Multi-lingual, Pluri-ethnic Orthodox Monasticism in Palestine and on Sinai, in the Light of the Liturgical Sources with Particular Reference to the Liturgical Manuscript Sinai Arabic 232 (13th Century)

Andrew Wade

doi:10.18778/2084-140X.12.29

Authors

Andrew Wade

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2084-140X.12.29

Keywords:

Multi-lingual monasticism, Pluri-lingual monasticism, Jerusalem, Palestine, Anastasis, Horologion, Alexandria, Sinai

Abstract

The multiple similarities between the Greek and Syriac eucharistic liturgies of Antioch and its hinterland on the one hand and the Jerusalem Liturgy of Saint James on the other hand situate Jerusalem within a single cultural area as regards liturgical life. Compared with Antioch, however, we have much more early evidence for the Liturgy of the Hours in Jerusalem. Main sources, which are briefly presented in the paper, are

a) the Itinerary of Egeria, who in the 380s produced extensive liturgical notes on celebrations in the Anastasis cathedral and the related stational sites;
b) the Armenian Lectionary, 5^thcentury, which gives more specific detail of the services held in Jerusalem;
c) the Georgian Lectionary, 6^thcentury, which gives a slightly later stage of the material described in the Armenian Lectionary;
d) the Old Iadgari, or first Jerusalem Tropologion, entirely preserved in Georgian.

It is clear from these documents that the Anastasis Cathedral was officiated by monastic communities of different ethnic origins who used their own languages for their liturgical offices. We also have considerable evidence for this period for the Lavra of Saint Sabbas in the Judaean desert, where several ethnic communities prayed separately in their own languages, coming together only for the Eucharistic synaxis (in Greek).

This multi-ethnic situation continues today on Mount Athos and continued throughout the Middle Ages on Sinai. The vast library of manuscripts at Saint Catherine’s monastery is well known. It contains manuscripts in a very wide variety of Christian languages, including numerous liturgical texts.

The Manuscript Sinai Arabic 232 (13th century) contains a complete Psalter, a complete Horologion and other texts. It can be shown to be of Alexandrian Melkite origin, used by Arabic-speaking monks who were part of the Sinai community. There are archaic and specifically Egyptian, and even Coptic, elements that are of special interest.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

The Agpeya, being the Coptic Orthodox Book of Hours according to the present-day usage in the Church of Alexandria, Sts. Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria Orthodox Publications, s.a.
Google Scholar

Al-Ağbiyya, Luğna al-taḥrīr wa-l-našr bi-muṭrāniyyah Banī Yūsuf wa-l-Bahnasā, s.a.
Google Scholar

Le codex arménien Jérusalem 121, vol. I–II, ed. A. Renoux, Turnhout 1969–1971 [= Patrologia orientalis, 35–36].
Google Scholar

Frøyshov S. R., L’Horologe ‘géorgien’ du Sinaiticus ibericus 34. Edition, traduction et commentaire [unpublished doctoral thesis, submitted 2003, Paris 2004 (corrected edition)].
Google Scholar

Itinerarium Egeriae, ed. E. Franceschini, R. Weber, [in:] Itineraria et alia geographica, Turnhout 1958 [= Corpus christianorum, Series latina, 175], p. 29–103.
Google Scholar

Jean Chrysostome, Huit catéchèses baptismales inédites, praef., trans., ed. A. Wenger, Paris 1957 [= Sources chrétiennes, 50].
Google Scholar

Tarchnischvili M., Le Grand Lectionaire de l’Eglise de Jerusalem (Ve–VIIIe s.), vol. I–II, Louvain 1959–1960 [= Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium, 189, 205].
Google Scholar

Udzvelesi Iadgari, ed. E. Metreveli, Ts. Chankievi, L. Khevsuriani, Tbilisi 1980.
Google Scholar

Approaching the Holy Mountain. Art and Liturgy at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, ed. S. Gerstel, R. Nelson, Turnhout 2011 [= Cursor mundi, 11].
Google Scholar

Arranz M., Kak molilis’ Bogu drevnie vizantijcy. Sutočnyj krug bogosluženija po drevnim spiskam vizantijskogo evchologija, Leningrad 1979.
Google Scholar

Arranz M., Les prières sacerdotales des vêpres byzantines, “Orientalia Christiana Periodica” 37, 1971, p. 85–124.
Google Scholar

van Esbroeck M., Le manuscrit sinaïtique géorgien 34 et les publications récentes de liturgie palestinienne, “Orientalia Christiana Periodica” 46, 1980, p. 125–141.
Google Scholar

Glibetić N., The ‘New Finds’ Glagolitic Manuscripts as Sources for Medieval Serbian Liturgical History, [in:] Vera i misao u vrtlogu vremena. Međunarodni zbornik radova u čast mitropolita Amfilohija (Radoviča) I episkopa Atanasija (Jevtića), ed. A. Jeftić, M. Knežević, R. Kisić, Beograd–Podgorica–Foča 2021, p. 187–200.
Google Scholar

Isaksson B., The Monastery of St Catherine and the New Find, [in:] Built on Solid Rock. Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, April 11th 1997, Oslo 1997, p. 128–140.
Google Scholar

Nikopoulos P. G. et al., Tà néa evrêmata toû Siná, Athēna 1998.
Google Scholar

Taft R., Worship on Sinai in the First Christian Millennium: Glimpses of a Lost World, [in:] Approaching the Holy Mountain. Art and Liturgy at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, ed. S. Gerstel, R. Nelson, Turnhout 2011 [= Cursor mundi, 11], p. 143–178.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CURSOR-EB.3.4895

Wade A., Byzantinised or Alexandrianised – or both? Vespers in the 13th c. Melkite Alexandrian Arabic Horologion Sinai Arabic 232 “MDPI Religions” 13 (607), 2022, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070607
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070607

Wade A., Individual Prayer in the Monastic Cell between Alexandria and Mount Sinai in the 13th Century: the Hours in Sin. Ar. 232 [in:] 64e Semaine d’études liturgiques, Paris–Münster 2017, p. 353–374.
Google Scholar

Wade A., L’Horologion du Sinaï Arabe 232 (13ème s.), témoin d’une fusion pluriculturelle, [in:] Traditions recomposées. Liturgie et doctrine en harmonie ou en tension, 63e Semaine d’études liturgiques, Paris, Institut Saint-Serge, 21–24 juin 2016, ed. A. Lossky, G. Sekulovski, Münster 2017 [= Studia Oecumenica Friburgensia, 80], p. 111–124.
Google Scholar

Wade A., The Enigmatic Horologion contained in Sinai Ar. 232, [in:] Let Us Be Attentive! Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of the Society of Oriental Liturgy, ed. M. Lüstraeten, B. Butcher, S. Hawkes-Teeples, Münster 2020, p. 285–305.
Google Scholar

Winkler G., Die Basilius-Anaphora. Edition der beiden armenischen Redaktionen und der relevanten Fragmente, Übersetzung und Zusammenschau aller Versionen im Licht der orientalischen Überlieferungen, Roma 2005.
Google Scholar

Winkler G., Die Jakobus-Liturgie in ihren Überlieferungssträngen: Edition des Cod. arm. 17 von Lyon. Übersetzung und Liturgievergleich, Roma 2013.
Google Scholar