Notes on byzantine Panagiaria

The article offers some new insights into the significance and function of Byzantine panagiaria, small-scale containers for the bread sanctified 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.