The Mary Jaharis Center invites applications for its 2025–2026 grant competition. Scholars working in any discipline of Byzantine studies broadly conceived are encouraged to apply. We offer Co-Funding Grants, Dissertation Grants, Project Grants, and Publication Grants.
The deadline for all grant applications is February 1, 2025.
The Mary Jaharis Center is pleased to announce the winners of its 2024–2025 grant competition.
Dissertation Grants were awarded to Barış Altan, studying at the Brandenburg Technical University, for his dissertation, "Approaching Byzantine Heritage of Istanbul through Restoration Practices" and to Arsany Paul, studying at the University of Notre Dame, for his dissertation, "The Medieval Coptic Eucharist: Liturgy and Private Devotion in Egypt."
Project Grants were awarded to Dr. Armin Bergmeier, University of Leipzig, for his project, Mapping Transformations in Central Anatolia: An Archaeological Documentation and Survey Project in Akşehir/Philomelion (c. 3rd–13th century CE), and to Dr. Suna Çağaptay, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, for her project, Anaia Reframed: Peeling Back the Layers of Commercial and Urban Narratives.
A Publication Grant was awarded to Dr. Catherine Keane, Eberhard Karls Universität, for More than a Church: Late Antique: Ecclesiastical Complexes in Cyprus. The volume will be published by Brill.
Congratulations to this year's winners!
The Mary Jaharis Center invites applications for its 2024–2025 grant competition. Scholars working in any discipline of Byzantine studies broadly conceived are encouraged to apply. We offer Co-Funding Grants, Dissertation Grants, Project Grants, and Publication Grants.
The deadline for all grant applications is February 1, 2024.
The Mary Jaharis Center is pleased to announce the winners of its 2023–2024 grant competition.
The Mary Jaharis Center awarded a Co-Funding Grant to Rev. Fr. Stefanos Alexopoulos, Catholic University of America, for the three-day conference “The Liturgies of the Church of Alexandria: From Late-Antique Origins to the Medieval Heritage,” co-organized by Professor Dr. Harald Buchinger, University of Regensburg, and Rev. Fr. Arsenius Mikhail, St. Athanasius and St. Cyril Coptic Orthodox Theological School. The conference will foster and facilitate the examination of sources from the early period of the Alexandrine church (such as papyri, Church orders, patristics testimonies, and archeological evidence) so as to understand how the liturgical traditions of the various expression of Alexandrine Christianity developed and reached the liturgical structures and texts documented by medieval manuscript witnesses of Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia. It will take from 21–23 September 2023 at Catholic University of America.
Dissertation grants were awarded to Yiğit Zafer Helvacı, studying at the University of Torino, for his dissertation, "Archaeometric Analysis of Byzantine Mural Paintings from Eastern Crete, Greece," to Sarah Elaine Mathiesen, studying at Florida State University, for her dissertation, "Yılanlı Kilise: Meaning and Identity in a Byzantine Rock-Cut Church," to Earnestine Qiu, studying at Princeton University, for her dissertation, "Place and Power in the Anatolian Alexander Romances," and to Dorota Katarzyna Zaprzalska, studying at Jagiellonian University, for her dissertation, "Composite Icons as a Manifestation of the Sacralization of Images in Devotional Practice."
Publication Grants were awarded to Dr. Maria Alessia Rossi, Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University, for Visualizing Christ’s Miracles in Late Byzantium: Art, Theology, and Court Culture, and Dr. Agnieszka E. Szymanska, University of Richmond, for Sacred Spectating in Late Antique Egypt: Monastic Painting as Spiritual Experience. Both volumes will be published by Cambridge University Press.
Congratulations to this year's winners!
The Mary Jaharis Center is pleased to announce the winners of its 2022–2023 grant competition.
The Mary Jaharis Center awarded its first Co-Funding Grant to Dr. Sharon E. J. Gerstel, Director, UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture, for the one-day conference “Byzantium and the Generation of the 1930s,” co-organized by Dr. Dimitris Krallis, Director, SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies. The conference will consider the role Byzantium played in the imagination of Greek writers and painters of the 1930s and explore the intersection of Byzantium with modern Greece.
Dissertation grants were awarded to Georgia Delli, studying at the University of Athens, for her dissertation, "Samos in Middle and Late Byzantine Period. Archaeological, Historical and Topographical Study with Use of GIS and Archaeometry," to Elena Gittleman, studying at Bryn Mawr College, for her dissertation, "Legacies of Ancient Theater in Middle Byzantine Visual Culture (ca. 843–1204)," to Görkem Günay, studying at Koç University, for his dissertation, "Carving Up Landscapes in Byzantine Thrace: Rock-cut Spaces and Settlement Patterns in the Strandzha Region, and to Alexandros Zouvelos, studying at the University of Athens, for his dissertation, "Complaints and accusations in the works of Eustathios of Thessalonike. Critical Edition, Translation and Commentary of the Texts: Epistola ad Thessalonicenses, De simulatione, Adversus implacabilitatis accusationem, Oratio anno auspicando habita, Ethopoeia."
