shone forth. 298 So, how could one dare to depict in the

vulgar art of the Hellenes the being that is higher than the heavens and more holy

than the cherubim? 2 The obvious assumption would be to consider the

Iconoclasts as faithful devotees of the Virgin Mary. 3°° It would be necessaiy,

however, at this point to examine the way in which the Iconophiles refuted the

Iconoclastic claims.

In refuting these statements the Iconoclasts resorted to encomia in their

desire to deceive the simple-minded and trap them in their own false dogma

MansiXffl,272A,BandD.
John of Damascus, Contra Imaginum I, Kotter, (ed.), Die Schrjften des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol. III, Berlin, New York, 1975, 1.19, 94-95. All three orations on the
veneration of icons are published in Kotter III. Numbers following the number of the
oration refer to paragraphs and are followed by the page number.
298
Mansi XIII, 277 C.
299 Ibid,277 D.
300
See for example Parry, Depicting the Word, 191.
131
 uaraioppomviv).30 ' Clearly the encomium of the Theotokos voiced by the

Iconoclasts did not impress them: "But those who are wise and are not wicked

[the Iconophiles],..., they know how to honour truly in words and encomia the

Undefiled and Unblemished and truly and eminently the Theotokos and the

saints..."302 What follows is the defence of the matter with which the Mother of

God and the saints are depicted. Matter may well have been sinful and used in the

veneration of idols but that is not a reason for us to reject it completely and not

use it to good purpose, say the Iconophiles. 303 Because if we are to accept this

assertion, then we should reject the use of holy vestments and vessels as well.3°4

Since we are humans, perceiving reality through our senses, we need material

things to recognise and remind us of the sacred and reverent tradition. 305 The

defence of matter is virtually the fundamental argument on which is based the

refutation of Iconoclastic arguments. The knowledge of God is treated as an issue

at the end of the fourth tome: according to the Iconoclasts, God should be

°' Mansi XIII, 277 E; the word uccrcxzoçopoat5vi means literally vaingloriousness, or
vanity of thought and it was first used of heresy by Epiphanius of Salamis. See s.v. in
Lampe, PGL, 834.
302 Mansi XIII, 277 E-280 A.

3031bid,280A,B.
304 John of Damascus maintained that because of the Incarnation the human race was

saved from death and our nature was led to incorruption. For this reason, he says, we
celebrate the death of the saints, we build churches in their honour and depict them in
icons. See Contra Imaginum 11.10-Il, 100-101. John says also that if Iconoclasts want to
be in accord with their doctrine they should by no means celebrate the feasts of the
saints. See Contra Imaginum 1.21, 108-109, Ei vaovç EyeIpeiç à-j'Iotç Oeoi), cai rà
rotrwv 17E1pe 'tpdW2tZ..
Mansi XIII, 280 B, C.
132
perceived and venerated through faith, that is through hearing, whereas for the

Iconophiles flesh and matter have both been sanctified because of the Incarnation

of the Word of God. 306 Matter has not only been assumed in the Incarnation but it

has also been taken to heaven in the Ascension. The Iconophiles held that Christ

ascended to heaven in his human body and that is how he is now in heaven; and

also that is how he will appear in the Last Judgement.307 Elaborating on the

relationship between matter, sin and the Incarnation, they add that flesh for us

humans is linked to sin, but for Christ flesh is linked with suffering, not with

sinfulness.

The Iconophile bishops of Nicaea II refuted the Iconoclastic claims on the

basis of the theology of images (i.e. that when we venerate icons we do not

venerate the inanimate matter but the person depicted and hence the honour is

transmitted from the Cco to the pofr and of patristic authority.308

Perhaps it is not accidental that at this point the Iconophiles quote Cyril of

Alexandria on the importance of the Incarnation. 309 As we saw in the previous

chapter, Cyril was the one who, following Athanasius of Alexandria, elaborated

on the doctrine of deification with reference to the Virgin and the suffering of

306 Thid, 288 A-D.

307
Thid, 288 E, 289 A. However, note that the Iconoclasts also defended the deification
of matter, albeit in a different context and towards a contrary end; see Mansi XIII, 341
E.
308
Both sides drew on patristic authority in order to support their views. See ibid, 333.
For the florilegia compiled during the Iconoclastic controversy, see A. Alexakis, Codex
Parisinus Graecus 1115 and its Archetype, Dumbarton Oaks Studies XXXIV,
Washington D.C., 1996,31-37 and 227-233.
Mansi XIII, 289 A.
1.)
Christ. In the Acts of Nicaea H, this doctrine is employed in defence of matter:

because the Word of God was made man, the human race was reborn. 310 We no

longer belong to death but to the Word who gives life to everything.3

In the anathemas of the 754 council the Iconoclasts anathematize all those

who do not confess that the Ever-Virgin Maiy is indeed the Theotokos and above

all created and uncreated nature and who do not seek her intercession, though she

has the freedom of speech in front of the one who was born of her. 312 The same

honour is shown by the Iconoclasts to the saints. 313 It is fairly evident that the

Iconoclastic statements do not make any direct anti-Theotokos asserions; on the

contrary, they repeat the decisions of the six oecumenical councils and

specifically anathematize those who do not acknowledge Mary's exalted status.

However, the way in which the Iconoclastic confessions of faith were refuted by

the opposite side shows that they were loaded with meaning which the modern

scholar can only infer by reading between the lines or to be on safer ground, by

turning to other sources.

The picture becomes even more complicated when one considers the

Iconophiles. In his dogmatic writings, John of Damascus warns against the

310
Cf. the two orations by John of Damascus against the Nestorians (De Fide Contra
Nestorianos and Contra Nestorianos) and the oration against the Manichaeans (Contra
Manichaeos) in Kotter IV, 23 8-253, 263-288 and 351-398.
311
Mansi XIII, 289 B; cf. 289 D, ...ica8&và,riU.cx9ai rOvXpzarOv 4uera vvàváataazv
à&1v1ovcrL, cri fjuãç óörjyoaiv óç ov/4zóppovç yevouEvovç rØ acôjuzrz vç öóiç
cthroi3...
312
Thid, 345 A-B.
313
Thid, 348 D-E.
134
excessive honour ascribed to Mary, emphasizing that she did not give birth to the

Godhead but to the incarnate Word of God and therefore she should be honoured

according to the flesh.314 This position is supported by Patriarch Germanos in his

epistles to the bishops of Asia Minor. 315 The view taken by the two theoreticians

of the Iconophile camp leads to the assumption that for the Iconophiles excess

honour meant negation of the cult. In other words, the Iconoclasts, through over-

glorifying her, made the Virgin even more remote and inaccessible, so causing

breach between humanity and divinity. The same is true of Christ whose

depiction Iconoclasts opposed on the grounds that it emphasized his humanity at

the expense of his divinity. Their understanding of the Incarnation ignored its

soteriological significance which could be perceived only by emphasizing the

perfection of Christ's two natures. Christ's Incarnation had a twofold

consequence: first, the deification of matter that was assumed by the Word of

God entering into the womb of Mary and second, the salvation of mankind

through the defeat of death. In rejecting the sanctity of matter (for they held it to

be unworthy to depict the divine) the Iconoclasts were accused of rejecting also

the salvation of mankind.

Theodore the Stoudite defends the cult of the Mother of God that in so

many instances is identified with the worship of her icon. At the same time he

314
John of Damascus, Contra Imaginum 111.41, 142. Rather different, however, is his
approach in Expositio Fidei and in his Marian homilies, for which see below.
315
Germanos I of Constantinople, Epistola Germani adJohannem episcopum
Synadensem, PG 98, cols. 157 D-161 A; Ostrogorsky, 0 Verovanjima, 39-40; Parry,
Depicting the Word, 197-198.
135
answers the Iconoclastic charges of idolatry directed against the Iconophiles.316

According to Theodore, Christ was the natural image of the mother that gave him

birth; hence, Christ has two natures, one divine that derives from his Father and

therefore uncircumscribable and the other human, deriving from his mother, the

Virgin Maiy, and thus circumscribable. 317 Denying the circumscribability of his

human nature means denying nature itself.318

In the writings of John of Damascus, we find an interesting association of

the Virgin with the Passion and the Lord. First, the author sets out to prove the

function of icons. By way of example he cites the individual who, on seeing an

icon of the Crucifixion, is reminded of the Passion of the Lord and falls on his

knees; he does not venerate the matter but the person depicted. Similarly when we

venerate the Gospel or the Cross we do not venerate the matter of which they are

316
On the theological views of Theodore the Stoudite on images see V. Grumel,
"L'Iconologie de saint Theodore Studite," EQ 20, 1921, 257-268.
317
Theodore Stoudite, Antirrheticus ifi, PG 99, col. 417 A, Oicov orz revivq eiicwv
roii XpuYroi, ó.ç to'rzv eiico.v çovazicq riç reicoi)cnjç cthrôv jrpOç... Cf. Theodore
Stoudite, Quaestiones Aliquae Propositae Iconomachis, PG 99, cols. 480-481. For
discussion see J. Meyendorff "L'image du Christ d'après Theodore Studite,"
Synthronon, Art et Archéologie de lafin de / 'Antiquité et du Moyen Age, Paris, 1968,
115-117.
318
Theodore Stoudite, Antirrheticus III, PG 99, col. 416 D, where Theodore asserts that
Christ was made of two natures, human and divine, and so is to be identified by two
characteristic properties. According to one nature he is uncircumscribable and according
to the other circumscribable. Denying the characteristic property of any one nature you
also deny the nature (ousia) charactensed by that property.
1-,
I.,
made but what they represent, what they symbolise. 319 As John of Damascus puts

it, the Mother of God functions as it were like an icon: "Just like icons, so with

the Mother of God. Because the honour given to her as transmitted to the one that

took his flesh from her."32°

This formulation by John reappears in the Arztirrheticus by Theodore the

Stoudite who reiterates it to answer the charges of idolatry brought against the

Iconophiles.32 ' Accordingly, the depiction and veneration of the Virgin does not

mean that we venerate her as a pagan goddess but as the Theotokos who bore in

her womb the Word of God. 3 Similarly, Theodore defmes and defends the saints

as well as liturgical objects. 323 The relationship of the person worshipped to his or

her icon is evident in the sermon of Theodore the Stoudite on the Dormition of

the Virgin in which he pays respect to her icon, perceiving the radiance of the

Theotokos shining from it. 324 And he adds: "even though the all-pure dove has

flown away, she [the Virgin] does not cease to protect mankind." 325 Theodore

39 John of Damascus, Expositio Fidei, in Kotter II, 89.38-42, 207 where John affirms
the importance of iconography for educational purposes.
320 1bid, 89.43-44, 208 Qaat5twç icai v7ç 9eonropoç i yqp eiç afrrqv 14u?7 eiç roy
aç aapaOEvra àváyerai.
321
Theodore Stoudite, Antirrheticus HI, PG 99, col. 433 A- 433 B.
32 Idem, Adversus Iconomachos VII, PG 99, col. 488 D-489 A, "...and so with the
Mother of God. By making and venerating the icon of the Virgin we neither confess her
nor pay respect to her in the way of the Greeks, but as the Mother of God."
Ibid, cols. 489 A- 489 B. In this passage emphasis is given to the relics of the passion
of the Lord that are symbolised in the liturgical objects.
324
Theodore Stoudite, Oration V, In Dorm itionem sanctae Dominae nostrae Deiparae,
PG 99, col. 721 B.
325
Ibid, col. 721 B.
1-,
L.)
asserts that the Mother of God, while no longer with us in the flesh, remains by

our side in spirit and, fending off the demons, mediates with the Lord on behalf of

mankind.326

If we now turn to other historiographical sources we find that Theophanes

draws attention to events that occurred during the Iconoclastic period and in

which the Virgin played a central role. The first such event described by the

chronicler signals the opening of the controversy and although it is difficult to

attribute historical realism to this account, it is still interesting to note that the
a-(C
cult of icons and the cult of the Vfrgi The event recorded by Theophanes, and

repeated in other accounts, is the well known story of the siege of Nicaea.327

During the procession of icons around the walls of the city, Constantine, a general

of Artabasdos, noticed an icon of the Virgin and threw a stone at it; the icon fell

to the ground and he trod it underfoot. 328 A little later he had a vision in which the

Virgin warned him that what he had done had put his head at risk. 329 True

enough, next day the Arabs attacked the city, he rushed to the walls, for he was a

brave soldier, and was killed by a stone that smashed his head. 33° Theophanes

326 1bid, col. 721 B-721 C.

327
Theophanes (Mango), 560-561= (de Boor), I 406, 1-25.
328
"A certain Constantine, however, who was the arpárop of Artabasdos, on seeing an
image of the Theotokos that had been set up, picked up a stone and threw it at her. He
broke the image and trampled upon it when it had fallen down." Theophanes (Mango),
560 = (de Boor), I 406, 5-7.
329
"He then saw in a vision the Lady standing beside him and saying to him: 'See, what
a brave thing you have done to me! Verily, upon your head you have done it'."
Theophanes (Mango), 560 = (de Boor), I 406, 7-10.
330Theophanes (Mango), 560 = (de Boor), I 406, 10-14.
1-,
I.,
finishes his story by recounting that Constantine was not only an Iconoclast but

moreover he rejected the intercession of the Virgin and the saints and the cult of

their relics.33'

The same chronicler also records two incidents that happened in the reign

of Constantine V. In the first, Theophanes notes that the Patriarch Anastasios

placed his hand upon the relic of the Holy Cross and vowed before the people that

Constantine had told him to believe that Mary gave birth not to God but to a mere

man. For Mary gave birth to Christ as his own mother had given birth to him.332

The same incident is recorded in the chronicles of George Monachos, Leo

Grammaticus, Cedrenus-Skylitzes and Zonaras,sources that are themselves

dependent on Theophanes.333

331
"Not only was the impious in error concerning the relative worship of the holy icons,
but also concerning the intercession of the all-pure Theotokos and all the saints, and he
abominated their relics like his mentors, the Arabs." Theophanes (Mango), 561 and n. 16
= (de Boor), I 406, 22-25. See also, Cedrenos-Skylitzes II, 3.
332 "...For Mary gave birth to Him just as my mother Mary gave birth to me."
Theophanes (Mango), 576 = (de Boor), I 415, 24-29.
Georgius Monachus, Chronicon, C. de Boor (ed.), BSGR, vol. II, Stuttgart, 1978,
756; in the account by George the Monk the patriarch is said to have placed his hand on
the relic of the True Cross and to have told the people that the emperor considered that
Christ was not God and therefore he did not look upon Mary as the Theotokos. As soon
as the emperor heard of the incident he was very angry. George continues his narrative
by describing the punishment of the patriarch who was eventually imprisoned. The
emperor then sent a delegation of patricians to Anastasius to ask him what he thought
about their beliefs and when the patriarch agreed that their beliefs were right they
ridiculed him even more, anathematized him and cut off his head. The account is
obviously biased and contains fictional elements, but it is still interesting to note how
George the Monk treats the incident described by other chroniclers in a few lines. See
1.,
I.,
 The emperor is reported by the chronicler to have asked the patriarch

whether it would matter if the Theotokos was called Christotokos. The Patriarch

Constantine II, utterly shocked, replied: "Mercy, my lord; do not let this

thought even cross your mind. Can you not see that Nestorius is rebuked and

anathematized by the whole Church?" And the emperor replied that he asked only

because he wanted to tempt him.335

The period of the first Iconoclasm and especially the reign of Constantine

V was undoubtedly a time of great importance to the Iconoclastic controversy. In

the Iconophile sources it is painted in dark colours. 336 In his chronicle George the

Monk describes Constantine as the heir to the impiety of his father, the best tool

of the devil who was his father and teacher. 337 The imagery employed in the

description of the emperor and the improbable exaggerations into which the

for example Leo Grammaticus, 182 (see below); Cedrenus-Skylitzes II, 4-5; Zonaras III,
266.
The name of the patriarch is attested in Theophanes (Mango), 59 1-592 = ( de Boor), I
428. The ascension of Constantine II to the patriarchal throne is recorded in George the
Monk, Chronicon, 755, 2-5; Zonaras, III, 270, 10-1 1.
Theophanes (Mango), 601-602 = ( de Boor), 1,435,10-14. Also recorded in Zonaras
ifi, 273-274.
336
See the analysis by P. Speck, Artabczsdos, der rechtglaubige Vorkiimpfer der
gottlichen Lechen, Bonn, 1981, passim.
See for example the account of George the Monk in which we find perhaps the most
extensive references to Constantine's 'hatred' of the Mother of God. George's chronicle
was written during the reign of Michael ifi (842-867); it covers the period up to the
beginning of the reign of Michael ifi and reflects the monastic outlook of its author.
George the Monk, Chronikon, 750-751. Cf. Speck, Kaiser Konstantin VI, 54, 426-8 and
n. 25 where the author refers extensively to the hatred of monks such as Plato of
Sakkoud ion, towards Constantine V, and passim.
140
author often lapses make his chronicle an unreliable source. But, however

exaggerated the account may be, the references by George to the Virgin should be

taken into consideration, albeit with due caution. After all, what matters more

than the event itself is the way in which it was perceived, understood and

recorded by the historiographer.

According to George, Constantine rejected the veneration of the relics of

the saints and did not believe in the intercession of saints. 338 Moreover, the

emperor held that no one should ask for the intercession of the Virgin since she

was unable to help any person and no one should even call her Theotokos. And

then taking a purse filled with gold and showing it to the people he asked them

what it was worth. And when those present answered 'a lot' he emptied it and

asked them again what it was now worth. And they answered 'nothing'. So, he

said, in the same way Mary (because the atheist would not even call her

Theotokos) while she was carrying Jesus in her womb was honourable; but after

she had given birth to him did not differ from any other woman. 339 To this

degrading of Virgin, George answered sharply and provokingly saying that the

aapa,cqvOirzaroç icai ioväazOçopo.v Constantine was not a Christian but rather a

Paulician or even a pagan, a servant of demons who was sacrificing humans. 34° In

charging the Iconoclast emperor with paganism, - - -

George called Constantine the new Julian and said that instead of venerating the

Mother of God and all the saints, he was worshipping Aphrodite and Dionysus to

338
George the Monk, Chronicon, 751, 5-6.
339 1bid, 751, 7-16. See also Ostrogorsky, 0 Verovanjima, 41, n.65.
° George the Monk, Chronicon, 751, 17-20.
141
whom he sacrificed children at night. 34 ' George repeats the dialogue between the

emperor and the patriarch recorded by Theophanes and mentioned above. The

same incident is recorded in the Vita of Nicetas Mediciensis. 342

The hostility shown by Constantine V towards the cult of images, the

Theotokos and the saints is attested also by the Iconophile work Adversus

Constantinum Caballinum. 343 The author of the work, written approximately ten

years after the death of Constantine and certainly before 787, states that

Constantine decreed that all exarchs under his authority, were to sign and swear

that they would reject not only the veneration of images but also the intercession

of the Theotokos and the saints. According to the same source, Constantine did

not believe that the Mother of God possessed any influence after her death. 3 He

also rejected the use of the term 'saint' and the mediation of the saints on behalf

of mankind, saying that in fact they saved only themselves from damnation.345

The author vigorously responds to the claims of the emperor and asserts the

intercession both of the Virgin and of the saints. 346 The argumentation set forth in

' Ibid. 752, 1-11.

342
De S. Niceta Confessore, Hegumeno Mediciensi in Bithynia, Acta Sanctorum,
Aprilis, Tom. I, Tertia Aprilis, 255-266.
For discussion of the authorship and date of the text see M.-F. Auzépy, "L'Adversus
Constantinum Caballinum et Jean de Jerusalem," Stephanos, ByzSlav 56, 1995, 323-338.
Adversus Constantinum Caballinum, PG 95, cols. 309-344.
Ibid, col. 337 C, vqv iravczyIav OeorOKov v6/La uera Oávcxrov czfrrqv IJoiieeiv 1.111
övvapEvqv ica i rovç tryIovç àroc'rOA.ovç... npeaf3eIav /n ice icrqjivovç..
Ibid, cot. 337 C-D.
3 Thid, col. 340A-B.
142
the text, however biased, bears witness to the importance of the issue of the cult

of the Virgin during the Iconoclastic period.347

Leo Grammaticus, too, paints Constantine's reign in sombre colours, only

because everyone else does. The emperor himself is described as the offspring of

the serpent.348 The first thing that Leo records about the reign of Constantine is

that, to a greater extent even than his father, Constantine distanced himself from

God, the Virgin Mary and the saints of God. 349 The preoccupation of the emperor

was with magic and divination as well as with horse races and hunting. 35° Leo

repeats both the claim that the emperor did not accept the intercession of the

Virgin, and the story of the purse. 35 ' He also relates the story of the Patriarch

Anastasius, his contribution to the condemnation of the emperor by the people

and his punishment by the emperor after Artabasdos was defeated. 352 In his

account of the closing years of Constantine, Leo says that the emperor repented

for his lack of faith in the Mother of God. On his deathbed, the chronicler says,

Constantine confessed that from this moment onwards he would honour and

glorify Mary as the Mother of God.353 The emperor's repentance heightens the

effect of the account of his rejection of the Virgin Mary. The chronicler John

D. Turner, "The Politics of Despair: The Plague of 746-747 and Iconoclasm in the
Byzantine Empire," The Annual of the British School ofArchaeology atAthens,85,
1990, 419-434; Ostrogorsky, 0 veravanjima, 42-43.
Leo Grammaticus, Chronographia, 181, 2-4.
349 1b1d, 181, 5-7.
"°Ibid, 181,7-10.
Ibid. 181, 14-22 and 182, 1-2.
352 1bid, 182-186.
353 Ibid, 189.15-190.1. Cf. Theophanes (Mango), 619-620 and n. 3 = ( de Boor), 1448.
I A
I 'I.)
Skylitzes records the restoration of the church of the Virgin at Blachernae,

mentioning in particular that when the workmen removed the 'chrisma'

[rendering] of the wall they found an icon of the Virgin holding the Child which

has remained intact since the reign of Copronymus. 354 This fact attests both to the

destruction of icons and to the hostility Constantine V felt towards the Mother of

God.

There is no doubt that the sources referring to the Iconoclastic period are

biased and therefore must 'read with caution and to be considered as revealing

of Iconophile attitudes rather than as factual evidence. Hence, the alleged hostility

of the Iconoclasts towards the Mother of God and the saints has not to be taken at

face value since it may well not be representative of what the Iconoclasts really

thought. The lack of Iconoclastic sources further complicates the whole question

and does not allow us to draw any definitive conclusions. However, the study of

the sources proves that the Iconophiles related the cult of icons directly to that of

the Virgin and the saints. It seems that from a very early stage of the controversy,

the cult of the Virgin was associated with the cult of icons and that in many

instances devotion to the Theotokos was thought of as a synonym of piety and

'orthodoxy'. An example of this is the account of the reign of Leo N by

Theophanes in which the chronicler associates piety directly with devotion to

" John Skylitzes, Synopsis Historiarum I, Thurn (ed.), CFHB, vol. V, Berlin, 1973,

384.
144
Mary and tolerance towards monks. 355 Historiographical sources refer to the cult

of Mary as a synonym, or rather a metonymy of the cult of images. This fact

establishes that during Iconoclasm Mary was invested with a symbolic meaning

that epitomised the cause of the Iconophiles.

Theophanes is generally thought of as a reliable source. 356 The content of

the references to the Mother of God in his chronicle which have just been

reviewed correspond to the accusations and refutations encountered in the

proceedings of Nicaea II. Even if we accept that all the other sources depend on

and repeat Theophanes' accounts of events and suggest that these events were

merely a standard part of Iconophile argumentation, we may nonetheless consider

them as illustrative of Iconodule altitudes. For the Iconophiles, hostility towards

images was associated with hostility towards the Mother of God in whose womb

matter was sanctified upon its assumption by the Word of God. For them, the

Iconoclasts' rejection of images revealed a misunderstanding of the Incarnation

and of its soteriological consequences. Within this framework, the means of the

sanctification of matter, namely, the Virgin, and matter's worthiness to rpresent

the divine were equated and formed part of the Iconophile refutation.

"For a short time he (Leo IV) appeared to be pious and afriend of the holy Mother of
God and of the monks..." (my emphasis). Theophanes (Mango), 620 = ( de Boor), I, 449,
14-15. Turner, "The Origins and Accession of Leo V," 172-203.
See the introduction in Mango and Scott, op. cit., xliv-lxiii and esp. lxii-lxiii where
the editors draw attention to the weak points in Theophanes' account. On the historical
circumstances surrounding the life of Theophanes the Confessor see S. Efthymiadis, "Le
panégyrique de S. Théophane le Confesseur par S. Theodore Stoudite (BHG 1792b).
Edition critique du texte intégral,"AB 111, 1993, 259-290.
145
Hagiographical Sources

The study of the development of the Marian cult is no easy task. It

involves a wide variety of sources including hagiographical works which touch

upon the role of the Virgin in the outcome of the Iconoclastic controversy.

Although not immediately relevant to the Marian lament, saints' Lives provide

valuable information about the spread of the cult of the Virgin during the period

in question. Most of the hagiographical sources that will be examined below date

to the period following the restoration of icons in 843. However, their testimony

reflects the developments that took place during the eighth and the first half of the

ninth century and which were crystallized in the second half of the ninth century

and thereafter.357 In the tenth century the compiler of the synaxarion of

Constantinople defines the scope of his endeavour as an effort "to offer a view of

those things that are distant in time and space as if they were present" (transl. Cl.

Rapp).358 Among the reasons that Claudia Rapp gives in order to explain the

compilations of saints' Lives and the metaphrastic activity of the tenth century I

would like to draw particular attention to the effort made by writers of the tenth

For a list of the hagiographical sources of the Iconoclastic period see I. Sevcenko,
"Hagiography of the Iconoclastic Period," in A. Bryer and J. Herrin (eds.), Iconoclasm,
Birmingham, 1977, 113-131; P. Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism, transi. by H. Lindsay
and A. Moffatt, Byzantina Australiensia 3, Canberra, 1986, 109-111.
358
H. Delehaye (ed.), Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae Propylaeum adActa
sanctorum Novembris, Brussels, 1902, col. xiv. C. Rapp ("Byzantine Hagiographers as
Antiquarians, Seventh to Tenth Centuries," ByzFor XXI, 1995, 31-44) focuses on
statements about the relation between style and content in hagiographical works as well
as assertions regarding the intended effect of these texts on the audience.
146
century "to preserve the memory of the saints and to promote their cult." 359 It is

tempting to carry this statement one step further and to relate the literary

hagiographical activity of the second half of the ninth and of the tenth centuries to

the outcome of the Iconoclastic controversy. 360 From this perspective the literary

activity of this period may be seen as an effect of the restoration of icons in that

the cult of the saints and of the Mother of God associated with the cult of images

during the Iconoclastic period subsequently came to the fore as symbols of

Orthodoxy as defined in Nicaea II and banners of the Iconophiles. Although a

stylistic analysis of the post-Iconoclastic hagiography would fall outside the scope

of the present study it is important to draw attention to two developments: first,

the importance the very act of writing hagiographical texts acquired during the

period in question and second, the new style of hagiography (what Kazhdan calls

Rapp, "Byzantine Hagiographers," 31. With reference to the metaphrastic activity of

the pre-Iconoclastic period see pp.35-36. The author convincingly argues that the view
according to which the metaphrastic activity of the pre-Iconoclastic period aimed at
'downgrading' the original text whereas the post-Iconoclastic one aimed at the
'upgrading' of the text is nothing other an over-simplification of the question. As
the encomium of Symeon Metaphrastes by Psellus (E.A. Fisher, (ed.), Michaelis Pselli
Orationes Hagiographicae, Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1994, 281-282, 1.260-265) shows, the
greatest virtue of the tenth century writer that Psellus acknowledged was his ability to
make the text accessible to the people either by 'upgrading' or by 'downgrading'
wherever that was necessary.
° P. van den Ven, "La patristique et l'hagiographie au Concile de Nicée de 787," B 25-
27/ 1, 1955-1957, 352-362. Rapp ("Byzantine Hagiographers," 43-44) does not accept
that the new impetus given to hagiography in the post-Iconoclastic period was an
'innovative' phenomenon and emphasizes instead the first metaphrastic activities of the
seventh century.
147
'urban hagiography'). 36 ' These two features of post-Iconoclastic hagiography can

be explained by the predominant argumentation put forward in the preceding

period. As Rapp points out, the importance of writing makes the hagiographer,

"the essential medium through which the saints are conveyed to the audience,"

can be compared with the function of icons. 362 It is worth noting that the majority

of the hagiographical texts of this period offers the audience a portrait of the saint

and gives the audience the sense of a personal encounter with the person whose

Vita is being narrated. As far as the 'urban' nature of hagiography is concerned,

its main characteristic is that it does not depict the saint as a universal model of

behaviour but as an accessible human figure. 363 The prominence given to the

human rather than the 'divine' qualities of the saints reflect the importance

attached to incamational theology during the Iconoclastic period and can be

compared with the manner in which Christ and the Mother of God were depicted

361
For the importance of the act of writing see I. Sevcenko, "Levels of Style in
Byzantine Prose," XVI Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress, Wien, 4. -9. Okiober 1981,
Akten 1/1, Vienna, 1981, 289-312; Rapp, "Byzantine Hagiographers," 42. For the new
style of hagiography see eadem, op.cit., 43 and A. Kazhdan and L.F. Sherry, "The Tale
of a Happy Fool: the Vita of St. Philaretos the Merciful (BHG 151 lz-1512b)," B LXVI,
1996, 35 1-362 and esp. 360-362.
362
Rapp, "Byzantine Hagiographers," 42.
363
Kazhdan and Sherry, "The Tale of a Happy Fool," 36 1-362 and Rapp, "Byzantine
Hagiographers," 43-44. For the role of saints in the early Byzantine period see P. Brown,
"The Rise and the Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,"JRS LXI, 1971, 80-101
and idem, "Town, Village and Holy Man: The Case of Syria," in Society and the Holy in
Late Antiquity, London, 1982, 153-165.
148
in texts of the Iconoclastic period, which will be studied in detail in the next

chapter.

The Vitae examined below represent but a part of Iconophile hagiography

referring to saints of the eighth and ninth centuries. My choice was determined by

the availability of texts and the limitation of space. In the hagiographies sources

the Mother of God appears to be playing a crucial role in the life of the saint. In

the Vitae examined below the Virgin emerges as protectress of the saint or guide

or model according to the occasion. Her role testifies to the importance that Mary

acquired during the Iconoclastic period and emphasizes her closeness to mankind

whom she guides and for whom she intercedes with God. The association of the

Virgin with monasticism is also worth noting in that in all the Vitae examined

Mary is either the protectress of a monk or the patron of a monastery. This

affinity could well point to the role of the Virgin as a symbol of the Iconophile

camp whose most devout adherents were monks.

The of Stephen the Younger

One of the earliest Vitae of the Iconoclastic period is the one of the martyr

Stephen, the famous recluse of Mount Auxentius in Bithynia, written by Stephen

the Deacon. 3 The author composed his work in Constantinople forty-two years

after the death of the saint.365 Consequently, the Vita must have been written

Theophanes (Mango), 603 = (de Boor), I 436.

M.-F. Auzépy (ed.), La Vie d'Etienne le Je une par Etienne le Diacre, Birmingham
Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs 3, Hampshire, 1997, 89 line 19. (Henceforth
abbreviated as Life of Stephen the Younger.)
149
sometime between 808 and 810, that is at a time that was critical for the

Iconoclastic controversy.3 Father Epiphanius, mentioned in the Vita as the

person who ordered the text to be written, in fact was only transmitting the wishes

of the women of the monastery of Trichinareai. 367 Stephen the Younger was born

in 715 and died either in 767 if we follow the dating of the Vita or in 765 if we

follow the dating of the chroniclers. 368 In either case it is certain that Stephen was

martyred during the reign of Constantine V and that history remembers him as

par excellence the martyr-defender of icons.

Although Stephen was a monk of the famous monastic centre of Mount

Auxentius he owes his celebrity to the tragic death he suffered when lynched by

the crowd in the streets of Constantinople during the crisis of 765767.369

Stephen's martyrdom has been used by modern scholars as the most striking

For the dating of the text see the detailed analysis by Auzépy (op.cit., 5-6 and n. 5 on
p.1 80). The editor convincingly rejects the case made out by Speck (op.cit., 228 if.)
according to which the Vita was written partly forty-two years after the death of the saint
and partly after the end of the Iconoclastic controversy, in 843. For Stephen the Deacon,
see S. Efthymiadis, "The Life of St. Stephen the Younger (BHG 1666). An Additional
Debt," Hellenika 43, 1993, 206-209. Efthymiadis (op.cit., 206) suggests that Stephen the
Deacon took part in the Council of Nicaea II; Auzépy (op.cit., 7) considers his
suggestion probable but difficult to prove.
367
Auzépy (ed.), Lie of Stephen the Younger, 18-19.
3 Thid, 8-9 with notes.
369
The martyrdom of Stephen the Younger is recorded in numerous contemporary
sources, such as the Chronicle of Theophanes, the Breviarium of Nicephorus, the Vita of
Cosmas of Maiouma, and the Apocalypse of Leo of Constantinople which, however, are
independent from one another. For references and discussion, see Auzdpy (ed.), Lie of
Stephen the Younger, 21 and for the crisis of 766, see 29-34.
150
example of the persecution of the monks by Constantine V. 37° In this study,

however, Stephen's Vita is examined with reference to the Mother of God and the

role that she appears to have played in the formation of this archetypical martyr of

the Iconophile side.

The Virgin comes into the story of the saint's life at the very beginning

following the introduction and a brief note on his parents and his homeland.37'

Stephen was born of a mother who despite having given birth to two daughters,

considered herself sterile because she had not had a son. 372 The conception of the

saint is described in a way that is reminiscent of the conception of the Virgin by

St Anne with whom the mother of the saint -also called Anne- clearly identified

herself.373 According to the Vita, Stephen's mother was a daily visitor to

sanctuaries of the Virgin, especially the church of Blachemai. 374 The text

comprises the first specific mention of the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria and the

ritual associated with it. 375 The description of Anne praying and shedding tears as

370
See, for instance, Brown, "A Dark Age Crisis," 295-296 and n. 216. Cf. Gero,
Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign of Constantine V, 140.
Auzépy (ed.), Life of Stephen the Younger, 87-91 (the numbers refer to the pages of
the Greek text).
372
Ibid. 91.
Ibid. 92, lines 3-7.
374 1bid, 92, lines 8-10.
" The ritual performed every Friday is mentioned in Theophanes (Mango), 387 and n.
18 on p.388 = ( de Boor), I 265-266, "In the same year the emperor Maurice introduced a
litany at Blachernai in memory of the holy Mother of God, at which laudations of our
Lady were to be delivered. He called it apanegyris." See also Averil Cameron, "The
Virgin's Robe," 47-48 and chapter V below.
151
she turned her face towards the icon of the Virgin with the Child clearly reveals

the emphasis placed on the cult of images and relates the veneration of images to

the veneration of the Mother of God.376

The supplication to the Virgin comprises numerous poetic and

emotionally loaded images that will be encountered also in the homilies and

hymns in honour of the Mother of God which will be studied in the next chapter.

The Virgin is described as the common salvation and protection of mankind, the

refuge of those who seek her help, the anchor and patron of those who look for

her in their distress, the salvatory port for those who are drowned in the ocean of

life because of their anxieties, the sure protection of those who call on her to help

them in their despair, the glory of mothers and daughters, the one who -making

God incarnate and bringing him into the world- reversed the curse of the first Eve

who shamed the female sex. 377 The prayers of Anne were answered by the Virgin

who appeared to her in a vision while the future mother of Stephen was asleep

and assured her that she would conceive a son. 378 The name of the saint was

prophesied by Germanos I of Constantinople when he gave his blessing to the

pregnant mother in the name of the Lord, his mother and the protomartyr

Stephen.379 After the birth of Stephen, his mother, filled with gratitude, went to

376
Auzepy (ed.), L ife of Stephen the Younger, 92 lines 11-12. Stephen the Deacon
describes the child that the Virgin holds in her arms in the icon with the words "her son
and God", a phrase that echoes the kontakion of Romanos and the lamenting Virgin. For
the iconography of the icon see Auzépy, op.cit., n. 19 on p.183.
" Ibid, 92 lines 15-24.
378
Thid, 92-93, lines 25-26 and 1-7.
Thid, 94 lines 11-13.
152
the church of the Blachemai to give thanks to the Theotokos: standing in front of

the same icon, with her eyes full of tears, albeit this time tears of joy and

recognition, Anne hailed the Virgin for granting her a son.38° Following that,

Anne placed the child in front of the icon and offered him to the Virgin asking her

to accept the offspring of her own mediation. 38 ' Commenting on the dedication of

the child to the Mother of God, Stephen the Deacon states that "indeed, the

courageous mother in her thanksgiving prophesied that her son was to be

martyred in defense of the icon of Christ and his mother...".382 It seems that the

icon of Christ and his mother mentioned in the Vita represents icons in general,

but it has to be noted that the choice of that particular icon, as well as its

association with the miraculous birth of the saint, emphasizes the role ascribed to

the Mother of God by the Iconophile author and presumably by his audience as

well. We are led to this conclusion also by the incident recorded in the ninth

chapter of the Vita in which the Patriarch Germanos repudiates the Iconoclastic

beliefs of the emperor Leo III in the following words: "Emperor, since Christ the

Lord, our God the Saviour, was made incarnate through the immaculate blood of

the holy Theotokos and we saw him as a perfect and circumscribed man, all

idolatrous veneration ceased and eveiy idolatrous statue was given to the fire and

the darkness."383 Furthermore, Germanos deriving authority from tradition, cites

380 Thid, 95 lines 2-10.

' Thid, 95 lines 12-15.
382 Thid 95 lines 23-26.
383
Thid, 99 lines 6-Il. In the text the incident is dated to the year 736; however, this date
has to be corrected to the year 726 or 730 at the latest, i.e. before the deposition of
I
I .)j
the icon of Christ known as the acheiropoietos icon of Edessa and the icon of the

Virgin supposedly painted by the evangelist Luke from life.3M

Constantine V is referred to in the Vita of Stephen the Younger in terms

similar to those in which he is described in the historiographical sources. Stephen

the Deacon asserts that the tyrant has turned the venerable church of Blachernai,

once decorated with frescoes depicting events from the earthly life of Christ, into

a crop-watcher's hut and an observatory for birds for he filled the church with

depictions of all sorts of trees and birds. 38 In his account of the Iconoclastic

council of Hiereia Stephen refers specifically to the rejection of the mediation of

the saints and the all-holy Theotokos after their death an assertion that is to be

found also in the historiographical sources.386

After spending several years as a recluse in Mount Auxentius Stephen the

Younger was sent into exile by the Iconoclast emperor Constantine V. While in

exile, in Proconese, the saint is reported to have miraculously healed a soldier -

'bent in two' according to the Vita- by praying to and urging him to venerate two

icons, one of Christ and the other of the Mother of God.387

Germanos I from the patriarchal throne of Constantinople (Theophanes (Mango), 564-

565 = (de Boor), I 408). See Auzépy, op. cit., n.60 on p.191.
384 Thid 99 lines 16-22 and notes 62 and 63 on p.192. See also Averil Cameron, "The
History of the Image of Edessa: The Telling of a Story," Okeanos: Essays Presented to
Ihor Sevcenko, C. Mango (ed.), Harvard, 1983, 80-94.
385
Auzépy (ed.), Life of Stephen the Younger, 126-127 lines 24-26 and 1-6.
3 Ibid, 127 lines 24-26. See also Parry, Depicting the Word, 193-194. Cf. however the
Horos of the council regarding the mediation of the Virgin in Mansi XIII, 345A-B.
387
Auzépy (ed.), Life of Stephen the Younger, 154 lines 1-4.
154
 The icon of the Virgin is also mentioned in connexion with the saint's

encounter with the emperor. Stephen is reported to have refuted the views of

Constantine V arguing that the use of church vessels in the liturgy was held to be

legitimate because they were sanctified through their use. He rebuked the emperor

for , equating the image of Christ with that of Apollo and the icon of the

Virgin with that of Artemis.388 While imprisoned the saint is said to have received

food from a woman only after he was persuaded that she was an Iconophile.389

In the Vita the Mother of God is linked with the two most signal incidents

in ' the life of the saint: first, Stephen's miraculous birth occurred through the

intercession of the Theotokos and second, his martyrdom which gave proof of his

dedication to the Virgin. The motif of sterility overcome by the Virgin is

encountered in numerous hagiographical texts and may well be considered as a

topos of the genre, although that does not make its use meaningless. The

presence of the Mother of God either through her miraculous intervention or

through her icons, with the help of which Stephen performs miracles, permeates

the life of the saint. Special emphasis is placed on her role as the intercessor on

behalf of mankind as well as on her close relationship with Christ and the cult of

images. As we shall see below this Vita is not unique in this respect.

