Clement of Rome in the Armenian tradition
UPCOMING EVENT | 17 June 2026 16:30 - 17 June 2026 18:00
Dr. Andy Hilkens
Clement of Rome in the Armenian tradition
This lecture explores the Armenian reception of Clement of Rome. Dr. Andy Hilkens will argue that Armenians only began to develop an interest in this early Christian martyr and supposed writer of canonical material from the late tenth century onwards.
In the early 990s an Armenian Chalcedonian called Yovsep‘ produced the earliest version of the Armenian Tawnac‘uyc‘ (Synaxarion) in Constantinople, relying on a now lost recension of the Greek Synaxarion. While this Armenian Synaxarion was intended first and foremost for Armenian Chalcedonians in the newly acquired territories in the East, the transmission of the synaxarion entry in Armenian hagiographical manuscripts of the late twelfth century and thirteenth centuries, the production of recensions of the Synaxarion by pro-Chalcedonians in the mid-thirteenth century, as well as developments in the Armenian Lectionary seem to suggest that by the turn of the thirteenth century Clement had established himself as a central figure in Armenian culture throughout “the Armenian world.”
Dr. Andy Hilkens is a religious and cultural historian of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages who operates at the intersection of Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Byzantine studies. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the FWF-START project Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles as Literary Characters (PI: Dan Batovici) in the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Vienna and teaches Coptic at the Institute of Egyptology. His research interests include Syriac and Armenian hagiography, the Syriac historiographical tradition and its ties to Greek, Armenian and Arabic historiography, Syriac-Armenian studies (in particular Syriac-Armenian dialogue and debate, Syriac-Armenian bilingualism, and the production of translations), and the global reception of Ephrem of Nisibis, Ephrem Graecus and Jacob of Serugh.
Clement of Rome in the Armenian tradition
UPCOMING EVENT | 17 June 2026 16:30 - 17 June 2026 18:00
Dr. Andy Hilkens
Clement of Rome in the Armenian tradition
This lecture explores the Armenian reception of Clement of Rome. Dr. Andy Hilkens will argue that Armenians only began to develop an interest in this early Christian martyr and supposed writer of canonical material from the late tenth century onwards.
In the early 990s an Armenian Chalcedonian called Yovsep‘ produced the earliest version of the Armenian Tawnac‘uyc‘ (Synaxarion) in Constantinople, relying on a now lost recension of the Greek Synaxarion. While this Armenian Synaxarion was intended first and foremost for Armenian Chalcedonians in the newly acquired territories in the East, the transmission of the synaxarion entry in Armenian hagiographical manuscripts of the late twelfth century and thirteenth centuries, the production of recensions of the Synaxarion by pro-Chalcedonians in the mid-thirteenth century, as well as developments in the Armenian Lectionary seem to suggest that by the turn of the thirteenth century Clement had established himself as a central figure in Armenian culture throughout “the Armenian world.”
Dr. Andy Hilkens is a religious and cultural historian of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages who operates at the intersection of Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Byzantine studies. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the FWF-START project Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles as Literary Characters (PI: Dan Batovici) in the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Vienna and teaches Coptic at the Institute of Egyptology. His research interests include Syriac and Armenian hagiography, the Syriac historiographical tradition and its ties to Greek, Armenian and Arabic historiography, Syriac-Armenian studies (in particular Syriac-Armenian dialogue and debate, Syriac-Armenian bilingualism, and the production of translations), and the global reception of Ephrem of Nisibis, Ephrem Graecus and Jacob of Serugh.