Feasting and Fasting According to the Byzantine Typikon

Vassa Larin
Feasting and Fasting According to the
Byzantine Typikon1
Any feast in the churches of the Byzantine tradition is a carefully
planned event. The "plan" I am referring to can be found in the
"Typikon," an ordinal or liturgical book that prescribes specific
rituals, prayers, and even specific behavior on the special occasion
of a feast. Since a feast is not like any other day, it must be set out
as distinct from non-festal days; it must depart from the usual
liturgical routine. Accordingly, the faithful too must remove themselves from the inevitable hustle-and-bustle of everyday life to
enter into the reality of the church's feast and truly celebrate. The
purpose of the Typikon's detailed instructions concerning feastdays, then, is to effect not a change of rubrics but a change of focus.
It is to enable us to leave aside our individual cares and join in the
communal celebration in and as church: as one body, one heart,
one mind.
I will draw attention to the festal instructions of the Russian
Orthodox Church's Typikon,2 because it is in the Russian branch
of the Byzantine rite that I was born and raised, and to which I
have devoted my liturgical studies. The object of my reflections
will be both the theory of the feast as reflected in the Typikon, and
its modern-day practice as I have known it from my earliest childhood, first in a small Russian Orthodox parish outside New York
City, and later — when my work involved a great deal of traveling
— in numerous Russian Orthodox parishes, cathedrals and
monasteries in Germany, France, Italy, Russia, and the Holy Land.
Sister Vassa Latin, a nun of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, is the
Graduate Assistant of Professor Robert Taft at the Pontifical Oriental Institute,
Rome.
1
This is a lecture given at the (Mentale Lumen XII conferences in June-July 2008
in Washington, DC, San Diego, and Detroit.
2
For a history of the Slavonic Typikon see: I. Mansvetov, Cerkovnyj ustav (Tipik)
(Moscow: Tip. Lissner i Roman 1885). The entire book is accessible on the internet
on the website of Deacon M. Zheltov: http://www.mzh.mrezha.ru.
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TYPIKON IN THEORY A N D TYPIKON IN PRACTICE
Before we immerse ourselves in the Typikon's rules and regulations,
I should say a few more words about this heavy and somewhat
intimidating book. In earlier centuries the Slavonic Typikon was
entitled differently: it was called "Ustav," which literally means
"The Law." But eventually the Greek title "Typikon" was preferred
and now remains untranslated — and not without reason. The
Greek word "Typikon," from an adjective modifying the presumed
substantive biblion or "book," is derived from the word "typos,"3
meaning image, plan, pattern, model, example, etc.4 So the title
"Typikon" could be translated as a book of examples,5 hence not to
be confused with an obligatory code of laws. That is to say, the
Slavonic Typikon by definition has no qualms about divergence in
its theory and practice. Here is how the Russian expert on the
Typikon, Mikhail Skaballanovïc, summarized this function of the
Typikon: " . . . a book with such a title [Typikon] does not intend to
turn its minutest details into law, thus abolishing the freedom of
the worshippers: it rather intends0 to sketch a magnificent ideal of
liturgy, whose beauty would constantly inspire all to its realization,
though this may not even be possible — just like it is with the
realization of any ideal, or with the imitation of any magnificent
example. Such is, in essence, the entire law of Christ. . . ."6This
perhaps explains why there is only one Typikon in the Russian
Orthodox tradition for monasteries and parishes alike: the
Typikon's instructions can be applied freely, in accordance with
the exigencies of any worshiping community, be it monastic or
parochial. The Typikon thus creates a vast range of liturgical possibilities, and, I might add — when in the hands of the inept — some
rather frightening prospects.
3
The most recent study on the origins and various usages of the term "Typikon"
is: A. Thiermeyer, "Das Typikon-Ktetorikon und sein literarhistorischer Kontext,"
Orientalia Christiana Periodica 58 (1992) 475-513. See also R. Taft, "Typikon, Liturgical," The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 3 (New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press 1991) 2131-32; and A. Skaf, "Typika," Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 15
(Paris: Beauchesne 1991) 1358-71.
4
G.W.H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1995)
1418-19.
5
M. Skaballanovic, Tolkovyj Typikon, Vyp. II (Kiev: Tipografia Akcionernago
Obscestva pecatnago i izdatel'skago delà N. T. Korcak-Novickago 1913) 1-2.
6
Ibid., 2.