Dr. Georgios Deligiannakis, Associate Professor in the Program in Hellenic Culture at the Open University of Cyprus, received a Project Grant to excavate a church building near the Asklepieion complex of ancient Messene in one of the few Byzantine/Medieval sections of the city that has not previously excavated or disturbed by other activities with an eye to filling in our knowledge of Messene in later periods. A second Project Grant was awarded to Dr. Asil Yaman, Consulting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, for the project PhoenixByz: Contextualizing the Serçe Limanı within a Rural Byzantine Landscape, co-directed by Dr. Anna Sitz, Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Leader, Research group SFB 933 (Materiale Textkulturen) and the Seminar für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik, Universität Heidelberg. The project intends to document and interpret 15 late antique/Byzantine churches identified during the 2021 survey of the rural landscape of the Bozburun peninsula near the Serçe Limanı (Sparrow Harbor) shipwreck.
A Publication Grant was awarded to Hugh Jeffery, Independent Researcher, for Middle Byzantine Aphrodisias: The Episcopal Village AD 700-1250 to appear in the series of Aphrodisias site monographs published previously by von Zabern and now by Reichert.
Congratulations to this year's winners!
The Mary Jaharis Center invites applications for its 2022–2023 grant competition. Scholars working in any discipline of Byzantine studies broadly conceived are encouraged to apply. We offer Dissertation Grants, Project Grants, and Publication Grants.
We are pleased to announce a new Co-Funding Grant focused on promoting Byzantine studies in North America. These grants will provide co-funding to organize scholarly gatherings (e.g., workshops, seminars, small conferences) in North America that advance scholarship in Byzantine studies broadly conceived. Scholars at any career stage are eligible to apply.
The deadline for all grant applications is February 1, 2022.
The Mary Jaharis Center is delighted to announce the results of the 2021–2022 grant cycle.
Alessandro Carabia, studying at the University of Birmingham, was awarded a Dissertation Grant for his dissertation, "Space, Population, and Economy in a Frontier Region: Liguria in the Context of the Western Byzantine Provinces AD 500-700," and Elizabeth Zanghi, studying at Sorbonne University, for her dissertation, "El Nazar Kilise: étude globale d’un site mésobyzantin en Cappadoce."
Dr. Bilge Ar, Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University, received a Project Grant to document the North Church and surrounding buildings at the St. Thecla (Meryemlik) Archaeological Site and analyze the processional routes connecting the North Church with the site's other churches and structures in order to reconstruct the religious usage of the site.
Publication Grants were award to Julia Burdajewicz, faculty member at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, for Porphyreon in the Sidonian Hinterland: Late Antique Wall Paintings from the Basilica and Residential District (Polish Publications in Mediterranean Archaeology 7, Peeters Publishers) and to Jesse W. Torgerson, Assistant Professor, Wesleyan University, for The Chronographia of George the Synkellos and Theophanes: The Ends of Time in Ninth-Century Constantinople (Brill, Open Access).
Congratulations to this year's winners!
The final talk of the Mary Jaharis Center’s 2015–2016 Lecture Series was delivered by Cecily J. Hilsdale, Associate Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University in Montreal, on May 4, 2016. In her lecture titled “Worldliness in Byzantium and Beyond: Manuscript Materiality and Byzantine Materialism,” Professor Hilsdale discussed the many medieval versions of Barlaam and Ioasaph, a tale based loosely on the life of the Buddha and one of the most popular romances of the medieval world. She looked briefly at the Arabic, Georgian, Greek, and Latin textual traditions before turning to a discussion of illuminated Byzantine manuscripts illustrating the Barlaam and Ioasaph text and the possible source material used by Byzantine artists in creating a visual program for the tale. Dr. Hilsdale then considered Byzantine adaptations to the tale—that is, a stress on spiritual edification and worldly renunciation—and the role of Byzantine monastic networks in disseminating the text, particularly at the beginning of the thirteenth century.
The Mary Jaharis Center Lecture Series is co-sponsored by Harvard University Standing Committee on Medieval Studies.
On April 13, Anthony Eastmond, A.G. Leventis Reader in the History of Byzantine Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art and an expert on the arts of Georgia and Armenia, delivered the inaugural lecture for East of Byzantium, a partnership between the Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art at Tufts University and the Mary Jaharis Center. Professor Eastmond reflected on changing scholarly approaches to the lands east of Byzantium since the 1980 Dumbarton Oaks Symposium, East of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period, the changing availability of material for the study of the region and its accessibility to western scholars, and the changing politics in the region.
