Pearls from the Pedalion: Presanctified Liturgies During Lent (the Great Fast)

Read the two-part introduction to the "Pearls from the Pedalion" series here.

From the Orthodox Ethos: Canon 52 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council and Canon 49 of Laodicea, along with the interpretation and footnotes from St. Nikodemos, are instructive regarding the serving of Presanctified Liturgies during the Great Fast of Holy Lent. St. Nikodemos speaks of problems in his time that we still see in some local Orthodox churches today, for instance the “Latin-minded” who refuse to commune infants during Presanctified Liturgies.

The footnotes authored by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite are prefaced with “SNH” (numbered according to Ralph Masterjohn). The endnote citations from the Orthodox Ethos are prefaced with “OE”.

Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Canon 52 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council[OE1]

On all the Forty days of the Great Fast devoted to fasting, with the exception of Saturday and The Lord’s Day and the days of the holy Annunciation, let the Holy Liturgy of the presanctified be celebrated.

Interpretation of St. Nikodemos

The days of holy fast are days of mourning and of contrition and of repentance. But for a perfect sacrifice to be offered to God, and indeed in the commemorations of saints, is deemed by the majority of people to be matter of jubilation and joy, and of festivity. That is why they are wont to indulge in merry-making during this period. For this reason the present Canon commands that on the other days of the Fast there shall be a celebration of the liturgy of the [presanctified gifts][SNH56] which is the same as saying the second offering of the completed and sacrifice offered, whereas on Saturdays and The Lord’s Days, as more cheerful days and not devoted to fasting, likewise also on Annunciation Day, as being the commencement of our salvation and the exordium, and consequently as a feast day and festival, it allows a perfect sacrifice and Liturgy to be celebrated.

Concord

Canon XLIX of Laodicea is in agreement with the present Canon in decreeing that bread is not to be offered during the Fast, or, in other words, a perfect liturgy, but only on Saturday and the Lord’s Day. Furthermore, Canon LI of the same prohibits the celebration of commemorations and birthdays (actually deathdays) of martyrs on fasting days in the Great Fast, but allows it only on the Saturdays and The Lord’s Days therein. Balsamon in his Interpretation of Canon LI of this Synod of Laodicea, and, above all, Blastaris, in Chapter 5, verse 300, say that not even memorials for the sleeping are to be held on the other days in the Great Fast, the sole exception being just as the typikons conformably prescribe.

Footnote 56[OE2]

PRESANCTIFIED NOT OF GREGORY DIALOGOUS – SOME DETAILS

Note that the presanctified Liturgy is not one composed by Gregory Dialogus since he was unacquainted with the Greek language, according to Letter 29 of his sixth book, and since this Liturgy is not found in his written works. On the contrary, it dates from the times of the successors of the Apostles, according to Reply 56 of Symeon of Thessalonica, and existed before the time of Dialogus, as is shown by Canon XLIX of Laodicea, and especially by the custom which obtained in the East, as St. Basil says in his letter to Patricia Caesaria, and in the West, as St. Jerome says in his letter to Pammachius, of allowing Christians to commune on Wednesdays and Fridays with presanctified Bread. For it is obvious that in communing these persons were wont to say something in the way of prayers before actually partaking, and after partaking thereof, which prayers, briefly speaking, were the liturgy of the presanctified then in vogue, and that is what Argentes says. See also the Footnote to Canon XII of Laodicea. But we mention Dialogus in the dismissal of the presanctified Liturgy either because Dialogus, by communicating this Liturgy to the Romans in the days of fasting in the Great Fast, according to Mauritius, the deacon of the great Church who was the author of the Synaxarion, and according to their translator Maximus Marganios, and Michael Constantinopolite, furnished the Easterners the idea of celebrating it on every day in the Fast, as some insist (see Dositheos, Concerning those who served as Patriarchs in Jerusalem, page 526); or else it was because, though in existence long before, it was afterwards embellished by Dialogus, and brought to the state in which it is now seen. The presanctified Liturgy was devised by the Fathers in order to provide a way of becoming participants also on days of fasting of the heavenly life and of the grace that come from the holy Mysteries. For Blastaris, in Chapter 5 of Verse 300, says: “Just as soldiers at war, after the battle is over, in the evening of the day it ends, partake of food and nourishment prepared beforehand, in order to strengthen their bodies by means of it and to be able to fight the enemy the next day, and so in a similar manner we Christians (those of us, that is, who are worthy and prepared), while fighting the passions and the Devil during the days of the Fast, are wont to partake of the Body and Blood of the Lord during the evening of the day, which have been presanctified from Saturday and The Lord’s Day, in order to strengthen ourselves from this and enable ourselves to fight the figurative enemies again more valiantly (though Blastaris does not say this out of his own head, but has translated it from some previous and older comment which we have discovered).