3 Ibid, 156 lines 7-12.

The woman gave the saint three icons -one of the Virgin and another two of the
Apostles Peter and Paul- that she had kept locked away in a drawer. Auzépy (ed.), Life
of Stephen the Younger, 159 lines 1-31.
155
The .! of the Empress Irene

Irene was a native of Athens who in 768 was brought to Constantinople by

Constantine V who crowned her and married her to his son, Leo IV. Irene was a

devoted Iconophile and in his chronicle Cedrenus relates that when her husband

Leo IV discovered that the Augusta had concealed two icons, he refused

thereafter to sleep with her.39° Following Leo's death in 780, Irene is said to have

been miraculously cured of a haemorrhage by the waters of the Virgin tes Peges.

In return for the miracle Irene lavished presents on the church, including

mosaics.39 ' The Vita of Irene survives in a manuscript dating to the twelfth

century and largely follows the account by Theophanes. 392 According to

Treadgold who studied the manuscript "only the three last pages can be

considered as an independent historical source." 393 However, these three pages

are especially interesting for the present study since they describe the life of the

empress after she was exiled to the island of Prinkipo and subsequently to the

island of Lesbos where she died. The hagiographer models the description of the

death of the empress on the pattern of homilies on the Dormition of the Virgin.394

390 Cedrenus, 2.19.17-20.3.

391
W. Treadgold, Byzantine Revival 780-842, Stanford, California, 1988, 63, 75-96 and
110-126.
The manuscript in which the Life is preserved is the Vaticanus graecus 2014. See W.
Treadgold, "The Unpublished Saint's Life of the Empress Irene (BHG 2205)," ByzFor
VIII, 1982, 237-25 1 and esp. 238.
393 .Thid, 238.
See below the discussion of the three homilies by John of Damascus Oh the
Dormizion. See also, A. Kazhdan, "Byzantine Hagiography and Sex in the Fifth to
Twelfth Centuries," DOF 44, 1990, 131-143.
156
The empress, canonised for her role in the restoration of icons in 787, was sent

into exile by Nicephoros I who seized the throne in 802. Irene built a church

dedicated to the Theotokos on the island of Prinkipo; on her deathbed she asked

to be buried in the chapel of St Nicholas situated to the north of the nave of the

church of the Virgin.395 The Vita, which according to Treadgold was written after

843, states that Irene built not only a church dedicated to the Virgin but also a

convent, to the higoumene of which the empress entrusted "the welfare of her

flock."396 The fact that the empress is described as having a flock points to the

intention of the hagiographer to present her as a worthy 'emperor' who leads his

flock in the manner of a spiritual guide "to a spring of repose, and to a shady

lawn."397 Irene died in 803 in the island of Lesbos with her people gathered

around her. 398 Her body was taken to Prinkipo where she was buried as she

wished in the church of the Virgin. At this point it is interesting to note that the

hagiographer describes the devotion of her 'flock': "Gathering there, that holy

flock invokes the delight of her holy memory every year in hymns, and has

acquired her as intercessor, guardian, sure support, and strength. Thus she,

supporting and upholding her own flock, keeps it safe from every insult of the

Devil. Protected by her as by a wall, she drives off every attacking vanguard of

Vat. gr. 2014, f. 136r; Treadgold, op.cit., 245.

Vat. gr. 2014, f. l35r; Treadgold, op.cit., 244, iiEaz 'rf)çE ç/3aicvpIaç ro
iroIjtvzov...
Vat. gr. 2014, f. 135r, Treadgold, op.ciz., 244, Eic9peiov raUra icai Oöiyqaov ri
1t77777V &VWVcZ1aEç icat èrz rOjrovx)417c a'rdoiczov...
398
Vat. gr. 2014, f. 135r, Treadgold, op.cit., 244.
157
 the demons"3 , (transi. Treadgold, my italics). Commenting on this passage,

Treadgold misses the striking similarity of the description of Irene with that of the

Theotokos in terms of her function in the service of the faithful and as protectress

against demons.40°

As remarked above, the setting and description of her death recall

homilies on the Dormition of the Virgin dating from the eighth century. The

yearly celebration of the empress in hymns probably echoes the celebration of the

feasts of the Virgin since there is no indication of any hynm specially written in

honour of Irene and, as Treadgold himself notes, even the reference in the

Synaxarion is a very brief one.40 ' The theme of protectress of the city is clearly

reminiscent of the Virgin as symbol and protectress of Constantinople and the

same is true about her powers of protection against evil and especially demons.402

Hence, we may conclude that the Vita intentionally associates the empress with

the Virgin for two more or less obvious reasons. First, Irene's association with the

Virgin invested the empress with authority, status and a measure of the sanctity

that people wanted to ascribe to her in view of her role in the restoration of icons

but failed to because of her atrocious blinding of Constantine VI. Second and

more significant for the present study, in restoring icons the empress was seen as

Vat. gr. 2014, f. 136r; Treadgold, op.cit., text on 245, translation on 247.
400
Cf. Theodore Stoudite, Oratio in Dormitionem Deiparae, col. 721 C.
401
Treadgold, op.cit., 237; Ch. Angelides, "De Aelia Puicheria Augusta Eiusque
Fortuna," Diptycha 5, 199 1-1992, 25 1-269 and esp. 263 if. and now eadem, Puicheria.
La Castità al Potere, (c. 399-c. 455), Milano, 1998, 87 if.
402
For the Virgin protectress (a topic studied in detail by Averil Cameron) see chapter II;
for all other themes see below and chapter IV.

158
a protectress of the Virgin, who was her own patron and to whom she dedicated

the convent in Prinkipo.

The Vita of Peter ofAtroa

The Mother of God appears in the Vita of Peter of Atroa (773-837), one

of the most important hagiographical sources of the Iconoclastic period. 403 The

Vita of the saint was written by the monk Sabas in the second half of the ninth

century.404 According to the Vita, Peter was born in Elaia in Asia and of parents

formerly barren.405 Before his birth, his mother, Anna, had already offered the

child to the church of the Virgin.406 It was there that Peter was baptised when he

was only forty days old. 407 He was given the name Theophylaktos and at the age

of twelve was tonsured as a monk in the same church. 408 The Vita relates the first

403
Sevcenko, "Hagiography of the Iconoclastic Period," 113-131.
"° The monk Sabas must have been of Constantinopolitan origin. He was also the author
of the Vita of loannikios; the Vita of Makarios of Pelekete that was attributed to the
author is probably a spurious work. See V. Laurent (ed.), La Vie merveilleuse de Saint
Pierre d'Atroa, SubsHag 29, Brussels, 1956, 10-13. Laurent reckons that the Vita of
Peter must have been written around 847. For the date of the text and the place where it
was written see Laurent, op.ciz., 15. For the attribution of the Vita of Makarios see
Laurent, op. cit., 16-17 and supra the discussion of the Vita of Stephen the Younger.
405
Vie de Saint Pierre d'Atroa, 2, 6-7.
406
The hagiographer makes an obvious parallel between the sterile Anna, mother of the
Virgin, and Anna, mother of the saint. The parallel is taken further with the dedication
of the first-born child to the church of the Virgin where he is received by the bishop. See
Vie de Saint Pierre d'Atroa, 2, 8-12.
407 Ibid, 2, 25-28.
408 1bid, 3,1-4.
159
miracle of the saint409 which is followed by the miraculous apparition of the

Virgin to him in a dream.41 ° Peter receives from the Mother of God the order to

follow the monk Jacob, who led the young monk to one of the most important

monastic centres of the Iconoclastic period, Mount Olympus. 4 In a second

vision the Mother of God appears to Peter again in a dream this time directing

him to Mount Dagouta in Phiygia where a hermit named Paul was living.412 The

latter, informed by the Virgin of his arrival, offers him a place to stay and accepts

him as a disciple, giving him the name of Peter as the Mother of God had ordered

him to do.413

The Virgin, whose miraculous birth and presentation in the temple is

reflected in the account of the early life of the saint, appears in the text as the

recipient of honour since the saint was dedicated to her and baptised in her

409 1bid, 3, 8-30.

410
The saint remained seven days without eating or sleeping, praying to the Mother of
God to show him the way to salvation. The Mother of God responded to his prayer and
appeared to him in a dream. See Vie de Saint Pierre d'Atroa, 4, 1-10.
4 Jbid,4, 10-13.
412
In the text the Mother of God is described as showing the saint the way to Phrygia in
a very vivid manner. Vie de Saint Pierre d'Atroa, 4,20-25, "....the undefiled Theotokos
appeared in his sleep saying to him: follow me. The saint started walking behind her;
and as she reached the Phrygian mountains, in the area called Dragoutis, she showed him
a place called Crypta [the hidden]."
413
Ibid, 4, 25-40. Peter is said to have found the saint waiting for him at the door. On
Peter's appearance the hermit Paul greeted him with the following words: "Welcome,
my most-sweet child. The Theotokos has told me all about you and that you would come
to me today..." On hearing his words Peter replied: "Father, it was the same Theotokos
who lead me to your holiness."
160
church. The apocryphal account, according to which Mary spent the tweilve first

years of her life in the temple sanctuary, is echoed in the hagiography which

asserts that the saint stayed in the church for twelve years, 414 during vAhich he

made such progress every day in age and in wisdom that everyone admired his

judgement, prayerfulness, asceticism and piety. 415 Visions of the Virgin answer

the exertions of the saint. It may be noted that Mary does not appear to Peter in

the role of intercessor in the same manner as she does in the following chapter on

the hymnography and homiletics of the eighth century. On the contrary, she

judges the eagerness of the supplicant and consents to his petition. Her portrayal

in the Vita of Peter of Atroa is not characterised by the tender human qualities

that are encountered in other texts of the period. Although invested with the

authority of her divine status she is the one to whom the saint addresses his prayer

as to a heavenly mother and also the one who responds to it.

The J"ita of Irene, Abbess of Chrysobalanton

Irene was a native of Cappadocia who travelled to Constantinople in 855

in order to take part in the bride-show organised by the empress Theodora for her

son Michael ifi. Irene lived between approximately 830 and 930 when she died at

the age of 97. Her Vita was written about 980. 16 The text gives an insight into the

414
Ibid. 3, 7-8.
Ibid. 3, 4-7.
416 j Rosenqvist (ed.), The Life of St Irene Abbess of Chrysobalanton, Acta
Universitatis Uppsaliensis 1, Uppsala, 1986, xxviii. (Henceforth abbreviated as
Rosenqvist, Life of St Irene.)
161
way monastic foundations worked after the Triumph of Orthodoxy. However, for
pt.. o (- F-i rc> c-d- c*ctt

theve shall concentrate on the references made in the text to the Virgin Mary.

On her way to Constantinople to take part in the bride-show the pious

Irene visited the hermit loannikios on Mount Olympus. Not knowing her name,

the saint welcomed her as the future abbess of the convent of Chrysobalanton in

Constantinople. Irene became a nun after discovering that by the time she reached

Constantinople the emperor's marriage with another woman -Eudocia

Dekapolitissa- had already been arranged. 417 The saint recalled the welcome

extended to her by loannikios and joined the monastic community of

Chrysobalanton where she took vows. The Vita emphasizes Irene's self-discipline

and ascetic exercises, thanks to which she was granted by God power over

demons and entrusted with the spiritual guidance of other people. As we shall see,

these qualities endowed the saint with the semblance of the Mother of God. 418 On
A)k1ICA hrv'.c..-
one occasion, by ,<, Irene was already abbess of Chrysobalanton, one of her

nuns, a young woman of Cappadocian origin, fell victim to the magic of a crafty

sorcerer in league with a man who was in love with the girl and wished to

persuade her to return to Cappadocia.419 After three days of fervent prayer Irene

had a vision of St Basil who counselled her to take the nun to the church of

Blachernai where she might be healed by the Virgin. The abbess followed the

417
Rosenqvist, Life of St Irene, 12 lines 8-10. (Numbers refer to pages in the Rosenqvist
edition and are followed by line numbers where necessary.)
418
See, for example, the miracle of the Virgin healing the thief possessed by a demon in
the Vita of St Andrew the Fool in L. Rydén (ed.), The Life of St Andrew the Fool, 2
vols., Uppsala, 1995, 108-112 lines 1460-1497.
419
Rosenqvist, Ltfe of St Irene, 52, 54.
162
advice of St Basil; while in the church Irene had another vision. 420 In her second

vision the abbess saw "an awe-inspiring populous procession being prepared."42'

Someone asked her who who did not know that the Mother of God was

present and had been pleased to proceed from the church of the Blachernai to the

chapel of the Holy Soros in order to heal those who anticipated her miraculous

intervention.422 St Basil appears also in the vision and tells the Theotokos the

reason why Irene has left her convent and come to the church. The persons

involved in the healing miracle are not only the abbess of Chiysobalanton but also

St Basil and the two saints Anastasia. 423 With the intervention of Sts Basil and

Anastasia the nun is fmally healed; however, the miracle is clearly ascribed to the

Virgin since it had the form of a miracle worked during a period of incubation

and took place in a church and through a vision of the Virgin who mediated for

the salvation of the Cappadocian nun.424

420
Ibid, 56 lines 3-26.
421
Thid, 56 lines 3 0-32.
422Jji
58 lines 4-7. Cf. the vision of the Virgin during a nocturnal doxology at the
church of Blachernai recorded in the Life of St Andrew the Fool (op.cit., 254, lines
3732-3758). On this occasion Andrew takes the opportunity to show Epiphanius how the
Theotokos spreads her veil over the congregation. See also L.Rydén, "The Vision of the
Virgin at Blachernai and the Feast of Pokrov," AB 94, 1976, 63-82 and esp. 67-72 and N.
K. Moran, Singers in Late Byzantine and Slavonic Painting, Leiden, 1986, 126-127.
423
Rosenqvist, Life of St Jrene,58 lines 16-32. On the two Anastasias, see P. Devos,
"Sainte Anastasie Ia Vierge et Ia source de sa passion, BHG3 76z," AB 80, 1962, 33-51
and esp. 33-35 also cited in Rosenqvist, op.cit., n. lOon p.59.
424
For incubation cults see V. Hunnink, "Apuleius and the 'Asciepius'," VigChr 50,
1996, 288-308; C.L. Connor, Art and Miracles in Medieval Byzantium: The Crypt at
Hosios Loulcas and its Frescoes, Princeton, 1991 and for different aspects of the cult of
163
 Two other instances interesting to the present study are encountered at the

point where the abbess of Chrysobalanton weeps as she contemplates the

Incarnation of the Word: her tears are so many that they flood the floor of the

church and the abbess in order to avoid the attention of the nuns has to open a

hole in the floor in order to hide them. 425 The contemplation of the Incarnation is

indirectly linked to the Mother of God since Mary's prominence during the

Iconoclastic controversy was due precisely to her role as the means through which

the Word became incarnate. Of the whole mystery of the Incarnation it is the

sacrifice of the Word that moves the abbess most and that represents the climax

of Christ's earthly life: "Considering how the Invisible, the Impalpable, the

Incomprehensible or Inconceivable One not only condescended to put on mortal

and corruptible flesh for our salvation, but also to be sacrificed, and how He,

being dead, proceeds, setting forth to us as food and drink the immaculate

body.. •,,426 In the passage just cited, attention is drawn to the palpability of

Christ's body, partaken in the liturgy. The death of Christ is referred to explicitly

and within the framework of the salvatory mystery of the divine economy. Thus,

the Incarnation and the Death of Christ are promoted as the means through which

man is not merely saved but also deified: "...in order that the compound of which

we are composed be mixed with the intangible through the tangible, with the

impalpable through the palpable, with the invisible through the visible, and like

St Luke see the illuminating collection of articles in C.L. Connor - W.R. Connor (eds.),
The Lfe and Miracles of St Luke of Steiris, Brookline Mass., 1994.
425
Rosenqvist, Life of Si Irene, 64, 66 lines 10-29 and 1-11.
426 TsJ by Rosenqvist, op.cit., 65.
164
fire be transformed into the nature and glory and splendour of Divinity through

the union with Him, and live the eternal, the undefiled life..."427 The Incarnation

is presented as the mystical union of God and man while emphasis is laid on the

flesh, that is, matter, and its sanctification through the sacrifice of the Word. A

point that seems to me of extreme importance is the manner in which the palpable

and the tangible become a means for man to attain divinity. The palpable flesh of

Christ makes his divinity accessible to man in much the same manner in which

icons make divinity accessible to the human.

One other reference of the Vita should not pass unnoticed: it is the

similarity of the description of the Virgin in the incubation miracle mentioned

above to the description of Irene in a portrait drawn by a painter. In the vision of

the abbess the Virgin "went about.. .yet her face was invisible because of the

unbearable effusion of light." 428 (transl. Rosenqvist, my italics). In another

incident recorded further in the Vita Irene mediated between the emperor and a
A
kinsman of hers that was in prison. It is stated that the abbess appeared to the

emperor in a vision and asked him to release the unjustly accused man. 429 The

emperor sent a delegation to Irene, among them a painter whom he commissioned

to make a portrait of Irene and bring it back to him so that he might identify

with certainty the person he had seen in his vision. When the delegation arrived at

the convent, "the saint came in to them through the side-door. Taking the lead in

prostration, she made the men too prostrate themselves, and when they raised

427
Ibid, 65.
428
Ibid. 59.
429
Ibid 92.
165
their eyes, they saw a flash of lightning suddenly rise from her precious face.

Unable to bear it, they went backward and fell to the ground...for it flooded the

whole church with its brightness"430 (transi. Rosenqvist, my italics). After the

meeting with the abbess the delegation returned to the palace. When they showed

the emperor her image "and just as the emperor cast his eyes on it, a flash of

lightning suddenly sprang up from it, gleaming terribly before his eyes..."431

(transi. Rosenqvist, my italics). The portraits of the Virgin and of the abbess

possess obvious similarities in that the countenance of each is almost obscured by

the light that issues from it. But even more important is the relation between the

person and its image both in the case of the Virgin and in that of the abbess. The

apparition of the Virgin takes place during the visit of Irene to the church of

Blachemai where a cult of the image of the Virgin has been established.432 In the

case of the abbess we see that her countenance provokes exactly the same

response in both instances: first when the delegation meets her in the monastely

and again, when the emperor sees her portrait. The relation of these incidents may

be taken as indicative of the cult of icons and of the prevailing concept that the

icon possesses the characteristics of the person it depicts. The glittering light that

plays upon the countenances of both the Virgin and the abbess evinces the

holiness of Irene, modelled on that of the Virgin.

430 1bid, 94, 96 and translation in 95, 97.

' Ibid, 96 lines 22-26 and translation in 97.
432
For the cult of the Virgin at Blachemai see the discussion in chapter V.
166
The Vita of Peter the Athonite

Before Lake's publication, the only source of biographical detail

concerning Peter the Athonite was the eulogy written in the fourteenth century by

the propounder of Hesychasm, Gregory Palamas. 433 Lake's researches in the

libraries of Mount Athos at the beginning of the twentieth century brought to light

another Vita, written by a certain Nikolaos in the second half of the tenth century

at the latest. 434 Subsequently, Papachryssanthou discovered that the Lfe of Peter
is preserved in at least thirty manuscripts, nine of which date from the eleventh to

the fifteenth centuries.435 The Vita of the saint contains facts about the ninth

This Vita is published in theActaSanctorum for June 12, as well as in PG 150, cols.
996A-1040C. Gregory Palamas reproduces a large part of the earlier Vita by Nikolaos.
K. Lake, The Early Days of Monasticism on Mount Athos, Oxford, 1909. For an
incomplete list of the manuscripts in which the text of the early Vita is preserved see
Lake, op.cit., 9-10. A critical edition of the Vita has not yet been written. The text by
Lake was reprinted in AyiopetrticBz/3tio9rzci 5, 1940-1941, 35-50. All references in
this text are to page numbers in the work by Lake. D. Papachryssanthou ('0 'A80.viicOç
MovaiajtOç,
'Apéç KccI 'Op'avwcrq, Athens, 1992, 8 5-87, henceforth abbreviated as
Papachiyssanthou, Athonite Monasticism, and eadem, "La Vie ancienne de Saint Pierre
l'Athonite. Date, composition et valeur historique,"AB 92, 1974, 19-61 and esp. 19)
refers to other hagiographical sources concerning Peter the Athonite: a canon written in
honour of the saint by Joseph the Hymnographer in the ninth century (some time
between 831 and 841 when the famous hymnographer was in Thessaloniki) which does
not provide any historical information apart from testifying that Peter lived in the first
half of the ninth century, and numerous offices in honour of the saint that are preserved
in Athonite manuscripts.
Papachryssanthou, "La Vie ancienne de Saint Pierre l'Athonite," 20 and n. 2.
167
century in which the saint was alive and about the early history of monasticism on

Mount Athos.436

Peter the Athonite was a young soldier when he was captured by the Arabs

against whom he had been sent to fight.437 While in captivity Peter's patron was

St Nicholas, to whom Peter promised that if released he would go to Rome to

take the monastic vows he had long ago promised God he would take. 438 On his

way back from Rome following his release and while still at sea Peter had a

vision in his sleep of the Mother of God and St Nicholas. St Nicholas appeared to

him begging the Mother of God to disclose to Peter the place where he would

spend the rest of his years. 439 In his address to the Theotokos St Nicholas lets it be

known that it was she who had delivered Peter from captivity.° The Virgin

reveals to Peter that he will live on the Holy Mountain and prophesies the future

of Athos and its monks, saying that it was the place that granted her when she

begged it of her son and God for those who would flee the turmoil of the world

and pursue the spiritual way with all the strength they possessed, calling upon her

436
G. Anrich (Hagios Nikolaos. Der heilige Nikolaos in der griechischen Kirche, 2
vols., Leipzig, Berlin, 1913 and 1917 respectively, vol. I, 153-182 and vol. 2, 85-87)
identified Peter the Athonite with Peter Scholarios who is referred to in the encomium of
St Nicholas. Cf. St. Binon, "La Vie de S. Pierre l'Athonite, Atti del V Congresso
internationale di studi bizantini, Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, vol. V. Rome, 1936, 43-
52, esp. 48 if., and Papachryssanthou, "La Vie ancienne," 25ff.
According to the Vita Peter was a scholarios of the fifth schole for which see The Life
of Peter the Athonite, 18.
438 1bid, 19-20.
439 1bid, 25ff.
"°Ibid, 25.
168
in truth and faith and willingness of soul that they might spend their earthly life

without concerns and inherit the life of the world to come. "My spirit rejoices in

that" [that is, the Holy Mountain], the Virgin says, and adds that the monks of

Athos will become so numerous that they will fill the place from one end to the

other and, if they endure, they shall enjoy the mercy of Christ through eternity.

Finally, the Virgin prophesies that she will multiply the monks from the northern

most to the most southern limits of the mountain and they shall dominate the

mountain from sea to sea and that she will make their name renowned throughout

the world and will defend them from every danger.'

There is another reference to the Virgin where the hagiographer describes

the struggle of the saint against demons. In his struggle with the demon screaming

outside his cave the saint, in his despair lest he does not survive the combat,

pleads with the Theotokos to help him. 2 As soon as the devil hears the name of

the Mother of God he disappears. The same happens on a second occasion when

' Ibid. 25. Because of its importance to Athonite monasticism this part of the Vita was
copied extensively and reproduced in numerous manuscripts among them the Patria of
Mount Athos, the surviving manuscripts of which date to the late fifteenth or early
sixteenth centuries, nonetheless they probably reproduce oral Athonite legends. For two
different versions of the Patria see Sp. Lambros, "T& flãtpta ro Aytoti Opou;" Noç
EWvoAuvzwiv9, 1912, 123-126 and 135-137. See also M. Gedeon, V 4Ocoç.
Ava4uvicieiç,
Eypcc'pa, I zezoae&ç Constantinople 1885, 297-300 and 308-309. In both versions the
Virgin is said to have visited Mount Athos during her lifetime. The dedication and
blessing of and the prophecy about the future of Athos are reminiscent of the one
recorded in the Life of Peter. For discussion see Papachryssanthou, "La Vie ancienne,"
40-41.
442
The Life of Peter the Athonite, 27.
169
Satan sends the beasts of the forest to attack the hermit. 3 The other two times

that the devil attacked Peter he did so in disguise: the first as a servant from his

home who managed to discover the place where the hermit was living. The

saint answers his entreaties to return to his homeland that he would do so only if

Christ and the Theotokos who led him to this place would give him a sign that he

should go. Again, as soon as he heard the name of the Theotokos, the devil

fled. 5 The last time that the demon assaulted the saint he disguised himself as an

archangel of God and tried to tempt Peter but mention of the Theotokos' name

once again repulsed him.6

When Peter died his body was translated to the church of Clementos. 447 It

was here that the saint's remains began to work miracles; while later on certain

monks removed his remains to the narthex of the church of the Mother of God.8

According to the hagiographer, it was in this church that the monks held their

annual assembly. 9 Papachryssanthou convincingly argues that the church in

question must have been in Karyes, the capital of Mount Athos from a veiy early

period.450 But which was this church? In all probability it was the church of the

4A3 Thid 28 and Papachryssanthou, "La Vie ancienne," 42 and n. 3.

"Ibid, 29-30.
445p,id 29.
Ibid, 30 and Papachryssanthou, "La Vie ancienne," 42 ii. 7.
The Life of Peter the At/ionize, 34.
"Thid, 34.
"9 Thid, 34, ..ivOa Eithetaav raç riatoiç ol)vãctç titvrXiv...
° Papachryssanthou, "La Vie ancienne," 36 and n. 6. Note that the capital of the

Athonite peninsula was initially called Mesi and it was not until later that it was given
170
Protaton, dedicated to the Mother of God. In his study of the development of the

Protaton, Mylonas argues that the church is undeniably the oldest monument

surviving in Karyes. 45 ' It took its name from the prows i.e. the person in charge

of the community of monks who were living on the Holy Mountain. The first

mention of a protos -he was named Andrew- is encountered at the beginning of

the tenth century (in 908);452 this implies that by then there already existed on

Mount Athos a monastic community with a central organization established in

Karyes.453 The first Vita of St Athanasius, written in the middle of the tenth

century, mentions that in his day the number of monks had increased so greatly

that for their meetings in the church of the Protaton the gerontes [the elders] were

very short of space.454

the name Karyes. For the church of Protaton see also eadem, Athonite Monasticism, n.
74 on p.196
451 P. Mylonas, "Les ëtapes successives de construction du Protaton au Mont Athos,"
Cahiers Archéologiques 28, 1979, 143-160 and esp. 143.
452 Papachryssanthou, Athonite Monasticism, 152.
Ibid, 308-309.
J. Noret (ed.), Vitae duae antiquae Sancti Athanasii Athonitae, Louvain, 1982, 28. In
a recent article the late archaeologist S. Kissas ( "D ye Domentijanove beleske o
Protatonu," Hilandarski Zbornik 6, 1986, 47-56 with summary in French on pp. 57-5 8)
argues that the founder of the Protaton church must have been Michael III and the
probable date of its foundation the year 855-856. Papachryssanthou (Athonite
Monasticism, 225-226) is very hesitant in accepting Kissas' interpretation of
Dometianus, author of a biography of Symeon and Sabbas, the founders of the Serbian
monastery of Chilandari, upon which Kissas bases his argument. On the state of Athos
before the time of Athanasius and on the latter's contribution to the establishment of
coenobitic monasticism, see Kallistos Ware, "St Athanasios the Athonite: Traditionalist
171
 The existence of a monastic community on Athos is also testified by the

delegation of Athonite monks who were present in Constantinople at the

restoration of icons in Papachiyssanthou argues that Athos must have

been an important monastic centre from the beginning of the ninth century since

its fame seems to have reached Mount Olympus in the middle of that century.456

However, what is important for the present study is the association of Athos with

the Mother of God, an association first met with in the literary sources of the Vita

of Peter the Athonite. II we combine the information provided by the architectural

study made by Mylonas, who places the construction of the earliest building of

the Protaton between the middle of the ninth century and the beginning of the

tenth, and the study of the historiographical and literary sources by

Papachryssanthou we may conclude with some certainty that Athos was not only

inhabited by monks but also that it had a church dedicated to the Mother of God

at the end of the ninth century. 457 If Athos was dedicated to the Virgin in the ninth

or Innovator?" in A.Bryer and M.Cunningham (eds.), Mount Athos and Byzantine

Monasticism, SPBS 4, Ashgate, 1996, 3-16.
Gennesios (ed. Bonn), 82. The arrival of monks from all parts of the empire is
testified in practically all the historiographical sources of the period. See
Papachryssanthou, At/ionize Monasticism, notes 84 and 85 on p.82. The same author
corroborates the conclusion drawn from the account of Gennesios by citing the
testimony provided in the L4fe of Euthymius the Younger (or Euthymius the
Thessalonikeus). For Euthymius see L. Petit, Vie et office de saint Euthyme le Jeune,
Bibliotheca Hagiographica Orientalis 5, Paris, 1904, 26.
Papachryssanthou, Athonite Monasticism, 84-85. R. Morris, "The Origins of Athos,"
in Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism, 37-46 and esp. 37-40.
Mylonas, "Les étapes success ives," 144; Papachryssanthou, Athonite Monasticism,
84.
172
century, as now appears to be the case, its dedication may be linked to the place

of the Virgin in the Iconoclastic controversy and, perhaps, to the attachment of

the monks to devotion of the Mother of God. As we shall see in the next chapter

most of the writers who composed the substantial corpus of Marian homilies and

hymns in the Iconoclastic period were monks and ardent Iconophiles. Certainly,

the Vita of Peter the Athonite gives us an opportunity to examine the first stages i

the evolution of the cult of the Virgin on Mount Athos and the Holy Mountain's

dedication to the Virgin.

The Vita of Michael Maleinos

The Vita of Michael Maleinos (d. 961) was published at the beginning of

the twentieth century by Petit.458 The hagiographer, by the name of Theophanes,

was a contemporary of the saint and must have been his disciple. 459 According to

the hagiographical record, the saint's parents could not have children and Michael

was the answer to their prayers to the Mother of God.46° His parents prayed to the

Virgin as a last resort after their prayers to the Lord remained unanswered, a motif

that is very common in hagiographical texts. The Virgin succumbed to the

supplications of the couple and appeared in a dream to Methodius (the priest that

was in charge of her church at Kouka) and foretold symbolically the birth of the

458
Vie de Saint Michel Maléinos, R.P.L. Petit, (ed.), ROC 7, 1902, 543-594.
Petit, op.cit., 545-6. In the hagiographical text Theophanes mentions explicitly that
the saint entered the monastery when he was very young and stayed there until the end
of his life. Theophanes says also that he spent forty years with Michael Maleinos.
° The parents of Michael prayed in the church of the Virgin situated in the village of
Kouka. Vie de Saint Michel Maléinos, 4.22-29.
173
couple's seven children. 46 ' The Virgin was seen holding seven sets of garments

(four female and three male) which she handed over to Anastaso, the mother of

the saint. Out of the three male garments the Virgin singled out one: it was a

symbolic revelation of the future saint. 462 Immediately after the dream of the

priest, Anastaso, became the mother of seven fine children. 463 The choice of the

saint by the Virgin is a motif often encountered in hagiographical texts.4M

When the news that the saint, whose secular name was Manuel, had been

tonsured as a monk reached his family both his parents started mourning the

'loss' of their son. His father hastened to go to the monastely and urged his son to

change his mind and return home while his mother wept beating her head and

shedding bitter tears. It was only later, when Michael received the great monastic

habit that his parents came to terms with their son's decision. On that occasion his

father advised the saint never to fail God, whom he had loved more than his

parents and the world.465 Upon his return to Ancyra, the father of the saint

reminded his wife of the miraculous apparition of the Virgin in the church of

Kouka where the Virgin had foretold the birth of their seven children and the

dedication of the saint to herself, and urged her to glorifi the Mother of God.466

In a way that recalls the Vita of Peter the Athonite, Michael moved from

place to place trying to find the desert in which he could seek for his salvation.

Ibid, 4.29-3 1.
2 Ibid,, 4.31-I.
3 mid, 4.1-3.
See supra the Life of Stephen the Younger.
Vie de Saint Michel Maléinos, 10.7-Il.
Ibid, 10.11-18.
174
However, his virtuous life had become known to the people who travelled great

distances to visit him. The monks who sought to live near the saint were also very

numerous: the Vita records above fifty monks.467 The growth of the community

obliged Michael to move to Bithynia, where he found an appropriate place for his

community to settle. 468 The first thing that the saint did was to build a big church

and dedicate it to the Mother of God. 469 The Vita records an incident in which a

disciple of the saint had stolen money pretending that it was needed for an

ecclesiastical feast. But when he fell asleep he dreamt that the Mother of God

and the saint were holding him by his hands; terrified, he woke up, confessed his

sin and repented his evil act. 470 On this occasion the Virgin is seen as a

collaborator of the saint who supports his efforts to guide the community towards

its salvation. In the epilogue of the Vita Theophanes recounts the ascetic virtues

of the saint, his abstinence from food and sleep and any luxury; he writes of one

such virtue, the saint's love of the splendid feasts of the Lord and of his holy

mother.47 ' The reciprocity of the relationship between the saint and the Mother of

God is manifested by a miracle in which the Virgin appeared in a vision to an

7 Thid, 15.29-30. See also the similar description in the life of Sabbas the monk
(eleventh century) recorded in the Acts of Philotheou monastery (W. Regel, E.Kurtz, B.
Korablev (eds.), Actes de Philothée, Actes de 1 'Athos VI, Vizantiniskzj Vremmenik XX,
1913, 1-2) and Morris, "The Origins of Athos," 37; with reference to Mount Kyminas
see ibid. 38-39 and E. Malamut, Sw' la route des saints byzantins, Paris, 1993, 109-126.
168
Vie de Saint Michel Maléinos, 15.30-4.
'49 Thid, 15.4-7.
470 mid, 21.
471
Ibid, 25.12-14.
175
unnamed believer in Constantinople who was celebrating her feast. 472 During the

vigil and as the man was praying to the Virgin, the 'all-warm response of the

tormented', that is, the Mother of God, appeared to him and told him that she had

to go to the mountain of Kymina in order to celebrate together with her faithful

servant Michael who faithfully expected her there. 473 Deeply moved by the vision

of the Virgin the man sought to learn who was that person and as soon as he

found out went to Kymina to meet the saint. On this occasion the Virgin

manifested the glory of her servant to the rest of mankind, thus, in the eyes of the

hagiographer and of his audience playing an important role in the process of his

sanctification.

Conclusion

The place of the Mother of God in the Iconoclastic controversy is a very

complicated issue that has still not received sufficient attention. Research into the

subject is hampered by the scarcity of Iconoclastic sources and the bias of

Iconophile texts. Moreover, both sides of the controversy supported their views

by employing the same arguments and declaring their faith in the decisions of

earlier previous oecumenical councils. However, a close reading of the Acta of

the Seventh Oecumenical Council, as well as of other historiographical sources,

shows that the veneration of the Mother of God was certainly an issue for debate.