In response, Anthony Kaldellis, Professor of Classics at The Ohio State University, who has written extensively on Byzantine history, literature, and culture, offered comments on the middle ground between Byzantium and the East. Professor Kaldellis argued that a complete and accurate history of the Byzantine empire cannot be written without considering the political dynamics beyond its frontiers. He identified the lack of critical English editions of primary sources dealing with Byzantium in the east, sources such as the chronicle of Yaḥyā of Antioch, as a significant hurdle in the writing of this comprehensive history and urged investment in this foundational scholarship.
On April 14, Professors Eastmond and Kaldellis led the Studying East of Byzantium workshop. Fourteen graduate and undergraduate students from Boston University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and Tufts University explored major trends and challenges in the study of the Christian East.
The Mary Jaharis Center is pleased to announce East of Byzantium, a new partnership with the Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art at Tufts University. It explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire in the late antique and medieval periods.
Named after the path-breaking Dumbarton Oaks symposium of 1980, East of Byzantium surveys the diverse traditions of the medieval Christian East, including Syria, the South Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, and their relations with the neighboring Byzantine Empire. East of Byzantium looks at trends in the study of the material culture, religion, and history of this region, considers how digital technology can enhance access to it, and reflects on the peril of the region’s cultural inheritance. Through its annual events, East of Byzantium fosters the study of this important region, particularly in the Boston area, and focuses attention on the vulnerability of its cultural heritage. Foremost among its goals is promoting the study of the Christian East among undergraduates, graduate students, and non-specialists.
Antony Eastmond (The Courtauld Institute of Art) will give the inaugural lecture, “East of Byzantium: Shifting Identities and New Approaches,” with a response by Anthony Kaldellis (The Ohio State University). Professor Eastmond will also lead a workshop for students, “Studying East of Byzantium,” designed to introduce the study of the Christian East.
Both events will be held at the Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
For more information about the partnership and events, please visit the East of Byzantium website.
On November 13 and 14, 2015, the Mary Jaharis Center For Byzantine Art and Culture, with the New York Life Center for the Study of Hellenism in Pontus and Asia Minor, presented the third Boston Byzantine Music Festival. This year’s concerts, lectures, and workshops highlighted the influence of Byzantine music on modern and contemporary music in the East and West.
The festival began with a stimulating lecture in the Archbishop Iakovos Library Reading Room, Hellenic College Holy Cross, by the acclaimed musicologist and composer, Fr. Ivan Moody. His talk traced the deep and abiding influence of Byzantine and other Orthodox chant traditions on the work of a number of contemporary composers, including Michael Adamis, Arvo Pärt, Alexander Raskatov, John Tavener, and Fr. Moody himself.
That music came to the fore in the Friday night concert held at the First Church in Cambridge. Choral compositions by Pärt, Tavener, and Moody were interlaced with post-Byzantine ecclesiastical compositions and performed by the Boston Choral Ensemble and Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir. Given the shocking events that occurred that same evening in France, the music struck a deep nerve with the audience.
On Saturday, the festival shifted gears from high culture to folk. Panayotis League led a workshop entitled “Medieval Greek Folk Songs, Alive and Well” in the Archbishop Iakovos Library Reading Room. Mr. League taught participants to sing and play paraloges, which are narrative songs of medieval origin that remain popular on the islands of Kalymnos and Crete.
The festival concluded in lively form with a second concert at the First Church. The musical group Rebetoparea and the renowned singer Gregory Maninakis presented an evening of rebetiko. Once again, Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir provided an historical counterpoint by singing selections that constitute the pre-history of rebetiko, which is connected to the ecclesiastical music of medieval and post-medieval Constantinople.
In May 2015, the Mary Jaharis Center awarded its first Dissertation Grants and Dissertation Development Grants. Dissertation Grants, which provide funding to help defray the costs of research-related expenses, were awarded to Shannon Steiner (Bryn Mawr) for her dissertation, “Byzantine Enamel and Material Power, Ninth to Fifteenth Centuries,” and Courtney Tomaselli (Harvard University) for dissertation, “Piety, Patronage, Praxis: The Byzantine Psalter Vaticanus Graecus 1927.” Dissertation Development Grants, which assist with the costs of travel associated with the development of a dissertation proposal, were awarded to James Morton (University of California, Berkeley) for his project, “Byzantine Canon Law in the Roman Church: Nomocanonical Collections as Sources for the Greek Church in Southern Italy (11th–13th Centuries),” and Kyle Shimoda (Ohio State University) for his project, “The “Keys” of the Latinokratia: Castles and Fortifications in the Latin Aegean, 1204–1669.”
