From the ninth century AD there is a recently edited manuscript,
a Hagiopolite Tropologion, which was used in the liturgy in
Jerusalem (Sin. Gr. NE/MU 56+5) (Fig. 1.2).
18 The text, of
which only a Russian translation has so far been published, is
remarkable because it is a liturgy read on 17 January in
Jerusalem, commemorating the Christian victims of the earthquake
of AD 749. In it we hear how the Christians of the region tried
to cope with the dramatic catastrophe. The liturgy asks God to
tame his wrath against the people and that the victims of the
stroke (plege) may share in salvation.
19
Some lines later, it explicitly mentions the victims of God
shaking the earth.
20 Also it is mentioned that death came
suddenly (aprosdoketos).
21 This new text is a remarkable
testimony of coping with the earthquake and with the fact that it
cost many innocent lives. It is remarkable that the text was
especially read in the Levant, since the Georgian version of the
Tropologion lacks the passage on the earthquake, underlining the
regional impact of the seismic event.
22
Footnotes
18 cf. for the text and the genre: Nikiforova 2013; 2015; 2020; Chronz and Nikiforova 2014; Froyshov, Nikiforova, and Smelova 2023.
19 and 20 are illegible greek text in my copy
21 Τούς σωματικώς παταχθέντας καί συντριβέντας τή κολαστική ράβδω σου μή στερήσης έλέους έκ καθαίροντος, Χριστέ.
αμαρτημάτων, σου προσχυνητάς καί δούλους, Κύριε. Τούς παραδωθέντας άπροσδοκήτω θανάτω καί άπρόγνωστον δλεθρον
σωμάτων δεξαμένονς αΙωνίον, Χριστέ, σωτηρίας καί μακαριώτητος άξΙωσον (ed. Nikiforovaι 2020, 87).
22 Chronz and Nikiforova 2014.
