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Holy Catechism

Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893

Of the Antiphons or Troparia

53. Ex. I understand we next sing some Antiphons and Psalms; what do these signify?

C. They signify the preaching of the Prophets until the Forerunner. “Antiphons are the predictions of the Prophets, foreannouncing the coming of the Son of God, which should be of the Virgin upon earth.” So Germanus,¹ in his treatise on Sacred Offices. And Cabasilas, ch. 18: “The singing of the Prophecies signifies the period before John the Forerunner, when the precious gifts, by which Christ is signified, are not yet brought forward, but are reserved in private under covering.” And again: “The Antiphons signify the beginning of His coming, when He had arrived, but did not yet appear to the multitude; for then He still had need of the words of Prophecy.” This is the reason why, as Philaras pointed out, the Typica were so called, “since they are a type of the preaching of the Patriarchs and Prophets.” And for this cause, all as well Antiphons as Typica, were taken from the Old Testament Scripture; although the moderns have mixed in the Beatitudes with some Troparia. “First reciting passages from the Psalms, then joining thereto the Hymns on the subject of Grace, they present what was foreannounced by the psalm passages even to the ancients, to whom they declare the Incarnation of God, so now by the Hymn-verses the actual grace accomplished and the Son of God, both as incarnate, and as having wrought all for us.” So writes Symeon of Thessalonica in the book on the Temple. And I observe that the Troparia, which are sung together with the Beatitudes, are of the third and the sixth odes, not of any other; since at the third hour the Holy Spirit, Whose coming is invoked in the Liturgy, descended in the upper room, and at the sixth hour the very Lamb was crucified, Who is offered and sacrificed. And therefore we learn from tradition, that formerly the Divine and Holy Liturgy was usually celebrated in the church, for the most part at the third hour of the day. And Matthew Blastaris adduces the reason. “Because the Paraclete, having visibly come upon the Apostles at this period of the day, and having now granted them initiation, in a perfect degree, at the third hour, clearly taught us, too, to consecrate the perfect Ministry to the Godhead of Three Persons at the hour named from the Divine Trinity.” It is, in fact, a thousand years and more since, by a Council, only a local one it is true, it was laid down that the Holy Liturgy should begin at the third hour. And we know that the learned Moschus, ch. 27, declared how certain countrymen had run with a bill of accusation to the Bishop of the place, and alleged against their Presbyter that when he celebrated the Liturgy, he did not carefully observe this rule of the third hour.

This moved likewise our most reverend Emperor and President in the assignment of the churches which he made, that the Divine and Holy Liturgy might be celebrated at different hours, and the Communion of the Laity might take place seasonably at all the Feasts, according to the duty which we all of us owe, under penalty of the guilt of deadly sin, for this reverence of the third hour to be observed at one and the same time, to order in our days that the Divine Rite of the Initiated be celebrated at the third hour in twelve churches, at the other hours in three churches; since he saw it was impossible for the whole body of the orthodox, Priests and rulers, men of the world and Monks, slaves and freemen, artizans and soldiers, young and old, men and women, to be able at one and the same hour to fulfil a duty so healthful to the soul, and lest his flock should be punished in consequence.

“If any Bishop or Presbyter or Deacon, or one of those on the list of clergy, or a layman, not having any necessity sterner than the difficulty of going, to absent himself largely from his church, but abiding in the city, shall not attend for three Sundays in three weeks; if he be a clerk, let him be deposed (it is the 80th canon of the Sixth Holy and Œcumenical Council;) if he be a layman, let him be removed from Communion. For one of two things is hereby clear: either that such an one pays no regard to the divine commands, and prayer to God, and hymnody, or that he is not a believer.” They were separated,² and are put from the Church, as many as on the Lord’s day (herein are included all the Feasts which have the Doxology) do not hear their Liturgy; and every householder has to give account at the hour of Judgment respecting those who dwell in his house.

Having this in view our Orthodox Emperors, even in their campaigns, would not ever have the Church out of their neighbourhood, even at great expense and with magnificence, as Eusebius Pamphili reports of Constantine the Great, how when he was marching against the Persians, iv. 17, they arranged tents in the shape of temples and carried them about with them, so as to be able at every time and place to hear the Divine and Holy Liturgy. “He hastened to set out (Constantine namely) on the expedition against the Persians; and having determined this, he set the corps of soldiers in motion; he communicated also with the Bishops about him respecting the march, making provision that some of those who were necessary in Divine worship must be with him. They for their part declared that they would very gladly accompany him if he desired it, and had no wish to retire, but would join his expedition and fight on his side by their supplications to God. And being much pleased with these replies, he sketched the plan of the expedition to them.³ And having himself raised the whole temple to an unspeakable height, he constructed it all gleaming with varieties of all kinds of gems, having overlaid it from the floor to the very roof, and having divided the roof in small panels he covered it entirely with gold. Outside copper in place of tiling afforded protection to the work for safeguard against rains. And round this gold gleamed in such quantity as to those who looked from afar to emit a flashing light in the reflection of the sun’s rays. And the chamber he compassed round with carved lattice-work set with copper and gold. So the Temple was thus thought worthy of attention amid the plentiful assiduity of the Emperor,” and so on. The same, Sozomen, Bk. I. ch. 8, writes, was done by the Magistrates of the Palace of Constantinople when they went on a campaign.