This same thing is also embodied in the presanctified prayers of this very Liturgy.” Note that the presanctified Liturgy must be celebrated during the evening of the day, according to the typikon and the Western Synod held in Cabilone. Hence those who celebrate it morning are in error, and let them correct themselves.[OE3] For how can they say in the morning, “Let us fulfill our evening prayer unto the Lord,” which is not even one to be said at noon. Not only at four, and six, but also at two, and three, and five, according to this Canon, the presanctified Liturgy may be freely celebrated by those who so wish. As for those who do not wet the Holy Bread with the all-undefiled Blood, as is prescribed in the Euchologion, and who neither keep it prepared to serve in the celebration of the Presanctified Liturgy, they are obviously Latin-minded. For one of the characteristics of the impiety of the Latins is this one of not giving the laity but of one kind, or, in other words, giving them of the bread only, the Mystery of the Eucharist, as the Western Council held in Constance, Germany, in the year 1414 unlawfully legislated. As for the many reasons why presanctified bread was kept, see Eustratios Argenetes, page 284, and the Footnote to Canon XIV of Laodicea. Presanctified wine, too, used to be kept in the churches, as is attested by St. Chrysostom in his first letter to Pope Innocence, and also by St. Jerome in his letter No. 4 to Rufinus, and by St. Gregory the Theologian in his epitaph to Gorgonias, and by the local Synod, held in Toledo, and others.

Canon 49 of the Council of Laodicea[OE4]

That in the Great Fast bread must not be offered, except on Saturday and the Lord’s Day only.

Interpretation of St. Nikodemos[OE5]

On no other days of the Great Fast except Saturdays and Sundays, says the present Canon, ought a complete Liturgy to be celebrated, but only the presanctified.^SNH26

Footnote 26[OE6]

NO ORDINATIONS AT ANY PRE-SANCTIFIED LITURGY

Note, however, that according to Reply 56 of Balsamon an ordination of a subdeacon, or deacon, or priest, or bishop cannot be carried out in a presanctified Liturgy, which is celebrated on days of fasting and mourning, because an ordination is in the nature of a festival, and not of a time of mourning. But ordinations can be carried out on the Saturdays and Lord’s Days in the Great Fast, when a complete Liturgy is celebrated.

But in his Reply 55 the same Balsamon says that not even baptisms can be performed during the Great Fast except only on the Saturdays and Lord’s Days therein, and the day of Annunciation. But those who do these things ought to be corrected with heavy penalties, as having sinned unpardonably, except in case there should be a dire necessity of death (page 389 of Jus Graeco-Romanum). Symeon of Thessalonica (Reply 58) states that in olden times according to the Typikon of the Great Church a presanctified Liturgy was celebrated also on Wednesday and Friday of Cheese Week, and on Great and Holy Friday. But since that Typikon went out of use owing to incursions of heathens, the presanctified was forbidden on these days by the Jerusalem Typikon, which has now come to prevail everywhere, concerning which see Canon XXXII of St. Nicephoros, and the Footnote to Canon LII of the 6th Ecumenical Synod. But in addition the same Symeon says (in Reply 58) for the presanctified not to be celebrated with a cut, or section, of a loaf, but with an entire loaf, of bread, in order that it may be divided into pieces in accordance with custom, and after being broken into fragments, be administered; for this is left out of the complete Liturgy. And note also this, that when priests dye the presanctified bread with the divine Blood by means of the tongs, they ought not to say anything, but, on the contrary, they ought to keep silent. For certain ignorant wrongly say the following: “And though it swayed from this to that its vintager did not become empty” for the meaning of that passage in the Psalms is another. In fact, it is rather absurd for this to be said, seeing that that cup about which David is saying this is one which is full of sulfurous wrath, and from which the sinners of the earth drink, whereas this cup is a cup of blessing and one which conciliates and stops God’s wrath against us. As for the fact that the presanctified was celebrated from the beginning, this is attested by Socrates in Book V of his Ecclesiastical History, wherein he says: “In Alexandria on Wednesday and on so-called Preparation-day (Friday), Scriptures are read, and the teachers interpret these. But all the details of the synaxis are carried into effect without the ceremony of the Mysteries.”

Endnotes

1. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Monk Agapios, The Rudder, translated by Denver Cummings, edited by Ralph Masterjohn (Chicago, IL: The Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 1957), pp. 733-734.

2. Ibid., pp. 838-839.

3. The common practice today in Greece and on Mt. Athos is to perform Presanctified Liturgies in the morning rather than the evening. This is done by economy. Similarly, the Feasts of the Nativity of the Lord, Theophany and Pascha also call for a vesperal Divine Liturgy to be performed the previous day, and these services are also served in the morning despite being evening (vesperal) services. Likewise, matins or orthros is a morning service, yet when vigils are served, matins is often served in the evening after vespers. So, depending on the pastoral needs and the monastic schedule, by economy these things can be arranged differently.

4. Idem, p. 1137.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid., pp. 1156-1157.