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EXPERIENCING
BYZANTIUM
Papers from the 44th Spring Symposium of
Byzantine Studies, Newcastle and Durham,
April 2011
edited by
Claire Nesbitt
Durham University, UK
and
Mark Jackson
Newcastle University, UK
ASHGATE
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Claire Nesbitt and Mark Jackson have asserted their moral right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing LimitedWey Court East
Union Road
Farnham
Surrey, GU9 7PTEngland
www.ashgate.com
The British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies (44th : 2011 : Newcastle upon Tyne, England;Durham, England)Experiencing Byzantium: Papers from the 44th Spring Symposium of Byzantine
Studies, Newcastle and Durham, April 2011 /edited by Claire Nesbitt and Mark Jackson.
pages cm. - (Publications of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies)1. Byzantine Empire - Civilization - Congresses. 2. Byzantine Empire - Religion -
Congresses. 3. Byzantine Empire - Social life and customs - Congresses. 4. Art,
Byzantine - Congresses. 5. Cultural landscapes - Byzantine Empire - Congresses.
6. Identity (Pyschology) - Byzantine Empire - Congresses. I. Nesbitt, Claire, editor ofcompilation. II. Jackson, Mark, 1973- editor of compilation. III. Title.DF521.S67 2013
949.5'013 - dc23 2013010549
ISBN 9781472412294 (hbk)ISBN 9781472416704 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN 9781472416711 (ebk-ePUB)
Ashgate Publishing Company110 Cherry Street
Suite 3-1Burlington, VT 05401-3818
USA
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF BYZANTINE STUDIES - PUBLICATION 18
F S Cwumhcom
MIX
Paper from
responsible sourcesFSC*C013056 Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall.
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Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables
List of Contributors
Editors' Preface
1. Claire Nesbitt & Mark Jackson
Section I: Experiencing Art
2. Liz James
3. Warren T. Woodfin
Section 11: Experiencing Faith
4. Beatrice Caseau
5. Andrew Louth
6. Nikolaos Karydis
vii
xi
xiii
Experiencing Byzantium 1
Things: Art and Experience
in Byzantium 17
Repetition and Replication:
Sacred and Secular PatternedTextiles 35
Experiencing the Sacred 59
Experiencing the Liturgy
in Byzantium 79
Different Approaches to
an Early Byzantine
Monument: Procopius and
Ibn Battuta on the Church
of St John at Ephesos 89
Section III: Experiencing Landscape
7. Nikolas Bakirtzis Locating Byzantine
Monasteries: Spatial
Considerations and
Strategies in the Rural
Landscape 113
From Experiencing Byzantium Copyright © 2013 by the Society for the Promotion of ByzantineStudies. Published by Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Wey Court Hast, Union Road, Famham,Surrey, GU9 7PT, Great Britain.
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8. Katie Green Experiencing Politiko:
New Methodologies
for Analysing the
Landscape of a Rural
Byzantine Society 133
9. Vicky Manolopoulou Processing Emotion:
Litanies in Byzantine
Constantinople 153
Section IV: Experiencing Ritual
10. Heather Hunter-Crawley The Cross of
Light: Experiencing
Divine Presence in
Byzantine Syria 175
11. Sophie V. Moore Experiencing
Mid-Byzantine Mortuary
Practice: Shrouding
the Dead 195
Section V: Experiencing Self
12. Scott Ashley How Icelanders
Experienced Byzantium,Real and Imagined 213
13. Myrto Hatzaki Experiencing Physical
Beauty in Byzantium: The
Body and the Ideal 233
14. Dion C. Smythe Experiencing Self: How
Mid-Byzantine Historians
Presented their
Experience 251
Section VI: Experiencing Stories
15. Margaret Mullett Experiencing the Byzantine
Text, Experiencing theByzantine Tent 269
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Georgia Frank
Alexander Lingas
Sensing Ascension in
Early Byzantium
From Earth to Heaven:
The Changing Musical
Soundscape of ByzantineLiturgy
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16. Sensing Ascension in Early
Byzantium
Georgia Frank
In Late Antiquity, the story of Jesus' ascent to heaven stirred the imagination.As the final episode in Luke's gospel and the opening episode in the Acts of
the Apostles, the ascent marked a 'last look'.1 Yet, this near-doublet raised
mixed emotions. How to reconcile, on the one hand, Luke's euphoric outlook
celebrating Jesus' affectionate assurance of ongoing presence, with Acts'
somewhat dysphoric 'men in white' confronting the disciples with the 'wake-
up call' of separation and absence?2 Rituals such as the eucharist played an
1 I thank the conference organisers, doctors Mark Jackson and Claire Nesbitt, for their
invitation, as well as Derek Krueger, Columba Stewart, Francois Bovon, and Richard W.
Bishop for guidance at critical stages, Dr Catherine Playoust for sharing her dissertation prior
to publication, Ms Lauren Kerby for valuable research assistance, and anonymous readers for
astute suggestions. Despite these generous efforts, any shortcomings or errors that remain
are entirely my own.
2 Luke 24.50-52: ’Ei;f|y<*Y£V b i auxoug X.e£.ojJ tax; TCQog Bt]0aviav, teal ETibpag tag
Xeipag auxou £uA6yr)CTEv auxoug. icai ty^vExo ev xtp EuAoyeiv auxov auxoug &i£oxr) an'
auxeuv taxi. avEtfttQExo elg xbv oupavov. taxi auxoi npocncu- vrJcravxEg auxov u7iEcrxQEt|)av
Eig l£pouCTaAf]p pexcx xapag |X£ydAT)g, (Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting
up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was
carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.)
Acts 1.9-11: taxi xaOxa elticuv |3A£7t 6vxcov aOxtov inf]Q0r|, taxi vccftfAr] u7r£Aa[5EV
auxov a n o xatv 6<jt0aA|xtI)v auxdiv. icai cog dxEvtCovxeg fjaav tig xov oupavbv TiopEUopfvou
auxou, taxi L6ou avbpeg 6uo naQ£tcrxr|- KEiaav auxolg ev Eo0ijo£ai Afutaxig, oi taxi
Elraxv, Avbpcg TaALAaloc, xi Eaxr|iaxx£ (3A£novxEg £lg xbv ouQa- vov; oOxog 6 lr|aoug 6avaAr]|xc}>0Eig acj)' upcov £lg xbv ouQavov ouxcog EAeuaExai 6v xponov £0£baaa0E auxov
nopeubpevov elg xbv oupavbv.
(When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took
him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly
two men in white robes stood by them. They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking
up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in
the same way as you saw him go into heaven.') All Bible translations are taken from the New
From Experiencing Byzantium Copyright © 2013 by the Society for the Promotion of ByzantineStudies. Published by Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Wey Court East, Union Road, Famham,Surrey, GU9 7PT, Great Britain.
