Antiochene Rite
Encyclopedia
Antiochene Rite designates the family of liturgies
originally used in the Patriarchate of Antioch
.
; then that of St. James
in Greek
, the Syriac
Liturgy of St. James, and the other Syriac Anaphora
s. The line may be further continued to the Byzantine Rite
(the older Liturgy of St. Basil and the later and shorter one of St. John Chrysostom
), and through it to the Armenian use. But these no longer concern the Church of Antioch.
is an important source for the history of the liturgy in the Antiochene rite. This text contains two outlines of liturgies, one in book two and one in book seven, and the complete Liturgy of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions
, which is the oldest known form that can be described as a complete liturgy.
All the liturgies of the Antiochene class follow the same general arrangement as that of the Apostolic Constitutions. Gradually the preparation of the oblation (Prothesis, the word also used for the credence table
), before the actual liturgy begins, develops into an elaborate service. The preparation for the lessons (the little Entrance) and the carrying of the oblation from the Prothesis to the altar (the Great Entrance) become solemn processions, but the outline of the liturgy: the Mass of the Catechumens and their dismissal; the litany; the Anaphora beginning with the words "Right and just" and interrupted by the Sanctus
; the words of Institution; Anamimnesis, Epiklesis and Supplication for all kinds of people at that place; the Elevation with the words "Holy things to the holy"; the Communion distributed by the bishop and deacon (the deacon having the chalice); and then the final prayer and dismissal–this order is characteristic of all the Syrian and Palestinian uses, and is followed in the derived Byzantine liturgies. Two points in that of the Apostolic Constitutions should be noticed. No saints are mentioned by name and there is no Our Father. The mention of saints' names, especially of the "All-holy Mother of God", spread considerably among Catholics after the Council of Ephesus (431), and prayers invoking her under that title were then added to all the Catholic liturgies. The Apostolic Constitutions have preserved an older form unchanged by the development that modifies forms in actual use. The omission of the Lord's Prayer is curious and unique. It has at any rate nothing to do with relative antiquity. In the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" (VIII, ii, 3) people are told to pray three times a day "as the Lord commanded in his Gospel: Our Father", etc.
(died 420) seems to have known it. At any rate at Bethlehem
he quotes as a liturgical form the words "who alone is sinless", which occur in this Liturgy (Adv. Pel., II, xxiii). The fact that the Jacobites
use the same liturgy in Syriac shows that it existed and was well established before the Monophysite schism. The oldest manuscript is one of the tenth century formerly belonging to the Greek monastery at Messina and now kept in the University library of that city.
The Greek Liturgy of St. James follows in all its essential parts that of the Apostolic Constitutions. It has preparatory prayers to be said by the priest and deacon and a blessing of the incense. Then begins the Mass of the Catechumens with the little Entrance. The deacon says a litany (’ekténeia), to each clause of which the people answer "Kyrie eleison". Meanwhile the priest is saying a prayer to himself, of which only the last words are said aloud, after the litany is finished. The singers say the Trisagion
, "Holy God, holy Strong One, holy Immortal One, have mercy on us." The practice of the priest saying one prayer silently while the people are occupied with something different is a later development. The Lessons follow, still in the older form, that is, long portions of both Testaments, then the prayers for the catechumens and their dismissal. Among the prayers for the catechumens occurs a reference to the cross (lift up the horn of the Christians by the power of the venerable and life-giving cross) which must have been written after St. Helen found it (c. 326) and which is one of the many reasons for connecting this liturgy with Jerusalem. When the catechumens are dismissed the deacon tells the faithful to "know each other", that is to observe whether any stranger is still present. The great Entrance which begins the Mass of the Faithful is already an imposing ceremony. The incense is blessed, the oblation is brought from the Prothesis to the altar while the people sing the Cherubikon
, ending with three Alleluias. (The text is different from the Byzantine Cherubikon.) Meanwhile the priest says another prayer silently. The creed is then said; apparently at first it was a shorter form like the Apostles' Creed. The Offertory
prayers and the litany are much longer than those in the Apostolic Constitutions. There is as yet no reference to an Iconostasis
(screen dividing the choir or place of the clergy). The beginning of the "Anaphora" (Preface) is shorter. The words of Institution and Anamimnesis are followed immediately by the Epiklesis; then comes the Supplication for various people. The deacon reads the "Diptychs" of the names of the people for whom they pray; then follows a list of Saints beginning with "our all-holy, immaculate and highly praised Lady Mary, Mother of God and ever-virgin." Here are inserted two hymns to Our Lady obviously directed against the Nestorian heresy. The Lord's Prayer follows with an introduction and Embolismos. The Host is shown to the people with the same words as in the Apostolic Constitutions, and then broken, and part of it is put into the chalice while the priest says: "The mixing of the all-holy Body and the precious Blood of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ." Before Communion Psalm xxxiii is said. The priest says a prayer before his Communion. The deacon communicates the people. There is no such form as: "The Body of Christ"; he says only: "Approach in the fear of the Lord", and they answer "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." What is left of the Blessed Sacrament is taken by the deacon to the Prothesis; the prayers of thanksgiving are longer than those of the Apostolic Constitutions.