Gregory of Nazianzum (to pass by the rest) the father of the great Gregory, though half-dead and confined to his bed, could not rest without fulfilling this God-taught duty of the Holy Liturgy, and celebrating it just as he was. “The Rite had us for initiated and for servants too,” narrates his son of the same name, and the inheritor of his throne, in the funeral discourse which he pronounced over him in the presence of the great Basil. “So he, through the strength of Him Who quickens the dead, even raises himself in the Holy Night; at first he moves himself only a little, then more firmly; then, having summoned by name an attendant from amongst those who waited on him, with a very thin and faint voice he ordered him to come and fetch clothes and give the support of his hand. He came astonished and gladly helped him. And the bishop using the guidance of his hand as a staff resembles Moses on the Mount, and with his enfeebled hands in the attitude of prayer, he zealously performs the Mysteries, or engages in them for the people, with few words indeed and such as strength permitted, but with intent, to my mind, of the most thorough perfection. Wonderful to say! with no tribune on the tribune; with no altar a sacrificer; a Priest far away from the rites—even these from the Holy Ghost he had, known indeed to him, though unseen by those present. Then having added the words of Thanksgiving in the usual manner, and blessed the people, he takes to his bed again; and after he had eaten a little food, and partaken of sleep, his spirit is revived; and his health by slow growth being re-established, the new Festival day arrived, which we thus name and keep as the First Sunday after this Resurrection Day; and he made his way to the Temple, and with the full congregation of the Church dedicates the saving rite and offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving,” &c. And what need is there to say more? Paul himself, the God-furnished vessel of choice, finding himself one Sabbath in the Troad, and intending to start the next day, seeing that was the Lord’s Day, would not on any account remain without the Liturgy. “On the first day of the week (writes S. Luke, in Acts xx. 7,) the disciples being assembled to break Bread, Paul discoursed to them, being about to depart on the morrow, and prolonged his discourse to midnight.” The meaning of this passage Augustine interprets in his 86th Epistle. “After the Sabbath which was ended, he said, they assembled when night began, that was the night of the Lord’s Day, namely, the first day of the week. And so intending to break the Bread, as was his wont, in the Mystery of Christ’s Body, he prolonged his discourse to midnight in order that after the Celebration of the Mysteries he might again address the assembled disciples until morning, for he was very eager to sail at dawn of the Lord’s Day.” The celebration he continued through the night, because he meant directly the Lord’s Day dawned to take his departure.

Here I observe that the Apostle, though the whole night was at his disposal, would not celebrate the Liturgy, save only when the day broke, at early dawn. For which reason the evangelist adds further: “And when he was gone up and had broken the bread” (“The Bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ?” 1 Cor. x. 16) “and eaten and had talked with them a long while till break of day, so he departed.” Since as Balsamon observes on the 89th canon of the Quinisext Council, the very hour which begins the Lord’s Day is the hour of the Resurrection. “That what takes its title from the Lord begins from the seventh hour of the night which precedes the Lord’s Day, is clear from the sun’s ascending, or the day’s illumination occurring (forasmuch as then is the Spring Equinox) from the seventh hour before the actual night,”⁴ which Luke described by “at early dawn,” and Matthew by “late on the Sabbath.”

This is particularly pointed out by Gabriel of Philadelphia in his book on Mysteries, as regards also the great feast of Passover. “And the Liturgy of the Holy Festival of Passover before Sunrise signifies the Lord’s Resurrection from the Tomb: for the ointment-bearers came at early dawn, says S. Luke, to the sepulchre, and found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and entering in they found not the body of the Lord Jesus.”

Fully certain am I that ‘the night in which it is reported that Basil the Great celebrated the Liturgy on the occasion when Christ with His holy Disciples and Apostles appeared to him whilst he was preparing the offering of the Mysteries at the Holy Prothesis, was early dawn and daybreak. For when the Saint had ended that far-famed and most awful celebration amid heavenly lights and angelic singing of psalms, at once on his issuing from the church, Eubulus and the clerks with him fell at once in a transport at his holy feet, declaring the wonders they had heard and seen in that miraculous night; whereupon “the Saint, says the History, made an oration before the people; a sign of Communion, at early dawn plainly;” so says Amphilochius of Iconium in his Life of the great Father.

54. Ex. I am not altogether surprised if so great saints offered the Liturgy outside the appointed hour which you named as being the third hour of the day, since even now in our days I understand that pretty well throughout Greece, and in Constantinople itself, on all Sundays of the year, (save the Holy and great Lent) the divine and holy Liturgies are offered at once after dawn. And I see each Sunday that our Priests celebrate the Liturgy both at the first hour and at the second, later or earlier, as opportunity offers and necessity bids, or at the desire of the people. What is the meaning of this?

