The international conference "Sanctity and Ritual Remembrance: Christian Liturgy and Memory Practices from Medieval Iberia to Central Asia" investigates the history, transmission, and standardization of Christian liturgical and hagiographical sources to illuminate how communal practices of memory evolved from late antiquity through the medieval period. Focusing on texts that regulate remembrance, such as synaxaria, menologia, and saints’ calendars, it brings together specialists working across diverse regions and Christian traditions, including medieval Spain, Byzantium, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Caucasus, the Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asia, and India. This event is organized in partnership between the Cluster of Excellence Eurasian Transformations and the ERC project RevIdEM.

Poster

Programme

THURSDAY, 5 MARCH

09:15–09:30 Welcoming Address

Andreas Rhoby

Claudia Rapp

Thematic Introduction

Andy Hilkens

Adrian C. Pirtea

09:30–11:00 Session 1: Commemorating Saints in the Holy Land

Chair: Uta Heil

Harald Buchinger

Relics of Saints in Late Antique Jerusalem: Materialisation of Piety and Means of Networking in the Change of Time

Daniel Galadza

Commemorating Saints on the Periphery of Post-Byzantine Jerusalem:

The Calendar of the Sabaite Typikon Sinai gr. 1096 in Context

11:00–11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30–12:15 André Binggeli

The Liturgical Calendar of Hagiographical Readings at Mar Saba in the 14th Century

12:15–14:00 LUNCH BREAK

14:00–15:30 Session 2: The Synaxarion of Constantinople and its Armenian Reception 

Chair: Caroline Macé

Stratis Papaioannou

The Synaxarion as Literature: The Case of the M* Recension

Andy Hilkens & Lewis Read

A Constantinopolitan Synaxarion for Armenians: The Tawnac’uyc’ of Yovsep’ (991/992)

15:30–16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00–17:30 Session 3: Sanctity and Memory in Armenian and Georgian

Chair: Zaroui Pogossian

Benedetta Contin

Tracing Entanglements Between Armenian and Syriac Hagiography in Upper Mesopotamia and Cilicia

Jost Gippert

Saints‘ Commemorations in the Change of Times: the Georgian Synaxarion in Context

19:00 Dinner for Invited Guests

FRIDAY, 6 MARCH

9:00–10:30 Session 4: Constructing Sanctity in Medieval Iberia 

Chair: Patrick Marschner

Kati Ihnat

Liturgical Constructions of Sanctity in the Old Hispanic Rite

Cathrien Hoijinck

The Cordoban Calendar as a Source for Understanding the Liturgical Year of Andalusi Christians

10:30–11:00 COFFEE BREAK

11:00–12:30 Session 5: LiturgicaI Memory in Egypt and Ethiopia 

Chair: Ágnes Tóthné Mihálykó

Moa Airijoki

Remembering the Desert Fathers through Medieval Copto-Arabic Reading Rituals

Dorothea Reule

Adapting Liturgical Memory between Egypt and Ethiopia

12:30–14:00 LUNCH BREAK

14:00–15:30 Session 6: Christian Arabic Synaxaria and Calendars from Sinai to Central Asia

Chair: Giulia Rossetto

Habib Ibrahim

The Antiochian Menologion and Synaxarion Manuscripts on Sinai

Adrian C. Pirtea

Al-Bīrūnī On the Commemoration of Saints among the Melkites and East Syrians in Central Asia

15:30–16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00–17:30 SESSION 7: SHIFTING MEMORIES OF SAINTS IN SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY

Chair: István Perczel

Ephrem Aboud Ishac

Between Turfan and Deir Al-Surian: Holy Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus across Eurasia

Radu Mustata

Constructing and Erasing Memory in Syro-Catholic Liturgical Manuscripts from Malabar after the Synod of Diamper (1599)

17:30–17:45 Concluding Remarks

Claudia Rapp

17:45–18:00 General Discussion

Andy Hilkens & Adrian C. Pirtea

Subject to change