The Liturgy of St. James as it now exists is a more developed form of the same use as that of the Apostolic Constitutions. The prayers are longer, the ceremonies have become more elaborate, incense is used continually, and the preparation is already on the way to become the complicated service of the Byzantine Prothesis. There are continual invocations of saints; but the essential outline of the Rite is the same. Besides the references to the Holy Cross, one allusion makes it clear that it was originally drawn lup for the Church of Jerusalem. The first supplication after the Epiklesis is: "We offer to thee, O Lord, for Thy holy places which Thou hast glorified by the divine appearance of Thy Christ and by the coming of Thy holy Spirit, especially for the holy and illustrious Sion, mother of all churches and for Thy holy Catholic and apostolic Church throughout the world." This liturgy was used throughout Syria and Palestine, that is throughout the Antiochene Patriarchate (Jerusalem was not made a patriarchal see till the Council of Ephesus, 431) before the Nestorian and Monophysite schisms. It is possible to reconstruct a great part of the use of the city of Antioch while St. John Chrysostom was preaching there (370-397) from the allusions and quotations in his homilies (Probst, Liturgie des IV. Jahrh., II, i, v, 156, 198). It is then seen to be practically that of St. James: indeed whole passages are quoted word for word as they stand in St. James or in the Apostolic Constitutions.
The Catechisms of St. Cyril of Jerusalem were held in 348; the first eighteen are addressed to the Competentes (photizómenoi) during Lent, the last six to the neophytes in Easter week. In these he explains, besides Baptism and Confirmation, the holy liturgy. The allusions to the liturgy are carefully veiled in the earlier ones because of the disciplina arcani; they became much plainer when he speaks to people just baptized, although even then he avoids quoting the baptism form or the words of consecration. From these Catechisms we learn the order of the liturgy at Jerusalem in the middle of the fourth century. Except for one or two unimportant variations, it is that of St. James (Probst, op. cit., II, i, ii, 77-106). This liturgy appears to have been used in either language, Greek at Antioch, Jerusalem, and the chief cities where Greek was commonly spoken, Syriac in the country. The oldest form of it now extant is the Greek version. Is it possible to find a relationship between it and other parent-uses? There are a number of very remarkable parallel passages between the Anaphora of this liturgy and the Canon of the Roman Mass. The order of the prayers is different, but when the Greek or Syriac is translated into Latin there appear a large number of phrases and clauses that are identical with ours. It has been suggested that Rome and Syria originally used the same liturgy and that the much-disputed question of the order of our Canon may be solved by reconstructing it according to the Syrian use (Drews, Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Kanons). Mgr. Duchesne and most authors, on the other hand, are disposed to connect the Gallican Liturgy with that of Syria and the Roman Mass with the Alexandrine use (Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, 54).
continued using the same rite. But gradually the two languages became characteristic of the two sides. The Jacobites used only Syriac (their whole movement being a national revolt against the Emperor), and the Melchites, who were nearly all Greeks in the chief towns, generally used Greek.
