Oratio de Vita Mariae, auctore Pseudo-Cyrillo Hieroslymitano
Standard abbreviation: Hom. Life Vir.
Other titles: On the Life of the Virgin
Clavis numbers: ECCA 152; CANT 96
Category: Pseudo-Apostolic Memoirs
Related literature: Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin by Peter and John; Protevangelium of James; Homily on the Entry of the Virgin into the Temple, by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem; Homily on the Honor of the Virgin, by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem; Homily on the Assumption of the Virgin (Arabic), by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem; Homily on the Assumption of the Virgin (Ethiopic), by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem.
Compiled by Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Homily on the Life of the Virgin by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homily-on-the-life-of-the-virgin-by-pseudo-cyril-of-jerusalem/.
Created January 2020. Current as of August 2024.
1. SUMMARY
Hom. Life Vir. is extant in several complete and fragmentary manuscripts, but only a few of the fragments have been published to date. The complete text is described by Leo Depuydt as: “Episodes from the early life of the Virgin Mary are narrated, but the work does not deal exclusively with her. In the second half, Jesus answers questions addressed to him by the apostles” (1993; vol. 1, p. 208) and by Henri Hyvernat as: “With the exception of an introduction on the terrors of the last judgement, Our Lord Himself, in answer to a query from his apostles, speaks to the end of the homily on his second advent (parousia) and the events that will take place then” (1935:145). Further information can be obtained from the colophon of the text from an Arabic manuscript: “Discourse given by saint Cyril, archbishop of Jerusalem, on the subject of the Blessed Virgin Mary. . . in the church built in his name in (the Valley of) Josaphat in front of Jerusalem, the place where will gather the world . . . He gives this speech on the third day of the month of Kîhak, that is to say the day when her parents presented her to the Temple to dedicate her to the Lord” (Lucchesi 2009: 14). In some Arabic manuscripts the homily is attributed to Andrew of Crete. Lucchesi also reports that the Homily on the Entry of the Virgin into the Temple, also attributed to Cyril, is an abbreviation of Hom. Life Vir.
This summary covers only the published fragments from Robinson (Coptic Apocryphal Gospels, pp. 2–15) and Crum (Theological Texts, pp. 11–16). The narrative opens in Robinson’s fragment I with the end of Cyril’s homiletic framework, in which he challenges several charges made by heretics: that Mary was not born in a normal way, that she conceived Jesus through intercourse with Joseph, and that she was taken up bodily into heaven. The narrative then begins with an introduction to Joachim (formerly named Cleopas) and Anna, a married Jewish couple, rich with gold, silver and cattle, yet distressed on account of Anna’s inability to become pregnant. Both Anna and Joachim have a portentous dream featuring a white dove; in Anna’s dream the dove kisses Anna on the mouth. Anna conceives and then is visited by an angel, who informs her that she will give birth to a daughter and she must name her Mary. Anna gives birth to Mary on 15 Baramūdah (April 10, Julian). After the birth, David appears in the midst of Anna and Joachim, singing psalms and playing his harp. The couple then celebrate her birth with seven days of eating and drinking.
In the next episode, an angel appears to the High Priest Zechariah, here brother to Joachim, and tells him to command Anna and Joachim to keep Mary a virgin and bring her to the temple when she is three years old. Zechariah tells the couple what was revealed to him and blesses the child. The fragment finishes with a song of Anna to the Lord.
The first fragment published by Crum mentions the celebrations over the conception of Mary by Joachim and Anna (overlapping with Robinson’s fragment 1). In the second, Mary is in the temple and her parents do not visit her. The verso of the page condemns heretical views on Mary held by the Meletians.
Named Historical Figures and Characters (preliminary): Anna (mother of Mary), Anna (prophet), Cleopas, Cyril of Jerusalem, David (king), Elizabeth, Gabriel (angel), Jacob (patriarch), Jesse (patriarch), Jesus Christ, Joachim (father of Mary), Joseph (of Nazareth), Malachias (father of Joseph), Mary (Virgin), Meletians, Moses (patriarch), Zechariah (priest).
Geographical Locations (preliminary): Bethlehem, Israel, Judah, Nazareth, temple, Valley of Jehoshaphat/Josaphat.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Arabic
Giza, Franciscan Seminary, 12, fols. 108r–123v (1909)
Qusqam, Dayr al-Muharraq, 9/12, fols. 20r–34v
Qusqam, Dayr al-Muharraq, 9/13, fols. 52v–71r
The following attribute the text to Andrew of Crete:
Wadi El Natrun, Dayr Qiddīs Anbā Maqqār, 378
Wadi El Natrun, Dayr Qiddīs Anbā Maqqār, 379
Wadi El Natrun, Dayr Qiddīs Anbā Maqqār, 480
Lucchesi, Enzo. “Les sept Marie dans une homélie copte et l’origine du mälkɘ’ éthiopien.” AnBoll 127 (2009): 9–15 (discussion of Arabic manuscripts).
3.1.2 Coptic (CPC 0005; PAThs entry)
New York, Morgan Museum and Library, M634 (=MICH.CF), fols. 1r–28v (9th/10th cent.); PAThs; MML
Depuydt, Leo. Catalogue of Coptic Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library. 2 vols. Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts 4–5. Leuven: Peeters, 1993 (description of text in vol. 1, pp. 208–11; no. 108; includes comparison with edition of Robinson).
Hyvernat, Henri. Catalogue of Coptic manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York: Privately published, 1935 (text described p. 145).
New York, Morgan Library and Museum, Amh. Copt. Pap. 4 (=NM.C04.1–2), fols. 1–2 (7th cent.)
Crum, Walter E. Theological Texts from Coptic Papyri. Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series 12. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913 (text and English translation of NM.C04.1–2, pp. 11–14).
MONB.DL (10th/11th cent.) ~ see link for editions
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Crum, Walter E. Theological Texts from Coptic Papyri. Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series 12. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913 (text and English translation of NM.CO4.1–2, pp. 11–14).
Robinson, Forbes. Coptic Apocryphal Gospels. Translations Together with the Texts of Some of Them. TS 4.2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896 (introduction, pp. xxi–xxiii, text and English translation of portions of MONB.DL pp. 1–14, pp. 2–15).
3.3 General Works
Constas, Nicholas. Proclus of Constantinople and the Cult of the Virgin in Late Antiquity: Homilies 1–5, Text and Translations. SVC 66; Leiden: Brill, 2003 (discussion of the doctrine of conceptio per aurem, “conception through the ear,” p. 277).
Lantschoot, Arnold van. “L’Assumption de la Sainte Vierge chez les Coptes.” Gregorianum 27 (1946): 493–526 (see pp. 499–500).
Lucchesi, Enzo. “D’une Vie de Marie à une Homélie sur la Passion.” AnBoll 114 (1996): 269–72.
__________. “Un Évangile apocryphe imaginaire.” OLP 28 (1997): 166–78 (p. 174).
__________. “Les sept Marie dans une homélie copte et l’origine du mälkɘ’ éthiopien.” AnBoll 127 (2009): 9–15.
Orlandi, Tito. Coptic Texts Relating to the Virgin Mary: An Overview. Rome: CIM, 2008 (see p. 66).
Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (pp. 71, 79).