Myron Liturgy: Constantinople vs Near East

Abstract

In this article, the author discusses the Greek Melkite Pontifical rite of the consecration of chrysm, or the “chrism liturgy,” as it was performed in Egypt during the lifetime of Patriarch Sophronios III of Alexandria (ca. 1166–1171), based on the scroll Sin. gr. ΝΕ/Е 55 + fragment E sine numero (A.D. 1156), discovered in 1975 at St. Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai in Egypt. So far only the Constantinopolitan version of this rite has been known, preserved from the 8 th c. (Barb. gr. 36) until today without any essential distinctions and used today in the liturgy of the Orthodox Churches. The scroll provides an alternative to the Constantinopolitan rite, and describes a rite that must have been used from the end of the 6 th c. until the 12 th c. in Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, and is related to Syriac and Coptic texts. In contrast to the sober Constantinopolitan practice, this rite was a solemn and long-lasting public ceremony, accompanied by the hymn for the Great Entrance and the “Samuel chant” dialogue of epiclesis, performed in turn by the priests and the people. The originality of the Greek Melkite rite can be explained by a unique attitude to a holy chrysm in the Middle East, rooted in ancient and Old Testament traditions, and unknown in Constantinople.

Keywords

• Byzantine literature
• hymnography
• liturgical scrolls
• rite of the consecration of myron
• patriarch Sophronios the Third of Alexandria