Women Leaders at the Table in Early Churches A K
e purpose of this article is to examine the oldest surviving record that iconographic artifacts are so important in iconographic artifacts that depict early Christians in real reconstructing the early liturgy. churches at the Eucharist table. ese provide the oldest visual In a study of the architectural layout of early churches in the evidence of early Christian traditions of leadership as it was city of Rome, omas F. Matthews acknowledged the di culty of actually practiced in churches. e reason for doing this is to ll reconstructing the performance of the liturgy solely from fragments in the cultural gaps about what we know regarding the sex of of prayers and later manuscripts, and he used archeological leaders who performed the ritual, or liturgy. evidence to help answer the question of how the liturgy was ree key elements are present in each of the ancient performed prior to the eighth century. e archeological remains illustrated artifacts under consideration. First, there is a that Matthews considered were of churches in Rome from the Eucharist table, also called the mensa or altar table. Second, the seventh century or earlier, with a couple dated as early as the h. artist depicted real people—not e material remains indicated biblical gures—with the table. that all of them had two stone And third, the architecture in the walls that formed a corridor down scene portrayed the interior of a the middle of the nave to the altar real church; that is, the artist was area—a corridor that essentially not imagining a heavenly or ctive divided the nave into two halves. scene, but representing the ritual Matthews compared this in that church. architectural feature of a divided ese windows into early nave with the oldest surviving churches help us understand how liturgy for the Roman mass, the earliest Christians must have known as the Ordo Romanus received certain sayings in Paul’s Primus, which, despite being the letters, sayings which today are oldest surviving, is only found in interpreted in some congregations manuscripts dated ninth-century as meaning that Paul did not or later. Consistent with the permit women to be church architecture of a divided nave, the leaders. ese artifacts suggest Ordo Romanus Primus mentions that early Christians understood a women’s side and a men’s side. texts such as Gal : as Paul’s Matthews thus reconstructed guiding instructions with respect Figure the nave with men on one side Ivory reliquary box. to interpreting his letters, and of the corridor and women on Liturgy in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica, ca. especially with respect to women, the other. e Ordo Romanus Source: Artres ART¤ because all three of the oldest Primus is usually assumed to surviving iconographic artifacts describe an all-male clergy in the portray women in the altar area of these churches. ese three altar area, but this is less certain since the masculine gender in artifacts are all the more stunning in that they represent the Latin can signify both sexes. altar areas of three of the most prominent orthodox basilicas in Women and Men at the Table in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica Christendom. One depicts Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. in Rome Another depicts the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. e third depicts the Anastasis, also called the Church of the Holy One of the two oldest iconographic artifacts in this study Sepulchre, in Jerusalem. contradicts any assumption that the early churches in the city of Rome had an all-male clergy. is h-century artifact depicts Previous Attempts to Reconstruct the Ancient Liturgy the altar area of Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. While the One might think we could read manuscripts to determine who scene on the artifact con rms that there was a men’s side and a did what in early Christian assemblies, but it has been estimated women’s side in the church, it contradicts that only men were in that eighty- ve percent of the Christian literature known from the altar area. Its sculptor depicted a men’s side and a women’s the rst two centuries has been lost. e percentage of liturgical side in the altar area, too. Since the discovery of this artifact, manuscripts lost is even higher, because almost no liturgical almost without exception scholars have agreed it depicts men on manuscripts dating to the rst seven centuries have survived. the le side of the table and women on the right. In addition, Paul Bradshaw has argued that liturgical is scene is on one face of an ivory reliquary (a box for holy manuscripts were “more prone to emendation than literary relics) that was buried beneath the altar area of a church near the manuscripts.” It is because of this gap in the historical written city of Pola in what is now Croatia. It was excavated in .
