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Holy Catechism

Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893

Concerning the Temple and Its Parts

49. Ex. You have once or twice mentioned to us the Sacred Temple; and I remember that with Saint Germanus you described to us the Church also in general terms, what it means. But I was desirous before we came to the interpretation of this second division, as you call it, of the Holy Liturgy, that you should describe to us particularly all the portions of the Temple, and for what each one is used.

C. The Ancients were wont to build the Temples of God in many forms, making them sometimes Dromic (Basilican or oblong) sometimes Cruciform, sometimes round, sometimes domical, and sometimes foursquare; although, as Phocas describes in his 15th chapter, we know that Temples even partook of various forms. “Such a Temple,” he writes, “is entirely domical, elongated, round, and in its central part of square shape.” In our days nearly all the Divine Temples are made oblong and dromic, with angular ends that is; and without exception they look to the East; since as Balsamon of Theopolis writes in his Commentary on the Great Basil, concerning turning to the East for prayer: “Looking eastward in our prayers is our seeking the original home, Paradise namely, which God planted eastwards. And this, (we are instructed by Germanus of Constantinople in his Ecclesiastical History) has been handed down from the holy Apostles themselves, because the spiritual Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God appeared on earth in the parts where the material Sun rises, according to the prophet, who says, ‘Day-star is His name;’ and again, ‘Worship the Lord Who rideth upon the heaven of heaven in the East.’”¹

The parts of the Divine Temples were three in all; forasmuch as there are likewise three classes of Christians, by whose prayer and communion they are specially edified. And as we know that the ranks of the Heavenly Powers are three, there are three ranks also of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and three parts of the Temple. The orders of the Incorporeal we believe to be nine, three namely in every heavenly Hierarchy. The orders of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy likewise are nine, and three in every rank. The first rank consists of the Ministers of Perfection, the second of those proceeding to perfection, the third, of those under purification. Others call them the Hierarchy of Perfection, the Hierarchy of Illumination, and the Hierarchy of Purification.

To the Ministers of Perfection belongs the Holy Tribune, to those who proceed to perfection the Temple (Nave) properly so called, to those under Purification the Portico (Narthex.) The Ministers of Perfection are the clergy; those proceeding to Perfection are the pure and faithful; those under Purification are the Catechumens, the Energumens (Possessed,) and those under Penance. Ministers of Perfection is the name given to the first order, because it is this which by the distribution of the holy Mysteries gives to the pure and faithful their sanctification and perfection; which is the reason they are called candidates for Perfection; just as to the Catechumens, Energumens, and Penitents, it gives Illumination and cleansing, whence they are called those under Purification.

Of the orders in the first rank, namely, of the Ministers of Perfection, first stand the Hierarchs, second the Presbyters, third the Deacons. In the second rank, that is of the Candidates for Perfection, first stand the Monks, second, the Pure and Faithful, third, the Consistents, who used to stand in company with the Faithful. In the third rank, which is of those under Purification, first come the Catechumens, second, the Energumens, third, those under Penance. In the first rank are “the select of the Liturgical Array, stationed with the Priests at the Altar.” In the second, “those who are worthy of looking on Divine things, and of communion, and abide to the end in the Temple.” In the third, “those who after the Reading of the Scriptural Tablets are put outside the Temple.” So Dionysius in his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, iii.

Here we should observe that the Catechumens are spoken of first, and those under penance last, beginning from the lower part of the Narthex, and according to the order, when they came out from the church, at which time the Catechumens were first; while in the order of their station, counting from the upper part of the Nave, first were the Penitents, last of all the Catechumens. And Dionysius alleges the reason in his 7th chapter: “To the Catechumens, he says, is assigned the last place: for they are not participators nor initiated in any priestly rite; but the other grades of those under Purification have already been initiated in the holy tradition, and have foolishly gone backward for the worse, whereas they ought to secure their proper advance forwards.” From this point of view therefore those who are in penance are first in the third rank; the Energumens are second; last of all the Catechumens.

Catechumens are so named from κατηχέω, which means for one to teach elementary scholars; for these are what are called Proselytes, who forsaking error and their ancestral religion, come to the bosom of the Catholic Church, to receive the Illumination of the Faith. They are distinguished into two classes; one of Kneelers, the more advanced class; the other of Hearers, the less advanced; according to the Scholiast of Armenopulus in the Epitome of the Canons, section 5, title 3. And so Blastaris: “Catechumens were anciently divided into two classes; into those who were already more advanced, having accepted the faith, but still deferring Baptism, who waited in Church (κυριακὸν)² till the Prayer of the Catechumens, and knelt whilst this prayer was said secretly; then at the direction ‘All Catechumens advance’ they went out: and into those who had lately applied for admission; these being less advanced retired after the hearing of the holy Gospels.” Energumens too were divided into two classes, the Possessed whom the Church only admitted to Prayer with the Catechumens and Penitents in the hour of departure; and those who live in sensuality, “who, that is, have severed themselves from the Divine life, and grow to be of one mind and habit with the damned devils.” (Dionysius.) The first Alexius Aristenes in the scholia on the canons of the Council of Ancyra calls Chimazomens (those out of doors); the second the very Council of Ancyra calls Unnatural. And they are “such as remain impenitent in bodily indulgences; as fornicators, lovers of spectacles, and frequenters of such like, whom the divine Apostle when he names, adds, With such an one no not to eat.” The words are the words of S. Maximus in the scholia on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Dionysius.