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Be that as it may, even a less-than-ideal execution of the Typikon's
festal regulations can provide an enlightening glimpse into the
"ideal" reality of a feast. I remember the Easter vigil (what we call
Pascha) at a small parish in a Bavarian village on the outskirts of
Munich. The choir consisted of 5-6 elderly women not yet completely tone-deaf, but they were getting there; the priest, who had
been ordained very late in life, tended to miss his cues; and the congregation consisted of about thirty elderly Russians — post-World
War II DPs from the Soviet Union — with little if any knowledge of
their liturgical tradition. This parish was hands-down the world
champion of bad liturgy. And nonetheless, when exactly at midnight, after a procession around the church, the priest proclaimed,
"Christ is risen!" and the congregation began to sing the Easter
hymn: "Christ is risen from the dead!" and the only, little church
bell with a tin-pan clang of a sound began to ring, signalizing the
entrance of the procession into the church, the once-a-year feeling
that Pascha has arrivedfilledthat village parish, and we truly celebrated. It is a rite that, even when sloppily accomplished, succeeds
quite powerfully in conveying the news of the resurrection.
It is the same rite celebrated by a fourteenth-century witness in
Constantinople, Metropolitan Matthew of Ephesus (1329-1351),
who vividly describes a similar Pascha Vigil and the popular joy at
the entrance of the clergy and people into church: "Marvelously
adorned with every sacred vestment, and in good order, [the clergy
and people] exit from the church . . . closing its doors according to
a symbolic custom. And then the preacher, who raises his voice on
high and praises God and with all his strength attracts the attention
of everyone to the moment when he gives the awaited announcement, crying out in a clear voice the arrival of the resurrection of the
Deceased One. At the same moment those present join the chant
of thanksgiving and a harmonious melody with the tones of the
triumphal hymn rises up as high as the heads of those who sing,
and Christ rises too. The Risen one is celebrated; death, defeated, is
silent; and the resurrection is granted to the dead of all times. . . .
Finally, according to the ritual, at a command the priest, having
entered the atrium, opens to the crowd of participants in the procession the doors he had closed, and 'Raised to glory/ he cries:
'Raise the doors, O princes of Hades, and the King shall enter!'
[Ps 23/24:6]. He cries not according to his own wishes, nor according
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135
to a custom of recent vintage, but because this cry was already intoned in an ancient, divine prophecy regarding the institution of
this feast."7
THE T Y P I K O N ' S C L A S S I F I C A T I O N OF FEASTS
Naturally, not all the feasts of the Byzantine tradition are celebrated with such paschal solemnity: there is, in fact, a very sophisticated and precisely outlined hierarchy offeasts. There are the
"dominical feasts" or the feasts of the Lord, dedicated to the saving
mysteries of the life, death and resurrection of our Savior; there
are the Marian feasts, dedicated to the mysteries of the life of the
Theotokos8; and finally there are the feasts of the saints.9 A differentiation between greater and lesser feasts became necessary with
the evolution of the liturgical calendar throughout the centuries:
while in apostolic times the primitive church had very few feasts,
initially only the Lord's Day (Sunday), Pascha (Easter), and a bit
later Pentecost,10 the subsequent development of Christian life and
theology led to a multiplication of memorials, both local and
ecumenical.
The earliest Byzantine "typika" or ordinals divide the feasts into
only three groups: "great," "medium," and "small," marking each
type of feast with a special sign.11 These signs, written next to the
date and name of the feast within the Typikon, indicated to the
7
Matteo di Efeso, Racconto di una festa popolare, ed. A. Pignani (Naples:
M. D'Auria Editore 1984), Italian trans. 18-21; Greek text 33-35; English trans,
from R. Taft, Through Their Own Eyes (Berkeley, CA: InterOrthodox Press 2006) 43.
8
See R. Taft, "Liturgical Veneration of the Mother of God in the Byzantine
Orthodox and Roman Catholic Traditions," We Are All Brothers 3: A Collection of
Essays in Honor of Archbishop Vsevolod ofScopelos (Fairfax, VA: Eastern Christian
Publications 2007) 87-112.
9
In the words of James Martin,"The saints are not just useful tools; they are
people to celebrate. The stories of their lives on earth are gifts for which we can
be grateful. . ." Cf. My Life With the Saints (Chicago: Loyola Press 2006) 380.