¤ • PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring cbeinternational.org Today it is in the Venice Archeological Museum. Sometimes called as the Constantinian apse in Saint Peter’s.” e excavators also the Pola Ivory, most art historians date this delicately carved box discovered a rectangular stone tomb under the pavement, which to the s, usually they believed at one no later than . time held Peter’s See Figure . bones. Both Jerome In , Anton in the late s and Gnirs, who was Gregory of Tours in familiar with the the late s wrote excavation, was that the basilica’s the rst to publish altar was over Peter’s an article about bones, so with the ivory box. He this discovery the said the scene had excavators seemed to extraordinary value have proved beyond for the liturgy during doubt that the stone the era of early Figure A table had been the Christian culture. Detail: Altar area of Old Saint Peter’s Basilica basilica’s altar. For He identi ed two detail of the shrine men and two women anking the ciborium, that is, the columned on the ivory, with the man and woman at its stone table, see structure over the altar sometimes called the baldachin or Figure B. canopy. ese two men and two women were sculpted with Gnirs speculated that the man and woman at the altar table their arms raised, a pose o en associated in Jewish Scripture were participating in a ceremony of the sacrament of matrimony. with the priesthood, and which art historian Alexei Lidov says In the subsequent thirty years a er his article, other art historians “is interpreted in iconographic studies as a liturgical one.” agreed that the ivory sculptor had carved a man and a woman at the Finally, beneath the ciborium, Gnirs also identi ed a man and a altar, with most assuming they must be a married couple. Others woman on either side of the altar table (mensa dell’altare). See have since proposed they might be mother and son. Some art Figure A. historians have suggested that the pair might be venerating the Although Gnirs did not make the connection, in Alice cross at the altar table, but in Joseph Wilpert rebutted that Baird published an article pointing suggestion saying, “in Saint Peter’s out that the six spiral columns of the Basilica the cross was not venerated ciborium on the ivory are an almost in such a pronounced fashion as perfect match for the six spiral depicted in this scene.” Wilpert’s columns that Constantine reputedly reason was that, unlike some donated to Old Saint Peter’s, columns churches, Saint Peter’s did not have today in the galleries of the modern a relic of the true Cross. Other art Saint Peter’s. at they indeed historians, however, have pointed out were the same six columns was that the woman was sculpted raising con rmed in , when the Vatican some type of container, perhaps a commissioned excavations beneath bowl or a pyx (a container for the the modern high altar. Eucharist). If the sculptor had At the bottom of a stack of carved a man instead of a woman medieval altars, Vatican excavators at the altar in Old Saint Peter’s, then discovered a second-century shrine, almost certainly from the beginning which they thought was the same scholars would have identi ed him shrine reportedly dedicated to Peter Figure B as a priest or bishop li ing a chalice near the site of his martyrdom in Detail of the shrine and its table of eucharistic wine. Rome. Fourth-century architects had One can imagine that a woman at built Old Saint Peter’s Basilica around this second-century shrine. the altar table in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica must have caused some It was “the architectural focus of the whole building.” e shape consternation among the Vatican excavators. ey took ten years and size of this shrine with its stone table—an eight-foot high by to publish their nal report, and it included two reconstructions eight-foot wide wall with the stone table embedded in its front of the ciborium as a twenty-foot by twenty-foot square. Without face—was virtually identical to what was carved on the ivory, mentioning that a woman had been identi ed at the altar, the down to the arched niche behind the table, which on the ivory is Vatican excavators sandwiched a photo of the ivory between seen with a large cross. Englebert Kirschbaum, one of the Vatican their two drawings of the square ciborium. One drawing was excavators, wrote that the scene on the ivory was “so striking a diagram with dotted lines in front of the shrine, accurately even in its details as to con rm conclusively its interpretation representing that they did not excavate in front of the shrine and cbeinternational.org PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring • ¤£ that their reconstruction was hypothetical. e second drawing, spiral columns forming what appears to be a curved trapezoid, however, was a three-dimensional illustration of a twenty-foot or half-hexagon, with the shorter front face framing the altar by twenty-foot square table, over which hung ciborium, presented the lamp. So also in not as hypothetical, Old Saint Peter’s. With but as real. ese two new eyes I saw that the drawings both placed four spiral columns the shrine itself at around the shrine the back of this large with its stone table square ciborium. What formed a trapezoid, was so important or half-hexagon, with about the square the shorter front face ciborium? Vatican framing the shrine, excavator Kirschbaum over which hung the later explained why large lamp. it was so important. e fourth-century He pointed out that architects of Old Saint a square ciborium’s Peter’s, thus, appear overhead ribs would to have copied the intersect in the middle architecture of the of the square, and that Anastasis in order