Theodore de Bruyn: Chronological aspects of liturgical and paraliturgical evidence for the intercessory function of Mary in Egypt

This paper focuses on liturgical and paraliturgical evidence for the intercessory function of Mary in Egypt. Appeals to the intercessions of Mary are found in the earliest Sahidic manuscripts of the anaphoras of St. Basil and St. Gregory in Egypt. They also appear in Greek amulets and documents found in Egypt. The Sahidic versions of the anaphoras are based on earlier Greek texts that probably entered Egypt from Syria in the fifth or sixth centuries. The amulets and other documents containing formulae appealing to Mary are assigned to the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. The paper will briefly summarize this evidence and will then consider its implications. Is it possible to determine if the anaphoral commemorations of St. Basil and St. Gregory contained an appeal to the intercessions of Mary already in their earliest Greek forms? Should we conclude from the presence of appeals to the intercessions of Mary in fifth-century amulets that similar formulae were already used in the fourth century? In this paper, evidence discussed in studies of the cult of Mary in Egypt has been supplemented by a review of all Greek amulets found in Egypt containing Christian elements (cf. de Bruyn and Dijkstra, BASP, 2011), and by a review of texts reprinted in the Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Ägypten.