10
For an overview of the development of the liturgical year see T. Talley,
The Origins of the Liturgical Year (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company 1986);
G. Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (London: Dacre Press 1947) 333-82; A. McArthur,
The Evolution of the Christian Year (London: SPCK1953).
11
See example in: J. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense Complectens Sanctorum Patrum
(Paris: Firmin-Didot Fratres 1858) 445. The great feasts are marked with a cross in
a circle, the medium feasts are marked with a cross, and the small feasts with a
horizontal line between two dots.
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cantors what type of service was to be celebrated. Nikon of the
Black Mountain, a learned eleventh-century monk, adopted this
system into his ordinal or "Taktikon."121 mention this document
because it was well-known in Old Russia, and it is from Nikon's
ordinal that Muscovite scribes got the idea of classifying and
marking feasts with the little signs we find to this day in the
Slavonic Typikon.13 These signs tell cantors and choir directors at a
glance what type of service is to be celebrated for the feast.
The Russian system is more elaborate than the tripartite Byzantine one. In the Russian Typikon today we have not three, but six
classes of feasts.141 will explain only some of the distinctions of
these various feast-groups, just to give you an idea of the complexity of the whole business: 1) the "greatest" feasts are marked with
a red cross in a full circle. Most of these feasts are preceded by a
preparatory day/days called "forefeast" and are followed by several
days called "afterfeasts" — a continuation of the festal solemnity
like the Western system of octaves; on the eve of the feast a vigil is
invariably celebrated with a special "litya", i.e., a series of intercessory prayers with a blessing of five breads toward the end of
vespers; fasting is suspended or at least mitigated if the feast coincides with a fast-day; great prostrations are completely suspended.
2) The second-to-greatest feasts are marked with a red cross in a
half-circle: these are celebrated almost as first-class feasts with
a vigil, but often have no "litya," nor a forefeast or afterfeast.
3) The third-class feasts are called "polyeleos" feasts and are marked
with a red cross: no vigil is celebrated for these feasts. However,
many elements of the vigil are retained: Old-Testament lections are
added to vespers; the singing of the "polyeleos"-psalms (Ps 134-135)
is included at matins; the hymnody found in the liturgical book
12
V. Benesevic, ed., Taktikon Nikona Cernogorca (Petrograd: Petrogradskij
universitet 1917). See R. Allison's introduction and English translation in
J. Thomas-A.Hero, Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, vol. I (Washington,
DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection 2000) 377-439.
13
M. Skaballanovic, Tolkovyj Typikon, Vyp. I (Kiev: Tipografia Akcionernago
Obscestva pecatnago i izdatel'skago delà Ν. T. Korcak"Novickago 1910) 452"53.
14
The Slavonic Typikon itself offers an explanation of its six classes of feasts and
their signs, albeit not a very comprehensible one, in chapter 47, "O znamenijax"
(About the Signs): Typikon siest'ustav (Moscow: Moskovskaja Sinodal'naja
Tipografija 1901; repr. Graz: Akademischer Druck" u. Verlagsanstalt, 1964) f. 24V.
See also A. Stoelen, "L'année liturgique Byzantine/' Irénïkon 10, t. IV (1928) 6-13.
Feasting and Fasting According to the Byzantine Typikon
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"Oktoichos" is suppressed (this will be explained later); the monastic
psalmody or Kathismata is abbreviated, and so on. 4) The fourthclass feasts are signified with a red three dots in a half-circle and
are called "doxological" (slavoslovnye), because the Great Doxology
is sung, not read, at the end of matins. There are not many other
festal elements in a "doxological" feast, though it sometimes
includes a suppression of the Oktoichos and abbreviated Psalmreadings. A doxological feast also effects a slight mitigation of a
fast-day and the suspension of great prostrations. 5) The fifth-class
feasts are invariably in honor of saints and are marked with a
black three dots in a half-circle. These are called "six-fold saints"
(sestericnye), because precisely six troparia or hymns are sung in
their honor at specific moments of the Divine Office. The Oktoichos
is never suppressed in this case, and a "six-fold saint" day usually
does not affect fasting rules or great prostrations. 6) Finally, there
is the sixth category of calendar days, marked with no sign at all.
These are called "simple" (prostye) days and comprise just over
half the year: only 189 days in the year are "simple," with no "sign,"
no "forefeast" or "afterfeast." On these days, the Divine Office is
chanted in full, complete with the Oktoichos and all the prescribed
psalmody, and fast-days remain in full force.
