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Copyright

Ioana Feodorov

Published On

2025-01-31

Page Range

pp. 381–414

Language

  • English

Print Length

34 pages

Soul Inspiration from Wadi el Natrun

Ostrich Eggs as Reminders of Vigilance in Praying

  • Ioana Feodorov (author)
This chapter examines the multifaceted symbolism and spiritual significance of ostrich eggs across cultural, religious, and historical contexts, particularly within the Christian Orthodox tradition. The ostrich egg, a recurring motif in Mediterranean religious and artistic heritage, embodies themes of vigilance, prayer, and spiritual focus. The study highlights its biological, cultural, and symbolic aspects, including its essential role in the life cycle of ostriches, its practical and ceremonial uses, and its integration into religious iconography and architecture.

In the Christian tradition, ostrich eggs have been suspended in churches as visual reminders of the vigilance required in prayer, drawing parallels with the ostrich’s attentive incubation practices. The text delves into Arabic Christian manuscripts, Ethiopian church traditions, and medieval European arts to trace the egg's enduring spiritual metaphor. By exploring sources like the Arabic Physiologus and ecclesiastical texts by figures like Ibn Sabāʿ and Macarius III, the chapter reveals how ostrich eggs conveyed theological teachings about unwavering focus in worship.

Feodorov’s analysis extends to the artistic use of ostrich eggs in medieval reliquaries and their allegorical interpretations in Christian and Islamic traditions, emphasizing their role as symbols of life, resurrection, and spiritual vigilance. The chapter concludes by noting the diminishing awareness of this symbolism in modern times, urging a reevaluation of the ostrich egg’s spiritual and cultural heritage.

Contributors

Ioana Feodorov

(author)

Ioana Feodorov is a scholar of Arab Christianity and holds a BA in Arabic and English and a PhD in Arabic Philology from the University of Bucharest (Romania). She taught Arabic language and culture at the same University from 1993 to 2004 and is currently a senior researcher at the Institute of South-East European Studies of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest. She is the Principal Investigator of the TYPARABIC project funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (2021-2026). She leads a team of eighteen international researchers in the fields of early printing, Ottoman history, art history, the Arabic-speaking Christians, and Oriental languages. She is editing and translating from Arabic into English Paul of Aleppo’s Journal, which includes a chronicle of the Church of Antioch and Paul’s travels in 1652-1659 with his father Makarios III ibn al-Zaʿīm, Patriarch of Antioch, inside Ottoman Syria, and then to Constantinople, Moldavia, Wallachia, the Cossack lands (Ukraine), Muscovy, and Anatolia. She has authored several monographs and dozens of articles and volumes of collective essays. Selected works: Paul of Aleppo’s Journal. Vol. 1. Syria, Constantinople, Moldavia, Wallachia and the Cossacks’ Lands, introduction, Arabic text and English translation (Brill, Leiden, 2024); Arabic Printing for the Christians in Ottoman Lands. The East-European Connection (De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2023); Dimitrie Cantemir, Salvation of the Sage and Ruin of the Sinful World, introduction, Arabic text, and English translation (Brill, Leiden, 2016); Arab Christians between the Ottoman Levant and Eastern Europe, co-edited with Bernard Heyberger and Samuel Noble (Brill, Leiden, 2021); Icons, Ornaments, and Other Charms of Christian Arabic Books. Second Volume of Collected Works of the TYPARABIC Project, co-edited with Oana Iacubovschi and Samuel Noble (De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2024).