A tentative reconstruction of the picture reveals that, as in the case of Christ,

472 1bid, 25.17-19, èv Kwvmavrivov,r&ez o%pIo'rçL rivi 1%aunpdiç eeoroc

,v77yvpIovrL irap' ai)riç v ó7rraafc öcöiAwraz...
Ibid, 25.2 1-23.
176
Iconoclasts accepted the veneration of the Mother of God but objected to her cult

and especially to the association of her veneration with the cult of images. To this

assumption we are also led by the way in which Iconophiles accused the

Iconoclasts of not being 'honest' when declaring their devotion to the Virgin

Mary and also by the fact that in Iconophile writings the Mother of God occupies

a central place thus leading us to the conclusion that Iconophile authors

considered the Virgin a symbol and synonym of the cult of icons. The place of the

Virgin Mary is also prominent in hagiographical texts written from the ninth

century onwards. Analysis of the examples chosen for the purpose of the present

study discloses the association of the Virgin with the saints and the manner in

which hagiographers of the middle Byzantine period modelled their saints upon

the Mother of God. In the hagiographical sources the Virgin Mary acts as a

protectress and guide to the saint whose life is narrated and is often seen as

expelling the demons and safeguarding the saints and the people alike. In the case

of the Vita of Peter the Athonite the Virgin is seen choosing the Holy Mountain as

her special preserve, extending her protection to it and prophesying its glorious

future. We shall have the occasion to complete the picture at the end of the

present study, but for the time being it suffices to note that the association of

Athos with the Mother of God should not be considered accidental but a result of

the prominence given to the Virgin during the Iconoclastic period and of her

association with the essential premises of the Orthodox faith as promulgated at

the time of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. On the basis of the above we are now in a

position to explain the existence of the vast corpus of Marian homilies and hymns

177
composed during the Iconoclastic period by Iconophile writers. This corpus will

be examined in the next chapter and found to support the views just expressed.

178
 CHAPTER IV

MARIAN LITERATURE OF THE ICONOCLASTIC PERIOD

Introduction

During the eighth and ninth centuries Iconophile authors produced a

voluminous corpus of homilies and hymns dedicated to the Mother of God. Most

of this literature was composed for use on various occasions of feasts of the

Virgin Mary. In the previous chapter I suggested that the prominence of the place

of the Virgin in the Iconoclastic controversy fmds further support in the

compilation of the Marian literary corpus. The homilies in honour of the Virgin

that were composed during the Iconoclastic period may be considered as a sub-

division of the wider category of middle Byzantine homiletics, a category with its

own particular characteristics. To my knowledge, there has been no

i4tAAM
comprehensiveLof middle Byzantine homiletics, particularly of the corpus of

Manan literature produced during the time of the controversy over artistic

representation in Byzantium.

The quantity and nature of Marian literature in the Iconoclastic period, on

which I will concentrate in the first part of this chapter, is particularly revealing of

the cult of the Virgin Mary in the period under consideration. My aim is to trace

the symbolic language employed by contemporary writers and shared with their

readers. Special attention will be given to the homilies and hymns composed by

Germanos I of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus and Theodore

the Stoudite. The literary work of these authors is characterised by a distinct

179
lyrical or emotional tone as well as by emphasis on the body and the senses that
cwtçU ii ce4
as yet have not been ( -. I suggest that the stylistic features of the

literature of the Iconoclastic era as well as the choice of the Mother of God as the

subject of a great part of the literary production of the period are linked to the

Christological issue underlying the controversy over the cult of images. In other

words, both the emphasis on emotions, the body, and the senses, as well as the

emphasis on the Mother of God were means employed by the Iconophile iters

of the period in their defence of artistic representation. Although scholarly

research has pointed out that Marian literature of the time depicts the Virgin in a

much more personal and emotional way, no explanation has been offered for the

emergence and the significance of this Marian corpus which coincided with the

debate over the portrayal of the divine in the visual arts of Byzantium. 474 The case

becomes even more intriguing when we consider that the authors of the Marian

homilies and hymns studied in this chapter were ardent Iconophiles. However, the

study of the homiletic and hymnographical corpus of the period is not a simple

task since the researcher is faced with the common problem of lack of critical

editions and the often mistaken attribution of works.

The second part of this chapter will focus on the central place that the

themes of the Passion and the Burial of the Lord occupy in the literature of the

Gordana Babic ("Les Images byzantines et leurs degres de signification: I'exemple de

I'Hodigitria," Byzance el/es Images, Paris, 1994, 189-222 and esp. 197) notes that "Le
degré de comprehension des images byzantines depend done de La possibilité de
I'homme moderne de saisir non seulement les pensées mais aussi les sentiments des
Byzantins."
180
Iconoclastic period. Particular attention will be drawn to the association of the

person of the Virgin with the themes of the Passion and the Burial. The lament of

the Virgin in the Iconoclastic period is best represented by the short poems of

Theodore the Stoudite, the ardent opponent of Iconoclasm and author of

numerous hymns and homilies. 475 In addition, a text of dubious authorship,

ascribed either to patriarch Germanos I of Constantinople or to Germanos II in a

much later period, will be examined as the model of the lament of the Virgin in

the second half of the ninth century; as I argue below, its author was Germanos I,

the patriarch deposed by the first Iconoclast emperor in 730.

hlast Christological debate of the Byzantine Church, the Iconophiles

focused on the Incarnation of the Word, and defended the Church's religious

practice, namely the veneration of icons, on the basis of the historical reality of

the Incarnation. 476 The prominence of the Mother of God during the Iconoclastic

period may be explained by any of the following facts:

i. During the pre-Iconoclastic period, especially during the difficult time of the

Arab conquest the Virgin became the centre of devotion that is also often

associated with the veneration of icons. 477 The mot' of the Iconoclasts was the

For the political dimension of Theodore's career see P. Karlin-Hayter, "A Byzantine
Politician Monk: Saint Theodore Stud ite," JOB 44, 1994, 217-232.
476
See below the argument set forth by John of Damascus and taken up by other
Iconophiles that the Word of God may be depicted in matter because }came human in
the womb of Mary.
" For the cult of the Virgin before Iconoclasm, see chapter II. Note also the parallel
development of the cult of the saints as objects of veneration and sources of authority,
and protection of cities from the sixth century onwards. The phenomenon becomes
especially acute in the seventh century, a time when the empire was struggling for
181
 478
worship of God "in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4:24). Thus, the controversy over

artistic representation may be considered as an attempt to rid religion of 'popular'

elements, such as the cult of icons and the closely associated cult of the Virgin.479

ii. The role of the Mother of God in the Incarnation and the exalted status she

acquired at the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon had a direct bearing upon the

status of matter, one of the main bones of contention during the Iconoclastic

debate.48° The Iconophiles defended the veneration of icons on the grounds that

survival. For the parallel function of divine patrons and icons see J.F. Haldon,
Byzantium in the Seventh Century. The Transformation of a Culture, Cambridge, 1990,
406; R. Cormack, Writing in Gold Byzantine Society and its Icons, London, 1985, 77-78
for St Demetrius in Thessaloniki. For the miracles of the saint, see P. Lemerle, Les plus
anciens recueils des miracles de Saint Démétrius, 2 vols. (texte-commentaire), Paris,
1979 and 1981 respectively; see esp. vol. I, XllI-XV for the miracles illustrating the
protection of Thessaloniki by the saint and note the parallel with the miracle of the
Virgin delivering Constantinople from the threat of the Avars and the Persians in 626.
478
For the background of the spiritual currents in Byzantium see I. Hausherr, "Les
grands courants de Ia spiritualité orientale," OCP 1, 1935, 114-138. Cf. M. Plested,
"Macanus and Diadochus: An Essay in Comparison," Studia Patristica XXX, 1997,
23 5-240 where the author argues for the narrowing of the gap between the two spiritual
traditions represented by Diadochus of Photike and Macanus respectively. For the
Iconoclastic period see R. Taft, "The Synaxanion of Evergetis in the history of Byzantine
liturgy," The Theotokos Evergetis and Eleventh-Century Monasticism, M. Mullett and
A. Kirby (eds.), BBTT 6.1, Belfast, 1994, 274-294, and esp. 28 1-282. Note also the
emphasis given to the human • as the true imago Dei and the formulation of what is
called 'the ethical theory of images' after the study by M. Anastos, "The Ethical Theory
of Images Formulated by the Iconoclasts in 754 and 815," DOP 8, 1954, 151-160.
Averil Cameron, "The Language of Images," 18-19.
480
For the role of Mary in the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon see chapter II and P.-
Th. Camelot, Ephèse et Chalcèdoine, Histoire des conciles cecuméniques 2, Paris, 1962,
65-70 and 146-147.
182
matter had been sanctified at the time of the Incarnation because it was assumed

by the Word of God and thus could be used to represent the divine. 48 ' The Mother

of God -already in the fifth century a key figure for the understanding of the

Incarnation- became once again the instrument for defining and applying

incarnational theology.

These statements will be examined in the light of their particular sources and will

be re-evaluated in the conclusion of the chapter.

Germanos I of Constantinople andAndrew of Crete

The patriarch of Constantinople Germanos I and his contemporary

Andrew of Crete are two of the most important figures of the first Iconoclastic

period. Their acceptance of the orders given by Philippikos-Bardanes (711-713)

regarding endorsement of monotheletism and anathematization of the Sixth

Oecumenical Council stained their names. Germanos I (c.630 or 650 - d.after

730) was elected bishop of Cyzicus in c. 7Ø5482 After the fall of Philippikos-

Bardanes he opposed monotheletism and became patriarch of Constantinople in

715. Although in the early years of the reign of Leo III the emperor and the

patriarch were on good terms, later they fell out and Germanos was deposed from

the patriarchal throne in 730 to be succeeded by Anastasios (730754).483 The

481
See below.
For the various dates proposed see A. Kazhdan, "Germanos I," 0DB, vol. II, 846.
L. Larnza, Patriarch Germanos I. von Konstantinopel (715-730), Wurzburg, 1975.
With regard to the various views expressed on the patriarchate of Germanos see 160-
161.
I
IC.)
circumstances which led to the breach between the emperor and the patriarch are

not known. Probably it was Germanos who questioned the Paulician Gegnesios

on matters of doctrine such as the sacraments, the veneration of the Cross and,

most significantly, the veneration of the Virgin Mary. 485 According to Kazhdan a

likely cause of the conflict between Germanos and Leo ifi was the subject of the

Mother of God to whom Germanos dedicated a large number of homilies and

hymns.486 Unfortunately, the corpus of Germanos's writings has not yet been fully

defined. Particularly problematic is the confusion that often arises over the

authorship of works by the patriarchs Germanos I and II due to the similar literary

style of the two writers. That Germanos II, himself wrote homilies on the Virgin,

on the Incarnation and on the refutation of the impious Nestorius only confuses

the issue still further.487

As far as Andrew of Crete (c.660-740) 488 is concerned his acceptance of

the orders given by Philippikos-Bardanes suggested he was willing to exploit the

484 Ibid 144.

485
Peter of Sicily, PG 104, cols. 1284B-1285A.
A. Kazhdan, "Germanos I," 0DB, vol. II, 846-847.
487
S.N. Lagopates, f'LpjzavOç O B', TIarptápiç Ko)voravrLvovJr6..wç-N11caIaç (1222-
1240). Bloc, Iv fpápuara iccxi zlzSacric&..Ia a&roi, Tripolis, 1914, 218ff., 3 10-320.
488
Andrew's early life was marked by a miracle that probably became the reason for his
early tonsure as a monk (at the age of fourteen or fifteen) in the Monastery of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem. According to the encomion of the saint written by the patrician
Nicetas and preserved in the codex 79 of Vatopedi (tenth century), Saint Andrew of
Crete, also called the Hierosolymites, was mute until the age of seven and recovered his
ability to talk only after receiving communion in a church of his native city, Damascus.
He was made notaly of the Great Basilica in Jerusalem by Theodore, the local
roirorqprjviiç. who replaced Sophronius after his death in 638 (note that Jerusalem did
184
notion of oikonomia in order to avoid friction with authority.489 Andrew is well

known for his Great Canon, a devotional work that is still in use in the Orthodox

Church, and also for numerous homilies and hymns that he wrote while

metropolitan of Crete.49° It is evident from what we know about his life that

not have a patriarchate for some time after 638 since it was already under the Arab rule).
For the L4fe of Andrew by Nicetas see M. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Analecta
Hierosolymitikes Stachyologias, vol. 5, Petersburg, 1898, 169-179. For a discussion of
his biographical sources see S. Vailhé, "Saint André de Crete," EQ 5, Nos.32-37, 1901-
1902, 378-387 and esp. 378-380. See also H.-G. Beck, Kirche und theologische
Literatur im byzantinischen Reich, Munich, 1959, 500-502 and recently M.-F. Auzépy,
"La Carrière d'André de Crete," BZ 88, 1995, 1-12.
489
For the religious policies of Philippikos-Bardanes and the involvement in them of
Andrew of Crete and Germanos I of Constantinople see Theophanes, (de Boor), I 362
and 382. See also Nicephorus, Breviarium, (de Boor), 48 and the discussion of the
sources by Vailhé, op. cit., 383-384.
° Between 692 and 713 he was metropolitan of Crete following a few years in
Constantinople. In 685 Andrew was sent by Theodore as a legate to the emperor
Constantine Pogonatos in order to convey to the emperor the enthusiastic acceptance of
the decisions of the Sixth Oecuinenical Council by Theodore and his Church. By the
time he arrived in Constantinople, Constantine was already dead and Justinian II reigned
in his place. Andrew remained in Constantinople when the other legates of Theodore set
out to return to Jerusalem, and was put in charge of certain charitable institutions (an
orphanage and a hospital or place of retreat). His successful administration was
rewarded with his appoint as metropolitan of Crete. While in Constantinople he is
said to have become famous as a rhetor. See Tomadakis, Byzantine Hymnography, 189;
A. Vacant, "André de Crete," DThC, vol. 1, 1900, cols. 1822-1884; for dates, see
Vailhé, op.cit., 381. For the works of Andrew of Crete see Geerard, CPG, vol. III, 541-
551 and for Andrew as a preacher see M. B. Cunningham, Andreas of Crete 's Homilies
on Lazarus and Palm Sunday: A Critical Edition and Commentwy, Unpublished Ph.D.
thesis, University of Birmingham, 1983, 2-8 and 25 if. and eadem, "Andreas of Crete's
Homilies on Lazarus and Palm Sunday: The Preacher and his Audience," in P. Allen and
M. B. Cunningham (eds.), The Preacher and his Audience, Leiden, (forthcoming).
185
Andrew's interest lay mainly in pastoral activities rather than in ecclesiastical

politics. After the brief reign of Philippikos-Bardanes, Andrew changed his mind

and confessed his faith in the decisions of the Sixth Oecumemcal Council, a volte

face that betrayed him as having no strong views on the subject. 491 Andrew did

not live to see the reign of Constantine V (he died one year before the latter's

accession to the throne). He is recognised as a fervent Iconophile and the first to

appeal to tradition in order to defend the cult of images.492

491
A. Heisenberg, "Em jambisches Gedicht des Andreas von Kreta," BZ X, 1901, 505-
514 and esp. 508-512 in which the author presents a critical edition of the poem Andrew
sent to Agathon, the archdeacon and chartophylax of the Great Church, together with the
signed copy of the acts of the Sixth Oecumenical Council.
492
Andrew of Crete, De Sanctarum Imaginum Veneratione, (fr.), (BHG 1125), PG 97,
cols. 1301-1304. For the fiorilegia of patristic texts composed during the Iconoclastic
period see A.Alexakis, Codex Parisinus Graecus 1115 and its Archetype, Dumbarton
Oaks Studies XXXIV, Washington D.C., 1996, 3 1-37 and 227-233. See also the
discussion by Averil Cameron ("The History of the Image of Edessa," 80-94) and
Belting (Likeness and Presence, 49-55). Belting points cut that icons 'not made by
human hands' functioned as proof of their own authenticity and hence of the authenticity
of their prototypes. The story of the image of Edessa was later used by Nicephorus in his
Antirrheticus I, PG 100, col. 260 and Antirrheticus III, PG 100, col. 461. Cf. the Letter
of the Patriarchs ofAlexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem to the Emperor Theophilos in
the year 836, the longest section of which consists of a list of miraculous images. For the
I-it
text see now the edition by J.A. " , J. Chrysostomides et. al. (eds.), The Letter of
the Three Patriarchs and Related Texts, Surrey, 1997, and esp. 29-51 and for discussion
see L. Duchesne, "L'iconographie byzantine dans un document grec du IXe siècle,"
Roma e l'Oriente 5, 1912-1913, 222-239, 273-285, 349-366 and Cormack, Writing in
Gold, 122-124 and 26 1-262.
186
The Literary Opus of Germanos I

Of the surviving homilies of Germanos I there are at least nine sermons

delivered on various feasts of the Virgin Mary. 493 The Marian homilies consist of

three on the Presentation of the Virgin, 494 one on the Annunciation,495 four on the

Donnition,4 one on the Akathistos497 and another on the inauguration of a

Geerard, CPG, vol. III, nos. 8007-8015.

Germanos I of Constantinople, In Ingressum Sanctissfmae Dezparae, (BHG 1103),
PG 98, cols. 292-3 09; idem, Encomium in sanctam Deiparam: quando triennis
praesentata est in templo, ac in Sancta Sanctorum a suis parentibus illata, (BHGa
1104), PG 98, cols. 309-320; idem, Homilia in Praesentationem, (fragm.), (BHG
1076w), published by E. Toniolo, "SuIl'ingresso della Vergine nel santo dei santi. Una
finale inedita di omelia bizantina," Marianum 36, 1974, 101-105.
Germanos I of Constantinople, In Sanctissimae Dei Genitricis Annuntiationem, (BHG
1 145n-q, BHGa 1 145n-r), PG 98, cols. 320-340.
496
Germanos I of Constantinople, In omni veneratione prose quendam sanctae Dei
Genitricis Dormitionem, (BHG 1119), PG 98, cols. 340-348; idem, In beatam
sanctissiinae Dominae nostrae Deiparae semperque Virginis Mariae
Dormitionem,(BHG 1135), PG 98, cols. 348-3 57; idem, Laudatio in sanctam ac
venerabitem Dormitionem pregloriosae Dominae nostrae Dei Genitricis semper virginis
Maria, (BHG 1155, BHGa 1 155b), PG 98, cols. 360-372. Another homily on the
Dormition is published by A. Wenger, "Un nouveau témoin de l'Assomption: une
homélie attribuée a saint Germain de Constantinople," REB XVI (Mélanges Sévérien
Salaville), 1958, 43-58.
Germanos I of Constantinople, Homilia de Acathisto ye! de Dorm itione, (BHG
113 Os). For the text see V. Grumel, "Homélie de saint Germain sur Ia délivrance de
Constantinople," REB 16, 1958, 183-205. Cf. P. Speck, "Kiassizismus im achten
Jahrhundert? Die Homelie des Patriarchen Germanos über die Rettung
Konstantinopels," REB 44, 1986, 209-227. Speck does not believe that the homily was
written by Germanos; however, following the article by J. Darrouzès ("Deux textes
inédits du Patriarche Germaine," REB 45, 1987, 5-13) who ascribes the authorship to
Germanos I, the question seems resolved.
187
church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.498 Particularly interesting is the homily on

the Akathistos, where the homilist relates the miraculous intervention of the

Virgin Mary who delivered the imperial City from an Arab siege in 717. The

florid and lyrical style of the orator is echoed in the literary representation of

Mary. Germanos draws his imagery from the typology of the Virgin and the Song

of Songs. 50° In a highly encomiastic context, the Virgin is described by a long

string of attributes and lyrical images that are not to be found in earlier writings.

Germanos' homily marks a clear change in the manner of praising Mary. Andrew

of Crete attaches similar importance to the person of the Virgin, 50 ' but Germanos

is more innovative in that he introduces elaborate dialogues in his sermons. 502 In

498 Germanos I of Constantinople, In Encaenia venerandae aedis sanctissimae Dominae

nostrae Dei Genitricis, inque sanctasfascias Domini nostri Jesu Christi, (BHG 1086),
PG 98, cols. 372-3 84.
homily was originally published by Grumel, "Homélie de Saint Germain sur Ia
délivrance de Constantinople," 183-205. In the text edited by Darrouzès ("Deux textes
inédits du Patriarche Germaine," 13) the miraculous intervention of the Virgin,
protectress of Constantinople, was portrayed above the Gate of the City turning her
precious gaze upon the horse ridden by the blasphemer and making it shy... so that the
amiras should pass through the gate of the Virgin not as a master but as a slave. The
miraculous intervention of the Virgin is attested in Theophanes (de Boor), I, 396. For a
discussion of the siege see Gero, Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign of Leo III, 32-
43. For a parallel incident dating to the beginning of the seventh century (siege of 626)
see Averil Cameron, "The Virgin's Robe," 42-56. For the Akathistos hymn see chapter
II.
500
Germanos I of Constantinople, In ingressum sanctisszlnae Deiparae, PG 98, col. 292.
See also ibidem, col. 297 C-D.
501
See below.
502
List, Studien zur Homiletik Germanos I. von Konstantinopel und seiner Zeit,
Athens, 1939.

188
his homily on the Annunciation, Germanos invents a sophisticated dialogue

between the Archangel and the Virgin in which the two persons "converse on

different stylistic levels, the archangel being majestic and the Virgin simple and

naive."503 This dialogue is followed by another between the Virgin and Joseph in

which the Virgin attempts to enlighten him regarding recent events and her

inexplicable pregnancy.504 The homilist elaborates the typological imagery of

Maiy, adding epithets and images that increase the emotional power of the

sermon. Germanos describes the Mother of God as the counterpart of the First

Eve who displayed an uncritical reliance on the serpent while she is suspicious

even of the Archangel.505

In a form that resembles the Akathistos, Germanos makes the greeting of

the archangel the opening word of each of eleven paragraphs that praise the

Virgin on the occasion of her Presentation in the temple. Mary is exalted as the

divinely-made (iEp&reuicrov), all-pure and immaculate palace of God, 506 the new

Sion, the divine Jerusalem, the holy city of the great king God. 507 Germanos

seems to be alluding to the Iconoclastic debate when he hails the Theotokos as the

fearsome protector of those who acknowledge her as Theotokos, with an honest

503
Kazhdan, "Germanos I," 846.
504
Germanos I of Constantinople, In Annunciationem, cols. 332-340.
505 1bj(J col. 325, "The angel: Why and for what reason and for whom do you not
believe my message, o highly favoured one? and until when will you not obey the angel
sent to you from heaven? For I am not the one who deceived Eve."
506
Germanos I of Constantinople, In Praesentationem, col.305C.
507
Ibid, col.305D.
189
heart. 508 Elsewhere the homilist refers again to those who do not wish to confess

the Theotokos in faith and who will be judged accordingly at the Last

Judgement. 509 As we have seen, in the Acts of the Seventh Oecumenical Council

the Iconophiles closely questioned the sincerity of the Iconoclasts' confession of

the Theotokos. 51 ° He is alluding to the same heresy when he asks the Theotokos

to intercede with her son to guard the Church from the influence of heresies and

scandals.51 ' As already noted, the intercession of the Virgin became an issue

during the Iconoclastic controversy and is often given prominence in the sermons

of Germanos. 512 In the second homily on the Dormition, Germanos asserts that

one cannot know God but through the Theotokos; nobody can be saved, and

nobody can be safe from danger but through the Mother of God. 513 The popular

devotion to Mary is borne out in the same homily in which he says that the

Theotokos is always on the lips of Christians who call upon her for help even

508
Germanos I of Constantinople, In Annuntiationem, col.321B, Xaipe aprrwuEvi,
Oi.5pa 8zflovtov, icai irpoaracTIa ç'oJ3epà, rthv ci;tiicptvei iccxpöIcx OeorOicov
Ooyotvro.v oc

Germanos I of Constantinople, In Dormitionem II, cols. 353C-356A.

510
See above, chapter III.
511
Germanos I of Constantinople, In Praesentationem, col. 308C-D.
512
See for example, Germanos I of Constantinople, In Dormitionem I, col. 34 lA-B. In
the same homily the Virgin is portrayed as the intermediary between man and God for
on the one hand she bore God in her womb while on the other she gave God her human
flesh, ibidem, col. 344 B-C.
513
Germanos I of Constantinople, In Dormitionem II, col. 349B-C, "nobody can be
saved without your intercession, Theotokos; nobody can be free of danger without your
intercession, Virgin-mother, nobody can be delivered without your intercession,
Theometor; nobody receives the gift of mercy without your intercession, the one who
contained God (eEocbçvrrrE)."
190
when they stub their foot on a stone. 514 The assertion made by Germanos is in

absolute accordance with one made by Theophanes, who says that at the end of

Constantine's reign people were scared of being punished if unwarily they

exclaimed "OeorO ice /3oiOez 15

The Literary Opus ofAndrew of Crete

In his treatise On the Divine Images, of which only a fragment survives,

Andrew does not appeal merely to the story of the image of Edessa but refers also

to the acheiropoietos image of the Virgin in Lydda, the so-called Diospolis.

According to Andrew this image dates from the time of the apostles and was still

venerated in his day. Refuting the charge of idolatry, Andrew cites the example of

Julian who heard about this image and sent Jewish artists to examine it. After the

artists testified to the truth of the story, Julian did it no harm. 516 Using this

example, Andrew makes the point that images were respected even by pagans

(Julian) and Jews (artists) and indirectly accuses Iconoclasts of being worse than

unbelievers. In the second example he cites, in which the Virgin tells the apostles

that she is everywhere where her icon is, Andrew expresses in his narrative the

theology of images as formulated by John of Damascus, albeit John employed a

much more sophisticated idiom. 517 The third example Andrew brings to the

attention of the reader is the legend of the icon of the Virgin painted by St Luke

5141bid,col.352C-D.

515
Theophanes, (de Boor), I 442, lines 30-31.
516
Andrew of Crete, De Sanctarum Imaginuin Veneratione, col. 13 04A.
517 Ibid, col. 1304B.
191
from life. 518 In this version of the story Luke did not paint only the Virgin but also

the incarnate Christ.519

In the account given by Andrew the 'historicity' of the representation of

Christ is attested by an unbeliever. The testimony of a Jew called losipos who had

supposedly seen the Lord and described him as a man with dense eyebrows, big

eyes and a narrow face is introduced into the story in order to confirm its

authenticity.52° The treatise by Andrew on the veneration of holy images is an

early apologetic text which clearly demonstrates that the Virgin Mary occupied a

key role in the defence of images from the very beginning of the Iconoclastic

controversy. Of the three examples quoted by Andrew of Crete, two refer to the

Virgin. The appeal by Andrew to familiar stories gives us a measure of the

devotion to the Virgin at the beginning of the eighth century. With regard to her

place in Iconoclasm, let us first examine the rest of Andrew's writings.

The majority of the surviving works by Andrew of Crete consists of

encomia written on the occasion of feasts of the Lord, the Mother of God, the

apostles and the martyrs. Approximately one third of his corpus consists of

Marian homilies on the Conception, Nativity, Annunciation, Dormition, and other

518
The icon supposedly painted by the evangelist was of the Hodegetria type. For the
legends associated with the icon see Belting, Likeness and Presence, 57 if.; L.
Ouspensky and V. Lossky, The Meaning of Icons, Crestwood, New York, 1989, 80-81
and M. B. Cunningham, The Life of Michael the Synkellos, BBTT I, Belfast, 1991, 66
and n.93 on p.148.
519
Andrew of Crete, De Sanctarum Imaginum Veneratione, cot. 1 304B-C, Aovicãv roy
rOcrroAov icaz ca Aicriiv âjravreç oi rOw eipiaazv oiiceIatç wypapiaaz yepoiv
a&róv r wv aapicoiOEvra Xpiarov, icai rrv afrroi ãpavrov Mirpa,
°Ibid,co1. 1304C.
192
events in the life of the Virgin Mary. 52 ' In the iambic verses he sent to Agathon,

Andrew asserts the doctrine of the Incarnation as formulated in the councils of

Ephesus and Chalcedon laying particular emphasis on the birth of the Word of

God by Mary in whose womb God and man became one. 5 Of great importance

to the development of the cult of Mary is the incorporation of the theotokion, a

particular strophe dedicated to the Virgin at the end of each ode of the Great

Canon. 523 In the theorokia, the poet begs the Virgin, the hope and protection of

those who glorif' her, to mediate with Christ for the salvation of his soul that has

become like the first Eve. 524 The Virgin is referred to as "the Mother of our

life," 525 the one who "gives birth being yet remains a virgin," 526 through whom

Christ "united himself to human nature". 527 The closing lines of the Canon echo

the protecting Virgin who reigned in Constantinople in full majesty since the

521
Tomadakis, Byzantine Hymnography, 195.
522
Heisenberg, op.cit., 510-511, vvöpauoicra Oyçti aapicovuEvoj/ Eireoxdaaev
irapOEvço, / EvrsU8ev do7rp k-vpIcoç Oer&oç/ flç airrOv yvviaaca roy Oeov
yov/KipikreraI re icai oeáerat uóvq. /(...)/Kai adp ,rep77voJc e(çjzer'atriç EicpaOi
/.Pvp4uoi re,oiç icai rpowi7ç SIa... /
523
On the theotokia see I. Fountoulis, "Theotokion," MThIIE, vol. 6, Athens, 1965, cot.
317; Tomadakis, Byzantine Hymnography, 65.
524
Andrew of Crete, Great Canon, in Cantarella, Poeti Bizantini, 100-Ill. Also
published by W. Christ- M. Paranikas, Anthologia Graeca Carminum Christianorum,
(henceforth cited as Christ-Paranikas, AGCC) Leipzig, 1871, 147-161. See esp., ode I,
verse 17, "Alas, wretched soul, why did you become like the first Eve?" and I, verse 33,
"Theotokos, hope and protection of those who glorify you..."
525
Thid, ode III, 86.
526 Thid,odelV, 147.
527
Thid, ode V, 177-179.
193
sixth century.528 The imagery used by Andrew in his treatment of the Virgin

derives from the stock material of previous centuries. In this respect no major

innovations are to be noted in the Great Canon which repeats the formula of the

Akathistos especially in the third ode. 529 However, the incorporation of the

theotokia into the work attests to the growing cult of the Virgin and especially to

the importance that the cult had acquired in Christian worship. We are led to the

same conclusion by the prominence of Mary in other hymnographical works of

Andrew in which the Theotokos not only appears in the concluding theotokia but

often becomes the central theme of the hymn. Characteristic of these works are

the canons, triodia and troparia published by Migne. 53° If we can say that one

third of the homiletic work of Andrew is dedicated to the Virgin, in the case of

his hymns the proportion rises to well over three-quarters. Even the canon on

528
Ibid, ode VIII, 331-336, "Guard your city, all-pure bearer of God. In you she
faithfully reigns, in you she is strong and in you she is victorious triumphing over every
temptation and harrowing the enemies and guiding the citizens."
529 Thid ode III, 85-86, Xaipe Ow8Oe rao'r1p, zaipe Opóve icvpIov, aipe f uirip riç
eç fiithv. Note the use of the same formula in the homily On the Annunciation, PG 97,
cols. 881-913 and esp. cols. 893-896. For the Akathistos see E. Wellesz, "The
Akathistos. A Study in Byzantine Hymnography," DOP 9-10, 1955-1956, 143-174;
Averil Cameron, "The Virgin's Robe: an Episode in the History of Early Seventh-
Century Constantinople," Byzantion XLIX, 1979, 42-56 and esp. 44-46.
530
Andrew of Crete, Canones Praecipui et Triodia, PG 97, 1305-1444. See also, S.
Eustratiades, "'Av6p&Lç 6 Kpiri; 6 poao?upkrrç," Nea Sion 29, 1934, 673-688 and
idem, NeaSion 30, 1935, 3-10, 147-153, 209-217, 269-283, 462-477; C. Emereau,
"Hymnographi Byzantini," EQ 21, 1922, 258-279 and esp. 267-271. On the vocabulary
of Andrew see Th. Detorakis, "Le vocabulaire d'André de Crete," JOB 36, 1986, 45-60.
194
Lazarus53 ' is interspersed with theotokia that in Andrew's day seem to have

become a standard feature of ecclesiastical hymnography. The corpus of Marian

hymns was subsequently to be enriched by the work of celebrated hymnographers

like Cosmas of Maiouma (c. 674/6-752/4) and Theodore the Stoudite (759-826).

Eventually they were introduced into the standard service books of the official

Church.

The Marian homilies that survive in association with the name of Andrew

of Crete are the following: four homilies on the Nativity of the Virgin, 532 one on

the Annunciation,533 three on the Dormition, 534 and one on the Akathistos. 535 A

detailed analysis of the homilies would be out of place at this point. It is worth

noting, however, that Andrew focuses on the Virgin as a worthy recipient of

veneration and worship through whom the salvation of mankind was made

possible. The paradox of Maiy's birth is matched by the paradox of the

Nativity of the Lord and of the Incarnation as a whole. 536 Both in the

hymnographical and in the homiletic work of Andrew the typological images of

the Virgin are used and elaborated within an encomiastic context.537

531
Andrew of Crete, Canon in Lazarum, PG 97, cols.1385-1397.
532
All four are published in PG 97, cols. 805-820, 820-844, 844-861, 861-881
respectively.
Andrew of Crete, InAnnunciationem, PG 97, cols. 881-913.
Andrew of Crete, In Dormitionem I, PG 97, cots. 1045-1072; In Dorm itionem II, cots.
1072-1089, In Dormitionem ill, cols. 1089-1109.
BHG 1140; P.T. Themelis, "t 'Athetaroç Yxvog" Nea Sion 6, 1907, 826-833.
" See for example the first homily on the Nativity, Andrew of Crete, In Nativitatem

Sanctissimae Deiparae, PG 97, cots. 804-820 and esp. col. 809.

See among others, In Nativitatem IV, cols. 868-872.
195
John of Damascus

Perhaps the most celebrated Iconophile writer is John of Damascus (675-

749), who is justly credited with the fullest formulation of the theology of

images. 538 Less famous than John's treatises in defence of the holy icons are his

Marian homilies and hymns. 539 Of the homilies that John wrote in honour of the

Mother of God there survive three attested homilies on the Dormition and one on

the Nativity, but the authenticity of the latter has been challenged.

538
For the identity and the historical circumstances that detennined John's life see M.-
F. Auzépy, "De Ia Palestine a Constantinople (VIlle-IXe siècles): Etienne le Sabalte et
Jean Damascène," TM 12, 1994, 183-218. For his theology of images see John of
Damascus, Orationes de Imaginibus tres, (BHG I 391e-g), in Kotter III, pp. 65-200.
John's dogmatic views are also expressed in his works Expositio Fidei (Kotter II, Berlin,
1973) and De Haeresibus (PG 94, cols. 677-780) which although they do not refer
directly to the veneration of images they reveal John's views on incarnational theology.
For discussion of the last text see Gero, Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign of Leo
III, 67-71. The homiletic corpus of John is still not determined with any certainty. An
illustration of the complicated issue of attribution is the recent discussion by Armitage
with respect to the homily De Corpore et Sanguine Christi. Despite the detailed analysis
of this text, authorship is still an open question. See N. Armitage, "The Theology of the
Introduction and Sermon 'De Corpore et Sanguine Christi' attributed to John of
Damascus," Oriens Christianus 80, 1996, 1-10. See also below with reference to the
homily on the Nativity.
The importance of the Marian homilies of John of Damascus to the development of
homiletics and as a source of information about contemporary circumstances is studied
by C. Chevalier, "La Mariologie de S. Jean Damascène," OCA 109, Rome, 1936 and
recently by A. Louth in his article "St John of Damascus: Preacher and Poet," in P.
Allen and M. Cunningham (eds.), The Preacher and His Audience, Studies in Early
Christian and Byzantine Homiletics, Leiden, (forthcoming).
MO
authorship of the homily on the Nativity of the Virgin is partially accepted by
Kotter V, 150-152. Kotter discusses older views and points out the interpolations of the
196
 a.4- d 1fr-e4- I-i m.4.4 O1

The three homilies on the Donnition must have been delivered/,ç

thus forming what Chevalier has termed a homiletic 'triiogy'.54'

In the homily on the Nativitythe human birth and nature of the Theotokos

are praised together with her sanctity and purity. 542 John employs puns and poetic

images to emphasize the string of paradoxes that brought about the assumption of

human nature by the Word of God and its subsequent salvation. 543 All the

typological references to the Virgin are repeated and elaborated in connexion with

the Incarnation. 5 In the second homily on the Dormition, the Virgin is presented

text. For older editions with translation in French and Greek respectively see P. Voulet
(ed.), S. Jean Damascène. Homélies sur la nativité et Ia dormition, SC 80, Paris, 1961;
A.Yeftits (ed.), Hagiou Ioannou Damascenou, H EkoróKoç Athens, 1970; Geerard,
CPG, vol. III, 519 (8060). The most recent critical edition of the homilies is in Kotter V.

