Early Christian prayers on papyrus

Noen av de vakreste bønnene skrevet av kristne i senantikken kan bli lest i papyrusene som ble oppbevart i den tørre sanden av Egypt. De var skrevet på gammelgresk, det offisielle språket av den egyptiske kirken i den tid, og på koptisk, det lokale språket. De fleste av dem har blitt glemt og ikke brukt i liturgien siden senantikken. De viser hvordan kirken ved Nilens bredder henvendte seg til Gud i sine bønnetider om morgenen og kvelden, og særlig i nattverden. For å hente disse bønnene til dagens lys måtte de kursive håndskriftene av de fragmenterte papyrusene leses. I tillegg ble bønnenes plass i liturgien fastslått og deres tekst plassert i konteksten av den dagens religiøse strømmer. Forskningen har oppdaget nye kilder for den tidlige historen av nattverdsbønnene og har bidratt til en bedre forståelse av liturgisk utveksling mellom Egypt og Syria og av de komplekse forholdene mellom magi og liturgi. Som hovedresultat av prosjektet har de bønnene, som kommer fra nattverdsfeiringen, blitt forberedt for ny publikasjon i et bind med gresk og koptisk tekst, engelsk oversettelse og kommentar. I tillegg skal utgivelsen inneholde en oppdatert historie av nattverdsfeiringen i senantikkens Egypt.

The project has contributed to broadening the PI's competences and establishing her as a mature researcher in her field. At the host project in Austria, she enhanced her digital competences and learnt about effective project management and dissemination. The mobility period and participating at congresses also broadened her networks and made them more interdisciplinary. The conference and the workshop organized in the framework of the project, each of which brought scholars of several disciplines together, fostered links between these disciplines, and especially between liturgical scholars and historians of late antique religion, who have traditionally little contect despite the overlapping field of study. The final result of the project, a corpus of liturgical prayers on papyrus, is anticipated by scholars in liturgical history, papyrology, and history of religions and will enhance the accessibility of this hitherto obscure and neglected source material .

Liturgy was an essential part of Christian life from the earliest times. What was said and heard during the rituals informed the beliefs of the faithful, and their responses to everyday concerns. This important aspect of early Christian life is often overlooked due to the interdisciplinary approach that any treatment of the subject requires. The liturgical papyri, the earliest liturgical manuscripts, have in particular suffered from this neglect, since the lack of a comprehensive treatment has so far hindered their exploitation. Such an introduction has partially been supplied by my PhD thesis and forthcoming book. However, in order to allow the researchers to explore the full potential of these sources, a new edition of these texts is required as well, which can offer reliable readings, translation, and commentary. This project aims at providing such a corpus for all prayers on papyrus in Greek and Coptic coming from the third to the ninth century by approaching these sources with an interdisciplinary methodology. The editorial work will require papyrological and philological methods, while for the commentary I will rely on comparative liturgical studies and theology. I will also provide a searchable, open-access digital edition of the prayers with English translation. Finally, with the help of the corpus I will inquire into the interplay between Christian magical and liturgical praying. Claudia Rapp's 'Euchologia' project, based at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, is the ideal host for my undertaking, since it is engaged in a similar work of establishing a corpus of Byzantine euchologia, and it has gathered a unique team of experts on Christian prayers in Greek. The editorial work will be assisted by the Papyrussammlung of the Austrian National Library and my mentor in Oslo, Anastasia Maravela, with papyrological and philological expertise.