Homiliae I–III in dormitionem, auctore Iohanne Damasceno
Standard abbreviation: 1–3 Hom. Dorm.
Other titles: none
Clavis numbers: ECCA 392; CANT 108; CANT 104, 148, 175 (Euthymiac History)
Category: Dormition Accounts
Related literature: Protevangelium of James; Epistle of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite to Titus; Homily on the Dormition, by Cosmas Vesitor; Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Names 3.2; Maximus the Confessor, Life of the Virgin 116–118
Compiled by Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Homilies on the Dormition of the Virgin, by John of Damascus.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homilies-on-the-dormition-of-the-virgin-by-john-of-damascus/.
Created September 2024.
1. SUMMARY
John of Damascus delivered these homilies sometime between 730 and 750 on the feast of the dormition in the church near Gethsemane that is said to be built over Mary’s tomb. In the first homily, he wishes to describe who she is and where she came from in the spirit of pagan funeral orations, though more briefly. The details he provides are drawn from the Protevangelium of James: the righteous Anna and Joachim are unable to conceive (explained as grace, the meaning of Anna, being unable to bear fruit in human souls; a state remedied by God by enabling Anna to conceive Mary), an angel announces the conception of Mary, the child is consecrated to the temple until she reaches maturity, then she is entrusted to the care of Joseph (who is said here to be from the ranks of the priests). John follows with a summary of the birth of Jesus from the canonical infancy narratives and a discussion of how Mary is announced by the prophets (e.g., Isa 7:14). Brief mention is made of the apostles assembling at Mary’s death and seeing the ranks of angels awaiting her departure. The angels took her body to heaven where it was received with joy, and now she sits at the very throne of her son. But she left behind something of her essence: her body gave the tomb a share of divine fragrance and grace, and made it a source of healing and gifts for the faithful.
In the second homily, John sketches out several scenes of Mary’s death—some from stories he knows from “ancient times” and some merely speculative. For example, he mentions Mary’s body resting on a pallet on Mount Sion and then describes embracing the body, “pressing his eyes, lips, forehead, neck and cheeks to her limbs” as if she were present. Then he says the apostles were brought on a cloud to Jerusalem from the ends of the earth where they were preaching; along with them came their companions and successors, all hoping to obtain from her a blessing. Also present were the saints and prophets of old and a company of angels. He embroiders the account with things that “must have happened”—hymns, inspired speeches, contests of words, Adam and Eve calling out to Mary joyfully telling her she canceled the punishment of their transgression, and those who remain behind wishing her to stay or take them with her. Jesus received her spirit and brought it to heaven. Her body was then wrapped in funerary cloths and placed again on a couch which was borne on the shoulders of the apostles to a tomb in Gethsemane. John then presents a story he knows of a certain Jew rushing the bier in an attempt to wrest it to the ground; his hands were cut from his arms but he was healed once he professed belief. Mary’s body is placed in the tomb but she is raised on the third day just like her son. John presents a dialogue between himself and the tomb, asking where Mary has gone; the tomb responds that she has departed, leaving only her burial cloths behind, but that it (the tomb) remains a source of healing.
At this point in the text is inserted an account taken from chapter 40 of the third book of what is called the Euthymiac History. All manuscripts of the homily include this material, so it must have been inserted at an early stage of its transmission. It is reported that the empress Pulcheria erected a church to Mary in Blachernei under the reign of Emperor Marcian (beginning in 450). The couple hoped to place her body in the church, so they summoned Juvenal, the archbishop of Jerusalem and other priests of Palestine, during the Council of Chalcedon (451). Juvenal reported to them from “reliable tradition” that when Mary fell asleep, all of the apostles were brought to Jerusalem where they saw a vision of angels; she gave up her soul to God and her body was laid to rest in Gethsemane. For three days the angels sang and danced. When they ceased, a late-coming apostle arrived and wanted to pay reverence to the body but it was gone—all that remained in the coffin were her burial cloths. Timothy was also present, along with Dionysius the Areopagite. Dionysius wrote to Timothy about the death of Mary in his book On the Divine Names (excerpted here). When the imperial couple heard this, they asked Juvenal to send them the coffin with the garments in it and they placed it in the church.
The brief third homily contains allusions to the departure of Mary’s body from the tomb, to the apostles coming to Jerusalem on a cloud and assembling around her, and the angels singing hymns.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Adam (patriarch), Anna (mother of Mary), Dionysius the Areopagite, Eve (matriarch), Gabriel (angel), Hierotheos, Homer, James (the Righteous), Joachim (father of Mary), Joseph (of Nazareth), Juvenal (bishop), Marcian (emperor), Mary (Virgin), Peter (apostle), Pulcheria, Timothy.
