Liturgical year of the rite of Jerusalem

This page is a sub-section of the page Rite of Jerusalem, where one will find bonds which are not taken again here.

Opening remarks

The presentation which follows attaches to two aspects, one diachronic - to expose as much as possible the origin of a festival or a liturgical tradition, as well as the principal stages of their evolution - and the other synchronic one - to briefly give an account of the headings relative to this festival or this liturgical tradition, mainly according to the lectionnaire géorgien.

With regard to the calendar of use in the Church of Jerusalem, it began in January, like the Calendrier Julien, which was the Roman civil calendar of this time. At Byzance on the other hand, it will be fixed at September, which is the current tradition in the Churches of the Byzantine rite. (This change in the fixing of the ecclesiastical beginning of the year was carried out under the influence of the “Indiction”, which marks in Byzance the one financial year end: after harvest of the grape but before that of olives).

The temporal one

The temporal one includes/understands the days fixed according to the date of Easter, which is mobile since it depends on the date of full moon of spring (as explained here).

The Lent

In the Armenian lectionnaire, the seven weeks of the Lent include/understand on the one hand the remainders of a cycle of evening readings beginning sixth Monday before Easter with the beginning of the books of I Reigns and of the Proverbes , with station in the church of the Anastasis; in addition readings distributed over each Wednesday and Friday of the Lent (except the last), with station in the church of the Holy-Sion, for the reading of the book of the Exodus with the book of Joel , Wednesday; and reading of the book of the Deutéronome with that of Job and of the second part of the book of Isaïe , Friday.

At the beginning of the 5th century, the two systems amalgamated, with, in the oldest form of the lectionnaire (the Armenian old man lectionnaire), a clear prevalence of the second system, since the readings of the first ( I Reigns and Proverbes ) are limited to Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of the sixth week before Easter. The lectionnaire géorgien watch that the primitive cycle in six weeks was to run over each day of this Lent, including Wednesdays and Fridays, and saturdays and Sundays. One indeed rather regularly finds in this document the reading of the books of the Règnes and the Proverbes (and the Sagesse ) at other days of the Lent, moreover sometimes even moved in the first two weeks of the cycle from now on lengthened at eight weeks. Eusèbe de Césarée at the beginning of the 4th century and Sozomène, at the beginning of the 5th century refer to this system in VI weeks, and also perhaps already Origène, towards 240, according to its homélies on the books of Samuel (= III Reigns ). The baptismal homélies of Cyrille of Jerusalem towards 350 thus fit probably also within the framework of a six weeks Lent (these homélies was preached the morning for the catechumens, and not with the office of the evening like the readings of the lectionnaire).

The lectionnaire would thus have been put in writing, under Jean II, to diffuse the new system in seven weeks, the old system leaving only some diffuse traces in the preserved documents. However this new system of readings has a Jewish origin. The reading of the deutéro-Isaïe and partly of the Deutéronome , also exists in the rabbinical Judaism according to a distribution in seven weeks: 9 av, commemoration of the destroyed temple, with the 1st tishrê, festival of Rôsh ha-shanâ (new year). In this system also, the reading into discontinuous of Isaïe starts in Is. 40,1, with a parallel exact enters the seventh Sabbath before the Jewish Rôsh ha-shanâ , and seventh Friday before Christian Easter. Other correspondences exist between the two traditions; let us raise in particular the reading of the shema' Israel (Dt. 6,4 - 7,10 26 in géorgien) seventh Friday before Easter, in accordance with the seventh Sabbath before Rôsh ha-shanâ , where the parashâ is Dt always today. 3,23 - 7,11.

The lengthening of the Lent from six to seven weeks was thus carried out in Jerusalem while following a cycle of reading of Jewish origin, moved of its primitive context.