Trading Places: Byzantium and the Mediterranean World in the Later Middle Ages took place at Harvard University, April 16–17, 2015. The symposium was convened to explore the Mediterranean world as a “trading place” between Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, and Western societies. It was supported by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection; European Commission, Research & Innovation, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions; Harvard Art Museums; Harvard University Department of History of Art + Architecture; Harvard University Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities; Harvard University Standing Committee on Medieval Studies; and Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture.
The two-day symposium opened with a keynote lecture by the Cambridge University Professor of Mediterranean History, David Abulafia. In his lecture, “Problems of Periodization: The Mediterranean and Other Maritime Spaces in the Late Middle Ages,” Professor Abulafia argued that the period of 1350 to 1500 marked a new period in Mediterranean history, one in which the economy of the eastern Mediterranean was restructured and the political map of the region underwent significant transformations.
Three multidisciplinary panels addressed the economic, artistic, and material contours of medieval cultural exchange. A diverse group of scholars discussed fine ceramic ware production in Byzantium after the conquest of Constantinople (1204), Islamic illustrated manuscripts in late medieval Anatolia, cross-cultural oral and written interaction between Byzantium, the Islamic world, and the Latin West in the Middle Ages, Late Medieval Christian and Islamic coinage, the legal system of Venetian Crete, the legacy of Byzantine gold coinage in English royal ceremony, and digital approaches to the study of the Mediterranean world. The Very Rev. Dr. Joachim (John) Cotsonis (Director, Archbishop Iakovos Library, Hellenic College Holy Cross) and Dr. Eurydice Georganteli (Harvard University and University of Birmingham) led a medieval coins and seals workshop for symposium participants in the Art Study Center at the Harvard Art Museums.
The symposium concluded with Crossing Lines: Medieval Musical Encounters, a concert celebrating the shared musical culture of the Mediterranean basin. Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir began the evening with “The Joy of the Resurrection: Greek Orthodox Hymns of the Paschal Season.” Natasha Roule (vielle) and Ian Pomerantz (voice) followed the choir with interpretations of troubadour songs describing their encounters with Constantinople and the Holy Land. The performance featured excerpts of songs written by witnesses of the Third and Fourth Crusades. Voice of the Turtle ended the night with its program, “Jewels of the Mediterranean: Multicultural Experiences and Memories of the Past in the Music of the Sephardic Jewish Community of the Eastern Mediterranean,” a selection Sephardic ballads and other pieces illustrating the power of collective memory, communal experience, and story-telling in the Sephardic diaspora of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Boston Byzantine Music Festival, held on the Hellenic College Holy Cross campus on November 14th and 15th, celebrated the music of the Byzantine Empire through lectures, workshops, and performances. Music lovers attended lectures by Dr. Alexander Lingas (Artistic Director, Cappella Romana) and Dr. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol (Director, DÜNYA ensemble) and joined festival artists in a series of workshops that covered topics from the sounds and rhythms of Mediterranean percussion instruments to the techniques of conducting a choir.
Festival goers were treated to two evening concerts. On Friday, the internationally‐acclaimed vocal ensemble Cappella Romana delighted a large audience with its most popular program, The Fall of Constantinople, a selection of Latin and Greek works composed during the final century of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire. Alexander Lingas directed the performance.
An encore performance by the Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, led by Dr. Demetrios Kehagias, opened the Saturday evening concert. Its program, Petros the Peloponnesian: Portrait of a Musical Genius, showcased the music of one of the greatest post‐Byzantine ecclesiastical composers. The concert concluded with A Fasıl for a Phanariot Beyzade, performed by the Boston‐based, Grammy‐nominated DÜNYA ensemble. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol created the Festival program to reveal the cross‐fertilization between the Ottoman court, the Phanariot, and the great composers of the Orthodox Church, many of whom were also accomplished instrumentalists in the Ottoman classical tradition. The Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir, led by Dr. Grammenos Karanos, Artistic Director of the Boston Byzantine Music Festival, joined DÜNYA in a number of selections.
The Boston Byzantine Music Festival was presented by the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with the New York Life Center for the Study of Hellenism in Pontus and Asia Minor, both at Hellenic College Holy Cross. The Festival introduces contemporary audiences to Byzantine music, a tradition that spans over a thousand years, uses the world’s oldest notational system, and sits at the crossroads of East and West.