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important role in mediating absence and presence of Christ's physical body.3
Storytelling and sermons also acknowledged that 'painful breach'.4 For
Irenaeus of Lyons, the ascent was an eruption of sight and sound. Although
the Word had 'descended invisible to creatures', its incarnation could notescape the notice of lower angels. As Jesus ascended, they cried, 'Lift up your
gates, [O, Princes], and be lifted up, you everlasting gates; that King of Glory
shall enter in'.5 Likewise the Ascension o f Isaiah imagined how the descending
Christ eluded the notice of the angelic powers, yet appeared in plain sight to
the earthly disciples.6
Suspended between the earth-bound disciples and the heavenly hosts, Jesus
showed little if any emotion. For his disciples, however, it was another matter
entirely, as they anticipated and witnessed Jesus' departure.7 The 'never more'of their last look led preachers to ponder the disciples' grief, fear and wonder.
By the late fourth century, when the Feast of the Ascension became celebrated
apart from the Pentecost, preachers found a liturgical setting in which to
highlight the mixed emotions the event elicited. As this paper suggests, the
Feast of the Ascension relied on biblical psalmody to navigate the full range
of emotions surrounding Jesus' departure. To demonstrate this, relation of
psalmody to affect, this paper focuses on two ritual settings: the holy placeassociated with Jesus' Ascension in Jerusalem beginning in the fourth century
and the churches of Constantinople in subsequent centuries.
Revised Standard Version. I cite psalms according to the Septuagint (Greek) numbering, with
the corresponding Hebrew (Masoretic) psalm numbering in parentheses.
3 On the eucharistic, eschatological and ecclesiological dimensions of the ambiguity
between presence and absence of Christ's physical body, see D. Farrow, Ascension and Ecclesia:
On The Significance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Ecclesiology and Christian Cosmology
(Edinburgh and Grand Rapids, Mich., 1999), pp. 1-14.
4 A phrase borrowed from F. Bovon, Luke the Theologian: Fifty-five Years of Research
(1950-2005), 2nd rev. edition (Waco, Tex., 2006), p. 149.
5 Irenaeus (Dem. 84), tr. J. Behr, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, On the Apostolic Preaching
(Crestwood, N.Y., 1997), p. 91.
6 Ascension o f Isaiah 10.24-26,11.25-26 and compare, discussed in J. Danielou, Bible et
Liturgie (Paris, 1951), translated in J. Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy (Notre Dame, Ind.,1966), pp. 304-5. Cf. Ps. 23 (24), 7-9.
7 The phrase is borrowed from F. Bovon, 'The Lukan Ascension Stories', Korean New
Testament Studies 17 (2010), pp. 563-93, esp. 577. On patristic discussions of the relation between
Luke's and Acts' versions, see F. Bovon, Das Evangelium nach Lukas vol. 4, Lk 19,28-24,53
(Dusseldorf, 2009), pp. 621-5; now in English translation, Luke 3: A Commentary on the Gospel
of Luke 19:28-24:53 (Hermeneia), J. Crouch (trans), H. Koester (ed) (Minneapolis, 2012) pp.
376-81. On heterodox Christians' efforts to suggest that some disciples were privy to ongoing
access to Jesus, as for instance, in the Secret Book o f James in Nag Hammadi Codex I, see L. Jenott
and E. Pagels, 'Antony's Letters and Nag Hammadi Codex I: Sources of Religious Conflict in
Fourth-century Egypt, Journal o f Early Christian Studies 18 (2010), pp. 557-89, esp. 585-7; on
later Christological debates regarding the Ascension, see Bovon, Evangelium, pp. 625-6.
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Through the singing of psalms in vigils, Christians learned to chart the
emotional landscape of biblical events and thereby enter them empathetically.
I am not claiming that psalmody was unique to this festival; there is no doubt
that psalmody permeated early Byzantine experiences of initiation as well as theentire liturgical year.8 Instead, I propose to focus on one feast as a way to better
understand how specific biblical psalms might shape the affective experience
of biblical narrative. A better grasp of how early Byzantines experienced one
festival, namely the Ascension, may deepen our tinderstanding of how biblical
narratives might be inflected and redirected by biblical poetry. Whereas
previous studies have considered the growing importance of psalm-singing
and the psalter in monastic spirituality,9 this essay adopts another approach: a
focus on the particularities of one feast as a way to explore how psalmody canshape the lay experience of liturgical time.
The Ascension as Feast and Place
Before turning to psalmody, it is important to recall that, for several centuries,
the Feast of the Ascension was celebrated as part of Pentecost on the fiftiethday after Easter. Towards the final decades of the fourth century, however, the
Feast of the Ascension appeared more frequently on lists of festivals, despite
some criticisms against those who separate the Ascension from Pentecost.10
8 On patristic approaches to the psalms, see B. Daley, 'Finding the Right Key: The
Aims and Strategies of Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms', in H.W. Attridge andM.E. Fassler (eds), Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic
Traditions (Atlanta, Ga., 2003), pp. 189-205. Jean Danielou calls attention to the messianic
and prophetic value of the psalms for ancient Christians in J. Danielou, 'Les psaumes dans la
liturgie de l'Ascension', La Maison-Dieu 21 (1950), pp. 40-56, and later in Danielou, Bible and
the Liturgy, esp. pp. 177-90.
9 Athanasius' Letter to Marcellinus, see Daley, 'Finding the Right Key', pp. 200-202, and
C. Stewart, 'The Use of Biblical Texts in Prayer and the Formation of Early Monastic Culture',
American Benedictine Review 62 (2011), pp. 188-201. See also L. Dysinger, Psalmody and Prayer
in the Writings ofEvagrius Ponticus (Oxford, 2005).
10 According to the canons of the Synod of Elvira (ca. 300-306), those who celebrate
the fortieth day after Easter shall be liable to the charge of heresy. Canon 43, translated in L.J.
Johnson (ed.), Worship in the Early Church: An Anthology o fHistorical Sources, 4 vols (Collegeville,
Minn., 2009), vol. 2, p. 120. The dating of this canon is a matter of debate. According to M.
Meigne, 'Concile ou collection d'Elvire?' Revue d’histoire ecclesiastique 70 (1975), pp. 361-87,
only canons 1-21 were from the Synod; remaining canons originated at later Councils and
were eventually published as part of the Elvira canons. The motivations are also unclear.
According to T. Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Year (Collegeville, Minn., 1991), pp. 66-7,
celebrating Ascension on the fortieth day (rather than on the fiftieth) shortened the period of
post-Easter rejoicing and prompted the resumption of fasting. There is no evidence that any
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The Feast of the Ascension became the occasion for sermons by the likes of
John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine and Filastrius of Brescia.11
Along with a separate Feast of the Ascension ten days before Pentecost,
the traditional site of the event, the Mount of Olives, became the focus ofintense early imperial benefaction. Constantine and his mother Helena took
an interest in the site of the Mount of Olives, where a small church (the Eleona)
was built on the site of a cave associated with Jesus teaching the disciples.12
For Eusebius, the cave completed a topographical triad connecting the main
attempt at biblical historicism is driving this shift. See the methodological caveats of R. Taft,
'Historirism Revisited', Studia Liturgica 14 (1982), pp. 97-109.
11 It does not appear in lists by Origen (Contra Celsum 8.22), Tertullian, Cyprian,
Paulinus of Nola; see F. Cabrol, 'Ascension (Fete)', in F. Cabrol and H. Ledercq (eds),
Dictionnaire d'archeologie chretienne et de liturgie, vol. 1 (Paris, 1928), cols 2933-43, esp. 2936.
