Download Liturgical papyri in context

Liturgical papyri in context
Worship was an intrinsic part of a Christian’s life in the Late Antiquity. Similarly to all
believers, Christians turned to God to praise, to give thanks or to petition. They prayed to Him
individually or in community, in a private or public setting, in the Eucharistic liturgy, in the
liturgy of the hours, in the different rites of the Church, or in case of personal necessity.
However, only a part of this practice has left a written record. We learn about late antique
Christian worship from church orders and traditions of Eucharistic liturgies, or from
descriptions in catechumenal homilies, theological or apologetic works, and in hagiographical
or pilgrims’ reports. Moreover, we have a number of liturgical papyri from Egypt which are
direct witnesses to the practices of worship.
These papyri, which have been understudied so far, present a number of challenges. Before all,
it is difficult to set the limits for the category ‘liturgical’. This designation covers a great
variety of genres from private to public prayer, which renders categorization difficult. Some
of these texts border on magical or school texts; hymns, on the other hand, can also be
regarded as literary compositions, and thus can be classified as ‘literary’. However, they are
held together by the fact that they all were used in, and thus represent various aspects of
Christian worship.
This project will attempt to explore these papyri within their social context. Their primary and
secondary uses, the division between ‘magical’ and liturgical texts, and between private and
communal prayer will be discussed. I also try to find the liturgical context for the pieces, and
their ‘Sitz im Leben’. The aim of the project is to envision tendencies of usage by elaborating
on the most interesting and telling pieces in detail. Ultimately, a better general understanding
of these texts can shed a new light on the place of worship within the late antique Egyptian
society.