' For homiletic trilogies see Chevalier, "Les Trilogies homilétiques dans l'élaboration
des ftes mariales. 650-850," 361-378; Kotter V, 463-464; Louth, "St John of Damascus:
Preacher and Poet,"(forthcoming).
542
John of Damascus, On the Nativity, Kotter V, 169-182, and esp. 2.13-17 on p. 170.
(For the sake of accuracy all references to the homilies by John of Damascus indicate
the title of the homily followed by the paragraph, line and page number in Kotter's
edition.)
On the Nativity, 3. 1-4, p. 171. See also, 5. 3-6, p. 173 where the Virgin is described
700.CA.4.k t4 .t ..-4 6
a worthy offspring who remained a virgin throughout her life.
Ibid. 3.4-5, p. 171, £1epov EKjIç 7eaoai 5a/3öoç qn3i, E iç àv9oc ?xva/34aerai
t icócr4u(a OeovirOararov. The word Oeoi)irOcrraroç is encountered also in a spurious
homily on the Annunciation ascribed to Athanasius of Alexandria (PG 28, col. 925B), in
a homily of Germanos I of Constantinople (PG 98, col. 221 C) and in a poem on the
Theotokos probably by John of Damascus. It means 'of divine hypostasis' and the
metaphor in the passage cited refers to Christ. The parallel between the root of Jesse and
the Virgin from which the flower of divine hypostasis was born is a typical example of
the way that traditional images were enriched with the individual authors' own original
197
as the model of virginity, sobriety and wisdom and the author encourages his

audience to follow not only her example but also the ethical imperatives

expressed in terms of what she approves of and what she despises. 545 John

portrays the Mother of God as the ornament of mankind, the pride of the whole of

creation, the one chosen to serve the divine economy; 546 through her what was

previously impossible to be contained was contained for one end only: the

salvation of mankind. 547 The holiness of the Virgin is directly associated with her

role in the divine plan and a soteriological aspect is detected in every reference to

her holiness or her miraculous childbearing. The Theotokos is described in the

words of the Psalm (Ps. 86:3) as the city of God, the city which was chosen by

God, who can hold the whole creation in the palm of his hand, as his dwelling

contrivances expressed through the use of vocabulary and poetic images. See s.v.
8eoi)rOcnaroç; Lampe, PGL, 641. For other typological references see 4. 1-3, p.1 72; 6.
27-33, p.175 etc. See also John of Damascus, On the Dormition I, in Kotter V, pp. 483-
500 and esp. 8.20-51, pp. 492-493, where the Virgin is described as the kingly throne
and the intelligible Eden. The typological images applied to the Theotokos are the
burning bush, the tabernacle, the golden vessel, the lamp, the altar, the rod of Aaron and
the ladder of Jacob. See also, John of Damascus, On the Dormition HI, in Kotter V, 548-
555, and esp. 2.1-20, pp. 549-550; 2.37-39, p. 550 etc.
John of Damascus, On the Dormition II, 19.7-23, pp. 539-540.
546 1dem On the Dormition 1, 3.3-4, p. 485, iiv àya9oöOrzv, rqv ir2ovroö&rezpav, 'roO
Opiv yvovç rô -yicaL%thiruua, ro aua thoiç rfç icrIaeaç..
7 Thid, 3.5, p. 485, "what could not be contained before through you it was contained?
3.43-46, p. 487, "For you, Lord, you have assumed the whole Adam before the Fall
through your mercy; the internal parts, the body, the soul, and their characteristic
properties so as to grant salvation to my entire (existence); for indeed, what was not
assumed was not saved." It is interesting to note the importance that Gregory

198
place.MS The person of Christ is also prominent; 549 further, the author embarks on

a confession of Orthodox faith, recapitulating the doctrines formulated by the

oecumenical councils. 550 For the purpose of the present study it is not only the

references by the homilist to the Incarnation that are of interest, but also the

specific stress on the body and on nuptial imagery. 551 In the third homily on the

Dormition the tomb of the Virgin is compared with a nuptial chamber from which

Mary rises towards the celestial chambers. Mary is also likened to a nuptial

chamber within which the divine Incarnation took place. The homilist says that

the Virgin, full of light, reigns with her son, leaving to us her tomb as a nuptial

chamber. 552 Writing on the same theme, he links the Virgin first to the

Incarnation and then most importantly to the Passion through which the

regeneration of mankind is achieved.553

Nazianzen's statement "what he did not assume he did not save" acquires in the theology
of John of Damascus. See Gregory Nazianzen Epistle 101 and above, chapter II.
John of Damascus, On the Dormition I, 1.8-13, p. 483, "Justly it was said of you that
you are the city of God..."
549 Thid, 3.6-7, p. 485, ... 4i izrevIaai OVK aOeve ava1ceIcaav/4zvQ) 7poath'rp öza aoU
iccrrowrpIeva i.
"°Ibid, 3.15-55, P p. 485-487.
551
See for example, John of Damascus, On the Nativity, 3.10-14, P. 171. See also Nat.
7.25-33, p. 177; On the Dormition II, 14.26-27, p. 532.
552
On the Dormition ifi, 2.20-24, p. 550.
On the Dor,nition II, 10.14-19, pp. 527-528 where the author draws material from the
Song of Songs (4:7). The regeneration of mankind is compared with the creation of the
world. For other references to the Song of Songs see On the Dormition I, 10.36-38, p.
496; 11.5-10, p.496.
199
 The individual features of the Virgin are praised for their participation in

the apprehension of the divine: "Eyes seeing the eternal and unapproachable light,

[eyes] always turned towards the Lord. Ears that hear the divine word and rejoice

in the lyre of the Spirit, that through them entered the Word in order to be

incarnated. Nostrils enchanted by the fragrance of the myrrh of the bridegroom,

CAA4flOih LA5

who is the divine ointment pouring forth from its own will and( his

human nature..." The ekphrasis of the countenance of the Virgin relates the

holiness of the person to the holiness of her body and her icon. In another passage

John refers to the Virgin as a "divine living statue," a phrase that may be

considered as a defence against the charge of idolatry directed against the

Iconophiles. 555 John of Damascus answers the same charge, asserting that the

Virgin is not the pagan mother of the gods and that she has no other children like

the pagan mothers, but the Mother of God who bore the Word of God without the

seed of a man, and whose Dormition testifies to her perfect humanity. 556 The

author also emphasizes the veneration of the body of the Virgin by the apostles at

her Dormition and the way in which it performs miracles by healing illness and

"4 On the Nativity, 9.34 if., p. 179.

" On the Nativity, 9.20, p. 179, '.0 Oeiov t 4uiyuzov àyaAux, éqi' ó &iuzovppaac
ii copáv8ii eeOc, ... On the iconography of the Theotokos see A.Grabar, "Remarques sur
I'iconographie byzantine de Ia Vierge," L 'art paléochrétienne et l'art byzantin, IX,
London, 1979.
6
On the Dormition II, 15.1-35, pp. 532-534.
200
expelling demons, references that probably allude to the rejection by the

Iconoclasts of the veneration of saints' relics.557

"Hail, Mary, all-sweet daughter of Anna; towards you I am drawn again

by desire. How can I depict your noble walk? How your dress? How your graceful

face?"558 The concern about depiction, although referring to words rather than to

an actual icon, reveals the author's preoccupation with the theology of icons and

artistic representation. An interesting example is provided in the first homily on

the Dormition in which the author mentions typological attributes of the Virgin,

employing a vocabulary that belongs to the visual arts. 559 More specifically, the

author employs composite words that point to the prefigurations of the Virgin in

the Old Testament, such as tpoeorypãcp€t, 7tpoedpacxv, tpotinuoav. 560 On the

basis of what has already been posited about the place of the Virgin in

Iconoclasm, I would suggest that the recurring polemic against the Nestorians

557 1bid, 11.8-12, p. 528. The author includes the story of the Jew who, having failed to
pay due respect to the body of the Virgin, had his hands cut off. In the light of this
miracle, his attitude changed and he venerated the relics of the Virgin who restored his
hands to him; On the Dorm ition II, 13.3-20. See also Wortley, "Iconoclasm and
Leipsanoclasm: Leo III, Constantine V and the Relics," 253-279.
558
Oi the Nativity, 11.15-16, p.181.
See for example On the Dormition I, 8.26-29, p. 492. In the second homily on the
Dormition, (5.6-10, pp. 522-523) John conveys the emotion that fills him upon
contemplating the body of the Virgin, fixing his attention upon the features of her face:
"this holy and all-holy and God-worthy body I thought I was embracing with my own
hands: eyes and lips and forehead, neck and cheeks..."
560
For itpo oyp&ç,et from tpo ypwpo meaning 'prefigure', see s.v. in Lampe,
PGL,1148; for 7tpoxccpaoaw (delineate in advance), ibid, 1198; for 1tpo7to0),(impress,
pre-mould), ibid. 1190.
201
may be considered as directed against the Iconoclasts. 56 ' It is by no means

unusual for Byzantine writers to accuse their opponents by attributing to them

ideas -or rather heresies- propounded by 'heretics' who have already been

denounced by the official Church. In this way, the views of the adversaiy were

equated with heresy. John does not clarify whom he refutes (Nestorians or

Iconoclasts) when he says: "Those who acknowledge you as Theotokos are

blessed and those who deny you are cursed." 562 The homily on the Nativity

concludes with the supplication of the author to the Virgin to accept the words of

her sinflul servant who, nevertheless, fervently desires and respects and considers

her as the only hope ofjoy and protectress of his life. 563 In the epilogue emphasis

is given to the role of the Virgin as a mediator between the author and Christ.5M

The conclusion of the three encomia on the Dormition, where the supplication to

the Virgin is accompanied by a confession of faith, is similar: the veneration of

the Virgin means the veneration of the Lord.565

In the second homily On the Dormition John asserts the strong

relationship between Christ and the Mother of God whose "Dormition nobody

would be able to praise adequately even if he had thousands of tongues and

thousands of mouths."566 The Virgin shares attributes of Christ as she is said to

561
On the Nativity, 3.10-12, p. 171; 4.15-17, p. 173.
562 1bü1 11.26-28, p. 182.
3 Ibid, i2.1-3, p. 182.
Ibid. 12.4-5, p. 182, ...az irpoç roy aov Yiov ôz&)..cxcvv KL ao.ripIac àa/3va..
565
On the Dorm ition 1, 14.6-14, pp. 499-500.
In his effort to emphasize the importance of the mystezy, the author employs a
standard humility topos, reducing the impact of the homily in its opening lines insisting,
202
 have been above all other creatures and able to grant mercy to those who venerate

her.567 The same text describes the Incarnation, laying emphasis on the

paradoxical nature of the mystery; the image by which Christ is said to have

compelled himself to enter the womb of the Virgin is characteristic of the

paradox.568 John refers to the story of the Dormition of Mary which, although not

recorded in the Gospels, was already sanctioned by the tradition of the Church.569

John inserts into an imaginary dialogue with the tomb of the Virgin, the story of

the translation of the Marian relics from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the fifth

century by the Augusta Pulcheria.57°

It is also worth noting the lament for the Virgin that John of Damascus

includes in his third homily on the Dormition. The lament is voiced by the author

himself and not by a character in the narrative. Numerous ritual elements are

encountered in this early example of a lament on the Dormition of the Virgin.

Exclamation is used in order to express the distress of the homilist who represents

for instance, that words cannot express what lies beyond words. See the homily 0i the
Dormition II, 1.1-5, P. 516. The absolute accordance of opinion between the Virgin and
Christ is emphasized in line 7.
567
On the Dormition II, 1.15-17, p. 516.
Thid, 2.36-43, p. 519. See also 7.8-16, p. 525. In these passages the greatness of the
Lord is exalted and in this way the paradoxical nature of the mystery is more amply
manifested. An elaborate antithesis is created out of the contrast between the greatness
of the creator and his Incarnation through one of his creatures.
9 Ibid, 18.19 if., p.537 if.
570 1bid, 18.5-68, pp. 536-539. For discussion see Voulet, (op.cit., 168-169) and Jugie
(Mort et Assomption, 166). Cf. Wenger (L 'Assomption de Ia Sainte Vierge, 137) and
Yeftits (op.cit., 276).
-LU.)
I
his congregation.57 ' All the people are shown glorifying the Virgin. 572 Her death,

in which the whole of nature participates,"3 is presented as part of the fate of

human beings but also as part of a divine plan; this is suggested by the repetition

of the word The author says that the Virgin had to die because what is

made of the earth has to return to it in order to be translated to heaven and also

because in this way the earth itself was sanctified, probably an allusion to the

Incarnation. Her death marks the beginning of a second, new existence. The

author employs features characteristic of the lament such as the appeal to people

to join in the lament, and uses the imperative in imitation of the exhortations of

the mourner. 57 ' The author draws a close parallel between Christ surrendering his

spirit to the Father and the Virgin surrendering to the Son.576

571
On the Dormition III, 3.19-20, p. 551, Bccf3aI, ,8af3crI. Th9viycev ,ripi ri7ç ün)ç, / roI
KvpIov uov

572 1bid, 3.9-12, p. 551.

On the Dormition I, 10.25-28, p. 495. The participation of nature in the Dormition of
the Virgin recalls to mind the Crucifixion at which nature recognises her own Lord and
laments him. Another link between the Dormition and the Crucifixion is encountered in
the second homily on the Dormition, 14.23-31, pp. 53 1-532. Here the author attests to
the presence of the Virgin at the foot of the Cross and draws an extremely interesting
contrast between the painless childbirth and the pain that the Virgin experienced at the
Crucifixion when she was pierced by the sword of grief. See the treatment of the same
image by the ninth-century writer George ofNicomedia in his homily on Good Friday;
discussion below in chapter V.
" On the Dormition 111,3.20-25, p.551.
" Ibid, 4.2 1-22, p. 552, 9vyarpeç epovoa2.4p, &Icw r17çaaWSoç àco).ov6iaar.&..
and 24-34, 552-553, Ká'rL8L, ,cárzOz, (5á7lrOra... 5aL.. q,3viaov... &?1.Oe... &i)po... àriOi...
irá6ov... ?xiróöoç.. àparc...
576 Thid 4.24-26, p. 552.
204
 In his Marian homilies John of Damascus dwells on traditional themes,

such as the virginity of Mary, and elaborates typological references that originated

in the second century. His treatment of the Virgin, while reiterating tradition, is

novel in that John portrays Mary as a mother who should be honoured beyond all

creatures yet remain deeply human.

Cosmas Maiouma (c. 6 75-752)

Cosmas of Maiouma (c. 67416-752/4), perhaps the adopted brother of

John of Damascus, 577 was an extremely prolific writer whose hymns were soon

included in the liturgical books of the Church. 578 His compositions have often

The scholarly debate about the identity of the most influential hymnographer after
Romanos the Melode is reviewed and discussed in the monograph by Th. Detorakis,
Kocuàç ô Mthoödç, Bloc ical pyo, Analecta Vlatadon 28, Thessaloniki 1979,
(henceforth cited as Cosmas Melodos). For the origin of Cosmas see Detorakis, op.cit.,
84-85, for his dates, 85-90 and for his adoption by the father of John of Damascus, 90-
91. Detorakis' study has been criticised by scholars for its reliance on hagiographical
sources dating to the tenth century. See A. Kazhdan, "Kosmas of Jerusalem: a More
Critical Approach to his Biography," BZ82,1989, 122-132 and esp. 122-126 and n. 37
on p.125 (repr. in A. Kazhdan, Authors and Texts in Byzantium, London, 1993, X).
Kazhdan demonstrates the way in which references to Cosmas by post-Iconoclastic
writers were modified in order to fit the model of an Iconophile saint and hymnographer.
Ka.zhdan (op. cii., 128-132) also suggests that the profile of Cosmas the Melode was
invested with qualities of the teacher of John of Damascus and concludes that the
triangle Cosmas, John, and John's teacher also named Cosmas resembles to the triangle
of the Barlaam romance and therefore assumes that Cosmas' biography as we know it is
to a great extent a literary development.
578
Detorakis, Cosmas Melodos, 111. The work of Cosmas is published in PG 98, cols.
400-524 (however, many of these hymns are spurious), and in Christ-Paranikas, AGCC,
16 1-204.
205
been confused with those by other hymnographers named Cosmas. 579 Kazhdan

has expressed doubts about whether Cosmas was an Iconophile as it is often

assumed on the grounds of the testimony of posterior sources. 58° The same author

has also attempted to deduce Cosmas' ideological and political stance on the basis

of a content analysis of his work. 58 ' Focusing on the recurrent references of

Cosmas to the Cross Kazhdan assumes that we should not reject the possibility of

Cosmas' having been an Iconoclast, or at least, not an ardent Iconophile. 582 The

author does not fail to note that the Cross was praised by Iconoclasts and

Iconophiles alike, but nonetheless suggests that in the case of Cosmas its frequent

occurrence should shake our apprehension of Cosmas as an Iconophile.'83

Kazhdan compares also the use of the word 'icon' and its derivatives in Cosmas'

poetry as well as in the works of John of Damascus and concludes that "Kosmas

remained lukewarm to this hotly disputed problem of the eighth century... [his]

system of images differed from that of John of Damascus." 5 To the question

whether Cosmas was an Iconoclast Kazhdan answers that the mildest possible

definition is 'neutral'; neutral to the major ideological problem of contemporary

579 Detorakis, Cosmas Melodos, 112-118; Kazhdan, "Kosmas of Jerusalem: a More

Critical Approach to his Biography," 1 2&- 130. Idem, "Kosmas of Jerusalem: Can We
Speak of his Political Views?" LeMuséon 103, 1990,329-346 and esp. 329 (repr. in A.
Kazhdan, Authors and Texts in Byzantium, London, 1993, XI).
5801dem, "Kosmas of Jerusalem: a More Critical Approach to his Biography," 122-123.
581
Idem, "Kosmas of Jerusalem: Can We Speak of his Political Views?" 329-330.
582 Thid 33 1-332.
583
Ibid, 340-34 1. Note, however, Kazhdan's occasional use of arguments ex silentio as
for example on pp. 33 9-340.
Ibid, 342-343 and 346.
206
Byzantium. As far as his "enlisting in the Iconodulic cause," Kazhdan concludes

that this "was probably the work of hagiographers of the tenth century."585

Without attempting a re-appraisal of Kazhdan's work I would suggest that a

content analysis focusing on the references of Cosmas to the Mother of God

proves that the legend of the Iconophile Cosmas propounded by the hagiographers

of the tenth century was not accidental. Even his references to the Cross show a

distinct preoccupation with Christ's Incarnation and Passion. 586 Moreover, as we

shall see below, Cosmas praises the Mother of God throughout his works. If we

accept that the Virgin was a symbolic way employed by the Iconophiles to

express their devotion to the cult of images then we may suggest that Ka.zhdan's

content analysis has been too literal and that in his study he did not take into

consideration the symbolic language of the hymnographical and homiletic corpus

of the Iconoclastic period.

For the purpose of the present study we shall concentrate on the hymns

Cosmas wrote in honour of the Mother of God. In the canon on the Nativity,87

Cosmas lays emphasis on the miraculous Incarnation of the Word of God through

the root of Jesse. 588 The typological imagery of the Virgin is explored in the

585
Ibid. 346.
In the fourth canon the Cross is praised as the instrument of Christ's death that was

foretold to the Virgin by Symeon (Christ-Paranikas, AGCC, p. 175, canon 4, verse 135-
138) while in the seventh canon Cosmas praises the Cross upon which Christ suffered
thus delivering mankind from Adam's original sin (Ibid, p.184, canon 7, verse 13).
Discussion in Kazhdan, "Kosmas of Jerusalem: Ca We Speak of his Political Views?"
331.
587
Cosmas Melodos, On the Nativity, Christ-Paranikas, AGCC, pp.165-169.
Ibid. ode 4, verses 53-59.

207
canon on the Dormition589 where Cosmas draws a parallel between the Nativity of

Christ and the Dormition of the Virgin. 590 The tender, emotional tone that

characterises works of this period is manifested in the canon of Cosmas in which

he depicts the Virgin surrendering her spirit by raising the hands which have held

the Lord. 59 ' In most of his poems Cosmas includes a strophe dedicated to the

Mother of God, in which he praises the paradox of the Incarnation. 592 The

triodion on Good Friday and the canon on Saturday in Holy Week are of

particular interest. The vocabulary and the imagery employed in these two

hymns bear a strong resemblance to the paschal hymns and homilies of the eighth

and ninth centuries. 5 ' In the Saturday canon, Cosmas places the lament for the

dead Christ in the mouth of the women and exhorts his audience to lament with

him who imitates their lament. 595 The compassion of nature is present in this

hymn,596 as well as the figure of Hades, depicted as embittered at the sight of a

589 1bid, 180-1 83, ode 6, verses 93-100.

590 1bid, ode 6, verses 86-92.
591
Ibid, ode 8, verses 146-150.
See for example Cosmas Melodos, Triodion on Monday ofHoly Week, Christ-
Paranikas, 187-188, ode 8, verses 37-44. See also, Cosmas Melodos, Diodion, Tuesday
of Holy Wee/c Christ-Paranikas, 188, ode 8, verses 21-24.
Cosmas Melodos, Triodion, Good Friday, Christ-Paranikas, 194-196 and the Canon
on Saturday in Holy Week, 196-201.
See for example the antithesis between the Jews and Christ in the Triodion on Good
Friday, ode 8, verses 47-50.
Cosmas Melodos, Saturday Canon, Christ-Paranikas, 196-201 and esp. ode 1, verses
4-5.
Ibid, ode 3, verses 21-30. See also ode 8, verses 142-145.
208
deified mortal. 597 The instruments of the Passion and death of Christ become the

instruments of the death of Hades. 598 In the final ode of the canon Cosmas

includes a very interesting dialogue between Christ who is already dead, and

probably buried, and his mother. Christ consoles the Theotokos in four strophes

assuring her that he will be resurrected and will glorify those who glorify her in

faith and desire.5 The promise of Christ is answered by the lament of the Virgin

who says she is pierced by the sword of grief after beholding him as a breathless

corpse.60° The following strophes are spoken by Christ who asserts the defeat of

Hades and the prospect of his resurrection. 601 Perhaps this is the first instance of a

dialogue between the dead Christ and his mother. A similar dialogue between the

Virgin and the dead Christ is to be found in the homily on Good Friday by George

of Nicomedia in the ninth century.602

Theodore and Theophanes Graptos

The story of the two brothers, students of Michael Synkellos and ardent

opponents of Iconoclasm, is perhaps the most famous one of the second period of

Ibid ode 4, verses 53-56.

98 Ibid ode 7, verses 122-123, Ttrpo,raz 5öiç, Ev r cap5Ic 8eauevoç ro y rpo&v'ra
Orri rqv ievpäv,
Ibid, ode 9, verses 166-170, "Do not weep for me mother, seeing in the tomb the son
whom you conceived in your womb without seed; I shall rise again and be glorified and
as God will I exalt unceasingly in glory those who glorify you in faith and desire
(itóOco)."
600 1bid, ode 9, verses 171-175.
601
Ibid, ode 9, verses 176-185.
602
See below chapter V.
209
the controversy. 603 Theodore and Theophanes arrived in Constantinople as the

period opened. They were exiled under Leo V and again under Theophilos for

their Iconophile beliefs. It was Theophilos who in 836 allegedly ordered twelve

iambic verses to be tattooed on the forehead of the two brothers. 6°4 Towards the

end of his life Theophanes Graptos (c.778-845), who was well-known as a

hymnographer,605 was elected bishop of Nicaea. 606 Here we need only to draw

attention to the hymn he wrote on the Annunciation. 607 In this hymn Theophanes

draws upon the Marian literature of his century and introduces a dialogue between

the Virgin and the Archangel, each alternately voicing one strophe. The Virgin is

depicted as hesitant at the words of the angel who assures her that through her

603
The life of the two brothers is recorded in the Vita of Michael Synkellos. S. Vailhé,
"Saint Michelle Syncelle et les deux frères Grapti, saint Theodore et saint Théophane,"
Revue de l'Orient Chretien 6, 1901, 3 13-332 and 610-642 and now M. Cunningham
(ed.), The Life of Michael the Synkellos, with translation and commentary.
604
the iambic verses see S. Eustratiades, "O&xpaviic 6 rparo;" Nea Sion 31, 1936,
343 and the account of the events in the Vita of Michael the Synkellos (Cunningham,
The Life of Michael the Synkellos, 84-8 8 and the commentary in pp.1 56-158 and esp. n.
145 on p. 157 where the editor gives the relevant passages as cited in historiographical
sources).
605
For the works of Theophanes see Eustratiades, "Ocopdvç 6 rpaoç," 3 39-344, 403-
416, 467-478, 525-540, 666-673; NeaSion 32, 1937, 81-96, 187-95, 252-259, 401-408,
569-579; Nea Sion 33, 1938, 317-322, 516-523, 618-623. For the writings of Theodore
see Cunningham, The Life of Michael the Synkellos, 3 8-39. Unfortunately his paracletic
canon in honour of the Theotokos that survives in a Sinaitic manuscript (cod. 1004 in V.
Gardthausen, Catalogus codicum graecorum sinaiticorum, Oxford, 1886, 218) remains
unedited.
606
Eustratiades, "etocavll; 6 Fpwttó;" Nea Sion 31, 405.
607
Theophanes, Canon on the Annunciation, Christ-Paranikas, AGCC, 236-242.
210
God has decided to become incarnate. 608 Mary appears as the second Eve,

conscious of the sin committed by her precursor and scared to believe the words

of the angel who in turn asserts the truth of his news and his veneration of her.609

The speech of the angel repeats and highlights the typological references to the

Virgin. 610 The dialogue is vivid and dominated by the imagery of the Old

Testament; the Virgin represents the accomplishment of the Law and thus her

veneration becomes a praise of the economy of God. 61 ' Finally, Theophanes

eloquently expresses the unification of the two natures of Christ in the womb of

Mary by employing the imagery of light.612

Theodore the Stoudite

Theodore the Stoudite (759-826), whose doctrinal writings were briefly

examined in the previous chapter with reference to the place of the Virgin in

Iconoclasm, is the author of one homily on the Donnition of the Virgin. 613 The

Virgin is described as a queen that the author beseeches to accept his poor

speech, 6 ' 4 as the mountain that God made his dwelling place, the lyre of the

psalmist, the earthly heaven of incomiptibility, the God-lit moon, and the golden

608 Ibid, ode 1, verses 12-15.

609 Ibid ode 3, verses 22-2 7.
610 11,id ode 4, verses 32-35. See also, ode 4, verses 42-43, ode 5, verses 52-53 and 62-63
etc.
Ibid, ode 7, verses 90-95.
612
ibid ode 7, verses 76-85.
613
Theodore Stoudite, In Dormitionem Deiparae, cols.720 B- 729 B.
614 1bft1 col. 720 C.
211
ark fashioned by God.615 Most of the typological images referring to the Virgin

are repeated by the author who aims to heighten the emotional involvement of his

congregation through the use of poetic imagery and composite words. 616 Her role

as mediator on behalf of mankind is particularly emphasized and the author

stresses her perpetual presence and intercession despite her physical absence and

death.617 Being the Mother of God, the Virgin foretells her own death, which is

related by means of an apostrophe in which she addresses her son asking him to

deliver her soul. 618 The apostles who were present at her Dormition greet the

mother of their Lord in a series of salutations that recall the Akathistos and

recapitulate the typological imagery associated with the Virgin.619

Most of the homilists examined were both hymnographers and homilists

and in their homilies they import elements from hymnography. The encomiastic

character of the homilies does not rest on argumentation; moreover ethical

imperatives do not occupy an important place in these texts. On the contrary, the

panegyrics are constructed on the principles of hymnography. The appeal to

emotion is particularly strong in most of the examples studied.

The sheer number of Marian homilies and hymns of the Iconoclastic

period clearly reflects the growing devotion to the Virgin Mary who, in contrast

615
Ibid, cot. 720 D-721A.
616
Ibid col. 720 C- 720 D. Note the use of composite words such as XptoaveTj,
iEpócwtoç OE thp'yTtoç. watcxyoüç.

617 jbfd col. 721 A- 721C. See also 721 D, lcozpl7Oetaa, qnyLi, àU'o&àiroOavoiacr
jzeraaãaa àAA'oi Kcrr&tljrovaa ,repaairIw9az roi' vovç..
618 p, col. 724 A- 724 D.
619 jj cols. 725 B- 726 A.
212
(or rather in addition) to being the protecting figure of the sixth century, gradually

becomes in these works the mother of Christ, more human and tender. This

development can be considered as a response to the challenging debate of

Iconoclasm.

The themes employed in the homilies of the Iconoclastic period are not

new; they spring from the background of Marian literature. Special reference

should be made to the typological images that permeate the homilies and the

hymns of the Iconoclastic period. During the controversy this imagery, whose

development we have already traced in the first and second chapters, becomes a

standard part of encomiastic literary works. The core of the imagery, derived from

the Old Testament, remains essentially the same; but its function is different, in

that it serves a new need that seeks to be expressed. It is the worship and

veneration of the Virgin and her ability to intercede for mankind that are at stake,

and behind the repetition of the Old Testament imagery we may detect the need of

the authors to invest the veneration of the Virgin with the halo of tradition. The

study of the texts reveals that the main preoccupation of the authors was the

correct understanding of the Incarnation and by implication of matter. The

importance attached to the person of the Virgin and to her association with and

share in the glory of Christ indicate the extent to which these aspects of Christian

doctrine were intertwined in the minds of the Iconophiles. The emphasis on the

Virgin in connexion with the Incarnation reveals also that the Iconophile

arguments for the defence of images were based in a large part on the theology of

the Incarnation. Finally, it should be noted that probably for similar reasons the

213
theme of the Crucifixion is magnified in conjunction with the greater prominence

given to the person of the Virgin.

The Lamenting Virgin

The theme of the Crucifixion gained increasing significance for the

definition of the Orthodox faith during the period from the late sixth to the eighth

century. Anastasius Sinaites is of major interest to an understanding of the place

of the Death of Christ in the process of defining Orthodox doctrine. 620 In her

detailed study of Anastasius Sinaites in relation to the rise of the image of the

Anastasis, Kartsonis asserts that "the twin employment of the illustration of the

Crucifixion (in the manuscripts containing Anastasius' Hodegos) to combat first

those who attacked the impassibility of the Logos, and second those who denied

the perfect humanity of Christ, was thus founded on the theme of the Death of

Christ. By using both sides of this coin, Sinaites proved first the immortality and

impassibility of the Logos, and second the mortality and passibility of the

flesh."62 ' The development of the iconography of the Crucifixion clearly reflects

the dogmatic preoccupations of Christian thinkers and through it the sacramental

620
See Kartsonis, Anastasis, 47 if. wherein the author discusses the significance of the
visual representation of the Crucifixion for the refutation by Anastasius Sinaites of the
views of the Theopaschites and Monophysites; eadem, "The Emancipation of the
Crucifixion," 153-187.
621
Kartsonis, Anastasis, 52. To drive home his point Sinaites draws upon material
representations (itperytcnuai paccatg ccn &vtt iat; tp crtct, ltpay).Lattica
aftcrra ica (iro8dcrrcc) and for the use of Hodegos in Iconoclastic florilegia see
Kartsonis, op.ciL,58 if.
214
theology and the evolution of the liturgy. 622 The assertion of the reality of Christ's

Incarnation and Passion finds expression in canon 82 of the Trullan Synod (692)

according to which Christ should henceforth not be represented in the symbolic

form of the Iamb. 623 During the Iconoclastic period there is a clear shift in the

character of the paschal homilies. The comparison between the paschal homilies

of previous centuries and those written during the Iconoclastic period discloses: a)

a distinctly emotional tone that is characteristic of the whole of homiletic

literature composed during the eighth and ninth centuries and b) a growing

emphasis on the death and burial of Christ. Already in the seventh century

Anastasius Sinaites had drawn attention to the Crucifixion in order to defend

himself against the Theopaschites who asserted that when Christ died on the

Cross it was only his body that suffered and not his soul, that is, it was vulnerable

622
Kartsonis, "The Emancipation of the Crucifixion," 166 if.; 0. Dix, The Shape of the
Liturgy, London 1945, repr. 1964, 145 if.; Taft, The Great Entrance.
623
Cf. Anastasius Sinaites, Hodegos, chapters 12 and 13 in K.H. Uthemann, Anastasii
Sinaitae Opera. Viae Dur, Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca 8, Turnhout, 1981. In
the words of Kartsonis (Anastasis, 5 8-59), canon 82 specifically prescribed that Christ
should be depicted as a man in memory of "his life in the flesh, his Passion and his
salutary death and the redemption which has thence accrued to the world" For the
canon see Mansi, XI, col. 978. For canon 81 in which the theopaschite trisagion formula
was anathematized see Kartsonis, "The Emancipation of the Crucifixion," 177-178. See
also, J. Williams, "Use of Sources in the Canons of the council in Trullo," B LXVI,
1996, 470-488 and esp. 477-479 where the author discusses the canons relevant to
sacred images and objects. In the appendix 1, (op.cit., 485) Williams demonstrates that
canons 68, 73 and 82 do not refer to any previous council, synod, theologian or Biblical
text.
215
humanity that encountered death and not impassible divinity. 624 The Passion of

the Lord exemplified in the clearest possible way the reality and the fullness of

the Incarnation on the basis of which the veneration of images was defended. The

fact that incarnational theology was emphasized in the literature of the

Iconoclastic period was pointed out with reference to the writings of the

Iconophile authors examined above. Furthermore, the paschal homilies revealed

the fundamental importance that the correct understanding of the Incarnation and

of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the Cross had for the soterio logical theology

of the Church.

The relationship between the cult of images, the Passion of the Lord, and

the veneration of the Theotokos is suggested in the treatise by John of Damascus

on the veneration of the holy icons written at the outset of the Iconoclastic period:

"Who has ever seen death worshipped or suffering revered? Yet we worship the

bodily death of my God and his saving suffering. We worship thine image. We

worship all that is thine, thy ministers, thy friends, and above all thy mother, the

Theotokos."625 John of Damascus relates the suffering of Christ to the worship of

icons, the Theotokos and the saints in a way that encapsulates the fundamental

principles underlying the defence of icons and founded on incarnation theology.

In the Synodikon of Orthodoxy the same thought is described in the following

terms: "In the images, in fact, we may contemplate the suffering that our Lord

endured for our sake, the Cross, the tomb, the death and the annihilation of

624
Uthemann, 12.3.16-18 and discussion in Kartsonis, Anastasis, 45-49.
625
John of Damascus, De Imaginibus 1.67, 168 (=PG 94, col. 128 ID)
216
Hades..."626 Furthermore, the association of the Virgin with matter is evident in

the Synodikon where the objects on the altar are seen as prefigurations of the

Virgin Mary, the holy vessel that would give birth to Christ.627

Iconoclasm marks a clear change in the understanding of the Passion and

the burial of the Lord, a shift that certainly did not occur at a particular instance

but took place over a period of time. If we compare, however, the earlier paschal

homilies by Hesychius of Jerusalem, or Leontius of Constantinople 628 to the ones

written by John of Damascus or Germanos I of Constantinople we see that the

subject matter is treated in a distinctly different way.

For example, in his paschal homily the contemporary of Cyril of

Alexandria, Hesychius of Jerusalem (d. after 451), asserts the unity of the divine

and the human nature of Christ, emphasising the single subjectivity of the Lord.
629
The homilist elaborates the theme of the person of Jesus and the relationship

between the two natures. It is interesting to note that he stresses the suffering of

Christ and uses it as proof of his humanity while the miracles are evidence of his

626 j Gouiliard, "Le Synodikon de i'Orthodoxie. Edition et Commentaire," TM2, 1967,

1-3 16. See esp., op.cit., 47, Ev yap raiç eiscdazv Op5.ev rà fiirEp fjuãv roi zteair&rov
thth, róv o'ravpôv, rO y rápov, roy 4Siv vicpoiuevov icat avA.evóevov,...
627
Gouillard, "Synodikon de i'Orthodoxie," 49-51 (lines 76-81).
628 See the edition by M. Aubineau, Homélies Pascales (cinq homélies inédites),
[Hésychius de Jerusalem, Basile de Seleucie, Jean de Béryte, Pseudo-Chrysostome,
Léonce de Constantinople], SC 187, Paris, 1972. For Leontius of Constantinople see P.
A lien and C. Datema, Leontius Presbyter of Constantinople, Fourteen Homilies,
Byzantina Austraiiensia 9, Brisbane, 1991, Homily VII, On Good Friday (CPG 7889),
87-94.
629
ToO La1capIov 7iavIov, ,rpea/3vrépov 1epoaoSjwv, eiç ro â-yzov irácicz (henceforth
Paschal Homily II), in Aubineau (ed.), Homélies Pascales, 122-126.
217
divinity. 630 By the same token, his death is seen as pointing to his humanity, his

resurrection to his divinity. 631 In Hesychius' first homily on Easter, the

soteriological aspect of the mystery1 given explicit prominence. 632 The

resurrection of the Lord, Hesychius writes, led also to the resurrection of Adam

and the ascension of Christ to the throne of the Father, where he is called to sit on

his right hand, symbolising the ascent of mankind to heaven.633

In his paschal homily Leontius of Constantinople 634 refers to the

prophecies about the Passion and especially those concerning the resurrection of

the Lord.635 He employs the standard topos of anti-Jewish polemic asserting that

the ancestor of the Jews was the devil. 636 He recounts the dramatic circumstances

of the apparition of Christ to the Marys at the tomb and the noteworthy incidents

associated with it. 637 Leontius refers also to the sacrament of baptism that was

administered on Good Friday and exhorts the newly baptised to follow a Christian

630
Hesychius of Jerusalem, Paschal Homily II, 124.
631
Ibid, 122.
632
To1 /LwcapIov 7-IooZIov, irpeaflvi.pov 7epoao2i)zwv, eiç rô ãytov Háca, (henceforth
Paschal Homily I), in Aubineau (ed.), Homélies Pascales, 62-68.
633Hesychius of Jerusalem, Paschal Homily I, 66-68.
634 ontj uS lived and composed his works in Constantinople in the sixth century. For
the dates, identity and homiletic works of Leontius see the introduction by Michel
Aubineau (Homélies Pascales, 341-344). The title of the homily reads: Toi) Ev àyIozç
rarpôç ipii)v AeovrIov peo6umpou Kwvaavrzvovi Oaç eiç to ãyiov Iláo"ta
(henceforth cited as Leontius, Paschal Homily), in Aubineau (ed.), Homélies Pascales,
368-3 85.
635
Leontius of Constantinople, Paschal Homily, 368 and 374-376 where the author
refers to the prophecies of Sophonius (3:8), David (Ps. 15), and Isaiah (33:10).
636
Ibid 372-374 and 376-378 (see 6.2-5, Kat rtç 0 Jrarl7p riv lovöaIwv; '0 özaf3oAoç..)
637 Thid 370-372.
218
way of life.638 Mary is mentioned briefly in a phrase in which Leontius says that

"we no longer mourn Adam, but we glorify Christ; we do not blame Eve but we

pronounce blessed the Virgin Maiy."639

In these two examples of earlier paschal homilies we see that the

treatment of the subject matter reflects the theological concerns of the day,

namely the way in which humanity and divinity coexist in Christ, concerns that

were conveniently adapted by the author to the basic features of the feast. In the

course of the centuries there is an accumulation of standard themes that gradually

become part of the confession of the true faith. New elements, however, are

constantly being introduced into the treatment of particular subjects. In the case of

the paschal homilies the introduction of the Virgin Mary, and especially of the

Marian lament, may be considered as a consequence of the Iconoclastic

controversy, especially since in the pre-Iconoclastic period there is practically no

example of a paschal homily that mentions the Theotokos.

