Notes on Byzantine Panagiaria

The article offers some new insights into the signifi cance and function of Byzantine panagiaria, small-scale containers for the bread sanctifi ed in honor of the Virgin in a rite known as the Elevation of the Panagia. This rite, it is argued, was not limited to monastic and courtly contexts or to routine liturgical observance, as is often assumed, but could be performed by the laity as well. Proposing that the use of panagiaria as personal devotional instruments was fairly common in Byzantium, the article explores the interplay between the design, materiality, epigraphic enhancement, and ritual and devotional use of these objects.

It has become a commonplace to assert that medieval artworks are often decontextualized in modern publications and museum displays.In the case of Byzantine panagiaria, however, this apparent platitude bears repeating.These small-scale containers designed to hold a piece of bread, or panagia, elevated in honor of the Virgin in a paraliturgical rite cannot be properly understood outside the context of their ritual and devotional use.Habitually relegated to the lowly realm of the so-called "minor" or "decorative" arts -a taxonomy hardly applicable to the realities of medieval art-making -Byzantine panagiaria have never received the scholarly attention they deserve. 1 Yet the signifi cance of these objects and the rite in which they were employed is considerable, not least because they can help us illuminate important aspects of personal piety in Byzantium.As private devotional instruments, panagiaria call attention to such key issues as materiality, performance, and the role of the human body in religious experience.
In its most basic form, the rite of the Elevation of the Panagia consists of an act of sanctifi cation of a loaf or particle of bread.Raising -and hence, elevating -the bread on his fi ngertips, the celebrant fi rst exclaims the words, Μέγα τὸ ὄνομα τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος ("Great is the name of the Holy Trinity"), and then invokes the Virgin, Παναγία θεοτόκε, βοήθει ἡμῖν ("All-Holy Mother of God, help us").To these two exclamations is ordinarily added the third, Ταῖς αὐτῆς πρεσβείαις ὁ Θεὸς ἐλέησον καὶ σῶσον ἡμᾶς ("Through her intercessions, O God, have mercy and save us"). 2 The performance of the rite commonly incorporates the chanting of other prayers and hymns, but the gesture of elevation accompanied by the three exclamations stands at its core.Sanctifi ed in this manner, the panagia is believed to secure the Virgin's assistance and protection on behalf of those partaking of it. 3 variety of special containers, or panagiaria, typically adorned with an image of the Mother of God, are used for the celebration of the rite. 4These containers may be divided into two groups.The fi rst includes table vessels in the form of a dish, often raised on a foot and/or supplied with a lid, while the second comprises small, usually circular boxlike receptacles worn around the neck as enkolpia, or pectoral pendants.One of the earliest examples of the former variety is a jasper panagiarion in the Chilandar monastery on Mount Athos, attributed on stylistic grounds to the tenth or eleventh century (fi g. 1). 5 This exquisite object consists of a shallow bowl mounted in silver.A fi nely carved half-length fi gure of the Virgin orans with the Christ Child emerging from the folds of her maphorion occupies the center of the bowl.Surrounding the two fi gures in a cruciform arrangement are diminutive busts of the four archangels -Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel.The bowl's silver mount is composed of a rim connected to a low foot in the shape of a truncated cone by four straps. 6The remains of a hinge suggest that the bowl originally had a lid.For an example of the second type of panagiaria, we may turn to a bronze container, dated to the fi fteenth century, in the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade (fi gs.2-3). 7This panagiarion, which would have been worn as a pendant suspended from a chain, consists of two medallion-like plates hinged together.The exterior side of one of the plates bears an image of the Crucifi xion.When open, the panagiarion shows the Virgin orans with the Christ Child in her bosom displayed on one plate and the three angels from the Philoxenia of Abraham, a canonical image of the Holy Trinity, on the other.These two subjects are commonly paired on pectoral panagiaria; without a doubt, their choice refl ects the standard exclamations from the rite of the Elevation, in which -in addition to the Virgin -the name of the Holy Trinity is invoked.
