“A flower has bloomed in our land” The genesis of discourse on St Dorothy and three Old Czech sermons

Three Old Czech sermon collections – Passionál (Passional; autograph, c. 1357), Kázání dzikovská na okruh de sanctis (Dzikov sermons on the de Sanctis Cycle; sole surviving manuscript from the 1420s), and Sbírka kázaní založených na legendách (A collection of sermons based on legends; sole surviving manuscript, likely completed in 1453) – were produced over a span of a century, drawing from original Latin sources of Dominican origin: Legenda aurea (c. 1267) by Jacobus de Voragine and Sermones de Sanctis (c. 1295 – 1304) by Peregrinus of Opole. All three Old Czech collections include sermons on Dorothea of Caesarea, a virgin and martyr whose cult became popular in Central Europe from the 13th century and saw significant expansion in the 14th century. However, neither Jacobus’s nor Peregrinus’s original collections contained a section on Saint Dorothy, meaning that the anonymous preachers had to rely on other sources. This study first traces the development of Saint Dorothy’s hagiography and then explores its dissemination in the Czech lands from the mid-14th century onward. A comparative analysis reveals that each of the three Old Czech texts underwent a distinct evolution and represents a different sermon type: two distinct passiones serving as exempla and a classical thematic sermon.