As the Epiphany according to what we will further see (3.2.1), it acted in the beginning of a cycle turning around 9 av, commemoration of the destroyed temple, the same way as the tradition relating to Hanukka (below 3.1) related to the rebuilt temple. The reason of this insistence on traditions related to the Jewish temple is most probably a consequence of the events of 361-363, period during which Julien the Apostate tried to make rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. However, they bring back with difficulty to a simple company of anti-Jewish polemic. These traditions judaïsantes, and anti-Jewish at the same time, could be introduced into the annual cycle only because they existed already in a Christian medium, i.e. a Judeo-Christian medium.

The lectionnaire géorgien as for him contains a cycle of Lent starting at eighth Sunday before Easter. One knows by Égérie that some counted the forty days fast, in imitation of that of Christ (and Brace and Élie before him), in eight times five days, saturdays and Sunday being festive. At the 6th century a text of Dorothée of Gaza speaks about an eighth week of fast " to be exerted with the avance" (with the serious fast which starts then). It is however at the 7th century only that one can start to speak, from the liturgical point of view, of the fast of the Tyrophagie, a term indicating (today still in the Byzantine rite) the eighth week before Easter when one abstains from meats, but where the dairy products are still authorized. The liturgical institution of this fast (or rather of this abstinence) depends indeed on the will expressed by Héraclius of repentance after the made massacres, at the expense of the Jews mainly, when it brought back the Holy Cross from Babylon to Jerusalem (Persians having removed it during their invasion of the Holy Land into 614). Short if the eighth week before Easter of the lectionnaire géorgien (and other Byzantine sources) is explained well in reference to these events, the eighth week before Easter, before 630, was hardly but one practical ascetic of fast, without liturgical consequence.

Certain liturgical, in particular Armenian sources as well as a text of Jean Damascène on the saints fasts ( CPG 8050; PG 95, coll 76) show that the eighth week of fast was an object of polemic, probably because of his expiatory motivation following the events of 630. It is more difficult to establish than the polemic existed already before the 7th century, between holding of the tradition " judéo-chrétienne" (with its readings of Isaïe and the Deutéronome ) and others. The liturgical sources, in any case, show that one was not agreement on the reading of eighth Sunday before Easter. Whereas the manuscripts of the Gospels lay out a heading for first Sunday of Lent (eighth before Easter) with height of LLC 7,36-50, the account of the oiling of Jesus by an anonymous pecheress, the lectionnaire géorgien transcribes for eighth Sunday before Easter the péricope of MT. 6,34 - 7,21. The first is integrated well in the cycle of reading of the Gospel according to Luc saint (see below 4.1), whereas the second is the péricope which follows the reading of next Sunday, MT. 6,1-33. It is thus certainly secondary from the historical point of view, and one can regard as very probable that it is related to the introduction of the week of the tyrophagie after 630.

The homiletic tradition géorgienne preserved a complete cycle of homélies for Sundays of Lent according to the Gospels of the tradition of Jerusalem, including eighth Sunday before Easter according to old reading (LLC 7,36-50). There would exist also a complete cycle of homélies for the Lent of the Arab bishop Theodore Abu Qurra, but they are new and one is unaware of if they include/understand seven or eight weeks (this author being close to Jean Damascène, it would be logical that they include/understand only seven weeks).

The Great Week

The manuscript stavrou 43 of the library of the orthodoxe Greek patriarchate of Jerusalem is the independent source which it is necessary to add to Égérie and both lectionnaires for the study of the Great Week.

Easter

Sunday of Resurrection

The octave of Easter

Pentecost

From Easter to Pentecost

Sunday of Pentecost

Two other major festivals

For the talk which follows, I will distinguish between two groups from important festivals beside the Pascal group: a festival " of Église" and several festivals which have the same historico-theological significance which turns around the idea of " épiphanie". Such a division is not only " théologique" , because, in the Judaism also, there are three major festivals with octave (the Cabanes, Passover, and Dédicace), which can have a relation between influence and the three major festivals of the primitive calendar of Jerusalem.