Geographical Locations: Blachernei, Chalcedon, Constantinople, Gethsemane, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, paradise, temple (Jerusalem).
2. RESOURCES
2.1 Websites and Other Online Resources
“Cincture of the Theotokos.” Wikipedia.
“Euthymiac History.” Wikipedia.
“Holy Girdle.” Wikipedia.
“Virgin’s Veil.” Wikipedia.
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Greek (BHG 1114, 1097, 1089; CPG 8061–8063; additional manuscripts listed on Pinakes)
Messina, Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria ‘Giacomo Longo’, San Salvatoris 3, fols. 271r–282v (Hom. 2) (12th cent.)
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, gr. 491, fols. 246v–251r (Hom. 2) (9th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, gr. 1215, fols. 129r–155v (Hom. 2) (1080)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, gr. 1470, fols. 199v–201v, 206r–206v (Hom. 2); fols. 202v–205v, 213, 194r–199v (Hom. 3) (890)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1982, 169r–180v (11th cent.) ~ Hom. 3 only
Kotter, Bernard. Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskus. Vol. 5: Opera homiletica et hagiographica. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1988 (edition drawing on 152 manuscripts, pp. 461–555).
Lequien, Michel, ed. St Joannis Damasceni opera Omnia quae exstant et ejus nomine circumferuntur. Paris: Delespine, 1712.
Migne, Jacques-Paul. Patrologiae cursus completus: Series graeca. Vol. 114. Paris: Cerf, 1864 (reprint of edition by Lequien with facing Latin translation, cols. 697–762).
Voulet, Pierre, ed. and trans. Jean Damascène. Homélies sur la Nativité et la Dormition. SC 80. Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1960 (edition of Lequien with French translation).
3.1.2 Euthymiac History
3.1.2.1 Arabic (CANT 148; Stephen Shoemaker [2020: 331 n. 25] argues that this is not a witness to the Euthymiac History after all)
Esbroeck, Michel van. “Un témoin indirect de l’Histoire Eutymiaque dans une lecture arabe pour l’Assomption.” ParOr 6–7 (1975–1976): 485–88.
3.1.2.2 Georgian (CANT 175; unpublished)
Kutaisi, State Historical Museum, 3, fols. 377–379
3.1.2.2 Greek (CANT 104)
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, gr. 491, fols. 246v–251r (8th/9th cent) ~ Pinakes; LOC
3.1.2.3 Synaxarion of Constantinople
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Daley, Brian E., trans. On the Dormition: Early Patristic Homilies. Popular Patristics Series 18. St Crestwood, NY: Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998 (translation of edition by Kotter, pp. 183-239).
3.2.2 French
Voulet, Pierre, ed. and trans. Jean Damascène. Homélies sur la Nativité et la Dormition. SC 80. Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1960 (edition of Lequien with French translation).
3.2.3 Italian
Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. Italy: Marietti, 1975–1981 (Euthymiac History, vol. 1.2, pp. 526–28).
3.3 General Works
Carr, Annemarie Weyl. “Threads of Authority: The Virgin Mary’s Veil in the Middle Ages.” Pages 59–94 in Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of Investiture. Edited by Stewart Gordon. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Jugie, Martin. La Mort et l’Assumption de la Sainte Vierge: Étude historico-doctrinale. Studi e Testi 114. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944 (pp. 159–67).
__________. “Le recit de l’Histoire euthymiaque sur la mort et l’assomption de la Sainte Vierge.” Revue des études byzantines 25.144 (1926): 385–92.
Lourié, Basile. “L’Histoire euthymiaque: l’œuvre du patriarch Euthymios/Euphemios de Constantinople (490–496, †515).” Warszawskie Studia Teologiczne 20.2 (2007): 189–221.
Shoemaker, Stephen J. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (pp. 68-–69)
__________. “The Cult of Fashion: The Earliest ‘Life of the Virgin’ and Constantinople’s Marian Relics.” DOP 62 (2008): 53–74.
__________. “Ps.-Ps.-Dionysius on the Dormition of the Virgin Mary: The Armenian Letter of Dionysius to Titus.” Pages 325–36 in Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism: Studies in Honor of Alexander Golitzin. Edited by Andrei A. Orlov. VC Supp. 160. Leiden: Brill, 2020 (pp. 33–34).
Wenger, Antoine. L’Assomption de la T.S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siècle. Études et documents. Archives de l’Orient chrétien 5. Paris: Institut français d’études byzantines, 1955 (pp. 136–39).
Wortley, John. “The Marian Relics at Constantinople.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 45 (2005): 171–87, esp. 181–82.