Penitents were of four sorts. “Penitents are distinguished into four classes; into weepers, hearers, substrati, and consistentes,” Blastaris. So Basil the Great describes all these in the 56th Canon. “For four years, (he says about a voluntary homicide,) he must weep standing outside the door of the House of Prayer, and begging the faithful who enter to put up prayer for him, acknowledging his own transgressions: after four years he will be received among the Hearers, during five years he will leave the church with them; during seven years he will pray with the Substrati and go forth with them; during four years he will merely stand with the faithful, but not partake of the offering; and when these are fulfilled, twenty years in all, he will receive the consecrated gifts.”

Here clearly we see Weeping, Hearing, Substration, and Consistence which are the four grades of Penitents. “Weeping is conducted outside the gate of the House of Prayer, where the sinner must stand and ask the faithful who enter in to pray for him. Hearing is conducted inside the gate in the Narthex, where the sinner must stand so long as the Catechumens do, and must thence come out. Substration is for one to stand inside the gate of the Temple, and come forth with the Catechumens. Consistence is to take one’s stand with the faithful and not to come out with the Catechumens.” Which is the reason why it is numbered as we saw with the orders of the second hierarchy. (Gregory Thaum. 11th Canon.)

50. Ex. Go on now with your explanation of the parts of the church as you began.

C. First are the Porches (Nartheces) or entrances to the Temples (Symeon of Thessalonica gives the etymology in his book on Heresies) and the lower part of the Nave, and Catechumenea or the house of the Catechumens,³ although as we know from the times of S. Maximus, “this strictness of distinction between the penitents and their separation is not carried out.” This he writes in the 3rd Ch. of the Scholia on Dionysius. And Zonaras to the same effect in the 19th Canon of the Laodicene Council. “Now, however, the rules of penitence are not observed, having somehow fallen into disuse,” so the Thessalonian himself brings his accusation in his book against Heresies, and desires the Holy Fathers of our times to be content that Satisfaction and Penance be done by Christians more privately, and as may commend itself to the spiritual fathers, and no longer be done in the Temple, saving by those who have denied the Faith, or fallen into murder, and excepting Catechumens. “Now,” he says, “owing to persecutions and long-continued circumstances, the Fathers having so judged it right, Catechumens, and Deniers of the Faith, and murderers are excluded; but all others, provided only they have been baptized, are allowed, their penance being imposed privately by the spiritual fathers, and so forth.”

The Narthex is named by Gabriel the Corinthian, the Women’s place. “For where the women stand in the Temple, this is called the Narthex,” certainly in the space allotted to the Catechumens, where we described the Narthex itself, the women’s place is fixed by Basil, illustrious to the heavens, who lays down the law for it, and was its first inventor. “He ordered veils to be hung (writes Amphilochius in the Saint’s life) among the Catechumens, having laid injunctions on the women that if any were seen during the Divine Liturgy outside the veils peering through, she should be put out of the Church, and remain excommunicate.” In our times places for the women are also built over the Narthex, and so the Narthex evidently means only the vestibule of the Temple, where used to be—

The Pronaos or Parvis of the ancients, itself also a holy place according to Balsamon’s Commentary on the 2nd Canon of Dionysius of Alexandria. “For the Pronaoi,” says he, “are not profane like the forecourts of churches.” We can call the Pronaos the outer Narthex, just as we give the name Inner Narthex to what is properly the Narthex of the ancients. Porticoes are the Nartheces (as we now call them) which surround the sides of the church; although properly speaking the Narthex cannot anyhow be named Portico (embolos) since they are two parts of the church, though near one another. So much is told us by Codinus amongst the rest in his book on Principles, where he narrates that accident which befell the Empress Theodora, (whose holy relics since the year 1483 our country holds and enjoys as the gift of Mark Calochæretes, brother of Philip our own ancestor) when she went on horseback to the church through the Portico of Blachernæ. “Theodora, the Empress of Theophilus,” he says, “coming through the Portico to Blachernæ, and her horse slipping in the same place in front of the Narthex of the Temple,” &c. So the Portico is one thing, and the Narthex another. They were called Emboli (Porticoes) from ἐμβάλλω to set, since visitors to the church first set foot in them.