Friday, October 24 – 9:30 am ET
Grecian Echoes
Radio Program: 1550 AM WNTN – Boston area
Stream Online @ http://www.grecianechoes.com/
Or through a web-enabled cell phone @ http://www.greekboston.com/sigma/radio.shtml
The Artistic Director of the Boston Byzantine Music Festival, Grammenos Karanos, Assistant Professor of Byzantine Liturgical Music at Hellenic College Holy Cross, will be appear on Grecian Echoes, the longest running Greek American radio program in the United States. Dr. Karanos will be on the program to discuss the second Boston Byzantine Music Festival and the importance of preserving the musical traditions of the Byzantine Empire. Appearing on the program with him will be members of the Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir—Peter Hasiakos, Demetre Mott, and Constantine Trumpower.
The Second Boston Byzantine Music Festival will feature performances by the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble Cappella Romana, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir, and the Grammy-nominated DÜNYA ensemble. Cappella Romana will perform The Fall of Constantinople, which includes majestic Byzantine chants, Latin ceremonial motets, and two laments commemorating the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir will return to the Boston Byzantine Music Festival to celebrate the music of Petros the Peloponnesian (d. 1778), one of the greatest post-Byzantine ecclesiastical composers. DÜNYA ensemble will recreate a princely recital featuring music notated by nineteenth-century Greek Orthodox cantors.
A series of free lectures and workshops will be offered during the festival. Alexander Lingas, artist director of Cappella Romana, and Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, director of DÜNYA’s performance, will deliver lectures providing the historical context for the concerts. Explore the music presented in the concerts further through a series of hands-on workshops given by festival performers.
On February 24 and February 25, 2014, the Mary Jaharis Center with the New York Life Center for the Study of Hellenism in Pontus and Asia Minor presented the Boston Byzantine Music Festival at the Maliotis Cultural Center on the Hellenic College Holy Cross campus in Brookline, MA. Audiences were treated to a pair of lectures exploring the Byzantine musical tradition and two concerts that brought that tradition to life.
The festival began with a talk by Dr. Emmanouil Giannopoulos. His lecture, “Orthodox Liturgical Music’s Breeze Blows Over the Aegean,” looked at the important role the churches and monasteries of the Aegean Islands played in the preservation of Byzantine music. Dr. Giannopoulos was accompanied by the Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir, who performed pieces illustrating elements of his presentation. In one of the highlights of the evening, the choir sang As the disciples were hastening to the mountain (first mode), First Eothinon Doxastikon for Sunday Orthros, composed by Theodosios of Chios, which Dr. Giannopoulos transcribed into modern notation for the evening so that the audience could hear a piece of music that had gone unheard for centuries. The Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America took the stage for the second half of the evening’s program in a concert featuring selections from the Lenten hymnology of the Orthodox Church.
Dr. Kyriakos Kalaitzidis opened the second day of the festival with his afternoon lecture, “The Relationship of the Byzantine Musical Heritage with Eastern Mediterranean Musical Traditions.” Dr. Kalaitzidis outlined the many points of contact between Byzantine music and neighboring traditions. That evening, he led the internationally renowned ensemble En Chordais in a concert dedicated to the secular traditions of Byzantine and post-Byzantine music. The concert included Art Music of the Ottoman court, traditional Greek songs, Phanariot songs, and contemporary compositions by members of En Chordais. The Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir accompanied En Chordais on several songs.
For a complete program, click here.
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with the New York Life Center for the Study of Hellenism in Pontus and Asia Minor at Hellenic College Holy Cross present the Boston Byzantine Music Festival at the Maliotis Center on the HCHC campus on February 24–25, 2014.
The festival will feature concerts by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir and by the ensemble En Chordais, with lectures by Dr. Emmanouil Giannopoulos, Assistant Professor at the Higher Ecclesiastical Academy in Ioannina, Greece, and Dr. Kyriakos Kalaitzidis, Faculty of Music Studies, University of Athens.
Byzantine art is commonly associated with the majestic architecture of domed cathedrals or the mystical quality of icons, but its splendor is equally visible in Byzantine chant. More properly called Psaltic art, Byzantine chant is an a cappella musical tradition that has been recorded in written form for over one thousand years. This year’s festival coincides with the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the New Method of Analytical Notation, a major landmark in the history of Byzantine music.
The purpose of the Boston Byzantine Music Festival is to highlight the power of this music and introduce it to a wider audience. As one of the world’s great cultural and academic centers, Boston is an ideal place to raise awareness of this relatively unknown cultural treasure.
The inaugural festival will open on February 24 with a lecture by Dr. Emmanouil Giannopoulos on the history of Byzantine music. Performances by the Holy Cross St. Romanos the Melodist Byzantine Choir will accompany and illustrate the talk, entitled “Orthodox Liturgical Music’s Breeze Blows Over the Aegean.” The lecture will be followed by a concert of the acclaimed Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir, led by Demetrios Kehagias. The choir will chant selections from the Lenten hymnology of the Orthodox Church.
