Huggins, Mark Patrick

University of Edinburgh

Research Title: The Reception of John Chrysostom in the Middle Byzantine Period (9th-13th c.): A Study of the Catechetical Homily on Pascha

Mr. Huggins is a PhDThe Reception of John Chrysostom in the Middle Byzantine Period (9th-13th c.): A Study of the Catechetical Homily on Pascha candidate at the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Classics. His research focuses on the reception of the 4th-century Church father John Chrysostom in the middle Byzantine period (9th-13th c.), with a particular focus on the so-called Catechetical Homily on Pascha (CPG 4605). During the course of the 9th-13th centuries this text slowly gained prominence, finally being viewed as the paschal homily par excellence in the Eastern Orthodox Church—and thus it has remained to the present day, as it is still read out each year during the paschal vigil. This research, therefore, examines the over 200 manuscripts preserving the text to uncover the steps by which the Catechetical Homily reached such a level of prominence in the Byzantine Church, and how this process opened an entirely new era in the Byzantines’ understanding and use of John Chrysostom during this period.