The Image Of The Virgin Mary In The Akathistos Hymn

The Akathistos Hymn, the most famous work of Byzantine hymnography, has been enshrined in the Orthodox liturgy since the year 626, and its image of the Virgin Mary has exerted a strong influence upon Marian poetry and literature. Anonymous, undated and highly rhetorical, the hymn has presented a challenge to scholars over the years. This study has been undertaken by an innovative method. The approach brings new insights to the era which brought forth the hymn, and the metaphorical image of the Virgin becomes conceptually accessible to the modern-day reader. The investigation leads to the conclusion that the Council of Ephesus (431) constitutes the most likely historical context for the hymn's composition. The book will be of value to all scholars of early Byzantine and Marian studies.

Pentcheva demonstrates that a fundamental shift in the Byzantine cult from relics to icons, took place during the late tenth century. Centered upon fundamental questions of art, religion, and politics, Icons and Power makes a vital contribution to the entire field of medieval studies.

This volume, on the cult of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) in Byzantium, focuses on textual and historical aspects of the subject, thus complementing previous work which has centred more on the cult of images of the Mother of God. The papers presented here, by an international team of scholars, consider the development and transformation of the cult from approximately the fourth through the twelfth centuries. The volume opens with discussion of the origins of the cult, and its Near Eastern manifestations, including the archaeological site of the Kathisma church in Palestine, which represents the earliest Marian shrine in the Holy Land, and Syriac poetic treatment of the Virgin. The principal focus, however, is on the 8th and 9th centuries in Byzantium, as a critical period when Christian attitudes toward the Virgin and her veneration were transformed. The book re-examines the relationship between icons, relics and the Virgin, asking whether increasing devotion to these holy objects or figures was related in any way. Some contributions consider the location of relics and later, icons, in Constantinople and other centres of Marian devotion; others explore gender issues, such as the significance of the Virgin's feminine qualities, and whether women and men identified with her equally as a holy figure. The aim of this volume is to build on recent work on the cult of the Virgin Mary in Byzantium and to explore areas that have not yet been studied. The rationale is critical and historical, using literary, artistic, and archaeological sources to evaluate her role in the development of the Byzantine understanding of the ways in which God interacts with creation by means of icons, relics, and the Theotokos.

The Virgin Mary assumed a position of central importance in Byzantium. This major and authoritative study examines her portrayal in liturgical texts during the first six centuries of Byzantine history. Focusing on three main literary genres that celebrated this holy figure, it highlights the ways in which writers adapted their messages for different audiences. Mary is portrayed variously as defender of the imperial city, Constantinople, virginal Mother of God, and ascetic disciple of Christ. Preachers, hymnographers, and hagiographers used rhetoric to enhance Mary's powerful status in Eastern Christian society, depicting her as virgin and mother, warrior and ascetic, human and semi-divine being. Their paradoxical statements were based on the fundamental mystery that Mary embodied: she was the mother of Christ, the Word of God, who provided him with the human nature that he assumed in his incarnation. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Gender was a key social indicator in Byzantine society, as in many others. While studies of gender in the western medieval period have appeared regularly in the past decade, similar studies of Byzantium have lagged behind. Masculine and feminine roles were not always as clearly defined as in the West, while eunuchs made up a 'third gender' in the imperial court. Social status indicators were also in a state of flux, as much linked to patronage networks as to wealth, as the Empire came under a series of external and internal pressures. This fluidity applied equally in ecclesiastical and secular spheres. The present collection of essays uncovers gender roles in the imperial family, in monastic institutions of both genders, in the Orthodox church, and in the nascent cult of Mary in the east. It puts the spotlight on flashpoints over a millennium of Byzantine rule, from Constantine the Great to Irene and the Palaiologoi, and covers a wide geographical range, from Byzantine Italy to Syria. The introduction frames the following nine chapters against recent scholarship and considers methodological issues in the study of gender and Byzantine society. Together these essays portray a surprising range of male and female experience in various Byzantine social institutions - whether religious, military, or imperial -- over the course of more than a millennium. The collection offers a provocative contrast to recent studies based on western medieval scholarship. Common themes that bind the collection into a coherent whole include specifically Byzantine expectations of gender among the social elite; the fluidity of social and sexual identities for Byzantine men and women within the church; and the specific challenges that strong individuals posed to the traditional limitations of gender within a hierarchical society dominated by Christian orthodoxy.

This volume offers a sample of the many ways that medieval Franciscans wrote, represented in art, and preached about the ‘model of models’ of the medieval religious experience, the Virgin Mary. This is an extremely valuable collection of essays that highlight the significant role the Franciscans played in developing Mariology in the Middle Ages. Beginning with Francis, Clare, and Anthony, a number of significant theologians, spiritual writers, preachers, and artists are presented in their attempt to capture the significance and meaning of the Virgin Mary in the context of the late Middle Ages within the Franciscan movement. Contributors are Luciano Bertazzo, Michael W. Blastic, Rachel Fulton Brown, Leah Marie Buturain, Marzia Ceschia, Holly Flora, Alessia Francone, J. Isaac Goff, Darrelyn Gunzburg, Mary Beth Ingham, Christiaan Kappes, Steven J. McMichael, Pacelli Millane, Kimberly Rivers, Filippo Sedda, and Christopher J. Shorrock.

Fully illustrated in colour and black and white, Images of the Mother of God complements the successful exhibition catalogue of the 'Mother of God' exhibition at the Benaki Museum in Athens. It brings together the work of leading international authorities and younger scholars to provide a wide-ranging survey of how the Theotokos was perceived in the Byzantine world. It embraces the disciplines of art historians, archaeologists, traditional and feminist historians, as well as theologians, philologists and social anthropologists. Images of the Mother of God will appeal not just to those interested in Byzantine art and culture, but also to scholars of Western Europe in the Middle Ages who are looking for comparative materials in their own work.

Examine the creative, profound dialogue between medieval women and biblical traditions The latest volume in the Bible and Women series examines the relationship between women and the Bible’s reception during the early Middle Ages (500–1100 CE) in both the Greek East and the Latin West. Essays focus on interactions between women and the Bible through biblical precepts on women and for women, biblical women as the subjects of action or objects of discussion, and writings by women that refer to the Bible as a moral authority. The women discussed in the volume range from the well-known—including the nuns Kassia in Byzantium and Hrosvita in the West; the aristocrat Dhuoda, author of a moral guide for her son; Gisela, the sister of Charlemagne and abbess of Chelles; and her niece Rotrude—to those who remain anonymous. Contributions also explore how the Old and New Testaments exercised influence on emerging Islam. Features: Analysis of images of the Virgin Mary as a means of tracing the spread of her cult and feast days from East to West Exploration of the significance of classical culture for medieval women who composed poems for a Christian audience Evaluation of art as a means of establishing devotional relationships not necessarily mediated by the voices of preachers or the reading of texts .