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 EASTERN CHRISTIAN STUDIES 22

RITES AND RITUALS OF

THE CHRISTIAN EAST
Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress
of the Society of Oriental Liturgy
Lebanon, 10-15 July 2012

Edited by
Bert Groen, Daniel Galadza,
Nina Glibetic and Gabriel Radle

PEETERS
LEUVEN – PARIS – WALPOLE, MA
2014
 CONTENTS

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V

Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX

List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI

Peter GALADZA, New Frontiers in Eastern Christian Liturgy:

StudyingtheWholeofWorship . . . . . . . . . . 1

Robert J. DALY,BeforeEastandWest:EarlyLiturgicalHistory 21

Diliana ATANASSOVA, The Primary Sources of Southern Egyptian

Liturgy:RetrospectandProspect . . . . . . . . . 47

Emmanuel FRITSCH, The Preparation of the Gifts and the Pre-
Anaphora in the Ethiopian Eucharistic Liturgy in around
A.D.1100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

HABTEMICHAEL-KIDANE,ANoteontheAspectsoftheEpiclesisof
theGə’əzAnaphoraofJamesofSərug. . . . . . . . 153

Daniel GALADZA,TheJerusalemLectionaryandtheByzantineRite 181

Stig Simeon R. FRØYSHOV,ErlangenUniversityLibraryA2,A.D.1025:

AStudyoftheOldestDatedGreekHorologion . . . 201

Nino SAKVARELIDZE, Some Aspects of the Byzantinization of

theGeorgianLiturgy:TheExampleoftheMenaion . . . 255

André LOSSKY, Le Typicon de Saint Sabas Sinaiticus Graecus

1096(douzièmesiècle):Présentationd’unprojetd’édition 293

Gabriel Isaac RADLE, The Nuptial Rites in Two Rediscovered

First-MillenniumSinaiEuchologies. . . . . . . . . 303

Steven HAWKES-TEEPLES, The Prothesis of the Byzantine Divine

Liturgy:WhatHasBeenDoneandWhatRemains . . . . 317
VIII CONTENTS

Nina GLIBETIC, The Byzantine Enarxis Psalmody on the Balkans

(Thirteenth-FourteenthCentury). . . . . . . . . . 329

Šimon MARINČÁK, Shaping Elements of Early Slavic Christian

Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Thomas POTT, ‘Mais qui dites-vous que je suis?’ Sondages dans
lamémoirechristologiqueduFormelgutliturgiquebyzantin 355

Stefanos ALEXOPOULOS,WhenArt,CanonLawandLiturgyMeet:
TheCaseoftheLiturgicalPyxides . . . . . . . . . 377

Bert GROEN,CurativeHolyWaterandtheSmallWaterBlessingin
theOrthodoxChurchofGreece . . . . . . . . . . 387

Brian A. BUTCHER, Figuring Liturgically: A Ricoeurian Analysis

oftheByzantine-Rite‘GreatBlessingofWater’ . . . . . 405

Chrysostom NASSIS,CallingHimbyNamewiththeVoiceofStran-
gers:TheCommemorationofaCivilRulerBeyondHisRealm
asObservedinEasternOrthodoxLiturgicalPractice. . . 423

Jose KOCHUPARAMPIL, Redemptive Economy in the Third East

SyrianAnaphoraattributedtoMarNestorius. . . . . . 445

Edward J. ALAM,‘DestroythisTemple’:SomeBriefandGeneral
ReflectionsonMaroniteChurchArchitecture. . . . . . 463

Abdo BADWI, The Evolution of Maronite Sacred Iconography:

AnExampleofLiturgicalReform . . . . . . . . . 469
 WHEN ART, CANON LAW AND LITURGY MEET:
THE CASE OF THE LITURGICAL PYXIDES*

Stefanos ALEXOPOULOS

Introduction

While browsing the catalogue of the 1977 exhibit of the Metropolitan

Museum of Art in New York titled ‘Age of Spirituality’,1 a number of
small and beautiful ivory boxes, called pyxides,2 attracted my attention.3
These Christian liturgical artifacts,4 designated as such by their iconog-
raphy, are usually, but not always, circular or elliptical containers cut
from a section of elephant tusk, or made out of silver.5 According to the
descriptions of these little boxes and based on their decoration, it has
been generally accepted that these were not for secular use; they could
have a liturgical function, either as containers of incense, containers of
relics, or containers of the Eucharist.6 But what exactly their liturgical