C. This is true; and according to the need of the people and custom of the local holy churches of God, the great Church permits this, nay she herself in the first instance, at varying hours engages in the Celebration of the Divine and Holy Liturgy; since she has no rule or œcumenical canon which forbids her to do this. Consult the divine and holy canons one by one, not only those of the holy Apostles, but also of the very Œcumenical Councils. Can. Ap. 84. First Council, can. 20; Second Council, can. 7; Third Council, can. 13; Fourth Council, can. 26; (the Fifth Council passed no canons, only 14 anathemas;) Sixth Council, can. 102; Seventh Council, can. 22. You will nowhere find such a rule as that we should celebrate the Liturgy at the third hour and no other; in fact we see just the reverse, and the Church offered the Liturgy, and offers it indiscriminately at every time.

At daybreak, as we showed at the glorious Resurrection, and as was the custom in the metropolis of the famous Crete for the orthodox there to do the whole year through, because of the common people. At the first and second hours, as we see is done each Sunday by our priests. At the third hour, as is observed even now, notably at the Festivals and Synods. At the fourth hour, as is customary in S. George’s in illustrious Venice, where on Sundays the Divine Liturgy is celebrated pretty nearly at breakfast time. At the ninth hour, that it may take place according to the original pattern in the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom on the day of the Annunciation. At the tenth hour, as we have received that the Church directs in the Liturgy of Basil on the day of the Holy and Great Sabbath. Nay, even at the first hour of the night, and at the second hour; because when Vespers are said first and the Lessons read, the Liturgy comes to be celebrated at the second hour of the night. “The Ruler of the church,” the Ritual directs on the Great Sabbath, “must be careful that when the church is dismissed from the Liturgy, it shall be the second hour of the night.” In the period of persecution the Priests used to celebrate by night; and hear what is written about the Christians to the Emperor Trajan (Ep. x. 97) by the great Pliny. “They are wont,” he says, “on a fixed day (Justin, Philosopher and Martyr, calls it the Sun’s day, which was the Lord’s Day,) to assemble in the night, and to offer in concert a hymn to Christ, as their proper God.” In the day time there was no communion for fear of the tyrants. Herein the Church plainly agrees with the Prophet-king, “I will bless the Lord,” he sings, “at all times; His praise shall be continually in my mouth. O taste, O taste and see that the Lord is gracious.” He is speaking of the Liturgy.

The Council I referred to above, includes the rule only about the grand Feasts and special Assemblies, according to the universal custom to this day. See the well known 11th canon. I called it a Local Council, and it is the third held at Orleans in France. Upon this point other apocryphal stories are in vogue, which have no stability. But as for the country people, who, John Moschus writes, accused the Priest of the course before the Bishop, because he was not accurate in observing the third hour, when he celebrated the Liturgy, it is enough for us to know that they were unlearned and country folk.

I come now to the Antiphons. Concerning these, Photius of Constantinople says that they are the invention of the great Ignatius. “The originator of Antiphons,” he writes, “was, they say, Ignatius Theophorus.” Although Philo the Jew writes in his book about the Essenes, that Antiphons were customary in his time even at Alexandria, before Ignatius began them at Antioch. “Next they sing,” he says, “hymns addressed to God in many measures and melodies, at one time singing in concert, at another in responsive hymns, and beating time to the harmonies with their hands.” Formerly they were sung in common by all, and simultaneously. “The celebrant having ended the holy Prayer at the divine Altar, thereupon begins the censing, and commences the holy melody of the Psalms, the whole array of the Church singing with him the sacred words of psalmody.” These are Dionysius’s words, in his treatise on what is done in the Assembly.

55. Ex. If the Psalms and the Antiphons you spoke of are sung as a sample of the preaching of the Patriarchs or Prophets (whence an opinion has arisen that to represent the three conditions of Israel, from Abraham namely to David, from David to the carrying away to Babylon, and from the carrying away to Babylon to Christ, the Antiphons too are divided into three stanzas), why, at the same time is sung, “The only-begotten Son and Word,” in which is described the subsequent coming and Incarnation of Christ?

C. Because it was He Who was preached and prophesied of: in respect of the timeless generation the Son of God; but in respect of the generation in time, the Son of the Virgin, Jesus the God-man, One of the Holy Trinity, with the Father and the Spirit together glorified and worshipped. And as we heard from the Thessalonian, “In the psalms they present God’s Incarnation foretold, and in the hymns the gift itself accomplished.” This Troparion, writes Cedrenus in his Synopsis of History, was composed by the Emperor Justinian. “He renewed from its foundations,” he narrates, “the great Church of God, and gave it also a Troparion, composed by himself, ‘The only-begotten Son and Word.’ “Others will have it to be composed by Joseph and Nicodemus, and that “they were taught it by the precious and life-giving Body of the Lord, and the inseparable Divinity therein, when they took it away to bury it.”⁵ So writes Germanus in his Ecclesiastical History.⁶

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