Liturgical book

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Manuscript of the Introit of the Mass (Florence, Italy).
Manuscript of the Introit of the Mass (Florence, Italy).

A liturgical book is a book published by the authority of a church, that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.

Contents

[edit] Roman Catholic

Main article: Liturgical books of the Roman Rite
The Kyrie from an early 16th century manuscript of Missa de Beata Virgine (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella Sistina 45, folios 1v-2r.).
The Kyrie from an early 16th century manuscript of Missa de Beata Virgine (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella Sistina 45, folios 1v-2r.).

Within the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the primary liturgical books are the Roman Missal, which contains the texts of the Mass, and the Roman Breviary, which contains the text of the Liturgy of the Hours. In the Novus Ordo, created following the Second Vatican Council, the scriptural readings of the Mass were expanded such that they necessitated being bound in a separate book, which is known as the Lectionary. The Roman Ritual contains the texts of the sacraments other than the Mass, such as baptism, the sacrament of penance, the anointing of the sick, and the sacrament of marriage. The texts for the sacraments and ceremonies only performed by bishops, such as confirmation and Holy Orders, are contained within the Roman Pontifical. The Caeremoniale Episcoporum (The Ceremonial of Bishops), is used within the context of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, as it contains the rubrics for certain liturgical rites such as Solemn Mass, Solemn Pontifical Mass, solemn celebrations of the Divine Office, and various blessings and rites used throughout the year such as the blessing of candles on Candlemas and the blessing of palms on Palm Sunday. Finally, the Roman Martyrology gives an account of all the saints and martyrs commemorated throughout the church each day.

While the Roman Rite is the most common liturgical rite found within the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church also encompasses 23 sui juris particular churches, which use a variety of liturgical rites including the Alexandrian Rite, Antiochene Rite, Armenian Rite, Byzantine Rite, and the East Syrian Rite among others.

[edit] Byzantine Rite

The Rite of Constantinople, observed by the Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, represents one of the most highly-developed liturgical traditions in Christendom. While the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours may be published in a single-volume breviary, such a feat is hardly possible for the Byzantine Rite, which requires quite a large library of books to chant the daily services.

The regular services chanted in the Constantinopolitan liturgical tradition are the Canonical Hours and the Divine Liturgy. There are, in addition, occasional services (baptism, confession, etc.) and intercessory or devotional services (molieben, panikhida), which are not chanted on a daily basis, but according to need. The fixed portions of the services are called acolouthia (Greek: akolouthies, ἀκολουθίες; Slavonic: posledovanie), into which the sequences (changeable portions) are inserted.[1] The sequences can also be referred to as propers

The sequences are goverened by the convergance of several litugical cycles, including the Paschal Cycle (moveable cycle, dependant upon the variable date of Easter) and the Menaion (fixed cylce, dependant upon the calendar date).

[edit] Acolouthia

The fixed portions of the services are found in the following liturgical books:

  • Horologion (Greek: Ωρολόγιον; Slavonic: Chasoslov, Часocлoвъ), or Book of Hours, provides the fixed portions of the services as used by the reader and the chanters. For the sake of convenience, some small portions of the sequences are often included as well, such as feast day troparia, kontakia, and those portions which change according to the day of the week. The Horologion may also contain some devotional material such as the Prayers Before Communion, Thanksgiving After Communion, and Morning and Evening Prayers.
  • Euchologion (Greek: Ευχολόγιον, Eukhologion; Slavonic: Слѹжебникъ, Sluzhebnik)—Contains the fixed portions of the services which are said by the priest and deacon, as well as some of the variable portions which the clergy use, such as prokeimena and dismissals. The Great Euchologion contains the clergy parts of Vespers, Matins, the three Divine Liturgies, Compline and Midnight Office, the Lenten Hours. It also contains the complete services (including the parts for reader and chanters) for the Sacred Mysteries (Sacraments), Funeral, Monastic Tonsure, Consecration of a Church, and other occasional services. For convenience, the contents of the Great Euchologion in the Slavic tradition have been divided up as follows:
    • Litourgicon (Slavonic: Sluzhebnik)—contains Vespers, Matins and the three Divine Liturgies
    • Archieratikon (Slavonic: Chinovnik)—contains the parts of services performed by a bishop
    • Euchologion (Slavonic: Trebnik)—omits the portions contained in the Litourgicon and Archieratikon, and adds other minor acolouthia (such as the blessing of an Iconostasis, Holy Vessels, Vestments, etc.)[2]