* The author would like to thank Annewies van den Hoek and John Herrmann for their
comments and help.
1
The first of a total of four outstanding exhibitions dealing with Byzantine art and
culture: AgeofSpirituality:LateAntiqueandEarlyChristianArt,ThirdtoSeventhCen-
tury, November 19, 1977 through February 12, 1978; TheGloryofByzantium:Artand
Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261, March 11 through July 6, 1997;
Byzantium.FaithandPower(1261-1557), March 23 through July 4, 2004. Byzantiumand
Islam:AgeofTransition,SeventhtoNinthCentury, March 14-July 8 2012.
2
The term ‘pyx’ was not used by the Byzantines; see ODB 3: 1761-1762; Marlia
Mundell Mango, Silver From Byzantium: The Kaper Koraon and Related Treasures
(Baltimore MD, 1986), p. 117. John Duffy and Gary Vikan have suggested that the rele-
vant Byzantine word is μουζίκιον; see John Duffy and Gary Vikan, ‘A Small Box in John
Moschus’, Greek,Roman,andByzantineStudies 24 (1983), pp. 93-99.
3
AgeofSpirituality:LateAntiqueandEarlyChristianArt,ThirdtoSeventhCentury,
ed. Kurt Weitzmann, (New York, 1979), items # 405, 406, 407, 414, 418, 421, 436, 447,
449, 514, 518, 519, 520, 549.
4
It should be noted that while liturgical artifacts have received due attention from art histo-
rians, liturgists have not entered the discussion on these items. As a result, while the descriptions
of these items are complete from a history-of-art point of view, they lack when the discussion
comes to their liturgical use and function. For an exception, see Robert Taft, ‘Byzantine Com-
munion Spoons: A Review of the Evidence’, DumbartonOaksPapers 50 (1996), pp. 209-238.
5
ODB 3: 1761-1762; Age of Spirituality 596 (see n. 3); ‘Pyxide’, in DACL 14.2:
1983-1984.
6
This does not mean that any secular use can be definitely excluded, or that their use
varied or changed over time. See Duffy and Vikan, ‘A Small Box’ (see n. 2), pp. 97, 99;
378 S. ALEXOPOULOS

function was remains vague; in other words, the how and the where they
were used within the liturgical realm is not clear.

The Pyxides

In examining the thirteen ivory pyxides of the 1977 ‘Age of Spiritual-

ity’ Exhibition one can immediately note the vagueness with which the
liturgical function of these is addressed. For five of the thirteen liturgical
pyxides showcased in the exhibition, no hypothesis regarding their func-
tion is made (#405, 406, 407, 436, 447, and 518). Of the remaining, I will
present two by quoting the AgeofSpiritualitycatalogue, and then briefly
presenting the others.
The first pyxis, of Syriac origin and dated to the sixth century, is
described in the following way in the AgeofSpiritualityCatalogue (item
# 520, p. 581):7
The subject of the pyxis is the visit of the women to the tomb of Christ; but
instead of a tomb, the two Marys, carrying censers, approach the altar,
which stands, on a platform beneath a structure consisting of three arches
capped by domes. The angle of the steps approaching the side arches indi-
cates that the structure was curved and probably a ciborium, similar to that
on the related Cleveland pyxis (no 519). Curtains hang in the side arches
and a lamp is suspended above the altar. Lying on the altar is a Gospel
book. The remaining space is occupied by three women orans standing
before an arcade. It has been suggested that the altar is the one associated
with the Anastasis shrine in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem.
… Instead, the arrangement corresponds to that typical in apses of Syrian
churches of the period, and probably in Palestine as well. By substituting
an altar for the actual tomb, the artist illustrated the popular belief in the
symbolic identification of the Holy Sepulcher with the altar, an association
that grew out of the Eastern belief in the presence of the crucified Christ on
the altar during the celebration of the Eucharist. This emphasis on the litur-
gical reenactment of the event indicates that the pyxis most likely served as
a contained for the host.

