A Homily on the Prophet Zechariah and Its Author

The Prophet Zechariah is a relatively neglected figure in the Byzantine homiletic tradition, at least with regard to texts written specifically in his honour. This is largely because references to Zechariah are usually embedded in discourses on the Nativity of his son, Saint John the Baptist, whose cult was one of the most widespread in the Christian tradition. A homily dedicated to Zechariah is attributed in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca to the Patriarch of Constantinople Germanos, without specifying whether this refers to Germanos I or II. Subsequently, in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum, the discourse was classified among the dubious works (dubia) of Germanos I. The present paper examines this text in detail with the aim of determining its authorship.