[edit] Sequences

Into this fixed framework, numerous moveable parts of the service are inserted. These are taken from a variety of liturgical books:

  • Psalter (Greek: Ψαλτήριον, Psalterion; Slavonic: Ѱалтырь or Ѱалтирь, Psaltyr' )—A book containing the 150 Psalms divided into Kathismata[3] together with the Biblical Canticles which are chanted at Matins.[4] The Psalter is used at Vespers and Matins,[5] and normally contains tables for determining which Kathismata are to be read at each service, depending upon the day of the week and the liturgical season of the year.
  • Octoechos (Greek: Παρακλητική, Paraklētikē; Slavonic: Октоихъ, Oktoikh or Осмогласникъ, Osmoglasnik)—Literally, the Book of the "Eight Tones" or modes. This book contains an eight-week cycle, providing texts to be chanted for every day of the week at Vespers, Matins, Compline and (on Sundays) the Midnight Office. Each week, the hymns are sung in a different liturgical Mode or Tone. The origins of this book go back to compositions by St. John Damascene.
  • Menaion (Greek: Μηναίον; Slavonic: Минеѧ, Mineya)—A twelve-volume set which provides liturgical texts for each day of the calendar year.[6] The twelve volumes correspond to the months of the year. The liturgical year begins in September, so the first volume of the Menaion is September.
  • Triodion (Greek: Τριῴδιον, Triodion; Slavonic: Постнаѧ Трїωдь, Postnaya Triod' ; Romanian: Triodul)—Also called the Lenten Triodion. During Great Lent the services undergo profound changes. The Lenten Triodion contains propers for:
  • Pentecostarion (Greek: Πεντηκοστάριον, Pentekostarion; Slavonic: Цвѣтнаѧ Трїωдь, Tsvetnaya Triod' , literally "Flowery Triodon"; Romanian: Penticostar)—This volume contains the propers for the period from Pascha to the Sunday of All Saints. This period can be broken down into the following periods:
  • Synaxarion (Greek: Συναξάριον; Romanian: Sinaxar)—The Synaxarion contains brief lives of the saints for each day of the year, usually read at Matins.
  • Irmologion (Greek: Ειρμολόγιον, Heirmologion; Slavonic: Ирмологий, Irmologii)—Contains the Irmoi chanted at the Canon of Matins and other services.
  • Gospel Book (Greek: Ευαγγέλιον, Evangelion)—Book containing the Gospel readings that are used at Matins, Divine Liturgy, and other services. Among the Greeks the Evangélion is laid out in order of the cycle of readings as they occur in the ecclesiastical year, with a section in the back providing the Gospel readings for Matins, Feasts and special occasions. In the Slavic usage, the Evangélion contains the four gospels in canonical order (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) with annotations in the margin to indicate the beginning and ending of each reading (and an index in the back).
  • Epistle Book (Greek: Απόστολος, Apostolos; Slavonic: Апостолъ, Apostol)—Contains the readings from the Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles (the Apocalypse is not read during Divine Services in the Orthodox Church). It also contains the Prokeimenon and Alleluia verses that are chanted with the readings. The Apostól is laid out in the same manner as the Evangélion, depending on whether the book was prepared for the Greek or Slavic usage.[7]