Yet, allusions as a stand-alone feast, appear in John Chrysostom (J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca
50.441-52), Gregory of Nyssa, Socrates (on celebration of Ascension near Constantinople in
early fifth century), Augustine (Serm. 242.3; 245.1). Filastrius of Brescia (fl. 385-91), Diversarum
Hereseon Liber, 140 (112) 2, lists the feasts of Christ as Nativity, the Epiphany, Pascha and the
Ascension, which takes place the fortieth day after Pascha; 149(121) 3; translated in Johnson,
Worship, vol. 2, p. 81. On the'Pentecost... fully dismantled', by the end of the fourth century,
see Talley, Origins o f the Liturgical Year, pp. 66-70, esp. 67 on Apostolic constitutions (ca. 400),
5.20.2. On continued celebrations of the Ascension as part of Pentecost feast on the fiftieth
day in Alexandria and perhaps in Jerusalem, see Cabrol, 'Ascension (Fete)', cols 2937-9.
Gregory of Nyssa preached a sermon celebrating the Ascension on the fortieth day in 388:
see E. Gebhardt (ed.), Gregorii Nysseni Opera, vol. IX: Sermones (Leiden, 1967), pp. 324-7. See
J. Danielou, 'Gregoire de Nysse et l'origine de la fete de 1'Ascension', in P. Granfield and
J.A. Jungman (eds), Kyriakon: Festschrift Johannes Quasten, 2 vols (Munster, 1973), pp. 663-6.
Although Egeria mentions celebrating a vigil in Bethlehem on the fortieth day after Easter,
rather than the Mount of Olives, commentators find little support to infer that the Ascension
was connected to Bethlehem: see P. Devos, 'Egerie a Bethleem: le 40e jour apres paques a
Jerusalem, en 383', Analecta Bollandiana 86 (1968), pp. 87-108, and the discussion in ed. and tr.
P. Maraval, Egerie, Journal de Voyage (SC 296) (Paris, 1982), pp. 296-301; and J. Baldovin, The
Urban Character o f Christian Worship: The Origins, Development, and Meaning o f Stational Liturgy,
Orientalia Christiana Analecta 228 (Rome, 1987), pp. 88-90. Yet, in Egypt as well as Milan and
Aquileia, Ascension continued to be celebrated as part of the Pentecost on the fiftieth day:
see R. Cabie, La Pentecote: Devolution de la Cinquantaine pascale au cours des cinq premiers siecles (Tournai, 1965), pp. 185-97, esp. 195. Current scholarship on Ascension sermons is likely to
alter some of Cabie's claims. A special issue of Question Liturgiques/ Studies in Liturgy 92:4
(2011) is devoted to this topic, as R. W. Bishop and J. Leemans (eds), God Went Up Today:
Preaching the Ascension in Late Antique Christianity (Leuven, 2011). Contributions focus on
Gregory of Nyssa (R W. Bishop,), Diadochus of Photice (J. Leemans), Augustine (A. Dupont),
and Severus of Antioch (P. Allen). Sadly, this issue appeared in print after it was possible to
incorporate its rich analyses into this paper.
12 Eusebius, Demonstratio Evangelica (6.18.23), in I.A. Heikel, Eusebius Werke, vol. 6: Die Demonstratio evangelica, Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 23 (Leipzig, 1913), p. 278.
Vita Constantini (3.41-3) in F. Winkelmann, Eusebius Werke, vol. 1.1: Uber das Leben des Kaisers
Konstantin, Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 57 (Berlin, 1975), pp. 101-2.
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events of salvation history: the nativity at Bethlehem, the death at the Holy
Sepulchre, and the Ascension at the Mount of Olives.13 An even fuller sensory
engagement with the site became possible with the construction of a church
near the summit in the final years of the fourth century by the noblewoman
Poemenia.14 The structure was a rotunda church, consisting of three concentric
roofed porticoes, with the centre open to the sky.15 Beneath this opening, the
ground remained uncovered and pilgrims were shown the footprints of Christ
in the dirt. In fact, as Paulinus of Nola, writing in 403, reported:
That single place and no other is said to have been so hallowed with God's
footsteps that it has always rejected a covering of marble or paving. The soil
throws off in contempt whatever the human hand tries to set there in eagernessto adorn the place ... The sand is both visible and accessible to worshippers,
and preserves the adored imprint of the divine feet in that dust trodden, so
that one can truly say: We have adored in the place where His fe et stood.16
13 Although early on Eusebius praised Constantine for building opulent basilicas on
'three mystical caves', in later writings Eusebius credited the emperor's mother, Helena, with
actually carrying out the plan: see P.W.L. Walker, Holy City, Holy Places? Christian Attitudes to
Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the Fourth Century (Oxford, 1990), p. 184. On Eusebius' changing
perceptions of the Mount of Olives in relation to Jerusalem and Cyril's response, see Walker,
Holy City, pp. 184-229. Not all pilgrims recognised the Mount of Olives' significance
immediately, as the Bordeaux pilgrim associates it with the Transfiguration rather than
the Ascension: see P. Geyer and O. Cuntz (eds), Itinerarium Burdigalense, Itineraria et Alia
Geographica, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 175-6 (Tumhout, 1965), vol. 175, pp. 1-26,
using standard page numbers found in P. Wesseling, Vetera Romanorum Itinera (Amsterdam,
1735) pp. 595.4-596.1. Pierre Maraval does not see this as an error, but as a vestige of
Jerusalem's liturgical calendar: see P. Maraval Lieux saints et pelerinages d'Orient: Histoire et
geographic des origines a la conquete arabe, 2nd edition (Paris, 2004), p. 265, n. 112; compare with
Walker, Holy City, pp. 213-14 on the Bordeaux Pilgrim's 'notorious error'. In the 380s the
pilgrim Egeria referred to the site as Imbomon: see Itinerarium Egeriae, Corpus Christianorum
Series Latina 175 (31.1; 35.4; 36.1; 39.3; 43.3, 5), cited in Maraval, Lieux saints, p. 266, n. 113.
14 P. Devos, 'Eg6rie n'a pas connue d'eglise de l'Ascension', Analecta Bollandiana 87
(1969), pp. 208-12.
15 See the sketches from the late seventh century On the Holy Places by the Irish monkAdomnan to picture this structure. Reproduced in J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims: Before the
Crusades (Warminster, 2002), pp. 373-4.
16 Ep. 31.4, G. de Hartel (ed.), Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 29-30
(Vienna, 1894); translated in Letters o f St. Paulinus o f Nola, P.G. Walsh, Ancient Christian
Writers 35-6, 2 vols (Westminster, Md., 1966-67), vol. 2, pp. 129-30. See also: Psalm
131(132).7; Maraval, Lieux saints, p. 266; Sulpicius Severus, Historia sacra 2.33; Augustine,
translated in Joh. 47.4, cited in Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, p. 334. On monastic settlements
see Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, p. 335; on Melania the Younger's donation of a martyriumfor the relics of Stephen at the site, see Gerontius, Vita S. Melaniae lunioris (37), ed. and tr. D.
Gorce, Vie de Sainte Melanie, 57,64 (Paris, 1961), pp. 240 and 258.
