La Vergine come la sposa del Cantico e la mulier amicta sole di Ap. 12 nelle omelie rutene sulla Dormizione: tra influssi latini e continuità del modello bizantino

The aim of this study is to investigate a group of nine early modern Ukrainian homilies dedicated to the Marian feast of the Dormition, while focusing on both the liturgical and extra-liturgical sources of their Biblical quotations. A characteristic of these texts is indeed the presence of such Biblical quotations as Song of Songs 6, 9 («who is she that looketh forth as the morning») and Apocalypsis 12, 1 («and there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun») which, while being an integral part of the Latin exegetical tradition of the Assumption, have a marginal – if any – role in the Byzantino-Slavic liturgical tradition of the Dormition. The use of a Marian imagery modeled on the Song of Songs and the Apocalypsis is to be ascribed to the influence of either exegetic Comments to the Bible, such as those of Cornelius a Lapide, or of Marian homiletic and exegetic literature produced in the West in the late Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation. On the other hand, the tradition of Hesycasm – especially Teophilos Kokkinos’ Dormition Canon and Palamas’ Dormition homilies – represent a first step in the extension of the Marian reading of the Song of Songs to the Byzantino- Slavic area. Another question that is addressed in this paper is how the intellectual and ecclesiastical context of the Ukrainian lands, whose distinctive features were pluriconfessionalism and the close ties to Western Baroque, influenced our authors in their representation of Mary.