It is well known that the Elevation of the Panagia was performed in monastic refectories after a meal and, occasionally, during the Divine Liturgy or the Matins. 8As we learn from pseudo-Kodinos, the rite was also incorporated into imperial ceremonies.On Christmas Day, following a repast in the palace, a piece of bread, laid in a panagiarion, was brought to the imperial dining hall, where it was elevated by the epi tēs trapezēs in the presence of the emperor, who was the fi rst to partake of it. 9It bears emphasizing, however, that the Elevation was by no means limited to monastic and courtly contexts or to routine liturgical observance in the church.The tenth-century Euchologion, Ms. Cryptoferratensis Γ.β.VII, one of the earliest liturgical sources on the rite, associates the Elevation specifi cally with the commencement of a journey. 10Moreover, Symeon, archbishop of Thessalonike (1416/1417-1429), explicitly states that the rite can be performed on any number of occasions, whenever one needs to invoke divine aid. 11Several hitherto neglected sources substantiate the archbishop's statement and, in particular, shed further light on the popularity of the rite among the laity.
In a series of questions dealing with various doctrinal, legal, and ritual issues, which the Serbian King Stefan Radoslav (1228-1233) addressed to the famous canonist Demetrios Chomatenos, archbishop of Ohrid (1216/1217-ca.1236), one concerned the rite of the Elevation. 12"From which source," the king asked, "did we, the Christians, inherit the practice of elevating the panagia after a meal?" 13 Christ himself, Chomatenos explained in his answer, had established the custom of giving thanks to God at the end of a meal, which the holy fathers subsequently enhanced and elaborated.
They prescribed that, in addition to the <customary> thanksgiving after a meal, we cut a piece of bread and place it in a clean vessel, and having said the thanksgiving, namely, "Blessed be God who nourishes us from our youth," we elevate it, saying fi rst, "Great is the name of the Holy Trinity," and following this, "All-Holy Mother of God, help us." 14idently, the Elevation of the Panagia was performed by the laity as well in the private space of their homes. 15 hortatory letter addressed by Symeon of Thessalonike to his spiritual fl ock provides an important piece of information regarding the veneration of the panagia in the context of the so-called popular piety.Admonishing women in his diocese to raise their children in the Lord and keep them away from divinations and magic charms, Symeon offers some pious advice: If you wish to protect and save them, make the sign of the cross upon them and bring them to the holy churches and sanctify them with the sacraments; also fortify them with phylacteries, <namely> the bread elevated in the name of the All-Holy <Virgin>, the fi gure of the cross, and the holy images on sacred enkolpia, for they chase away all adversaries. 16vested with enduring spiritual agency, the panagia was clearly employed as a potent prophylactic device among the laity.There is enough evidence to suggest that, at least during the late Byzantine era, the Virgin's bread also acquired a sacramental dimension.Legal documents of this period record that, aside from being excommunicated, accused criminals and murderers were not allowed to receive the antidōron, or blessed bread distributed to the faithful at the end of the Divine Liturgy, nor to drink the hagiasma, or holy water, but they were permitted to partake of the panagia after a meal. 17 In fact, in instances of unforeseen need, the panagia could function as a substitute for the Eucharist.Direct evidence for this is found in the Logos eucharistērios by John Eugenikos (died after 1454/1455), delivered after this renowned churchman and writer had survived a shipwreck. 18Eugenikos' remarkable account of the shipwreck merits closer scrutiny as it contains a detailed description of the performance of the Elevation in circumstances of extreme danger and anxiety.
As an opponent of church union, Eugenikos left the Council of Ferrara-Florence at an early stage in the negotiations and on his way back to Byzantium embarked on a ship in Venice.On the night of 15 October 1438, the ship was caught in a violent storm off the Adriatic coast near Rimini.Sensing impending doom the passengers aboard could do nothing but cry and beat their chests.Eugenikos recounts how he took a loaf of bread from one of his desperate travel companions and, taking off his headgear, kneeled down on the deck and started to pray in a loud voice, invoking the Virgin's protection.Clearly, he set out to perform the Elevation of the Panagia.He began by reciting the customary exclamations, to which he added other prayers and psalms, ardently kissing and venerating what he calls τὸ ἱερὸν καὶ θεοδόχον σῶμα τῆς θεομήτορος ("the holy and God-receiving body of the Mother of God"), 19 a clear indication that, on the model of the Eucharist, the elevated bread came to be identifi ed with the body of the Virgin. 20Gradually, Eugenikos' companions started to approach him, one by one, and confess  ͡ serkvi, Vizantiĭskiĭ vremennik 4 (1897) 158-159, prescribes the same treatment with one minor difference: accused murderers are allowed to drink the hagiasma on the Lord's feasts.For a discussion of this practice v. Strazzeri,Drei Formulare,[338][339][340] The Logos is published in: Παλαιολόγεια καὶ πελοποννησιακά, ed. S. P. Lambros, I-IV, Athens 1912-1930, I:271-314 their sins without the least restraint. Whn their confessions were heard, Eugenikos addressed them.