Archer St. Clair, ‘The Basilewsky Pyxis: Typology and Topography in the Exodus Tradi-
tion’, CahiersArchéologiques 32 (1984), p. 30, n. 100.
7
See also Archer St. Clair, ‘The Visit to the Tomb: Narrative and Liturgy on Three
Early Christian Pyxides’, Gesta 18 (1979), pp. 127-135. I would also like to thank my
colleague Clemens Leonhard for sharing with me his work on this pyxis. See also Archer
St. Clair, EarlyChristianPyxidesCarvedwithNewTestamentScenes, Dissertation Prince-
ton University (Princeton NJ, 1977); Barbara Drake Boehm, ‘The Program of the Lenin-
grad Joseph Pyxis’, Gesta 26 (1987), pp. 11-16; William D. Wixom, ‘A Middle Byzantine
Ivory Liturgical Pyx’, Gesta 20 (1981), pp. 43-49.
 WHEN ART, CANON LAW AND LITURGY MEET 379

The second pyxis of North African origin and dating also to the sixth
century is described in the following way (item #549, pp. 613-614):
The Youthful Christ is enthroned in the middle, his left hand holding the
cross-staff, his right blessing the bread offered to him by a bearded disciple
whose hands are covered. To the left of Christ another disciple approaches,
holding fishes (?) with covered hands. At Christ’s feet are two filled bas-
kets. The bearded disciples are followed by the other ten, all youthful and
beardless. In their covered hands they carry the miraculously multiplied
food. Some of them face to the front; others hurry away or turn round; one
crouches beneath the lock. In the background is a lightly engraved arcade.
The representation of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes relates to
the use of the pyxis as a container for the consecrated bread. It was already
a ritual practice in the Early Christian period to reserve bread from the mass
either to present as viaticum to a dying person for his journey into the here-
after or to add as fermentum in the consecrated chalice. The body of the
Lord was kept in precious containers like pyxides not only in church but
also in private houses. It is unusual that the narrative scenes on pyxides are
closely connected with their function, as in the New York pyxis.

Of the others, one adorned with nativity images is described as

‘intended for use in the Divine Liturgy, perhaps to hold incense’ (#449).
Another one, with an altar scene and four scenes from the life of Christ
(Annunciation, Entry into Jerusalem, Raising of Lazarus, and Healing of
the Blind Man) is described as a pyxis that ‘most likely served as a con-
tainer of the host’ (#519). One with an Old Testament scene depicting
Joseph’s sale to the Ismaelite traders (Gen. 37:28) ‘may have been used
in the Divine Liturgy, perhaps to hold incense’ (#414), another with two
scenes, one with Moses receiving the Law and another with Daniel in the
Lion’s Den ‘was probably related to the performance of the Divine Lit-
urgy’ (#421); finally, one with images from the life of St. Menas ‘may
have been used as an incense box or as a reliquary’ (#514).
Another striking factor is that all the pyxides date from between the
fifth and the seventh century. This fact is confirmed when one looks at
the comprehensive list that Wolfgang Volbach provides us with.8 Accord-
ing to this list of forty-three entries, three are from the fifth century,9 nine
are from the fifth/sixth century,10 twenty-one are from the sixth century,11

8
Wolfgang Fritz Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spätantike und des frühen Mittel-
alters(Mainz, 1976), pp. 103-121, plates 82-98.
9
Ibid.nos. 162, 169, 170.
10
Ibid.nos. 171, 172, 173, 173a, 174, 179, 192, 193a, 198.
11
Ibid.nos. 163, 165, 166, 167, 168, 175, 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185,
186, 187, 189, 190, 191, 193.
380 S. ALEXOPOULOS

eight are from the sixth/seventh century,12 and two are from the eighth/
ninth century13 (the exceptions to the rule).

