Guidare ed educare: la predicazione dei papi tra antichità e medioevo

On 16 and 17 January 2025 the International Conference ‘Guiding and Educating: The Preaching of the Popes between Antiquity and the Middle Ages’ will be held at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The meeting, organised by the journal Archivum Historiae Pontificiae and the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage of the Church, under the sponsorship of Pontificio Comitato di Scienze Storiche, brings together international experts in the history of the ancient and medieval papacy with the aim of delving into a topic little covered by historiography, namely preaching by popes between antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although preaching is an essential moment of episcopal and thus papal activity, only in a few cases have the homilies delivered by popes been preserved. If we exclude the great homiletic collections of Leo the Great, Gregory the Great and Innocent III (which still lack a modern critical edition), there is a lack of repertories and studies expressly dedicated to the subject in the long run. Yet the homilies are a valuable source for understanding the cultural, institutional, social and historical-artistic dimensions of the Roman Church, the papacy and the city of Rome between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The conference therefore intends to offer a moment of in-depth study on the issue, and to offer an initial assessment of current studies and possible research developments on the subject.