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Thus, by the early fifth century, visitors to Jerusalem could spot the Mount of
Olives by its colossal cross atop the church, ascend it, peer over to Jerusalem,
see the footsteps of Christ from a 360-degree view, and gaze up through the
opening in the rotunda to contemplate Christ's path to heaven. By about 518,
the pilgrim Theodosius reported there were some twenty-four churches on
the Mount of Olives.17 The open roof inspired the seventh-century Abbot of
Iona, Adomnan, to record the bishop-pilgrim Arculf's report that, on one
Ascension feast, a gale burst through the basilica on the Mount of Olives. It
was so forceful that everyone fell prostrate, to avoid being knocked down.18 In
addition to legends about the Mount of Olives, scenes of the Ascension would
adorn lamps and eventually pilgrims' souvenirs, such as flasks, or ampullae.19
Such Ascension imagery may appear driven by some desire to 'picture'the biblical event commemorated at the site. As the pilgrim Egeria reminds
us, there was a particular thrill to hearing scripture read in its actual setting.
Yet, she adds that hymns and antiphons - that is to say, selected verses from
biblical psalms20 - were also vital to her experience of the holy places. As she
put it, 'What I admire and value most is that all the hymns and antiphons and
readings they have, and all the prayers the bishop says, are always relevant
to the day which is being observed and to the place in which they are used.
They never fail to be appropriate'.21 To be 'appropriate', then, suggests that
a particular psalm somehow resonated with the event remembered at a holy
17 Theodosius, The Topography of the Holy Land (6); in Corpus Christianorum Series
Latina 175, pp. 113-25; Trans, in Ioh. in Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, p. 107.
18 Adomnan, De locis sanctis (23.15-19), in Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims, pp. 180-81,
esp. 181. Familiar with Sulpicius Severus and quite possibly Paulinus of Nola's and Jerome's
descriptions of the site, Adomnan also mentions the role of lamps (1.10-13), notably one
suspended round the clock over the footprints. On Adomnan's 'mental maps', see T.
O'Loughlin, Adomnan and the Holy Places: The Perceptions o f an Insular Monk on the Locations
of the Biblical Drama (London, 2007), pp. 123-4, including O'Loughlin's insight into gazing
heavenward as a 'counterpoint to the crater on Vulcano' that opens onto ihe netherworld.
19 A. Grabar, Ampoules de Terre Sainte ( Monza-Bobbio) (Paris, 1958), Monza ampullae
nos. 1 (pi. 3); 2 (pis 5 and 7); 10 (pi. 17), 11 (pis 19 and 20); 14 (pi. 27), 16 (pi. 29), and Bobbio
nos. 2 (pi. 33), 19 (pi. 50), 20 (pi. 53). For an overview of monographic types, see J. Hermann
and A. van den Hoek, "'Two Men in White": Observations on an Early Christian Lamp
from North Africa with the Ascension of Christ', in D.H. Warren, A.G. Brock and D.W. Pao
(eds), Early Christian Voices in Texts, Traditions, and Symbols: Essays in Honor of Francois Bovon
(Leiden, 2003), pp. 293-318.
20 On types of antiphons and responses in psalmody, see J. Mateos, 'La psalmodie dans
le rite byzantin', Proche-Orient chretien 15 (1965), pp. 107-26.
21 For example Itinerarium Egeriae (47.5), Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 175, p.
89; translated in J. Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels (Warminster, 1999), p. 146. See also Itinerarium
3.6. On this pattern, see J.Z. Smith, To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual (Chicago, 111., 1987),
pp. 89-91.
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place. Egeria's comment is a helpful reminder to bear in mind the many psalms
pilgrims sang and heard in the course of their journeys to holy places.
To appreciate the role of psalmody requires us to look closer at Cyril, Bishop
of Jerusalem, who delivered a series of sermons to candidates for baptism in Jerusalem some thirty years earlier.22 Cyril often took pride in pointing out
how physical features in the landscape bore traces of biblical events.23 His
tenth catechetical sermon delivered during Lent closes with a list of the 'true
testimonies', as Cyril calls these witnesses of Christ. The list is long; it includes
figures such as God, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mother, Simeon, Anna, John
the Baptist, those who were healed, and the twelve Apostles. This cloud of
witnesses mentions places (the manger, Egypt, Gethsemane, Golgotha, the
Holy Sepulchre and the Mount of Olives), bodies of water (the Jordan and Seaof Tiberias), and objects (the holy wood of the Cross, and 'the handkerchiefs
and aprons, which of old worked cures through Paul by the power of Christ'24),
all bearing witness. Here the 'rain-bearing clouds which received their Lord'
bear witness to the Ascension.25 By contrast, Homily 14 recounts the Ascension
quite differently. Here, he notes the stone that was rolled back as testifying still
to the Resurrection, but offers little else in the way of topography.26 This later
catechetical sermon seems more concerned with biblical typology than withbiblical topography. Cyril marshals no fewer than 125 biblical quotations to
retell the how, where and when of Jesus' Resurrection and Ascension.
In the tenth sermon, however, topography is cued to memory of psalms, as
Cyril exhorts the candidates for baptism to recall previous 'expositions':
I take it for granted (vopiCco) that you remember (|uvr)pov£U£iv) our
exposition (t^TiyrjaecJ<;); still I shall remind (u7io)U|Jvf|cnca)) you, in passing,
of what was then said. Remember (pvqpovEUE) what is c learly written in the
Psalms: 'God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy' [Ps. 46(47).6]; remember
(pvr||aov£U£) that the divine Powers also said to one another 'Lift up your
gates, you princes' [Ps. 23(24).7]; remember (|avr)|iovEue) too the Psalm
22 For example Itinerarium Egeriae (24.1, 2 and 9), translated in Wilkinson, Egeria's
Travels, pp. 55-6, 60, 64-6. On Cyril and the liturgy in Jerusalem, see J.W. Drijvers, Cyril of
Jerusalem: Bishop and City (Leiden, 2004), pp. 7-77.
23 Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, Catechetical Homily (14.22), in W.K. Reischl and J. Rupp
(eds), Cyrilli Hierosolymorum archiepiscopi opera quae supersunt omnia (Munich 1860; reprinted
Hildesheim, 1967), pp. 136-8.
24 Catechetical Homily (10.19), in Reischl and Rupp, Cyrilli Hierosolymorum, vol. 2, p. 286,
translated in L. McCauley and A.A. Stephenson, The Works o f Cyril o f Jerusalem, 2 vols, Fathers
of the Church 61,64 (Washington D.C., 1969-70), vol. 1, p. 209; see also Acts 19.12.
25 Catechetical Homily (10.19), in Reischl and Rupp, Cyrilli Hierosolymorum, vol. 2, p. 286,
translated in McCauley and Stephenson, Works of Cyril of Jerusalem, vol. 1, p. 209.
26 Catechetical Homily (14.22), in Reischl and Rupp, Cyrilli Hierosolymorum, vol. 2,
pp. 136 and 138.
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which says: 'He has ascended on high, he has led captivity captive' [Ps.
67(68).19]; remember (pvqpovEUE) the prophet who said: 'He that builds his
ascension in heaven'.27
Every exhortation includes a call to remember specific verses from Psalms 46,
23 and 67, as well as a series of Old Testament ascensions in the following
section; and all use the same imperative, pvripoveue. The imperative
'remember' followed by a verse from the psalms may seem odd to those
mining the scriptures for a place or event; yet they are apt to the rituals.
