172 ] Por el agujero de la memoria construyendo PAZ

The liturgy of Jerusalem revolved around its sacred topography, with the church of the Anastasis being its epicentre.694 The fourth-century pilgrim Egeria offers valuable information about the early liturgy, the celebration of Vespers and of the resurrection vigil.695 According to Egeria, during Lychnikon (Lucernare) the candles are lit from a fire that burns in a lamp inside the cave; this, according to Taft, symbolizes the risen Christ, the light that illumines (that is, saves).696 The same author argues that the sanctuary apse symbolizes the cave while the altar represents the sepulchre.697 Theodore of Mopsuestia had systematically interpreted liturgy as a dramatic re- enactment of the passion of Christ.698 Having these interpretations in mind, it is not surprising that some of our Palestinian artistic evidence preserve not the only the memory of the actual shrines, but also a memory of the liturgy.

The Metropolitan Museum pyxis offers such an example (fig. 7). Even though the Gospel narrative is totally disregarded, as instead of spices the Maries are holding censers, and instead of the sepulchre an altar is depicted, the scene can still be

693 _{Taft 1992, 25, noted that the term „rite‟ does not apply in the pre-Constantinian period, as a plethora} of local liturgical practices were followed, instead of a coherent unified corpus of liturgical usage. 694

Taft 1980/1, 65. 695 _{Ibid, 65.}

696 _{Egeria, Travels, in Wilkinson 1971, 123-24; Taft 1980/81, 66. The most thorough and detail} discussion remains Bertonière 1972, 72-105.

697

Taft 1980/81, 66. The evidence is presented below.

698 _{Theodore of Mopsuestia, Homily Fifteen in Tonneau and Devreesse 1949, 463: “C‟est pourquoi} certains des diacres, qui étendent des nappes sur l‟autel, présentent la similitude des linges de l‟ensevelissement; et ceux qui se tiennent des deux cotes agitent tout l‟air au-dessus du corps sacre”. For a discussion see Taft 1980/1, 62-65. The same author argues that this was not an Antiochene invention, but rather a development of a trend present in the Eucharistic thought from the start, Taft 1980/81, 68

identified as the Maries at the Tomb.699 Saint Clair argues that „the substitution of altar for tomb on the Metropolitan Museum pyxis was not topographical but rather liturgical, that is, it intended to illustrate the identification of Christ's tomb with the main altar of the Christian church‟.700

The inspiration however could have been drawn not simply from an unidentified altar but from the altar of the Holy Sepulchre.701 The liturgical connotations were expressed by Theodore of Mopsuestia‟s writings (above) but were also adopted by the Byzantine rite as observed by Patriarch Germanos (†ca.730): „The holy altar stands for the place where Christ was laid in the grave…‟.702

The association probably grew from the belief that Christ was present during the celebration of the Eucharist.703 It is further enhanced by the fact that the pyxis was probably used to store the bread for the Eucharist.704

Beside the ivory pyxis, the Monza and Bobbio ampullae offer a varied and

contemporary reflection of what the sepulchre of Christ looked like.705 Bobbio no. 6, however, offers an example where not only the sepulchre is depicted but also

contemporary liturgy.706 On this ampulla, four candles are represented on the roof of the sepulchre while three lamps are depicted in the interior.707 Visible on Bobbio no. 6 are, according to Grabar, two acroteria.708 However the two acroteria bear a

resemblance to floral decoration, which along with the four candles and the three lamps could signify that a special celebration is taking place at the sepulchre. This is

699

Weitzmann 1979, no. 520. The Maries are holding censers in almost all the surviving examples of the Monza and Bobbio ampullae, Grabar 1958, Monza no.2-3, 5-6, 8-15; Bobbio 3-6, 7, 15, 18. 700 _{St. Clair 1979, 131}