Church celebrates: The Dedication (Encénies) and its octave

In only one manuscript of the Armenian old man lectionnaire, this festival has a curious parallel in December. The heading indicates “for the dedication of all the furnace bridges which one sets up, this gun is carried out”. It is located between the festival of November 30th and Christmas on December 25th, it is thus a movable feast, only in any case which does not have an indication of exact date. The heading of September 13rd as for it carries “dedication of holy places of Jerusalem”, and they are the two only places where the word " appears; dédicace" , translation (Armenian) of the Greek word (correspondent with) Encénies. The readings indicated by the lectionnaire are certainly different, but one can wonder whether the heading of September does not make only move one older heading of December.

Indeed, the first bizarrery is the plural of the " saints lieux" here, " autels" there. It is about a festival of the Church like such and not of some place, holy place or furnace bridge, private individual. The later reason for the festival of September 13rd, the dedication of Anastasis and Martyrium, was obviously grafted on an older reason, than it never completely obnubilated besides since the name of the festival regularly includes/understands plural (like " dedication of the holy churches of Jérusalem").

Moreover, the fixed absence of date for the old festival suggests that it comes from a lunar calendar, where a date in one month can easily oscillate between two months of the solar calendar.

There exists precisely of other indices of a Christian celebration of a lunar festival at that time of the year, the Jewish holiday of the Dedication ( Hanukka ) (to stick to the liturgy of Jerusalem, to see below 3.2.3.2, the octave of Christmas and 3.2.4, the festival of Marie to the beginning of the year).

In other words, one proceeded to the dedication of Anastasis and Martyrium on this date of September with an aim of moving the older festival, Judeo-Christian, of December.

The festival of the Dedication or Encénies (September 13rd)

" The holy church which is in Anastasis, to the place where the Lord is ressucity after his passion, was devoted to God the same day (as Martyrium day before) (...) the cross of the Lord was discovered this day-là." (Égérie, 48, §1) the pèlerine specifies that the station is done, these two days, with the Martyrium. According to the lectionnaire, a little later, the station of the first day is done at Anastasis (“dedication holy places of Jerusalem”) and the second only in Martyrium (the day when “one shows the worthy cross at all the assembly”). A comparable evolution exists in the octave of Easter and the Epiphany: whereas Égérie envisages the same place of station for the first two feastdays, the place is not any more the same one later on.

This evolution with the turning of Ves. is significant of the importance which the worship of the Croix starts to take.

The dedication of the church would have taken place in fact not one 13 but one September 17th, 335 (according to the Chronique Pascale , PG 92, coll 713). The ides of September, the 13, is the date of the dedication of the Jupiter capitolin temple in Rome. The same date was to thus be also celebrated in Jerusalem for the Jupiter sanctuary which had been built on the empty Tomb (Jerome, Lettre , 58, §3), and whose name of the city built by Hadrian, Aelia capitolina , points out the dedication to Jupiter capitolin. One can allot to Constantin the choice of the change of the date of the dedication.

The festival of the Cross (September 14th)

“The second day, one is assembled in Saint-Martyrium and the same gun is carried out. And, the same day, one shows the worthy cross at all the assembly” ( PO 36, n°68 J). A ceremony comprising the veneration of the Cross is described already by Égérie the Good Friday; it is thus there that it is older, and it is there that Jean II drew the principal element of the festival which will henceforth commemorate in a special way the invention of the Cross. However, it was simply a question at the beginning “of showing the Cross”, the office of the day being taken again day before.

In the lectionnaire géorgien, the rite of the exaltation of the Cross is the subject from now on of a rather long note of the ms. L. the synaxe takes place the morning per 3rd hour. Is a cross deposited on the furnace bridge (the Holy Cross?), or three, which indicates that the heading can be adapted to a church which is not Martyrium, but undoubtedly a church in Georgia. A detailed study should rest on more widened handwritten basis. Ms. L quote three tropaires, undoubtedly for three rises (instead of the four of the received tradition); the refrain is limited to a verse of psalm. A prayer starting with miserere , apparently diaconale, concludes this sequence in the three cases. The first rise in the Cross with 50 Kyrie eleison takes place after this prayer and undoubtedly also in both other cases. A rite of the “rectal injection of the cross”, follow-up of the procession of the assembly which comes to venerate the Cross, is borrowed directly from the Good Friday. The mass starts then.

