Homilie de ecclesia B. V. Mariae
Standard abbreviation: Hom. Church Vir.
Other titles: On the Building of the First Church of the Virgin
Clavis numbers: ECCA 978; CPG 2990
Category: Pseudo-apostolic memoirs
Related literature: Story of Joseph of Arimathea
Compiled by Paul C. Dilley, University of Iowa ([email protected])
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Dilley, Paul C. “Homily on the Building of the First Church of the Virgin.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homily-on-the-building-of-the-first-church-of-the-virgin-by-pseudo-basil-of-caesarea/.
Created September 2020.
1. SUMMARY
Hom. Church Vir. begins with a homily attributed to Basil, the fourth-century bishop of Caesarea, who was well known for his articulation of Nicene theology, and as a homilist. The primary purpose of this work is to commemorate Mary, and in particular two churches dedicated to her, on the day of their consecration: the 21st of the month of Paoni.
After a brief introduction, Basil describes his discovery of an apostolic library in the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, in Jerusalem, including the letter of Luke, in the teacher/physician’s own hand, which Basil then reads. The letter gives an account of the construction and dedication of the first church dedicated to Mary in Philippi (presumably the city in Greece rather than Caesarea Philippi), by the apostles, who are miraculously united there. They are joined by Mary and Jesus, who descend from heaven in a chariot, after which Jesus guides the apostles in the construction of the church.
When he has finished reading from the Letter of Luke, Basil leads his audience in the celebration of a festival in honor of the Virgin Mary. He describes various miraculous occurrences at his own community’s church of Mary, including his discovery of a carbuncle image of Mary “not made by human hands,” which performs miracles in the sanctuary. Basil is instructed by Mary in a dream to acquire two columns from an abandoned temple outside the city as a foundation for her image. He leads a crowd of Christians to despoil the pagan sanctuary, but they are temporarily opposed by magicians, before the final miraculous translation of the columns to the church. At the end of his homily, Basil instructs the audience to sanctify the church on the 21st of Paoni, the day on which the apostles had founded the first church of the Virgin Mary, as narrated in Luke’s letter.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Achanatitus (disciple of Paul), Aristarchus, Barnabas, Basil of Caesarea, Constantine, Daniel, Eumenius, Gabriel (angel), Gamaliel, Habakkuk, James the Just, Jesus Christ, John (Son of Zebedee), Josephus, Kallinikos (of Damascus), Luke, Mark, Mary (Virgin), Mary (mother of Mark), Melchizedek, Michael (angel), Nerea (of Damascus), Nicodemus, Panera, Parmona (disciple of Paul), Pastamon (of Damascus), Paul, Peter, Polycarp (disciple of Paul), Titus.
Geographical Locations: Antioch, Cappadocia, Corinth, Damascus, Ephesus, Galilee, gehenna, Jerusalem, Judea, Philippi, Rome, Thessalonica.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Arabic
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, arabe 150, fols. 141r–156v (1606)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, arabe 155, fols. 39r–54v (1486)
Wadi El Natrun, Dayr Qiddīs Anbā Maqqār, 377 (Hag. 11) (19th c.)
Wadi El Natrun, Dayr Qiddīs Anbā Maqqār, 378 (Hag. 12) (1755)
Wadi El Natrun, Dayr Qiddīs Anbā Maqqār, 413 (Hag. 47) (18/19th cent.)
Wadi El Natrun, Dayr Qiddīs Anbā Maqqār, 480 (Hom. 67) (1588) ~ includes also an epitome of the text
Basset, René. “Le Synaxaire arabe jacobite (rédaction copte) V: les mois de Baounah, Abib, Mésoré et jours complémentaires.” Patrologia orientalis 17 (1923): 525–782 (edition and translation of the summary of the text in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, pp. 583–86.)