701 _{St. Clair 1979, 130-31.} 702

English translation from Taft 1980/81, 73. 703 _{Weitzmann 1979, 581.}

704 _{St. Clair 1979, 132.}

705 _{Barag and Wilkinson 1974, 179-187.}

706 _{For a description of the ampullae see Grabar 1958.} 707

Monza no. 3 depicts only one lamp but no candles, ibid 20. 708 _{Ibid, 35-36.}

further enhanced by the fact that the hand of the surviving Mary holds a censer, typical on other examples of this scene. The candles that were lit on top of the sepulchre and the lamps in the interior, combined with what it looks like floral decoration, points to a special vigil. Egeria describes such a vigil: „All the people congregate once more in the Anastasis, and the lamps and candles are lit, which makes it very bright‟.709 The Maries at the Tomb scene on this ampulla does not offer simply a memory of the actual shrine but I would argue, also of a special liturgy.

The ampullae however, as a mass produced art, performed a different task. The liturgical affinities on Bobbio no. 6 should be seen as the artist‟s choice to depict a scene that would attract potential buyers, who in their turn were interested in

purchasing an artefact that would constantly remind them not only of the Holy Land and its churches but also of the experiences they had. The liturgical connotations served to recall in the mind of the owner not the liturgy per se, but the place in which it took place and the experience they had; thus the importance of the scene on the ampullae is shifted from the liturgy to its commemorative power.

The Typikon of Hagia Sophia preserves some liturgical changes which are significant for the development of the Maries as an independent feast. Mateos argues that the Maries at the Tomb pushed the figure of Joseph of Arimathea, who also celebrated on the Myrrh-bearers Sunday, into second place.710 The hymns used today on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers appear on the tenth-, eleventh-century manuscript Saint Cross 40

709 _{Egeria, Travels in Wilkinson 1971, 123-24. While Egeria says nothing about floral decoration, this} could still be observed in the Orthodox Church on Holy Friday, when Christ‟s sepulchre (Epitaphios) is covered with flowers, and also on Holy Saturday Matins, when the priest announces the Resurrection and disperses flower petals to the congregation.

on Wednesday after Easter.711 If we accept that the hymns follow the feast then it is possible that at some point the feast of the Maries was moved from Wednesday after Easter to the third Sunday after Easter. This change signifies both the importance that the Myrrh-bearers gained after Iconoclasm, but also their detachment from Easter. This paved the way for the Anastasis to become the visual synonym of Easter. The movement from Wednesday to the third Sunday after Easter is further attested by the fact that the feast of the Maries does not follow in chronological sequence as it precedes, in the Gospel narrative, the Incredulity of Thomas, which is celebrated on the second Sunday after Easter.712 The manuscript preserves an older tradition in which the Maries were celebrated before the Incredulity.

Some iconographic details were inspired by current liturgical practises. Women deaconesses were attested both in the churches of Constantinople and Jerusalem, but it was in the latter that they played an important role during the celebration of Easter. The candles were also associated with the Easter vigil, and their depiction as covering the Holy Sepulchre as presented on the ampullae, served not only to recall in memory a random liturgy, but the Easter vigil. The candles, the white garments and the

paratactic procession on the wall at Dura were also influenced from a liturgy; the baptismal liturgy which was taking place during Easter. Finally the changes in the liturgical calendar can be interpreted in a two-fold way. On one hand one might argue that the Maries rose in importance and acquired a special Sunday after Easter, while on the other, it could be said that the Maries scene, by being disassociated from Easter

711 _{Ibid, note 3: „Le tropaire des femmes myrophores qu‟on chante aujourd‟hui apparaît dans H} seulement le mercredi du Renouveau‟.

712 _{The Jerusalem typikon, contrary to the Constantinopolitan, begins the Gospel reading on Thomas} Sunday with John 20: 26, which opens with the following sentence: „And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them‟, Tarchnischvili 1959, 116. The typikon of

lost its primary role as a reference to Christ‟s resurrection and thus to Easter. This process was however gradual, and as I will be discussing in chapter four, the

Anastasis was first coupled together with the Maries, before finally supplanting it and becoming the primary scene of Easter.

3.2.4 Theological Literature: The Canonical and the Apocryphal Tradition.