In Russian Orthodox monastic communities, where the Divine
Office is celebrated daily, these "classes" of feasts are well-known;
everyone knows what a "great" feast or "six-fold" or "doxological"
feast or "simple" day means, although not everyone keeps track of
the current calendar day. When I lived in a Russian convent in
France, I was the choir director and hence responsible for figuring
out the order of the services in advance. Having checked the
Typikon in my room about half an hour before the service for any
surprises, I would run to church. Along the way, nuns would stop
me to ask: "What is it today? Polyeleos? Doxological? Simple?"
This was important, because it determined the length of the
evening service and the severity of the day's fast — in other words,
how much we were going to sleep, and how much we were going
to eat. I shared their concern.
What, then, are the changes that occur in the liturgical routine on
occasion of a feast? We have already heard some rather perplexing
ones mentioned: suppression of the psalmody and Oktoichos
hymnody; preparatory periods or "forefeasts;" suspension of
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fasting and great prostrations; longer services called vigils. Let us
take a closer look at these "festal" regulations, and try to make
some sense of them. I shall begin with the first phase of any feast
— its preparation.
THE FOREFEAST
A "forefeast," lasting from one to five days before the great feasts,
is signalized by themes of the upcoming feast appearing in the
propers of the Divine Office one or several days immediately
preceding the feast. For example, the feast of the Dormition of the
Virgin Mary is celebrated on August 15. A day earlier, on the
August 14 "forefeast," the following words are intoned at vespers:
". . . let us sing resounding hymns, anticipating the feast of her
departure. Let us lift our voices in a brilliant chorus before her
sepulchre. For the Mother of God and the golden Tabernacle now
prepares to pass from earth to heaven. . . ."15 Before Christmas,
on December 20, the propers include the following passage: "Let
us lift up our minds and hearts to Bethlehem, and imagine the
Virgin on her way to the cave to give birth to the Lord of all, our
God. . . ."16 The "forefeast," as you can gather from these texts,
helps us mentally and spiritually enter into the atmosphere and
spirit of the feast, placing us in the midst of the events we are
about to celebrate. In the first text, we found ourselves before the
sepulchre of the Holy Virgin in Gethsemane; in the second, we
were invited to Bethlehem to accompany Mary on her way to the
cave. . . . The forefeast offers these meditations to draw us away
from our everyday cares, and gradually leads us first into the communal anticipation of the feast, and finally to its celebration. The
concept of the forefeast is based on the anthropological observation
that it is almost impossible for us to turn to undistracted prayer
suddenly, without internal preparation. Similar to the meditations
on the lives of Mary and Jesus in the Western rosary, the meditations of the fore-festal hymns are, simply put, an aid to prayer.
15
Pestai Menaion, trans, by the Sisters of St Basil the Great (Uniontown, PA: The
Sisters of St Basil the Great 1985) 444.
16
December Menaion, trans, by Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy (Newton, MA:
Sophia Press 1985) 153.
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"NON-LITURGICAL"
PREPARATION
As wonderful as all this may sound in the liturgical books, outside
of monasteries it seldom affects the reality of our church-life. The
fact is, most parishes do not have any services before the great
feasts, so most people never hear the hymns of the "forefeast."
What is more, there are members of the congregation — for example, small children, the hearing-impaired, the poorly educated
or simply inattentive — who do not benefit from such hymnographic texts even if they attend a service of the "forefeast." This is
doubtlessly a pastoral problem and not quite according to the
Typikon's "plan." It is also true, however, that a "forefeast" is not
limited to what is heard or sung in church; it also happens at home.
Children as well as adults can recognize and anticipate feasts by
specific activities characteristic of a certain feast, even its sounds
and smells.