[edit] Other

  • Typicon (Greek: Τυπικόν, Typikon; Slavonic: Тѵпикъ, Typik)—The book which ties all of the above together. It contains all of the rubrics, i.e., the rules for the performance of the Divine Services, giving directions for every possible combination of the materials from the other liturgical books into the Daily Cycle of Services. Many churches also publish annual liturgical calendars which give detailed instructions from the Typicon which are specific to the concurrence of sequences for that particular year.
  • Collections (Greek: Ανθολόγιον, Anthologion; Slavonic: Сборникъ, Sbornik)—There are numerous smaller anthologies available, taking portions from the books mentioned above, or from other sources. For instance, the Festal Menaion contains only those portions of the Menaion that have to do with the Great Feasts; and the General Menaion contains propers for each class of saints (with blank spaces for the name of the saint) which may be employed when one does not have the propers for that particular saint; etc.

There are many different editions of these books which have been published over the years in a variety of liturgical languages. In Greek the Orthodox books are published at the Phœnix Press (formerly located in Venice, now at Patras), the Uniate books are published by the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. Each national Church has further its own editions in its liturgical language. There are also books of all kinds which collect and arrange materials from the list of books above into compendiums by various editors. The Uniate compendiums have a natural tendency to imitate the arrangement of the Roman books.

[edit] Nestorian

The Nestorian Books (all in Syriac) are the Liturgy (containing their three liturgies), the Gospel (Evangelion), Apostle (Shlicha) and Lessons (Kariane), the "Turgama" (Interpretation), containing hymns sung by deacons at the liturgy (our Graduals and Sequences), the David (Dawidha = Psalter), "Khudhra" (= "cycle", containing antiphons, responsories, hymns, and collects for all Sundays), "Kash Kõl" (= "Collection of all"; the same chants for week-days), "Kdham u-Wathar" (= "Before and after"; certain prayers, psalms, and collects most often used, from the other books), "Gezza" ("Treasury", services for feast-days), Abu-Halim (the name of the compiler, containing collects for the end of the Nocturns on Sundays), "Bautha d'Ninwaie" (= "Prayer of the Ninevites", a collection of hymns ascribed to St. Ephraem, used in Lent). The Baptism Office ("Taksa d'Amadha") is generally bound up with the Liturgies. The "Taksa d'Siamidha" has the ordination services. The "Taksa d'Husaia" contains the office for Penance, the "Kthawa d'Burrakha" is the marriage service, the "Kahneita", the burial of clergy, the "Annidha" that of laymen. Lastly the "Khamis" and "Warda" are further collections of hymns (see Badger, "The Nestorians and their Rituals", London, 1852, II, 16-25). Naturally not every church possesses this varied collection of books. The most necessary ones are printed by the Anglican missionaries at Urmi for the heretics. The Uniate (Chaldean) books are printed, some at Propaganda, some by the Dominicans at Mosul ("Missale chaldaicum", 1845; "Manuale Sacerdotum", 1858; "Breviarium chaldaicum", 1865). A Chaldean "Brevviary" was published in three vohunes at Paris in 1886-7, edited by Père Bedgan, a missionary of the Congrégation des Missions. The Malabar schismatics use the Nestorian books, the Uniats have books revised (much romanized) by the Synod of Diamper (1599; it ordered all their old books to be burned). The Uniate Malabar "Missal" was published at Rome in 1774, the "Ordo rituum et lectionum" in 1775.

[edit] Coptic

The Coptic Books (in Coptic with Arabic rubrics, and generally with the text transliterated in Arabic characters too) are the Euchologion (Kitãb al-Khulagi almuqaddas), very often (but quite wrongly) called Missal. This corresponds to the Byzantine Euchologion. The Coptic equivalent of the Horologion is the Agpeya. Then the Lectionary called Katamãrus; the Synaksãr, containing legends of saints; the "Deacon's Manual"; an Antiphonary (called Difnãri); the Psalter, Theotokia (containing offices of the Virgin Mary); Doxologia; collections of hymns for the choir and a number of smaller books for the various other offices.

