Invoking, Seeing, and Touching God during Byzantine Iconoclasm, in ‘Word&Image’, 39 (2023) (forthcoming, article accepted), https://doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2023.2168471

My paper will focus on pectoral crosses which functioned as relic containers and amulets and were characterised by figural imagery as well as by inscriptions. Arguably produced between the late eighth and the early ninth centuries, their geographical origins are still contested between Byzantium and Rome, while other alternatives have yet to be fully considered. Some of these pectoral crosses bear inscriptions in Greek which have been interpreted as ‘incorrect’, but instead they may reflect the conventions of spoken language in an evolving hellenophone Mediterranean. These inscriptions were possibly intended to be read during private prayer and meditation while holding the pendant hanging from one’s neck. In particular, I will focus on a now lost enkolpion, whose inscriptions in Latin and Greek reveal it was intended for an audience familiar with both languages, at least in religious practices. One of its inscriptions quotes a well-known liturgical hymn sung at Mass before the celebration of the Eucharist and offers scope for a wider investigation into the function as well as cultural origins of pectoral crosses. The combination of figural illustrations, variety of precious materials, relics, and inscriptions on such pectoral crosses was probably aimed at eliciting a sort of tactile prayer and at suggesting multiple ways to apprehend the Incarnate Logos: by looking at, touching, reading, praying, meditating, and kissing the container