The Syriac Liturgy of St. James now extant is not the original one used before the schism, but a modified form derived from it by the Jacobites for their own use. The preparation of the oblation has become a still more elaborate rite. The kiss of peace comes at the beginning of the Anaphora and after it this Syriac liturgy follows the Greek one almost word for word, including the reference to Sion, the mother of all churches. But the list of saints is modified; the deacon commemorates the saints "who have kept undefiled the faith of Nicæa, Constantinople and Ephesus"; he names "James the brother of Our Lord" alone of the Apostles and "most chiefly Cyril who was a tower of the truth, who expounded the incarnation of the Word of God, and Mar James and Mar Ephraim, eloquent mouths and pillars of our holy Church." Mar James is Baradaï
, through whom they have their orders, and from whom their name (543). Is Ephraim the Patriarch Ephraim of Antioch
, who reigned there from 539-545, but who was certainly not a Monophysite? The list of saints, however, varies considerably; sometimes they introduce a long list of their patrons (Renaudot, Lit. Orient. Col., II, 101-103). This liturgy still contains a famous clause. Just before the lessons the Trisagion is sung. That of the Greek rite is: "Holy God, holy Strong one, holy Immortal one, have mercy on us." The Syriac rite adds after "holy Immortal one" the words: "who wast crucified for us." This is the addition made by Peter the Dyer (gnapheús, fullos) Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch (458-471), which seemed to the Orthodox to conceal Monophysite heresy and which was adopted by the Jacobites as a kind of proclamation of their faith. In the Syriac use a number of Greek words have remained. The deacon says stômen kalôs in Greek and the people continually cry out "Kurillison", just as they say "Amen" and "Alleluia" in Hebrew. Short liturgical forms constantly become fossilized in one language and count almost as inarticulate exclamations. The Greek ones in the Syriac liturgy show that the Greek language is the original.
Besides the Syriac Liturgy of St. James, the Jacobites have a large number of other Anaphoras, which they join to the common Preparation and Catechumen's Mass. The names of sixtly-four of these Anaphoras are known. They are attributed to various saints and Monophysite bishops; thus, there are the Anaphoras of St. Basil, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Peter, St. Clement, Dioscurus of Alexandrian, John Maro, James of Edessa (died 708), Severus of Antioch (died 518), and so on. There is also a shortened Anaphora of St. James of Jerusalem. Renaudot prints the texts of forty-two of these liturgies in a Latin translation. They consist of different prayers, but the order is practically always that of the Syriac St. James Liturgy, and they are really local modifications of it. A letter written by James of Edessa (c. 624) to a certain priest named Timothy describes and explains the Monophysite Liturgy of his time (Assemani, Bibl. Orient., I, 479-486). It is the Syrian St. James. The Liturgy of the Presanctified of St. James (used on the week days of Lent except Saturdays) follows the other one very closely. There is the Mass of the Catechumens with the little Entrance, the Lessons, Mass of the Faithful and great Entrance, litanies, Our Father, breaking of the Host, Communion, thanksgiving, and dismissal. Of course the whole Eucharistic prayer is left out–the oblations are already consecrated as they lie on the Prothesis before the great Entrance (Brightman, op. cit., 494-501).
says that by the end of the twelfth century the Church of Jerusalem followed the Byzantine Rite. By that time Antioch had also doubtless followed suit. There are, however, two small exceptions. In the island of Zakynthos and in Jerusalem itself the Greek Liturgy of St. James was used on one day each year, 23 October, the feast of St. James the "brother of God". It is still so used at Zakynthos, and in 1886 Dionysios Latas, Metropolitan of Zakynthos, published an edition of it for practical purposes. At Jerusalem even this remnant of the old use had disappeared. But in 1900 Lord Damianos, the Orthodox Patriarch, revived it for one day in the year, not 23 October but 31 December. It was first celebrated again in 1900 (on 30 December as an exception) in the church of the Theological College of the Holy Cross. Lord Epiphanios, Archbishop of the River Jordan, celebrated, assisted by a number of concelebrating priests. The edition of Latas was used, but the Archimandrite Chrysostomos Papadopoulos has been commissioned to prepare another and more correct edition (Echos d'Orient, IV, 247, 248).
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
originally used in the Patriarchate of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...
.