to therefore the lamp visually invoke the sacral would hang ten feet Figure power of Jerusalem, in front of the second- left-Ciborium on the ivory; right-Ciborium per Vatican illustrator which Galit Noga-Banai century shrine and demonstrates that other its stone table—over artists in Rome were empty oor. e altar, he said, would have been under the doing. In Old Saint Peter’s, the half-hexagon ciborium over Peter’s lamp’s light, so he concluded: “We have to suppose a portable tomb with the rounded apse above it evoked the half-hexagon altar table.” ciborium over Christ’s tomb with the rotunda above. e architects When I rst started analyzing the scene on the Pola Ivory, I thus symbolically tied Peter’s tomb to Christ’s, and Old Saint Peter’s reviewed the Vatican excavators’ report, and it confused me. I Basilica to the Anastasis in Jerusalem. would look at the diagram with dotted lines of a square ciborium, e Vatican excavators’ so-called reconstruction of a square turn the page and see the photo of the ivory, and then turn the ciborium was simply a misguided attempt to move the altar away page once more and see the three-dimensional illustration of a from the woman. ey could not move the woman on the ivory. square ciborium. e more I looked at the ciborium on the ivory, So, they moved the altar. In Old Saint Peter’s, the large lamp the more I wondered why the sculptor—who otherwise was had not hung over vacant oor. It had hung above the second- quite accomplished—had not used proper artistic perspective century shrine and its stone table. e lamp’s light had shone and sculpted the square ciborium as a square. Most ciboria today exactly where one would expect the light to shine when the are square, so it was easy to imagine a square ciborium, but this second-century shrine itself had been “the architectural focus ciborium did not look square. Still, I did not question that it was of the whole building.” square. I trusted the Vatican excavators. e sculptor, in my Women at the Altar in the Anastasis mind, had failed to represent the square ciborium. See Figure for a comparison of the actual ciborium sculpted on the ivory One of the two round ivory pyxes portrays women in a liturgical versus the Vatican’s hypothetical square ciborium. recreation of the discovery of the empty tomb. According to the One day, however, I carefully read the Italian in the pilgrim Egeria, who around the year described the liturgy paragraphs below the photo of the ivory. e Vatican writer inside the Anastasis in her diary, the early morning service began mentioned that the ciborium on the ivory “has the exact function at cock crow, with deacons and presbyters reciting prayers and and similar form as the famous monument over Christ’s tomb Psalms, a er which they went into the cave, the tomb where inside the Church of the Anastasis in Jerusalem.” Suddenly I Jesus’s body had been laid to rest, and their censers lled the realized that the sculptor had used perfect artistic perspective. whole Anastasis with the scent of incense. She said, “e whole Old Saint Peter’s ciborium was not square. e Church of the assembly groans and laments at all that the Lord underwent for Anastasis was a rotunda, round, and many artifacts depict the us, and the way they weep would move even the hardest heart to monument over Christ’s tomb as multi-sided or six-sided, as a tears.” is service was so popular that according to Egeria, it hexagon. In addition, two round ivory pyxes dated to the s, was not only performed at Easter, but also every Sunday. which evoke the rotunda with their round shape, depict what Dated to the s, this ivory pyx was carved in the eastern was quite possibly its ciborium. Both depict a ciborium with four Mediterranean area, perhaps Palestine, but its provenance a er that is uncertain until it appeared at an auction in Paris in , a er
¤¥ • PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring cbeinternational.org which J. Pierpont Morgan donated it to the Metropolitan Museum Constantinople since it portrays Emperor Justinian and Empress of Art in New York. It, too, may have been dug up in the twentieth eodora. ree women with the cloth are in the mosaic that depicts century, but it is unlikely we will ever know where. It is, however, eodora standing between two eunuchs and seven women. Two the oldest iconographic women wear the fringed artifact to depict a single white cloth hanging from sex at the altar of a real their girdles, and a third church. Most interesting, woman holds it. Lidov it depicts only women, not cautions scholars who men. Two women carrying might argue that the cloth censers approach the altar. must mean something ree more women, each di erent simply because with her arms raised, it appears with women: appear in procession to the “Let me remind those altar. See Figures and A. who are convinced of Signifying that this the lay provenance of liturgical procession was the handkerchief that eucharistic, a narrow eodora with her retinue, strip of doubled cloth as well as Justinian, are hangs from each woman’s presented in San Vitale in a girdle. According to liturgical procession in the Lidov, this cloth or sanctuary, both holding handkerchief, sometimes Figure liturgical vessels.” All fringed, sometimes with Two women carry censers to the altar area. three