EAST OF BYZANTIUM LECTURE

The ritual remembrance of holy ones in late antiquity sometimes had more to do with the intentional formation of the liturgical community than with the life of the holy one. Neither Pachomius, the early-fourth century leader of a monastic federation known as the Koinonia, nor Theophilus, the late-fourth and early-fifth century bishop of Alexandria, were even near contemporaries, but their characterizations were effectively exchanged. The aftermath of the first Origenist controversy rendered their memorialization distinctly malleable. Egypt would remember a Pachomian Theophilus, while Asia Minor would remember a Theophilan Pachomius. Pachomius would become the anti-Origenist that Theophilus was, while Theophilus would become the ascetic visionary that Pachomius was. Their remembrance in hagiographies and homilies was less about making the past present than about shaping the past for the present.

Mary K. Farag is Associate Professor of Early Christian Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. She studies the history of late antiquity with a focus on Christianity in Egypt. Her interests span liturgy, monasticism, law, art, and archaeology. Her book What Makes a Church Sacred? Legal and Ritual Perspectives from Late Antiquity, published by the University of California Press in 2021, explores the crossroads between law and ritual in the designation and use of churches as sacred places. She is currently editing and translating an Arabic witness to the Life of Pachomius.

This lecture will take place live on ZOOM, followed by a question and answer period.

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Limestone stele from the Monastery of Saqqara, Egypt (The British Museum, London, EA1533). © The Trustees of the British Museum