As a child I distinctly recognized the "smell of Lent" in the
house well before Pascha, though I was not sure what it was. I later
realized it was the smell of buckwheat (grecnevaja kasa), a staple
Lenten food in any Russian household. To this day, I somehow
associate this smell with Lenten melodies and prayers. As peculiar
as that may sound: the smell of buckwheat. . . the prayer of
St Ephrem (only read in Lent). . . the Liturgy of the Presanctified
— are all inseparable in my memories. Then, the uncommon
silence in the house on Good Friday impressed upon me the
magnitude of the day, when we would not have anything to eat
until after the church service at 3 p.m., when the Epitaphion was
venerated — a cloth upon which the scene of Christ's burial is
depicted. We would then come home and have a light meal of
boiled potatoes and salad, after which we returned to church for a
longer evening service. Holy Saturday was also a day of silence,
but of a different kind: this was a silence of almost overwhelming
anticipation. On that Saturday morning during the liturgy the
church's black Lenten vestments were suddenly changed to
dazzling white ones. As children, we would come home after this
liturgy, and despite our excitement about the upcoming feast, were
peremptorily sent to sleep before the midnight Easter vigil. The
blinds were closed in our room and talking strictly forbidden, but I
could hear my mom fussing in the kitchen, the entire house smelling of roasted ham and all sorts of other tasty things for the Easter
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meal after the vigil. Everything was changing: the vestments in
church, the smells at home — everything was starting anew! When
I was a teen-ager, the feeling that Easter was near was also brought
on by my then favorite activity: shopping. More specifically — going
out to shopping malls with my mom to buy an Easter dress: she
considered a brand-new Easter dress for each of her daughters a
must every year.
I have intentionally left out the purely "religious" side of these
reminiscences to stress the "other level" of the Typikon's
forefeasts: the fasting-and-feasting rhythm pulsates beyond the
walls of the church, extending the liturgical experience to everyday
life. Thus the particular atmosphere of the great feasts can be
grasped on the simplest level, even by a child not yet instructed in
the theological meaning of it all. When the child grows up to
understand this meaning, the same smells, tastes and even kitchen
fuss will bring that meaning to mind. And this is precisely the
point of the Typikon's vibrant tradition: it inexorably draws our
working, sleeping, playing, eating, and the whole of our existence
into the salvific meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of
our Lord.
FASTING
In the liturgical picture thus far described, one motif is completely
foreign to most of modern-day Western spirituality, and that is
fasting. Indeed, according to the Typikon the liturgical memory of
every single day is reflected in what gets put on the table. The
greatest feasts are preceded by prolonged periods of fasting, when
one must abstain from meat, dairy products (sometimes also fish
and oil). On the other hand, the feasts themselves have varying
effects on the fasts, suspending them completely or at least mitigating their severity. Why this preoccupation with fasting? It is
true that it lowers our cholesterol and offers us some practice in
self-control. Then again, so do Weight Watcher's, Dr Atkins, or the
much healthier, they say, South Beach diet. The answer, of course,
is in the already mentioned meaning of it all. The liturgical rhythm
of the Typikon intimately connects feast and fast, prayer and diet,
the spiritual and the physical; it demands a constant vigilance
concerning, among other things, our food choices every day. This
vigilance or ascetical "vigil" is kept in an effort to prepare for the
Feasting and Fasting According to the Byzantine Typikon
(
141
Gottesschau (vision of God) revealed in the feast.17 In taking control
of one's eating habits with this objective in mind, one becomes free
to achieve the change in focus, the wholehearted conversion or
metanoia that, according to the teaching of the Fathers, opens the
mind to this divine vision. It is in this sense that several thirdcentury witnesses called fasts "stanzas," or times of keeping watch.18
Similar to a feast, a fast offers freedom from the usual routine: our
food choices, our most basic necessities, are no longer determined
by the often unreflected criteria of our everyday lives.19 Fr Alexander
Schmemann writes: "This is exactly the meaning of a feast at its
deepest and most primitive level — man liberating himself from a
life chained solely to necessity and unbreakable law."20 In this
regard the fasts of the Byzantine tradition bear a puzzling resemblance to feasts. Anyone familiar with the solemnity of Byzantine
Lent would agree that Lent is both anticipated and celebrated not
unlike a feast.
Nonetheless, feasts are not fasts — even in the Byzantine tradition — and we have seen that feast-days mitigate or completely
suspend fasts: the greater a feast, the less friendly it is to fasting.
Why is fasting incompatible with a feast? Because fasting signifies
anticipation, waiting, whereas a feast reflects fulfillment, the Christian eschaton or arrival of the Kingdom in its glory and joy. The
arrival of the feast signalizes the end of the preparatory vigil, a
time to rest and take joy in the fruits of the penitential labors of the
fast.
This part of the festal experience — the resting part — was taken
very seriously in my parents' home, especially on Pascha and on
the feasts of their patron saints, the days of St George in May and
St Catherine in December. It was a tradition in our parish for every
17
N. Zatorsky, Pasten und Essen im geistlichen Leben (Hamburg: Verlag Dr Kovac
2004)56-57.
18
See citations in Skaballanovic, Tolkovyj Typikon 1,121-22.