Liturgies in the Antiochene Rite
The family of liturgies include the Apostolic ConstitutionsApostolic Constitutions
The Apostolic Constitutions is a Christian collection of eight treatises which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated from 375 to 380 AD. The provenience is usually regarded as Syria, probably Antioch...
; then that of St. James
Liturgy of St James
The Liturgy of Saint James is the oldest complete form of the Eastern varieties of the Divine Liturgy still in use among certain Christian churches....
in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, the Syriac
Syriac language
Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
Liturgy of St. James, and the other Syriac Anaphora
Anaphora (liturgy)
The Anaphora is the most solemn part of the Divine liturgy, Mass, or other Christian Communion rite where the offerings of bread and wine are consecrated as the body and blood of Christ. This is the usual name for this part of the Liturgy in Eastern Christianity, but it is more often called the...
s. The line may be further continued to the Byzantine Rite
Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches , and by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church...
(the older Liturgy of St. Basil and the later and shorter one of St. John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...
), and through it to the Armenian use. But these no longer concern the Church of Antioch.
Liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions
The Apostolic ConstitutionsApostolic Constitutions
The Apostolic Constitutions is a Christian collection of eight treatises which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated from 375 to 380 AD. The provenience is usually regarded as Syria, probably Antioch...
is an important source for the history of the liturgy in the Antiochene rite. This text contains two outlines of liturgies, one in book two and one in book seven, and the complete Liturgy of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions
Liturgy of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions
The Liturgy of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions is a complete text of the Christian Divine Liturgy and found in the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. It is the oldest known form that can be described as a complete liturgy and can be dated the second half of the 4th century...
, which is the oldest known form that can be described as a complete liturgy.
All the liturgies of the Antiochene class follow the same general arrangement as that of the Apostolic Constitutions. Gradually the preparation of the oblation (Prothesis, the word also used for the credence table
Credence table
A Credence table is a small side table in the sanctuary of a Christian church which is used in the celebration of the Eucharist. Etymology: from latin credens, -entis, believer)....
), before the actual liturgy begins, develops into an elaborate service. The preparation for the lessons (the little Entrance) and the carrying of the oblation from the Prothesis to the altar (the Great Entrance) become solemn processions, but the outline of the liturgy: the Mass of the Catechumens and their dismissal; the litany; the Anaphora beginning with the words "Right and just" and interrupted by the Sanctus
Sanctus
The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...
; the words of Institution; Anamimnesis, Epiklesis and Supplication for all kinds of people at that place; the Elevation with the words "Holy things to the holy"; the Communion distributed by the bishop and deacon (the deacon having the chalice); and then the final prayer and dismissal–this order is characteristic of all the Syrian and Palestinian uses, and is followed in the derived Byzantine liturgies. Two points in that of the Apostolic Constitutions should be noticed. No saints are mentioned by name and there is no Our Father. The mention of saints' names, especially of the "All-holy Mother of God", spread considerably among Catholics after the Council of Ephesus (431), and prayers invoking her under that title were then added to all the Catholic liturgies. The Apostolic Constitutions have preserved an older form unchanged by the development that modifies forms in actual use. The omission of the Lord's Prayer is curious and unique. It has at any rate nothing to do with relative antiquity. In the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" (VIII, ii, 3) people are told to pray three times a day "as the Lord commanded in his Gospel: Our Father", etc.
Greek liturgy of St. James
Of the Antiochene liturgies drawn up for actual use, the oldest one and the original from which the others have been derived is the Greek Liturgy of St. James. The reference to it in Canon xxxii of the Quinisextum Council, which quotes it as being really composed by St. James, the brother of Our Lord. The Council appeals to this liturgy in defending the mixed chalice against the Armenians. St. JeromeJerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
(died 420) seems to have known it. At any rate at Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
he quotes as a liturgical form the words "who alone is sinless", which occur in this Liturgy (Adv. Pel., II, xxiii). The fact that the Jacobites
Syriac Orthodox Church
The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....
use the same liturgy in Syriac shows that it existed and was well established before the Monophysite schism. The oldest manuscript is one of the tenth century formerly belonging to the Greek monastery at Messina and now kept in the University library of that city.
