Shari Boodts: Patristic sermons in the Middle Ages. Towards a typology of patristic sermon collections and their functions in medieval monastic contexts.

The Latin sermons preached by the Church Fathers of the patristic and early medieval period, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Leo Magnus etc., had a rich medieval afterlife, which is clearly evidenced in the many hundreds of medieval manuscripts that transmit patristic sermon collections. New combinations of sermons were continually formed throughout the Middle Ages, attesting to a varied and intensive engagement with the patristic heritage, focused mostly in a monastic context. While the enormity of the tradition and its inaccessibility in the manuscripts has precluded a systematic analysis of patristic sermon collections, their formation, mobility, and purpose, such an analysis would immensely enrich our understanding of medieval views on authority, monastic intellectual networks, evolving liturgical traditions etc. In my paper I will illustrate the relevance of these collections and propose a methodological framework to valorise and chart the medieval reception of patristic preaching.