CONSTANTINOPLE
315
CONSTANTINOPLE
hv singing psalms (Horn, iv, in Ep. ad Hebr., P. G.,
I.XIII, 43) etc.
\\ ith regard to the Divine Office especially, it has till' .same general principles in East and West from a \rry early age (see Brevi.\ry). Essentially it eon- sisis in psalm-singing. Its first and most important |i:irt is the Night-watch (iravvvxli, our Nocturns); at d.nvn the ip$poi (Lauds) was sung; during the day
- the people met again at the third, sixth, and ninth
' hours, and at sunset for the iinrtptpSs (Vespers). Be- I sides the psalms these Offices contained lessons from I the Bible and collects. A peculiarity of the Antioch- I ene use was the "Gloria in excelsis" sung at the Orthros (Ps.-Athan., De Virg., xx, P. G., XXVIII, -M: the evening hymn, ^ws i\ap6v, still sung in the I', iiiitine Rite at the Hesperinos and attributed to ,\ horiogenes (in the second cent.), is quoted by St. j Basil (De Spir. Sancto, Ixxiii, P. G., XXXII, 205). Egeria of Aquitaine, the pilgrim to Jerusalem, gives a vivid description of the Office as sung there according tn Antioch in the fourth century ["S. Silvise (sic) )" ri'sirin.", cd. Gamurrini, Rome, 1S87]. To this series of i lours two v/ere added in the fourth century. John ('.issian (In.stit., Ill, iv) describes the addition of I'l iiiie by the monks of Palestine, and St. Basil refers (liir. cit.) to Complin (diriSciiri'ov) as the monks' cvi iiing prayer. Prime and Complin, then, were originally private prayers said by monks in aildition to th. oficial Hours. The Antiochene manner of keeping fliis ( )ffice w.-.s famous all over the East. Flavian of .\ntioch in 387 softened the heart of Theodo.sius (after thi' cuitrage to the statues) by making his clerks sing ti liim "the suppliant chants of .\ntioch" (Sozom., 1 1 . I:., VII, xxiii). And St. John Chrj^sostom, as soon
- i- III' comes to Constantinople, introduces the methods
of Atitioch in keeping the canonical Hours (16, VIII, N . I^ventnally the Eastern Office admits short ser- \ HIS ( nvrSoipai) between the day Hours, and between ^ ropers and Complin. Into this frame a number of famous poets have fitted a long succession of canons nninietrieal hymns); of these poets St. Romanos the sint;fr (sixth cent.), St. Cosmas the singer (eighth (■iiit.\ St. John Damascene (c. 780), St. Theodore of St ui lion (d. 826), etc., are the most famous (see Byzan- tim: Literature, sub-title IV. Eccksiftstical etc.). St. Sabas (d. 532) and iSt. John Damascene eventually arninged the Office for the whole year, though, like the Litiirgj', it has imdergone further development since, till it acqvu'red its present form (see below).
II. The Byzantine Rite at the Present Time.— Tlie Kite of Constantinople now used throughout the j Orthodox Church does not maintain any principle of uniformity in language. In various countries the <i:inie prayers and fomis are translated (with unim- [inrlant variations) into what is supposed to be more or li ss the vulgar tongue. As a matter of fact, how- •Mr, it is only in Rumania that the liturgical language i- I hf same as that of the people. Greek (from which 111 ilie others are translated) is used at Constantino- 111 Macedonia (by the Patriarchists), Greece, by ic monks in Palestine and Syria, by nearly all Or- iix in Egypt; Arabic in parts of Syria, Palestine, i; I by a few churches in Egypt; Old Slavonic iliroiighout Ru.ssia, in Bulgaria, and by all Mxarchists, in ( zemagora, Servia, and by the ( )rthod()X in .\uslria I and Hungary; and Rumanian by the Church of that I country. These four are the i)rincipal languages. Later Ru.ssian mission.s use E.sthonian, Lettish, and 1 German in the Baltic provinces, Finnish and Tatar in Finland and Siberia. Chinese, and .Japanese. (Bright- man, op. cit., LXXXI-LXXXII). Although "the Liturgy has been translated into English (see Hap- good, op. cit. in bibliography), a translation is never used in any church of the Greek Rite. The ITniats u.se Greek at Constantinople, in Italy, and partially in Syria and Egj'pl, .\rabic chiefly in these countries. Old Slavonic in Slav lands, and Rumanian in Rumania.
