Dialogus Mariae et Christi in departu animae
Standard abbreviation: Dial. Mary Chr.
Other titles: none
Clavis numbers: ECCA 753
Category: Revelatory Dialogues
Related literature: Apocalypse of the Virgin, Book of Mary’s Repose
Compiled by Christine Luckritz Marquis, Union Presbyterian Seminary ([email protected]).
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Luckritz Marquis, Christine. “Dialogue of Mary and Christ on the Departure of the Soul.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/dialogue-of-mary-and-christ-on-the-departure-of-the-soul/.
Created January 2022. Current as of March 2023.
1. SUMMARY
The Dialogue of Mary and Christ on the Departure of the Soul depicts a short conversation between the Virgin Mary and Christ. Building upon earlier Dormition traditions, Mary asks Jesus several questions on the Mount of Olives about the fate of the soul and the treatment of the dead by angels. The text is attributed to John the Theologian, though that attribution is certainly pseudepigraphal.
Written in modern Greek, the text represents a creative synthesis of Marian traditions in order to lend an apocryphal flavor to catechetical materials regarding the soul at its death. While most Dormition texts focus entirely on the soul’s fate, Dial. Mary Chr. reflects a unique focus on numerical precision regarding angels present at death; At death, sixty sage-like angels and six dark, fiery angels appear around the soul. Once the deeds of the soul during life have been considered, the respective angels either guide the soul upward toward heaven or down into hell. In evoking the dark angelic bodies, the text relies on longstanding stereotypes of Ethiopianness within Christian literature. As Gay Byron has shown, Christian authors used the trope of Ethiopian bodies to depict ethno-political biases, including most relevant to Dial. Mary Chr. an evocation of Ethiopianness to symbolize that which is dangerous, to be feared, and sometimes even demonic.
As Péter Tóth has noted, Dial. Mary Chr. belongs to erōtapokriseis, or “question-and-answer,” literature. Whereas most erōtapokriseis texts tend to be rather lengthy, Dial. Mary Chr.’s brevity indicates that the Byzantine scribes who transcribed it were not overly concerned with rich re-narrativization of earlier didactic materials, but in succinctly conveying teachings on the fate of souls at death.
Named historical figures and characters: Jesus Christ, Mary (Virgin).
Geographical locations: Mount of Olives.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Church Slavic
Franko, Ivan. Apokrifi î legendy z ukraïnsǐkich rukopisiv. 5 vols. Lviv: Nakladom Naukovoho Tovaristva îmeni Ševčenka, 1896–1910 (text, vol. 2, pp. 368–69).
3.1.2 Greek
Athens, Ethnikē Bibliothēkē tēs Hellados, gr. 2187, fols. 155v–156r (16th cent.)
Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, A 187, part 1, pp. 530–531 (16th cent.)
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Marquis, Christine Luckritz. “Dialogue of Mary and Christ on the Departure of the Soul.” Pages 560–64 in vol. 3 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. 3 vols. Edited by Tony Burke with Brent Landau. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016–2023.
3.3 General Works
Tóth, Péter. “New Wine in Old Wineskin: Byzantine Reuses of the Apocryphal Revelation Dialogue.” Pages 77–93 in Dialogues and Debates from late antiquity to late Byzantium. Edited by Averil Cameron and Niels Gaul. London: Routledge, 2017.