On the afternoon of February 25, Dr. Kyriakos Kalaitzidis will deliver a free public lecture on the relationship between post-Byzantine ecclesiastical and secular oriental music. That evening, the world- renowned En Chordais musical ensemble, led by Dr. Kalaitzidis, will perform a concert highlighting the Byzantine musical heritage in Asia Minor.
Individual concert tickets $40. $70 for both concerts. Student tickets $15 per concert (with valid ID). More information and tickets.
The Mary Jaharis Center has announced its inaugural Pre-College Program at Hellenic College. Aimed at rising juniors and seniors looking to experience the intellectual challenges of college coursework and the independence of living on a college campus, the Pre-College Program will run from June 29–July 18, 2014.
All students will have the chance to earn three college credits in a course that will take as its subject four of Byzantium’s most important cities—Constantinople, Jerusalem, Thessaloniki, and Mystras. The purpose of the course is to explore the Byzantine Empire and its material culture, introduce historical and anthropological conceptions of the city, and build writing skills. Students will also have the opportunity to take advantage of a SAT preparation course and other events designed to ready them for the college application process.
Students will live in residential housing on Hellenic College Holy Cross’s beautiful hilltop campus. Extracurricular trips are planned to explore Boston and its environs.
Brandie Ratliff, Director of the Mary Jaharis Center, is excited about the opportunity this program represents for students interested in learning about Byzantine art and culture and for the MJC to engage with a new audience. “Pre-college programs have become an increasingly important component in the mission of many American colleges and universities. Our program will provide the experience of living and learning in a college environment that so many high school students want, but it has the unique value letting them study Byzantine history and culture at the intellectual, educational and spiritual center of the Greek Orthodox Church in America.”
On November 8, 2013, the Mary Jaharis Center sponsored an overnight trip to Washington, D.C. for Hellenic College Holy Cross students. The purpose of the trip was to tour Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections at the National Gallery of Art.
Twenty-six members of the HCHC community—a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students, a few spouses, and one incredibly well composed four year old—climbed on board a coach on the morning of November 8 for a ten-hour ride, proof of their passion for exploring the arts of Byzantium and the attractions of our nation’s capital.
The next morning, November 9, the Director of the Mary Jaharis Center, Brandie Ratliff, led students though the exhibition. Among the many important works she highlighted were a first-century marble Head of Aphrodite marked with a cross, an eleventh-century silver Processional Cross, and a fifteenth-century Icon with the Dormition of Saint Saba. Ms. Ratliff stressed the rich diversity of artistic expression across the Byzantine world.
After the tour, students lingered in the gallery to discuss the exhibition with other and reexamine works that particularly caught their eye during the tour. One student was inspired to sketch a twelfth-century Double-sided Icon with the Virgin Hodegetria and the Man of Sorrows.
Just a short while later, the group reboarded the coach back to Brookline.
Brookline, MA. In conjunction with the Hellenic College Holy Cross 75th Anniversary Jubilee, on September 15 the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture sponsored an afternoon of Byzantine-themed children’s crafts and provided family entertainment.
As part of its 75th Jubilee celebrations, Hellenic College Holy Cross hosted a campus festival and open house. The Mary Jaharis Center, which is dedicated to the promotion and advancement of knowledge about the rich heritage of Byzantine art and culture, participated in the event with family-themed programming.
An able group of Hellenic College Holy Cross students helped Brandie Ratliff, the new director of the Mary Jaharis Center, run the crafts table, which had as its aim children’s interaction with the art of the Byzantine world. Children made paper mosaics using designs derived from Byzantine mosaics, created crowns inspired by the imperial portraits in the Hagia Sophia, and crafted bracelets and shields based on repoussé, a metalworking technique in which designs are raised by working metal from the reverse.
All in attendance were delighted when His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios visited the crafts table to watch the young artists in action. His Eminence joined right in, helping some children with their crowns.
The children weren’t the only artists on campus. The ZeeBree face painters transformed kids into butterflies, puppies, monsters, and other whimsical creations. Their skill and imagination was matched by the twisters of Balloon Moose. Using balloons, they created penguins, octopuses, and even a snowmobile. While waiting in line, children enjoyed free cotton candy provided by the Mary Jaharis Center.
Kids can become Byzantine royalty on September 15. Or design their own mosaic. Or try their hand at goldsmithing. All this and more is available during the open house and family festival that will close the Hellenic College Holy Cross 75th Anniversary Jubilee, September 12–15. The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture will sponsor children's arts and crafts projects based on Byzantine art and will celebrate with balloon twisting, face painting, and cotton candy. Hope to see you there!
