Epistle of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite to Titus

Epistula Pseudo-Dionysii ad Titam

Standard abbreviation: Ep. Titus Dion.

Other titles: none

Other designations: AM7 in van Esbroeck’s classification of Dormition traditions

Clavis numbers: ECCA 204; CANT 164

Category: Dormition Accounts

Related literature: Homilies on the Dormition of the Virgin, by John of Damascus

Compiled by Tony Burke, York University

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Epistle of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite to Titus.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/epistle-of-pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite-to-titus/.

Created September 2024.

1. SUMMARY

The title of the letter states that it was written in response to the Letter of Titus, the bishop of Crete, though there is no connection to the contents of the canonical epistle. The author quickly turns to describing the events of Mary’s dormition. When Mary is preparing to depart her life, the apostles gather together in Jerusalem from their assigned areas of preaching. Angels are also in attendance and Jesus comes to retrieve Mary’s soul. The apostles and the crowd then adorn her body and sing psalms in her honor. Jesus descends from heaven and inflames her body with sparks of fire. She is placed in a tomb in Gethsemane and the apostles stand guard, listening to the singing of angels for three days. Then a late-coming apostle arrives. He convinces the other apostles to allow him to view Mary’s body but when the tomb is opened, the body was no longer there. At that moment, the apostles understand that the angels ceased singing when her body had been transferred to heaven.

Named Historical Figures and Characters: Dionysius the Areopagite, Mary (Virgin), Titus.

Geographical Locations: Gethsemane, Jerusalem.

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Armenian (BHO 642)

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arm. 110, fol. 477 (1194)

Venice, Biblioteca dei Padri Mechitaristi San Lazzaro degli Armeni, 2, fols. 168^v–169^r (15th cent.)

Venice, Biblioteca dei Padri Mechitaristi San Lazzaro degli Armeni, 353, fol. 81 (14th cent.)

Yerevan, Matenadaran, 993, fols. 583^v–584^r (1456)

Yerevan, Matenadaran, 7729, fol. 271 (1200–1202)

Sruandzteantsʿ, Garegin. Hnocʿ ew norocʿ patmowtʿiwn vans Dawtʿi ew Movsei Xorenacwoy (History of the Old and New concerning David and Moses Khorenatsi. Constantinople: Tpagrutʽiwn E.M. Tntesean, 1874 (edition from inaccessible manuscript, pp. 110–15).

Vetter, Paul. Pages 11–17 in Haykakan ashkhat[a]sirutʻiwnkʻ hayagēt P. Fētʻtʻēri. Edited by Hakovbos Tashean. Azgayin Matenadaran 17. Vienna: Mkhit‘arean tparan, 1895 (edition of the Paris MS).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Shoemaker, Stephen J. “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 (translation of edition by Sruandzteantsʿ, pp. 335–36).

3.2.2 French

Meistermann, Barnabé. Le tombeau de la Sainte Vierge à Jérusalem.
Jerusalem: P. P. Franciscains, 1903 (French translation of Vetter’s German translation, pp. 120–25).

3.2.3 German

Vetter, Paul. “Das apokryphe Schreiben des Areopagiten an Titus über die Aufnahme Mariä aus dem Armenischen übersetzt.” Theologische Quartalschrift 69 (1887): 133–38.

3.3 General Works

Mimouni, Simon C. Dormition et Assumption de Marie. Histoire des traditions anciennes. Théologie Historique 98. Paris: Beauchesne, 1995 (pp. 337–38, n. 77).

__________. Les traditions anciennes sur la Dormition et l’Assomption de Marie: Études littéraires, historiques et doctrinales. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 104. Leiden: Brill, 2011 (see esp. pp. 204–205).