The Greek Liturgy of St. James follows in all its essential parts that of the Apostolic Constitutions. It has preparatory prayers to be said by the priest and deacon and a blessing of the incense. Then begins the Mass of the Catechumens with the little Entrance. The deacon says a litany (’ekténeia), to each clause of which the people answer "Kyrie eleison". Meanwhile the priest is saying a prayer to himself, of which only the last words are said aloud, after the litany is finished. The singers say the Trisagion
Trisagion
The Trisagion , sometimes called by its opening line Agios O Theos or by the Latin Tersanctus, is a standard hymn of the Divine Liturgy in most of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches and Catholic Churches.In those Churches which use the Byzantine Rite, the Trisagion is chanted...
, "Holy God, holy Strong One, holy Immortal One, have mercy on us." The practice of the priest saying one prayer silently while the people are occupied with something different is a later development. The Lessons follow, still in the older form, that is, long portions of both Testaments, then the prayers for the catechumens and their dismissal. Among the prayers for the catechumens occurs a reference to the cross (lift up the horn of the Christians by the power of the venerable and life-giving cross) which must have been written after St. Helen found it (c. 326) and which is one of the many reasons for connecting this liturgy with Jerusalem. When the catechumens are dismissed the deacon tells the faithful to "know each other", that is to observe whether any stranger is still present. The great Entrance which begins the Mass of the Faithful is already an imposing ceremony. The incense is blessed, the oblation is brought from the Prothesis to the altar while the people sing the Cherubikon
Cherubikon
The Cherubikon, or Cherubic Hymn, is the troparion normally sung at the Great Entrance during the Byzantine liturgy. The hymn is sung in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. The hymn symbolically incorporates those present at the liturgy into the presence of the angels...
, ending with three Alleluias. (The text is different from the Byzantine Cherubikon.) Meanwhile the priest says another prayer silently. The creed is then said; apparently at first it was a shorter form like the Apostles' Creed. The Offertory
Offertory
The Offertory is the portion of a Eucharistic service when bread and wine are brought to the altar. The offertory exists in many liturgical Christian denominations, though the Eucharistic theology varies among celebrations conducted by these denominations....
prayers and the litany are much longer than those in the Apostolic Constitutions. There is as yet no reference to an Iconostasis
Iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...
(screen dividing the choir or place of the clergy). The beginning of the "Anaphora" (Preface) is shorter. The words of Institution and Anamimnesis are followed immediately by the Epiklesis; then comes the Supplication for various people. The deacon reads the "Diptychs" of the names of the people for whom they pray; then follows a list of Saints beginning with "our all-holy, immaculate and highly praised Lady Mary, Mother of God and ever-virgin." Here are inserted two hymns to Our Lady obviously directed against the Nestorian heresy. The Lord's Prayer follows with an introduction and Embolismos. The Host is shown to the people with the same words as in the Apostolic Constitutions, and then broken, and part of it is put into the chalice while the priest says: "The mixing of the all-holy Body and the precious Blood of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ." Before Communion Psalm xxxiii is said. The priest says a prayer before his Communion. The deacon communicates the people. There is no such form as: "The Body of Christ"; he says only: "Approach in the fear of the Lord", and they answer "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." What is left of the Blessed Sacrament is taken by the deacon to the Prothesis; the prayers of thanksgiving are longer than those of the Apostolic Constitutions.
The Liturgy of St. James as it now exists is a more developed form of the same use as that of the Apostolic Constitutions. The prayers are longer, the ceremonies have become more elaborate, incense is used continually, and the preparation is already on the way to become the complicated service of the Byzantine Prothesis. There are continual invocations of saints; but the essential outline of the Rite is the same. Besides the references to the Holy Cross, one allusion makes it clear that it was originally drawn lup for the Church of Jerusalem. The first supplication after the Epiklesis is: "We offer to thee, O Lord, for Thy holy places which Thou hast glorified by the divine appearance of Thy Christ and by the coming of Thy holy Spirit, especially for the holy and illustrious Sion, mother of all churches and for Thy holy Catholic and apostolic Church throughout the world." This liturgy was used throughout Syria and Palestine, that is throughout the Antiochene Patriarchate (Jerusalem was not made a patriarchal see till the Council of Ephesus, 431) before the Nestorian and Monophysite schisms. It is possible to reconstruct a great part of the use of the city of Antioch while St. John Chrysostom was preaching there (370-397) from the allusions and quotations in his homilies (Probst, Liturgie des IV. Jahrh., II, i, v, 156, 198). It is then seen to be practically that of St. James: indeed whole passages are quoted word for word as they stand in St. James or in the Apostolic Constitutions.
