e-Pedalion

Τhe transformation of a Christian cultural heritage text into a textual database of Οrthodox Canon Law

Authors

  • Dimitra Sarakatsianou Applied Informatics Department, University of Macedonia
  • Georgia Koloniari Applied Informatics Department, University of Macedonia, Greece

Keywords:

canon law, database, metadata, religious script, Pedalion (Rudder)

Abstract

Despite the great value of canonical texts in the life of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, there have been few memorable works of their digital processing and promotion. The first Orthodox Greek Canonical texts appeared two millennia ago, and are the sources of Canon Law. These texts as cultural heritage objects deserve more publicity, which can be supported by new technologies. Within this context, this article summarizes the logical design of a textual database called e-Pedalion. The Pedalion (or Rudder) is a recognized, official, and in-use Collection of Canons of the Orthodox Church. This is a printed book, which in the context of this project we will try to digitally transform, that is, to transfer it to an information system. The proposed database will provide a powerful digital methodological research tool to the scholars of Canon Law and further support the application of Semantic Web technologies and AI to its study.

References

Agapius the Monk, and Nicodemus the Hagiorite. (1957). The rudder (Pedalion): Of the metaphorical ship of the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of the Orthodox Christians or all the sacred and divine canons ... Translated by D. Cum-mings. Chicago: Orthodox Christian Educational Society.

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Legal Service of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (2010). ‘Βαλσαμών’ (Balsamon) Database of Orthodox Canon and Ecclesiastical Law. Available at: http://www.valsamon.com (Accessed: 8 December 2021).

Patsavos, L. J. (2003). Spiritual dimensions of the holy canons. Holy Cross Orthodox Press.

Ponomariov, A. (2019). ‘Digital Canon Law: On the Innovative Digital Dimension of the Concept of Canonical Territory of the Russian Orthodox Church’. DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 1681/2 ‘Privatheit Und Digitalisierung’, 12, pp. 25–30.

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Sarakatsianou, D., & Koloniari, G. (in print). ‘Developing a metadata standard for Orthodox Christian Canon Law description: OrthoCCL Metadata Standard version 1.0’. Journal of Religious & Theological Information. Special Issue on Document-ing Religions.

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Published

2025-01-09 — Updated on 2025-01-17

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Conference Proceedings Volume

Vol. 26 No. Preview (2021): Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies 2021

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Papers

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Copyright (c) 2025 Dimitra Sarakatsianou

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