As it appears, it is God's will that we should die in this way.But since we do not have here a particle of the divine body and blood of the Lord, the sanctifi cation of the soul and the last provision for the journey, instead, if you agree, we shall use this <bread>, which is out of necessity the symbol of the All-Holy <Virgin>, in sincere faith. 21 ersatz communion ensued and everyone partook of the bread.Eugenikos records that he carefully placed the remaining morsel of the panagia in his bosom.When, following the sinking of the ship, in which more than one half of the passengers perished, a rowboat crammed with those who escaped drowning fi nally reached the coast near a place to which he refers as Portoloro, Eugenikos took the morsel out of his bosom and distributed it among the survivors.He incidentally informs us that, while in his bosom, the morsel was lodged in a gold panagiarion with a representation of the Virgin, suspended on his chest along with two other pendants.As he relates, at one point during the storm, as the rowboat was being tossed around by huge waves, I pulled the so-called enkolpia from my bosom, which were my only possessions that had survived, because they were always with me, suspended around my neck, this cross made of rock-crystal, an image of the Mother of God in the gold hemisphere [i.e.panagiarion] that sheltered some of the sacred things [i.e. the remaining morsel of the panagia] inside, and a relic of the gloriously triumphant virgin Barbara in another <enkolpion>, fervently kissing and praying <to them>. 22 is unlikely, though not impossible, that Eugenikos used his panagiarion for the performance of the Elevation on the storm-beset ship.Be that as it may, his Logos indicates that one of the functions -if not the main function -of pectoral panagiaria was to provide a portable shelter for the sanctifi ed bread. 23I shall return to this point shortly.
as an emblem of offi ce -and one should recall that, at the time of the shipwreck, he was a deacon and nomophylax at the patriarchate -but rather as an intimate devotional object.Note that Eugenikos did not wear the panagiarion and his two other enkolpia displayed, as it were, on his chest, but underneath his garments, close to the body, as enkolpia were normally worn in Byzantium. 26What is more, like the performance of the Elevation, the handling or wearing of panagiaria was by no means a prerogative of the clergy.Indeed, I would argue that the use of panagiaria as personal items, private devotional tools as well as objets d'art, may have been fairly common in Byzantium.
It is worth noting in this regard that in the will of the skouterios Theodore Sarantenos, drawn up in 1325, a gold panagiarion turns up in the long list of objects -mostly icons, precious-metal vessels, belts, rings, and the likewhich the testator donated to his foundation, the monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Berroia. 27The absence of liturgical utensils from the list strongly suggests that the donated items, including the panagiarion, were not specifi cally commissioned for the monastery but rather came from Theodore's personal collection of luxury artifacts. 28hat panagiaria were popular among members of the Palaiologan élite is further indicated by the epigrammatic oeuvre of Manuel Philes (died after 1330), a tremendously prolifi c poet whose pen catered to a host of aristocratic patrons, including members of the imperial family. 29Philes composed nearly a dozen epigrams on panagiaria. 30The fact that none of these poems contains a reference to a specifi c patron may suggest that Philes was occasionally writing, so to speak, on spec.In the majority of instances, however, precise references to iconography and, especially, to the materials used leave no doubt that the poet had specifi c objects in mind.Thus, in an epigram on a silver panagiarion with a  This plate seems to be an image of heaven; for it carries the gold circle like a Sun, and the Virgin in the center like the Earth/Land of God, from which grows the soul-sustaining fruit [i.e.Christ]. 32ide from gold and silver, Philes' poetry attests to the use of other materials for manufacturing panagiaria such as wood 33 or semiprecious stones. 34In addition, at least one of his epigrams was meant to accompany a pectoral panagiarion.This was an unusual object that combined two functions: it was a container for the Virgin's bread that also served as a reliquary of Christ's blood.Assuming the "I" of the epigram, the wearer of this panagiarion-cum-reliquary addresses his soul and, subsequently, his heart, and invites them to a salvifi c feast. 37The emphatically personal tone of the verses signals that the object was intended to function as an intimate devotional instrument.Carried in close proximity to the wearer's body, it was a source of localized, tangible, and personally accessible sanctity.The opening line, it must be stressed, identifi es the object explicitly as a receptacle for the Virgin's bread.This confi rms that pectoral panagiaria were designed to shelter the elevated panagia for a period of time.Enshrined within the object together with the blood of Christ -a pairing that would inevitably bring to mind Eucharistic associations -the panagia itself approaches the status of a relic. 38one of the panagiaria recorded in Philes' epigrams has come down to us, but several preserved specimens feature comparable poetic inscriptions.The earliest among them appears to be a silver-gilt pectoral container formerly in the collection of Dr. Christian Schmidt in Munich, dated to the tenth or eleventh century (fi gs.4-5). 39Measuring a mere 3.2 x 2.6 cm, this diminutive object consists of two circular plates hinged together and supplied with a suspension hoop.Engraved on the convex front plate is a rather crude image of the Virgin orans.The back plate, which is fl at, bears a dodecasyllable couplet that invokes the Virgin's protection on behalf of the wearer.