19
On the anthropological and theological aspects of fasting see: A. Schmemann,
Great Lent (Crestwood: St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary Press 1974).
See also: R. Taft, "Lent: A Meditation," Beyond East and West (Rome: Pontifical
Oriental Institute 1997) 73-85; and L. Contos, The Lenten Covenant (Redwood
Shores, CA: Narthex Press 1994).
20
A. Schmemann, Sermons 2, "The Church Year," (Crestwood: St Vladimir's
Orthodox Theological Seminary Press 1994) 17.
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family to have an "open house" on the first one or two days of
Easter, as well as on the evening of one's saint's day. On Easter
Sunday the table is set and the doorbell rings all day, as parishioners
come to say, "Christ is risen!" (Xristos Voskrese!). To this greeting
one answers, "Indeed He is risen!" (Voistinu voskrese!) and kisses
three times. People would come in, stay and eat for a while, then
they would go on to someone else's house. My father is the priest
of the parish, so we usually had a steady crowd filing in the entire
day. I remember that on Easter morning, after a vigil that had lasted
until about three in the morning and a subsequent big night-time
Easter meal, we children were usually the first ones up as my
parents rested. The doorbell would ring for the first time at around
8 a.m., and it was invariably a certain old parishioner with a slight
drinking problem. He seemed to have been up all night, but somehow managed to stop by our house before turning in. I remember
that every year neither of my sisters wanted to go say "Christ is
risen!" to him because it involved kissing him three times, so
either I or my brother, the two youngest, would have to do it. This
notwithstanding, Pascha was the best day of the year, with everyone in their bright Easter clothes, just celebrating together all day,
from house to house.
Again I am reminded of the paschal celebration in fourteenthcentury Constantinople witnessed by Matthew, Metropolitan of
Ephesus (1329-1351). The entire city, having completed the eightweek fasting period of Lent, joined in the festivities beginning with
the Pascha vigil on the eve of Easter Sunday: "Therefore, since we
have all been purified in body and soul through [Lenten] exercises,
we go to meet the resurrection with courage. We go in this way on
the eve of the already-announced great event of the common liberation of humankind. Gathered together in front of their houses
— men, women, children, and those of advanced age — we proceed
toward the sacred sanctuaries of the city. And leaving the dwellings
empty we have no fear at all that anyone may carry away what is in
them, for in truth not even the thieves have time to do so, for the
celebration draws all to itself. . . . And everyone acts in the same
way, not one city or two or ten or a hundred, but every city in the
whole world. Only later, when we have arrived there, we divide
into two groups. Some stay there and wait throughout the whole
night, between hymns and prayers and piously chanting in fear
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143
and trembling at the Passion of Him who would rise, continuing
until cockcrow has signaled that the moment of the mystery has
arrived. The others of every age and sex, seized, I believe, by a
more ardent desire for the Deceased One, go forth in groups and
race throughout the whole city. . . illuminating the darkness of
the night with torches. . . . While they rush through the town in
this way, they gather for a short time wherever a holy sanctuary
rises up to implore God with prayers and lamentations, intoning a
single chant and rendering to God a single voice of thanksgiving.
From there, still raising their chants, they go back along the streets
and pass by the other sanctuaries. The purpose of his holy jubilation is to pass most of the night and at the same time to give ear to
those in the holy churches who indicate exactly the time — if God
is about to rise or is already risen. For as soon as they come to
know that, they immediately put an end to their tour and remain
where they are, joining in one body with those in the church. [. . .]
[When] everyone enters and hastens . . . into the churches . . .
they kiss one another and exchange the greetings of the hidden
mystery of the event, how through it the ends of heaven and earth
meet that previously were evilly divided by hatred and envy. . . .
So the common splendor shining on all like a rising sun, keeps
some in that place and they devote themselves to hymns and
chants for the Risen One. The others, instead, men mixed with
women and children, set themselves to dance in the atrium before
the entrances [to the church], applauding the chants with their
voices or their stamping feet. Thus the air drums with the beat of
chants and the ground with stamping feet. . . . Finally, when they
remember to return home, they depart in groups, interrupting
neither their chanting nor their joy, their gait keeping rhythm with
their voice, and their voice with their gait. . . . Until each one has
reached his own house, as they pass one another they kiss, the
young and old, the middle-aged and the aged, nor does the master
refuse the servant, but willingly offers his cheek and esteem. . . ."21
In my small parish outside New York City we admittedly could
not boast of having danced in front of the church similar to the
21
Matteo di Efeso, Racconto di una festa popolare, ed. A. Pignani (Naples:
