Abstract

This contribution showcases the work of the Vienna Euchologia Project which aims to make accessible the ‘small prayers’ or ‘occasional prayers’ that are preserved in the Byzantine euchologia manuscripts from the late 8th to the mid 17th century as sources for daily life and social history. A brief introduction to the project is followed by three thematically focused studies that juxtapose the prescriptive prayers in the euchologia with descriptive evidence from other sources: exorcism and other prayers in hagiographical narratives, prayers with relevance to political history, and prayers relating to women’s purity.