this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: Armenian Hymns of the Holy Cross and the Jerusalem Encaenia
Author(s): FINDIKYAN, Michael Daniel
Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes
Volume: 32    Date: 2010   
Pages: 25-58
DOI: 10.2143/REA.32.0.2050515

Abstract :
The peculiar arrangement and content of several of the 78 hymns associated with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the textus receptus of the Armenian Church’s Book of Hymns [Šarakan] is explained by their original connection with the fourth-century dedication (Encaenia) of the Constantinian churches on Golgotha. Among numerous ecclesiological and architectural references, the hymns contain allusions to the Anastasis, Martyrium and Holy Sion, the three most important Christian shrines in the liturgical life of fourth and fifth-century Jerusalem. These characteristics demonstrate the antiquity of a stratum of the Armenian hymnographic corpus, and corroborate recent scholarly hypotheses regarding the early history of the construction and dedication of the hagiopolite churches, as well as the origin of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Download article