M. D'Auria Editore 1984), Italian trans. 17-21; Greek ext 32-35; English trans.
R. Taft, Through Their Own Eyes (Berkeley, CA: InterOrthodox Press 2006) 43.
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144
Byzantines. However, we do have another tradition that the
Byzantines surely did not: Pascha is the only day in the year that
everyone is allowed to ring the church bells at our parish church,
just a block away from my parents' home. In Old Russia the tradition was to ring the bells all day on Easter Sunday, we were told. My
brother and I did not quite have that much energy — fortunately
for the neighbors — but we would climb the stairs of the bell tower
and give it our best.
S U P P R E S S I O N OF P R O S T R A T I O N S
A N D OF THE
OKTOICHOS
The eschatological coloring of feasts is also the reasoning behind
two other "festal" regulations of the Typikon: suppression of full
prostrations and suppression of the predominantly penitential
liturgical book Oktoichos. Full prostrations are penitential in character and thus inappropriate during a feast. A full prostration (to
first kneel to the ground so as to touch the floor with one's forehead, then rise again to a standing position) signifies full contrition
before God; it is a physical expression both of repentance and of a
determination to rise again from sin. Saint Basil the Great (379)
explains the eschatological significance of not kneeling: ". . . it is
not only that it serves to remind us that when we have risen from
the dead together with Christ we ought to seek the things above,
in the day of resurrection of the grace given us . . . but that it also
seems to serve in a way as a picture of the expected age."22
In Russia, however, despite the prohibition of kneeling on
Sundays in the Typikon, in canonical23 and patristic texts, it always
has been24 and is today popular to kneel on Sundays during the
Divine Liturgy and also during Sunday vigil. For example, I noticed
22
De Spirita Soneto 27, English trans, adapted from D. Cummings, The Rudder
(Chicago: Orthodox Christian Educational Society 1957) 855.
23
Canon 20 of the First Ecumenical Council: "Since there are some persons
who kneel in church on Sunday and on the days of Pentecost, with a view to
preserving uniformity in all parishes, it has seemed best to the Holy Council for
prayers to be offered to God while standing/' Ibid., 196.
24
As witnessed by a mid-seventeenth century pilgrim to Russia, Paul of Aleppo:
Putesestvie antioxijskogo patrìarxa Makarija ν Rossiju ν polovine XVII veka, opisannoe
ego synom arxidiakonom Pavlom, transa into Russian by G. Murkos (Moscow:
Obscestvo soxranenija literaturnogo nasledija 2005) 233.
Feasting and Fasting According to the Byzantine Typikon
145
the following usage in several parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate,
both in Moscow and in Rome: at Sunday vigil, when the choir
sings the Lenten hymn "Open the doors of repentance" (Pokajanija
otverzi mi dveri), all the lights in the church are suddenly put out,
and the entire congregation and celebrants prostrate fully on the
floor until the end of the hymn. I suppose it is easier for people to
understand the concept "penitential kneeling" than the concept
"eschatological standing." It is probably for this reason that we
have canonical regulations already in the fourth century battling
the natural impulse to kneel in prayer on Sundays.
The weekday hymnography of the liturgical book the Oktoichos,
called the Paraklitiki in the Greek tradition, is suppressed on feasts
because it is penitential in character. Here are two examples from
the weekday Oktoichos, to give you an idea of the general mood of
this hymnography: "I have sinned, Lord my God, I have sinned
against you! O Word, be merciful to me, do not reject me, do not
despise me, for you alone are compassionate" (Sunday evening
stichera of 'Lord, I have cried/ tone 3); "The tempest of the passions affrights me and the weight of my iniquities pulls me under.
Give me your helping hand and lead me up to the light of compunction, for you alone are compassionate and lover of humankind" (Sunday evening Aposticha, tone 3).25
VIGILS
But perhaps the most conspicuous element of a festal celebration
according to the Slavonic Typikon is the "All-Night Vigil"
(vsenoscnoe bdenie). What is an "All-Night Vigil"? Theoretically,26 it
unites vespers, the old Jerusalem cathedral vigil, and matins into
one long service27 that begins in the late evening and lasts until
early morning, as distinct from the non-festal Divine Office, when
vespers and matins are celebrated separately — vespers in the
evening and matins in the morning. The vigil thus effects the omission of two monastic offices usually celebrated between vespers
and matins — the Apodeipnon or Compline and Mesonyktikon or
25
English translation adapted from: www.web.ukonline.co.uk.
