Analecta Bollandiana, 132-II (2014)

 

Michael LAPIDGE.  The “Ancient Passio” of St Dionysius (BHL 2171).

The earliest surviving account of St Dionysius is the Passio listed by the Bollandists as BHL 2171. This work was drawn on extensively by Hilduin of Saint-Denis, the author of the most widely circulated Passio of the saint (BHL 2175), and was referred to by him as the libellus antiquissimus passionis eiusdem. Accordingly, the work in question – BHL 2171 – is referred to here as the «ancient Passio». There is much confusion in print concerning the date and authorship of this «ancient Passio» – whether it was composed in the sixth century, whether its author was Venantius Fortunatus – but in fact it can be shown that the work was composed somewhere in Aquitaine in the middle of the eighth century (c. 750). The article includes a new edition of the «ancient Passio», based on fifteen of the earliest manuscripts, and is accompanied by a full apparatus criticus, commentary, and English translation.

Lorenzo VISCIDO.  Due sticheri in onore di Sant’Acacio, martire di Bisanzio.

Critical edition of some anonymous stichera found in MS Athos, Lavra Γ 74 (ff. 63v-64, 11th cent.) and composed in honour of S. Acacius, martyr at Byzantium in 303.

François DOLBEAU.  Les martyrologes manuscrits des anciens bollandistes et leur dispersion: à propos d’un exemplaire retrouvé à Cambridge.

H. Rosweyde and the first Bollandists built up a large collection of martyrologia which was used by Jean-Baptiste Du Sollier to edit Usuard in 1714 but from 1775 on, as a result of political events, it was gradually dispersed. This study draws up an inventory of the documents (originals and copies) which Du Sollier used together with the details of their present location or supplies data useful for their identification in the future. One of the martyrologia of the former Bollandist collection, which is now MS. 40 in the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge, was not consulted by Du Sollier because of a cataloguing error in the library at Antwerp.

Francis J. THOMSON.  St Demetrius Tuptalo and His Liber Vitarum Sanctorum.

Demetrius Tuptalo is the greatest East Slav hagiographer who compiled the only Slav collection to contain Vitae for every single day of the year (Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow’s collection is incorrectly called a menologium). It is often referred to as a menologium but is not a traditional one in that he himself compiled the entries. In them his literary talent as a writer is combined with his gift of eloquence as a preacher to make him the most popular of all writers in Church Slavonic. He was the sole East Slav to be canonized in the 18th century and the process of his canonization is described in an appendix.

Bernard JOASSART.  Fernand Cabrol et André Wilmart, bénédictins de Saint-Michel à Farnborough, et les Bollandistes.

Bulletin des publications hagiographiques.