The Coptic Orthodox Church has a very sumptuously printed set of their books, edited by Gladios Labib, published at Cairo (Katamãrus, 1900-2; Euchologion, 1904; Funeral Service, 1905).

These books were first grouped and arranged for the Coptic Catholic Church (Uniate) by Raphael Tuki, and printed at Rome in the eighteenth century. Their arrangement is obviously an imitation of that of the Latin service-books (Missale coptice et arabice, 1736; Diurnum alexandrinum copto-arabicum, 1750; Pontificale et Euchologium, 1761, 1762; Rituale coptice et arabice, 1763; Theotokia, 1764). Cyril II, the Uniate Coptic patriarch, published a "missal", "ritual", and "Holy Week book" (Cairo, 1898-1902).

[edit] Ethiopian

The Ethiopic service-books are (except the Liturgy) the least known of any. Hardly anything of them has been published, and no one seems yet to have made a systematic investigation of liturgical manuscripts in Abyssinia. Since the Ethiopic Rite is derived from the Coptic, their books correspond more or less to the Coptic books.

Peter the Ethiopian (Petrus Ethyops) published the Liturgy with the baptism service and some blessings at the end of his edition of the Ethiopic New Testament (Tasfa Sion, Rome, 1548). Various students have published fragments of the Rite in Europe (cf. Chaine, "Grammaire éthiopienne", Beirut, 1907; bibliography, p. 269), but these can hardly be called service-books.

[edit] Syrian

The Jacobite (and Uniat) Syrian Rite has never been published as a whole. A fragment of the liturgy was published in Syriac and Latin at Antwerp (1572) by Fabricius Boderianus (D. Seven alexandrini . . . de ritibus baptismi et sacræ Synaxis).

The Uniats have an Euchologion (Syriac and Karshuni), published at Rome in 1843 (Missale Syriacum), and a "Book of clerks used in the ecclesiastical ministries" (Liber ministerii, Syriac only, Beirut, 1888). The Divine Office, collected like a Breviary, was published at Mosul in seven volumes (1886-96), the ferial office alone at Rome in 1853, and at Sharfi in the Lebanon (1898). A Ritual -- "Book of Ceremony" -- for the Syrian Uniats is issued by the Jesuits at Beirut.

[edit] Maronite

The Maronites have an abundance of liturgical books for their romanized Syrian Rite. The Maronite Synod at Deir al-Luweize (1736) committed a uniform preparation of all their books to the patriarch (Part II, Sess. I, xiii, etc.) These books are all referred to in Roman terms (Missal, Ritual, Pontifical, etc.). The Missal (in this case the name is not incorrect) was published at Rome in 1592 and 1716, since then repeatedly, in whole or in part, at Beirut. Little books containing the Ordinary of the Liturgy with the Anaphora commonly used are issued by many Catholic booksellers at Beirut. The "Book of the Minister" (containing the deacon's and other ministers' parts of the Liturgy) was published at Rome in 1596 and at Beirut in 1888. The "Ferial Office", called Fard, "Burden" or "Duty" (the only one commonly used by the clergy), was issued at Rome in 1890, at Beirut in 1900. The whole Divine Office began to be published at Rome in 1666, but only two volumes of the summer part appeared. A Ritual with various additional prayers was issued at Rome in 1839. All Maronite books are in Syriac and Karshuni.

[edit] Armenian

Armenian liturgical manuscript, 13th century, Kilikia.
Armenian liturgical manuscript, 13th century, Kilikia.