O Mother of God, you who carry the bread of life [i.e.Christ], protect the one who carries you from every harm. 40dreas Rhoby, who has recently published this piece, identifi es it as an artophorion, that is, a container for the Eucharistic bread, but the object's shape, iconography, and inscription leave no doubt that this was a pectoral panagiarion. 41The reference to Christ as the "bread of life" (cf.John 37 One wonders whether the phrase ξένη τράπεζα καὶ δαιτυμόνες in line 5 might be a reference to an image of the Old Testament Trinity, which, as noted supra, is commonly encountered on pectoral panagiaria. 38 On the notion of the panagiarion as a reliquary for the Virgin's bread v. Ryndina, O liturgicheskoĭ simvolike, esp.205, 211; eadem,  Panagii ͡ a-relikvariĭ, esp.526-528, which should be read with caution. 39Cf. A. Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Ikonen und Objekten der Kleinkunst.Nebst Addenda zu Band 1 "Byzantinische Epigramme auf Fresken und Mosaiken", Vienna 2010, 169-170, no.Me10.As Dr. Schmidt has kindly informed me, the object is now in the possession of a Russian collector. 40Ἄρτον ζωῆς φέρουσα τοῦ Θεοῦ Μῆτερ / φρούρει τὸν φοροῦντά σε ἐκ πάσης βλάβης. 41The possibility that the object may have served as a panagiarion has been proposed to Rhoby by Georgi Parpulov: Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme, 170 n. 159.A comparable piece in Paris, which, instead of an inscription, has a cross on the back, most likely had the same function: 6:35 and 6:48) does not necessarily mean that the object was meant to hold a particle of the Eucharistic artos, for similar language and imagery, as we shall see below, are commonly found in inscriptions on panagiaria. 42Through the motif of carrying, the verses playfully dramatize the wearer's interaction with the container suspended on his chest.Just as the Virgin carries the "bread of life," so does the wearer carry the panagiarion with a representation of the Virgin, which in turn carries the bread of the Virgin.The alliteration created by the recurring phi and rhō (φέρουσα […] φρούρει τὸν φοροῦντα) only heightens the effect of this imaginative mirroring.
The now lost steatite panagiarion of Alexios Komnenos Angelos from the Panteleemon monastery on Mount Athos exemplifi es how inscribed verse may bring together fi gural imagery, materiality, and ritual action in a web of associations (fi g. 6). 43The date and provenance of the panagiarion have been debated, and this is no place to tackle these issues.I should say, however, that I subscribe to a fourteenth-century date proposed by Ioli Kalavrezou, although I am slightly skeptical about her identifi cation of the owner -or, less likely, donor -of the panagiarion with Alexios III Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (1349-1390). 44The two poetic inscriptions that adorn this exquisitely carved receptacle fail to mention Alexios' title; such an omission would be highly unusual, if the owner/donor was indeed an emperor.Of the two inscriptions, one encircles a medallion with the Virgin and Child in the center.
O Mother without a husband, O Virgin nourishing an infant, may you protect Alexios Komnenos Angelos. 45e other inscription runs along the panagiarion's lobed border.
