Miracles of Mary Story Dating
By PEMM Staff
PEMM was launched to collect information about the dating of the Ethiopian Miracles of Mary stories. When is the earliest attestation of each tale (in which century does each first appear)?
PEMM found out that the very earliest stories about the Virgin Mary came into Ethiopia in the fourth century.
Then, in the 1300s, Ethiopians began to translate Marian miracle stories from Arabic in the late 1300s. It seems that first eight were translated. Then, in 1400, the royal Ethiopian scriptorium produced a manuscript of stories translated from Arabic, totaling 74 translated stories. Stories continued to be translated from Arabic well into the 1400s
Soon, Ethiopians began adding their own stories of miracles the Virgin Mary had performed, many of them in Ethiopia.
Are some stories more popular in some centuries than others? In which century is each tale the most popular? Do some stories fade in popularity over time?
[Further data for this Research Post has been collected, but has not yet been added here.]
