3.52 FC – The Followers of the Apostles in Byzantium

This contribution offers an overview of the manner in which the works of church historians of the late antiquity and beyond reflect early Christian figures that are connected in some way to main apostolic figures. As such, by focusing on Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome of Stridon among others – and, for a later view on…

In 1138, a scribe named Michael completed the copying of a fenqitho (hymnal) manuscript at the Syriac Orthodox Monastery of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem. Among its contents was a commemoration of Mary Magdalene that recollected and celebrated her life. Rather than adhering to the more traditional—and biblically based—characterisation of her as one of the myrophorai,…

In the recensions of the Armenian Synaxarion of Ter-Israyel Khach‘ets‘i (13th century), Kirakos Arevelts‘i/Gandzakets‘i (13th century) and Grigor Anavarzets‘i (13th–14th century), Mary Magdalene is commemorated on 23 July along with St. Phocas and Step‘anos of Syunik‘, an 8th-century Armenian translator and commentator. In Grigor Tserents‘ Khlat‘ets‘i’s Synaxarion (14th–15th century) she is commemorated on 16 July…

For more than two hundred years scholars have based their observations regarding the reception of the Martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch in the Armenian world on a diplomatic edition that was published in Venice in 1814 and republished by Julius Heinrich Petermann alongside a Latin translation in 1849. In this paper I shall argue that…

This paper aims to offer an updated full overview of the manuscript transmission of the hagiographic literature focused on Polycarp of Smyrna in Greek, Coptic, Syriac and Armenian, following at the same the literary development of the character on the one hand, and of his relationship to the apostles on the other across these traditions.