The emergence of the person of Mary in paschal homilies and in short

poems, the stavrotheotokia, 640 that were incorporated into the services has to be

understood against the background of the controversy. The re-emergence of the

lament, after a silence that lasted almost two centuries since the kontakia of

Romanos the Melode, may be seen as confirmation of the above proposition,

638 1bid, 378-384.

639 1bid, 368.
The stavrotheotokia are a particular sort of the otokia, being hymns dedicated to the
Mother of God. In the stavrotheotokza the hymnographer elaborates the theme of Mary
at the foot of the Cross. For examples and discussion see below.
219
given that the Virgin acquired unprecedented importance during Iconoclasm

because of her role in the Incarnation. The lament of Mary illuminates the human

parent of Christ, revealing unmistakably the assumption of matter and the

possibility of its deification. Hence, the writers of the period place particular

emphasis on the depiction of the Virgin as an earthly mother who gives birth to

her son and God and buries him.Ml Sources for the lament of this period may

have included the earlier hymns of the fifth and sixth centuries that were

examined in the previous chapter. No doubt the style of homiletics of this period

would have facilitated the introduction of hymnographical themes due to its

encomiastic character and the use of prose rhythm. In contrast with the period

following the restoration of icons in 843, in which there is a proliferation of

Marian laments, homilies surviving from the Iconoclastic period are few in

number. The earliest of the laments dating to the Iconoclastic period are ascribed

to Germanos of Constantinople and Theodore the Stoudite.

Homiia in Sabbatum Sanctum

At this point I would like to draw attention to a text written by John of

Damascus which does not contain a Marian lament as such but which illustrates

the complicated interdependence of the themes mentioned above.M2 The homily

on Holy Saturday clearly suggests that the Passion of the Lord was considered

the most effective demonstration that the Incarnation was proof of God's love for

'i. Kalavrezou, "When the Virgin became Meter Theou," DOP 44, 1990, 165-172.
642
John of Damascus, Homilia in Sabbazum Sanctum, Kotter V, 12 1-146, (=PG 96, cols.
601-644 =CPG 8059).
220
mankind.M3 To a great extent, the homily revolves around the theme of the

Incarnation and the repetition of the dogmatic formulations of previous

centuries. The suffering of Christ is the pretext for the homilist to accentuate

the human qualities of Jesus within a framework of dynamic soteriology. TM5 The

parallel between the Nativity and the Entombment is drawn by John, who

encourages his audience to share the Passion in order to share also the gloiy of the

Messiah.M6

In terms of imagely and vocabulary, the homily of John of Damascus can

be seen as one of the homilies that served as a model for the composition of

Marian laments of the ninth and tenth centuries. 7 The antithesis between past

and present is absent since there is no mourning; however, the antithetical pattern

is developed around the theme of Christology. The glory of God is contrasted

with the horror of human death in numerous rhetorical images inspired by the

John of Damascus, Homilia in Sabbatum Sanctum, 2. 1-8.

Ibid, 12-19.
For the Chalcedonian symmetry between the human and the divine idioms of Christ
and its reception and evolution, see K.H. Uthemann, "Christ's Image Versus
Christology," The Sixth Century: End or Beginning?, P. AlIen and E. Jeifreys (eds.),
Byzantina Australiensia 10, Brisbane, 1996, 197-223 and esp. 200-201 and n. 10. For the
homily see John of Damascus, Homilia in Sabbatum Sanctum, 2-3.
516 Ibid. 3.1-3, Xptaroç v aravpØ avvE2&oev, icai COLVWVO1 ro)v ira9iiiidrwv, (Va iccit

rç &$ç cthroi) yevth/zEOa...XpwrOç airapyávoiç icat cnvöOaz ?ca9apaig vezJrrerai...

The same exhortation to share the Passion and prepare for the Resurrection is repeated at
the end of the homily, 34-36. John cites the ten virgins in order to transmit the ethical
imperatives that characterize the Christian way of life, 35.24-41.
See below, chapter V.
221
Psalms and the Scriptures.648 The theme of the giver of life lying breathless is

elaborated, and the defeat of Hades is described in vivid scenes full of dynamic

action.649 The homilist uses the present tense for the description of the Passion

and the conquest of the Underworld.650 Finally, it should be noted that nature,

sympathising with the Passion of Christ, figures large in the imagery of this part

of the homily.65 ' As we have seen in this brief analysis of the homily on Saturday

of Holy Week, John, though not mentioning to the Virgin Mary, dwells on the

theme of the Incarnation and connects it with the Passion. In his homily on Good

Friday he refers to Mary only in passing but stresses the paradox of her divine

birth which became the cause of the salvation of the first virgin of paradise and of

the whole human race.652

648
See for example, Homilia in Sabbatum Sanctum, 20-21. Reversing the saying of the
Deuteronomy (11:23) according to which whoever hangs from the cross is cursed, John
foreshadows the imagery that would be used in the threnos in later centuries: Ziuepov
lcpeuarcxt brz tov o Ev i)öczazv rqv icpqzáacrç... Elaborating on Psalm 79, the
homilist creates one of the most celebrated images in Passion literature, contrasting
Christ seated upon the cherubim as God with him hanging from the Cross as a criminal.
The homily of John reads: V aOijwvoç irz r&v Xspovt3iu óìç &eOç ó.iç icprroç Erz
c'rcrvpol) icpi.uaraz,... (21.6-7).
M9 Jbid,22.1-2. For the destruction of Hades see 22.4-13.
650
Ibid 22 17 24
651
For example, ibid,21.16-20, 22.25,21.15-18.
652
John of Damascus, Homilia in sanctam para.sceven et in Crucem, PG 96, cols. 589-
600. For references to the Virgin see col. 589 B.
222
In Dominici Corporis Sepulturam

The first instance of a Marian lament, probably originating in the

Iconoclastic period, may be by Germanos I of Constantinople; the homily in

which the lament occurs is entitled On the Burial of the Divine Body of Our Lord

and Saviour Jesus Christ. 653 Authorship, however, is often a challenging question

in the domain of homiletics. However, if we accept the attribution to Germanos I,

the text acquires a significance for the development of the lament in this

particular period. But since the evidence is inconclusive, I shall study the text in

an attempt to identify elements of the lament that might help both to date it and to

attribute it correctly.

The homily begins with a piece of anti-Jewish polemic, a typical feature

of homilies on the Crucifixion and the Burial of the Lord. 654 Themes that may

point to an earlier date, unless Germanos II copied earlier examples, are the

emphasis placed on the Incarnation as the assumption of human nature in its

entirety and especially of human characteristics, such as toil, fatigue, prayer,

653Germanos I, Oratio in divini corporis Domini ac Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi

sepulturam, PG 98, cols. 243-290. The homily is considered as dubious by Geerard
(CPG, vol. ifi, no. 8031, 510) who followed J. Darrouzès ("Germain II," DSp XXXIX-
XL, Paris, 1965, 311) who followed the attribution of the text to Germanos II, also
patriarch of Constantinople, by Lagopates, op.ci:., 126. Lagopates does not provide any
evidence for his attribution of the homily to Germanos H, apart from the fact that it is
mentioned under his name in the codex Monacensis 393 (I. Hardt, Caralogus codd-mss.
Bibliorhecae R Bavaricae, 6 vols., 1806-1812, cod. 393, ff.69-87).
654jr,
Dominici Corporis Sepulturam, cols.244-248 and 273f. See above, chapters 1 and
II.
223
suffering, shedding of blood, and burial. 655 More revealing are the passages where

I believe the author alludes to Iconoclasm. The phrase about the victory of Christ

being transferred to the whole of the assumed nature is reminiscent of the famous

quotation from Basil the Great, 656 reproduced by John of Damascus, about the

honour of the icon being transferred to the prototype. 657 Another possible allusion

to Iconoclasm is the mention of the uncircumscribability of Christ as a paradox of

the Incarnation.658 The epithet ?vepIypciirroç was definitely in wide use at least as

early as the first or second century A.D., but one of the first instances in which we

encounter it in connexion with the Passion is in the homily by John of

Damascus. 659 Furthermore, the faithful are described as irpoaicvvira4 a term that

may well allude to Iconoclasm, especially since it is followed by a reference to

655
Ibid, col. 256 B. See also, col. 261D.
656
Basil the Great, De Spiritu Sancto, SC 17 bis,Paris, 1968, 18.45.
657k
Dominici Corporis Sepulturam, col. 256A, 1-ISE vIici roi Xpicrroii irpOç ã7racccv
Sia/3aIvez vv çcn)azv, zç ainôç riv àirapiv rpoa5tafk.. See also ibid, col. 277 ... icai
jzvijiovi ot voôç évet'IOet brtCo.,yp áirxov á)ç apa4uvGoitwvoç vvjiirEpa,... It is
noteworthy that the word Eiri'páçoøv means, according to Lampe (PGL, 523), to paint
in outline. The only earlier record of the word is in Diadochus of Photike (De
Perfectione Spirituali, J.E. Weis-Liebersdorf, (ed.), Teubner, 1912, chapter 84, line 14,

p. 124). Use of the word should probably be taken to signif' the text concerns
Iconoclasm, especially since the word is not the only example of a vocabulary typical of
the Iconoclastic period. For similar words see above.
658
Ibid col. 257 B, V ?vrepIpcorroç, irz pç àv9poirozç ovvavaotpEçocraz ãv9pwiroç
7E70vU) .
659
The first recorded use of the word is by Clement of Alexandria (c.150-2l5 A.D.). See
s.v. in Lampe, PGL, 183. John of Damascus, Homilia in Sabbatum Sanctum, PG 96,
cols. 601-644. See esp. cot. 632A-B.
224
Abraham as the apziwypthpoç of the death and the burial of the Lord.66° The

sacrifice of Abraham is seen as a prefiguration of the Passion of the Lord.66'

Moreover, the text refers extensively to the Passion in relation to the natures of

Christ, a theme that reveals the preoccupation of the writer with theopaschism.662

The orator introduces the Virgin in order to explain the paradoxical nature of the

mystery.663

The homily does not follow the sequence of the events prior to and after

the Crucifixion. The first part is dedicated to an explanation of the Incarnation,

whereas in the second part the lament of the Virgin is introduced in order to

evoke an emotional response in the audience. in the third part the homily revolves

around typological themes relative to the Passion of the Lord and concludes with

a pastoral exhortation to the preacher's audience to follow the example of the

philanthropy of Christ and to recognise the second person of the Trinity in every

hungry, naked and destitute person they see before their door. 6 Even in the

second part the style of the text is not that of a simple narration. The events are

° In Dominici Corporis Sepulturam, col. 277 D-280 A, icai iwiçoi roirov

lrpoo'icvvllrai oyovi8'vrec ày&).41wOa,...Kar7)19Ev 'Af3paczu ó apzvyp&pog riç
Xpioroi) raqç icai riçàvacráawç. For the use of the word lrpoolcvvrrrai see s.v. in
Lampe,PGL, 1177.
' Ibid, col. 280 A, Au qx5repa yap è,ri rØ à,r&4i irazöi irpoeápaev. Eireiro ri7ç
eyaçflovtiçrof. Oeoi rqv rpon)iwxizv... For the word irpon)iriixLç cf. Meliton of
Sardis, On the Pascha, 39, ...&i9eia v r Aaçi) rpoerwrcó9q and 40, Eyvero ov o
taôç rtiroç 2rpoKevv/.zawç..
662 In Dominici Corporis Sepulturam, cots. 268 D-269 A.
3 Ibid, col. 260 C-D, 265A.
The second part occupies cols. 277 B-285 C and the epilogue cols. 285 C-289 B.
Note especially cot. 289 A.
225
related through the eyes of the lamenting Virgin who recapitulates the typological

references to herself, Christ and his Passion.665 In an emotionally charged

monologue the Virgin addresses her dead son, wondering about the mystely that

her eyes behold. 6 The address 'my child and my God' echoes the hymn of

Romanos on Mary at the Foot of the Cross. 667 The prophecy of Symeon about the

sword that would pierce Mary's heart is mentioned in the homily by Germanos

who takes it a step further than Romanos, presenting Mary as demanding of

Symeon an answer to her inquiry about the time of the Resurrection.668 Another

theme of the lament that is used in the homily is the appeal to the past and

especially to the miracles of Jesus which are contrasted with the fate he suffers

though himself the benefactor. 669 The people healed by Christ are asked by his

mother to come and witness his miracles. 670 The appeal to nature that we

encountered in this text is altered here to an appeal to the people to mourn with

the mother.67'

665
Ibid, col. 269 A-D with references to Psalms 37 and 103 and the prophecy of Isaiah
40, 12. Thid, col. 272, in which the Virgin refers to herself as the ladder, the gold vessel
of manna, the God-trodden mountain.
"'Ibia col. 269C-D.

Ibid, col. 269C, Tic, ,rai, icai Oeôç f iiyoiroioç ovyicaráaciç; Also col. 272D, '12

Thai, öru iovpyc riç M77rpoç, ... For Romanos, see supra, chapter II.
Ibid, col. 272 C. See also chapter V for the treatment of the prophecy by George of
Nicomedia in the second half of the ninth century.
9 Ibid, col. 273 A-B.
67Og,
col. 273 B.
67
Ibid, col. 273 B.

226
 Anti-Jewish polemic is used not only in the introduction of the homily but

also in the lament of the Virgin. 672 The invective against the Jews is linked with

the theme of the juxtaposition of past and present. 673 The antithesis concerns the

honour with which the Jews welcomed Jesus in Jerusalem and the dishonour of

his Crucifixion. 674 The Jews, however, are not the only source of bitterness for the

Mother of God. More than the presence of enemies, it is the absence of friends

that hurts Mary. 675 The account in the Gospel according to which the disciples

forsook Jesus and fled (Mt. 26:56) becomes a source of inspiration for the

homilist who has Mary lamenting the ingratitude of mankind. Among those

disciples Peter is singled out being the person the Virgin addresses in her lament,

first accusing him of fleeing and then encouraging him to come to his sense!and

not to despair, leaving Judas to hang himself from the tree. 676 In a rather dramatic

and distinctly maternal way, she urges him to repent (confess), mourn and make

haste so that the good thief would not be the first to gain the side of the Lord.677

The lament contains no actual dialogue between the Virgin and Christ or Peter

but the apostrophe introduced by the author creates an illusion of drama and gives

the audience the impression of a dialogue. I believe this is the first attempt to

672
Ibid. cot. 273 D.
673
Ibid. cot. 273 D.
674
Ibid cot. 273 D.
675
Ibid cot. 276 A, 01 q,Itoi ICL 01 irA.iiaiov, iroU; lloi) eioivoi9eç &cpwroOviwceiv
,ccvxcóuevoz;
676 pj cot. 276 A-D, and esp. 276 D.

677 1bk1 cots. 276 D-277 A, and esp. 276 D.

227
incorporate a Marian lament into a homily after the model established by

Romanos the Melode.

The emphasis placed by the author on typology and incamational

theology, his vocabulary, the elaboration of the Passion that recalls the homily on

Holy Saturday by John of Damascus, and the importance attached to the role of

the Virgin in the Crucifixion all suggest that the author must have been Germanos

I of Constantinople and not Germanos II.

Theodore the Stoudite, Oratio Catechelica in sanctum magnum Paschalis diem

dominicum

The Mother of God and the Passion of the Lord are themes which

attracted the attention of Theodore the Stoudite. At this point we shall concentrate

on his paschal homily which, although catechetical in character, maintains most

of the elements characteristic of the paschal homilies in the Iconoclastic period.

Apart from the beginning of the homily where Theodore repeats a part of the

paschal homily by John Chrysostom, the author ponders on the theme of the

regeneration of mankind and its liberation from the tyranny of death.678

An antithetical pattern is woven around the Jews and the Lord who did not

follow their example but, on the contrary, responded to it with the kindness

befitting the Creator. 679 That is why we have to face the threats of malevolent

678
Theodore Stoudite, In Sanctum Pascha, PG 99, cols.709 A-720 B. See esp. col.7 13 A.
679 1bid, col. 713 B-7l3 C.
228
people with courage, claims the orator. 680 Whether the author refers to the

Iconoclastic controversy or whether he uses this passage as anti-Jewish invective

is not clear. In any case, the two are so closely linked that no distinction can be

made. Each of the misdeeds of the Jews is contrasted with a miracle of Jesus.68'

Within the framework of anti-Jewish invective Theodore relates the events before

and during the Crucifixion, the humiliation of Christ in the court, his nailing to

the Cross, the gall and the vinegar, the thorns, the piercing of his side etc., all of

which are given a theological interpretation. 682 The Crucifixion of the Lord took

place, says Theodore, so that the Jews would have no longer have an excuse for

their lack of faith. By his Crucifixion the Lord expelled demons and healed

original sin.683 He had his side pierced for the redemption of the woman made

from the side of Adam, because the Passion of the Lord did not bring salvation

only to men but also to women. 684 And indeed, Adam would be saved by the

childbirth of Mary who would bring forth a child without the intervention of a

man.685 The piercing of the side of Jesus is given so much importance because of

its association with the mysteries of baptism and Holy Communion. 686 For the

same reason Theodore makes much of the rpornctvqcrç of Jesus by the Jews who

scorned him at the Crucifixion but who will bend their knee to him at the Last

° Ibid, cot. 716 A, &a 'roi'ro oi3v icexi fjaeiç ôço&owv yEvvaIo.ç pezv raç rãv roviipv
&vOpoiiriiv àirezAáç..
Ibid, cot. 713 D.
2 Ibid, cols.716A-720A.
3 Ibid, cot. 716 A.
Ibid, cot. 716 B.
Ibid cot. 716 C.

229
 Judgement like the rest of creation. 687 The role of nature, the only created thing to

recognise its lord and creator, is highlighted. 688 Thus, the sun was hidden

darkening the earth and the earth trembled not being able to sustain the sight of

the crucified Lord. 689 The senseless earth is contrasted with the sensible beings,

the Jews, who do not perceive what it is the creation tries to show them.69°

In the paschal homily of Theodore we find a shift in style, which may be

summarised as follows: the homily is imbued with an emotional character that

was missing in previous centuries. In fact, this characteristic permeates the whole

homiletic corpus of the Iconoclastic period and is not limited merely to paschal

homilies. Apart from this emotional quality there is an element of dramatization

which renders the events related more vivid and so heightens the emotional

responses of the audience. The part played by nature also becomes much more

obvious and dynamic as the contrast between the ingratitude of the Jews and the

veneration of nature grows sharper. Finally, the Mother of God, more or less

absent from the paschal homilies of the previous centuries, is included here as a
ilc,n 6.t-r.
I which, however, may be considered a foretaste of the lamenting

Virgin that was to appear in the homilies of the following centuries.

lbid, col. 716 C.

7 Ibid, cot. 717 B.
8 Ibid, col. 717 C, ... & -rIaLço ty'óiae roy avr7)çeo7r&rqv K 477/Liovpyov.
689 Th1d cot. 717 C.
69
Ibid. cot. 717 D.
230
Collections of hymns on the Mother of God

The short poems known as stavrotheotokia gradually became a separate

sub-genre in the Iconoclastic period and as we will see that some of the most

celebrated writers of the ninth century, like Joseph the Hymnographer and Leo the

Wise, composed this sort of hymn. The stavrotheotokia can be considered a sub-

division of the theotokia, that is, of the short hymns written in honour of the

Virgin Mary. At this point a methodological clarification is necessary. Like all

liturgical texts, both the theotokia and the stavrotheotokia cannot be either dated

or attributed with any certainty. This is so because the hymns, just like icons,

were not supposed to be signed by their authors, and authorship was not

important since the hymns had a specifically devotional character. In many cases

we are able only to attribute hymns to one author or another because he has

recorded his name in the acrostic of the poem. This was the only kind of signature

that hymnographers were allowed. In all other cases the researcher needs to rely

on the manuscript tradition which is not always trustworthy. To these facts we

should add that hymns were often 'edited' (in most cases shortened) by monks or

choir-masters in order to serve the requirements of a particular liturgical setting.

In the past scholars who have studied Byzantine hymnography have tried in vain

to give a more or less concise picture of their subject and to establish the corpus

of each hymnographer. As the numerous studies have proven this is not possible.

One of the best scholars to have tackled the problem, Henrica Follieri, published

the Initia Hymnorum, silently acknowledging this methodological difficulty.69'

691
H. Follieri, Initia Hymnorum Ecclesiae Graecae, 5 vols., Vatican, 1960-1966.
231
The scope of the present study does not allow me to dedicate the space and time

that a detailed study of the manuscripts containing theotokia and stavrotheotokia

would require.

In his study of megalynaria, that is hymns in honour of the Crucifixion

and Burial of the Lord, Theocharis Detorakis discusses the problem of dating and

attribution and concludes that perhaps we should examine the first triodia, the

first collections of hymns for Lent and Holy Week. 692 Detorakis argues that the

date these hymns were introduced into the liturgical books of the Orthodox

Church cannot be determined with accuracy. A study of the development of the

Marian lament shows that in fact megalynaria that were incorporated into the

services of the Orthodox Church after the eleventh century were nothing other

than a compilation of themes and images which first appeared in fifth- and sixth-

century hymnography further elaborated in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Just like their literary predecessors, megalynaria are characterised by

vivid imagery and a distinctly emotional tone that expresses both an

apophthegmatic definition of the Orthodox doctrine and a ritual expression of

692
Detorakis, "'Avic&rta trycxvâ.pta 'toi MyãXou Zaâtou," EEBS MZ', 1987-
1989, 221-246 and esp. 223. S.Eustratiades ("1! coxcmeiatoi MryàXou Zaâ'rou,"
Nea Sion 32, 1937, 16 if. and Nea Sion 33, 1938, 19-28 and 370-377) has correctly
pointed out that the megalynaria of the Epitaphios appeared in the eighth centuly, but he
goes on to assert that they were not introduced into liturgical books before the fourteenth
centwy. Detorakis objects to the latter point maintaining that it would be very strange if
we did not find these troparia in mss. dating prior to the fourteenth century and suggests
that researchers should set out to discover the first triodia
-.Li.
grief over the Crucifixion.693 As far as the theotokia and the stavrorheotokia are

concerned we may propose that although their attribution is not certain, it is

generally accepted that they were composed by authors of the Iconoclastic period,

such as Andrew of Crete, Cosmas of Maiouma and Theodore the Stoudite. The

stavrotheotokia refer specifically to the Virgin lamenting at the foot of the Cross

and as far as we know Theodore is probably the writer to be credited with the

writing of theotokia for the forty days of Lent. 6 The date of their introduction

into the services of the Church is not known with any certainty. However, taking

into consideration the date of their composition (in the eighth and ninth centuries)

we may suggest that they were gradually introduced in the liturgical books of the

Church after the restoration of icons in 843, at the time that the cult of the Virgin

was given new impetus. 695 The theotokia and the stavrotheotokia were compiled

and circulated in the form of distinct collections called the Theotokarion. 696 These

books contained anthologies of hymns by Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus,

Theodore the Stoudite, Joseph the Hymnographer, Photius of Constantinople,

693
It has to be noted, however, that grief is never devoid of joy; the grief for the
Crucifixion is followed by the joy for the Resurrection. The combination of the two is
the expression ofapjto.%i)iri, the bitter joy. See s.v. in Lampe, FGL, 1519 and John
Climacus, Scala Paradisi PG 88, col. 804B. Regarding homilies on the Passion see
below.
694
Triodion Katanykiikon, Athens, 1960, 8-9. The first to compose stavrotheozokia was
Cosmas the Melode who wrote a hymn for each day of the Holy Week. Cosmas was
followed by Theodore and Joseph from the monastery of Stoud ion.
695
See below, chapter V.
696
S. Choraites, "Theotokarion," MThHE, vol. 6, cols. 3 14-316.
-,
George of Nicomedia, the nun Thecla, John Mauropous, etc. in the eight tones.697

Among them we recognise some of the most celebrated writers of Marian

homilies and hymns of the Iconoclastic and post-Iconoclastic period. The

character of these hymns is encomiastic and emphasis is laid on the virginal birth

of Christ,698 the typological images of the Virgin, 6 and on the supplication of the

hymnographer who seeks her intercession for the salvation of his soul and of

mankind. The appeal of the poet to the Virgin is a form that is to be found in all

the hymns in these collections practically without exception. 70° The form of the

canon ascribed to Theodore the Stoudite is to be noted: in the first troparion of

each ode, the faithful supplicates the Mother of God; in the second troparion the

Virgin supplicates Christ; in the third Christ answers the deesis of the Theotokos;

and in the fourth the Virgin informs the believer of the answer given by Christ.70'

Perhaps the persistence of the theme of the Virgin as a mediator between God and

691
The first printed Theotokarion was compiled by the monk Nicodemus of Naxos who
collected hymns on the Virgin Mary in the eight tones, surviving in Athonite
manuscripts, G. Mousaios (ed.), Ii.çoavoç vç 4etircxpeévov iroz &oroicapzov. Nov,
rozxüov az d)pai&rarov óicrcóiov ivpzov 4ipcovra5iio icavóvaç irpoç riv
YjrepayIccv Oeorócov, Constantinople, 1849 (henceforth cited as Theotokarion).
Apparently, Mousaios published a revised version of the first printed theotokarion by
Nicodemus the Hagioreites (Venice, 1796). These collections have only minor
differences. For the present study I shall use the edition by Mousaios.
698
See for example the canon by John of Damascus, Theotokarion, 23.
Andrew of Crete, Theotokarion, 35. See also, Theodore the Stoudite, Theotokarion,
45.
70°Ibid, 55. See also Theodore the Stoudite, Theorokarion, 44-45.
701
Theodore the Stoudite, first canon in the first tone, Theotokarion, 1-4. See also,
Choraites, "Theotokarion," col. 315.
-, _,
Li
man may be relevant to Iconoclasm and to the rejection of the intercessory prayers

by Constantine V that we examined above. The earliest hymns included in the

collection belong to Andrew of Crete and John of Damascus. At this point, it

would be appropriate to stress the fact that all the hymns date to the period of the

Iconoclastic controversy, especially to the eighth and ninth centuries.

Stavrotheotokia

According to the Triodion, the liturgical book containing the Lenten

hymns, the stavrotheotokia were meant to be sung during Lent and especially on

Wednesdays and Fridays, the days on which the Church commemorates the

Passion of the Lord, although a stavrotheotokion is included in every service of

Lent. Of all this rich material we shall concentrate on the hymns referring to the

passion of the Lord witnessed by the Theotokos. The lament read in the Matins of

Thursday in the second week of Lent clearly reveals the dramatic influence of

Romanos, whose hymn Mary at the Foot of the Cross is simply paraphrased. The

text of the stavrotheotokion below is taken from the Triodion.702

Romanos the Melode Stavrotheotokion

Toy iötov &pva t &.tva; epouaa 'Apva coy ácnrç i 'Aj.tv; iroc Opöxa,
itpOç acpayrv alcoJ.LEvov fKoA.o1)OEt t Mczpia I itpOç apav ittaica6ovta, mpociiwç
cpuovij
9'tpv yuvcuicäv ccs.bca ccLi)ta f3ooxra air&
flor itopci, thcvov; rivoç xptv cOy taXiv loU itopzi Thcvov p.ou yXatcvrov;

702
Triodion Katanyktikon, 169. For an English translation see Mother Mary and
Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, The Lenten Triodion, London, 1977 (abbreviated as Li).
Romanos the Melode, Mary at the Foot of the Cross,st. 1.
-. -,
 Xptar, 'rIvoç ytptv, coy 6pó.tov
6pójtov tEAtç; tczu

corYtov Lwcpóeu.LE, ¶ PXE1 &ócvwç, I1O1)

rr ft€poç ytog it&.tv atczt èv Kavt, 7toOEl.vócacE, ävcqtãpctyrE, toXi9 K1ptE
1c?zlcEi vuvt aitci&t; tv' &xtoç atoiç otvov
itot1'aTç;

6oç jtot ?ó'yov, A&yc n1 atyiv itapOTc pt, öóç pot ?.O-yov cf 6o? ao, Yt xou

o &yvTv cpicag itaiAxcc'r ji1 1E 7tcxpI&ç, OKcIptov,

o oç icct eEoc 1Ol). Ot'(ö)V LE tV tCCOX(V YC, E.c

avouccipiov, 6 &)poitEvoç cö KOa.w to

ya XEoç.

This is not the case, however, with all the other hymns of the Triodion which

possess a greater degree of originality. A typical formula of a stavrotheorokion is

the one employed in the matins of Wednesday in the first week of Lent. The text

reads:

Beholding Thee, 0 Christ, stretched dead upon the Tree, Thy Virgin cried

aloud with bitter tears: '0 my Son, what is this fearful mystery? How dost

Thou who givest life eternal unto all, suffer willingly a shameful death

upon the Cross?703

(transi. Li)

The emphasis is on the dead body of Christ on the Cross, an image which links

the Virgin with the Passion. We may suggest that after Romanos the Melode, the

stavrotheotokia represent the first example of a Marian lament with powerful

ritualistic elements. The imagery of the stavrotheoto/da is drawn largely from the

703
Triodion Katanyktikon, 100.
Li
dead body of the Lord, the Cross, and the instruments of the Crucifixion (the

nails, the lance that pierced Christ's side), while the Virgin Mary is described as a

lamenting mother standing at the foot of the Cross and addressing her son and her

God, bewildered by the awful sight her eyes behold. Her tears are bitter, her

voice is raised to express the pain of the human mother that is not ignorant of the

divine plan of economy but who, nonetheless, feels her heart torn apart as she

beholds the body of Christ hanging from the Cross. In the next chapter we shall

see how this setting and imagery is elaborated further in the homilies otf George of

Nicomedia and in the planctus of Joseph the Hymnographer and Leo the Wise.

Two characteristic themes of the lament are encountered also in the

stavrotheotokia. They are the ingratitude of the Jews and the compassion of

nature. Each of these themes contributes in its own way to the heightening of

emotion. The ingratitude of the Jews is the means by which the antithesis is

struck between the malice of mankind and the sacrifice of the Word of God. On

the one hand God's creation emphasizes the divine nature of Christ and his

omnipotence, while on the other it serves a function similar to that of the choir of

ancient Greek tragedies, sharing and making universal the lament of the mother.

Finally, it should be noted that it was Theodore the Stoudite, author of

numerous hymns on Mary at the foot of the Cross, who hailed the restoration of

icons in a work that includes verses specifically glorifying the Mother of God and

asserting Iconophile devotion to the Virgin Maiy. 704 The icon of the crucifixion of

Theodore Stoudite, Canon in Erectione SS. Imaginum, PG 99, cols. 1767-1780 and
esp. 1772D.
-I '.
the Lord and the instruments of the Passion also have a prominent place in this

triumphalist poem, whereas the Iconoclasts are clearly equated with the Jews who

have crucified Christ.705

Conclusion

In conclusion we may say that the place of the Virgin in Iconoclasm was

determined by a complex symbolic language formulated in the course of the

eighth and ninth centuries. The Iconoclasts did not refute the veneration of the

Mother of God, but there are indications of hostility directed against her cult

which was closely associated with the cult of images. Veneration of the Virgin

undoubtedly became the foremost manifestation of the Iconophile camp. The

defenders of icons asserted that the Mother of God was not a pagan goddess, as

implied by the Iconoclasts, but a "divine living statue"; in this phrase the

Iconophiles both paid due honour to her beauty and refuted all possible charges

levelled against her.706

One of the central issues of Iconoclasm was the debate about the

worthiness of matter to depict the divine. The Iconophile thinkers opposed

Iconoclasm with arguments that rested upon the fullness of the Incarnation. Part

of their stock material, sanctioned by time and the blessing conferred by Ephesus

and Chalcedon, was their insistence upon the veneration of the Virgin. This is

why the Mother of God became so prominent a figure during the Iconoclastic

705
Thid, PG 99, col. 1773 A.
706
See above the discussion on the Marian homilies by John of Damascus.
controversy. It is also why the Iconophie writers produced a substantial Marian

corpus. We may therefore assert that visual representation was justified on the

grounds that the Incarnation was the 'gate' personified by the Mother of God. In

this way we may perhaps explain why, even if the Iconoclasts had no intention of

attacking Mary (although that does not mean that they did not attack her cult

which they held to be so closely associated with the cult of images), the Mother of

God became for various reasons the symbol of the Iconophile cause.

In particular, the Incarnation, expressed through the person of the Virgin,

ensured a prominent place for the Passion of the Lord as one of the two most

important events in Jesus' earthly life. The Passion complemented the divine plan

and in this sense fitted into the scheme of incamational theology as conceived by

Athanasius the Great and later by Cyril of Alexandria. In the fifth century, Mary

was the key to a correct understanding of the Incarnation. In the eighth and ninth

centuries she was introduced into the Passion story in order to complete not only

the analogy between the Nativity of Christ and his Crucifixion and Burial, but

also the scheme of the divine economy. The second and now definitive rise of the

lament in the Iconoclastic period can thus be explained in a manner that shows it

to have been analogous to its rise in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Marian

lament reflects on the one hand the growing cult of the Virgin Mary and on the

other the increasing importance of the sacrifice of the incarnate Word of God.

Moreover, it has to be remarked that the Virgin became a symbol of Orthodoxy,

a symbol first used in the Nestorian controversy and readily adapted to

Iconoclasm. In the next chapter we shall follow this development and the

239
symbolic use made of the Virgin in the second half of the ninth century once the

Iconoclastic controversy had been resolved.

240
 CHAPTER V

THE LAMENT OF THE VIRGIN AFTER THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY

Introduction

In the previous chapter we saw how great an importance was attached to

the person of the Virgin during the Iconoclastic period. In the eighth and the first

half of the ninth century the Mother of God not only received special attention in

the literature produced within the Iconophile milieu but also was linked to the

theme of the death of Christ. As I have already shown the reason underlying this

development was the fundamental part played by Mary in the mystery of the

Incarnation, on the basis of which the cult of images was defended by the

Iconophiles. During the period following the Triumph of Orthodoxy the

developments observed in the Iconoclastic period were consolidated and

intensified. The Marian corpus of the Iconoclastic period was enriched by the

homilies and hymns of the most influential figures of the second half of the ninth

century, the Patriarch Photius of Constantinople, George of Nicomedia, Joseph

the Hymnographer707 and Leo the Wise.708

707
For Joseph the Hymnographer see Van de Vorst, "Note sur S. Joseph
l'Hymnographe," AB 28, 1920, 148-54; E. Tomadakis ('kooiIç 6 Ypvoypdçoc, Bloc Kal

'Epyov, Athens, 1971; reviewed by D. Stiernon, "La Vie et l'oeuvre de S. Joseph

l'Hymnographe," REB 31, 1973, 243-266. See also A. Kazhdan et.aI., "Joseph the
Hymnographer," 0DB, vol. II, 1074. Some of Joseph's hymns are published in J.B.
Pitra, Analecra Sacra spicilegium solesmensiparata, vol. I, Paris, 1876, 381-399 and in
Migne: Joseph the Hymnographer, Mariale, PG 105, cols. 984 A-14l2 A.
241
 The restoration of icons was marked by the renewed impetus given to the

growth of the cult of the Virgin. In the period following 843 the Virgin emerged

triumphant. Her crucial role in the Incarnation of the Word justified her role as

mediator for the salvation of mankind. The first part of the chapter deals with the

description of Maiy as the triumphant Virgin of the Akathist hymn in the

literature of the second half of the ninth century. The emotional character of

writings on the Mother of God in the Iconoclastic period in the last half of the

ninth century gave rise to the verbal image of the Virgin of Tenderness, thus

prefiguring the iconographic development of post-Iconoclastic art. The earliest

surviving examples of the iconographic type of the Virgin Eleousa, or the Virgin

of Tenderness, date to the tenth century, but the literary model that inspired the

iconographers may be observed in the homilies and hymns of the second half of

the ninth century. 709 As we shall see in the later part of this chapter, the literary

Virgin Eleousa stresses the human character of the Virgin that emerged in the

literature of the Iconoclastic period and that forms the background against which

708
For Photius and George of Nicomedia see below. For the homilies of Leo the Wise
see the recent survey by Th. Antonopoulou, The Homilies of the Emperor Leo VI, The
Medieval Mediterranean, vol. 14, Leiden, 1997, 162-172.
For the development of the iconography of the various types of the Virgin of
Tenderness see G. Millet, Recherches sur / 'iconographie de 1 'Evangile, Paris, 1916,
627; V. N. Lasareff, "Studies in the Iconography of the Virgin," ArtB 20, 1938, 26-65
and esp. 28-36 and A. Cutler, "The Cult of the Galaktotrophousa in Byzantium and
Italy," JOB 37, 1987, 335-350 and esp. 335-340.
242
the lament of Mary was to be elaborated by writers of the post-Iconoclastic

period.710

Finally, this chapter deals with the lamenting Virgin as she appears in the

homilies of Photius and George of Nicomedia. The theme of the lament in the

literature of the post-Iconoclastic period is encountered in a far more developed

form than its embxyonic state during the Iconoclastic period. The lamenting

Mother of God does not solely emphasize the death of Christ but also is linked to

the catechetical function of Good Friday, the day on which catechumens were

baptised. Hence, as we shall see in the homily on Good Friday by George of

Nicomedia, a unique example of a Marian homily composed in the ninth century

for Good Friday, the Mother of God appears as a model disciple who, at the foot

of the Cross) undergoes conversion in her struggle to accept the divine mystery of

the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of mankind.

The Authors of the Post-Iconoclastic Period

Many outstanding figures dominated the world of Constantinople in the

period following 843. It is a difficult matter to resolve the interelationship of

these figures. In the present study I do not attempt to address questions that are

undoubtedly tempting to the researcher, such as the so-called literary circle of

Patriarch Photius or the connexion between men of the ecclesiastical and political

710
H. Maguire ("The Depiction of Sorrow in Middle Byzantine Art," DOP 31, 1977,
123-174) has skilfully demonstrated the way in which emotion is depicted in post-
Iconoclastic art. This development in art was prefigured in the literature of the eighth
and ninth centuries.
elite of Constantinople. Such works of Patriarch Photius as survive as well as his

dynamic presence in the public affairs of his century have enabled scholars to

assess the significance of his life and his contribution to the history of ninth-

century Byzantium. 71 ' For the purpose of the present study Photius will be used as

a point of reference in our endeavour to learn more about his contemporary

George of Nicomedia of whom very little is known.

