Article Dans Une Revue Thesaurismata - Θησαυρίσματα Année : 2026

A Mystagogical Handbook for the Greeks of Venice: The Commentary on the Divine Liturgy by Ioannes Nathanael (1574)

Un manuel mystagogique à l’adresse des Grecs de Venise : le Commentaire sur la Divine Liturgie de Jean Nathanael (1574)

Résumé

Chaplain of St George of the Greeks in Venice from 1567 to 1571, priest of St Anne’s church in Ancona in 1574-75, and finally protopapas of Candia in 1577, Ioannes Nathanael was a multifaceted figure who, apart from his significant output as a copyist, wrote only one original work, the Commentary on the Divine Liturgy printed in March 1574 by the Venetian publisher Giacomo Leoncini. For his commentary, John Nathanael drew heavily on the major texts of the Byzantine mystagogical tradition, transposed into simple Greek and made available to a popular readership. Written primarily for Greeks in the Diaspora who found themselves cut off from the liturgical practices of their homeland, he also expressed positions that take on their full significance in the context of the post-Tridentine theological debates of the 1570s. These positions provide an answer to questions related to the Eucharistic controversies (transubstantiation, epiclesis). They also promoted the need for a Greek Orthodox episcopate, a few years before the transfer of the Metropolitan of Philadelphia to Venice. Finally, through his commentary, Nathanael seems to be trying to guide the decisions of the Greek Fraternity, which at that very moment was called upon to define and finance the interior of its new church, St George, the first church entirely dedicated to Orthodox worship in the West. This paper offers a first approach to the Commentary on the Divine Liturgy from several perspectives: context and purpose of production, content, originality.

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hal-05528266 , version 1 (26-02-2026)

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  • HAL Id : hal-05528266 , version 1

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Vassa Kontouma. Un manuel mystagogique à l’adresse des Grecs de Venise : le Commentaire sur la Divine Liturgie de Jean Nathanael (1574). Thesaurismata - Θησαυρίσματα, A paraître, 49-50, pp.135-152. ⟨hal-05528266⟩

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