Miracula Mariae V. ad Bartos
Standard abbreviation: Mir. Mary Bartos
Other titles: Homily on the Legend of Matthias, by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem
Clavis numbers: CANT 281
Category: Pseudo-Apostolic Memoirs
Related literature: Prayer of Mary at Bartos
Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University ([email protected])
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Miracles of Mary in Bartos.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homily-on-the-legend-of-matthias-by-pseudo-cyril-of-jerusalem/.
Created July 2023.
1. SUMMARY
The Arabic text opens with an attribution to Cyril of Jerusalem, who is said to have found the following account written in a library from the time of the apostles. Then it moves directly to the story. After the resurrection and the commissioning of the apostles, Mary, the mother of Jesus, remains in Jerusalem. But Satan inspires the Jewish authorities to chase her from the city, so she considers seeking out John in Ephesus or Matthias in Bartos. The decision is made for her when Jesus appears and takes her on a cloud to Bartos where Matthias is imprisoned, bound with chains of iron. Jesus tells Mary to rescue him using the prayer he taught her from Cross.
Mary arrives at the gate of the city and meets an old woman. The woman tells Mary about Matthias, who came to the city three days ago and performed healings which led the townspeople to forsake the worship of Apollo and follow Jesus. Matthias was brought before the governor Macrinos; he scoffed at the idol made of wood and stone and boasted that he could sink the temple into the ground. Both Matthias and his followers were sent to prison and each day one of them was to be given to the governor’s possessed son, Paul, to be devoured. But Matthias escaped on a cloud. The old woman waits for Matthias to return so that he will expel a demon from her son. Mary then heals her son and goes to the prison, where she utters the prayer she learned from Jesus. The iron bars melt away like water, along with the chains holding the prisoners, and the swords of the jailers. Suspecting that the believers were allowed to go free, the governor seizes the jailers and orders his guards to tie them in a wine press and stab them with spears. But the guards’ spears and swords melt. Then other metal objects melt, including the bridle and stirrups of the governor’s horse, the shovels of workers, and a barber’s razor; even dogs’ chains melt away, leaving them free to attack the townspeople.
The governor goes to see if the irons that hold his demon-possessed son are intact; he pledges that if they too have melted away, he will believe in Matthias’s God. He arrives to discover his son has been cured by Mary, who appeared to him in a cloud of light. The Governor now believes and writes to the king telling him everything that has happened. When the king reads the letter, he becomes a believer too and tells the governor that all the weapons in his kingdom also melted. The governor searches the city for Mary and finds her in the old woman’s house. She shines like lightning and the governor and his nobles fall to the ground in fear. Mary raises them up and the governor asks her to come to his house for a blessing. She promises to come the next day. As the governor makes preparations for her visit, Mary prays to Jesus, asking what happened to Matthias. In response, Matthias appears on a cloud. He sees the multitude of believers and asks Mary what she did to be so successful. Mary tells Matthias about Jesus bringing her to the city and how she used his prayer to free the prisoners. Matthias wishes to know the prayer too but when Mary speaks it, he cannot hear the words. When he asks a third time about the prayer, he hears voices from heaven and sees Mary enveloped with light. Matthias falls down as if dead at her feet. Then Jesus and his angels descend through the roof; he raises Matthias back up and tells him that only Mary is worthy enough to know the prayer.
The next morning the governor and nobles come to the house. They prostrate before Mary and ask her to sit in a richly-decorated litter so that they can take her around the city to give her blessing. Mary objects to the opulence, but sees the benefit and climbs into the litter. As she journeys through the city, she raises to life all who had died as the result of her prayer. Others are reanimated also, including the animals prepared for a meal in her honor. Mary stops at a place where the god Elachistes is worshipped; she casts his idol and others into the abyss where it will wait for the day of judgment when it will testify against those who made it. Finally, Mary arrives at the governor’s home where a throne is prepared for her. When she sits upon it, the earth trembles and all of the dead rise from their graves. The abyss opens up and all can see the places of punishment. Mary tells the dead to return to their rest until the day of the coming of the Lord. Then a cloud of light appears and whisks Mary away to Jerusalem. As for Mathias, he remains in the city, where he baptizes the people, builds a church, and ordains priests.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Apollo, Cyril of Jerusalem, Elachistes, Jesus Christ, John (son of Zebedee), Macrinos, Mary (Virgin), Matthias (apostle), Michael (angel), Paul (son of Macrinos), Satan.
Geographical Locations: Bartos, Ephesus, Jerusalem.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Arabic
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 69, fols. 98v–162r (1343) ~ Miracles of Mary with the Miracle at Bartus as no. 108; Catalog; GALLICA
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 141, fols. 12r–30v (16th cent.) ~ Catalog; GALLICA
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 154, fols. 145r–164r (1604 and 1607) ~ Catalog; GALLICA
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 155, fols. 55r–63v (1486) ~ Catalog; GALLICA
Kitāb Mayāmir wa-ʻaǧāʼib as-saiyida al-Aḏrāʼ Maryam: ʻalā ḥasab mā waḍaʻahū ābāʼ al-kanīsa al-urṯūḏuksīya. Cairo: Miṣr Maṭbaʻat ʻAin Šams, 1916 (pp. 115–27).
Graf, Georg. Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur. 5 vols. Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944 (discussion and additional manuscripts listed, vol. 1, pp. 253–56).
3.1.2 Coptic (Clavis coptica 0885; PAThs entry)
3.1.2.1 Bohairic
Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, 1089, fols. 3, 22, 8 (Tischendorf XXVI,22 and XXVII,3 and 8) (9th–12th cent.) (CLM 3456; PAThs entry)
Lantschoot, Arnold van. “Miracles opérés par la S. Vierge à Bartos (fragments bohaïriques).” Studia Anselmiana 27–28 (1951): 504–11.
3.1.2.2 Sahidic (see link for editions)
MONB.OF (ca. 10–11th cent.)
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Robinson, Forbes. Coptic Apocryphal Gospels. Translations Together with the Texts of Some of Them. TS 4.2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896 (Coptic text and English translation of the Cambridge fragment of MONB.OF, pp. 20–25).
3.2.2 French
Basset, René. Les apocryphes éthiopiens traduits en français. vol. 5. Milan: Arché, 1895 (translation of the Arabic text, vol. 5, pp. 48–71).
3.3 General Works
Orlandi, Tito. Coptic Texts Relating to the Virgin Mary: An Overview. Rome: CIM, 2008 (see pp. 27, 76).