Cyril's choice of psalms is not unique to him. The same psalms appear
in later liturgical instructions associated with the Feast of the Ascension in
Jerusalem in the early fifth century. The Armenian Lectionary, a fifth-centurycollection of liturgical instructions, can help us probe the importance of these
versions. This lectionary proceeds through the liturgical year, starting with the
Feast of the Epiphany. For each feast, the rubric includes the name of the feast,
its day of the week or of the month, the location of the gathering in or near
Jerusalem, and the ensemble of biblical texts, to be sung or recited in sequence.
The canon, or ensemble of biblical passages cued to a feast day, consists of at
least four readings:
1. a psalm with antiphon, typically a verse that the congregation will
sing as a refrain
2. a biblical passage, not taken from the gospels
3. an 'alleluia' followed by another psalm num ber28
4. a gospel reading.
Thus for the Feast of the Ascension, the Armenian Lectionary prescribes:
5. Ps. 46, with the antiphon: verse 6
6. a reading from the opening chapter of Acts of the Apostles
7. Allelu ia with Psalm 23
8. the final verses of the Gospel of Luke.
Not only does this list follow the pattern of other canons (psalm, non-gospel
biblical pericope, alleluia - psalm, gospel reading), but the two psalmsprescribed for the Feast of the Ascension correspond to two of the psalm verses
Cyril quoted and exhorted his audience to remember. If these two psalms were
already part of the rites at the Mount of Olives in the mid-fourth century, his
27 Catechetical Homily (14.24), in Reischl and Rupp, Cyrilli Hierosolymorum, vol. 2,
pp. 140 and 142, translated in McCauley and Stephenson, Works o f Cyril o f Jerusalem, vol. 2,
p. 48; see also Amos 9.6.
28 Athanase Renoux, be Codex armbiien, Jerusalem 121, Patrologia Orientalis 35 (Tumhout,
1969-71), fasc. 1, p. 163; Patrologia Orientalis 36 (Tumhout, 1969-71), fasc. 2, p. 168; fasc. 2, p. 38.
Since both volume and fascicle pagination appear on each page, my citations include both.
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instructions are as liturgical as they are creedal. For Cyril's call to remember
is a call to feel the Ascension: to feel the joy of clapping, singing praises 'under
the feet', despite the distress and sorrow of separation, rupture, and even
grief reflected in Acts. The insertion of Psalm 23(24) between the sorrow of
Acts' account and the euphoria in Luke's, allowed the congregation to bridge
the conflicting emotions. By singing these mixed emotions, the congregation
could more fully experience the drama of the Ascension.
As pioneering theorist of collective memory Maurice Halbwachs noted
over a century ago, 'If a truth is to be settled in the memory of a group it
needs to be presented in the concrete form of an event, of a personality, of
a locality'.29 That concreteness was readily available to pilgrims who walked
through the round structures of Poemenia's church, peered through openings,gazed down at footprints, and held image-bearing souvenirs. What the
liturgical texts remind us is that vividness is about more than the imitation
of events from the past. Also required is an affective register, by which to
probe and fix the memories. If we limit ourselves to matching gospel text
to place (as Halbwachs did), we run the risk of losing sight of evidence for
the liturgical experiences: the refrains with which Christians processed their
responses to, and anticipation of, the events retold. Pilgrims and worshippers
may have delighted in the occasional alignment of story and place, but, as
the lectionary suggests, place and story were awakened through the psalter,
a trans-historical web in which the worshipper experienced gospel events
through a more complex set of memories, emotions and perceptions. Just as art
historians have analysed how art created in the Holy Land reflected pilgrims'
experiential responses to the holy places and the events commemorated
there,30 I have suggested ways in which psalmody shaped the response. A
closer look at the liturgical instructions can offer a wider context for the roleof psalmody in directing the affective responses to these events. Not only did
place and story converge within liturgical time, but psalmody had the power
to recast a story about absence into a celebration, by calling congregations to
'sing and clap' (Ps. 46[47]) and to lift up their souls in the ascent up the hill (Ps.
23[24]). With psalmody to reflect and reshape experience, the biblical story of
rupture found a means of repair. The 'never more' of absence viewed from
below would allow the refrain of heavenly celebration to ring in worshippers'
29 M. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, tr. L.A. Coser (Chicago, 111., 1992), p. 200.
30 I am building upon insights from the groundbreaking studies of G. Vikan, 'Pilgrims in
Magi's Clothing: The Impact of Mimesis on Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art', in R. Ousterhout
(ed.). The Blessings o f Pilgrimage (Urbana and Chicago, 111., 1990), pp. 97-107. Reprinted in G.
Vikan, Sacred Images and Sacred Power in Byzantium (Aldershot, 2003); R. Deshman, 'AnotherLook at the Disappearing Christ: Corporeal and Spiritual Vision in the Early Middle Ages', Art
Bulletin 79 (1997), pp. 518-46; Hermann and van den Hoek, "'Two Men in White'".
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ears, psalmody in proximity and procession to the holy places repaired the
breach and demanded a re-education of affect.31
Yet, the power of psalmody was hardly confined to the holy places. Cyril's
evocation of specific verses from the psalms anticipates a more widespread
'psalmodic movement', which took root in the final part of the fourth century.Musicologist James McKinnon describes it best as 'an unprecedented wave
of enthusiasm for the singing of psalms that swept from east to west through
the Christian population'.32 Although frequent psalmody began in monastic
settings, lay Christians, such as the pilgrim Egeria, witnessed its power; she
described the monks and nuns who sang hymns and responded to psalms
with antiphons.33 Notable for our purposes, was the rise of lay participation in
vigils. Basil of Caesarea defended monastics who 'arise at night and go to thehouse of prayer; in pain, distress, and anguished tears they make confession
to God, and finally getting up from prayer they commence the singing of
psalms'. Two groups alternate singing psalms, with the effect of 'intensifying
their carefulness over the sacred texts, and focusing their attention'. One
person leads the chant as the 'rest sing in response'.34 Basil's description
suggests that responsorial psalmody was witnessed, if not performed, by non
monastic Christians. John Chrysostom mentions that Christian laypeople sang
in response (u7tot|taAA£iv) during Communion, Psalm 117.24, 'This is the day,which the Lord has made', he notes, to an 'aroused many'.35 As Athanasius
counselled the ailing layman Marcellinus, melodious psalmody had positive
effects on one's tranquillity of mind and the 'harmony of the soul'.36 Although
31 On the frequency of antiphons in the stational liturgy, see Itinararium (31.2), cited
in Renoux, Codex Armenien, 174, p. 36, n. 15. On the varieties of responsorial psalmody
and antiphons, see Mateos, 'La psalmodie dans le rite byzantin'; E. Nowacki, 'AntiphonalPsalmody in Christian Antiquity and Early Middle Ages', in G.M. Boone (ed.), Essays in
Medieval Music in Honor of David G. Hughes (Cambridge, Mass., 1995), pp. 287-315, esp.