It is curious to note that in spite of this great diversity
of languages the ordinary Orthodox layman no more
understands his Liturgy than if it were in Greek. Old
Slavonic and the semi-classical Arabic in which it is
sung are dead languages.
The Calendar. — It is well known that the Orthodox still use the Julian Calendar (Old Style). By this time (1908) they are thirteen tlays behind us. Their liturgical year begins on 1 September, "the begin- ning of the Indict, that is of the new year". On 15 November begins the first of their four great fasts, the "fast of Christ's birth" that lasts till Christmas (25 December). The fast of Easter begins on the Monday after the sixth Sunday before Easter, and they abstain from flesh-meat after the seventh Sunday before the feast (our Sexagesima). The fast of the .\postles lasts from the day after the first Sunday after Pentecost (their All Saints' Day) till 28 June, the fast of the Mother of God from 1 August to 14 August. Through- out this year fall a great number of feasts. The great cycles are the same as ours — Christmas, followed by a Alemory of the Mother of God on 26 December, then St. Stephen on 27 December, etc. Easter, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday follow as with us. Many of the other feasts are the same as ours, though often with different names. They divide them into three cate- gories, feasts of our Lord (iopral Seo-iroTiKoO, of the Mother of God (dtofiijTpiKal), and of the saints (tui' ayluv). They count the "Holy meeting" (with St. Simeon, 2 Februarj-), the Annunciation (25 March), the Awakening of Lazarus (Saturday before Palm Sunday), etc., as feasts of Our Lord. The chief feasts of Our Lady are her birthday (8 September), Presenta- tion in the Temple (21 November), Conception (9 De- cember), Falling-asleep (mliiriin!, 15 August), and the Keeping of her Robe at the Blachernae (at Con- stantinople, 2 July). Feasts are further divided ac- cording to their solemnity into three classes: great, middle, and less days. Easter of course stands alone as greatest of all. It is "The Feast" (^ iopr-Zi, nl-vl); there are twelve other very great days and tv.'clve great ones. Certain chief saints (the Apostle.?, the three holy hierarchs — Sts. Basil, Gregory of Nazian- zus, and John Chrj-sostom — 30 January, the holy and equal- to- the-Apostles Sovereigns, Constantino and Helen, etc.) have middle fea.sts; all the others are lesser ones. The Sundays are named after the subject of their Gospel: the first Sunday of Lent is the feast of Orthodoxy (after Iconoclasm), the Saturdays before Meatless Sunday (our Sexagesima) and Whitsunday are All Souls' days. Our Trinity Sunday is their All Saints. Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year are days of abstinence (Fortescue, " Orth. East- ern Church", .398-401).
Service-books. — The Byzantine Rite has no such comjiendiums as our MLssal and Breviarj'; it is con- tained in a number of loosely arranged books. They are: the Typikon {tvwikSv), a perpetual calendar con- taining full directions for all feasts and all possible co- incidences. The Euchologion (evxoXAT'o") contains the priest's part of the Hesperinos, Orthros, the three Liturgies, and other sacraments and sacramentals. The Triodion (Tpiv'SioO contains the varial>le parts of the Liturgj' and Divine Office (except the psalms. Epistles, and Gospels) for the movable days from the tenth Sunday bcfon- ICa.ster to Holy Saturday. The Pentekostarinn {wepTrjKoardpiov) continues the Trio- dion from Easter Day to the first Sunday after Pente- cost (All Saints' Sunday). The Oktoechos {dKriiitx- os) gives the OHiccs of the Sundays for the rest of the year (arranged accnnling to the eight modes to which they are sung- (JitTii <(x<") arid the Parakletike (vapa- /t\7(TiK77) i.s for the weekdays. The twelve Meiiaias ( p.riraTai.) , one for each month, contain the Proper of Saints; the Menologion fM')>'o^ii7'oi') is a shortened version of the Menaia, and th(' Horologion (wpo\6yu)f') contains the choir's part of the day Hours. The
