Saints in Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography

Join the Byzantine Studies Program for its fourth annual workshop on “Saints in Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography.” The workshop is a half-day public seminar discussion with the institute’s 2020–21 Mellon Fellow, Kosta Simic (Ph.D., Australian Catholic University), on his work, joined by four distinguished discussants: Rev. Stefanos Alexopoulos (Catholic University of America), Mary Cunningham (Honorary Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies), Maria-Lucia Goiana (University of Vienna), and Fr. Damaskinos Olkinuora (University of Eastern Finland).

As part of its Byzantine Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Medieval Institute offers a workshop with each Fellow, organized within the framework of the Byzantine Studies Seminar and treating the fellow’s subject matter. Senior scholars, chosen in cooperation with the Medieval Institute, are invited for this event and will discuss draft versions of the Fellow’s book manuscript or articles or discuss the further development of ongoing research projects.

Dr. Simic holds a Ph.D. from Australian Catholic University. During his fellowship year he will be completing his book manuscript, Liturgical Poetry in the Middle Byzantine Period: Hymns Attributed to Germanos I, Patriarch of Constantinople (715-730), in which he pays special attention to the content and certain important formal features in a set of largely unpublished hymns, mostly kanons, composed during the iconoclastic and post-iconoclastic periods. Aside from bringing to light a considerable body of unpublished hymnographic material, his aim is to examine these hymns as a separate genre of Byzantine literature that served a practical function, namely, to convey dogmatic and ethical teachings to the congregation.

Rev. Stefanos Alexopoulos (Catholic University of America) discusses the work of 2020–21 Mellon Fellow Kosta Simic (Ph.D., Australian Catholic University) in his presentation “Nuancing the Studite Synthesis: The Role of the Canon in the Shift from ‘Cathedral’ to ‘Monastic’ Liturgy in Constantinople” at the 4th Annual Byzantine Postdoctoral Fellowship Workshop, “Saints in Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography.”

Mary Cunningham (University of Nottingham) discusses the work of 2020–21 Mellon Fellow Kosta Simic (Ph.D., Australian Catholic University) in her presentation “Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography in the Middle Byzantine Period: What is Their Relationship?” at the 4th Annual Byzantine Postdoctoral Fellowship Workshop, “Saints in Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography.”

Fr. Damaskinos Olkinuora (University of Eastern Finland) discusses the work of 2020–21 Mellon Fellow Kosta Simic (Ph.D., Australian Catholic University) in his presentation “Performative aspects of Middle Byzantine Hymnography” at the 4th Annual Byzantine Postdoctoral Fellowship Workshop, “Saints in Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography.”

For more information, please visit the Medieval Institute website.