Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy

Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin

doi:10.1628/978-3-16-200574-8

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Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin

Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy

The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt

2026. 280 pages.

forthcoming in September 2026

Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity (STAC)

DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-200574-8

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Summary

Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin examines a group of Coptic prayer texts known in modern scholarship as »magical liturgies.« Drawing on the sociological concept of »multiple identities,« she explores how these prayers can, from an etic perspective, be described as »apocryphal,« »magical,« and »liturgical.«

Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin examines a group of Coptic prayer texts known in modern scholarship as »magical liturgies«, preserved in manuscripts, mostly from Egypt, dating from the 5th to 13th centuries. Drawing on the sociological concept of »multiple identities«, she explores how these prayers can, from an etic perspective, be described as »apocryphal«, »magical«, and »liturgical«. Her approach involves a rigorous comparative analysis and employs several scholarly categories as lenses for evaluating the sources. It sheds light on how these prayers might have been conceptualized and used by people in Late Antique and early Islamic Egypt, and on the roles they played in the formation of Christian identities. In addition, the book draws on concepts from Material Philology. It pays particular attention to the material and paratextual features of the manuscripts containing these prayers, and assesses what these features can tell us about the contexts in which the manuscripts were produced and used. By analyzing the textual, material, and paratextual aspects together, the study reveals that the »magical liturgies« were most probably composed in monastic and ecclesiastic contexts. The Coptic manuscripts transmitting them, too, were produced and used in such settings in Late Antique and early Islamic Egypt.

Table of contents:

Introduction: Some Thoughts on Categories and Boundaries
Establishing Categories: »Apocrypha«
Establishing Categories: »Magic«
Establishing Categories: »Liturgy«
At the Intersection of Apocrypha, Magic, and Liturgy - On Multiple Identities
Chapter 1 - The Prayer of Mary at Bartos
The Work - Origin and Developments
The Manuscripts - Material and Paratextual Features
The Texts - Structure and Variants
Chapter 2 - The Praise of the Archangel Michael
Introduction: The Work, its Manuscript Attestations, and its Title
The Texts - Structure and Variants
Drawings, Instructions, and the Contexts of Production and Use
Chapter 3 -The other »Magical Liturgies«
Rossi's Tractate
Cairo JdE 49547
Berlin P. 11347
The Baktiotha Prayer
The Magical Liturgies: Elaboration and Spheres of Influence
Chapter 4 - Liturgical Prayers and Magical Liturgies: Structures Compared
Liturgical Prayers, Anaphoras, and their Structure
Structures in Comparison
What is »Liturgical« in the »Magical Liturgies«?
Concluding Remarks - On Multiple Identities and Monastic Contexts