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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



All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

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Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.

Published by

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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

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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.



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



Georgia Frank

Alexander Lingas

Sensing Ascension in

Early Byzantium

From Earth to Heaven:

The Changing Musical

Soundscape of ByzantineLiturgy



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.



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.



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



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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'".



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



'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).



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.


Romanos, p. 197.



Romanos, p. 198.



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.


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.



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).

sensing ascension in early byzantium (georgia frank)

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