Medieval Liturgy Working Group: Ágnes T. Mihálykó (University of Oslo), "Preparing a corpus of liturgical prayers on papyrus"

Papyri preserve us some of the earliest material evidence for liturgical prayers from Egypt. Over eighty such prayers in Greek and Coptic have been edited so far from various Western collections and more are being discovered. However, these editions were published one by one in various volumes and journals, and, except for Greek anaphoras reedited by Jürgen Hammerstaedt in 1999, they were never collected and presented together. Furthermore, many editions are dated and do little to position the prayers within the history of liturgy in Egypt. My current project aims at collecting and reediting these prayers, thereby producing a corpus of liturgical prayers with new readings, translations, and a careful liturgical interpretation of the pieces. In my talk, I’ll first discuss my approach to defining a corpus of liturgical prayers. Then I’ll present my papyrological work on a newly identified fourth-century anaphora fragment. Finally, I’ll showcase a couple of the most interesting pieces from the forthcoming corpus, reflecting on their importance for the history of the liturgy.

This workshop is organized by the Medieval Liturgy working group. It will take place virtually on Zoom.

For more information about this event, please contact Eleonora Celora.