George of Nicomedia is often spoken of as a minor figure of the ninth

century712 and is remembered largely for his hymnographical and homiletic work,

preserved in several manuscripts. 713 A close friend of the Patriarch Photius, who

towers over the second half of the ninth century, George of Nicomedia died some

time after 880; hence we may reasonably assume he was born in the first or

second decade of the ninth century. 714 As we read in many titles of manuscripts

he was a monk and rhetor and chartophylax of St Sophia before he was elevated

711
For Photius see F. Dvornik, The Photian Schism, Cambridge, 1948 and the numerous
studies in his volume of collected articles, Photian and Byzantine Ecclesiastical Studies,
London, 1974; P. Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism, 105-235; W. Treadgold, The Byzantine
Revival, Stanford California, 1988, 3 73-378, 436-437 ; H.-G. Beck, Kirche und
theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich, Munich, 1959, 52G-528. See also the
articles by C. Mango ("The Liquidation of Iconoclasm and the Patriarch Photios") and P.
Karlin-Hayter ("Gregory of Syracuse, Ignatios and Photios,") in Bryer and Herrin (eds.),
Iconoclasm, 133-140 and 14 1-145 respectively.
712
j • Darrouzés, 'Georges de Nicomédie', DSp., 242.
713
BHG, no. 131, 381,683, 1078, 1102, 1108, 1109g. 1111, 11254 1139, 1144k, 1152,
1156, 1364b, 1967, 1968; PG 100, cols. 1336-1529 and PG 28, cols. 973-1000.
714
Darrouzès, 'Georges de Nicomédie', DSp., 242.
244
to the rank of metropolitan of Nicomedia 715 . His friendship with Photius is

attested in the correspondence of the patriarch. 716 In the twelve letters717

addressed to George, the patriarch embarks on Pauline exegesis, 718 discusses

issues of rhetoric, grammar719 and theology720 and refers to everyday matters,

such as consoling him on the death of a mutual friend. 72 ' The tone of the

correspondence, which varies in length and style depending on the occasion,

betrays the close relationship between the two men.722

In the mss. containing the Homily on Good Friday he is referred to as ittaicoitog

(Ottob. gr 14, tenth century), &pteitiaicoitoç (Par. gr 1505, twelfth century),
&px tEltIaco7toc NtKo,nl&iac ó Ylto)p (Vat. gr 1636, f. 201v, twelfth century), and
poitokrrl; (Vat. gr 564, f.54v, thirteenth century).
716 Laodas and Westerink (eds.), Photius Epistulae et Amphilochia, Bibliotheca
Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana, 6 vols., Leipzig 1983-1988.
Photius' epistles to George are to be found in volume II with the sole exception of
epistles 24 and 126 that are contained in vol. I, pp. 75 and 164 respectively. Numbers
refer to the numbof the epistle in the Laourdas-Westerink edition and are followed by
page number where necessary.
717 Photius,Epistles24, 126, 156, 164, 165, 166, 169, 199,201,216,248,277.
718
Idem, Epistles 164, 165, 22-23 and 25-35 respectively, in which the patriarch
comments on the Pauline epistle to the Romans. Matters of Pauline exegesis are also the
subject of epistles 166, 35-43 and 216, 120-125.
719 1dem, Epistle 156, 10-11.
° Idem, Epistle 248, 180-1 83, deals with the question of circumcision with respect to
Christ.
721
Idem, Epistle 201, 98-101. In another letter Photius consoles George who must have
been unjustly accused by a certain Petronius and urges him to make good use of this
false accusation for the benefit of his soul. See Photius, Epistle 199, 97.
722
D. White-Stratoudaki, Patriarch Photios of Constantinople, Massachusetts, 1981, 77.
245
 The Photian correspondence is the main biographical source for George of

Nicomedia, for unfortunately the letters written by George have not survived.

Hence, we can only guess as to their content from Photius' responses. It is

probable that at the time of the restoration of icons in 843 George was a young

man involved in the questions of the day. His Iconophile beliefs are apparent both

in his work723 and vouched for his friendship with Photius. There is evidence that

George had been tonsured before Photius succeeded Ignatius to the patriarchal

throne in 858. It is clear from one of the Photian epistles that he must have been

among the monks and clerics whom Photius ordained and appointed to positions

of authority when he became patriarch. 724 The background to Photius' succession

had a dramatic effect upon the course of Byzantine ecclesiastical affairs in the

ninth centuly and also upon the life of George of Nicomedia. In this short letter

Photius expresses his admiration for George and his pleasure in the good words

he had heard spoken of him.725 He goes on to urge him to regard his former quiet

way of life as inappropriate in the present circumstances and to carry out as best

he can the duties recently entrusted to him.726

723
For the study of George's homilies see below.
724
Photius, Epistle 24, 75. Westerink dates the letter to the period of the first
patriarchate of Photius (859-867). His grounds for this dating is the change of the title of
George of Nicomedia who prior to his consecration was referred to as chartophylax of St
Sophia, whereas in the epistle 126 that Photius sent to George and Euschemon from his
exile he addresses him as metropolitan ofNicomedia, see Ep. 126, p. 164, Eaypovi
Kai rwpyIzrporoMrazç. ...&2'J çoI.aoi icat rfrva ,ccxià&?..q,o4
725
Idem, Epistle 24, 75.
726 1bid, 75.
246
 The career of George testifies further to the friendship of the two men.

After the synod of 869/70 George faced difficulties arising from his relationship

with Photius. The synod had been summoned by the patriarch himself in

Constantinople and its purpose was to make official the deposition of Patriarch

Ignatius. The issue between Photius and Ignatius' supporters was the appointment

of Gregory Asbestas whose case was still being discussed in Rome. 727 There is

every reason to believe that the case of Asbestas was more a pretext than a cause

for the dispute between Iconophiles. George of Nicomedia was among the clergy

that supported Photius in the synod of 869. He must have been among the many

clergy working at the Great Church. In his homilies as well as in the Photian

correspondence there is no reference to a particular monastery to which George

might have been attached and furthermore there is no mention of his spiritual

father, unless it was Photius himself who played this role for George. The two

men seem to have shared interests and to have belonged to the same camp or

group. There is no indication what happened to George during the time of

Photius' exile, though it is likely that he stayed at Constantinople and when

Photius returned was to be found once again at his side. George's superior

education is attested by his surviving works, but also by the letter Photius wrote

to George in answer to a question about the meaning of a word the latter thought

727
Although, it was obvious that Photius with his humanitarian interests and orientation
could not possibly have held the same views as Ignatius, the clash between the two did
not reflect diffnces over theological or other theoretical matters. It was more a
question of a clash of personalities and groups and conflicting ambitions.
247
to be 'barbarian' •728 Photius' reply suggests it concerned the subject of Greek

mythology; Photius answers by juxtaposing mythology with the writings of the

Apostles.729 George's humanitarian interests are implied in another letter in which

Photius compares George to Hippocrates and Galen, the two principal figures in

medieval medicine. 730 To sum up, George of Nicomedia lived and preached in

Constantinople during the second and third quarters of the ninth century; he was

an ardent Iconophile and he belonged to the Photian camp.

Of all his voluminous work we shall concentrate on his Marian homilies

that form the greater part of his published corpus.73 ' Among them special

attention will be given to his homily on Good Friday, a text that is central to the

understanding of the development of Marian lament in the ninth century. 732 Nine

out of the ten published homilies of George refer to feasts of the Virgin herself or
cu-e.
of her parents and even the Passion homiliesominated by the Mother of God.

Both authors just mentioned wrote extensively in honour of the Mother of

God, though the homiletic corpus of Patriarch Photius was not so generally

appreciated as the rest of his works. Manuscript tradition attests to the fact that

728
Ibid. 156, 11.
7 Thid, 277, 227-229.
'°ibid, 169, 45.
George of Nicomedia, Orations I-DC, PG 100, cols.1335-l504.
732
George ofNicomedia, Oratio in illud: "Stabant autemfuxta crucem Jesu Mater ejus.
et soror Matris ejus;" atque in sepulturam divini corporis Domini nostri Jesu Christi,
sancta ac magna die Parasceves, PG 100, cols. 1457-1489 (henceforth abbreviated as
Oratio in sepulturam Jesu Christi).
248
Photius' homilies were not so widely copied as those by George of Nicomedia.733

However, this should not be taken as indicative of the degree of recognition either

of the homilies at the time of their deliveiy or of the preachers themselves. A

plausible explanation is that the homilies of Photius did not conform to the

standard required by the genre of homiletics, such as the extratemporal character

of the general run of sermons. Indeed, Photius' homilies often refer to

contemporary reality, a fact that could limit their use as readings on feast-days or

other ecclesiastical occasions4 The majority of the homilies written

by him fall into the category of catechetical or occasional sermons. In searching

for Marian homilies, one finds that, apart from the festal homilies Photius wrote

in honour of the Mother of God, references to Mary occur in the majority of his

surviving homilies. In the case of George of Nicomedia, the homilies in honour of

Mary form the greater part of his published corpus. 734 Of these a prominent place

will be accorded to his homily on Good Friday, a text that is of extreme

importance for the development of Marian lament in the ninth century.735

" Introduction by C. Mango, The Homilies of Photius Patriarch of Constantinople,

Cambridge Mass., 1958, 8 and 24 -34. Cf. N. J. Tsironis, "Historicity and Poetry in
Ninth-Century Homiletics: the Homilies of Patriarch Photius and George of Nicomedia,"
in P. AlIen and M.B. Cunningham (eds.), The Preacher and His Audience: Studies in
Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics, Leiden, forthcoming.
George ofNicomedia, Orations 1-IX, PG 100, cols.1335-1504.
Idem, Oratio in sepulturam Jesu Christi, cols. 1457-1489.
249
The Triumph of Orthodoxy

The restoration of icons by the empress Theodora and Patriarch

Methodios in 843 is celebrated on the first Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of

Orthodoxy. For the feast of Orthodoxy a special icon was devised: the feast-icon

of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. As yet art-historians have not adequately explained

the rarity of icons in honour of such an important feast of the Orthodox Church.

The famous example in the British Museum (plate IV) dating the fifteenth

century, is divided into two registers. 736 The upper register is dominated by an

icon of the Virgin Hodegetria whereas the central figures in the lower register

hold an icon of Christ Emmanuel. 737 Another icon of Christ is in the hands of a

nun who has been identified as St Theodosia of Constantinople. 738 Both icons of

Christ depicted in the lower register are far smaller and do not balance the large

image of the Virgin which is identified as the miraculous Constantinopolitan icon

736
Y. Petsopoulos, "The Triumph of Orthodoxy: the Restoration of Icons in 843," East
Christian Art, London, 1987, 49-50 and fig. 43; R. Cormack, "Icon of the Triumph of
Orthodoxy," D. Buckton (ed.), Byzantium. Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture,
London, 1994, 129-130 and fig. 140.
For the identification of the figures in the lower register see Cormack, "Icon of the
Triumph," 129-130. He identifies them as Theophanes and Theodore the Stoudite. For
discussion of the famous Constantinopolitan icon of the Virgin Hodegetria and the
development of the iconography of the Mother of God see G. Babic, "Les images
byzantines et leurs degrés de signification: l'exemple de l'Hodigitria," Byzance el les
Images, Paris, 1994, 189-222 and H. Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of the
Image Before the Era ofArt, transi. by E. Jephcott, Chicago and London, 1994, 73-77.
738
St Theodosia was the woman who tried to save the icon of Christ on the Chalke Gate
at the outbreak of Iconoclasm. See Cormack, "The Icon of the Triumph," 130.
250
of the Theotokos supposedly painted from life by St Luke. 739 The figure of the

Theotokos is flanked by two winged deacons, probably signifying angels, while

red and gold curtains are drawn aside revealing the icon from which hangs a

similarly embroidered apron. 74° On the right side of the Virgin the inscription

may be re&l as: OPOOAOEIA. This direct association of the Virgin with the

restoration of icons demonstrates the manner in which the Virgin represented and

embodied Iconophile arguments about and beliefs in the Incarnation and the

worthiness of matter. 741 In this we glimpse the symbolic use of the Mother of

God, that is her use as a synonym for the cult of icons.

For the importance of the icon as an insight into the religious procession that took
place every Tuesday see Petsopoulos, "The Triumph of Orthodoxy," 49-50; Cormack,
"The Icon of the Triumph," 130; N. Sevcenko, "Icons in the Liturgy," DOP 45, 1991,
45-57.
740
Petsopoulos (op.cit., 49) considers the figures to be symbolical representations of
angels. Cormack (op.cit., 130) seems to agree with the suggestion of Nancy Sevcenko
(op. cit., 48) who identified them as members of the brotherhood responsible for the
weekly procession of the icon of the Hodegetria and its cult. There is no reason why all
these interpretations cannot co-exist. Considering the evidence provided by Marian
literature, it could be suggested that the ambiguous depiction of the figures represents a
conscious effort on the part of the painter to equate the bearers of the icon with the
people who maintain the cult of the Virgin Hodegetria, the deacons and the angels. See
also in chapter IV the discussion of the Marian homilies of John of Damascus.
Embroidered curtains and an apron encircle the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria in the
iconographical composition of the Akathistos dating to the late 1340s. The Akathistos
icon at Decani in Serbia depicts the clergy and the cantors glorifying the
Constantinopolitan Hodegetria. See Babic, "Images et degrés de signification," 206, fig.
8.
In another example of a feast-icon for the feast of Orthodoxy from the church of St
George of the Greeks in Venice, St Stephen the Younger is portrayed in the lower
251
 The relationship of the Virgin with the Crucifixion is hinted at the

description of the procession of the icon of the Hodegetria by a Russian pilgrim

who visited Constantinople in the late 1340s. 742 The account of the procession

register holding an icon of the Virgin. Apart from being a saint of the Iconoclastic period
who was martyred in the cause of the veneration of icons Stephen the Younger is also
particularly associated with the Mother of God. For the Vita see M.-F. Auzépy, La Vie
d'Etienne lefeune par Etienne le Diacre, Hampshire, 1977 and for discussioin with
regard to the Mother of God see chapter III herein. The icon is signed by the
iconographer Emmanuel Tzafournaris from Corfu and bears a sixteenth-century date.
For discussion and identification of the figures see M. Chatzidakis, Icônes de Saint
Georges des Grecs, Venice, 1962, 96 and fig. 63. The fact that the saint who faced
martyrdom is portrayed holding an icon of the Virgin illustrates the association of the
debate with the Mother of God. Another similar icon, also by Tzafournaris, and now in
the Benaki Museum is published in A. Xyngopoulos, Catalogue of the Collection of
Eleni Stathatos, Athens, 1951, fig. 6.
742
The pilgrim named Stephen described the manner in which the icon seemed to direct
its blindfolded bearers. G. Majeska, Russian Travellers to Constantinople in tlhe 14th
and 15th Centuries, Washington, 1984, 36 1-362. Many icons were in the possession of
the monastery of Blachernai. Apart from the icon mentioned in the Vita of Stephen the
Younger, there is another described in the De Ceremoniis (555.8-10). This particular
icon decorated the imperial bath and depicted the Virgin from whose hands holy water
flowed. For a relevant iconographic type of the Mother of God see Alice-Mary Talbot,
"Epigrams of Manuel Philes on the Theotokos tes Feges and its Art," DOP 48 1994,
135-165. For the church built at the time of Justinian and dedicated to the Mother of
God and St Anne and named 'tes Peges' see, S. Bénay, "Le monastère de Ia Source a
Constantinople," E0 3, 1899-1900, 223-228 and for the monastery and its history from
the fifteenth to the eighteenth century see ibidem, 295-300. Nancy Sevcenko ("Virgin
Blachernitissa," 0DB, vol. III, 2170) mentions that one of the Blachernai icons was kept
on the gospel side of the monastery church; it was covered by a veil that miraculously
lifted without human aid every Friday evening. There is no mention of the rninicle
dating before the eleventh century. The fact that the miracle was taking place every
Friday, the day on which the Crucifixion of the Lord is commemorated by the Church,
252
mentions that the icon was very large and richly ornamented; the bearer is

standing upright, "and he stretches out his arms as if (being) crucified. It is

terrible to see how it pushes him this way and that around the monastery

enclosure, and how forcefully it turns him about, for he does not understand

where the icon is taking him ... A marvelous sight: (it takes) seven or eight men to

lay (the icon) on the shoulders of one man, and by God's will he walks as if

unburdened" (transl. Majeska). 743 The cruciform body of the bearer of the icon

connects the Mother of God directly with the Crucifixion. Also, the description of

the pilgrim evinces the power of the Virgin while the ceremony itself attests to

the widespread popularity of the Mother of God in Constantinople.

The Triumphal Virgin

In the homilies of the post-Iconoclastic period the Mother of God is

portrayed as triumphant and victorious but also as the human mother of Jesus

could suggest an underlying association of the Virgin Mary with the event and, of
course, the development of her lament that was introduced into Byzantine literature
during the Iconoclastic period and became a source of inspiration to iconographers. See
also V. Grumel, "Le 'miracle habituel' de Notre-Dame des Blachernes a
Constantinople," EQ 30, 1931, 129-146. Belting (Likeness and Presence, 47-48) notes
that "processions played an important role in the presentation techniques of venerated
images. In such cult stagings the moving image took on a quasi-personal life; it
functioned like an individual and thus could not be confused with all the other images."
Majeska, Russian Travellers to Constantinople, 362; Petsopoulos (op.cit., 50) notes
an interesting illustration of the procession in an embroidery dated to the fifteenth
century and in the collection of the Historical Museum of Moscow. The Hodegetria is
seen on the shoulders of a single bearer who sways under the weight of the image, "his
hands outstretched as though crucified."
253
who sometimes expresses her feelings in a typically human manner. These

different aspects of Mary's portrait are not contradictory but complementary.

Thus, the Virgin in this period is depicted with all the attributes accorded her by

authors writing in previous centuries. For this reason, we may often encounter

within a single homily the Virgin triumphant, human and lamenting. In this part

of the chapter I shall concentrate on the Virgin victorious and triumphant as she

appears in the literary sources of the second half of the ninth century. Photius

refers to the Virgin in his famous homilies on the attack by the Rus. 7 In the two

homilies that were delivered before and after the attack by the Rus, Photius refers

to Mary as the protectress of the City whose name is evoked by him and his

congregation in the face of danger.745 Photius prays to the Virgin, as "our only

hope and refuge," imploring her to save her city.746 The intercession of the

Theotokos covers both the temporal and the extratemporal realm, in other words

salvation from the danger posed by the invaders and salvation of the souls of her

people. In the second homily on the attack by the Rus, Photius gives an account

of the siege characteristically saying that when every hope for its human

defenders evaporated the City sought refuge in the divine. 747 On this occasion, the

B.Laourdas (ed.), Photiou Homiliai, Thessaloniki, 1959, 3 and 4, 29-39 and 40-52,
respectively.
For the background of Mary as protectress of the imperial city see chapter II. It has to
be noted that in the post-Iconoclastic period the Virgin was also evoked by the caesar
Bardas who, before leaving for the campaign in Crete in 866, prayed to the Mother of
God at the monastery of Hodegon hoping to obtain her protection. See Theophanes
Continuatus, I.IV, (Bonn), 204.
' Photius, On the Attack of the Rus I, 39.

Idem, On the Attack of the Rus II, 40-5 2 and esp. 44.
254
people of the City kept an all night vigil, praying to God and the Theotokos.748

Their prayers were answered at once, the wrath of God was appeased and the City

was saved. 749 The answer to their supplication came when the people, desperate

and knowing they could not expect help from anyone, turned to the Mother of

God asking her to intercede for the salvation of the City to her Son. 7 '° To this end

a procession in honour of the Mother of God was made in which the patriarch and

all the people participated. In this account of the procession Photius refers not to

the icon of the Virgin but to her robe whose miraculous power proved it to be

truly the garment of the Virgin Maiy. 75 ' The patriarch employs the occasion of

the danger and the subsequent salvation of the City to exhort his audience to

follow the ethical imperatives set forth in his address. 752 Photius urges his

congregation to give thanks to the Mother of God and to confess their

unconditional faith in her and their veneration of her who bore the Word of

God. 753 She is portrayed as the means of the salvation of mankind and the one

748
Ibid, 45.
749 1bid, 40-52 and esp. 44. Photius explains the siege of the Rus in terms of the sins
committed by the people, a feature that is typical of the Byzantine frame of mind and
understanding of historical events.
750
Note the parallel between the supplication to God (see above) and the supplication to
his mother. Ibid. 45.
751
Ibid. 45. For discussion of the function of icons and relics of the Virgin see Belting,
Likeness and Presence, 61-62.
752
Photius, Oz the Attack of the Rus II, 46.
Ibid. 51-52.
255
who keeps man sale from the turbulence of everyday life and whose intercession

ensures man eternal life.754

Again, an encomiastic air pervades the two homilies the patriarch wrote

on the Annunciation. Photius includes a dialogue between the Virgin and the

Archangel, a feature that derives from the account in the Gospel according to St

Luke (1:26-38) and which has already been adopted by homilists of earlier

times. 755 The preacher appeals to the authority of the Old Testament in order to

justify the choice of Mary as the Mother of God. 756 In a phrase intended to

demonstrate the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of God, the homilist has the

angel say that he cannot explain to the Virgin the mystery of the Annunciation for

he is simply a servant and deacon of the godly orders. 757 The homily concludes

with a series of 'hails' to the Mother of God, a peculiarity typical of homilies on

the Annunciation which emphasizes Mary's exalted status even among the

angelic orders, and with the supplication of the preacher to the Virgin to grant

him, the emperor and his congregation the benefit of her intercession.758

George of Nicomedia portrays Mary in an exaggerated poetic and lyrical

manner. In his homily on the Conception of the Virgin he refers to the Mother of

754 Ibid 52.

" Photius, On the Annunciation I, 53-61.
756
Ibid 59.
757 1bid, 59. See also Photius, op.ci:., 60, "...the honoured virgin, the heavenly chamber.
the holy mountain, the sealed fountain, kept for Him only who had sealed it" (Transi.
Mango, The Homilies of Phorius, 120).
758
Photius, On the Annunciation 1, 60-61 and discussion in Mango, The Homilies of
Photius, 111-112.
256
God as the Queen of All, the door through which the Word became incarnate.79

He describes the Virgin as the gift with which God recompensed Joachim and

Anna for their virtues and emphasizes particularly their piety, their dedication to

one another, their sacrificial love of God and their trust in Him. 76 ° In his homily

on the Conception of St Anne, George of Nicomedia again describes the Virgin as

the gift presented to the ancestors of God in return for their virtuous life, but this

time the homilist stresses the role of the parents of the Virgin in the

accomplishment of God's economy, illuminating each character separately.76'

The paradoxical birth of Mary from a sterile mother prefigures the paradox of the

birth of Christ from a virgin mother. 762

The homily by George of Nicomedia on the Presentation of the Virgin in

the Temple is contrived as an occasion for the faithfiul to participate in the

splendour of the feast. 763 The birth of the Virgin is said to have brought about the

" George ofNicomedia, In oraculum conceptionis S.Deiparae, PG 100, cots. 1336-

1353 and esp. cot. 1337 B, and cot. 1337 D-1340 A.
760 1bid, cot. 1340 A.
761
George of Nicomedia, Laudatio in conceptionem sanctae Annae, parentis
sanctissimae Deiparae, PG 100, cols. l353B-1376C, and esp. 1356D-1376A.
762 jl'id cot. 1356 A,... Eic areIpaç, Jlap&lvoç èç Hap&vov Oeôç aaruc
?.vrotI,creraL, zcaz ôz'à orp(v veovpyIa lrpay/zaret$eraL.. Henry Maguire in his recent
work (The Icons of their Bodies, Saints and their Images in Byzantium, Princeton, New
Jersey, 1996, 156-157) draws attention to the "comparison between the Nativity of the
Virgin and the Nativity of Christ" in the homilies by George of Nicomedia.
763
George of Nicomedia, Encomium in sanclissimae Deiparae Repraesentationem in
templo atque Ut Deo consecrata sit juxta historiam, PG 100, cots. 1401B-1420B and esp.
1401B-C.
257
healing of man's fallen nature.7& Joachim and Anna are said to have brought into

the world the accomplishment of prophecies. 765 The homilist asserts that the

paradoxical birth of the Virgin reveals one of the qualities of God, in that God is

not revealed when the laws of nature are operating, but, on the contrary, God

reveals himself through wonder. 766 Renewal and rebirth are themes central to this

homily and they are inextricably linked with the glorification of the Virgin. 767 The

dedication of the Virgin to the Temple is the setting for the homilist to embark on

a paean of the Virgin expressed in a succession of images and epithets of Mary.768

As Joachim and Anna accompany the Virgin to the Temple angels surround them

and the powers of the universe rejoice with them. 769 Jubilation over the dedication

of the Virgin is such that even inanimate objects in the temple join in the

celebration by the angels. 77° Mary is honoured in a lengthy recitation of attributes,

metaphors and images.77 ' The narrative is interwoven with the encomiastic

display of the qualities of the Virgin. The homilist urges the Temple to open wide

George employs the well-known metaphor of Christ the physician; hence, the Virgin
is referred to as the root of healing and is juxtaposed to Eve who became the root of the
Fall. See, Ibid, col. 1405A-D.
765
.Thid,col. 1408A.
Thia col. 1409A-B.
767 1bid,, col. l4l6B-C.
7 Ibid,, cot. l4l7B-D.
George ofNicomedia, Oratio in sanctissimae Del Genitricis Ingressum in temp/urn.
PG 100, cols. 1420 B-1440 C and esp. col. 1421 C.
770 1bid, col. 1421 D.
771
Thid, cot. 1424 A-1429 B, "the bright cloud...the source of light...the rational abode of
the Word...the golden lamp...the life-giving altar.. .the all-holy abode.. .the gold
incense...etc.
258
its doors and to receive as a bride the one from whom salvation was brought

forth.772 The accomplishment of the prophecies is realized at the moment when

Mary enters the Temple. 773 For the early life of the Virgin George of Nicomedia

draws material from apocryphal literature, especially the Protevangelium of

James.774 That Mary was receiving food from the angels provides the homilist

with an illustration of her purity.775

The theme of the regeneration of mankind linked with the Mother of God

is particularly prominent in this homily. 776 In the doxological epilogue the Virgin

is described as the one who made the heavenly kingdom attainable by mankind,

the one who helps mankind on its path to salvation, who is the invisible defensive

wall of Christians and the most powerfi.il weapon of kings by whom the enemies

of Christendom are vanquished. 777 The imagery and the vocabulary employed

remind us of the image of the Mother of God protectress of the City, but they also

hint at the date of the particular homily since such expressions are not present in

772 1bfrJ col. 1425 C-D.

Ibid. col. 1425D- 1428A.
' See chapter II and Tischendorf, EvangeliaApoc,ypha, 1-50. The account of the
angels feeding the Mother of God is a theme that was also introduced in the
iconographic cycle of the Virgin's dedication to the temple. See George ofNicomedia,
Oratio in sanctissimae Dei Genitricis Ingressum in templum, col. 1433D- I 436A.
" Ibid. col. 1436 A.

776 1bid, col. 1437 C.

Ibid. col. 1437C-D, ...aeXpw'rtccvOv i ith8v; óvpbrarov reioç Kerr ie6a at
jrtarot flcxattc ,cparazov ó,r).ov icarEouar öia coO r&v ro2.ej.tIwv ra Opácq
ovVvpIJ3ovaL.
259
any other homily by George of Nicomedia. 778 It is therefore likely that the homily

was delivered following the attack of the Rus upon the City and its salvation

which, as we noted in the homilies by Photius, was ascribed to the Virgin.779

However, the Virgin-protectress clearly gives way to the Virgin-Mother on whose

mediation Christians can count because of her divine motherhood.78°

In the examples cited above the person of the Virgin is developed by

drawing upon the typological images introduced during the first Christian

centuries and further refined in the period preceding the restoration of icons.

Nonetheless, Mary retains her attributes as protectress of Constantinople, the City

which is saved once again in the ninth century thanks to her intercession. Thus,

the human, maternal characteristics of Mary that pervade the literature of

Iconoclastic and post-Iconoclastic literature do not supplant the traditional

treatment of the Virgin; they are additional to her other qualities and occasionally,

depending on the circumstances, are given a more prominent place.

The Virgin of Tenderness

In the previous chapter we saw that the literature of the Iconoclastic period

was dominated by a distinctly emotional spirit and that the authors of the Marian

corpus adopted the typology employed in previous centuries and adapted it to

See for example the vocabulary of the Akathistos reproduced in Ibid. cot. 1440A,
...Z teiç rrv Stva4u iv àirrirov- ezç ró ,cpár,o àirpoajthwv.
See above.
780 1bid, cot. 1440A.
260
enrich their own imageiy. 78 ' As a result, homilies of the Iconoclastic period are

characterized by a particular emphasis on visual imagery which is combined with

their emotional content. The conjunction of these two characteristics of

homiletics of the Iconoclastic period is not a mere coincidence for as we have

seen, they support the Iconophile argument for the cult of images that illustrate

the human dimension of the incarnate God. Probably this is also the reason why

the rhetorical device of ekphrasis was used extensively by authors of the

Iconoclastic and post-Iconoclastic period. 782 By means of a rhetorical figure

writers of the eighth and ninth centuries gave expression to an argument that

formed part of the Iconophile case in defense of the Incarnation and the cult of

images. Hence, emotion and emphasis on the visual imagery of the sermon are the

characteristics that define the nature of eighth and ninth century homiletics.783

The failure of Iconoclasm in the ninth century gave a new impetus to the

cult of the Virgin. 784 The first official work of art commissioned after the

781
Babic stresses the fact that Iconophile thinkers appealed to the faithful by addressing
themselves to the psychological rather than the rational being. In the words of the
author: "La pensédes grands theologiens byzantins dépasse le raisonnement logique,
considéré comme tres partiel, et s'addresse a l'être psychologique du fidèle, englobant
l'homme tout entier et son univers, son imagination et ses sentiments. Décrivant un
iconoclaste le patriarche Nicéphore disait avec mépris que celui-ci a été privé de la
lumière de la vérité, lui dont le savoir et I 'imagination ne dépassentpas le monde
visible." See Babic, "Images et degrés de signification," 198.
782
For ekphrasis see chapter I and discussion above.
783
The eighth-century example of a believer whose eyes filled with tears as he prayed
before an icon is recorded in an epistle of Theodore the Stoudite, PG 99, col. 500 A-B.
R. Cormack, Writing in Gold, London, 1985, 142.
261
restoration of images in 843 was the mosaic of the Mother of God that was

inaugurated in 867 and that still survives in the apse of St Sophia in

Constantinople (plate V). The mosaic was inaugurated by Patriarch Photius of

Constantinople on Saturday in Holy Week. The event is recorded in one of the

patriarch's homilies. 785 The patriarch is one of the few Byzantine homilists who

do not hesitate to refer to contemporary reality in a straightforward way. 786 Hence,

his homiletic corpus in general and his homily on the Inauguration of the Mosaic

of the Virgin in particular reveal a significant link between the Mother of God

and contemporary reality. The sermon is especially interesting not only for the

description of the mosaic that has become the subject of modem scholarship, but

also for the association of the image of the Virgin with the victory over

Iconoclasm. 787 The feast as a source of joy stands out for three reasons, says the

patriarch: firstly for the incontestable power of piety, secondly for the eradication

of unbelief and thirdly for the triumph it represents over those who ended their

785
Photius, On the Inauguration of the Mosaic of the Virgin Maiy, in Laourdas, Photiou
Omiliai, 164-172.
786
This could also be the reason why his homiletic corpus has not been as popular as the
rest of his literary work. For a comparison of Photius with his contemporary George of
Nicomedia and the different nuances of style they employ in their homiletic writings see
Tsironis, "Historicity and Poetry in Ninth-Century Homiletics," (forthcoming).
787
On the apse mosaic of the Virgin in St Sophia see C. Mango, The Mosaics of St.
Sophia at Istanbul, Dumbarton Oaks Studies VIII, Washington D.C., 1962, 80-82 and
94-95; idem, Homilies of Photius, 283-285; A.Grabar, L 'iconoclasme byzantin. Dossier
archéologique, Paris, 1957, 185; for the redecoration of other buildings of
Constantinople from 843 to 867 see R.J.H. Jenkins and C. Mango, "The Date and
Significance of the Tenth Homily of Photius," DOP 9-10, 1956, 125-140. R. Cormack

262
life in unfaith. 788 More particularly, Photius refers to the restoration and the

veneration of icons by the imperial authority, and directly connects the icon of the

Virgin with the Triumph of Orthodoxy. 789 The homilist speaks of the way in

which the icon of the Virgin diverts the mind from everyday concerns to the

divine love of the true faith.79° However, the description of the icon by Photius

does not correspond to the actual representation. The epithets bestowed upon to

the Virgin in iconography are beyond number and to a great extent they are

irrelevant to the type of the representation. For instance, we may often come

across a Virgin of the Hodegetria type with the inscription 'Eleousa' or vice versa

(plate VI).79 ' In general, however, we may say that the Virgin Hodegetria refers

to the iconographic type depicting the Mother of God holding Christ in her left or

and E.J.W. Hawkins, "The Mosaics of Saint Sophia at Istanbul: The Rooms above the
Southwest Vestibule and Ramp" DOP 31, 1977, 175-251.
788
Photius, £ theL Inauguration of the Mosaic of the Virgin, 164 translated by Mango,
Homilies of Photius, 286-296.
789 1bid, 166-167.
79°Thid, 167.
791
Petsopoulos, East Christian Art, 28. Gold repoussé work of the Byzantine period is
very rare, a fact that makes the dating problematic. However, see the discussion by
Petsopoulos. This reliquary diptych pendant is of ninth-century workmanship and the
epithets inscribed on it are uncommon. The right panel shows an Hodegetria with the
epithet Avasiotisiotissa while the left shows the Virgin with Christ in a circular
medallion exactly over her heart. The epithet is Kardiobastazousa, 'she who holds
Christ over her heart'. The first epithet seems particularly problematic; Cyril Mango
pointed to the existence of the monastery of Avassos in Epirus, but the repetition of the
syllables sioti remains to be explained. I would tentatively suggest that the artist
duplicates them for reasons of spatial symmetry between the two inscriptions each of
which consists of seven syllables and almost the same number of letters.
Lo.,
right arm while with her free hand she points to him; hence, the epithet

Hodegetria, the one who guides the beholder towards the Saviour. Contrastingly,

the Virgin Eleousa is a more emotional iconographic type of the Mother of God

and portrays holding the child Christ close to her and laying her cheek on his head

in a gesture of intimacy.

The apse mosaic of St Sophia depicts the Mother of God Enthroned

looking the viewer in the eyes as she holds Christ Emmanuel in her arms, an

iconographical type of the Virgin common in the pre-Iconoclastic period and

conventionally called 'Hodegetria'. Photius, however, gives the following

description:

"A virgin mother, with both a virgin's and a mother's gaze, dividing in

indivisible form her temperament between both capacities, yet belittling

neither by its incompleteness. The art of painting, which is a reflection of

inspiration from above, has set up such an exact imitation of her nature.

For, as it were, with the love from her womb, she turns her eyes on the

begotten child with feeling, yet assumes the expression of a detached and

imperturbable mood at the passionless and wondrous nature of her

offspring, and composes her gaze accordingly. You might think her not

incapable of speaking ... To such an extent have the lips been made flesh

by colours, that they appear merely to be pressed together and stilled as in

the mysteries, yet their silence is not at all inert neither is the fairness of

her form derivatory, but rather it is the real archetype... But before our

eyes stands motionless the Virgin carrying the Creator in her arms as an

264
 infant, depicted in painting as she is in writing and visions, an interceder

for our salvation."792 (transi. C.Mango)

The Virgin described in the homily of Photius would correspond to a

representation of the Virgin Eleousa or the Virgin of Tenderness. 793 The apse

mosaic of St Sophia portrays a Virgin of the Hodegetria type without an

inscription.794 The discrepancy between Photius' text and the apse image was

explained by James and Webb, on the basis of a broader interpretation of the

rhetorical ekphrasis in homiletics. The patriarch goes beyond the realistic

792
Mango, The Homilies of Photius, 290, 295; Photius, 0ii the Inauguration of the
Mosaic of the Virgin, (in Lao urdas), 167, 171.
The epithets ascribed to the two basic iconographic types of the Virgin, the
Hodegetria and the Virgin of Tenderness, vary greatly and there is no consistency in the
way they are used. It is not rare to find a Hodegetria icon accompanied by an inscription
of the Mother of God of Tenderness, or the reverse. It is generally accepted, however,
that this iconographical type, alternatively called Eleousa or Glykophilousa (in post-
Byzantine times), was widespread in the post-Iconoclastic period. M.Vasilaki,
"Glykophilousa," forthcoming. Nancy Sevcenko ("Virgin Eleousa," 0DB, vol. III, 2171)
asserts that the epithet 'eleousa' into use in the eighth and ninth centuries and that it was
"attached with rather little consistency to a wide variety of her images."
In a forthcoming article on the mosaic of St Sophia, Petsopoulos suggests that the
gold background, which has been restored, once bore a horizontal inscription of such
proportions that it counterbalanced the vertical figure of the Mother of God and so
imparted a perfect harmony to the mosaic within the apse. This inscription might have
read 'Eleousa' and so it is likely that Photius in his homily was describing not merely
the 'spiritual significance' of the image, as is suggested by L. James and R. Webb ("To
Understand Ultimate Things and Enter Secret Places: Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium,"
Art History 14, 1991, 1-17 and esp. 14), but also an iconographic type that was emerging
at this very time. I would like to thank Mr Petsopoulos for discussing his paper with me
before its publication.
265
description of the image and expresses its spiritual significance. Ekphrasis is what

the beholder might read rather than an actual description that would add nothing

for the believer who can see the work itself. James and Webb write: "Photius

seeks to interpret and flesh out the image ... He aims to convey emotion, as

ekphrasis is supposed to do, and to say something about the nature of the image

in a spiritual context. The mosaic reveals the nature, the being, the physis, of the

Virgin".795 According to this view, the homily of Photius describes the spiritual

significance of the figure of the Mother of God holding Christ whereas the image

depicts a type that was already widely acclaimed in the pre-Iconoclastic era. In

this sense, the icon of the Virgin served most aptly the celebration of the

restoration of icons since it restored the image of the Virgin depicted in a form

familiar to the people.

