Between scripture and performance: cohesion and dissent at the Feast of Mary's Dormition in Jerusalem

Abstract

In contrast to popular Marian rites throughout the world, the Jerusalem Dormition Feast is held on a canonical route that includes the purported sites of some of the key moments in the Virgin's life. The festival boasts an ancient liturgical order consisting of utterances and customs that are assiduously preserved by Jerusalem's Greek-Orthodox Church. Drawing on Engelke's distinction (2007) between scriptural authority and religious performance and numerous scholarly analyses of cohesion and dissent at assorted Marian shrines (e.g., Eade and Sallnow [1991]), this article explores the reactions to the local ceremonial on the part of various participants. While the clergy strives to impose its particular reading of the Scriptures on all the attendees, the different lay groups insist on performing rituals that give expression to their own knowledge of the canon and their own understanding of the Virgin's nature. All told, their reactions range from rigid obedience to creative practices and heated dissent. The event ultimately splinters off into several factions and the host's orderly script is compromised.

Keywords:

• anthropology of religion
• worship of Mary
• Jerusalem pilgrimage
• canonical rites
• Greek Orthodoxy
• Scripture and performance
• scriptural sites

Notes

²While referring to Mother Mary, Theotokos literally means the one who gave birth to God. The word derives from theos’ (god) and the ancient Greek verb tiktw, a gender-neutral word for ‘I give birth’ (see Rubin [2009: 42]). This appellation emphasizes the two natures of Christ as promulgated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451: Jesus’ divinity; and the fact that he was ‘born of’ a human mother (Rubin 2009: 48).

This article was edited and parts of it translated by Avi Aronsky. I would like to thank Avi for his work, friendship, and encouragement throughout our collaboration on this project. I am also indebted to Oren Golan for accompanying me on my visits to the field and for commenting on the numerous draft copies of this paper. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and the time they invested. Their insights and suggestions helped me re-conceptualize and clarify my thoughts.

³Among the other important developments concerning the cult of Mary during the 6^th century was the establishment of the following feasts: the Annunciation, the Nativity of Mary, and the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Shoemaker 2002: 116).

⁴Literally a ‘seat,’ Kathisma refers to a monastic scheme for reading the Book of Psalms. During the 1950s, archaeologists discovered the Kathisma of the Theotokos – a large 5^th-century basilica and monastery – at Ramat Rachel, a kibbutz on the southern outskirts of modern-day Jerusalem (Shoemaker 2002: 84). The Church of Mary was located in the Jehoshapat Valley.

⁵In 2006, Jonathan Ventura wrote an unpublished thesis under my supervision: The Cult of the Virgin in the Greek Orthodox Community in Jerusalem and Nazareth (master's thesis, The Hebrew University). The study examines the relations between the poetic and political elements of the rituals in the Tomb of Mary.

⁶Although many of the Orthodox arriving from abroad are accompanied by members of the cloth, I use the term lay and laity to distinguish the Greek-Orthodox hosts from overseas pilgrims and local Christian Arabs. Moreover, the term pilgrim will refer exclusively to devotees from abroad.

⁷The Midrash is a corpus of homiletic exegeses on the Bible.

⁸Also see Levi-Strauss (1963) and Dubisch (1995: 247).

⁹The Protevangelium of James is one of the earliest known accounts of the Virgin's life (see Cormack [1985: 169]; Shoemaker [2002: 29]). While this particular name dates back to the 16^th century, the proto-Gospel was probably composed in Syria or Egypt before 150 CE. By the 6^th century, it was classified an ‘apocryphal’ text, namely a hidden and unrecognized part of the canonized tradition (Rubin 2009: 9).

¹⁰ Metoxion is the Greek word for priory – a small monastery that is often dependent on and the offshoot of an abbey.

¹¹The proskínima includes lighting a candle, kissing the central and other icons, crossing oneself, and genuflection (Dubisch 1995: 66).

¹²According to the CIA World Factbook (2009), the following statistics are available on Palestinian Christians:

Table

¹³The Lions’ Gate, which was built by the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent in the early 16^th century, is also known as St. Stephen's Gate and the Sheep Gate.

¹⁴A taphos (the symbol of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre) is usually engraved on the entrance of Greek-Orthodox churches in Jerusalem.

¹⁵In Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources, the Mount of Olives and the Jehoshaphat Valley are tied to the Vision of the End of the Days, the Day of Judgment, and an assortment of other local eschatological myths (Elad 1995: 141–144).

¹⁶The candles are produced at a workshop in the Dair Hajla Monastery, between Jerusalem and Jericho.

¹⁷In 1923, the Armenians sought to replace a pair of old, worn-out icons next to the St. Stephanos Altar. The Syriacs protested that the Armenians had no right to implement such changes because the altar belongs to them. However, the Armenians proved that the icons had Armenian inscriptions on them, and the British authorities allowed them to proceed (Cust 1929: 36).

¹⁸The panoply of icons and gilded paintings that are scattered throughout the church are showered with kisses throughout the day, but the main object of the pilgrims’ attention is the Dormition Icon.

¹⁹The feud between the laity and the ecclesiastical hosts over the crawling ritual hit a nadir in 2003. Some of the organizers unilaterally decided to prevent the faithful from crawling, with the stated objective of easing the gridlock in the back room. With this in mind, they began to disperse the crowd from the area. However, they encountered stiff resistance, as dozens of women forced their way in and performed the ritual. The following year Palestinian and foreign women launched an effort to ensure that all the devotees could partake in the crawling ritual in an orderly fashion.