Daily Life and Religion: Byzantine Prayer Books as Sources for Social History

Byzantine prayer books (euchologia) containin addition to the eucharistic and sacramental liturgies a vast number of small prayers pronounced by the clergy that address the concerns of all levels of society, regardless of social and economic status, at various occasions in a persons lifetime. Yet, they have gone largely unexplored as a source for daily life and social history, in large part because of the challenges posed by their transmission. Euchologia are extant in manuscripts beginning with the late eighth century and well into the post-Byzantine period. Their exact number is unknown. In the early 15th century, it was estimated to amount to about 2,000. There is considerable variation between the manuscripts in the content, concern, and sequence of prayers, depending on the community where the euchologion was used. Moreover, several different prayers may be addressing the same concrete concern, either scattered across different manuscripts or even within the same manuscript. While scholars have studied individual prayer book manuscripts, in view of these challenges a comprehensive study of Byzantine euchologia has not yet been attempted. Unlocking the potential of the small prayers in the euchologia as a source for daily life and social history must begin with the manuscripts and requires a systematic, step-by-step effort of a research team over an extended period of time. This project will take a two-pronged approach that employs a combination of focused thematic research with Grundlagenforschung. Several individual research projects will exemplify the potential of this source material, while also establishing methodological approaches: One project area engages with issue of how manuscript transmission of euchologia reflects the textual, regional communities they serve. Another project area will study the formation of small groups based on shared interests and their control by ecclesiastical authorities. A third project are deals with the history of education within an ecclesiastical framework. To put these investigations based on hitherto uncharted source material on a firm foundation of evidence, the project members will devote a portion of their time to creating the first-ever database of prayer books in manuscript form, in a fully searcheable, open access format that unlocks the wealth of issues and concerns addressed in the small prayers. The database will be designed to facilitate potential future research in other areas as well, such as liturgical studies. In short, this project breaks entirely new ground in making accessible a hitherto untapped source for Byzantine history, society and mentality. By exploring ecclesiastical control of peoples lives, it also speaks to the larger issue of individual agency within larger political and societal frameworks and belief systems.

In medieval Byzantium, Christianity shaped all aspects of culture. Yet, there are few sources that illustrate the lived religion of the Byzantines. This project established for the first time the usefulness of previously neglected source material and developed a methodology for its systematic study: Byzantine prayer books made for the use of the clergy and written in medieval Greek (euchologia). The sacramental and eucharistic liturgies they contain have been studied by theologians and historians of the liturgy, often on the basis of individual manuscripts. But euchologia also contain a large number of short or occasional prayers, addressing concerns as diverse and various as miscarriage, purifying wells, cheese-making, fishing, grape harvesting, church building, ritual brotherhood or a childs first day at school. According to a current estimate, there are close to 2000 Greek euchologion manuscripts from the late eighth to the mid-16th century (the wide circulation of euchologia in print being the projects cut-off point), with prayers for well over 100 different purposes. These must be identified in the manusripts and studied one by one, in order to facilitate later studies of developments across historical periods and cultural regionswork that has never been possible before in a systematic fashion. Through pilot studies, the project members and their cooperation partners have succeeded in (a) proving the feasibility of and establishing a methodology for the study of the manuscripts, including the creation of a Census of Manuscripts (currently more than 1000 manuscripts), and (b) demonstrating the importance of this treasure trove of material, by focusing on the study of Byzantine schooling and the study of Byzantine social relations.In on-site studies in manuscript libraries (Patmos, Grottaferrata, Vatican, Paris Oxford), a three-step approach for the study of euchologion manuscripts and the occasional prayers they contain was established which can serve as the basis for future research. The team members have communicated their work to scholarly and general audiences through the organization of and participation in conferences, lectures, publications and outreach, resulting in some media attention. Thanks tothe project, select Byzantine euchologia already available in print have been included in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae/TLG database of Greek texts from antiquity to the end of the middle ages, so that word searches will now include results from liturgical texts.The Division of Byzantine Research/IMAFO of the Austrian Academy of Sciences has now established the Vienna Euchologia Project as one of its research areas for further study (https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/byzantine-research/communities-and-landscapes/euchologia- project).By laying the foundation for a systematic exploration of the occasional prayers in euchologia manuscripts, this project has broken new ground in combining the methods of manuscript study, liturgical studies and the study of lived religion and social life for the work that lies ahead.