medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear colleagues
Many thanks for the replies about semidalin. If I might press a little
further, has anyone come across similar prohibitions in sermons or
penitentials, or similar canonical prohibitions? I am researching an
apparently East Slavic sermon that is generally considered to have been
written in the eleventh century, although the earliest redaction exists in
a fourteenth century collection. In this earliest version, the sermoniser
complains that:
"Not thus we do evil simply, but we mix some pure prayers with the accursed
idol-worshipping prayers, and put over the lawful food of other feasts
'kut'ia' [ritual food, apparently type of porridge], and name the lawless
feast in memory of 'rod' [generally take to be the name a god, but this can
simply mean 'birth'] and 'rozhanitsy' [again, usually taken to mean spirits
of birth, but sometimes meaning 'those who give birth'] and to the anger of
God."
The later fifteenth century Novgorod manuscript expands on this 'mixing',
naming the pure prayers as the Troparion of the Mother of God. If indeed
Rozhanitsy are spirits or powers related to birth, a connection with Mary
would be a logical one in the minds of neophyte Slavs. I need to check all
possible textual precedents however, and Tikhonravov suggests the following
fragment found in a fourteenth century South Slav manuscript (which
purports to be a ruling from the Council of Laodicea) as one source of
'Rozhanitsy' feasts:
"Sorrow, sorrow to those that do this because it is hated by God, and
angers Him. Those who do not understand that they are doing bad and
forbidden [things] think they honour the Mother of God, they put up a feast
of flour bread, and cheese, and fill cups with good wine, and they now do
[this] to the Nativity and give each other to eat and drink, and think that
they do good, and thus give praise to the blessed virgin, while it is
dishonourable and worthy of blame.."
This does seem like a plausible source for the reference to Rozhanitsy
feasts in my sermon, and it is very similar to the 'second' meatless table
set up for 'Rozhanitsy' mentioned in a number of Slavic manuscripts. In one
twelfth century Novgorodian text, the question of a priest to his Bishop is
recorded as "And if they prepare bread, and cheese and honey for
'rod' and 'rozhanitsy' ?" The bishop replies "strongly forbid them,
somewhere it is said, sorrow to those who drink to 'rozhanitsy'!"
There must be some canonical precedent here, implied by 'it is said'.
However, I can not find anything resembling this in the canons of the
Council of Laodicea. Am I missing something? In searching out other
possible canonical sources I came across the semidalin passage, and
wondered if this might be it. I don't have access to the Slavic translation
of this canon until next week, but I have now checked the Slavonic Bible
for Exodus 29:2 and Revelations 18.13 and the semidalin or 'wheat flour'
there is not the 'kutia' of my sermon, nor the 'flour bread' of the South
Slavic fragment.
I am now wondering if the 'rozhanitsy' references are to the practice of
cooking special food for 'mothers who have given birth', which have become
confused in this particular sermon with canonical prohibitions about
cooking special food for the Mother of God, rather than a record of the
continued worship of pagan gods. I'd like to find a source which more
closely resembles the porridge and cheese/flour bread/wine prohibitions if
one exists (and I do already know about Epiphanius' Collyridian heretics
baking cakes or small loves, but unless my memory fails me, this isn't
connected with birth), so any further suggestions would be gratefully received.
With thanks
Stella
`*****************************************
Dr Stella Rock
Research Fellow
Arts B
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QL
Tel: 01273 678837
Fax: 01273 877174
Email:[log in to unmask]
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/history/profile17617.html
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