The Armenian Liturgical Books are quite definitely drawn up, arranged, and authorized. They are the only other set among Eastern Churches whose arrangement can be compared to those of the Byzantines. There are eight official Armenian service-books:

  • (1) the Directory, or Calendar, corresponding to the Byzantine Typikon,
  • (2) the Manual of Mysteries of the Sacred Oblation (= an Euchologion),
  • (3) the Book of Ordinations, often bound up with the former,
  • (4) the Lectionary,
  • (5) the Hymn-book (containing the variable hymns of the Liturgy),
  • (6) the Book of Hours (containing the Divine Office and, generally, the deacon's part of the Liturgy),
  • (7) the Book of Canticles (containing the hymns of the Office),
  • (8) the Mashdotz, or Ritual (containing the rites of the sacraments).

The books of both the Armenian Apostolic Church (Gregorian) and Armenian Catholic Church (Uniate) have been published a great number of times; the latest Gregorian editions are those of Constantinople and Jerusalem, the Uniate ones have been issued at Rome, Vienna, and especially Venice (at San Lazaro). There are many extracts from them, especially from the Liturgy.

[edit] Anglican

Main article: Book of Common Prayer

In the wake of the English Reformation, a reformed liturgy developed in the Church of England during the reign of Edward VI. The first liturgical book published for general use throughout the church was the Book of Common Prayer of 1549, edited by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The work of 1549 was the first prayer book to contain the forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English and to do so within a single volume; it included morning prayer, evening prayer, the Litany, and Holy Communion. The book included the other occasional services in full: the orders for baptism, confirmation, marriage, 'prayers to be said with the sick' and a funeral service. It set out in full the Epistle and Gospel readings for the Sunday Communion Service. Set Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer were specified in tabular format as were the set Psalms; and canticles, mostly biblical, that were provided to be sung between the readings.[8] Numerous editions have followed, and currently throughout the Anglican Communion, various Books of Common Prayer are published by the different Anglican provinces.

Other official books are published by the member churches for the official use of their churches, such as the Lectionary, Book of Occasional Services, etc.

[edit] Anglo-Catholic

In the late 1800s, as part of the Anglo-Catholic movement, the Anglican Missal was published, to provide a particular way, drawn from the Sarum Use, of celebrating the Eucharist according to Anglican liturgical tradition. Many Anglo-Catholic parishes use the Anglican Missal, or some variation of it such as the English Missal, for the celebration of Mass. Variations include the Anglican Service Book and A Manual of Anglo-Catholic Devotion, and the directive books A Priest's Handbook by Dennis Michno and Ceremonies of the Eucharist by Howard E. Galley. All of these books (with the exception of Manual) are intended primarily for celebration of the Eucharist. They contain meditations for the presiding celebrant(s) during the liturgy, and other material such as the rite for the blessing of palms on Palm Sunday, propers for special feast days, and instructions for proper ceremonial order. These books are used as a more expansively Catholic context in which to celebrate the liturgical use found in the Book of Common Prayer and related liturgical books.

[edit] Presbyterian

Main article: Liturgical book of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Kovalchuk, Archpriest Feodor S. (1974), Abridged Typicon (2nd ed.), South Cannna PA: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press (published 1985) , p. 12
  2. ^ Kovalchuk, op. cit, p. 14
  3. ^ There is also a Psalm 151 included in the Orthodox Psalter, though it is not actually chanted during the Divine Services.
  4. ^ Originally, these canticles were chanted in their entirety every day, but they gradually came to be replaced by the Canon and are now normally only chanted on weekdays of Great Lent.
  5. ^ During Great Lent, Kathismata are read at the Little Hours also.
  6. ^ On non-leap years, the service for Feb. 29 (St. John Cassian) may be chanted at Compline on Feb. 28 or some other more convenient day.
  7. ^ The Slavonic Apostól will have all of the books of the New Testament (excluding the Gospels and Apocalypse) in their entirety, though not in the same order they are found in most English Bibles (Acts is placed first, etc.).
  8. ^ Careless, Sue, Discovering the Book of Common Prayer: A hands-on approach (Volume 1:Daily Prayer), Toronto: Anglican Book Centre Publishing, ISBN 1-55126-398-X

[edit] See also

[edit] External link

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.