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Holy Catechism

Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893

Of the Holy Tribune

The Holy Tribune, properly station of the Priests, the Holy of Holies. Balsamon called it the Sacred Shrine; Cedrenus, the Adytum; Cantacuzenus, the Holy Place; Ignatius the Deacon, the Holy Chamber. “This has not all its parts open to all, according to the Thessalonian; but is separated for the Ministers,” is the note of Zonaras. And Cyril of Alexandria says, “The Altar is entrusted to Presbyters, and all within the veil.” And it is lawful for Priestly Ministers only, according to the decrees of the Laodicean Council, to enter to the Altar; these are the three orders in the first Hierarchy of the Churches, as we said,—Hierarchs, Presbyters, and Deacons. In fact, “that the Altar might not be approached by the multitude, (writes Eusebius about Constantine, H. E. x. 4,) he hedged it with a wooden trellis wrought with the utmost art of fine work, so as to afford the spectators a wonderful sight.” By wooden trellis work understand

The Veil of the Nave. Cyril of Scythopolis called it Cancella (lattice); Nicephorus, κιγκλίδες; Sozomenos, δρύφακτα (railings); Symeon of Thessalonica, Distinction; the blessed Germanus, Pillars or Mounds,—“Pillars or Mounds,” he writes in his Mystical View, “dividing the Tribune from the rest of the Temple, are Railings marking the place of Prayer, whereby he signifies that the outside entrance belongs to the laity, but the inside entrance is the Holy of Holies, and to be entered by the Priests alone.” Only the Emperor of all the laity has permission to enter the Altar space, not always, but occasionally, and at the time of the Liturgy. So we find in the 69th canon of the Sixth Council: “Let not any one at all of the laity engaged in the Service be allowed to enter within the holy Altar space, without restriction nevertheless of the Royal liberty and privilege herein, whenever the Emperor desires to offer gifts to the Creator after any old tradition.” Hence it was that Balsamon was offended at the impropriety which occurs to our great sin even in our times, when he saw at Chalce, an island lying near Rhodes, how the laity without any distinction intrude into the Holy Tribune. “How it is I know not,” he writes in his Commentary on the Synodical Canon, “that any one who chooses enters unforbidden into the sacred Shrine of the renowned Temple of our Lord Jesus Christ which is at Chalce.”

“Foremost sits Christ the King of Kings with His Apostles, as He says to them, Ye shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve Tribes of Israel; there are set thrones for judgment, even thrones over the house of David.” So Germanus. And Symeon of Thessalonica: “In the midst of the Holy Images is the Saviour, and on either side His Mother and the Baptist, Angels and Apostles, and therest of the Saints, because Christ is always thus in heaven with His Saints, and thus He is with us also now, and thus must come again.” And so

The Three Figures we speak of, signify the Son of God coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, having on His right hand His Mother, Bride of God and Mother of God; and on the left the Baptist, greatest among those born of women; for whom it has been “prepared by the Father.” S. Matt. xx. 23. And as then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the heaven, (S. Matt. xxiv. 30) so is the actual Guardian of all the world lifted above the Veil, the true beauty of the Church, the boast of the Orthodox, the precious lifegiving Cross.

The Doors of the Holy Tribune are called both Holy Wickets and Holy Doors. Codinus called them Lattice doors; Malaxus, Gates of the Sacred Tribune. There are three: what is properly called the Royal Door, which is in the midst, and two at the sides; the left hand which is said to be on the northern flank or part, and that on the southern, which is to the right.

The Veils of the Doors, βημόθυρα or βηλόθυρα, which we find in the Euchology are never opened, save at the beginning of Great Vespers, when the Priest censes, for all Entrances at Vespers or the Liturgy. So they are opened from the words “Draw near” till the conclusion of the Holy Liturgy. And certainly apart from the times defined by the direction, “that the Altar space may not be trodden by the multitude,” as we saw in Eusebius, and as is canonically pronounced by the Holy Œcumenical Council, it is fitting, as we said, that the Holy Tribune should be kept closed.

