Library › Nikolaos Voulgaris › Holy Catechism

Holy Catechism

Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893

Of the Diptychs

Whilst It is meet, or this other, In thee rejoiceth is being sung, the Priest within commemorates whom he will of the living and dead: since not only we who are alive receive the remission of sins, by partaking in the fear of God of those holy and spotless Mysteries, but the very dead according to Saint Germanus are summoned with the Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs to enter in and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the mystical Table of the kingdom of Christ. The intercession of Gregory Dialogus was of great assistance to the salvation of the Emperor Trajan, a persecutor of the Church: Thecla the first martyr helped much the renowned Falconilla: the great Macarius helped much a gentile skull which he lighted on: Theodora helped much Theophilus the Iconoclast. How much more shall the souls of the orthodox and pious who have departed in the faith find assistance and refreshment through the infinitely powerful sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ?

“What must I say? (writes Glycas, Ep. 26, on the power of the holy Prayers.) For what the things of the world given the poor cannot do, this the prayer of a righteous man wonderfully did, for Gregory Dialogus the Great entreated God for pardon of sins for the Emperor Trajan, who had ended his life in impiety, and did not fail of his request; moreover the Protomartyr Thecla besought God for a Greek woman, named Falconilla, and freed her from eternal torments. And the great Macarius meeting in the road with the dried up skull of the High Priest of the idols, questioned it what it yearned to learn, and heard from it in reply, for God then inspired it with the word of truth: When thou art offering the sacrifices for the dead, then we feel a slight respite.” And Zonaras in the life of the Emperor Michael son of Theophilus, writes: “And the Queen they say most warmly entreated the Patriarch and the rest of the High Priests and Monks to offer common prayer to God, that her King and consort might find salvation, and that they would most warmly entreat of God that He would not overlook the petition of His servants, but that He would vouchsafe pardon to the Emperor Theophilus. But no one will disbelieve unless one who thinks that the intercessions of the Saints with God cannot effect much, and does not know how to measure the goodness of God against the ignorances of men.” Gennadius writes to the same effect, and Nicephorus Callistus, and Nicolas of Athens, and many others; particularly in his book on the Departed, Damascene asserts about the miracle regarding Trajan that it had unquestioned currency in his day as well in the East, as in the West.¹

Firstly remember, O Lord, our Archbishop.

Acknowledging God and the Father as holding authority over things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, the Priest offered as we saw the holy memorials first of all the Saints, secondly of us who are alive, and thirdly of the dead. And as in the order of the Church Triumphant he mentioned aloud and chiefly as Queen of all male and female the ever-Virgin and Mother of God: so now he mentions in the first instance and publicly the High Priest, as the governing power of our holy Church Militant, beseeching that he may be kept not only in length of life but also in Orthodoxy, rightly dividing the word of Gospel Truth. And this because the Church has suffered much, the Orthodox Faith has run great risks from the most eminent High Priests; the world has wept sore over the Sun being darkened, over the Moon abiding without light oftentimes, the Stars fallen from heaven, the prominent Priests and High Priests leaders of schisms and heresiarchs, grievous wolves, not sparing the flock. Glory be to Thee, O Lord, Glory be to Thee, O Lord, we read in the 5th Act of the holy Council assembled at Constantinople under the Patriarch Menas that all the people cried aloud about this in the Great Church, when they heard in one unbroken flow the Reading of the Diptychs, the peaceable assembly of the councils and the concord of the Fathers.

The Diptychs were two boards fastened together like those which we see Moses who saw God holding in pictures—on these were written the names of the Orthodox, and as we learn from the holy Fifth Œcumenical Council, the deacon used to read them on these occasions before the Altar, although this Reading of the Diptychs took place also within the hearing of all at the Ambo. “The Diptychs to the Ambo, the Diptychs to the Ambo. Now produce the Diptychs,” the people used to shout aloud to John of Constantinople in the days of Justin and Helena the august Emperors. They were of three kinds. Diptychs of the Saints, Diptychs of the Living and Diptychs of the Departed. We have the diptychs of the Saints since the time of Dionysius the Great. The calling out of the holy Folds after the Peace proclaims those who have lived piously and have reached unchangeably to the perfection of a virtuous life, encouraging and leading us on the one side to the blessed mode of life in their likeness, and to a divine allotment of inheritance; and announcing the others as alive and according to the teaching of Theology not dead, but transferred from death to the divinest life. Eccl. Hier. iii. The Diptychs of the Departed are much the most ancient, and appear in the divine and holy Liturgy of the Evangelist Mark. In the Diptychs of the Living were inscribed the High Priests and the Emperors and others who were in positions of dignity and authority, and specially whoever had been benefactors of that Church, all by name; and generally all the Laity. “And of all men and all women” is the cry of the Deacon as he concludes the Reading of the Diptychs, males and females. They were called Diptychs from πτύσσω to fold, which signifies to double: since the ministers kept them in the sacred shrine doubled with great care.

