The Hilandar Research Library received a query regarding the work of Dr. Yvonne Eileen Burns, whose published scholarship focused on Greek and Slavonic Gospel lectionaries. A “former lecturer in Serbocroat Language and Literature, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London,” Dr. Burns received her doctorate from the University of London in 1975.  Her dissertation, available online to download, is entitled A Comparative Study of the Weekday Lection Systems Found in Some Greek and Early Slavonic Gospel Lectionaries.

As indicated in various early volumes of Polata knigopisnaia: An informational bulletin devoted to the study of early Slavic books, texts and literatures, edited by William R. Veder (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and Mario Capaldo (Università di Roma, Italia), Dr. Burns was active in the early 1980s presenting at conferences (such as the 21-24 March 1981: Birmingham. Fifteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies: Byzantium and the Slavs), attending meetings (e.g., 7 November 1981, Oxford: Meeting of the Slavic and East European Medieval Study Group, see the abstract of her “Lection Systems and Rubrics in the Study of Greek and Slavonic Gospel Manuscripts“) and publishing (she submitted a bibliography, pp. 80-81).

Robert F. Taft, S.J., cites the work of Dr. Burns in his The Byzantine Rite: A Short History (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992), 49n17. There is an online Russian translation.

More recently, Dr. Burns was cited with Elena Velkovska for the significance of their individual research in Daniel Galadza’s 2018 book, Liturgy and Byzantinization in Jerusalem (Oxford University Press, p. 302):

“Similar studies on the lectionary have also been undertaken for the Byzantine rite, allowing a comparison between Hagiopolite and Constantinopolitan practices. The works of Yvonne Burns and Elena Velkovska are fundamental to an understanding of the structure and development of Byzantine lectionaries.”

Dr. Burns died on September 16, 1998 in Claygate, Surrey, England.

 

Selected Bibliography

“The Canaanites and Other Additional Lections in Early Slavonic Lectionaries.” Revue des études sud-est européennes 13 (1975): 525-528. Bucharest.

“Chapter Numbers in Greek and Slavonic Gospel Codices.” New Testament Studies 23.3 (1977) 320-333. Cambridge.

“The Historical Events that Occasioned the Inception of the Byzantine Gospel Lectionaries.” Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 32.4 (1982): 119-127. Wien.

“The Lectionary of the Patriarch of Constantinople.” Studia Patristica 15.1 (1984): 515-520. Berlin.

“The Numbering of the Johannine Saturdays and Sundays in Greek and Slavonic Gospel Lectionaries.” Palaeobulgarica/Старобългаристика 1.2 (1977): 43-55. Sofia.

“Some Aspects of Slavonic Gospel Manuscripts and their Greek Counterparts.” Polata Knigopisnaia: an Information Bulletin Devoted to the Study of Early Slavic Books, Texts and Literatures 7 (March 1983): 77-85.

“The Weekday Lection System of Miroslav’s Gospel.” Зборник Народног музеја 6 (1970): 259-286. Beograd.