This interpretation finds further support in the role of the Mother of God

in Iconoclasm. In view of the symbolic use of concepts of the Virgin Mary during

the controversy, it seems only natural that the patriarch should commission a

mosaic of the Virgin (and not of Christ) in order to celebrate the Triumph of

Orthodoxy. As for the description of the mosaic, it corresponds exactly with the

emotional character with which the Mother of God was invested in the literature

of the eighth and ninth centuries; furthermore it expressed also her character as

James and Webb, "Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium," 13. For the relationship between
text and image see also H. Maguire, Image and Imagination: the Byzantine Epigram as
Evidence for Viewer Response, Toronto, 1996 and L. Brubaker, "Perception and
Conception: Art, Theory and Culture in Ninth-Century Byzantium," Word and Image 5,
1989, 19-31 and esp.23-25.
266
the compassionate mother the Virgin Eleousa who mediates between mankind

and her son for the salvation of the former.796

The nature of the relationship between text and image and of the influence

of the one upon the other was treated with by Henry Maguire who argued

persuasively that rhetoric played a significant part in pictorial representation in

Byzantium. 797 Models first established in homiletics were adopted by artists and

eventually were incorporated into iconography. 798 Antithesis, hyperbole, and most

importantly the lament, the expression of grief, found a place in wall paintings,

mosaics and portable icons in conformity with the Acts of the Seventh

Ecumenical Council: "that which the narrative declares in writing is the same as

that which the icon portrays visually". 7 In this context it might be suggested that

the emotional Mary of the literature of the Iconoclastic period served as a model

for the iconographic type of the Virgin of Tenderness.

the earliest example of the iconographic type of the Virgin Eleousa dates to
the tenth century and was studied by N.Thierry (Zograf 10, 1979, 59-70). For the
relationship between the Virgin Eleousa and the liturgy of the Passion, in which special
emphasis was placed on the love of the Virgin for Christ both as an infant and at his
death, see Pallas, Passion undBeszattung, 169-173. See also, Lasareff, "Studies in the
Iconography of the Virgin," 36-42 and A. Grabar, "Les images de Ia Vierge de Ia
Tendresse," Zograf 6, 1975, 25-3 0.
H. Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium, Princeton 1981, passim.
798
R. Cormack, "Painting After Iconoclasm," A. Bryer and J. Herrin (eds.), Iconoclasm,
Birmingham, 1977, 147-163 and esp. 151-153 in which the author draws attention to the
use of the homily on Good Friday by George ofNicomedia as a model for iconography.
Mansi XIII, 232C.
267
 The human qualities of the Virgin are also reflected in the description of

her as a bride, a designation that points to her role in the mystery of the

Incarnation and the 'marriage' of humanity and divinity in Christ. In Photius'

second homily on the Annunciation the Virgin is depicted as a bride betrothed to

Christ. 800 Nuptial imagery dominates the greater part of the homily whose

conclusion is taken up with a series of ethical imperatives describing the gifts the

faithful should bring to the Virgin on the occasion of her betrothal. 80 ' She is the

bride presented to Christ not by any particular city or nation, but by the whole

world.802 The Virgin is said to have been so totally captivated by divine love that

her soul became a temple of mildness.803

In the third of George of Nicomedia's homilies, on the Conception and

Nativity of the Mother of God, the Virgin is referred to as the innupta sposa, the

'unwedded bride' whose birth brought about the renewal of our nature. 804 Nature

is brought in at this point in order to express the universal joy felt at the birth of

800
Photius, On the Annunciation II, 74-82 and esp. 76, "For today the Virgin on behalf
of our whole race is being betrothed to the common Lord, and human kind, having
broken off its intimacy with that alien adulteress[...]Today the Virgin is being set apart
from among men, offered to the Creator as the first-fruits of our human c lay, and the
great and eternal mystery of our re-creation is being accomplished in a wondrous
manner." (Transl. Mango, Homilies of Photius, 141-142.)
801
Ibid, 79.
802
Ibid. 79.
803
Thid, 77.
George of N icomedia, Oratio in conceptionem ac nativitatem sanctissimae Dominae
nostrae Dei genitricis semper virginis Mariae, cot. 1380 A- 1381 A.
268
the Virgin. 805 The concept of renewal is encountered in several passages in the

homily and is linked with the notion of the revolt or rather the suspension of

natural laws, namely, the paradoxical birth of the Virgin from Joachim and Anna

and subsequently of the Saviour. 806 Bridal imagery is again linked with the theme

of renewal in the epilogue of the homily in which George declares that because of

the birth of the bridal chamber, namely, the Virgin, mankind is considered as part

of the royal bridechamber. 807 The image of the Virgin as bride corresponds to the

spiritual, humble, pure and bridal state of the soul of her mother. 808 The homilist

refers to the Virgin indirectly in a string of epithets and metaphors which express

both his emotion and the importance of Mary to the salvation of mankind.809

In the homily on the Nativity of the Virgin by Photius the feast is said to

be the 'root', the origin, of all other feasts, a statement typical of homilies read

on this particular feast, but which also expresses the significance attached to the

Virgin as the person through whom salvation was made possible because of the

Incarnation. 810 The paradox of the birth of the Virgin is seen as an announcement

of the paradox of the birth of the Saviour. 81 ' Mary's birth is ultimately linked to

805 1bid, col. 1397 B.

806 1bid, col. 1384 B-C. See also, Ch. Yannaras, The Freedom of Morality, Crestwood
N.Y., 1984, 94-98.
807
George ofNicomedia, Oratio in conceptionem ac nativitatem, col. 1397 C-D.
808 See the description of St Anne and the narration of her prayer to God in ibid, cols.
1392 C-1393 D.
809 1bid, cols. 1381 C-1384A.
810 Photius, On the Nativity of the Virgin, 89-98 and esp. 90.
' Ibid, 90, and 91 where the author in a series of antitheses expressed in vivid imagery
stresses the paradox of the birth of the Virgin from the sterile womb of Anna.
269
the miracles, Crucifixion and death of Christ. 812 Adam and Eve, having laid aside

the sadness and the molysmos (contamination) of the Fall, lead the celebration of

the feast that cleansed their sin. 813 Photius clearly introduces the subject of the

regeneration of mankind that is linked with the basic concept of incamational

theology: the curse is lifted and human nature puts off the mask of sin and flesh

and is transformed into the original image of the Father. 814 Incarnational theology

is underscored by use of the word prosopon that becomes the eikon of the

Godhead. 815 In this way Photius establishes also a connexion between

incamational theology and the theology of icons. In a metaphor that encapsulates

the typological image of the ladder of Jacob and the soteriological dimension of

the Incarnation, the Mother of God is described as the ladder by which human

nature rises to heaven. 816 In the words of the homilist the sanctification of matter

is presented as the supreme consequence of the birth of the Virgin: the phrase

where the homilist says: "the throne of the Lord is being prepared on earth and

all that is on earth is sanctified and the heavenly powers are with us on earth..."817

Photius compares the virgin birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary to the

birth of Adam from the virgin earth, and hence he speaks of Christ as the Second

812
Ibid, 90.
813 1bid,, 94.
814 Jjj 94.
815J. Zizioulas, "Truth and Communion," in his Being as Communion, Studies in
Personhood and the Churck, Crestwood N.Y., 1993, 67-122 and esp. 101-109; idem,
"Personhood and Being," in Being as Communion, 27-65 and esp. 49 if. where the
author develops the ecclesiological significance of the person.
816
Photius, On the Nativity of the Virgin, 94-95.
817
Ibid 95.
270
Adam. 818 Moreover, he adds that it did not befit the one who humiliated himself

to the point of being born to be conceived in pleasure -even though legitimate-

because sexual pleasure is a product of the curse from which Christ came to

absolve man. 819 The Virgin is portrayed as the living temple of God, the bride of

the divine bride-groom, the one whose virtues adorned her like stars in order to

receive the sun of justice. 82° The human aspect of the person of Mary serves

Christian writers of the ninth century mainly as highlighting the paradox of

incarnational theology. To the same end they use the image of the unwedded

bride who is betrothed to Christ and finally they draw attention to the assumption

of humanity by Christ and to its salvation through his Resurrection.

The Lamenting Virgin

The lament of the Virgin at the foot of the Cross forms part of the

elaboration of her human qualities by writers of the Iconoclastic and post-

Iconoclastic period. Furthermore, it served the purpose of emphasizing Christ's

death on the Cross, a subject that, as we see in the famous example of the

Chludov Psalter (plate VII), received particular attention from the seventh century

onwards and especially during the Iconoclastic controversy. Mary is portrayed

lamenting Christ in a highly emotional manner that urges the congregation to

participate in the events of the Passion. She embodies every human mother that

grieves for the death of her child and in this way she becomes a link between

818 Pd 97.
819 Ibid. 97.
820 Ibid 97.
271
humanity and the divine realm. However, Mary's lament was used also as a

means of catechizing for it coincided with Friday in Holy Week, the day on which

catechumens were baptised. As we shall see below, however distressed she may

be, Mary does not lose her faith and courage and finally consents to the plan of

the divine economy.

In his homily on the Annunciation, Photius cites the attitude struck by the

Virgin at the Crucifixion in order to display her 'manly', in another word

courageous, behaviour (zv5peicx) which singled her out from all other women and

especially from mothers who express their grief in curses. 821 Her ability to rise

above the norms of human behaviour is precisely what makes her, the fragrant

flower, the most beautiful and great and God-sculpted "statue" of human nature,

worthy of the chambers of heaven. 822 The preacher also points to the role of Mary

in the divine plan of salvation, recapitulating the essential features of

incarnational theology. 823 Within this framework the author refers to the

typological images of the Virgin824 who is described as the God-made instrument

through which mankind was enabled to see God.825

821
Photius, On the Annunciation II, 77, ...ei)a'ra9ci 2.oytauçb ov ri7ç àvöpeIaç rOvov
oi5a.eot ç'avc icra %avvok7aaa... For the word &v6pcia see s.v. Lampe, PGL, 129-130.
2 Photius, On the Annunciation II, 76, ... ro repuca2AEç rai tEya icaz 9eo2a4evrov
ày&.ua. For the word yaA.ua see s.v. Lampe, PGL, 6. For the chambers of heaven see,
Photius, op.cit., 77.
Idem, On the Annunciation I, 78.
On the Annunciation II, 79.
825
Ibid. 81.

272
 Photius' homilies on Good Friday are of a catechetical character, full of

ethical imperatives and exhortations to his audience to follow the teaching of the

Gospel and to set aside the concerns of earthly life while concentrating on the

kingdom of God. The subject of the Passion of the Lord does not lie at the core of

the homilies, which refer to it only as a pretext for introducing the admonition.

All of Photius' homilies on Good Friday were delivered from the pulpit of the

church of St Irene. 826 The first homily is dominated by the theme of the

regeneration of mankind. 827 The baptism of the catechumens gives cause for the

patriarch to challenge his audience. 828 The sinner is described as worse than the

Jews who crucified the Lord. 829 In order to induce his audience to follow

Christian ethical imperatives Photius introduces into his homily the

eschatological consideration that when Christ comes again it will be not as a

sacrificial lamb but as judge. 83° The joy that one experiences when his conscience

826
See Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai, 29*.
827
Photius, On Good Fridcry I, 1.
828 1bid, 1.
829
Ibid. 3.
'°Ibid, 3. Similarly, the patriarch in his third homily on Good Friday (op. ci!., 63-65)
states that Easter is the right time for people to think of their conduct, actions and
morality. When our life does not conform with the precepts of Christian teaching, says
Photius, we become enemies of our own salvation, enemies of the Cross, ungrateful for
the benefit received by mankind. Furthermore, he says that justice ought to be the first
concern of the Christian and elaborates the passage in the Epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians (I Cor. 13, 1-3) exhorting his audience to set aside conflicts and not to cause
schisms in the Church.
I
LI.,
 is not guilty is said to be an icon, that is, a reflection, of the joy of the kingdom of

God.83'

According to Photius, the best preparation for death is metanoia and

broken-heartedness expressed in tears. 832 The power of tears is great for they

demonstrate the realization of sin and through them the soul is cleansed and

liberated. 833 Even greater is the power of tears combined with philanthropy,

which is to say, charity. 834 Special emphasis is laid on the Passion of the Lord.

Christ is described as the Lord and Creator of all, the one that cannot be contained

or circumscribed, who holds the earth in space by his mere word and who moves

the sky with a nod. 835 The Mother of God is associated with the Passion of the

Lord in a passage that stresses the salvatory importance of the mystery for

humanity: He, who was made man by the Virgin, is crucified in order to save

mankind. 836 Within this context the sympathy of nature, the darkening of the sun

831
Photius, On Good Friday I, 10.
832 1dem On Good Friday II, 15. For the baptism of tears in the ascetic literature of the
early Byzantine period see Kallistos Ware, "The Sacrament of Baptism and the Ascetic
Life in the Teaching of Mark the Monk," Studia Patristica X, 1970, 441-452.
833
Photius, On Good Friday II, 15-16.
834
Jjj 17. On the subject of philanthropy see D.J. Constantel s, Byzantine
Philanthropy and Social Welfare, New Brunswick-New Jersey, 1968; L.Mavrommatis,
¼ "Owctgtf%c t?.av0pcoittac ató Buzvtto," in the Proccedings of the 1st International
Symposium 7i Ka6iywpivi Zcn arO Buávrio, Athens, 1989, 147-152.
835
Photius, On Good Friday II, 27.
836
Ibid 27. In the third homily on Good Friday employing triumphant imagery and
vocabulary Photius adopts an aggressive stance towards the devil and death as the
enemy of man, for the defeat of which Christ came upon earth and was crucified. In the
same homily the patriarch concentrates more on the instruments of the Passion and the
274
and the trembling of the earth serve to strike the contrast between the gratitude of

creation to God and the ingratitude of the fallen creature.837

Homilies on the Passion are distinguished by standard themes such as

anti-Jewish polemic, the sympathy of nature, the humiliation and loneliness of

Christ and of the Mother of God. All these themes are expressed vividly through

antithetical imagery that serves to intensify of the events narrated. As we have

already remarked, in connexion with the Paschal homily by Melito and the hymn

of Maiy at the foot of the Cross by Romanos the Melode, apart from its ritual

characteristics the Marian lament is also weighted with a theological gravity

determined by contemporary debates.

In his first homily on Saturday in Holy Week, Photius singles out the

events preceding and following the Crucifixion as well the instruments of the

Passion. 838 The homily revolves around the commonplace of anti-Jewish polemic,

and the narrative around the story according to which Joseph of Arimaithea went

to the Pharisees to ask for the body of the Lord. 839 The humiliation of Christ by

the Jews is reversed through an antithetical imagery that stresses the reality of

Jesus' torment and the way in which this fearful experience became the cause of

our salvation. 840 In a manner reminiscent of the use made of anti-Jewish polemic

human actions surrounding the Crucifixion rather than on the theological-speculative

aspects of the mystery. See idem, On Good Friday III, 62-63.
837 1dem, On Good Friday II, 27.
838 1bid, 107.
Photius, Homily on the Burial of the Lord I, homily 11 in Laourdas, 105-121.
° The passage where Photius, commenting on the Jews spitting upon Christ, speaks of
their spittle as drops of dew with which Christ dried out the storm of sin exemplifies the
275
by earlier authors, Photius addresses the Jews in the form of a dialogue in which

he interrogates the Jew regarding the daring he displayed in electing to crucify

Christ.' Here, too, the sympathy of nature is contrasted with the ingratitude of

the Jews.M2 The homilist describes vividly the way in which the former privileges

of the elected people of God became void of grace after the Crucifixion.843

Photius elaborates the account in the Gospel (Mark 15:43) according to

which Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to ask permission to obtain and bury

the body of the Lord. The theme of the one who is a stranger and abandoned by

disciples and friends is introduced into Joseph's address to Pilate. 8 Of particular

importance for the study of the lament is what follows upon the permission

granted by Pilate: Joseph takes the body of the Lord in order to bury it and at this

point the author introduces a lament which, though not voiced by the Virgin,

bears a strong resemblance to the lament of the Virgin at the burial of the Lord.845

It should be noted that, to my knowledge, this is the first instance when a homilist

rhetorical ingenuity of the preacher. I have been unable to find a parallel image in any
other homily on the subject. See ibid, 107.
841
Ibid, 107. On the subject of anti-Jewish polemic in Byzantine homiletics see M.
Cunningham, "Anti-Judaism and Collective Identity in Early Byzantine Homilies,"
(forthcoming); K. Corrigan, Visual Polemics in Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters,
Cambridge, 1992, who argues that Jews depicted in miniatures of ninth-century psalters
are caricatures and thus ironically identified as Iconoclasts and discusses earlier
literature on the subject.
842
Photius, Homily on the Burial of the Lord I, 108.
Ibid, 108. The homily is interspersed with the topos of anti-Jewish polemic. See for
example ibid, 113-115.
Ibid, 110.
845 1bid, 111 if.
276
introduces a lament not as Christ is on his way to or is suffering his Crucifixion,

but at his Burial. As we have already seen, antithesis offers itself as a formula

often resorted to in homilies of the Passion. The phiianthropy of God is contrasted

with the ingratitude of the Jews who represent mankind in general, 846 the sorrow

over Christ's death with the anticipation and joy of the Resurrection, and so on.

The lament of Joseph is characterized by the same antithetical formula expressed

in the most immediate fashion. Which 'painterly- speech' could express his mood

at that time?847 He rejoiced for having obtained what he desired, but at the same

time he lamented at the sight of the dead Christ. Joseph's lament is notable for the

distinct emphasis it lays on his experience of touching the dead body while at the

same time it gives great importance to the emotions that are evoked by this

experience. The features of the dead are referred to one by one and each induces

the author to lament the deceased.

The tomb and the Burial of the Lord are described in a lyrical and patently

emotional maimer as the most incredible and paradoxical mystery. 848 The paradox

revolves around the antithesis of the creator who dies and the life-giving death

that brings joy through tears and sorrow. The tomb of Christ is depicted as the

bridal chamber from which there emerged the salvation of mankind. As the

See for example ibid, 113-114.

7 Thid, 111, ... TIc ày wypa.poç A.Oyoç eiicovIaci rqv róre wikov öLáOeazv;
Ibid. 118, "How does He suffer His body to be wrapped in grave-clothes Who has
spread out the vault of heaven as a much-famed wonder?..." (Transi. by Mango,
Homilies of Photiu.s, 208.)

277
Second Adam, Christ is linked with the regeneration of mankind and the second

dawn of human existence.M9

The theme of the regeneration of mankind occupies a central place in the

second homily delivered by Photius on Saturday in Holy Week. 85° Christ assumed

the flesh of a slave and accepted the Cross, and death and burial so that man

might revert to his paradisiac state.851 The patriarch speaks of the many means

that God used in order to give back to man what was initially his own. The Old

Testament was the time of didacticisni, the Law and the prophets and even of the

beneficiary intervention of God and the punishment of mankind. 852 Photius places

the Incarnation of the Word of God in the same unbroken sequence. 853 Of all the

elements in the whole story of the Incarnation he concentrates on the Passion of

the Lord whose sole purpose was the liberation of man from the bonds of sin and

death.854 The sympathy of nature is prominent in this homily, too. 855 An antithesis

9 Ibid, 118.
850 Photius Homily on the Burial of the Lord II, homily 12 in Laourdas, 122-127.
851 1bid, 122.
852 1bid, 124.
853 1bid, 124, "For the jointly-throning and co-eternal Son and Word of the eternal
Father,..., makes unto himself a flesh from virginal blood that He may re-create us..."
(Transl. Mango, Homilies of Photius, 215).
854 Photius Homily on the Burial of the Lord II, 124, "Our Lord is struck for our sake
and he is crucified, and dies, and is buried...that He may grant us freedom, resurrection
and immortality." (Transl. Mango, Homilies of Photius, 215).
855
Photius, Homily on the Burial of the Lord II, 124, "He is crucified and dies and is
buried, and the earth quakes in fear, and the curtain of the temple is rent, and stones are
torn apart, and the sun is covered with much darkness, not because the moon
intercepts...but...emitting a cry and bewailing..." (transl. Mango, Homilies of Photius,
278
is constructed out of two conventional features of the Passion homilies, namely,

anti-Jewish polemic and the sympathy of nature. 856 The shared response and

commiseration of nature are contrasted with the ingratitude of the Jews who are

held responsible for the death of their prophets and even of the creator whose

coming was announced by them. 857 Gratitude and ingratitude are juxtaposed in

relation to the Jews whose place was inherited by the Christians through the

sacrifice of the Lord and the call to communion with his body and blood.858

We have already seen how Patriarch Photius treated the Crucifixion and

the Burial of the Lord. His near contemporary, George of Nicomedia, delivered

homilies on the same occasions (Friday and Saturday in Holy Week) employing

many features already encountered in the homilies of Photius, albeit his interest

lay largely in the Mother of God. The homilies that will be studied below do not

focus so much on the person of Christ as on that of his mother. This is the reason

why George of Nicomedia represents a landmark in the study of the lament. The

215-216). Note the dramatic intensity with which the participation of nature is described
in the historical present, a tense that plays an important role if we take into consideration
the eternal present of Church time (M. Han, "Les modèles d'un temps ideal dans
quelques récits de vie Pères Cappadociens," Le temps chrétien de lefin de I 'antiquité au
Moyen Age, IIIe-XIIIe siècles, Paris, 1984, 220-243, and esp. 228-231). R. Taft ("The
Synaxarion of Evergetis in the History of Byzantine Liturgy," in M. Mullett and A.
Kirby (eds.), The Theotokos Evergetis and Eleventh-Centwy Monasticism, Belfast
Byzantine Texts and Translations 6.1, Belfast, 1994, 274-294 and esp. 279) comments,
though briefly, on the cosmological dimension of the church and the liturgy.
856
Photius, Homily on the Burial of the Lord 11, 125.
857
Ibid 125.
858 1bid, 126.
279
imagery he uses in his homily on Good Friday859 is inspired by relevant texts

from previous centuries, such as the Paschal homily by Melito of Sardis and the

hymn on Mary at the foot of the Cross by Romanos the Melode. 86° As far as I

know George's homily on Good Friday is the first extant example of a Marian

homily on the Crucifixion of the Lord. 86 ' A merely superficial reading suggests

Mary's central place in the narration serves to emphasize the strong link between

Christ and his mother. But George, as a preacher, is concerned first with the

theological interpretation of the Passion of the Lord, second with the vivid

transmission of events to his audience, and third with the participation of his

audience in the events narrated. 862 Within this context Mary's central place can

859
George ofNicomedia, Oratio in sepulturamfesu Christi, PG 100, cols. 1457-1489
and idem, In Immaculatae Virginis in sepuicro assistentiam, et gratiarum acto pro
gloriosa resurrectione, PG 100, cols. 1489D-1504C (henceforth abbreviated as In
Immaculatae Virginis in sepulcro assistentiam). According to A. Ehrhard,
(Uberlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homiletischen Literatur der
griechischen Kirche, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1937-1939) the homily on Good Friday survives in
ten manuscripts. The cursory reading of the catalogues of manuscripts that I undertook
revealed that there are at least thirty manuscripts dating from the tenth to the seventeenth
centuries in which the homily survives(see Appendix).
860
For discussion of these texts see chapters I and II.
861
The popularity of the homily is attested by the fact that it was prescribed as a reading
for Good Friday and art historians regard it as the source of the new iconographic types
that emerged in the post-Iconoclastic period, such as the Deposition, the Burial, and the
later Man of Sorrows and the Virgin of the Passion. See Magu ire, Art and Eloquence,
101 if.; Ch. Barber, "The Monastic Typikon for Art Historians," in The Theotokos
Evergetis and Eleventh-Century Monasticism, 198-214 and esp. 204-205; R. Cormack,
Painting the Soul. Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds, London, 1997, 113.
862
For the use of description and narrative by Byzantine homilists see Maguire, Art and
Eloquence, 22-23. For discussion of the theological aspects of the Paschal mystery see
280
be interpreted as the means by which George emphasizes Christ's full humanity.

The homily on the Crucifixion and the Burial of Christ begins with the narration

of the events of Thursday in Holy Week: the Last Supper, the arrest, trial and the

way taken by Christ to Golgotha. George asserts that the Virgin was present in

every one of these scenes marking the way of the Lord to his death and the way of

mankind to salvation. 863 Therefore, it is not the relationship of Jesus and Mary

that is at stake but Christ's full humanity, a proof of which is his link with his

mother. Similarly, Mary's lament that intersperses the homily voices her distress

over the loss of her son and her God within the context of his salvatoty mission.

The lament represents the combination of the two themes that acquired distinct

prominence during the Iconoclastic controversy: the Passion of the Lord and the

place of the Virgin in the mystery of the Incarnation.

A close reading of the homily on Good Friday reveals that George

employs standard themes of the lament: the topos of anti-Jewish polemic, the

sympathy of nature and the solitude of the deceased and of the person who

laments, as well as an antithetical imagery that embraces all the themes

mentioned above. The lament of the Virgin intersperses the narrative, rendering it

more vivid to the audience. George's narrative technique is skilfully contrived.

Although it may seem tedious to the modem reader, 8M when read out aloud this

H. U. von Baithasar, Mysterium Paschale, transl. by A. Nicho s, Edinburgh, 1990, 148-

168.
The events of Thursday are described in a concise narrative in which the presence of
Mary is particularly emphasized. See George ofNicomedia, Oratio in sepulturam Jesu
Christi col. 1464 A-B.
Mango, The Homilies of Photius, 8.
281
homily is very fmely structured in that the narrative is balanced by poetic

interventions that arouse emotion and are pleasant to the ear of the listener.

Throughout the homily George plays upon emotions, probably as an indirect way

of asserting humanity especially in the narration of the Passion.865

The events and the standard themes of the lament are expressed through

an antithetical imagery that contrasts life with death, mildness and kindness with

murder, gratitude with ingratitude and so on. The pattern of the narrative is

antithetical: the goodness of the Lord is contrasted with the wickedness of

creatures, the hanniess lamb with the wild beasts, and finally the mildness of

Christ is contrasted with the anger of men. 866 A sharp distinction is drawn

between Mary's fervent love for her son and the rebukes, the whipping, and the

mockery of Christ by the Jews. 867 When the narrative reaches the place of the

Crucifixion868 the Virgin, pushed aside by the soldiers, eventually manages to

approach the Cross and there, at the foot of the Cross, addresses Christ in a long

lament that reproduces all the images we have encountered in the study of the

development of the Marian lament. The ingratitude of mankind occupies the first

Cf. the imagery of the homily to the miniatures of the Crucifixion, Deposition and
Burial of Paris. gr. 510, f. 30v in L. Brubaker, "Miniatures and Liturgy: Evidence from
the Ninth-Century Codex Paris. Gr. 510," B LXVI, 1996, 9-34 and esp. ii f. and fig. 1
on p. 20.
George of Nicomedia, Oratio in sepulturam .Jesu Christi col. 1464B.
7 Ibid, col. 1465D-1468A.
Interestingly, the contrapuncto between each suffering of Christ finds its counterpart
in the heart of the mother. See ibid. cot. 1468D, "0, as the nail in the hand, was the
sword (tj icaipla) was implanted in her heart...As the drops of blood (flowed) from the
wounds, how much more did the tears flow from her eyes..."
282
place,869 and is contrasted with the miracles of Christ, the resurrection of Lazarus,

the healing of the blind, and the curing of lepers; finally, his philanthropy in

general is contrasted with the daring murder performed on Golgotha. 87° Another

commonplace of homiletics is the contrast between the past, full of hjpiness and

the afflicted present.87'

Anti-Jewish polemic is employed by George of Nicomedia to contrast his

community with the outsiders and to give it a sense of righteousness. 872 The Jews

represent the whole of mankind that put Christ to death. Christ is described as the

innocent lamb: mild, sweet and humble. 873 His qualities are contrasted with those

of his murderers. In order to add intensity to the crime of humanity George

contrasts the ingratitude of mankind with nature which recognizes and laments

the death of the Saviour. Moreover, nature is called upon by the Virgin who seeks

the consolation of others who share her grief. In her lament Mary calls the sun to

set, the sky to mourn, the earth to tremble and the meadows to share in her

weeping. 874 In this way, George emphasizes Mary's solitude in the foreign land.

Ibid, col. 1469C, "Is this the reward for your great philanthropy? With such honours
do the ones who benefitted reward you. 0, most unjust daring! 0, unholy judgment! The
unjust condemn the just; the guilty accuse the innocent; the ungrateful kill the
benefactor; the wicked slaves put the good master on the Cross..." See also col. 1472A.
Ibid col. 1472A.
" Ibid, col. 1476A. For the contrast of the different periods of time in the lament see
above, chapters I and II and Maguire, Art and Eloquence, 96-97.
872
George of Nicomedia, Oratio in sepulturam Jesu Christi col. I 457B-C. See also,
Cunningham, "Anti-Judaism and Collective Identity in Early Byzantine Homilies."
g George ofNicomedia, Oratio in sepulturam Jesu Christi, col. I 468A-B.
874
Ibid, col. 1472C.
Similarly, when he describes the scene where the Virgin stands in the courtyard of

Annas and Kaiaphas waiting for the decision of the court, the homilist stresses her

loneliness among the people who were against her son.

The solitude of the Virgin leads on to the lament of the mother at the time

that Christ is being judged.8" George describes in a very vivid and dramatic way

the agony of the Virgin waiting outside the court-room 876 and trying to guess

what was happening inside from the random comments of passers-by; 877 her

despair on learning that they unanimously wanted to put Christ to death; 878 and

her total isolation when all his disciples and friends hid themselves or denied they

were his disciples. 879 Her solitude, that makes her pain even harder to bear,

figures large in her lament. In a manner reminiscent of judicial oratory, the

Mother of God asks why the court should want to condemn Christ.880

The suffering of Christ and his humiliation by the soldiers at Herod's

palace are described by broken-heartened Mary who laments her son: "How could

she bear to see him being led away as a common criminal? How could her spirit

bear to see him being condemned and whipped in public, and suffering and

rebuked by the soldiers?" 88 ' Every torment the Lord was suffering was for Mary a

875
George prepares the lament by noting that the disciples were scattered about because
of their fear of the Jews and draws a contrast between them and the Virgin whose desire
for her beloved overcame the danger. See ibid, col. 1464 B.
876 Thid col. 1465 B.
877 1])id col. 1464 B.
878 1bid, col. 1465 A.
879 1bi4 col. 1465 A-B.
880 Thid, col. 1465B.
Ibid, col. 1465C-D.
284
sword pointed at against her heart even before the Crucifixion.882 The mother's

pain is described as fire that melts her heart, as a knife that penetrates her very

being. 883 Her motherly love for Christ is expressed in words most apt to convey

the emotional tension and gravity of the scene. 884 Mary wishes she could suffer in

the place of Christ and calls upon nature to respond to the injustice. 885 The twin

fires of her love for Christ, her Son and God, bring to mind the kontakion by

Romanos the Melode in which the Virgin laments Christ in a similar way. 886 The

accomplishment of the prophecies, the gall and vinegar, the raiment for which the

soldiers cast lots, the piercing of the side and each successive event of the

Crucifixion make the Virgin weep bitterly at the suffering of the Lord.887

The exalted status of the Virgin does not contradict her emotional mood

as depicted in the homily. According to George, Mary's pain and distress at the

time of the Crucifixion are justified by the 'excess of the daring' directed against

her son. 888 The homilist goes on to assert that Mary is free of the passions of

human nature, and so describes her in terms of the all-holy and all-pure Virgin

whom we came across in other homilies of his and in the literature of previous

centuries. The fact that George is at pains to establish Mary's exalted status is

882 Ibid cot. 1468 A.

S83
Ibid cot. 1468B-C.
Ibid, cot. 1472A, "... iyjivwav a to y?ici'rtóv pot cpéyyoç ipvwaav 'coy 'ril;
8ucatoaviic fA.tov ypvwaav to êpató'rcx'cóv pot yicaAthittapa."
Ibid, cot. 1472B.
See chapter II and George of Nicomedia, Oratio in sepuiruram Jesu Christi cot.
1473B.
887
Thid, cot. 1477C-1480B.
8'Ibid, cot. 1464 B.
285
proved by his recounting an episode that occured at the time of the Crucifixion.

The episode is not encountered in any other written record of the Crucifixion

prior to the ninth century. In the dialogue between Mary and Christ on the Cross,

George has Christ entrust his disciples and the whole of mankind to his mother

who thenceforth was to be their spiritual guide. 889 So it is George who first

introduces the ecciesiological character of the Virgin by declaring her to be the

Mother of the Church through whose mediation the faithful could find a refuge.89°

When Christ entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple (Jn 20:26-27; plate VIII),

George adds the crucial words with which Christ asks John to respect Mary and

to accept her as zca8i7yovuEvi of himself and the other disciples.89'

Even more important in any study of the lament is the attitude taken by the

Virgin. In his narration of the Last Supper, George states that it was Mary rather

than any of the disciples who retained deep in her heart all the words spoken by

Jesus. 892 Despite her affliction, she follows him to the court and later to Golgotha

when all his friends and disciples are reported to have scattered for fear of the

Jews. 893 After the soldiers have crucified Christ, the Virgin makes her way to the

foot of the Cross and addresses her Son. 894 Christ recognizes the fire that is

For Mary's spiritual guidance in the Church see A. Kniazeff, La Mere de Dieu dans
1 'Eglise Orthodoxe, Paris, 1990, 68 if.
° George ofNicomedia, Oratio in sepuiruram Jesu Christi, col. l476D.
891
Ibid. col. 1477A-B.
Ibid, col. 1464 A.
3 Ibid, col.1464B.
Ibid,co1. 1469 B-C.
286
consuming his mother's heart and entrusts her to the beloved disciple. 895 He urges

his mother to overcome her nature and to accept the suffering of his death, for it

will bring salvation to mankind. 896 The Virgin, who so far has been depicted as

the afflicted mother, now changes her attitude and consents to the

accomplishment of the mystely. Although her lament will be re-introduced at the

time of the Burial, at the foot of the Cross the Virgin overcomes her human nature

and enters into a deeper communion with God. Perhaps this is the point that

George is at pains to convey to his congregation of catechumens. Mary's sorrow

is searing her heart, but it is not a godless sorrow. The Mother of God has been

made aware of the salvific mystery that is to be acomplished by the death of

Christ and so submits - to the will of God. Her 'conversion' to a higher

mode of existence reveals the dynamic perception of her person by George of

Nicomedia and certainly does not allow room for her arriving at an understanding

being a humble human being whose greatest virtue was purity and blind

obedience.897

George pictures the Virgin as devastated by the Crucifixion that has just

taken place but nonetheless conscious of the Resurrection that is to come and

trying to arrange all that is necessary for the burial of the Lord. 898 She herself

fmds the place where the Lord should be lain, asks to whom does it belong and

895
Ibid, col. 1473D.
896
Thi4 col. 1476B-C.
897
P. Nellas (De/Ication in Christ. The Nature of Human Person, Crestwood N.Y.,
1987) develops the idea of man's return to the prelapsarian state (that is his state before
the Fall) and the potential of his restoration of the image of God in himself.
8 Ibid, col. 1484A.
287
hearing that he was a friend of Jesus seeks him out and begs him go to Pilate and

request the body of the Lord.8 Her address to Joseph of Aramathea is in the

form of a lament in which she makes much of the fact that she is a foreigner in his

land and utterly alone. 900 The deposition of the body of Christ from the Cross is

again described in the lament of the Virgin. 90 ' George allows the mother's

sensibilities full play: the Virgin laments as she receives each member of her

son's body into her arrand wishes she could see her son alive again and hear his
02
voice once more.

George's devotion to Mary is expressed in the epilogue where the homilist

speaks in the first person singular. 903 He glorifies the economy, the mercy, the

tolerance of God.904 In a series of clauses that start with the verb 'I venerate'

(cptX) he expresses his devotion to the instruments of the Passion and the tomb of

the Lord,905 but above all to the person of the Mother of God. George draws

particular attention to the hands of the Virgin that have assisted the divine

economy, namely, the Nativity and the Burial of Christ. 906 Finally, the Mother of

899 Ibid col. 1484B-C.

°° Ibid. col. 1484C-1485B.
9°'
Ibid, col. 1488A-C.
902
Thid, cot. 1488B.
°3 lbid, col. 1488C-D.
9
904 1bid, cot. 1488D.
Ibid, cot. 1489A-B , "I venerate your suffering,...I venerate your Cross,...l venerate
the nails,...l venerate the wounds in your limbs (taç 5tcrrpiaetç 'row &ibv). ..l venerate
the rod...l venerate the sponge..."
°6 Ibid. cot. 1489C.
9
288
God is glorified as the only one who saw and shared the divine Passion and as the

herald of immortality.907

George's particular devotion to the Mother of God is also evident in the

homily on Saturday in Holy Week which must have been delivered after the

homily on Good Friday. George vouches for the presence of the Virgin at Christ's

tomb despite the contrary account given in the Gospel. The silence of the

Evangelists on the presence of the Mother is explained as a deliberate omission

by them in order to enhance the credibility of the story of the Resurrection. If the

good news of the Resurrection were to be announced by the mother it might not

be believed, given the intimate relationship between mother and son. George

maintains that Christ appeared to his mother in a more 'familiar' and 'secret'

way, 908 and that Mary his mother saw the resurrected Christ even before the

angels.909 The homilist gives a brief account of the events that preceded the Burial

of the Lord and says that it would be only natural for the mother who shared his

last hours and was aware of what was to come to remain outside the tomb waiting

for his glorious Resurrection. Mary addresses Christ at length, dwelling on the

awful mystery of his death on the Cross and urging him to show to the world and

to her, who longs to see him again, his glorious Resurrection. Emphasis is laid on

visual perception: the need of the Virgin to see her son once again, to be in his

presence and to hear his voice. Here, nature too plays an important role: as at the

907 1bid, col. 1489C.