I said with great care, since in the Diptychs it was settled for the Saints to be glorified as saints, for the orthodox to be pronounced blessed as orthodox, for heresiarchs and apostates to be condemned as deposed and excommunicate. The Diptychs were the Lydian stone of assay, the Hercules’ magnet rock of souls. How the people pressed John of Constantinople, in that 5th Act of the Council under Menas, to proclaim the titles in the Diptychs of the four holy Œcumenical Councils! how they shouted! what a tumult they raised! to have the names of Euphemius,² Macedonius, and Leo, the most holy High Priests, written in the Diptychs! “Insert them, insert them.” How the orthodox party struggled for the great beacon of the Church, Golden-mouthed John, to illuminate the Diptychs! how bitterly the successor and nephew too of Theophilus of Alexandria, the divine Cyril, withstood him, see Theodoret, v. 35; Nicephorus, xiv. Diptychs are called by Cassiodorus, v. Ep. 16, Polyptychs, because of the many folds which they consisted of; also by Gregory the Great, VII. Ep. 40, so great was the multitude of names.

Here I note too the commendation of the Four Patriarchs, which took place at Constantinople, and the copy seen with his own eyes by James Goar, in the Royal Library of Paris in France. “And the deacon comes forth, he writes, saying the usual words, Of Joseph the most holy and Œcumenical Patriarch, of Philotheus of Alexandria, of Mark of Antioch, of Theophilus of Jerusalem,” &c. We are well aware that in case of the Bishop of Constantinople being absent from Byzantium, or necessarily detained at times when in the presence of the Emperor, what is called the Parastasis took place, the Celebration fell to one, as it might happen, of the other Patriarchs; and in the absence of a Patriarch, the Protopope had the privilege of celebrating. So more particularly concerning the consecration of Epiphany-tide, Curopalates says, in his treatise on the Offices of the Great Church: “So the festival of the divine Theophany arrives; and the consecration, if the Œcumenical Patriarch is found present, is performed by him; otherwise by one of the other Patriarchs, either the Patriarch of Alexandria, or of Antioch or of Jerusalem, if he happen to be residing; if however, it should happen that none of them is present, the Protopope performs the consecration.”

The Protopope also recited the Gospel at the Washing, which the Emperor performed at those times. “They prepare, says the same Curopalates, twelve poor men, and clothe them with undershirts, or something like tunics and sandals; and a dish being placed in the Emperor’s stall, the Protopope, stationing himself outside at the door, gives the blessing and says the Trisagion. Then, whilst the Gospel is read by him, at the words, He put water into the basin, the Emperor pours the water into the dish. Then they bring the previously prepared beggars, each one carrying a wax taper lit; and the Emperor being seated, the Protopope, as before said reading the Gospel, when he comes to the words, Jesus began to wash the disciples’ feet, and while he repeats them again and again, namely, till all are washed, the Emperor washes the right foot of each, and having dried the washed foot with the towel which hangs in front of him, he salutes it. And this being over, the Service of the Washing proceeds to its conclusion, and to each one are given three golden coins apiece,” and so forth. In our Court the Gospel of the Washing is read by the Holy Recorder; and the Protopope completes the ceremony in the midst of the city.