women stand on delicate embroidered Ivory pyx, ca. £s. Ciborium over the altar in the Anastasis rotunda, Jerusalem the right of eodora, stripes at the end, later Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, OA who holds the golden was called a maniple in chalice. ey appear as the West, but in the East counterparts to the three was called the “enchirion male clerics portrayed (literally ‘handy’)—a white in the opposite mosaic, handkerchief hanging at men seen on the right of the girdle of an archpriest, Justinian, who himself later called epigonation.” holds the golden paten Due to its various names for the bread. In the San over time in both East Vitale mosaic, as in the and West, I call it simply ivory of Old Saint Peter’s, the eucharistic cloth. the men were seen on Church o ciants used this the le of the altar and special cloth only during the women on the right. the performance of the For the two mosaics, see Eucharist, for example to Figures and A. wipe excess wine from ese two mosaics the rim of the chalice. probably represented During this era the clergy the practice in the Hagia wore everyday clothes, Sophia, the huge basilica taking care not to dress Figure A in Constantinople that as if they were rich or Three arms-raised women in the liturgical procession Justinian built and which special. e rst time in still stands today. In any art, for example, that we see a man in the liturgy with any special case, the second of the two oldest artifacts to depict people around priestly insignia is the episcopal pallium in the decade around , the table in a real church further indicates that the gender-parallel approximately the same time that we see the eucharistic cloth on liturgical practice seen in the San Vitale mosaics apparently had a women in the liturgy. long tradition not only in Rome, but also in Constantinople. is Gender Parallelism in the Liturgy of Constantinople ancient artifact portrays similar gender parallelism in the altar area of the second Hagia Sophia. Women are also seen with the eucharistic cloth in one of the is carving, on a huge sarcophagus front, was disovered two wall mosaics that ank the altar in the holy of holies of the in inside a hypogeum, an underground room containing Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. Dated around , these two sarcophagi made for the elite. Perhaps because the carving is mosaics comprise a scene thought to represent the liturgy in cbeinternational.org PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring • ¤¢ today in the rather distant Istanbul Archeological Museum, it Frescos of meal scenes in some of the Christian catacombs of has been less studied. Johannes Deckers and Ümit Serdaroğlu, Rome, usually dated from the mid- s to the early s, also who were involved in the suggest an early tradition excavation, published of both male and female the nd in and leaders at the table, noted that the column for that is what several capitals on this carving depict. For example, a were the same as the fresco in the Cubiculum column capitals of the of the Sacraments in the second Hagia Sophia, Catacomb of Callistus which was completed in portrays a young man and , but burned in . an arms-raised woman Based on the hypogeum’s standing at a tripod table location at the foot of the laden with bread and eodosian walls, the a sh. e man is on style of the man’s bulb the le and the woman clasp and clothing, and on the right, the same the early Christian cross gender positions seen on the altar, they dated two centuries later above the carving around the ground in the liturgy year . See Figure . Figure in Old Saint Peter’s. See A cross is on the table, Theodora holds the chalice. Altar apse mosaic, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. Figure . with curtains pulled back Source: Wilpert, Malereien, pl. ¤¤ Janet Tulloch, who to expose it beneath studied catacomb meal what appears to be the frescos, noticed that columned ciborium. An several other frescos arms-raised man and an portrayed a male and arms-raised woman ank female pair at a table, the altar, again the man on both holding a cup—and the le and the woman on the woman raising her the right. A boy is beside cup in the style of the the woman, much like leader. According to two eunuchs are beside Tulloch, in these meal Empress eodora in frescos, “female gures the San Vitale mosaic, dominate the cup action”; but otherwise this arms- she notes that in pagan raised woman and man funerary art in Rome are portrayed in mirror- the person raising the symmetrical poses. cup was virtually always Pre-Constantinian male. Figure is one of Evidence of Gender- the frescos that Tulloch parallelism at the included in her study. Eucharist Table Figure A On the far right in this fresco, a woman raises Even earlier pre- Justinian holds the paten. Source: Wilpert, Malereien, pl. ¤ the cup above the tripod Constantinian material table, and on the far le remains, from the ruins of a seated man also holds a the Megiddo army church in ancient Palestine to ritual meal frescos cup. is scene resonates with Irenaeus of Lyons’ report in the in the Christian catacombs of Rome, suggest that the tradition of late s that in one community of Christ followers, a man and women’s leadership at the Eucharist table was early. For example, a woman performed the ritual of consecrating the wine together, the stone table in the “Megiddo Church” in Palestine, the oldest a ritual that was almost certainly archaic, not innovative. church ruins known in Israel, dated ca. to , was anked by Notably, Irenaeus used the verb eucharistein (“give thanks, bless,” small oor mosaics which commemorated the names of women cf. Matt :; Mark :; Luke :, ; Cor :) to describe donors on one side and men donors on the other. is meeting the action of the woman who consecrated the cup of wine. house was next to the camp’s bakery, which suggests that bread ese catacomb frescos may have represented funerary meals may have been ritually broken and shared at this table. that included a eucharistic element, because the third-century
