Domestic Ritual and Religious Life in the Eastern Roman Empire

This book traces the development of domestic rituals in the Eastern Roman Empire from the fourth through the eleventh centuries CE, arguing that the home was a primary and influential site of ritual praxis. Challenging the scholarly tendency to privilege ecclesiastical and monastic spaces, this book focuses on the home, a space largely administered by women, as a legitimate ritual sphere. The home was not merely in conversation with official religious life but also served as a driver of ritual innovation. This study finds that a deep integration of religion into daily life, reminiscent of the Graeco-Roman model, persisted and flourished within the domestic setting.