The Catechisms of St. Cyril of Jerusalem were held in 348; the first eighteen are addressed to the Competentes (photizómenoi) during Lent, the last six to the neophytes in Easter week. In these he explains, besides Baptism and Confirmation, the holy liturgy. The allusions to the liturgy are carefully veiled in the earlier ones because of the disciplina arcani; they became much plainer when he speaks to people just baptized, although even then he avoids quoting the baptism form or the words of consecration. From these Catechisms we learn the order of the liturgy at Jerusalem in the middle of the fourth century. Except for one or two unimportant variations, it is that of St. James (Probst, op. cit., II, i, ii, 77-106). This liturgy appears to have been used in either language, Greek at Antioch, Jerusalem, and the chief cities where Greek was commonly spoken, Syriac in the country. The oldest form of it now extant is the Greek version. Is it possible to find a relationship between it and other parent-uses? There are a number of very remarkable parallel passages between the Anaphora of this liturgy and the Canon of the Roman Mass. The order of the prayers is different, but when the Greek or Syriac is translated into Latin there appear a large number of phrases and clauses that are identical with ours. It has been suggested that Rome and Syria originally used the same liturgy and that the much-disputed question of the order of our Canon may be solved by reconstructing it according to the Syrian use (Drews, Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Kanons). Mgr. Duchesne and most authors, on the other hand, are disposed to connect the Gallican Liturgy with that of Syria and the Roman Mass with the Alexandrine use (Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, 54).
Syriac liturgies
After the Monophysite schism and the Council of Chalcedon (451), both Melchites and JacobitesSyriac Orthodox Church
The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....
continued using the same rite. But gradually the two languages became characteristic of the two sides. The Jacobites used only Syriac (their whole movement being a national revolt against the Emperor), and the Melchites, who were nearly all Greeks in the chief towns, generally used Greek.
The Syriac Liturgy of St. James now extant is not the original one used before the schism, but a modified form derived from it by the Jacobites for their own use. The preparation of the oblation has become a still more elaborate rite. The kiss of peace comes at the beginning of the Anaphora and after it this Syriac liturgy follows the Greek one almost word for word, including the reference to Sion, the mother of all churches. But the list of saints is modified; the deacon commemorates the saints "who have kept undefiled the faith of Nicæa, Constantinople and Ephesus"; he names "James the brother of Our Lord" alone of the Apostles and "most chiefly Cyril who was a tower of the truth, who expounded the incarnation of the Word of God, and Mar James and Mar Ephraim, eloquent mouths and pillars of our holy Church." Mar James is Baradaï
Jacob Baradaeus
Jacob Baradaeus was Bishop of Edessa from 543 until his death. One of the most important figures in the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and the Oriental Orthodox churches generally, he was a defender of the Monophysite movement in a time when its strength was declining...
, through whom they have their orders, and from whom their name (543). Is Ephraim the Patriarch Ephraim of Antioch
Ephraim of Antioch
Ephraim of Antioch or of Amida |Amida]] in Mesopotamia; d. in 545) was Patriarch of Antioch and a Church Father. He was one of the defenders of the Faith of the Council of Chalcedon against the Monophysites. He is an Orthodox saint.-Life:...
, who reigned there from 539-545, but who was certainly not a Monophysite? The list of saints, however, varies considerably; sometimes they introduce a long list of their patrons (Renaudot, Lit. Orient. Col., II, 101-103). This liturgy still contains a famous clause. Just before the lessons the Trisagion is sung. That of the Greek rite is: "Holy God, holy Strong one, holy Immortal one, have mercy on us." The Syriac rite adds after "holy Immortal one" the words: "who wast crucified for us." This is the addition made by Peter the Dyer (gnapheús, fullos) Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch (458-471), which seemed to the Orthodox to conceal Monophysite heresy and which was adopted by the Jacobites as a kind of proclamation of their faith. In the Syriac use a number of Greek words have remained. The deacon says stômen kalôs in Greek and the people continually cry out "Kurillison", just as they say "Amen" and "Alleluia" in Hebrew. Short liturgical forms constantly become fossilized in one language and count almost as inarticulate exclamations. The Greek ones in the Syriac liturgy show that the Greek language is the original.