The Pyxides and the Eucharist

How could these pyxides have been used in Christian practice? The fact
that they are made out of ivory, a rather expensive material,14 have a small
size,15 and are decorated with various Christian images, demonstrates,
I believe, the fact that they were to hold something valuable. I will not
discuss here whether this or that pyxis was to be used for the Eucharist or
not, but how a pyxis associated with the Eucharist could have been used,
since this is the dominant use appearing in the descriptions above.
These pyxides could be used for private reservation and communion,16
for transferring the Eucharist to the sick, for reserving it in the church
building, and for carrying the Eucharist on journeys. The earliest explicit
source where private reservation and communion and a small box for its
storage are mentioned is from Cyprian (d. 258), bishop of Carthage. In his
work Delapsis 26, he gives us an account of ‘a woman who with impure
hands tried to open the locket in which she was keeping our Lord’s holy
body, but fire flared up from it and she was too terrified to touch it’.17 Here
we obviously have a case of private reservation and communion, a practice
relatively common in the early Church.18 What is of interest to us is the
fact that the consecrated bread was kept in a small box, called in the Latin
text arca.19 Private reservation and communion could not have been prac-
ticed if Christians would not have some container to bring the Eucharist

12
Ibid.nos. 164, 173b, 194, 195, 196, 197, 200, 201a.
13
Ibid.nos. 199, 201.
14
‘Pyxide’, in DACL 14.2: 1984.
15
Their size was dependent upon the size of the elephant tusk; Duffy and Vikan,
‘A Small Box’ (see n. 2) p. 99.
16
Robert Taft, ‘Home Communion in the Late Antique East’, in ArsLiturgiae:Wor-
ship, Aesthetics and Praxis. Essays in Honor of Nathan D.Mitchell, ed. Clare Johnson
(Chicago IL, 2003), pp. 1-25; Stefanos Alexopoulos, The Presanctified Liturgy in the
ByzantineRite:AComparativeAnalysisofitsOrigins,Evolution,andStructuralUnits,
Liturgia Condenda, 21 (Leuven, 2009), pp. 8-31.
17
Cyprian, The Lapsed; The Unity of the Catholic Church, tr. Maurice Benevot,
Ancient Christian Writers, 25 (Westminster MD, 1957), p. 34; cf. Otto Nußbaum,DieAuf-
bewahrungderEucharistie, Theophaneia: Beiträge zur Religions- und Kirchengeschichte
des Altertums 29 (Bonn, 1979), p. 268, n. 9.
18
Taft, ‘Home Communion’ (see n. 16), pp. 1-25; Alexopoulos, The Presanctified
Liturgy (see n. 16), pp. 11-39.
19
See ‘Arca’, in DACL 1.2: 2709.
 WHEN ART, CANON LAW AND LITURGY MEET 381

home and reserve it there. We know of the practice, and it was relatively
widespread, but no such early pyxides have survived.20
We also know that at least as early as Justin martyr (d. 150) the Eucha-
rist was transported to those absent from the Divine Liturgy. Twice in his
First Apology he mentions that the deacons would take communion to
‘those not present’;21 he speaks of bringing portions to those absent of
the Eucharist from that day’s celebration. But soon the Eucharist must
have been reserved in the church buildings in case of emergencies,22
although not in ivory pyxides, since ivory is not included in any church
inventory in Byzantium.23 The Eucharist was also taken on long journeys,
not only to receive from it during the journey, or to be given in case of
emergencies, but also as a fylacterium and apotropaeon.24 In all the
above cases it is rather obvious that the Eucharist was not transported on
the paten or in the chalice used in the Divine Liturgy, but in some kind
of box or container, and such containers could have been our pyxides.

The Pyxides and Canon 101 of the Quinisext Council

However, another use had developed in the Byzantine tradition. Appar-

ently because of feelings of awe and unworthiness, people would not
receive the Body of the Lord in their hands, but would have their portion
placed in precious receptacles, and would commune from there. We know
of this practice from canon 101 of the Council in Trullo (also known as
Penthekte/Quinisext Council) held in 691/692 to complete the work of the
Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils.25 This is what Canon 101 says:
The divine apostle Paul calls with a loud voice the human being, created in
the image of God, body and temple of Christ. Therefore, being above every