Esbroeck, Michel van. “La première église de la Vierge bâtie par les apôtres.” Pages 1–18 in Aegyptus Christiana: Mélanges d’hagiographie égyptienne et orientale dédiés à la mémoire du P. Paul Devos Bollandiste. Edited by Enzo Lucchesi and Ugo Zanetti. Geneva: Patrick Cramer, 2004 (French translation of the Arabic text edited by Girgis Ḥunayn, pp. 3–10).
Forget, Jacques. Synaxarium alexandrinum: tomus II. CSCO 67. Leuven: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1963 (edition of the summary of the text in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, pp. 180–82).
———. Synaxarium alexandrinum: pars posterior. CSCO 90. Leuven: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1926 (translation of the summary of the text in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, pp. 179–81).
Ḥunayn, Girgis. Kitāb mayāmir wa-ʻajāʼib al-sayyidah al-ʻadhrā Maryam. Cairo: Maṭbaʻat ʼal-Hilāl, 1902 (Arabic version of the text, pp. 128–42).
3.1.2 Coptic (CPC 00753; Bohairic; PAThs entry)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. copt. 67, fols. 69r–89r (9th–11th cent.) (=MACA.DI)
Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, Tischendorf XXIV, fol. O.50 and XXV, fol. 21 (=MACA.EL; PAThs entry)
Chaîne, Marius. “Catéchèse attribuée à Saint Basile de Césarée. Une lettre apocryphe de Saint Luc.” ROC 23 (1922–1923): 150–59, 271–302 (edition and French translation from Vat. copt. 67).
Crum, Walter E. “Hagiographica from Leipzig Manuscripts.” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 29 (1907): 289–96, 301–307 (discussion of the Leipzig fragments, p. 304).
3.1.2 Ethiopic
Däbrä Tabor, Bethlehem Church, no shelf number, pp. 398–423 (1398–1408)
Bombeck, Stefan. Die Geschichte der heiligen Maria in einer alten äthiopischen Handschrift. 2 vols. Dortmund: Praxiswissen, 2004 and 2010 (facsimile of Däbrä Tabor manuscript, vol. 1, German translation, vol. 2, pp. 213–23).
Guidi, Ignazio. “Le Synaxaire éthiopien I: mois de Sanê.” Patrologia orientalis 1 (1905): 519–75 (edition and translation of the summary of the text in the Ethiopian Synaxarion, pp. 645–50).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Dilley, Paul C. “Homily on the Building of the First Church of the Virgin: A New Translation and Introduction.” Pages 188–207 in vol. 2 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Edited by Tony Burke. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans (English translation based on Chaîne’s edition of the Coptic text).
3.2.2 French
Esbroeck, Michel van. “La première église de la Vierge bâtie par les apôtres.” Pages 1–18 in Aegyptus Christiana: Mélanges d’hagiographie égyptienne et orientale dédiés à la mémoire du P. Paul Devos Bollandiste. Edited by Enzo Lucchesi and Ugo Zanetti. Geneva: Patrick Cramer, 2004 (french translation of the Arabic text edited by Girgis Ḥunayn, pp. 3–10).
3.2.3 German
Bombeck, Stefan. Die Geschichte der heiligen Maria in einer alten äthiopischen Handschrift. 2 vols. Dortmund: Praxiswissen, 2004 and 2010 (facsimile of Däbrä Tabor manuscript, vol. 1, German translation, vol. 2, pp. 213–23).
3.2.4 Italian
Gharib, Georges et al., eds. Testi mariani del primo millenio. Vol. 4: Pardi e altri autori orientali. Rome, 1991 (Italian translation of Chaîne’s French translation, pp. 729–43).
3.3 General Works
Dilley, Paul C. “Christian Icon Practice in Apocryphal Literature: Consecration and the Conversion of Synagogues into Churches.” JRA 23 (2010): 285–302.
__________. “The Invention of Christian Tradition: Apocrypha, Imperial Policy, and Anti-Jewish Propaganda.” GRBS 50, no. 4 (2010): 586–614.
Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (p. 88).