See a complete description of the Ail-Night Vigil in chapter 2 of the Typikon.
27
R. Taft, Beyond East and West (Rome: Pontifical Oriental Institute 1997) 59-60.
26
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146
28
midnight office. "All"Night Vigils" are celebrated in Russian
Orthodox churches on the eve of every Sunday and of every first
and second"class feast. Except in monasteries, the Greek Orthodox
do not have this tradition, which stems from the liturgical rite of
Jerusalem29 adopted by the Russian Church around the beginning
30
of the fifteenth century. It is clear that the intention of the Typikon
is to prolong the common'prayer on the eve of a feast. The theology
of keeping "vigil" in anticipation of a great feast was already discussed in connection with fasting and shall not detain us further
here. Note, however, that in practice "All"Night Vigils" do not last
31
"all night," and are not really "vigils."
In Russian Orthodox churches and monasteries today, this
service, still called "All"Night Vigil," is indeed celebrated on the
eve of all Sundays and great feasts, but it lasts anywhere from two
to four hours; most commonly — just over two hours. Even in
monasteries, the celebration of a "vigil" with the omission of the
Apodeipnon and the Mesonyktikon is considerably shorter than the
Divine Office celebrated on non"festal days.32 Hence we can
observe a complete turnaround of the original liturgical principle,
that a great feast means a longer service. In modern"day practice,
the opposite is true: a great feast means a shorter service. Is this to
be lamented? For someone living in a monastery, a slight break
and some quiet time in one's room on a feast"day is greatly appreciated and physically needed. After all, the Old Slavonic terms for
"feast" and "Sunday" (prazdnik, nedelja) both literally mean "day of
not doing," indicating abstinence from certain activity.33 For lay
28
For practical reasons most parishes and monasteries celebrate both vespers
and matins in the evening.
29
A. Pentkovskij, "Ierusalmskij Typikon ν Konstantinopole," Zumal Moskovskoj
Patriarxii 5 (2003) 77"78.
30
Mansvetov, Cerkovnyj ustav.
31
For an overview of the evolution of "All"Night Vigils" in Russia see:
M. Zheltov"S. Pravdoljubov, "Bogosluzenie RPC," Pravoslavnaja Enciklopedia
(introductory volume) (Moscow: Cerkovno"naucnyj centr "Pravoslavnaja
Enciklopedia" 2000) 509.
32
The very long services of Great Week could be seen as an exception. However,
none of these services are "All"Night Vigils" and hence do not concern us here.
33
V. Dal', Tolkovyj Slovar'¿ivogo Velikorusskago Jazyka III (St Petersburg-Moscow:
M. O. Vol'f 1912) 994.
ν
Feasting and Fasting According to the Byzantine Typikon
147
people, the prospect of going to church all night every Sunday and
feast-day would simply be unrealistic. Imagine the family
dilemma: Should we leave the kids at home? Should we take them with
us? Should we all stay home and miss another vigil? It is not difficult to
predict the outcome of that discussion.
The evolution of the "All-Night Vigil" and other aspects of the
celebration of feasts in the Russian Orthodox Church today are
examples of liturgical change based on the real needs and possibilities of the praying church. Contrary to a popular misconception,
change does happen in the liturgy of the East, though, as Fr Robert
Taft often says, to observe it "is like watching the grass grow":
it usually does not happen by synodal decree, but by generations
of church communities living the Typikon day-in and day-out,
according to their strengths and weaknesses, and thus shaping
Tradition.
Mark G. Boyer
Exploring the Concept of "Progressive Solemnity"
Every day we thank God for our life through the Liturgy of the
Hours and Eucharist. However, while we celebrate and thank God
every day, every day is not our birthday, baptismal anniversary, or
ordination anniversary. Most people hold some days special during
the year, but most days are ordinary. In other words, each person
has a repertoire of solemnities scattered over 365-366 days. The
days preceding the special days in our lives lead to the celebration
progressively.
Such is the case in the Roman Catholic Church. Every Sunday,
whose observance "begins with the evening of the preceding day"
(General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar [hereMark G. Boyer, a presbyter of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in
Missouri, teaches in the Religious Studies Department at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.
Mark G. Boyer
148