Wider Than Heaven: Eighth-Century Homilies on the Mother of God #35

Publication Data: Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 267
Dimensions (l × w × h): 18.4 cm × 12.7 cm × 1.9 cm
ISBN: 978‒0‒88141‒326‒7

   
Translation and Introduction by Mary B. Cunningham

Number 35 of Popular Patristics Series

“The twelve sermons translated in this volume were all produced in the eighth century, not only in Constantinople, but also in Jerusalem, Crete, and possibly another outlying province in mainland Greece or Syria. They are the work of five preachers, John of Damascus, Germanos of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete, John of Euboea, and Kosmas Vestitor, four of whom were clergymen whereas the last was one of a small number of lay Byzantine preachers whose texts survive in liturgical manuscripts. The homilies commemorate feast-days which had been added to the fixed calendar of the Constantinopolitan Church in the course of the sixth century or, in some cases, two centuries later. It is likely that many of these homilies were preached in the course of all-night vigils for the feasts; some, such as Andrew of Crete’s first three sermons on the Nativity of the Mother of God, were delivered as a trilogy, that is, in three parts in the course of the vigil, interspersed perhaps with psalms or hymns. Eighth-century sermons on the feast of the Dormition, recently translated and published by Brian Daley in the same series as this volume, display the same structure: Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus, and Germanos all produced homiletic trilogies for this important feast. In translating the remaining Marian festal sermons dating from this period, I aim to make these texts available to readers who may not be able to read them in the original Greek.”
—“Introduction”

CONTENTS

Abbreviations
Foreword
Introduction
JOHN OF DAMASCUS
   An Oration on the Nativity of the Holy Theotokos Mary
ANDREW OF CRETE
   On the Nativity I
   On the Nativity II
   On the Nativity III
   On the Nativity IV
KOSMAS VESTITOR
   Sermon on the Holy Joachim and Anna, Glorious Parents of the Theotokos Mary
GERMANOS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
   On the Entrance into the Temple I
   On the Entrance into the Temple II
JOHN OF EUBOEA
   Homily on the Conception of the Holy Theotokos
ANDREW OF CRETE
   Oration on the Annunciation of the Supremely Holy Lady, Our Theotokos
GERMANOS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
   Oration on the Annunciation of the Supremely Holy Theotokos
   Oration on the Consecration of the Venerable Church of Our Supremely Holy Lady, the Theotokos, and on the Holy Swaddling Clothes of our Lord Jesus Christ
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
Bibliography