294-301; R.F. Taft, 'Christian Liturgical Psalmody: Origins, Development, Decomposition,
Collapse', in Attridge and Fassler (eds), Psalms in Community, pp. 7-32.
32 J. McKinnon, 'Desert Monasticism and the Later Fourth-century Psalmodic
Movement, Music and Letters 75 (1994), 505-21, esp. 506. Further discussion in J. McKinnon,
'The Fourth-century Origin of the Gradual', Early Music History 7 (1987), 91-106, esp. 98-
100, both reprinted in J. McKinnon, The Temple, the Church Fathers and Early Western Chant (Aldershot, 1998) selections XI and IX, respectively. A valuable sourcebook: J. McKinnon, ed.
and tr., Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge, 1987).
33 Itinerarium Egeriae 24.1; cited in McKinnon, 'Desert Monastidsm', p. 511.
34 Basil, Ep. 207.3, translated in McKinnon, 'Desert Monasticism', 514 and in McKinnon,
Music in Early Christian Literature, 139.
35 In psalmum 117.1, Patrologia Graeca 55.328, translated in McKinnon, Music in Early
Christian Literature, 170.
36 Epistula ad Marcellinum de interpretation psalmorum 27, Patrologia Graeca 27.37-40;translated in McKinnon, 'Desert Monasticism', 518 and McKinnon, Music in Early Christian
Literature, 98.
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much scholarship on fourth-century psalmody focuses on monastic settings,
lay Christians joined in on occasion and witnessed its collective effects. As
Athanasius imagines Temple psalmody, '[t]he priests sang in this manner,
summoning the souls of the people to tranquillity and to unanimity with the
heavenly choir'.37 Cyril's catecheses and descriptions of the holy places suggest
that psalmody awakened the power of biblical events. Propelled by monastic
psalmody, the rise of lay pilgrimage, imperial construction of churches, and
the development of the stational liturgy, responsorial psalmody would inflect
Christian experiences of events from the sacred past.38 The psalmody's power
to stir, as well as to reorder, the emotions was not confined to the holy land. As
the Christian liturgical calendar expanded to include more feasts in the fourth
and fifth centuries,39 verses from the psalms would further shape Christians'affective experiences of events from the biblical past in more remote places.
Thus, we turn to Constantinople.
The Ascension in Constantinople
Two sermons composed for the Feast of the Ascension in Constantinople
suggest that psalmody played no less an important role in redirecting grief.
Two festal sermons, from the fifth and sixth centuries, respectively, illustrate
the use of psalmody to reshape the emotional dynamics of these feast days:
a discourse delivered by Proclus of Constantinople (d. 446) and a chanted
metrical sermon by Romanos the Melodist (fl. 550).
Several of Proclus' festal discourses celebrate the powers of feasts as well
as of psalmody: 'Many different festivals brighten our manner of living,
transforming by festive cycles the pain of the hardships of life', he proclaimsat the outset of a homily delivered on the day after the Feast of the Nativity.40
37 Epistula ad Marcellinum 29, Patrobgia Graeca 27.40-41; translated in McKinnon, Music
in Early Christian Literature, p. 100.
38 Baldovin, Urban Character of Christian Worship, pp. 100-102, and McKinnon 'Desert
Monasticism', p. 520: 'the very architectural setting of the fourth-century liturgy must have
contributed to musical development, as the modest domestic meeting rooms of the early
Church were replaced almost overnight by great stone basilicas, a virtual architectural
revolution ... These new buildings would seem to have required the enhancement of
ecclesiastical song both for practical acoustical considerations and for considerations of
aesthetic incongruity’.
39 On the association of Epiphany with the baptism of Jesus and the adoption of
Christmas in the Eastern churches, see Talley, Origins of the Liturgical Year, pp. 126-9 and
134-41. On the role of Psalm 97(98), associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, in connection
with feast of the nativity, see Danielou, Bible and the Liturgy, pp. 344-7.
40 Homily (3.1), in ed. and tr. N. Constas, Proclus o f Constantinople and the Cult o f the
Virgin in Late Antiquity: Homilies 1-5, Texts and Translations (Leiden, 2003), pp. 198-9.
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He counted the Ascension as one of the three (or five) principal feasts of the
Christian calendar; on another occasion, he counted it among the top five.41
In one Ascension homily, Proclus noted how the entire cosmos and not just
humans reacted to the event.42 He focused on earth's grieving witness to the
devil's work, just as the devil periodically 'looks up to the heavens' and sees
Christ, a nagging reminder that Christ's Resurrection signalled the devil's
defeat. One of the most interesting characters in this homily, however, is earth,
who 'lamented through her sufferings as if they were voices'.43 She buried and
lamented Adam, Abel, Lamech's victim (Genesis 4.23), the victims of the great
flood, and the Sodomites. Engulfed by so much loss, earth's grief turned to
rejoicing upon the arrival and departure of Christ. As Proclus describes the
scene, the earth sees Jesus
taken away on a cloud from mountain to mountain, gloriously going his way
through the air, accompanied by bands of angels. For some were hastening
beforehand, proclaiming to the heavenly porters the entrance of Christ ...
and others were following joyfully behind, singing hymns; and others were
glorifying him with other songs.44
Amid this spectacle, the disciples' eyes 'were lifted up', while 'the incorporeal
powers in the heavens were gaping from the heavens toward heaven'.45 Thus,
all eyes, cosmic and human, were on Jesus' body as it ascended. Gathering the
gaze of the astounded, Proclus exhorts earth to 'S in g .. . again an ode instead of
a dirge, O earth! ... Fix your eyes on heaven that is welcoming your children',
he assures the grieving mother. When he is out of sight, there are the angels:
'If your eye cannot observe his entrance, listen to the angels announcing his
41 Migne, Patrologia Graeca 52.791: 'There are three paradoxical wonders that were
unknown from the beginning of time. ... the birth pang of an unwed mother; resurrection
after a three-day passion; and the ascension of flesh into heaven', translated in Constas,
Proclus, p. 207. See also Homily (3.4), in Constas, Proclus, pp. 200-201, which counts five
principal feasts: Nativity, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost.
42 The multi-layered cosmic response found elsewhere in Proclus; see 'clouds in terror
became a vehicle for his Ascension', Homily (5.2), in Constas, Proclus, pp. 260-61.43 Homily (21.2); Patrologia Graeca 65.833-37, esp. 833c, in tr. J.H. Barkhuizen, Proclus of
Constantinople, Homilies on the Life of Christ (Brisbane, 2001), pp. 193-7, esp. 194.
44 Homily (21.3), Migne, Patrologia Graeca 65.836c; translated in Barkhuizen, Proclus,
pp. 195-6.
45 Proclus, Homily (21.3), Migne, Patrologia Graeca 65.836d, translated in Barkhuizen,
Proclus, p. 196. See also Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Homily (14.22), in Reischl and Rupp,
Cyrilli Hierosolymorum, vol. 2, pp. 136 and 138, translated in McCauley and Stephenson, Works
of Cyril o f Jerusalem, vol. 2, p. 46, who reminded candidates for baptism that 'the night, and thelight of the full moon, the rock of the sepulcher ... the stone which was rolled back' and the
'angels of God' were all witnesses to the Resurrection.