Brookline, MA, April 2, 2013 – Hellenic College Holy Cross (HCHC) announced today that Brandie Ratliff has been named the new Director of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture. Ratliff is a well respected Byzantine art historian with extensive project management and curatorial experience at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
According to Hellenic College Dean Demetrios Katos, “This appointment signals HCHC’s commitment to becoming an important center for the dissemination of Byzantine art and culture in both the academy and Church.”
Ratliff will raise public awareness of Byzantine art and culture and promote the expansion of Byzantine studies within universities and cultural institutions. “I am excited and humbled to be given this opportunity to join the Jaharis Center as it enters into a new phase of outreach to academia and the public-at-large,” said Ratliff, “My vision is to turn the Jaharis Center into a nexus for intellectual and cultural exchange centered on Byzantium’s rich heritage.”
Ratliff has worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2001. For the past 7 years, she was a research associate for the Byzantine collection of the Department of Medieval Art. She was instrumental in developing the intellectual vision and content of the exhibition Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition and in selecting its 260-plus objects. She was also co-editor of the exhibit’s nearly four hundred page catalogue and author of many of its entries.
She earned an M.Phil in Byzantine art from Columbia University where she studied with Thomas Dale and Holger Klein.
Ratliff will begin as director on June 18, 2013. “I look forward to becoming part of the HCHC community and learning a great deal over the coming years as we work together to build a program that promotes the appreciation and study of Byzantine art and culture.” She will be moving to the Boston area later this spring with her husband and young daughter.
Inaugural Celebration October, 2, 2010
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture has been established on the campus of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts as a result of a generous donation from The Jaharis Family Foundation. The Center will serve as a premier international research center for the promotion of Byzantine art and culture and host a series of academic programs including seminars, conferences, visiting scholars, special events and art programs.
“The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture has enormous potential for helping scholars, faculty and students on campus and in the Boston academic community celebrate Byzantium,” said His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. “We thank Mary Jaharis for lending her name to the Center and for the generous contribution from the Jaharis Family Foundation.”
“The Center will study the myriad ways in which Byzantine society suffused Greek and Roman culture – its art and architecture, its literature and rhetoric, its pageantry and music – with its particular Christian imagination,” said Demetrios S. Katos, PhD, Interim Dean of Hellenic College. “It will also advance Hellenic College and Holy Cross’s mission of infusing modern endeavors with divine spirit.”
Greetings were offered by Reverend Nicholas C. Triantafilou, President of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology as well as Reverend Dr. Thomas FitzGerald, Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, who noted that Holy Cross is now the only graduate theological school in the western world where Byzantium will hold a prominent place. In addition, Professor Margaret Mullett, the Director of the Byzantine Studies Program at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, offered her support and congratulations.
The highlight of the inaugural event was an exhibition of icons, curated by the Very Reverend Dr. Joachim Cotsonis, called Kontoglou: The Return of the Byzantine Icon, as tribute to Photis Kontoglou, a leading figure in the revival of Byzantine-style icon painting. The exhibition is now open for public viewing through November 5, 2010, Monday through Friday, from 10am to 5pm in the Reading Room of the Archbishop Iakovos Library Building at 50 Goddard Avenue in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the campus of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
“Early 19th century icons in Greece and America were not Byzantine in nature,” said Dr. Helen C. Evans, The Mary and Michael Jaharis curator for Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, who lectured during the event.“ Kontoglou linked the Byzantine tradition to modern Orthodoxy and became one of the most important artists leading the revival of Greek Byzantine icon painting around the world.”
Dr. Ryan Preston, also a specialist in the work of Kontoglou, added, “The 1920s saw an abrupt shift away from naturalism and toward the traditions of folk and Byzantine art. After Kontoglou repatriated to Athens, he campaigned for the return of Byzantine art.”
The lecture presentations were followed by a musical performance by the renowned Byzantine chant group, Schola Cantorum, led by musical director and founder, Nektarios S. Antoniou.
“We hope the Center will serve as a focal point and resource for our two institutions and the wider academic community of the Massachusetts area, where students, faculty, scholars and anyone interested in Byzantine Studies will come together and promote learning and research in the field,” said Dr. Kouroumali, Director of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and Assistant Professor of Byzantine Studies at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
An exhibition of icons by Greek painter and iconographer Photis Kontoglou will be featured at the inaugural celebration of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Saturday, October 2, 2010. The exhibition entitled Kontoglou: The Return of the Byzantine Icon, curated by the Very Reverend Dr. Joachim Cotsonis, will be available for public viewing starting, October 4 through November 5, 2010, Monday through Friday, from 10am to 5pm.
