The Invention of Prayer for the Dead in Byzantine Tradition

Join us on for The Fifth Annual Mathews Byzantine Lecture by Prof. Zachary Chitwood of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Far from being a primitive Christian practice, prayer for the dead and, just as importantly, the belief that such prayer could better the postmortal fate of the deceased, was not uncontested, and attracted critique as early as Late Antiquity. This story of the development of the commemoration of the dead in Byzantium is one full of surprising twists and turns. Studying the development of commemorative prayer in Byzantium not only allows us to glimpse a truly medieval innovation, it also offers a way of examining Byzantine history via a particular concept and its manifold interactions with politics, religion, law and culture, very much in the sense of a Maussian “total social phenomenon.”

Join us on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET.

For more information visit the event website.