International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Theodora Antonopoulou
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Philology
Department of Byzantine Literature, School of Philo-sophy, Athens, Greece; 
[e-mail]
From Constantinople to Panormos: Manuscripts, Homilies, 
Ecphrases
Ecphrases
, those of churches in particular, were a rather unusual means for preachers to 
reach their audiences. There are just a handful of surviving homilies containing such rhetorical 
descriptions. This paper will correlate the 
ecphrases 
of churches by Patriarch Photios and Emperor 
Leo VI, delivered in Constantinople, with those of the Cappella Palatina by Philagathos Kerameus, 
delivered in Norman Panormos. The ties traced here will shed light on a successful transfer of a 
rhetorical device, which served both ideological goals as well as the need of the audience to better 
comprehend the religious setting of the homilies.
Alexandra Nikiforova
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, Germany; 
[e-mail]
Anamnesis and Mimesis in Maundy Thursday Rites: 
A New Evidence from the Ninth-Century Tropologion from Sinai ΜΓ/ΝΕ 56+5
The oldest Greek formular for Maundy Thursdаy is saved in theTropologion, i.e. hymnal for 
movable and fixed feasts of the church year, Sin.Gr. ΜΓ/ΝΕ 56+5, dated back to the second half 
of 9
th
Century. This unpublished Greek hymnographical codex found in 1975 in the monastery of 
St.Catherine is based on the “Anastasis” tradition of Jerusalem (the heading of the codex runs:“With 
God, the Tropologion of all holy feasts of the whole year established by the saint Church of the 
Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ”), but also has its local calendar and cult specific, influenced 
by the region of Egypt[1]. On 245 folia 73 rubrics were preserved with the chants for the liturgy of the 
hours and Eucharist from Christmas eve till the commemoration of Righteous Joseph of Arimathea 
(June 12). This hymnal from Sinai contains liturgical masterpieces ascribed to Cyril of Jerusalem, 
Cosmas of Maiouma, and John of Damascus, and is of real importance for those who study liturgy 
of Jerusalem and its disemmination through the Christian East. The core of Maundy Thursday 
in Tropologion compose the performances of the myron consecration, Eucharistic assembly and 

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footwashing rite, which I discuss in my presentation. This evidence fills the gap between Georgian 
Lectionary (5
th
–8
th
Centuries) and Anastasis Typicon (Holy Cross 43, 1122 A.D.). The basic 
methodology empoyed is to treate each rite independently and trace its development, and then to 
focuse on an overall view of the liturgical celebrations of Holy Thursday in their ensemble.