A meadow and plants and light with three rays.The stone is the meadow, the phalanx of prophets are the plants, the three beams are Christ, the bread, and the Virgin.The Maiden lends fl esh to the Logos of God, and Christ by means of bread distributes salvation and strength to Alexios Komnenos Angelos. 46ese elegant verses deploy a trope common in epigrammatic poetry: the object is presented as a riddle, a visual enigma that calls for a verbal interpretation.In elucidating its meaning, the verses make reference to the object's medium, design, and ritual use.As Kalavrezou has observed, the imagery of vegetation was inspired by the green color of steatite, which prompted a comparison of the receptacle with a meadow and of the row of prophets surrounding the central medallion with plants. 47The themes of the Incarnation and nourishment, on the other hand, point to the object's ritual function -the rite of the Elevation and its affi nity with the Eucharist.The verses, in fact, stage the viewer's encounter with the object within a ritual context, linking it specifi cally ЗОГРАФ 35 (2011) [51-62]   to the performance of the Elevation.This is evident from the explicit reference to the bread, the elevated panagia, the presence of which is not only seen as integral to the object's meaning, but also represents an essential visual and material aspect of the object.If the imagined -or, indeed, prescribed -reading of the inscription coincides with the performance of the rite, then the question arises as to whether the inscription may have been actually integrated in the rite and chanted or recited by the celebrant.This intriguing proposition is, of course, impossible to prove, but it is plausible, not least because of a certain openendedness of the rite of the Elevation which seems to have allowed considerable freedom to the celebrant.At this juncture, it should also be pointed out that epigraphic texts were commonly read aloud by the Byzantines.As several scholars have convincingly argued, silent reading was not a standard practice in Byzantium. 48This is especially true of verse inscriptions, for their poetic form virtually demands oral delivery.The dynamic, rhythmical structure of an accentual meter such as the dodecasyllable -the meter of choice in Byzantine epigrammatic poetry -can be neither understood nor fully appreciated unless it is heard. 49Specifi c occasions for such performative engagement with inscribed objects, however, have not been explored.As far as epigrams found on artifacts related to the cult are concerned, I wish to propose that the liturgy in the broadest sense may have provided a context for their recitation and that the rite of the Elevation might be a good example of this practice.
Like other liturgical objects, panagiaria often feature inscriptions directly borrowed from the rite.The inscription running along the silver-encased lip of the jasper panagiarion from the Chilandar monastery (fi g. 1) quotes a theotokion which in most versions of the rite follows immediately after the three standard exclamations.
Your womb became a holy table, having the heavenly bread, Christ, our God, from which all who eat will not die, as <he> the Nourisher of all has said, O Mother of God. 50milarly, the bronze pectoral panagiarion from Belgrade (fi gs.2-3) features the Old Church Slavonic version of the celebrated Marian hymn Axion estin, the chanting of which is, too, commonly incorporated in the rite. 51Specially composed -or reused -poetic inscriptions were, in a sense, an alternative to such liturgical quotations that would have appealed to a more sophisticated audience.Their function, however, was essentially the same.In both cases, inscribed words echo ritual performance.It is no accident that epigrams on panagiaria are often couched in a decidedly liturgical language.Consider, for instance, the following epigram attributed to John Eugenikos.
Your womb full of divine grace, O Maiden, mystically represented a radiant table, carrying Christ, the heavenly and fi rm bread of life, which all who eat will not die. 52ese verses obviously represent a direct paraphrase of the theotokion "Your womb" from the rite of the Elevation adapted to the format of a dodecasyllable tetrastichon.
In inscriptions displayed on two closely related panagiaria, one in the Museo Nazionale in Ravenna (fi g. 7) and the other in the Chilandar monastery (fi g. 8), both tentatively dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century, poetry and ritual seamlessly coalesce. 53Perhaps manufactured in the same workshop, the two objects share a similar design, with a depiction of the Virgin orans in the central medallion and a cir-cular row of holy fi gures -and, in the case of the Chilandar panagiarion, two feast images as well -placed under arches.Both panagiaria, moreover, feature the exclamation Παναγία θεοτόκε, βοήθει ἡμῖν ("All-Holy Mother of God, help us") from the rite of the Elevation, inscribed -along with several cryptograms 54 -around the medallion of the Virgin.In addition, their rims are adorned by the same epigram, selected in all likelihood from a manuscript anthology.