20
Or, possibly, the need to have an expensive and specially decorated pyxis for this
use had not yet risen.
21
ApologyI, 65.5 and 67.5. Translation from Daniel Sheerin, TheEucharist (Wilm-
ington DE, 1986) pp. 34-35.
22
William H. Freestone, TheSacramentReserved, Alcuin Club Collections, 21 (Mil-
waukee WI, 1917), pp. 105-143; Nußbaum, DieAufbewahrung (see n. 17), pp. 292-361.
23
Marlia Mundell Mango, ‘The Monetary Value of Silver Revetments and Objects
Belonging to Churches, A.D. 300-700’, in Ecclesiastical Silver Plate in Sixth-Century
Byzantium,eds. Susan Boyd and Marlia Mundell Mango (Washington DC, 1992), p. 124.
24
GodefridusSnoek,MedievalPietyfromRelicstoEucharist:AProcessofMutual
Interaction (Leiden, 1995), pp. 32, 90-101.
25
For more information, see ODB 3: 2126-2127. For the liturgical canons of the
Council in Trullo, see Alkiviades Calivas, ‘The Penthekte Synod and Liturgical Reform’,
TheGreekOrthodoxTheologicalReview 40 (1995), pp. 125-147.
382 S. ALEXOPOULOS

sensible creature, who through the Passion of the Savior has acquired the
heavenly rank, he/she is transformed eternally towards everlasting life by
eating and drinking Christ, sanctifying body and soul by the participation
of the Divine Grace. Wherefore, if anyone should wish to partake of the
immaculate body in the time of the synaxis, and to offer himself for com-
munion, let him arrange his hands in the form of a cross, and thus draw near
and receive the communion of grace. But those who, instead of their hands,
makevesselsofgoldorothermaterialsforthereceptionofthedivinegift
and by these receive the immaculate communion, we shall by no means
allow to come, as preferring inanimate and inferior matter to the image of
God. But if anyone is found imparting the immaculate Communion to those
who bring vessels of this kind, let him be cut off as well as the one who
brings them.26

The canon clearly refers to the manner of reception of the consecrated

bread within the context of the Divine Liturgy. The precious vessels
whose use is forbidden were apparently privately owned and brought to
the liturgy for this purpose. Could it be that the precious receptacles
forbidden by the canon are in fact our pyxides?
The size of our pyxides would fit such a function: the diameter of all
our pyxides is within the range of 8.2-12.5 cm (3 and 1/4 – 4 and 15/16
inches), and the height between 7-10 cm (2 and 2/4 – 3 and 15/16 inches).
The dating of the pyxides also fits into the picture. I have already noted
above that the vast majority of the pyxides date from between the fifth and
the seventh century, with only very few exceptions that date up to the ninth
century; canon 101 was promulgated at the end of the seventh century.

26
Emphasis added. Greek text: Σῶμα Χριστοῦ καὶ ναὸν τὸν κατ’ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ
κτισθέντα ἄνθρωπον ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος μεγαλοφώνως ἀποκαλεῖ. Πάσης οὖν
αἰσθητῆς κτήσεως ὑπερκείμενος ὁ τῷ σωτηρίῳ πάθει τοῦ οὐρανίου τυχὼν
ἀξιώματος, ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων Χριστὸν, πρὸς ζωὴν διὰ παντὸς μεθαρμόζεται τὴν
ἀΐδιον, ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα τῇ μετοχῇ τῆς θείας ἁγιαζόμενος χάριτος. Ὥστε, εἴ τις τοῦ
ἀχράντου σώματος μετασχεῖν ἐν τῷ τῆς συνάξεως βουληθείη καιρῷ, καὶ ἓν πρὸς
αὐτὸ τῇ μετουσίᾳ γενέσθαι, τὰς χεῖρας σχηματίζων εἰς τύπον σταυροῦ, οὓτω
προσίτω καὶ δεχέσθω τὴν κοινωνίαν τῆς χάριτος. Τοὺς γὰρ ἐκ χρυσοῦ ἢ ἄλλης
ὕλης ἀντὶ χειρός τινα δοχεῖα κατασκευάζοντας πρὸς τὴν τοῦ θείου δώρου
ὑποδοχήν, καὶ δι’ αὐτῶν τῆς ἀχράντου κοινωνίας ἀξιουμένους, οὐδαμῶς
προσιέμεθα, ὡς προτιμῶντας τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰκόνος τὴν ἄψυχον ὕλην καὶ
ὑποχείριον. Εἰ δὲ τις ἁλῷ τῆς ἀχράντου κοινωνίας τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα δοχεῖα
προσφέρουσι, ἀφοριζέσθω, καὶ ὁ ταῦτα ἐπιφερόμενος. See ConciliorumOecumeni-
corum Generaliumque Decreta: Editio critica, I, The Oecumenical Councils: From
Nicaea I to Nicaea II (325-787), eds. Giuseppe Alberigo et al., Corpus Christianorum:
Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Generaliumque Decreta, 1 (Turnhout, 2006), pp. 291-292.
The English translation is based on the one found in ASelectLibraryoftheNiceneand
Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Series II, vol. 14, The Seven Ecumenical
Councils (Grand Rapids MI, 1979), pp. 401-402, and Calivas, ‘The Penthekte Synod’ (see
n. 25), p. 130, n. 28.
 WHEN ART, CANON LAW AND LITURGY MEET 383

