Theodore the Stoudite was one of the most influential Byzantine authors and ecclesiastical authorities, playing a prominent role in the defense of icons during the second period of the iconoclastic controversy (early ninth century). The present publication from the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series translates for the first time into English three medieval Greek texts—the Life of Theodore of Stoudios by Michael the Monk, the Encyclical Letter of Naukratios, and the Translation and Burial of the Remains of Theodore of Stoudios and Joseph of Thessalonike—which, notwithstanding their different authorship, compositional date, and purposes, revolve around the life, contests, death, burial, and reburial of this ecclesiastical authority. The texts are given in the original with a facing English translation and are accompanied by an Introduction, Abbreviations, Note on the Texts, Notes to the Texts, Notes to the Translations, a Bibliography, and an Index. With this volume once again the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series succeeds in advancing its mission, which is to offer to a wider audience (academic and lay) an engaging translation complemented by erudite notes that elucidate the three medieval Greek works’ textual witnesses and transmission history and analyze their context and content.
The volume opens with a brief Introduction in which Robert Jordan and Rosemary Morris[1] give information about Theodore the Stoudite as an ecclesiastical authority, the time period during which he lived, and the monastery of Stoudios with which he was related. In addition, the editors/translators discuss the three texts’ authorship, compositional date, the textual sources from which they drew, as well as the literary style of the Greek, and provide an overview of their content. The texts in this volume, as Jordan and Morris explain, are not presented in chronological order: the first work was the last to have been composed among the three; the second is the earliest in this collection; and the last text is chronologically the second. Although it may be assumed that such an arrangement is based on the premise that due to its biographical scope a hagiography should precede the other two texts, which are presented chronologically, an explanation of the rationale for such an arrangement is needed. In addition, a remark about the importance of these three texts which necessitated their translation would have been particularly welcome. Knowing the reason behind the choice of particular materials for a translation project can further highlight the significance of such an enterprise. Finally, in the Introduction a larger section could have been devoted to information about the monastery of Stoudios, given its significance for the religious and intellectual life of the Byzantine empire, let alone its fame due to Theodore. Below follows a concise summary of the content per text:
1. Life of Theodore of Stoudios by Michael the Monk: This text, which is the earliest of three hagiographies of Theodore the Stoudite and narrates his life, teachings, ascetic contests, exiles, banishments, hardships, death, burial, and the translation of his body, was written by Michael, a Stoudite monk, “in the second half of the ninth century, certainly after 868” (ix). Michael commences his work with a reference to other hagiographies composed by Theodore’s disciples and explains his decision to compose a more accessible account that would be easier to follow. Following biographical information on Theodore’s family, education, and religious devotion, Michael narrates his ascetic practice at the monastery of Sakkoudion under his uncle Plato, his ordination as a priest, and his subsequent proclamation as an abbot of Sakkoudion. The Life then proceeds to give a long account of Theodore’s banishments, exiles, and punishments during the reigns of Constantine VI, Nikephoros I, and Leo V the Armenian, which ended with the accession of Michael II the Amorian to the throne. Next, the author recounts miracles performed by Theodore, with the last chapters of his work outlining his itinerary back to Constantinople and his settlement “on the promontory of Saint Tryphon near Cape Akritas on the west coast of Asia Minor” (xiii). The hagiography closes with Theodore’s demise, his burial at Saint Tryphon, the transportation of his body to the island of Prinkipos, and its translation eighteen years later to the monastery of Stoudios, where he was buried along with his brother Joseph and his uncle Plato.
2. Encyclical Letter of Naukratios: Written shortly after Theodore’s demise by his disciple Naukratios, this work “was intended for the internal use of the scattered Stoudite communities” (xiv). The letter opens with Naukratios confirming the death of Theodore. It continues with a laudatory appraisal of Theodore as a leader and a theologian. It then proceeds to Theodore’s ailing health and his last instruction to his disciples, and closes with a description of Theodore’s death and burial.
3. Translation and Burial of the Remains of Theodore of Stoudios and Joseph of Thessalonike: The anonymous monastic author composed this text “after April 848” (xvi) to recount the events around the move and reburial of the relics of Theodore and his brother Joseph to the monastery of Stoudios. This work commences with a brief biography of Theodore and continues with a description of the plans to transport Theodore’s body from the island of Prinkipos to Constantinople. Next, the author relates the discovery of the remains of Theodore’s brother, Joseph of Thessalonike, and describes plans to transfer the relics of the two siblings to Constantinople so that Theodore and Joseph could be interred in the same tomb with their uncle Plato in the monastery of Stoudios. The letter ends with a prayer to Theodore.
