ROME, JUNE 13, 2012 thanks to Zenit.org
An Italian philologist has found
unpublished sermons of Origen in the library of Monaco of Bavaria. The
discovery was announced Tuesday by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
On April 5, Marina Molin Pradel, who was studying a Byzantine
manuscript of the 11th century, the Monacense Greco 314, realized that some homilies
on the Psalms contained in it were similar to those of Origen, who lived from
185 to 232.
Following further study of them she came to the conclusion that
all the 29 homilies contained in the manuscript, to date unpublished, were of
Origen.
In the first half of the 3rd century, Origen wrote on the Psalter
and had an important impact on biblical exegesis.
The homilies do not bear the author’s name, perhaps because of the
condemnation of errors by some of his followers at the Council of
Constantinople in 553.
The discovery of these lost manuscripts is of great importance
given that much of Origen’s writings, especially the exegetical ones, was lost
following the condemnation in 553.
His writings on the interpretation of the Psalms, whether in
homilies or in commentaries, with the exception of a few homilies translated
into Latin, had been lost and in his time these texts had been considered as
his greatest achievement. With the recovery of the manuscripts a part of that
loss has been remedied.
Origen had an important influence on Christian literature in the
ancient world, whether in doctrine or spirituality in general, both in the East
and in the West.
In 2007, as part of a series of addresses on the Fathers of the
Church, Benedict XVI spoke about Origen in two of his Wednesday audiences.
Coincidentally the discovery of this manuscript of Origen happened precisely in
the home region of the Pope.