The octave of the Dedication

Whereas the manuscript of the Pilgrimage of Égérie is lacunary here and that the Armenian old man lectionnaire gives only the first two days stations (it is true that other Armenian documents know for this octave a system stationnal in Jerusalem but it undoubtedly does not go back to a Greek source), the lectionnaire géorgien, supplemented by the manuscript of Jean Zosime ( the Sinai 34) knows the following system:

Sept. 13 Anastasis
Sept. 14 Martyrium
Sept. 15 Sion
Sept. 16 Néa or Sion
Sept. 17 Sion or Ascension
Sept. 18 Bethlehem
Sept. 19 Golgotha
Sept. 20 Anastasis

Festivals of Epiphany

The Epiphany is a word of Greek origin meaning " manifestation" , " apparition" , of God in the world. It is not in the beginning a festival commemorating an historical event of the life of Jesus. It was very however early associated with events of its life. The antique significance, associated with a certain theology paulinienne (II Tm. 1,10, etc), however never completely disappeared. Indeed, if the festival in the East commemorates the baptism of Jesus in general, the Armenians preserved at January 6th its primitive direction in the tradition of Jerusalem, namely that of its birth (while for the Latin catholics it is the festival of the worship of Jesus by the " kings mages").

The fact is that the first certificate of a festival of the baptism of Jesus is Gnostique. Clément of Alexandria wonders when was born exactly Jesus. “Some, with more meticulousness still, assign with the birth of Our Saver not only one year but one day: it was, say, year XXVIII of Auguste, the 25e day of the Pachon month. The followers of Basilide celebrate also the day of the baptism of Jesus, and spend all the night before in readings. According to them, it was year XV of Tibère, 15 - or according to others 11 - month of Tubi.” ( Stromates , I 21 AD 1456-1462). Certain gnostic thus celebrated the baptism of Jesus on January 10th (15 Tobi), or, according to other followers of the same sect, the 6 (11 Tobi). The origin of the festival of January 6th is thus probably not-Christian woman and seems related to an Egyptian rite in connection with the Nile, according to a text of Épiphane: “(Chiefs of the worship of the idols) make a very great festival in this same night of the Epiphany,… in Alexandria…, Pétra - the metropolis of Arabia which is Édom of the Writing,… as in Hélousa the same night as in Alexandria and Pétra” ( Panarion , LI 22).

The nomads arabo-nabatéens, Christians, when they did not reside in their towns of Pétra and Hélousa, circulated between Palestine and Egypt and one conceives extremely well that very early, at the 3rd century, the festival was introduced in Palestine (for example in Hélousa, not far from Bér Shèva, in Negev israëlien). But it met there another tradition of Epiphany, originating this time in Judeo-Christians mediums, a tradition which is with the source of the festival of August 15th.

Dormition (August 15th)