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ascension'.46 After quoting the angelic messengers' assurances from Acts 1.11,
Proclus closes the discourse by quoting no fewer them five separate verses from
the psalms, including three verses from Psalm 46(47) (w . 1 ,2 , 5). Of all these
verses, the most fitting response to earth's lament and bewildered gaze is verse
2: 'All you nations, clap your hands!' This catena of verses resonates with the
witnesses' grief, lament and bewilderment, yet also allows room for joy. Thus
Proclus overturns deep and sustained grief through the eruption of psalmody,
including verses already bound up elsewhere to the feast day of the Ascension.
By the following century, another homilist, Romanos the Melodist, drew
the congregation into a more participatory response to Ascension. His metrical
sermon was chanted as part of the urban vigils held on the eve of feast days in
Constantinople.47 As best we can tell, these metrical sermons were performedin public, non-monastic vigils, by a soloist. These nocturnal assemblies for
the laity included responsorial psalmody, prayer and readings from scripture
as well as some non-scriptural sources.48 Not exactly 'dramas', but certainly
dramatic, the kontakion, as the genre became known, consisted of two parts: at
least one short preface, followed by twenty or so metrically identical strophes,
called oikoi, each one closing with an identical refrain. Often, various biblical
characters, whether biblical protagonists or characters who are silent and
marginal to the biblical episode, retold their versions of events from Jesus' life
as the feast day dictated. Thus, the magi and Mary recounted the Nativity on 25
December; the following day, the angel and Mary discussed the Annunciation;
John the Baptist and Jesus extended their dialogue from Matthew 3 on the feast
commemorating the baptism of Jesus; Judas was at the centre of the kontakion
46 Homily (21.4), Patrologia Graeca 65.837a, translated in Barkhuizen, Proclus, p. 196. See
also Acts 1.11.
47 The Greek text of Romanos used here is J. Grosdidier de Maton's five-volume edition
in the Sources Chretiennes series (vols 99, 110, 114, 128, 283) Romanos Melodos, Hymnes,
texte critique, traduction et notes (Paris, 1964). Another fine edition, P. Maas and C.A. Trypanis
(eds), Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica: Cantica Genuina (Oxford, 1963), numbers the hymns
differently. I follow the Sources Chretiennes edition hymn and strophe number (48), with
the Oxford (Oxf.) hymn number supplied in brackets in the first dtation of any given hymn.
I follow the fine translation by E. Lash, St. Romanos the Melodist, Kontakia: On the Life o f Christ
(San Francisco, Calif., 1995). On the kontakia, J. Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le Melode
et les origines de la poesie religieuse a Byzance (Paris, 1977); M. Arranz, 'Romanos le Melode',
Dictionnaire de Spirituality (Paris, 1988), vol. 13, cols 898-908; J. Grosdidier de Matons, 'Liturgie
et Hymnographie: Kontakion et Canon', Dumbarton Oaks Papers 34-5 (1980-81), 31-44; H.
Hunger, 'Romanos Melodos, Dichter, Prediger, Rhetor - und sein Publikum', ]ahrbuch der
osterreichischen Byzantinistik 34 (1984), pp. 15-42.
48 A. Lingas, 'The Liturgical Use of the Kontakion in Constantinople', Byzantinorossica 1
(1995), pp. 50-57, esp. 52, citing R. Taft, The Liturgy o f the Hours in East and West (Collegeville,
Minn., 1986), pp. 171-2. Compared to ninth-century kontakia composed for monastic settings,
the earlier kontakia incorporated more drama and narrative associated with the feast day for
which it was composed: Lingas, 'Liturgical Use', p. 53.
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commemorating the Last Supper; and personified versions of Death and Hell
narrated events on Good Friday. Through this chorus of witnesses, audiences
could share in the characters' joys, confusion, lament, and even shame. The
kontakia also had a participatory quality: every part was sung by a soloist,
who was probably joined by the audience in a one-line refrain closing each
stanza.49 Although little is known about how the melodies of these hymns
sounded,50 their power to conjure the musings, apprehensions and doubts of
biblical characters so vividly is undeniable.51
The kontakion sung on the eve of the Feast of the Ascension follows this
pattern in important ways. It opens the feast to release multiple voices: those
of the congregation reminding Jesus of that day, the disciples addressing
him, and the angels comforting the disciples. The monologues transport theaudience from Jesus' last moments on earth, up to heaven, and then back again
to earth. Yet whatever the voice in a given stanza, the last word belongs to
Jesus. Depending on the context, the refrain is either spoken by him or quoted
by another character: 'I am not parting from you, I am with you and there is no
one against you'. The refrain was immediately preceded by words connoting
some declarative speech. Words such as 'crying' (poqaaq), saying (Ae£aq,
e Ltccov) or revealing (eSqAc jct ev) could have cued the audience to join in.
Through song, Romanos infuses this gospel account with additional bodily
gestures and sensory details. He exhorts the congregation, 'Let us come to our
senses (ai.cr0r|aE iq) and raise on high our eyes and minds'.52 Having summoned
the senses, the preacher calls upon those senses to fly: 'Mortals,' he bids them,
'let us make our sight together with our senses fly to heaven's gates'.53 The
preacher exhorts them, 'imagine ... standing on the Mount of Olives', while
49 On the importance of dialogue for Romanos' retelling of biblical stories, see D.Krueger, 'Romanos the Melodist and the Christian Self in Early Byzantium', in E. Jeffreys
and F.K. Haarer (eds), Proceedings of the 21st International Congress o f Byzantine Studies: London,
21-26 August, 2006 (Aldershot, 2006), vol. 1, pp. 255-74; M.B. Cunningham, 'The Reception
of Romanos in Middle Byzantine Homiletics and Hymnography', Dumbarton Oaks Papers 62
(2008), pp. 251-60, esp. 251-3. On the refrain, see H. Hunger, 'Der Refrain in den Kontakia
des Romanos Melodos : Vielfalt in der Einheit', in I. Vassis et al. (eds), Lesarten: Festschrift fur
Athanasios Kambylis zurn 70. Geburtstag (Berlin, 1998), pp. 53-60.
50 C. Hannick, 'Le Kontakion dans l'histoire de la musique ecclesiastique byzantine',Ostkirchliche Studien 58 (2009), pp. 57-66.
51 D. Krueger put it well: 'Romanos does the Gospels in different voices'. See D. Krueger,
Writing and Holiness: The Practice o f Authorship in the Early Christian East (Philadelphia, Pa.,
2004), p. 168. See also G. Frank, 'Romanos and the Night Vigil in the Sixth Century', in D.
Krueger (ed.), A People's History of Christianity, vol. 3: Byzantine Christianity (Minneapolis,
Minn., 2006), pp. 59-78.
52 Romanos, Hymn. (48.1), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 140, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 195.53 Romanos, Hymn. (48.1), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 140, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 195.
