A Letter on the Dormition Preserved in Armenian in the Corpus Dionysiacum

The presence of Dionysius the Areopagite at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary was one of the very few facts known about the Areopagite’s life in the Middle Ages. It is based on a cryptic mention in Dionysius’ De divinis nominibus, which gave rise to a very long list of literature since the sixth century. In Armenian, a fragment of a letter on that topic, addressed to Titus, Paul’s disciple, is preserved (CPG 6632, BHO 642). It was translated into German by Paul Vetter in 1895 on the basis of the text preserved in P110, a čՙar̄əntir copied in 1194. Recently (2020), Stephen J. Shoemaker translated that letter into English on the basis of the text edited by Garegin Srowanjteancՙ in 1874. Many more Armenian manuscripts containing that fragment have been found, not only hagiographic ones, but also Corpus Dionysiacum manuscripts, in which the fragment is preserved amongst Dionysius’ letters.