The sermons of Kyrillos Loukaris (†1638)—A survey and first exploration of unpublished texts in the National Library of Greece
European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
Final Report Abstract
Kyrillos Loukaris (born 13 November 1570 or 1572 – 26 June 1638) is one of the public figures of Greek early Modernity, who were subject to intensive discourse in international scholarship. Loukaris was the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria from 1602 to 1620 and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, with interruptions, from 1620 to 1638. On the 11th of January 2022 he was canonised by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1629 he signed a confession of faith, which was and is considered to be Calvinistic. He also agreed to the translation of the New Testament into vernacular Greek. He also imported and installed a printing house in the environment of the patriarchate. There was a discussion about Loukaris’s orthodoxy. His sympathy for the reformed churches obviously was related to his antijesuitism—Jesuits were strongly present in the Aegean. In spite of the attention Loukaris attracted, a high number of texts (421 texts, of which 310 are complete sermons and 111 exist in outlines) have not but scarcely been subject to scholarly examination. These texts were considered to be contained in seven codices belonging to the Metochion tu Panagiu Taphu (MPT), today available in the National Library of Greece, among of them autographs. Loukaris used a variety of languages, Greek (both ancient and modern), Latin and Italian. Given that he was born and raised in Venetian-ruled Candia and that he had resided and studied in Venice and Padua, his multilinguism does not come as a surprise. What strikes is the usage of “western” languages in Greek Orthodox context and in notes which he probably made for his own use. The codices mentioned were subject of intense examination: The codices MPT 408 (copies of early sermons, which today are preserved in Leiden/NL), MPT 427 (younger copies of sermons) und MPT 430 (not related to Loukaris) proved to be not immediately relevant for further examination of Loukaris’s sermons. The project focused on codices MPT 39, MPT 262, MPT 263 and MPT 439, which all are autographs. Product of the work of the research assistant is a detailed description of these four manuscripts, their composition including an assessment of the extent of physical losses, an inventory of the contained sermons and detailed summaries plus a first identification of latin authors cited in Loukaris’s sermons. Publication as a monograph is in preparation. Product of the research of the Principal Investigator is an application for a research grant titled ”Kyrillos Loukaris (†1638) as an author of sermons and a renewer of the genre within the tradition of the Greek Orthodoxy”.