¤ • PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring cbeinternational.org Latin treatise Didascalia apostolorum said that the Eucharist the more reason to conclude that the gender-parallel ritual should be performed in cemeteries, and these catacombs were seen in the most important orthodox churches in Rome indeed cemeteries. and Constantinople The tradition of was probably first women raising the performed by Jesus’s eucharistic cup, thus, is Jewish disciples, both witnessed from the late male and female. s to the mid- s— Conclusion from the woman consecrating wine in In conclusion, the the community that Christian tradition of Irenaeus knew, to the women’s leadership women raising the in the assembly was cup above the table ancient, orthodox, and seen in catacomb widespread. So why did it disappear? An easy frescos, to the woman Figure raising the cup above answer is to suggest Liturgical scene ca. , second Hagia Sophia, Constantinople that Roman men who the altar table in Old Photo courtesy author Saint Peter’s Basilica, were overly prideful of to Empress Theodora their masculinity were holding the golden chalice in Constantinople. to blame, such as the emperor Constantine, who reportedly had Additional provocative evidence suggests that rituals with been a member of the military cult of Mithras, which did not gender-parallel leadership may have been present in some Jewish permit women members, much less women priests. Yet early communities during the time of Jesus. In the statements in opposition to women church rst century, Philo of Alexandria described leaders are exceedingly rare, even in the fourth the gender-parallel meal ritual of a Jewish century, even among the bishops of Rome. For sect that he called the erapeutae, whom he example, not until Pope Gelasius, who only ruled knew outside Alexandria, but which he said from to , do we hear a complaint such as were also active in other areas. He described his, that “women are encouraged to serve at the their all night ritual as having two leaders, sacred altars [ministrare sacris altaribus] and to with a woman in the role of Miriam and a man perform all the other tasks [cunctaque] that are in the role of Moses. is ritual reimagined assigned only to the service of men.” Gelasius the temple in Jerusalem, with an altar table, appears to have been an aberration, because libation, bread, and priests. Joan E. Taylor popes before him and a er him did not voice says, “Both men and women saw themselves similar views. Over time, however, this changed, not only as attendants or suppliants but as Figure ¡ perhaps due to the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the rise of fear and superstition. priests in this Temple.” Man and woman at a mensa Good evidence demonstrates that scribes of Philo also described two choirs, one male Callistus Catacomb, Rome these later centuries excised passages from and one female, who sang all night and, when Source: Wilpert, Malereien, pl. ¤.¤. the sun rose, li ed their hands. is part early Christian narratives that described of their ritual is astonishingly similar to the liturgical moment women in liturgical leadership—women who preached, taught, represented on the Pola Ivory, because the four arms-raised exorcised demons, healed with their hands, and baptized— men and women have open mouths, as if singing, as if they including narratives about women who, like Junia of Rom :, were two choirs —and the ritual for which Old Saint Peter’s were called apostles. is slow degenerative process resulted Basilica was famous was also an all-night ritual, an all-night in our modern false imagination of the early Christian past as a Mass that commemorated Peter. e ivory sculptor, thus, may time of an all-male clergy. have captured the singing men and women raising their arms Today those who oppose women in church leadership o en at the very moment during the Mass that the sun rose. Further claim some of Paul’s sayings as justi cation for their position. suggesting the reality of the ritual of the erapeutae in the liturgy Nearly two thousand years later, however, it is easy for someone to of Old Saint Peter’s Basilica, Eusebius of Caesarea in the early misinterpret Paul or to selectively quote his verses out of context. s wrote that the meetings of the erapeutae, including their ese iconographic artifacts of the early Christian gender-parallel rituals and their separate areas for men and women, were still in liturgy validate an egalitarian interpretation of what Paul meant in vogue in churches of