Development of the Liturgical Year in Late Antique Jerusalem

Late antique Jerusalem holds a key position in the development of the liturgical year: numerous celebrations and feasts originate from the pilgrimage centre which allowed the commemoration of biblical events according to time and place; international exchange led to Jerusalemite traditions exerting an unequalled influence on all eastern and western churches and rites. The liturgy of Jerusalem is the best documented of early Christianity: Sources regulating liturgy (liturgical orders and texts in exceptional density) are supplemented by testimonies describing liturgy (pilgrims` and monastic literature) and numerous texts interpreting liturgy (sermons of priests and of bishops of Jerusalem). This unique set of sources allows us to draw a comprehensive picture of the development of the liturgical year in its most important formative period from the 5th to the 8th century. The task of the research project is to fit the homilies, which up to now have not been exhaustively studied by liturgical scholars, into this overall picture, and thus to illustrate and critically reflect upon principles of liturgical theology (ways of liturgical commemoration; historicization and realization in time and space; historical, cultural and religious contextualization). It will not only analyse the understanding of the Christian festal cycle by representatives of the church against the background of the liturgical order; it will also investigate the latter`s actual reception and observe the interaction of the socio-religious groups relevant for liturgical life: the local church with its clergy, the flourishing monasticism, pilgrims and international, multilingual and multiconfessional colonies. The liturgical development will also be seen in the context of interreligious tensions in late antique and early medieval Palestine as well as in that of historical processes in church and politics.