I believe that there could be a connection between the two; in other words,
it could be that we have only very few pyxides dating from after the sev-
enth century because of the successful enforcement of this canon.
One issue that we have to solve is that the canon talks about vessels
made of gold, not ivory, and to my knowledge, no pyxis or pyxis-like
small container made of gold survives. However, the canon speaks also
of othermaterials used to make these vessels, presumably precious mate-
rials, perhaps lined up with gold. Then our ivory pyxides could fit the
description. There are some silver pyxides surviving,27 but far less in
number than the ivory ones. The surviving very small number of pyxides
made out of precious metals may be explained by the fact that their mate-
rial is ‘recyclable’, since the material they were made of could be used
for ransom, could be pillaged, or could be taken by the state for its
needs,28 and in the process destroyed by being melted.

The MFA Silver Pyxis

There is, however, one surviving silver pyxis that fits both our icono-
graphical and chronological criteria, and that is the silver pyxis of the

27
Mango, Silver from Byzantium (see n. 2), item no. 17, pp. 114-117: Square silver
pyxis withChrismon on the lid and the front side, early fifth century; item no. 70, p. 240:
small apple-shaped box, sixth to seventh century; item no. 83, pp. 254-255: cylindrical
hammered box with lid. The lid has the inscription: ‘Offering of Tiberine, the deaconess,
to St. Stephen’; the box is dated to the sixth/seventh century. AgeofSpirituality(see n. 2)
item no. 550, pp. 614, 615: silver pyxis decorated with the monogram of Christ, flanked
by the letters Alpha and Omega, dated to fifth/early sixth century.
28
Mango, ‘The Monetary Value’ (see n. 23), p. 137. An example of the liquidation of
church treasures for financing state purposes is what is called the ‘Comnenian Icono-
clasm’. After Alexios Comnenos became emperor in 1081, he went forth, with the approval
of Church synods, in confiscating church treasures to provide the empire’s treasury with
funds for a series of defensive wars that were necessary for the safety of the empire.
Throughout the period 1081-1095, three confiscations took place: in 1081/2, 1087, and
1091. Although these confiscations were approved by the official Church with synods,
there was a significant opposition to them, because these church treasures had icons
engraved on them. As a result, to the eyes of some clergymen, such as Leo of Chalcedon
who headed the opposition, their liquidation amounted to iconoclasm, since the figures on
the items would be destroyed. For further information and bibliography, see Apostolos
Glavinas, ἩἐπὶἈλεξίουΚομνηνοῦπερίἱερῶνσκευῶν,κειμηλίωνκαὶἁγιωνεἰκόνωνἔρις
(1081-1095), Βυζαντινὰ Κείμενα καὶ Μελέται, 6 (Thessalonica, 1972); Alexandros
Lavriotes, ‘Ἱστορικὸν Ζήτημα Ἐκκλησιαστικὸν ἐπὶ τῆς Βασιλείας Ἀλεξίου
Κομνηνοῦ’, Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ Ἀλήθεια 20 (1900), pp. 352·-358‚ 362·-365‚ 403·-407·,
411-416, 445-456; Annemarie Weyl Carr, ‘Leo of Chalcedon and the Icons’, in Byzantine
East,LatinWest, ed. Doula Mouriki (Princeton NJ, 1995), pp. 579-584.
384 S. ALEXOPOULOS