his time. It seems likely Eusebius knew certain passages of his letters about women in leadership. ese of gender-parallel liturgies such as practiced in Old Saint Peter’s artifacts indicate that for Paul the guiding light, the overarching and the second Hagia Sophia. Given the iconographic artifacts, rule, was Gal : . Just as both slave and free could be leaders in we have no reason to doubt Eusebius’s report, which provides all the assembly who preached and taught, and just as both Jew and cbeinternational.org PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring • ¤ Greek could, so also both male and female could—for all were one . Bradshaw, Search for the Origins, . in Christ Jesus. . omas F. Matthews, “An Early Roman Chancel Arrangement and Its Liturgical Functions,” Rivista di archeologia cristiana ( ) – , esp. Notes –. . is excludes . For dating of these the lower register of manuscripts, see E. G. the late fourth-century Cuthbert F. Atchley, Ordo rotunda mosaics in Saint Romanus Primus, with George in essalonica, Introduction and Notes which depict only men, (London: Alexander including bishops, Moring, ) –. presbyters, musicians, . Atchley, Ordo and soldiers, but who are Romanus Primus, , , usually thought to portray , . martyrs in heaven; see . Matthews, Laura Nasrallah, “Empire “Early Roman Chancel and Apocalypse in Arrangement,” – , g. . essaloniki: Interpreting . Anton Gnirs, “La the Early Christian basilica ed il reliquiario Rotunda,” JECS / ( ) d’avorio di Samagher – , esp. – . presso Pola,” Atti e memorie . is excludes della società istriana di Melchizedek and Abraham archeologia e storia patria and Sarah in the San ( ) – , , –, Vitale nave mosaics dated g. ; Pietro Toesca, Storia ca. ; see Otto G. von dell’arte italiana I (Turin: Unione, ) ; Pericle Simson. Sacred Fortress: Figure ¢ Byzantine Art and Statecra Ducati, L’arte in Roma in Ravenna (Princeton A woman raises the cup above the tripod mensa. dalle origini al sec. VIII University Press, ) Marcellino and Pietro catacomb. Late s to early s. (Bologna: Cappelli, ) , plates and . It also Source: Wilpert, Malereien, pl. ¤£¢.. ; Alexander Coburn excludes two men adjacent Soper, “e Italo-Gallic the Anastasis altar on the Cleveland pyx dated s, but who face away from School of Early Christian Art,” e Art Bulletin / (June ) – , ; it because they are part of the Gospel scenes which ank it; see Archer St. Henri Leclercq, “Pola,” in Dictionnaire d’archeologie chretienne et de liturgie, Clair, “e Visit to the Tomb: Narrative and Liturgy on ree Early Christian vol. , part , ed. Fernand Cabrol and Henri Leclercq (Paris: Letouzey et Pyxides,” Gesta / ( ) –, esp. –, g. . It also excludes the Ane, ) col. – , esp. col. ; Joseph Wilpert, “Le due piú antiche idealized double-Jesuses on silver patens dated – ; see Marlia Mundell rappresentazioni della Adoratio Crucis,” Atti della Ponticia Accademia Mango, Silver from Early Byzantium: e Kaper Koraon and Related Treasures romana di archeologia, series , Memorie ( ) –, ; Carlo (Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, ) – , gs. . and .. Cecchelli, La vita di Roma nel Medioevo, Vol. : Le arti minori e il costume . is excludes meal scenes in catacomb and other art, which o en (Rome: Palandi, –) ; Margherita Guarducci, La capsella eburnea depict women at the table, as seen below. di Samagher: un cimelio di arte paleocristiana nella storia del tardo impero . Christoph Markschies, “Lehrer, Schüler, Schule: Zur Bedeutung (Trieste: Società istriana di archeologia, ) –; Jaś Elsner, “Closure einer Institution für das antike Christentum,” in Religiöse Vereine in and Penetration: Reections on the Pola Casket,” in From Site to Sight: e der römischen Antike. Untersuchungen zu Organisation, Ritual und Transformation of Place in Art and Literature, ed. V. P. Tschudi and T. K. Seim Raumordnung, ed. Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser and Alfred Schäfer (Mohr (Rome: Scienze e Lettere, ) –, ; Fabrizio Bisconti, “La Capsella Siebeck, ) – , esp. . di Samagher: Il quadro delle interpretazioni,” Il cristianesimo in Istria fra . Paul F. Bradshaw, e Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: tarda antichita e alto Medioevo ( ) –, esp. –; Davide Longhi, La Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy (Oxford University Press, capsella eburnea di Samagher: iconograa e committenza (Ravenna: Girasole, ) –: “Extant liturgical manuscripts are almost all of a much later date, ) –; eodor Klausner, Die römische Petrustradition im Lichte der beginning around the eighth century CE. It is true that within early Christian neuen Ausgrabungen unter der Peterskirche (Opladen: Westdeutscher, ) literature there is a group of documents that look very like real, authoritative ; and Anna Angiolini, La capsella eburnea di Pola (Bologna: Pàtron, ) liturgical texts, containing both directions for the conduct of worship and –, – . also the words of prayers and other formularies. Since they claim in one way . Gnirs, “Basilica ed il reliquiario,” . or another to be apostolic, they have generally been referred to as apostolic . Longhi, Capsella eburnea, ; Tilmann Buddensieg, “Le co ret en church orders. But they are not what they seem. . . . Not only is their claim ivoire de Pola: Saint-Pierre et le Latran,” Cahiers archéologiques ( ) – to apostolic authorship spurious—a judgement that has been universally , ; Elsner, “Closure and Penetration,” ; and Angiolini, Capsella, –. accepted since at least the beginning of the twentieth century—but they are . Gnirs, “Basilica ed il reliquiario d’avorio,” –: “straordinario valore not even the o cial liturgical manuals of some third- or fourth-century local per la liturgia del periodo della primativa civiltá Cristiana.” church, masquerading in apostolic dress to lend themselves added authority.” . Gnirs, “Basilica ed il reliquiario d’avorio,” .
• PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring cbeinternational.org . Lev :, Deut : , : , Chronicles, and Sirach : – . Toynbee, Shrine, . depict high priests raising their hands, and Luke : depicts Jesus. . Egeria, Travels . – (John Wilkinson, trans., Egeria’s Travels Quote from Alexei Lidov, “e Priesthood of the Virgin Mary as an [rd ed.; Oxbow, ] –, quotation on ). Image-Paradigm of Christian Visual Culture,” IKON ( ) – , . . Egeria, Travels . , .–. . Gnirs, “Basilica ed il reliquiario d’avorio,” , –, g. . . To my knowledge, the next oldest to portray a Christian o ciant . Alice Baird, “La Colonna Santa,” e Burlington Magazine at the table is a ninth century ivory tablet which depicts a man at the ( ) –. table, although what church is unclear or idealized; see Edward Foley, . Jocelyn Toynbee and John Ward Perkins, e Shrine of St. Peter From Age to Age: How Christians Have Celebrated the Eucharist, rev. and the Vatican Excavations (Pantheon, ) . ed. (Liturgical, ) , g. . As noted above, I exclude the silver . Engelbert Kirschbaum, e Tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul, trans. patens depicting double-Jesuses at a table because this is an idealized John Murray (St. Martin’s, ) . biblical gure, not a representation of people at the table in a church. . Kirschbaum, Tombs, – , – . ese patens may be evidence of a propaganda e ort against the gender- . Jerome, Against Vigilantius . ; Gregory of Tours, Glory of the parallel liturgy in Constantinople (discussed below) because they are Martyrs . silver stamped – , thus made during the reign of the emperor . Gnirs, “Basilica ed il reliquiario d’avorio,” . directly a er Justinian; see Mango, Silver from Early Byzantium, – , . Toesca, Storia dell’arte, ; Ducati, Arte in Roma, ; Soper, gs. . and .. “Italo-Gallo School,” ; Leclercq, “Pola,” col. ; Cecchelli, Vita di . Lidov, “Priesthood of the Virgin Mary,” . See also Joseph Roma, ; and Wilpert, “Due piú antiche rappresentazioni,” . Braun, “Maniple,” in e Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work . Guarducci, Capsella, ; Longhi, Capsella, –; and Ally of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Kateusz, “‘She sacri ced herself as the priest’: Early Christian Female Catholic Church, vol. , ed. Charles G. Herbermann, Edward A. Pace, and Male Co-Priests,” JFSR / (Spring ) – , – . Conde Benoist Pallen, omas J. Shahan, John J. Wynne, and Andrew . Wilpert, “Due piú antiche rappresentazioni,” : “Però a S. Alphonsus MacErlean (New York: Encyclopedia, ) –. is Pietro non si venerava la Croce in modo cosi pronunciato.” doubled cloth may have originated from the doubled cloth mappa, which . Leclercq, “Pola,” col. . Roman emperors and consuls used as a symbol of their authority, for it . Longhi, Capsella, ; Buddensieg, “Co ret en ivoire de Pola,” similarly signi ed the authority of the person who used it in the church. ; Angiolini, Capsella, ; Kateusz “‘She sacri ced herself as the priest,’” For an example of the mappa in a consul’s hand, see Kurt Weitzmann, ; and Jelena Bogdanović, e Framing of Sacred Space: e Canopy and Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, ird to Seventh the Byzantine Church (Oxford University Press, ) . Century: Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, . Bruno M. Apollonj Ghetti, Antonio Ferrua, Enrico Josi, and November , , through February , (Metropolitan Museum of Engelbert Kirschbaum, Esplorazioni sotto la confessione di San Pietro in Art, ) , g. . Vaticano, eseguite negli anni – , vols. (Vatican City: Citta del . For more on the cloth, see Kateusz, Mary and Early Christian Vaticano, ) vol. , g. . Women, – , and on the episcopal pallium, – . . Ghetti, Esplorazioni, vol. , plate H; also see Kirschbaum, Tombs, . Lidov, “Priesthood of the Virgin Mary,” . g. , plate . . For the dating of San Vitale and these mosaics, see Simson, Sacred . Kirschbaum, Tombs, , italics added. Fortress, – , plates –, – . For the images, see Joseph Wilpert, . Ghetti, Esplorazioni, :: “ha esattamente la medesima funzione Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms, vols. (Freiburg im Breisgau: e forma simile al monumento eretto da Costantino nella Anastasis sulla Herdersche, ) plates and . tomba del Salvatore.” . Johannes G. Deckers and Ümit Serdaroğlu, “Das Hypogäum . See Martin Biddle, e Tomb of Christ (rupp, UK: Sutton, ) beim Silivri-Kapi in Istanbul,” Jahrbuck für Antike und Christentum – , esp. gs. , , , , and . See also ampoules that depict a ( ) – , – . Agreeing with their dating are László Török, hexagon structure, which Grabar calls the ciborium, in André Grabar, Transgurations of Hellenism: Aspects of Late Antique Art in Egypt, AD Les ampoules de Terre Sainte (Monza – Bobbio) (Paris: C. Klincksieck, – (Leiden: