PRAYERS OF THE FIRST FIVE CATHISMATA IN THE OLD RUSSIAN PSALTERS

Abstract

The Old Russian manuscript tradition demonstrates a rich variety of prayers after the kathisms of the Psalter. The article examines 26 Psalteries of the 13–14 centuries in the context of the Old Russian liturgical literature: horologions, liturgical collections, etc., as well as the old-printed Psalter. Prayers for the five initial cathismata have been studied and compared. Usually each cathisma has one prayer, but in some manuscripts there are cathismata with 2 or even 3 prayers. The analysis shows that among the prayers of the initial cathismata of the Psalter, there is comparatively greater stability comparing with further cathismata. Each of the initial cathismata is associated with the most characteristic prayer, which is found in about half of the manuscripts considered. The rest of the prayers for this cathisma are diverse and can occur in three or, as a rule, in one or two manuscripts. The results of the study are clearly presented in a table. The text of some prayers that have not yet been published is given in this article. These are the “prayer of St. Zinon”, containing a request for protection; the “prayer of King Leon”, with a character of enthusiastic praise; the penitential prayer “Hear, Lady Theotokos”; the penitential prayer “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”; the supplicatory prayer “O, King of Glory”, which has an unusual textual tradition; and the intercession “to the Holy Mother of God for all the Christians”. Many prayers are of Byzantine origin and known from Greek manuscripts; they are attributed to various saints of antiquity: St. Ephraem the Syrian, St. Isaac of Nineveh, St. Antiochus, St. John Chrysostom; two prayers are taken from the “Life of St. Niphont”; and two prayers are biblical. Other prayers may have a Slavic author: for example, four prayers belong to St. Kirill Turovsky. Among these manuscripts, 11 psalters are almost identical in the composition of prayers, another 6 psalters have a fairly similar composition, and the rest are very different from each other. The hypothesis is put forward that in ancient Russia there was a “basic tradition” of arranging prayers after the initial cathismata. Along with it, there were various alternative traditions. Subsequently, the main tradition was transformed in a certain way and used to establish the composition of the old-printed Psalter.

Keywords

• old russian church service
• psalter
• prayers after the cathismata
• old russian psalters
• st. kirill turovsky