The Protévangile of Jacques, in chapter 19, described the " épiphanie" of Jesus, his arrival in the world of the center of his/her mother, like a light spouting out of Marie, virgin even during the childbirth. Put aside the fantastic features of this account, it locates the event in a very precise way: in a cave with the " third mille" (17, §2) on the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The Armenian old man lectionnaire has a station " precisely; with the third mille" , for on August 15th. The biblical readings do not have yet anything to see with the festival of Dormition which will become later on August 15th. They turn indeed around the birth of Jesus, in particular Gospel LLC 2,1-7. The same document however has the account of the birth of Jesus on a date where it surprises less (before the introduction of the festival of December 25th coming from Rome), on January 6th, where MT is read. 1,18-25. There was thus, at the 4th century and the beginning of the next century, two festivals of Epiphany, one on January 6th centered on the birth of Jesus (undoubtedly in reaction to the gnostic tradition which insisted on the baptism of Jesus), and the other on August 15th. This one could have an origin Judeo-Christian well. Indeed on August 15th is not far from the Jewish date for the commemoration of the destruction of the temple, 9 av. Cette dates in any case influenced the old man lectionnaire of Jerusalem on another point, the cycle of the readings of Isaïe in Lent (see above). Six days later, moreover, the Judaism knows a minor festival, the 15 av. August 15th would be thus the other sign of the importance of this date for the christianizing Jews of the area of Jerusalem. The Midrash Eykha rabba contains a scene of the appearance of the Messiah in Bethlehem the 9 av which points in the same direction.

After 431 and the Council of Éphèse, the festival of primitive Epiphany was transformed into festival mariale, and the primitive place of station, the cave of the " third mille" transfomé itself in a rock. The account of Protévangile is since then read again as an allusion to a rock on which Marie would have stopped in way towards the cave of Bethlehem (and its basilica). The remainders of a church, and such a rock, were discovered in 1992 around the place where the third thousand was to be. It bears the name of Kathisme in the lectionnaire géorgien and other sources, including local Arab toponymy up to one very recent time.

The many accounts relating to the Dormition of Marie appear starting from the end of the 5th century. They depend originally on the localization of the tomb of Marie to Jerusalem, not far from Gethsémani (a church of the Théotokos which, after many restorations, is still upright today). The festival of August 15th, and the place of Kathisme, evolved/moved in the direction of a festival of Dormition because this church with Gethsémani was, in the third quarter of the 5th century, with the hands of the party opposed to the Concile of Chalcédoine. It thus had to exist one short period when one celebrated Dormition of Marie to Kathisme instead of Gethsémani. Later on, the two parties could be reconciled and a procession going from one place to the other was established. Kathisme consequently evolved/moved in the direction of a " house of Marie" where she died, miraculeusement surrounded of the apostles, who then brought it in procession to Gethsémani, from where she was " enlevée" the third day (it is the direction of the word Assomption).

The starting point of this procession has itself evolved/moved with the liking of the centuries and the historical contingencies. To the 6th century a procession of August 15th is announced since Saint-Procope (in Abu-Tor, between Jerusalem and Kathisme), later it will be Holy-Sion. Today its starting point is Anastasis.

Baptism of Jesus

The festival of January 6th

The octave of the Epiphany

Hypapante

Christmas and his octave

The festival of Christmas (December 25th)

The octave of Christmas

The festival of Marie to the beginning of the year

The Annunciation (March 25th)

The sanctoral

Note on the distribution of the reading of the Gospels

January with the Lent

From Pentecost to the Cross (September 14th)

Cross with Christmas

Sources

P. Maraval, Égérie. Newspaper of voyage (Route) - Valérius of Bierzo. Letter on Bse Égérie (by Mr. C. Diaz there Diaz), ( Christian Sources , 296), Paris, 1982 (réimpr. 1997)

A. Renoux, Armenian codex Jerusalem 121 '', T. II. Edition compared of the text and two others manuscripts, introduction, texts, translation and notes , Patrologia Orientalis , 36 (1971), 141-390

Mr. Tarchnišvili, large the lectionnaire of the Church of Jerusalem (Ve - VIIIe century) , t.I ( CSCO vol. 188, Scriptores iberici T. 9, text; vol. 189, Scriptores iberici t.10, version) & t.II, ( CSCO vol. 204, Scriptores iberici t.13 text; vol. 205, Scritores iberici T. 14, version), Leuwen, 1959 & 1960

G. Garitte, the calendar palestino-géorgien of the sinaiticus 34 ( 10th century ), ( Subsidized hagiographica , 30), Brussels, 1958

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