Brill, ) ; and Guntram Koch, Fru hchristliche ) – for descriptions of plates , , , , , , , ; other Sarkophage (Munich: Beck, ) . Matthews dated it towards ampoules depict only the rectangular doorway, but the same doorway the end of the h century, but without addressing Deckers’s criteria; within the hexagon shape can be seen in the detail of plates and . omas F. Mathews, “I sarcophagi di Costantinopoli come fonte Also hexagonal glass vessels represented the Anastasis shrine; see Dan iconogra ca,” Corso di cultura sull’arte ravennate e bizantina ( ) Barag, “Glass Pilgrim Vessels from Jerusalem, Parts II and III,” Journal of –, esp. . Glass Studies ( ) – , esp. – . . Deckers, “Hypogäum beim Silivri-Kapi in Istanbul,” –. . See both pyxes and discussion about whether they represent . Joan E. Taylor, “Christian Archaeology in Palestine: the Roman the altar area in the Anastasis in St. Clair, “Visit to the Tomb,” –, and Byzantine Periods,” in Oxford Handbook of Early Christian gs. – ; also see below for the pyx in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Archeology, ed. David K. Pettegrew and William Caraher (Oxford in New York City, which is accompanied by a legend that speci es its University Press, ) – , esp. –. altar area and the altar area depicted on the Pola ivory are quite similar: . Paul Corbey Finney, e Invisible God: e Earliest Christians https://metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/. .. on Art (Oxford University Press, ) – , g .. For image, see . For more on the square ciborium deception, see Ally Kateusz, Joseph Wilpert, Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms, vols. (Freiburg Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership (Palgrave im Breisgau: Herdersche, ) plate .. Macmillan, ) –. . Janet H. Tulloch, “Women Leaders in Family Funerary Banquets,” ch. . Galit Noga-Banai, Sacred Stimulus: Jerusalem in the Visual in A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity, ed. Carolyn Christianization of Rome (Oxford University Press, ). Osiek, Margaret Y. MacDonald (Fortress, ). For more catacomb meal cbeinternational.org PRISCILLA PAPERS | / | Spring • ¤ scenes with women, see Pierre du Bourguet, Early Christian Painting, trans. parallel to those of men—“Head of the Synagogue,” “Elder,” “Mother of the Simon Watson Taylor (Viking, ) gs. and . Synagogue,” and “Priestess”; Bernadette J. Brooten, Women Leaders in the . Tulloch, “Women Leaders,” . Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues, BJS . Tulloch, “Women Leaders,” , g. .. Image source: Wilpert, (Scholars, ) – . Malereien, plate .. . Gelasius I, Letter (Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek, trans. . Irenaeus, Against Heresies . (ANF :); Cécile and Alexandre Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History [John Faivre, “La place des femmes dans le ritual eucharistique des marcosiens: Hopkins University Press, ] – , quotation on ). déviance ou archaïsme?,” RevScRel ( ) – . . Ally Kateusz, “Collyridian Déjà Vu: e Trajectory of Redaction of . Faivre, “Place de femmes dans le ritual eucharistique des marcosiens,” the Markers of Mary’s Liturgical Leadership,” JFSR / (Fall ) – ; and n. for eucharistein. Kateusz, Mary and Early Christian Women, – . . Latin Didascalia apostolorum (R. Hugh Connolly, trans., Didascalia . Kateusz, Mary and Early Christian Women, – . Worthy of mention Apostolorum: e Syriac Version Translated and Accompanied by the Verona here is Taylor’s argument that Jesus sent out the disciples two by two, in male Latin Fragments [Clarendon, ] ). and female pairs, based on the Greek of Mark :, the same Greek (duo duo) . Philo of Alexandria, On the Contemplative Life – , esp. – . For used in the Septuagint for the male and female pairs that Noah sent to the women’s leadership among the erapeutae, see Joan E. Taylor, Jewish Women ark; Joan E. Taylor, “‘Two by two’: e Ark-etypal Language of Mark’s Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria: Philo’s ‘ erapeutae’ Reconsidered Apostolic Pairings,” in e Body in Biblical, Christian and Jewish Texts, (Oxford University Press, ) –; and Hanna K. Teravanotko, Denying LSTS , ed. Lester Grabbe (T&T Clark Bloomsbury, ) – . Her Voice: e Figure of Miriam in Ancient Jewish Literature (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ) esp. – regarding Philo calling all high-status women parthenos (“virgin”). ALLY KATEUSZ, PhD, is a Research Associate at the . Philo of Alexandria, On the Contemplative Life – ; and On Wijngaards Institute of Catholic Research in London. Agriculture – . Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Early . Taylor, Jewish Women Philosophers, . Christian Studies and the Journal of Feminist Studies . Philo of Alexandria, On the Contemplative Life – . in Religion, as well as other venues. Her recent book . Kateusz, Mary and Early Christian Women, , g. .. is Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership (Palgrave . Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History .–. Gender- Macmillan, ), and she is co-editor of Rediscovering the Marys: parallel roles may also have continued in synagogues, because around the Mediterranean some Jewish women had titles of synagogue leadership Maria, Mariamne, Miriam (T&T Clark, ).
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