Within the Holy Tribune is included the Panary, the Prothesis, the Table, the Piscina, and the Diaconicon.

The Diaconicon went formerly under the names of Mesatorium, or Misatorium, and Minsatorium, as we are told by Theodore the Reader, and Georgius Cedrenus, and as appears in the Euchology. So it was called the Sacristy, in which the Deacons used to prepare the holy vessels for the service of the High Priests and Presbyters: this is why it was named Diaconicon and Sacristy. “Minsatorium is derived from Minsus, meaning what the Greeks call the basket,” what we call canister: so John of Citrus in his Replies. This was like another Prothesis on the left side of the Tribune; for as Symeon of Thessalonica writes in his book on the Mysteries: “The most holy Tribune being marked off toward the East, and the Prothesis arranged on the right hand, (by a change of position right is called left,) and on the left the Diaconicon, &c.” In modern times the Sacristy is near the Prothesis; and in the spot where formerly was the Diaconicon, there in many holy Temples is the Adoration so called of the Church, always with a partition wall, as we now have, for example, the venerable relics of the miracle-working Spyridon.

Little Sea, or Sea of the Holy Table, was an old name of the Bason (piscina), copying perhaps the Old Testament Scripture: “And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the sea with water.” 1 Kings xviii. 35. Codinus too called the bason Sea in his book on the Temple of the Holy Wisdom of God. It was so named because as Euripides has it, “the sea overwhelms all;” and into it is poured the water with which the ministers wash their hands; as in fact also the consecrated water of Baptism.

The significance of the Holy Table and the Prothesis we saw above in the Introduction. I only add from S. Germanus in his book of Rites: “The holy Fathers construct the roof over the Holy Table as heaven, and define as the whole earth the ground enclosed or circumscribed by the four pillars of what is called the Ciborium. Herein is fulfilled the word of the Prophet who says, ‘God wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.’ (Ps. lxxiv. 12.) What is above the Holy Table is called Ciborium¹ and Shell of the Altar. The pillars are called standards and towers. The Altar, God’s Seat and Rest, and the workshop of the great Victim, and Christ’s Tomb, and God’s place, and the Tabernacle of His glory.

“The Holy Table has four pieces of cloth at the four corners, according to the Commentary of Symeon of Thessalonica in his book on the Temple and Liturgy, because the fulness of the Church has been woven together from the ends of the earth; and the names of the four Evangelists are on the four, because through them the Church holds together, and the Gospel has travelled all the world over.”

The Only Altar is the title given to the Holy Table by Eusebius in his loth Book of Histories agreeably with the Tyrian orator; since because of the uniqueness of the Sacrifice the Eastern Church is wont to have one Table only in every Temple, and one only Liturgy each day. “It is not lawful on the same day to celebrate two Liturgies at the same Table,” we read in the loth canon of the Holy Council at Antisiodorum (Auxerre), which was held a thousand years ago and more, when Heraclius² was Emperor. This is the reason why in Monasteries our Fathers to enable them to have more than one Liturgy in the day, have what are called chapels, παρεκκλήσια, and separate these from the chief Temple by a party wall; and most of them have a special entrance, and different from the church, so that in this way the ancient tradition may be observed.

The Panary itself has also many names; it is called the Guard, Holy Box, Pyx, Pyxomelum, and Ark, because herein is kept the Bread of Life; “this was typified in the Table of the Law, where the manna was, which is Christ Who came down from heaven.” And as we know in the old Law that a “lamp burnt continually in the Tabernacle of Witness outside the Veil which was over the covenant from evening to morning before the Lord,” Ex. xxvii. 20; so here there burns perpetually before the Holy Table

A Sleepless Candle, plainly testifying to the living Son of God within the holy Box, and to the light shed by His mysterious Divine Dispensation illuminating our souls, and conducting them to the region of light and eternity. Therefore Anastasius called it the Unquenchable Candle, Pachymeres the Sleepless Light.

So much I think suffices by way of digression as a sketch of the Divine Temple and all its parts and their use. So I come to the Second Part of the Holy Liturgy.

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