The Gates which are between the inner and outer Narthex are called Beautiful Gates and Royal Gates. Theodore of Petra called them Angelic Gates; about which Symeon of Thessalonica observes in his book on the Temple and Liturgy, that in some services they are closed, and opened again. For “when we offer our prayers in front of the Nave, we declare that the sacred Temple stands for Heaven and Paradise in Eden; for this reason also in the Holy Abodes they screen off the Nave with some curtains when they sing outside, and draw them back on entering, this signifying that Christ came to us, and having broken down the middle wall of partition, has both given peace and conducted us into heaven.” This is symbolized too by the Lift up your gates of the bright robed Resurrection of Him Who burst the gates of brass and smote asunder the bars of iron, even Christ our God.

The centre of the Temple or Boss on which it is the custom to suspend the large candle, Balsamon calls the Nave-midst, others the middle Navel and the Midst of the Temple.

The Large Candle is also called the Wax Taper and the Oil Lamp, πολυέλαιον with αι (what is generally sung at festivals is with ε, πολυέλεον merciful) and candlestick.⁴ Codinus named it the candlestick of great light; Cedrenus, many candles; Symeon, many lights.

The whole Church together Dionysius named the Sanctuary, and Sacred Fence, and Holy Chambers. Basil, the Light of Heaven, called it the House of Prayer; Balsamon, Divine Enclosure; Aristenes, Vesture; Zonaras, Holy Enclosure; Pachymeres, Munition of the Temple. The entire Temple Symeon of Thessalonica insists represents things in earth, things in Heaven, and things above the Heavens; and Nartheces he will have it “are things in earth; the Nave, is Heaven; and the most holy Tribune is what is supercelestial.”

The middle of the Temple is properly called the Temple (Nave); because the holy Tribune and the Narthex are clearly separate parts of the Temple, which is the reason why they have railings. The space of the Nave is, as we saw, proper to the second rank of the three orders, Monks namely, the Faithful and Consistentes. “Monks themselves stand outside with the laity,” writes Pachymeres. In the upper parts the Nave contains the two choirs, the Soleas and the Ambo.

Soleas is the name given to the interval situated between the two choirs, the part proper to Readers and Subdeacons. “Subdeacons and Readers, is the note of the Thessalonian, must sit outside the Tribune about the Soleas, which indeed is called the Readers’ Tribune.” So we read in the Book on Mysteries. In the Soleas also the Entrances take place, writes the same author in his book against Heresies. “From the Tribune into the Soleas is made the Entrance of the Deacon and Priest without lights, and of the Incense bearer, signifying our Lord’s being led away to the Cross, which took place at the sixth hour.” The Soleas is also called Solium, which means Throne.⁵

Concerning the Ambo, the same Symeon writes in his book on Mysteries, that “it is placed before the door of the Tribune, representing the stone rolled from the door of the Sepulchre; and it has height, because of the high doctrine preached, and the Angel’s sitting on it; and from this, maintaining the Angelic model, Deacons and Presbyters preach the Divine Gospel.” In our day the Ambo is built no longer in the middle, but against the left hand wall of the Nave, for the better hearing of those who sit foremost on the right side, particularly the High Priest, who is master of the Ambo, since without the blessing and permission of the Shepherd himself no one can teach on the Ambo. He certainly must be an ecclesiastic, not a layman. So we have it in the 33rd canon of the Sixth Holy and Œcumenical Council. “Not any one is suffered to address the divine words to the people on the Ambo belonging to the rank of those on the list of Clergy, unless he have the priestly tonsure, and have received the blessing from his proper Shepherd. The Ambo is so called from ἀναβαίνειν.

The Stalls are very ancient; and we believe the Church constructed them from the times of S. Sabbas; in fact still earlier, from the times of Theoctistus⁶ and the Confessor Charito. Eusebius in the loth book of his Ecclesiastical History, ch. 4, writes, that besides the Thrones, which Constantine the Great placed in the Church for the dignity of the Presidents, he made further what in fact were the stalls for the public, for all Christians generally. “But thus having completed the Nave, having duly adorned it with the uppermost thrones for the dignity of the Presidents, and benches in order for the public, &c.” (Eus. H. E. x. 4. 474.) “A Bench is a place on which they sit,” we read in the Treasury of the Greek Language; and Lucian says: “Do thou arrange the benches and prepare room for the visitors.” The Stalls are also called places. “And they sit,” says the Form, “in their own places,” namely in the Stalls. The Stall of the High Priest is named by Ignatius the Deacon, in the Life of the Patriarch S. Nicephorus, the holy watch-tower of the Throne, and the highest look-out; for “as from mid air the Bishop surveys the doings of the people.” As we saw in Blastaris: “The holy Rite therefore (the words are Ignatius’s own words) by divine inspiration having got completion, the laity made their fitting threefold reply, ‘Worthy to the worthy;’ thereupon he mounts the holy watch-tower of the Throne like some look-out on high, which the reverend Habakkuk spiritually signified by his sacred watch, (Hab. ii. 1,) and then to all the people pronounces the message of peace,” &c.

The station of the High Priest, with his fellow bishops and priests seated on either side, is called Synthronon, and holy Synthronon; it is the third part of the Temple, though in dignity it is first.

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