Besides the Syriac Liturgy of St. James, the Jacobites have a large number of other Anaphoras, which they join to the common Preparation and Catechumen's Mass. The names of sixtly-four of these Anaphoras are known. They are attributed to various saints and Monophysite bishops; thus, there are the Anaphoras of St. Basil, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Peter, St. Clement, Dioscurus of Alexandrian, John Maro, James of Edessa (died 708), Severus of Antioch (died 518), and so on. There is also a shortened Anaphora of St. James of Jerusalem. Renaudot prints the texts of forty-two of these liturgies in a Latin translation. They consist of different prayers, but the order is practically always that of the Syriac St. James Liturgy, and they are really local modifications of it. A letter written by James of Edessa (c. 624) to a certain priest named Timothy describes and explains the Monophysite Liturgy of his time (Assemani, Bibl. Orient., I, 479-486). It is the Syrian St. James. The Liturgy of the Presanctified of St. James (used on the week days of Lent except Saturdays) follows the other one very closely. There is the Mass of the Catechumens with the little Entrance, the Lessons, Mass of the Faithful and great Entrance, litanies, Our Father, breaking of the Host, Communion, thanksgiving, and dismissal. Of course the whole Eucharistic prayer is left out–the oblations are already consecrated as they lie on the Prothesis before the great Entrance (Brightman, op. cit., 494-501).
Recent times
The Oriental Orthodox in Syria and Palestine still use the Syriac Liturgy of St. James, as do also the Syrian Catholics. The Orthodox of the two Patriarchates, Antioch and Jerusalem, have forsaken their own use for many centuries. Like most Christians in communion with Constantinople, they have adopted the Byzantine Rite (with the exception of the small number in canonical jurisdictions who use reconstructed Western liturgies). This is one result of the extreme centralization towards Constantinople that followed the Arab conquests of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. The Melchite Patriarchs of those countries, who had already lost nearly all their flocks through the Monophysite heresy, became the merest shadows and eventually even left their sees to be ornaments of the courts at Constantinople. It was during that time, before the rise of the new national churches, that the Byzantine Patriarch developed into something very like a pope over the whole Orthodox world. And he succeeded in foisting the liturgy, calendar, and practices of his own patriarchate on the much older and more venerable sees of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. It is not possible to say exactly when the older uses were forsaken for that of Byzantium. Theodore BalsamonTheodore Balsamon
Theodore Balsamon was a canonist of the Greek Orthodox Church and 12th century Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.Born in the second half of the 12th century at Constantinople; died there, after 1195...
says that by the end of the twelfth century the Church of Jerusalem followed the Byzantine Rite. By that time Antioch had also doubtless followed suit. There are, however, two small exceptions. In the island of Zakynthos and in Jerusalem itself the Greek Liturgy of St. James was used on one day each year, 23 October, the feast of St. James the "brother of God". It is still so used at Zakynthos, and in 1886 Dionysios Latas, Metropolitan of Zakynthos, published an edition of it for practical purposes. At Jerusalem even this remnant of the old use had disappeared. But in 1900 Lord Damianos, the Orthodox Patriarch, revived it for one day in the year, not 23 October but 31 December. It was first celebrated again in 1900 (on 30 December as an exception) in the church of the Theological College of the Holy Cross. Lord Epiphanios, Archbishop of the River Jordan, celebrated, assisted by a number of concelebrating priests. The edition of Latas was used, but the Archimandrite Chrysostomos Papadopoulos has been commissioned to prepare another and more correct edition (Echos d'Orient, IV, 247, 248).
- Note finally that the Maronites use the Syrian St. James with a few very slight modifications, and that the Nestorian, Byzantine and Armenian Liturgies are derived from that of Antioch.