Boston Museum of Fine Arts with accession number 2005.200.29 This sil-
ver pyxis (7 x 9 cm), originally from Syria and dated between the sixth and
seventh centuries, bears very interesting iconography. According to the
MFA website description, it ‘was a container for relics or incense used in
Early Byzantine church rites. The four figures produced in repoussé tech-
nique show a bearded Christ offering a blessing, the Virgin holding an
emblem symbolic of her roles as Mother of God (Theotokos), and two
archangels dressed in long sleeved tunics with segmenta on their shoulders
and hems. The lid is lost but may have had a dedicatory inscription’.
The description, however, does not refer to what the angels are hold-
ing, which look to me like globes inscribed with a cross, and in my
opinion, the description of the item held by the Virgin Mary is rather
vague: ‘Virgin holding an emblem symbolic of her roles as Mother of
God (Theotokos)’. What I see is a round object inscribed with a cross,
similar to the ones the angels hold; I would argue, however, that in the
case of the Virgin it is not a globe — rather, it is a prosphoron, the bread
offering for the Eucharist. And I designate it as such because of a series
of punctures on the periphery of the oval shaped object absent from the
globes of the archangels. These punctures may reproduce the holes made
in the bread dough before it is baked so that any air trapped in the dough
is released during the baking process, so that the seal remains intact.
If I am correct in my interpretation that what the Virgin Mary is holding
is ‘the Bread of Life’, then the iconography of this silver pyxis, together
with its dating, allows us to hypothesize that this pyxis could possibly have
been used in the practice explicitly banned by canon 101 of Penthekti.

Conclusions

By forbidding the use of these vessels the canon puts in essence an end
to private reservation and communion30 (which survived up to the sev-
enth century31) since the faithful that received the consecrated bread in

29
A gift of George and Margo Behrakis to the Museum in 2005; see http://www.mfa.
org/collections/object/spherical-small-container-pyxis-with-representations-of-christ-vir-
gin-and-two-archangels-458408
30
Another factor that led to the end of private reservation and communion was the
establishment of the Presanctified Liturgy which, as I have argued, was established in part
to curtail private reservation and communion. See Alexopoulos, ThePresanctifiedLiturgy
(see n. 16),pp. 29-31.
31
Alexopoulos, The Presanctified Liturgy (see n. 16), pp. 10-39; Snoek, Medieval
Piety(see n. 24), p. 81.
 WHEN ART, CANON LAW AND LITURGY MEET 385

these vessels could easily save a particle of it and reserve it at home for
private communion. There is another example of this double effect that
one canon can have. Canon 3 of the Council of Saragossa (AD 380) and
canon 14 of the Council in Toledo (AD 400) required ‘Christians in the
West to receive the Eucharist immediately after its distribution’32 imply-
ing that some would receive the Eucharist but not commune with it in
the church; rather, they would take it home (in a pyxis?). Although these
canons were aimed at the Priscillians, it surely placed limitations on the
practice of private reservation and communion.33
Are the pyxides the vessels forbidden by canon 101 of the Quinisext
Council? I believe they could be for the following reasons:
1. The dimensions of the ivory pyxides are right for such a use.
2. Their material is expensive, thus falling in the category of ‘vessels of
gold or other materials’, explicitly mentioned by the canon.
3. Pyxides made out of gold or silver do not survive (with the exception
of a few silver pyxides) because of the ‘recyclable’ nature of their
material, whereas the material of the ivory pyxides is not.
4. The vast majority of the surviving ivory pyxides date up to the seventh
century.
5. The MFA silver pyxis fits the above descriptions and chronology.
6. The iconography of the MFA pyxis allows us to assume, or at least
does not allow us to exclude, its possible original use and disuse in
the context of canon 101 of Penthekte.
The prohibition of this particular use of the pyxides by canon 101,
together with the fact that we do not have instances of private reservation
and communion after the seventh century, in which case the pyxides
could be used, lead to the conclusion that canon 101 was successful in
enforcing itself and for this reason the practical need these pyxides ful-
filled ceased to exist, and thus no more such pyxides were manufactured.
I believe, therefore, that there is a connection between the pyxides and
canon 101 of the Quinisext Council.

32
Snoek, MedievalPiety(see n. 24),p. 79; Nußbaum, DieAufbewahrung(see n. 17),
p. 278.
33
Snoek, MedievalPiety(see n. 24),p. 80; Nußbaum, DieAufbewahrung (see n. 17),
p. 279.