In old times, as we read in the books about the Liturgy of S. Clement, there was mention by name in the Liturgy, and the commendation of three only, namely, the Pope of Old Rome, and the two Patriarchs, of Jerusalem and Antioch; since in those days neither the Bishop of Alexandria nor of Constantinople had the precedence, which afterwards was ordered synodically by the Church. The words of the Liturgy of that period are these: “For our Bishop James and his dioceses let us pray. For our Bishop Clement and his dioceses let us pray. For our Bishop Evodius and his dioceses let us pray.” James was High Priest at Jerusalem; Clement at Old Rome; Evodius at Antioch, which at that time took this precedence, since as S. Luke writes, the first spot, where Christians were named Christians, was Antioch. Acts xi. 26.

And grant us with one mouth and one heart to glorify Thee, &c.

With one mouth and one heart, since as the Church is one, the Faith is one, the Baptism is one, so we all of us are bound, as linked by the bond of love, to agree and to behave peaceably as brethren in Christ, one body and one spirit. “For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, and were all made to drink into one spirit.” 1 Cor. xii. 13. But woe to the man through whom the offence cometh, schisms, heresies, strifes, apostasies. And grant us; since it is He in Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things; He Who made known to us the mystery of His Will according to His good pleasure; He chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise men; He chose the weak things of the world, to confound the strong; He chose the base things of the world, the things despised, and the things which are not, to bring to nought the things that are; that no flesh should boast before Him. Although “every man having received from God a mind innate, so teaches Cyril of Alexandria in his book on the Trinity one God, has the instruction self-taught that the Deity is a substance supersubstantial, and a superlative power, and an activity outstripping every activity; and according to the Wise men themselves who are outside, He is the source, whence Heaven and Nature depend,” nevertheless the inconceivable mystery of the most divine Trinity flesh and blood hath not revealed to us, but God the Word of God Himself, Who is in the bosom of the Father; His mercies are abundant, and the Priest in praying for munificent grace for the orthodox, again blesses the people; saying,

And the mercies of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ shall be with you all.

For “God being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us to live with Christ, (by grace have ye been saved,) and raised us up with Him, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that He might show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in goodness towards us in Christ Jesus;” this is the high language of the Apostle of the Gentiles to the Ephesians (Eph. ii. 4—7.) And though the justifying and active grace which the Theologians of the Church speak of, is given by the all-gracious justice of God to those only who rightly make use of the Sufficient grace, which we spoke of as being indifferently common to all, since God willeth all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth; whence it is evident that our salvation in a certain fashion depends on our own selves; yet whatsoever we do that is good, let us do it with the help of God, of Whose mercies and not of ourselves we are able to be justified. Let Pelagius and his followers prate as they will. “Not by works that are in righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,” is the cry of the very vessel of election himself. Tit. iii. 5.

Here you see how the great Paul employs God’s grace and mercy synonymously, since the grace of God as well as His infinitely powerful mercy aims at one and the same end, and there is no difference between them. For this reason also the Western Emperors and High Priests, having one and the same idea with the Easterns, instead of By God’s mercy, which the latter use ordinarily in the subscriptions and superscriptions which they issue, all commonly inscribe at the head By the grace of God. Our most reverend Sovereign Protopope would imitate the Easterns. I specially observe that not only the High Priests, but also Superiors and Deacons and Monks were accustomed to make their ordinary subscriptions with the same addition, because all of us, whatever position we hold, from head to the toe-tips, know nothing of it save by the actual mercy of God.

Theonas, by the mercy of God Presbyter and Apocrisiarius of the holy mountain Sinai, and of the desert Rhaithus, and of the most holy Church of Pharan.

I Marianus, by the mercy of God Presbyter and Archimandrite of the Monastery of S. Dalmatius, and Exarch of the venerable Monasteries of this Royal City, have subscribed and consented.

I Cosmas, by the mercy of God Presbyter and Superior of the Holy Forerunner and Baptist, have subscribed and consented.

I Paul, by the mercy of God Deacon and Apocrisiarius of the venerable Monastery of the Blessed Maro, the principal of the venerable Monasteries of Second Syria, have subscribed and consented.

I Trajan, by the mercy of God Monk of the Towers of Jordan, speaking also on behalf of all the monks on the Jordan, have subscribed and consented.

Of such subscriptions we have thousands in the Church; and you find them without number, if you choose, in the holy Council assembled under Menas of Constantinople.

Previous · Contents · Next