The article contains an analysis of the hymnographic canon for the deaths written by Kassia of Constantinople. It is shown that all its theotokia (apart from the last one) are taken from earlier canons, including the theotokion of the fifth ode that was previously considered as written by Kassia herself. Concluding from its contents, the canon is to be dated to the 860s.

A Pillar of Fire. Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (1964–1985). - Compiled and edited by the nun Cassia (T. A. Senina). - St. Petersburg, 2007. -- This book is about Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky: 1903–1985), the third Chief Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (1964–1985), the great confessor of Orthodoxy in the twentieth century, the only leader of an Orthodox Church to come for¬ward openly before the whole world to denounce the new heresy of ecumenism — for during the presidency of Metropolitan Philaret, the heresy of ecumenism was synodically anathematized by the Bishops’ Sobor of the ROCA in 1983. This hierarch strove to support the zealots and confessors of Orthodoxy throughout the whole world — both the members of the Catacomb Church in Russia, and of the Old Calendarist Greek jurisdictions. The incorrupt relics of Saint Philaret were recovered in 1998. This present book contains a “Life” of the Saint, his epistles, letters, selected sermons, church documents and papers, the recollections of his contemporaries, and likewise a description of the glorification of the Saint by the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church in 2001, together with the service composed in honor of the Saint. Some of this material is appearing in print for the first time. This book is intended for a wide circle of readers, and all those who are interested in the history of the Orthodox Church.
2007-04-17

Five notes: 1. Le fondement théologique du dialogue des frères Graptoi et Jean le Grammairien dans la Vie de Michel le Syncelle. 2. Jean le Grammairien et le monastère de Théotocos τῶν Ψιχᾶ. 3. Saint Théodore le Stoudite, l’empereur Michel II et Thomas le Slave. 4. Le Philosophe et le Théologien : à propos de l’homélie de Léon le Mathematicien sur l’Annonciation. 5. Ἡ γυνὴ φιλόσοφος: S. Cassia de Constantinople et Platon.
2008-10-16

The anonymous author of the “Life of Michael Synkellos” in his account about the act of confession of the brothers Theodore and Theophanus Graptoi uses a genuine document, a letter of Theodore, where the confessor describes what he and his brother suffered in 836. A new French translation of this letter is included in the article because the previous translation by S. Vailhé (the only translation into an European language) is not complete and sometimes incorrect (in the appendix a Russian translation of the same letter is added). The present author compares two versions of the same event, that of the letter of Theodore and that of the “Life of Michael Synkellos.” The comparison shows that, in the hand of the anonymous hagiographer, the story becomes transformed into a panegyric or even a Passion épique. All the known versions of the iambic verses written about the faces of the confessors are compared. A hypothesis has been put forward that the cause of such an unusual punishment was the satyrical verses written by Theophanus Graptos about Emperor Leo the Armenian. Probably, Theophilus’ idea of giving the brothers to the Arabs was a mockery provoked by the fact that the brothers left Palestine because of a fear of the Arabs. The reasons for Theophilus’ irritation with the brothers were of rather political than religious nature. An episode in the Continuator of Theophanus with a discussion held between St Theophanus and Emperor Theophilus about the Book of Isaiah allegedly “corrupted” by the iconoclast is also reconsidered. It is very probable that it is fictitious (because Theodore Graptos in his letter did not mention it), but, in any case, it may correspond to some “Armenian” version of the Greek text of Isaiah: at least, such a corrupted quotation from Isaiah is to be read in a harsh iconoclastic document, the Testament of the Armenian Catholicos Sahak III, whose spiritual son Smbat Bagratuni was a close friend of the first iconoclast Emperor Leo III.
2008-10-16