George of Nicomedia, In immaculatae Vfrginis in sepuicro assistentiam, et gratiarum
actio pro gloriosa resurrectione, cot. I 497B.
909 1bid, col. 1500C.

289
Crucifixion it expressed grief and rage, now it expresses exhilaration, joy and

peace.91 ° The homily concludes with the homilist urging Christ to reveal to the

congregation his radiance and his ineffable beauty. On behalf of his congregation

he wishes to be granted the grace to see, hear and feel the presence of the Lord.91

Conclusion

The importance of the cult of the Virgin Mary in the Iconoclastic period is

evinced in the literature of the second half of the ninth century. The Triumph of

Orthodoxy coincided with the growth of the cult and the composition of Marian

homilies multiplied until it was a standard feature of Byzantine homiletics. In the

period following the restoration of icons devotion to the Mother of God became a

definitive symbol of Orthodoxy. In the fifty years that ensued after the Council of

843 the Mother of God was the central figure in homiletic and hymnographical

literature, most particularly in the homilies of Patriarch Photius and George of

Nicomedia.

In post-Iconoclastic literature the Virgin is portrayed in a manner that

recapitulates all attributes of her person that had been bestowed on her by

Christian writers of preceding centuries. The lamenting Virgin expresses both the

human qualities of Mary elaborated in the writings of the Iconoclastic period and

her association with the death of Christ. In the literature of the ninth century

Mary's lament reaches a zenith that can be compared only to the poetic ingenuity

910 1bid, col. ISOIC-D.

Ibid. col. 1504B.
290
of Romanos the Melode in the fifth century. Those two periods, the fifth and the

ninth centuries, were crucial to the development of the lament of the Virgin and

both were times of significant changes in Byzantine theology. It was in the fifth

century that Mary became the means by which Christology was defined and in the

ninth century, after more than a century of bitter struggle over artistic

representation, she emerged as the symbol of Orthodoxy, once again the means to

the correct understanding of the Incarnation of Christ and the mystery of the

salvation wrought by him. The person of Mary and the suffering of Christ were

essential to comprehension of the Incarnation, through which matter was

sanctified and consequently artistic representation was sanctioned as legitimate.

In ninth-century literature the Virgin became the ideal disciple of Jesus; at the

foot of the Cross she underwent conversion, thus superseding her human nature

and entering into the time of grace. In their writings, Photius and George

recapitulated all aspects of Mary's person: Mary as the fulfilment of Old

Testament prophecies, Mary the Protectress of Constantinople, Mary the human

Mother of God, and Mazy lamenting at the foot of the Cross. However, the

aspects of Mary's person that were to prevail and determine both her cult and her

iconography in subsequent centuries were her tenderness and her sorrow at the

foot of the Cross.

291
 EPILOGUE

The Marian lament, as a theme of Byzantine hymnography and homiletics,

came into being gradually in the course of the fifth to the ninth centuries. After

the ninth century the lament of the Virgin at the foot of the cross was elaborated

by Byzantine hymnographers and homilists and underwent further stages of

development. In the Eastern Church today the service of the Burial of the Lord on

the eve of Good Friday comprises a hymn that is sung during the Epitaphios and

which is known as the lament of Mary (Kavwv e p1vc&lc rfç OEoróiot). 912 This

Lamenting Canon of the Theotokos is one of the most poetic texts of Orthodox

liturgical tradition and still exercis:6 unfailing appeal to the people. No single

writer can be considered the author of the text that has been constantly adapted to

the changing needs of Church services as they have developed over the centuries.

The Marian lament can be understood only as part of the growth of the

cult of the Virgin Mary in Byzantium. The study of the cult is no easy task since

the sole dogmatic formulation the Church devised regarding Mary was her title as

'Theotokos'. The evolution of her cult as well as the development of her lament

can be deduced only through careful study of the sources. The lament of the

Mother of God in Byzantium draws its material both from Late Antique rhetoric

92
The 'Lamentation of the Most Holy Theotokos' is sung after the Creed and the Canon
of the Crucifixion of the Lord during the small compline of Holy Friday. See The Lenten
Triodion, 617. Note however that the hymnography of the Passion (that is Holy
Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Holy Week) is imbued with images and vocabulary
characteristic of the Marian lament from the fifth to the ninth centuries.
292
and from the Jewish element in Christianity. Laments of the Old Testament

foreshadow traditional features of the Marian lament: the sympathy of nature, the

solitude of the mourner, the contrast between the past and the present and

contemplation of the future without the beloved person. The earliest example of a

Paschal homily is the homily written in the second century by Melito of Sardis.

The text, which does not comprise a Marian lament as such, is notable for its

treatment of the traditional features of the lament in the context of the Paschal

mystery. Typology, one of the main concerns of Melito, also determined the first

stages in the cult of the Mother of God. The few references to Mary in the

Gospels were amplified by early Christian authors in the apocryphal writings

which narrated the conception, childhood and adolescent years of Mary. In time,

the Virgin Mary was invested with the authority of Jewish tradition and was

presented as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies that announced the

coming of the Messiah and the salvation of mankind. The early Christian

centuries witnessed also the development of the Marian feasts. Whereas in the

beginning these were inextricably linked with the Nativity of Christ, they

gradually became more numerous and acquired a certain degree of independence,

although Mary was always thought of as fulfilling a role in the divine plan for the

salvation of mankind.

The fifth century represents a turning-point in the cult of the Virgin for it

was the first and only time that Mary was at the centre of a theological

controversy. The Nestorian controversy, although nominally concerned with the

title 'Theotokos', was all about a more precise definition of Christology,

-L)
( -I
particularly with the way in which the two natures of Christ (human and divine)

coexisted within the person of the historical Jesus. Acceptance of the title

'Theotokos' for the Virgin Mary at the Council of Ephesus in 431, signified

acceptance of Christ's full divinity and stressed that the Son born of Mazy was

truly the Word of God. In advocating acceptance Cyril of Alexandria, the

opponent of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, spoke in paradoxical terms,

for instance, applying the epithet 'Mother of God' to Mary. Similarly, Cyril said

'God died on the cross' in order to emphasize the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. For

the first time the Virgin and the suffering and death of Christ were at the centre of

a Christological debate. The years following the Council of Ephesus witnessed

the rise of the Marian lament. Its roots are generally held to have lain in the Syriac

Orient, but its most celebrated author is Romanos the Melode whose hymn about

Mary at the foot of the Cross is an outstanding example of a Marian lament in the

first centuries of Byzantium; subsequently it served as a source of inspiration for

writers of later ages.

In the fifth century the Marian lament reflected a growing interest in the

person of Mary and a development of her cult. It was never the intention of the

present study to deal with the period intervening between the Council of Ephesus

and the beginning of Iconoclasm because the place of the Virgin as protectress of

Constantinople has already been dealt with most ably in recent scholarly writings.

In order to study the lament in ninth-century Byzantium, of which significant

laments survive, I was obliged to span a gap in modem scholarship. The place of

Mary in the Iconoclastic controversy had not yet been determined in detail and

294
such opinions as have been expressed on the subject are often contradictory. Any

study of the role Mary played in the controversy and of the attitude each side took

towards her is made even more difficult by the scarcity of contemporary sources.

However, sources dating to the eighth and the ninth centuries reveal a lively

interest in the Mother of God. The Iconophile historiographical sources in

particular repeatedly assert that devotion to the Virgin is a precept of Orthodoxy

and insist on sincere veneration of her. The Virgin is also referred to in

hagiographical sources which -although they were written after the Triumph of

Orthodoxy- reflect Iconophile attitudes. In various Lives of saints the Virgin

appears as protectress, intercessor, and guide, as well as a model of virtuous

living. More important than those scattered references is the substantial Marian

corpus of homilies and hymns composed in honour of the Virgin Mary in the

course of the controversy by the most ardent opponents of Iconoclasm. Among

them were Germanos I of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus,

Cosmas of Maiouma, the Graptoi brothers and Theodore the Stoudite -all of who

have been the subject of detailed research. In writing of the Virgin homilists and

hymnographers of the Iconoclastic period are moved to express themselves

emotionally; at the same time they draw attention to the human aspect of her

person. In many instances, Mary is associated with the Passion of Christ, a theme

that runs through works by Iconophile writers. Even if we are not able to

determine with any certainty the attitude struck by Iconoclasts towards the Mother

of God we may at least assert that Iconophiles saw in Mary a symbol of

Orthodoxy. For them, artistic representation of the divine was understood as a

295
consequence of the Incarnation: the divine could be depicted upon matter because

matter had been sanctified when Christ became man in the womb of the Virgin.

This symbolic language made of Mary the image par excellence of Orthodoxy

and, more specifically, the vindication of the cult of icons.

The restoration of icons was celebrated in 843. The immediate post-

Iconoclastic period witnessed a significant growth in the cult of the Virgin Mary

who dominates both the art and the literature of the period following the Triumph

of Orthodoxy. The first mosaic made after 843 was that of the Virgin with Christ

which still decorates the apse of St Sophia in Constantinople. The work was

commissioned by Patriarch Photius who delivered a homily on the occasion of its

inauguration. Similarly, the first church built after the restoration of icons was the

New Church also in Constantinople and likewise dedicated to the Mother of God.

The central space in the feast-icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is occupied by a

large image of the Virgin Hodegetria.

Similarly, Mary is a central figure in the literature of the post-Iconoclastic

period. Both Patriarch Photius and George of Nicomedia dedicated numerous

homilies to the Virgin which they delivered on various feasts of hers. In their

work Mary emerges as the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies, the

triumphant Virgin who safeguards the imperial city, and as the human mother of

Jesus. The Virgin of Tenderness, already prefigured in the literature of the

Iconoclastic period, becomes more prominent in the work of post-Iconoclastic

authors, such as Photius, George of Nicomedia, Joseph the Hymnographer and

Leo the Wise. In the homilies on Friday and Saturday in Holy Week by Photius of

296
 Constantinople and George of Nicomedia, the Virgin is once again associated

with the Passion of the Lord. Both preachers reproduce the standard topoi of the

lament, namely, the themes of the injustice of death, anti-Jewish polemic, the

sympathy of nature, and the solitude of the mourner, all expressed through a

powerful antithetical imagery.

The homily on Good Friday by George of Nicomedia is particularly

pertinent to the study of the lament since it represents probably the earliest

example of a Marian homily on Good Friday. The Virgin occupies in the text a

prominent place and all the events of the Crucifixion are narrated through her

lament. Mary appears to be at once the human mother of Jesus and the

transcendental model of mankind in that at the foot of the Cross she undergoes a

process of painful conversion from her natural, human existence to an ecclesial

being as a true disciple of Christ. She feels the human pain of the mother yet does

not lose sight of the kingdom of God. She expresses her distress but also awaits

the Resurrection. She shares in the sacrifice of her beloved son for the salvation

of mankind and so participates once again in the plan of the divine economy.

Through the gift of Christ's death she is elevated to be the spiritual guide of the

disciples and becomes an intercessor for mankind.

Modern scholars have suggested that this particular homily by George of

Nicomedia was drawn upon by artists in their development of the iconography of

the Deposition from the Cross and the Threnos. The Marian lament is the

preacher's ingenious device combining in an eloquent sermon the two themes

essential to the defence of divine images: the virgin Mother of God and the death

297
of Christ on the Cross. Both themes were essential to an understanding of

incamational theology which from the ninth century onwards was to be the

corner-stone of Orthodoxy. Hence, the Marian lament is not merely a literary

invention but a persuasive expression of dogmatic theology. In the person of the

lamenting Virgin Byzantine writers found the most convincing argument

affirming Christ's Incarnation and sacrifice on the Cross; events that opened the

way to the deification of mankind.

298
PLATES

299
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Plate I

Ivory Panel in the British Museum. Sixth century. Above the figure of the

Virgin there is an archangel holding a Cross and the three Magi.

Below is the Nativity.

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Ivor; Diptych with Christ Enthroned (left) and the Theotokos with Chris!

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Theotokos by the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Sixth century. Staatliche

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Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Theodore and George and Iwo

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The Triumph of Orthodoxy. Constantinople. c. 1400. London. British Museum.

National Icon Collection, no. 18. Upper Register: the icon of the Virgin flanked by

two winged angels. Lower Register (left): The nun Theodosia holding an icon of

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Plate V

The Theotokos and Child Enthroned Apse mosaic. St Sophia, Constantinople.

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Gold Reliqua,y Diptych Pendant. Two panels worked in gold repoussé.

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Plate VII

The ('rucifixion and IconoclastS. Chludov Psalter, folio 67r. Circa 870-875.

State Historical Museum. Moscow.

 • - . -• -. - -. • .•. -. - .& '•- -- - - - -.
.....-. .. ".

It

. fl4t)
Lff-4. :,

Li ii kTI
\
A --J-. p4rLr •-
r--
.
0

Plate lII

ron1 v the Eieschi-Morgun Reliquary. Crucifixion and Saints. Early ninth

century. Cloisonné enamel. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nevi York.

 APPENDIX

List of manuscripts containing the Homily on Good Friday

by George of Nicomedia

AOroç eiç ió "Eiaiceiaav öhrapà ri aiavpö$ rot) 7iaoii i Mijp avroz) icai i

?x&A.q'ij riç Mqrpóç cthrot" icai iç riv Othcrwuov raçoiv rot) KvpIov ii,uv Iqaoi

Xp WT0t), r àyIq scal Meyá).sj Ilapaaiccv4

Oratio VIII, Oratio in Illud: "Stabant autemjuxta crucem Jesu Mater ejus, et

soror Matris ejus: atque in sepulturam divini corporis Domini nostri Jesu

Christi: sancta ac magna die Parasceves, PG 100, cols. 1457A-1489D

1. Cod. Vat. Ottob. gr. 14, tenth century

2. Cod. 3, Skete Kausokalyvion, Mt.Athos, eleventh century

3. Cod. Bodi. Miscell. 34 (Auct. E2.6) if. 288-294, twelfth century

4. Cod. Par. gr. 699, ff. 98-116, twelfth century (Chrysostom Homiliary)

5. Cod. Par. gr. 1505, ff.99-109v, twelfth century

6. Cod. Par. gr. 759, if. 1-106, twelfth centuiy

7. Cod. Vat. gr. 1636, if. 201v-209, (if. 191-210 are dated in the twelfth century)

8. Cod. Vat. gr. 395, if. 94-1 13v, twelfth century

9. Cod. Berol. gr. 77, twelfth century

10. Cod.Vat. gr 564, if. 54v-66, thirteenth century

11. Pantokrator monastery, Mt.Athos, Cod. 1037.3 (19), parchment, thirteenth

century
12. Cod. 2083.26, National Library of Greece, ff.171-184v, thirteenth-fourteenth

century

AIvou flo?.itil, KctráA.oyog Xezpoypáçøv E8vziciç Bzfl).zoOiiciç, HpayperwIca,

Aica6iiiIa AOiivv, 1991

13. Cod. Par. gr. 980, ff1 19-169, fourteenth century

14. Iveron Monastery, Mt.Athos, Cod. 4774.654 (1 3), paper, fourteenth century

15. Cod. Hieros. Patr. 136 (from S.Savas monastery), fourteenth century

16. Cod. 2482.6 National Library of Greece, if. 27-39, first half of the fourteenth

century

AIvou flo?.itr, KcrUoyoç Xezporpácotvv E9vz,ciç Bi11uzoeiici7ç, flperypareIaz,

Aica&np.ia Aeiivv, 1991, zyco. vx' crpz8póv 1857-2500

17. Cod. Vat. gr. 1587, if. 42v-56v, fourteenth century

lacuna vavrtwycip ad vv. at auvitóp.Evat, [PG 1457 A linel- 1457 B line 15

and 1461 B line 12-1489 D line 3]

18. Cod. Vat. gr. 864, ff. 356-380, fourteenth century

19. Cod. Ambros. gr. 695, if.420v-426, fifteenth century

20. Cod. Vat. Suppi. gr. 1031, if. 98v-121v, fifteenth century

21. Constamonitou Monastery, Mt.Athos, Cod. 450.14 (18), paper, fifteenth c.

22. Cod. BodI. Barocc. XL, if. 323-344, sixteenth century

23. Dionysiou Monastery, Mt.Athos, Cod. 365 1.117 (3), paper, sixteenth century

24. Vatopedi Monastery, Mt.Athos, Cod. 86 (2), if.46a-78a, sixteenth century

25. Kd6ucaç I.M. BapXaqi Mtthpov 138 (ap.22), ff. 292a-306a, sixteenth century

26. Kth6IKaç IM. MzIapopqaEwç Mi&pov 366 (ap.67), ff.315a-3266,

sixteenth century
27. Cod. Marc. gr. II 53, coil. 1165 Ohm Nanianus LXXIV,

if. 1 76v- 181, sixteenth century (Venice)

28. Cod. Marc. gr. II 63, coil. 1343 Ohm Nanianus LXXXIV,

if. 1 82v-200v, sixteenth century (Venice)

29. Cod. 47, Handeisschule, Chalki, a.1608-9

The MSS. of the Patriarchal Schooi of Chaiki are now kept in the Ecumenical

Patriarchate in Constantinople (Istanbul).

30. Protaton, Mt.Athos, Cod. 312 [85], ff.253-286v, seventeenth century (1638-9)

31. Panteleimon Monastery, Mt.Athos, Cod. 6703 (9), paper 0.29X0. 195, 760 pp.,

homily in pp.1 90-223, seventeenth century

32. Xeropotamou Monastery, Mt.Athos, Cod. 2589, 256 (30), "Av8o1oyIa

pEputh &K tv BiBMwv KwvotavrIvou &lrIóvtE, tO 11ETOVOQZOVOU

KaiaapIou" paper, eighteenth century

BIBLIOGRAPHY

-I
3
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Acts of Oecumenical Councils,
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Acts of Athos
W. Regel, E.Kurtz, B. Korablev (eds.), Actes de Philothée, Actes de
1 'Athos VI, Vizantiniskzj Vremmenik XX, 1913

Alexander of Alexandria
-, published in Athanasius Wer/ce, ed. H.G. Opitz, Berlin, Leipzig,
1934-1935,6-11, 19-31

Anastasius Sinaites
-, Anastasii Sinaitae Opera. Viae Dux, ed. K.H. Uthemann, Corpus
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Andrew of Crete
-, Oration in Circumcisionem Domini et in s.Basilium (BHG 262), PG
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, In Narivitarem Sanctissimae Deiparae I, PG 97, cols. 805-820
, In Nativirarem Sanctissimae Deiparae II, PG 97, cols. 820-844
-, In Nativiratem Sanctissimae Deiparae Ill, PG 97, cols. 844-86 1
-, In Nativitatem Sanctissimae Deiparae IV, PG 97, cols. 861-881
-, In Annunciationem, PG 97, cols. 881-913
_,In Dorm itionem I, PG 97, cols. 1045-1072

312
 -, In Dormitionem II, PG 97, cols. 1072-1089
In Dormitionem Ill, PG 97, cols. 1089-1109
-, Canones Praecipui et Triodia, PG 97, cols. 13 05-1444
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Carminum Christianorum, Leipzig, 1871, 147-161

Aphthonius, ed. H. Rabe, Rhetores Graeci, Leipzig, 1926

Apocryphal Literature
Evangelia Apocrypha, ed. K.von Tischendorf Leipzig, 1876, repr.
Hildesheim, 1987
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by M.R. James, Oxford, 1924
Protevangelium ofJames, ed. W. Barnstone, The Other Bible, San
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New Testament Apocypha, eds. E. Henneke and W. Schneemelcher, vol.
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Aristotle,
-, TlepI 'Pvzi7c A-B, ed. A.Halas, Airczvta 'APXcCIWV EAXivwv Ziyypaqzov 40,
Athens, 1986
rkpI f'vyçB-F, ed. A. Papatheodorou, 'Aitav'ra 'Apcdcov 'Eth'vo)v
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-, De Anima, transi. and comm. J. Tricot, Paris, 1982
-, La Métaphysique, transi. and comm. J. Tricot, vol. II, Paris, 1981
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Kyrgiopoulos, Aivavta 'ApaIov EXivwv rrypa(pv, Papyros, Athens,
1975

1
ii.)
Athanasius of Alexandria, ed. L.Th. Lefort, "S. Athanase, 'Sur la virginité',"
Muséon 42, 1929, 197-264
-, S. Athanase. Lettresfestales etpastorales en copte, ed. L. Th. Lefort,
CSCO 150, Louvain, 1955, 73-99 (translation in CSCO 151, 1955, 55-80)
-, Sur 1 'Incarnation du Verbe, ed. Ch. Kannengiesser, SC 199, Paris,
1973
Contra Arianos, (four orations), PG 26, cols. 12-525

Basil of Caeea,
_,Enarratio inprophetam Isaiam, PG 30, cols. 117-668
__, Homilia in Martyrem Iulittam, PG 31, cols. 23 7-262
-, In Sanctam Christi generationem, (BHG 1922), PG 31, cols. 1457-
1476
-, Homilia de Gratiarum Actione, PG 31, cols. 2 17-238
-, De Spiritu Sancto, [Traité du Saint-Esprit] ed. B. Pruche, SC 1 7bis,
Paris, 1968

Cedrenus-Skylitzes,
_,Cedrenus Georgius, loannis Scylitzae, ed. I. Bekker, CSHB, 2 vols.,
Bonn, 1838-1839

Cosmas the Melode

-, Canons and Triodia, ed. W. Christ- M. Paranikas, Anthologia
Graeca Carminum Christianoru,n, Leipzig, 1871, 161-204

Cyril of Alexandria
-, Select Letters, ed. and transi. L. Wickham, Oxford, 1983

Diadochus of Photike
__, De Perfecrioni Spirituali, ed. J.E. Weis-Liebersdorf, Teubner, 1912
Ephraem the Syrian
ed. D.Caillau, S.Patris nostri Ephraem Syri Opera, Paris, 1844

Epiphanius
-, Adversus Haereses. Published in 3 vols. by K. Holl, Epiphanius.
Ancoratus und Panarion, vol. I (=Adv. Haer. 1-33), GCS 25, Leipzig
1915;
Panarion, vol. II (=Adv. Haer. 34-64), GCS 31, Leipzig 1922;
Panarion, vol. III (=Adv. Haer. 65-98), GCS 37, Leipzig,1933. [PG 41,
cols. 156-1200 and PG 42, cols. 9-832]. Transi. by F. Williams, The
Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book II & III [Secta 4 7-80, De Fidel,
Leiden-New York, 1987

Euthymius the Younger [or Thessalonikeus]

-, Vie et office de saint Euthyme le Jeune, ed. L. Petit, Bibliotheca
Hagiographica Orientalis 5, Paris, 1904

George of Nicomedia,
-, Homilia in Occursum Domini, (BHGa 1968.- cf. BHG 1967), CPG,
vol. II, No. 2271 =PG 28, cols. 973-1000
__, Oratio in illud: "Stabant autemfuxta crucem Jesu Mater ejus, et
soror Matris ejus;" atque in sepulturam divini corporis Domini nostri
Jesu Christi, sancta ac magna die Parasceves, PG 100, cols. 1457-1489
In oraculum conceptionis S.Deiparae, PG 100, cols. 1336-1353
Laudatio in conceptionem sanctae Annae, parentis sanctissimae
Deiparae, PG 100, cols. 1353-1376
-, Encomium in sanctissimae Deiparae Repraesentationem in templo
atque Ut Deo consecrata sitjuxta historiam, PG 100, cols. 140 1-1420
-, Oratfo in sanctissimae Dei Genitricis Ingressum in templum, PG
100, cols. 1420-1440

315
 Oratio in conceptionem ac nativitatem sanctzssimae Dominae
nostrae Dei genitricis semper virginis Mariae, PG 100, cots. 1376-1400
In Immaculatae Virginis in sepuicro assistentiam, et gratiarum actio
pro gloriosa resurrectione, PG 100, cols. 1489-1504

George the Monk

-, Chronicon, ed. C. de Boor, BSGR, vol. II, Stuttgart, 1978

Germanos I of Constantinople
Epistola Germani adJohannem episcopum Synadensem, PG 98, cols.
156-161
In Ingressum Sanctissimae Deiparae, (BHG 1103), PG 98, cols. 292-
309
-, Encomium in sanctam Deiparam: quando triennispraesentata est in
templo, ac in Sancta Sanctorum a suis parentibus illata, (BHGa 1104),
PG 98, cots. 309-320
-, Homilia in Praesentationem, (fragm.), (BHG 1076w), ed. E. Tonioto,
"Sull'ingresso delta Vergine net santo dei santi. Una finale inedita di
omelia bizantina," Marianum 36, 1974, 101-105
-, In Sanctissimae Dei Genitricis Annuntiationem, (BHG I 145n-q,
BHGa 1 145n-r), PG 98, cots. 320-340
-, In omni venerationeprosequendam sanctae Dei Genitricis
Dormitionem, (BHG 1119), PG 98, cots. 340-348
-, In beatam sanctissimae Dominae nostrae Deiparae semperque
Virginis Mariae Dormitionem,(BI-IG 1135), PG 98, cols. 348-3 57
-, Laudatio in sanctam ac venerabitem Dormitionem pregloriosae
Dominae nostrae Dei Genitricis semper virginis Maria, (BHG 1155,
BHGa 1 155b), PG 98, cots. 360-372
-, Homily on the Dormition, ed. A. Wenger, "Un nouveau témoin de
l'Assomption: une hométie attribuée a saint Germain de Constantinople,"
REB 16, (Melanges Sévérien Salaville), 1958, 43-5 8
 -, Homilia de Acathisto ye! de Dorm itione, (BHG 11 30s) ed. V.
Grumel, "Homélie de saint Germain sur la délivrance de Constantinople,"
REB 16, 1958, 183-205
-, In Encaenia venerandae aedis sanctissimae Dominae nostrae Dei
Genitricis, inque sanctasfascias Domini nostri Jesu Christi, (BHG 1086),
PG 98, cols. 372-384
-, Oratio in divini corporis Domini ac Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi
sepulturam, PG 98, cols. 243-290

Gregoiy Nazianzen, Oratio in Gorgoniam, PG 35, cols. 813D-816A

-, Oratio XJ' In Machaboeorum laudem, PG 35, cols. 911-934
-, Lettres Théologiques, ed. P. GaIlay, SC 208, Paris, 1974
,Oratio Jlapologetica, PG 35, cols. 408-5 14
-, The Five Theological Orations of Gre gory of Nazianzus, ed. A.J.
Mason,CPT 1, Cambridge, 1899

Gregory of Nyssa, Testimonia Adversus Judaeos, PG 46, cols. 193-233

Antirrheticus adversus Apollinarium, ed. F. MUller, Gregorii Nysseni
Opera III, I. Opera Doginatica Minora, Leiden, 1958, 13 1-233
(= PG 45, cols.1 124-1269)
-, Oratio in Diem Natalem Christi, (BHG 1915), PG 46, cols. 1128-
1149
__, De Vita Moses, ed. J. Daniélou, La Vie de Molse, SC iter, Paris,
1968, (=PG 44, cols. 297-430)
-, Vie de Sainte Macrine, ed. P. Maraval, SC 178, Paris, 1971
Orario concolatoria in Puicheriam, ed. A. Spira, Gregorii Nysseni
opera, 1X Sermones, Leiden, 1967, 461-472
-, Oratiofunebris in Flacillam imperatricem, ed. A. Spira., Gregorii
Nysseni opera, IX Sermones, Leiden, 1967, 475-490 ( =PG 46,
cols. 877-892)

317
 __, De Vita Gregorii Thaumaturgi ed. G. Heil, Gre gorii Nysseni Opera
X, vol. I, Leiden, N.Y., Kobenhavn, Köln, 1990, 3-57 (=PG 46, cols. 893-
957)

Ignatius of Antioch
Ignace d'Antioche, Polycarpe de Smyrne, Lettres. Martyre de
Polycarpe, ed. Th. Camelot, SC 10, Paris, 1969

Irenaeus of Lyons
Irénée de Lyon. Demonstration de la predication apostolique, ed.
L.M. Froidevaux, SC 62, Paris, 1971
-, Irénée de Lyon. Contre les hérésies. Livre III, eds. A. Rousseau and
L. Doutreleau, 2 vols., SC 210 and 211, Paris, 1974

Jacob of Sarug
Hymn on the Dormition of the Mother of God, ed. Baumstark, OC 5,
1905, 91-9
-, "Deux homélies inédites de Jacques de Saroug," ed. P. Mouterde,
Mélanges de l'Université de S.Joseph 26, 1944-1946

John Chrysostom,
In Matthaeum Homiliae, 44, PG 57, cols. 463-472
In Johannem (Jn. 2) homiliae, 21, PG 59, cols. 127-134
Jean Chrysostome. La virginité, eds. H. Musurillo and B. Grillet,
SC 125, Paris, 1966
-, Jean Chrysostome. A unejeune veuve. Sur le marriage unique,
eds. G.H. Ettlinger and B. Grillet, SC 138, Paris, 1968

John Climacus,
-, Scala Paradisi, PG 88, cols. 632-1164

John of Damascus,
 -, 7-I eEcVrolCoç. Tthcepezç Oeourrüpzcç OuttIeç, ed. A.Yeftits, Athens,
1970
-, Homélies sur la nativité et la dormition, ed. P. Voulet, SC 80, Paris,
1961
-, Homilia in sanctamparasceven et in Crucem, PG 96, cols. 589-600
Oratio in Dormitionem I, ed. B. Kotter, Schrflen des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol. 5, Berlin, N.Y., 1988, 483-500
-, Oratio in Dormitionem II, ed. B. Kotter, Schrften des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol.5, Berlin, N.Y., 1988, 5 16-540
-, Oratio in Dormitionem ifi, ed. B. Kotter, Schrflen des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol. 5, Berlin, N.Y., 1988, 548-555
-, Oratio in Nativitatem, ed. B. Kotter, Schrflen des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol. 5, Berlin, N.Y., 1988, 169-182
-, Homilia in Sabbatum Sanctum, ed. B. Kotter, Schrften des Johannes
von Damaskos, vol. 5, Berlin, N.Y., 1988, 121-146
_,Contra imaginum calumniatores orationes tres, ed. B. Kotter,
Schr ften des Johannes von Damaskos, vol. 3, Berlin, N.Y., 1975
_,De Fide Contra Nestorianos, ed. B. Kotter, Schrften des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol. 4, Berlin, N.Y., 1981, 238-253
_,Contra Nestorianos, ed. B. Kotter, Schr?ften des Johannes von Damaskos,
vol. 4, Berlin, N.Y., 1981, 263-288
_,Contra Manichaeos, ed. B. Kotter, Schrften des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol. 4, Berlin, N.Y., 1981, 35 1-398
-, Expositio Fidei, ed. B. Kotter, Schrflen des Johannes von
Damaskos, vol. 2, Berlin, N.Y., 1973

John of Sardes
-, loannis Sardiani, Commentarium in Aphthonii Progymnasmata, ed.
H. Rabe, Leipzig, 1928

Joseph the Hyninoqapher

 Analecta Sacra spicilegium solesmensiparafa, ed. J.B. Pitra, vol. I, Paris,
1876, 381-399

-, Mariale, PG 105, cols. 984 A-1412 A

Justin the Martyr

Dialogue with Trypho, ed. G. Archambault, Textes et documents
pour l'étude historique du christianisme 8, 2 vols., Paris, 1909
-, An Early Christian Philosopher. Justin Martyr 's Dialogue with
Trypho, Chapters One to Nine, ed. van Winden J.C.M., Philosophia
Patrum I, Leiden, 1971
,Justin. Apologies, ed. L. Pautigny, Textes et documents pour l'étude
historique du christianisme 1, Paris, 1904
-, The Apologies ofJustin Martyr, ed. A.W.F. Blunt, Cambridge, 1911
-, lustini Marlyris Apologiae Pro Christianis, ed. Miroslav Marcovich,
Berlin, New York, 1994

Isidore of Pelusium
-, Letter to Theologius Scholasticus, PG 78, cols. 216-217

Nicholas Cabasilas
1I (9ardicoç. Tpsiç esopirwp idç 'OAu ttIeç, ed. P. Nellas, Athens,
1989

Leo the Grammaticus,

Leonis Grammatici, Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker, CSHB, Bonn, 1842

Leontius of Constantinople
Homélies Pascales (cinq homélies inédites), [Hésychius de Jerusalem,
Basile de Seleucie, Jean de Béryte, Pseudo-Chrysostome, Léonce de
Constantinople], ed. M. Aubineau, SC 187, Paris, 1972, 368-385
 -, Leontius Presbyter of Constantinople, Fourteen Homilies, ed. and
transi. P. Allen and C. Datema, Byzantina Australiensia 9, Brisbane, 1991

Letters
The Letter of the Three Patriarchs and Related Texts, J.A. Munitiz, J.
Chrysostomides et. a!. (eds.), Surrey, 1997

Lives of Saints
Life ofAndrew of Crete
Vita of Anrew of Crete by Nicetas published in M. Papadopoulos-
Kerameus, Analecta Hierosolymitikes Stachyologias, vol. 5, Petersburg,
1898, 169-179
L/è ofAndrew the Fool
The Lfe of St Andrew the Fool, ed. L. Rydén, 2 vols., Uppsala, 1995
LJè ofAthanasius the Athonite
Vitae duae antiquae Sancti Athanasii Athonitae, ed. J. Noret, Louvain,
1982
Life of the Empress Irene
"The Unpublished Saint's Life of the Empress Irene (BHG 2205)," ed.
W. Treadgold, ByzFor Vifi, 1982, 237-25 1
Ltfe of Irene of Chrysobalanton
The Life of St Irene Abbess of Chrysobalanton, ed. J.O. Rosenqvist, Acta
Universitatis Uppsaliensis 1, Uppsala, 1986
Life of Michael Maleinos
Vie de Saint Michel Maléinos, ed. R.P.L. Petit, ROC 7, 1902
Lfe of Michael Synkellos
The Lfe of Michael the Synkellos, ed. and transi. M.B. Cunningham,
BBTT 1, Belfast, 1991
Life of Peter the Athonite
 Vita published in K. Lake, The Early Days of Monasticism on Mount
Athos, Oxford, 1909 (reprinted in AytopEz'ruciBzfltto81ic1 5, 1940-1941,
35-50)
Life of Peter of Atroa
La Vie merveilleuse de Saint Pierre d'Atroa, ed. V. Laurent, SubsHag 29,
Brussels, 1956
Vita of Peter by Gregory Palamas, PG 150, cols. 996A-1 040C
L ife ofRomanos the Melode,
Vita. Ed. A. Landos, Auap'r&v Ipla, Venice, 1641
Life of Stephen the Younger
La Vie d'Etienne le Jeune par Etienne le Diacre ed. M.-F. Auzépy,
Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs 3, Hampshire, 1997

Melito of Sardis
-, Sur Ia Paque, ed. 0. Perler, SC 123, Paris 1966
On Pascha and Fragments, ed. S.G. Hall, Oxford, 1979

Menander Rhetor
-, eds. D.A.Russell and N.G.Wilson, Menander Rhetor, Oxford, 1981

Methodius of Olympus,
-, Méthode d'Olympe. Le banquet, eds. H. Musurillo and V.H.
Debidour, sc 95, Paris, 1963

Miracles of
Demetrius of Thessalonica (St)
-, Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de Saint Démétrius, ed. and
transi. P. Lemerle, 2 vols. (texte-commentaire), Paris, 1979 and 1981

Nicephorus, Breviarium
-, 7ropIaIvrouoçXpovuc4, ed. C. de Boor, Leipzig, 1880
Nicetas Mediciensis
-, De S. Niceta Confessore, Hegumeno Mediciensi in Bithynia, Acta
Sanctorum, Aprilis, Tom. I, Tertia Aprilis, 255-266

Nicholas (St)
Hagios Nikolaos. Der heilige Nikolaos in der griechischen Kirche,
ed. G. Anrich, 2 vols., Leipzig, Berlin, 1913 and 1917

Origen
-, Contre Celse, ed. H. Borret, 4 vols., SC 132, 136, 147, 150, Paris
1967-1969
-, Contre Celse, ed. H. Borret, vol. V (tables and indices), SC 227,
Paris 1976
_,Philocalie, 1-20. Sur les Ecritures, ed. M. Han, SC 302, Paris, 1983
-, Philocalie, 21-2 7. Sur le Like Arbitre, ed. E. Junod, SC 226, Paris,
1976
-, Homélies sur S. Luc, eds. H. Crouzel, F. Fournier, P. Périchon, SC
87, Paris, 1962
-, Commentaryn Matthew, (PG 13, cols. 835-1600) eds. E.
Klostennann and E. Benz, Origenes Werke. Origenes Matthauserkiarung,
GCS 40, Berlin, 1935-1937

Pentecostarion
Pentecostarion, ed. Bartholomew of Koutloumousi, Apostoliki Diakonia,
Athens, 1959

Peter I of Alexandria
-, Fragments, PG 18, col. 5 12-521

Photius of Constantinople

-'Li
 -, Photius Epistulae et Amphilochia, B. Laourdas and L.G. Westerink
(eds.), Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana, 6
vols., Leipzig 1983-1988
_,On the Inauguration of the Mosaic of the Virgin Mary, ed. B. Laourdas,
Photiou Omiliai, Thessaloniki, 1959, 164-172
_, On the Attack of the Rus I, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai,
Thessaloniki, 1959, 29-39
__, On the Attack of the Rus II, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai,
Thessaloniki, 1959, 40-52
-, On the Annunciation I, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai, Thessaloniki,
1959, 53-61
On the Nativity of the Virgin, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai,
Thessaloniki, 1959, 89-98
On Good Friday I, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai, Thessaloniki, 1959,
1-11
On Good Friday II, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai, Thessaloniki,
1959, 12-28
On Good Friday ifi, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai, Thessaloniki,
1959, 62-73
_, Homily on the Burial of the Lord I, ed. B. Laourdas, Photiou Omiliai,
Thessaloniki, 1959, 105-121
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# EIBE\
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