The English translation is smooth and appealing, resulting in an enthralling reading. At points, the rendition of the original text may be more liberal than the original text could afford without somewhat distorting the original meaning. For example, in the Life of Theodore of Stoudios 16.1, “ἃς οὐ σχεδιαστικῶς ἀλλὰ νουνεχέστερον καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν συντάξας ἐκδέδωκεν,” is translated as “which he did not produce by improvisation but in private with more deliberation.” This sentence is part of Michael’s account of Theodore’s literary production, with which chapter sixteen opens, and refers to the composition of his Great Katecheseis in juxtaposition to that of the Lesser Katecheseis. The editors/translators have omitted to translate the pluperfect verb “ἐκδέδωκεν” and have rendered the other parts of the sentence more liberally, when the author writes that Theodore had published his Great Katecheseis after he composed it by himself not hastily but more sensibly than the Lesser Katecheseis. Another example: at the closing of the Encyclical Letter of Naukratios, chapter twenty-six, the text uses the first-person plural, which the editors/translators render with the first-person singular. The author seems to have used what has been described grammatically as a plural of modesty,[2] namely the use of the first-person plural to refer to himself. Since in the rest of the letter the author usually writes in the first-person singular, which the editors/translators render accordingly, but at the end of the letter the author uses the first-person plural, which the editors/translators denote with first-person singular, it might have been more precise to render the original as is and explain in the Notes on the Translation section that the author might be referring to himself using the first-person plural. Such choices, however, can neither diminish the work of the editors/translators nor deprive their translation of its quality.
Three sections of this volume require particular attention: the Note on the Texts, the Notes to the Texts, and the Notes to the Translations. Alexander Alexakis’s contribution is remarkable with regard to collating the extant manuscripts, offering detailed information about them in the Note on the Texts, and the critical apparatus in the Notes to the Texts. In the Note on the Texts, the editors/translators and Alexakis provide valuable information on the manuscripts they consulted for the transcription and corrections of each text. Such information pertains to previous editions, manuscript sources, their dating, weblinks to digitized manuscripts, descriptions of the manuscripts and their particularities, as well as thorough explanations of the parameters that dictated particular considerations per manuscript for this new edition of the texts.
The Notes to the Texts deliver a comprehensive critical apparatus which allows (especially scholarly) readers to see the textual witnesses, the variants, and the editors’ choices regarding those variants. Similarly, the Notes to the Translations offer important information regarding both content and context that helps readers to comprehend information from the translated texts, including references to biblical verses and patristic sources. Unfortunately, the series does not have a system that would indicate within the texts those words and/or phrases for which the editors/translators provide information in the Notes to the Translations, except for the biblical verses and patristic sources which are put merely in italics. As the format is, one needs to mark on their own those places within the texts for which the editors/translators provide information and either flip back and forth while reading, or read the notes after reading a chapter. This may create a cumbersome situation, at least for some readers. That being said, whereas the placement of the Note on the Texts at the back of the book does not interfere with the reading process, the same cannot be said for the placement of the Notes to the Texts and the Notes to the Translations at the back of the book. While it seems that this arrangement is dictated by the philosophy of this series, namely, to leave the edited texts uncluttered for an undistracted reading, this format may also have its disadvantages, especially for scholarly readers who may want to consult textual evidence and general notes per page, resulting in intermittent interruptions.
On the whole, this volume is a very welcome addition to the overall series, whose scope it serves exceptionally well. Despite the need to clarify the importance of the translated texts in a literary, religious/theological, and historical context, it is still a fortunate circumstance that Jordan and Morris made available texts that have not been translated into English before. Readers who are interested in the works of Theodore the Stoudite will find this volume particularly valuable, not only because of the translated texts but also owing to the rich notes that accompany them.
Notes
[1] The two editors/translators explain their close collaboration for the volume, clarifying that “the establishment and translation of the Greek texts is primarily the work of Robert Jordan, and the Introduction and Notes to the Translations that of Rosemary Morris. Alexander Alexakis most generously provided considerable assistance with the collation of manuscripts, particularly those of the Letter of Naukratios, and with Notes on and to the Texts” (xvii-xviii). Since this volume is the result of a collaborative work, in my review I mention both editors/translators without a particular reference to one or the other per section.
[2] For the plural of modesty, see David Chamberlain, “‘We the Others’: Interpretive Community and Plural Voice in Herodotus,” Classical Antiquity 20.1 (2001): 5-34. Regarding the plural of modesty as a grammatical phenomenon, see H. W. Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges (New York: American Book Company, 1920), 271.