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'bendfing] our gaze on the Redeemer as he rides upon a cloud'.54 Sense and
stances converge, as the audience finds where to direct their gaze (upward)
and where to plant their feet (on the site itself). By these postural and sensory
instructions, a deep somatic identification between the congregation and the
disciples sets in.Gesture in this kontakion has an associative pull. Christ speaks from the
heavens, yet his gestures evoke ritual actions. Thus, Christ reassures the
disciples with his touch: 'I stretch out my palms, which the lawless stretched
out, bound and nailed. And so, as you bow your heads beneath my hands,
understand, know, my friends, what I command. For, as though baptizing, I
lay my hands (x£iQO0£Tcj) upon you now'.55 This gesture captures both Jesus'
crucifixion and the congregation's baptism in a single touch, as Christ reachesdown from heaven to touch the bowed heads of his disdples.
Yet, this tactile reassurance cannot dissipate the disciples' distress. The
preacher describes their 'great grief' (7toAAf)v ... Aurrriv) as they 'wept and
groan[ed] deeply': 'Are you leaving us, O Compassionate? Parting from those
who love you?'56 Their query (xcopiti}) uses the same verb as the refrain (ou
XcoQiCopai; 'I am not parting from you'). They cannot bear the thought of a
separation, voicing their anguish with the psalms and the Song of Songs: 'we
seek your face (Ps. 23[24].6), for it delights our souls. We have been wounded(£TQw0r)p£v), bound by the most sweet sight of you (cf. Cant. 2.5). There is
no God but you (Ps. 17[18].31)'.57 Their anguished pleas continue for two
more stanzas, as they imagine their enemies mocking them as they grieve the
departed Christ: 'Let them not cry out to us, "Where then is he? Who said,
'I am not parting from you"" .58 The mocking enemy launches the refrain of
another psalm (41[42].2b, 4): 'When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually"Where is your God?"' In response, Jesus exhorts the disciples to 'sing a new
song', an allusion to Psalm 32(33), as well as the openings of Psalms 95(96),
97(98) and 148(149).
54 Romanos, Hymn. (48.1), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 140, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 195.55 Romanos, Hymn. (48.3), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 142, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 196. On xcipoOereo) as gesture of blessing catechumens (for example Horn. Clem.
3.73; Const. App. 2.18.7; 2.41.2) and ordination (for example Const. App. epit. 13), G.W.H.
Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford, 1961), p. 1522, col. B.
56 Romanos, Hymn. (48.4), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 144, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 197.
57 Romanos, Hymn. (48.4), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 144, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 197.58 Romanos, Hymn. (48.5), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 156, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 198.
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The psalter also infuses Jesus' farewell, as he instructs the archangels to
prepare his paths, crying out (ekq c iCo v ) to the principalities on high: 'Lift up
the gates and fling wide the heavenly and glorious doors'.59 As the preacher
describes the scene, 'They all raised their faces to the heights as they watched
his taking up'.60 The spectacle is no less theriomorphised, as the cloud Towers
its back' (imoSdcra xci vcoxa), like an animal that Christ mounted with his
'unblemished foot'.61 Even the sky appears as a clothed body, which the cloud
'rent apart like a tunic' as choirs of angels cried. Together these bodily details
join psalmic phrases to liturgical gestures and gazes to shape liturgical action.62
However extraordinary the heavenly events, the onlookers never abandon
ordinary gestures, gazes and postures. Upon witnessing these events, the
'faithful', as the disciples are now called, break into psalmody, chanting TikeDavid' in unison, as they 'looked on high', as two angels approach them 'in the
way that the book of Acts teaches'.63 Like the psalmist, the congregation would
find the songs with which to look up and turn fresh grief into boisterous song,
and thereby become attentive to the Ascension. As Basil of Caesarea noted, 'O,
the wise invention of the teacher, who devised how we might at the same time
sing and learn profitable things, whereby doctrines are somehow more deeply
impressed upon the mind!'64
That connection between anagogy, pedagogy and song was a familiar one
in Mediterranean religions of Late Antiquity. If we consider that many ritual
texts from Late Antiquity combined breath, song and ascent,65 these chanted
59 Romanos, Hymn. (48.10), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 144; translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 200, an echo of Psalm 23(24), 7-9. On the use of Psalm 23 as antiphonal psalm
transformed into dialogue between priest and deacons, see R. Taft, The Great Entrance: A
History of the Transfer o f Gifts and Other Pre-anaphoral Rites o f the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 200 (Rome, 1978), pp. 105-12. On Romanos' use of language
from the psalter, see J. Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le Melode et les origines (Paris, 1974),
pp. 255-63.
60 Romanos, Hymn. (48.12), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 158, translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 201.
61 Romanos, Hymn. (48.12), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 158, translated in Lash, Sf
Romanos, p. 201.
62 A. Georges Martimort et al. (eds), The Church at Prayer: An Introduction to the Liturgy (Collegeville, Minn., 1983), vol. 1, pp. 183-7.
63 Romanos, Hymn. (48.13), Sources Chretiennes 283, p. 160; translated in Lash, St
Romanos, p. 202.
64 Horn, in psalmum 1, Patrologia Graeca 29.209-13; translated in W. Strunk, Jr., O. Strunk
and J. McKinnon, in O. Strunk and L. Treitler (eds), Source Readings in Music History, vol. 2
(New York, 1997), p. 11.
65 These examples of hymnic ascent are taken from N. Janowiiz, Magic in the Roman
World: Pagans, Jews and Christians (London, 2001), pp. 80-82. Further examples in M.Himmelfarb, 'The Practice of Ascent in the Ancient Mediterranean World', in J.J. Collins and
M. Fishbane (eds), Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys (Albany, N.Y., 1995), pp. 123-37.
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sermons, sung refrains, psalms and antiphons take on a special efficacy.
Already in the second century some Chaldean Oracles instructed worshippers
to seek out angels who could teach breathing techniques by which to ascend
through the heavens. The fourth-century Mithras Liturgy began its ascent with
breathing techniques and a hymn. The Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice instructed
worshippers to sing the very words the heavenly chorus utters. Let us be clear:
Cyril, Proclus,and Romanos did not evoke psalmody to deify the grievers.
But they did draw from specific psalms that would allow those below to sing
as if from above.66 They could have turned to the psalms of lamentation to
express their anguish, just as some gospel writers quoted from Psalm 21(22)
to give voice to Jesus' agony on the cross.67 Instead, they chose psalms for
ascent. Cyril of Jerusalem's abundant evocation of psalmody, Proclus' cosmicchorus, and Romanos' portrayal of the grieving-tumed-rejoicing disciples all
served a similar purpose: to re-educate the affective response to the events of
the Ascension. In liturgy, a story of separation and palpable grief drew upon
psalmody to draw up the eye, to lift up the hand, and to gesture towards the
story's true ending. Liturgy, and specifically psalmody, revealed anew what
the cloud obscured.
On the Mithras Liturgy's breathing ritual (11. 537-8) and sense perception, see H.D. Betz,
The ‘Mithras Liturgy’: Text, Translation, and Commentary, Studien und Texte zu Antike und
Christentum 18 (Tubingen, 2003), pp. 130-34.
66 My thinking here is shaped by recent work on the efficacy of song in Late Antique
Mediterranean religions, as in G. Schimanowski, '"Connecting Heaven and Earth": The
Function of the Hymns in Revelation 4-5', in R.S. Boustan and A. Yoshiko Reed (eds).
Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 67-84,
esp. 83: 'Revelation not only records that the angels sing but actually presents the text - the
very words - of their songs' (emphasis in original).