Photis Kontoglou was the leading figure in the revival of Byzantine style icon painting in Greece and the United States. As a writer and a painter, he admired the spirit of Byzantium and was able to merge his profoundly personal artistic creed with the artistic tradition of the past. Though the Byzantine style was largely neglected through the first hundred years of the Modern Greek state, Kontoglou was able to revive interest in that style, bridging the past with modern day Hellenism.
“Early 19th century icons in Greece and America were not Byzantine in nature,” said Dr. Helen Evans, Curator of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Early Christian and Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and member of the Administrative Board for the newly established Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture. “Kontoglou linked the Byzantine tradition to modern Orthodoxy and became a seminal figure in the revival of Greek Byzantine icon painting around the world.”
Kontoglou was born in 1895 on the eastern side of the Aegean in the town of Ayvali in Asia Minor. He began his studies at the Athens School of Fine Art around the time of the outbreak of World War 1 and then left to journey through France, Spain and Belgium. His wanderings eventually brought him to Paris where he settled. In the wake of the Asia Minor disaster in 1922, he found himself uprooted and made a refugee among his own people in Greece. After visiting Mount Athos, he immersed himself in the Byzantine painting tradition.
“Kontoglou’s work represents the cultural inheritance of the Byzantine past and testifies to the organic, living tradition of sacred art in the Orthodox Church,” said the Very Reverend Dr. Cotsonis, an expert in Byzantine art history at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Massachusetts.“ For this exhibit, we are extremely fortunate to have nine icons on loan from various private collections by Kontoglou and two from one of his former students.”
The celebration will also feature opening remarks by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, as well as comments by Dr. Evans, Dr. Ryan Preston, a specialist in the work of Kontoglou, and Nektarios Antoniou, musical director and founder of the renowned Byzantine chant group, Schola Cantorum. The celebration will culminate with a concert by Schola Cantorum led by Mr. Antoniou.
“The sacred and the secular are at the heart of the Byzantine tradition, and the Mary Jaharis Center exemplifies this spirit,” said Dr. Maria Kouroumali, Director of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and Assistant Professor of Byzantine Studies at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology." We hope the Center will serve as a focal point and resource for our two institutions and the wider academic community of the Massachusetts area, where students, faculty, scholars and anyone interested in Byzantine Studies will come together and promote learning and research in the field.”
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture has been established on the campus of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, as a result of a $3 million donation from The Jaharis Family Foundation. The Center will serve as a premier international research center for the promotion of Byzantine art and culture and host a series of academic programs including seminars, conferences, visiting scholars, special events and art programs. The inaugural celebration will take place on Saturday, October 2, 2010 from 2:00–6:30pm.
“We are thrilled that the generous gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation has made the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture a reality,” said the Very Reverend Dr. Joachim Cotsonis, an expert in Byzantine art history at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Massachusetts.“ The Center will certainly enhance the educational, cultural and academic opportunities for scholars, faculty and students on campus and benefit the Boston academic community.”
“The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture will approach issues of Byzantium from the perspective of orthodox theology, scholarship and the arts,” said Dr. Helen C. Evans, a Mary Jaharis Center Administrative Board Member and curator of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Early Christian and Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.“ It will be instrumental in showing how relevant Byzantium is in the modern world.”
The inaugural event will feature an exhibition of icons, curated by the Very Reverend Dr. Joachim Cotsonis, called Kontoglou: The Return of the Byzantine Icon which serves as a tribute to Photis Kontoglou, a leading figure in the revival of Byzantine style icon painting in Greece and the United States. “Early 19th century icons in Greece and America were not Byzantine in nature,” said Dr. Evans, “Kontoglou linked the Byzantine tradition to modern Orthodoxy and became a seminal figure in the revival of Greek Byzantine icon painting around the world.”
The celebration will also feature opening remarks by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, as well as comments by Dr. Evans, Dr. Ryan Preston, a specialist in the work of Kontoglou, and Nektarios Antoniou, musical director and founder of the renowned Byzantine chant group, Schola Cantorum. The celebration will culminate with a concert by Schola Cantorum led by Mr. Antoniou
The exhibition of icons will be open to the public for viewing starting, October 4 through November 5, 2010, Monday through Friday, from 10am to 5pm in the Reading Room of the Archbishop Iakovos Library Building at 50 Goddard Avenue in Brookline, Massachusetts on the campus of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
“The sacred and the secular are at the heart of the Byzantine tradition, and the Mary Jaharis Center exemplifies this spirit,” said Dr. Maria Kouroumali, Director of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and Assistant Professor of Byzantine Studies at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.“ We hope the Center will serve as a focal point and resource for our two institutions and the wider academic community of the Massachusetts area, where students, faculty, scholars and anyone interested in Byzantine Studies will come together and promote learning and research in the field.”