I behold you, O Virgin, like an awe-inspiring pair of tongs holding the burning coal-like bread that cleanses the dirt of the body and soul. 55e metaphoric imagery of the epigram refers to a vision described in Isaiah 6:6-7: Then fl ew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.And he touched my mouth, and said: 'Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.' In Byzantine exegesis, Isaiah's vision was customarily interpreted as a prefi guration of the Logos incarnate carried inside Mary's womb or held in her hands like a burning coal. 56With its use of terms such as labis, anthrakōdēs, and pyrphoros, the language of the epigram is strongly reminiscent of liturgical hymns, especially those associated with the Feast of the Presentation of Christ into the Temple, which often elaborate upon the motif of the Infant Jesus nestled in Mary's hands or the hands of the priest Symeon by invoking Isaiah's vision. 57o give but one example, a stichēron chanted at the Little Vespers of the feast proclaims: As the coal foreseen by the divine Isaiah, Christ in the hands of the Theotokos, as if with a pair of tongs, is now presented to the Priest. 58 the epigram on the Ravenna and Chilandar panagiaria, as in the stichēron, the word labis, which can mean "a pair of tongs" but also "communion spoon," carries in and of itself strong Eucharistic connotations.In the epigram, however, the "burning coal-like bread" held by the Virgin refers not only to Christ, the Eucharistic sacrifi ce, 59 but also to the elevated panagia, a notion highlighted by the absence of Christ from the depiction of the Virgin orans in the central medallion on both objects.During the celebration of the rite of the Elevation, the panagia would be placed directly above the medallion and hence quite literally embraced by the Virgin's outstretched arms. 60The celebrant performing the rite would in turn mirror this gesture by holding the panagiarion or raising the panagia in his hands, as if with a labis.The vessel, its imagery, the bread, and the ritual action would thus enter into a dialogue, complementing and reinforcing each other in a synergy triggered by the inscribed verses.Is this proof that the epigram on the two panagiaria was integrated in the performance of the rite?Certainly not.But it must be admitted that the epigram's message would have been meaningful only in the ritual context.
The evidence presented in this essay regarding the rite of the Elevation and the use of panagiaria in Byzantium is admittedly sparse.Some questions, accordingly, must remain open.How widespread was the rite among the laity?Were women perhaps allowed to elevate the panagia? 61Did the use of panagiaria as personal devotional objects become more common only in the Palaiologan period? 62What seems certain, however, is that the veneration of the Virgin's bread played a more signifi cant role in Byzantine piety than previously assumed.Sanctifi ed through the act of ritual elevation, the panagia was a potent spiritual instrument, a special kind of food that one consumed, but also stored, cherished, and worn about the body for its protective powers.The adoption of the rite of the Elevation by the laity must be seen as an aspect of the ever-increasing devotion to the Mother of God in Byzantium.Whether it also refl ected the decline in lay communion remains to be explored.In contrast to the early Christian era, when it was customary for everyone attending the celebration of the Divine Liturgy to partake of the Eucharist, the laity in Byzantium rarely communicated.Although, in theory, any Christian could approach the Lord's Table every day, granted that he or she was properly prepared through fasting and prayer, laypeople in general did not take communion more than a few times per year, typically on important feast days. 63As Robert F. Taft puts it, "Holy Communion, meant to be the common ecclesial sharing in the commonly offered gifts, ultimately devolved into an act of personal devotion." 64Since, as we have seen, the elevated panagia could function as a substitute for the Eucharist, it is not inconceivable that partaking of it may have been seen as an alternative form of communion. 60It is worth noting in this connection that the Byzantines could imaginatively assign different meanings to the orans gesture.In an epigram on a reliquary of Saint Demetrios (Manuelis Philae carmina, I:135-36, no.CCLXXVII), Manuel Philes, for instance, interprets the saint's outstretched arms as a gesture of invitation. 61Cf.Symeon of Thessalonike's hortatory letter quoted supra, in which the archbishop enjoins the women of his diocese to fortify their children with, inter alia, the bread of the Virgin. 62The relative prominence of epigrams on panagiaria in Philes' opus signals that this may have been the case.It is notable that panagiaria are virtually absent from the list of objects on which the eleventh-and twelfth-century epigrammatists, from Christopher of Mitylene to Theodore Balsamon, lavished occasional verse.Not a single poem in the monumental anthology of mostly twelfth-century epigrams in Ms. Marc.gr.524 in Venice, compiled ca.1300, was meant to accompany a panagiarion.V. the partial edition of the anthology in: S. Lambros, Ὁ Μαρκιανὸς κῶδιξ 524,  Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων 8 (1911) 2-59, 123-192 Византијски панагијари, специјалне посуде за обављање чина тзв.узношења панагије, обреда у којем се комад хлеба освећује у част Богородице, нису привлачили већу пажњу истраживача.У жељи да се макар делимично попуни та празнина, у раду се износе нека запажања о значају и употреби тих предмета.