Triodion and Pentekostarion: A brief survey of their origins and history

by Michael Zheltov Moscow Theological Academy

The name of the book(s) Triodion and Pentekostarion initially formed a united collection of hymns for the Pre-Lenten Period, , , and the following fifty days to Pentecost, Pentecost and its octave, ending on All Sunday. This collection became separated into two separate books: the first one, called Triodion, contains hymns for the Pre-Lent, the Great Lent, and the Holy Week; the second one, which is labelled Pentekostarion, opens with the morning service of Easter and continues till the octave of the Pentecost. A distinct feature of this initially united collection is a wide use of an abridged form of the hymngraphical kanon, consisting of 3 (or 4) odes instead of 9 (or 8). Hence the title tri-odion has been attached to this collection as a whole. But since it became separated into two parts, in Greek usage only the first one kept the old name, Triodion, while the second one was labelled as Pentekostarion, i. e. a collection of hymns for the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost. In Slavonic usage, however, both parts are still labelled as Triodia, but with a clarification: the Lenten Triodion is equal to the Greek Triodion, and the Festal (literally, Flowering) Triodion — to Pentekostarion. The latter takes its name from , known in the early Slavonic tradition as the Sunday of Flowers (before the 17th century the Slavonic Triodia were separated not by Easter, but by Palm Sunday).

Triodion in Scholarly Study In 1522 Ercole Ghirlandi, a Mantuan philologist, with the help of Constantine Paleocappa, a famous Venetian scholar and scribe (also known by his forgeries of some “patristic” texts), published in the typography of Giovanni Antonio Nicolini de Sabio in Venice the first printed edition of the Greek Triodion. In 1525 the first printed edition of the Greek Pentekostarion was issued in the same typography, prepared by Demetrios Zenos from Zakynthos (the first editions of the Slavonic Lenten and Flowering Triodia were published in the typography of Schweipolt Fiol in Krakow ca. 1493 AD). In 1718 the Vatican set up a commission to investigate the tradition of the Triodion. One of the commissioners, Angelo Maria Quirini, wrote up his findings in the form of a book entitled: Officium quadragesimale recognitum, et castigatum ad fidem praestantissimi Codicis Barberini, in Latinum sermonem conversum, Atque Diatribus illustratum (Rome, l72l), which is considered the first scholarly work on the Triodion tradition. While this tradition cannot be separated from the story of Byzantine hymnography in general, with its vast bibliography, specific studies centered on the Triodion are not numerous, including monographs by Karabinov (1910), Cappuyns (1935), Momina (2004; her first study on classification of Triodia manuscripts appeared already in 1976), Quinlan (1991), Crvenkovska (1999), Tomadakis (2000-2004), Zaimov (2004). No monograph on the Pentekostarion has been published.

Contents of Triodion and Pentekostarion The Triodion opens with services of two pre-Lenten Sundays: the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, and the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. Then there are the hymns for All Souls Saturday (8 days before the Great Lent), and from this point every single day up to Easter has its own hymns. The Pentekostarion runs without interruption from Easter to Sunday of All Saints (i. e., the Sunday after Pentecost). Both books have a supplement. Some days of this period of the Orthodox are more important than the others. These include: all Sundays, some of the Saturdays, complete Holy and Easter weeks, and a few ferial days. All these days have a complete hymnographical formulary, often quite peculiar, and should be dealt with individually. The other days of the Triodion/Pentekostarion have an incomplete hymnographical formulary (the missing hymns to be added from Minaea), which can be described in brief (see below). Besides hymnography, the Triodion/Pentekostarion in its classic form also contains a number of Old Testament readings and some other texts.

Hymnographical formulary of a regular ferial day in the Triodion  two stichera idiomela (stichera which should have a unique melody; one for vespers, another for ), anonymous, accompanied by martyrika and theotokia (stichera in honour of all martyrs and );  a set of stichera prosomoia (their melodic models follow some other hymns): one piece of Theodore the Studite and two of Joseph the Studite;  two triodia (3-ode kanons), of the same authors;  two kathismata, also of Studite provenance;  four prokeimena: two for vespers, two for the 6th hour; - “ of prophecy”, for the 6th hour.

From this list is clear that ferial days of the Triodion consist of a few textual levels: early Palestinian hymnography (= the first item of the list); the Studite hymnography (= the next three items); the Constantinopolitan cathedral tradition (= the last two items, which are in fact just excerpts from the Constantinopolitan Prophetologion).

Hymnographical formulary of a regular ferial day in the Pentekostarion  two stichera from Sunday Oktoechos plus two stichera from ferial Oktoechos (vespers: at the apostycha, matins: at the Laudes), accompanied by martyrika (after Ascension and Pentecost hymns of Oktoechos are omitted on weekdays);  sets of stichera from the festal service of the current week (or of Mid- Pentecost): three for vespers (at the Kyrie ekekraxa), three for matins (at the apostycha), plus four stichera to be sung instead of theotokia at vespers and matins;  a set of kathismata from Sunday and ferial Oktoechos;  a from the festal service of the current week;  a triodion, which is in fact always omitted from the actual service (therefore, the Greek editions of the Pentekostarion often exclude these triodia; in the Slavonic editions they are collected in a supplement).

A multi-layer character of the Pentekostarion is therefore also obvious. It should be noted again, that the given schemes are applicable only to the standard ferial days of the Triodion and Pentekostarion; specific days have much more sophisticated formularies.

Origins of the Triodion The ancestor of the Triodion/Pentekostarion is the Lenten-Paschal chapter of the Ancient Tropologion of the of Jerusalem. The Tropologion was the universal hymnographical collection used by the Church of Jerusalem from the 5th to the 9th century. Its ancient text is known to us in a Georgian translation, preserved in a number of manuscripts. By the 7th–8th century the Palestinian monks invented a completely new complex of hymnographical texts, which was nevertheless based on the overall structure of the Ancient Tropologion. The hymnographical genres of this new complex include the well-known kanons, stichera, etc., yet in fact they are just elaborations of the forms present in the Old Tropologion. The text of the hymns, though, was completely different. The book where this new hymnography was collected retained the title Tropologion, but scholars called it the New Tropologion in order to avoid confusion. The New Tropologion is preserved in Georgian and Syriac translations, and a Greek manuscript of it has been also found: MS Sinai NF 5 (a detailed description of its contents was published by Alexandra Nikiforova). The New Tropologion indicates the names of authors of its kanons, triodia and tetraodia, which include St. John of Darnascus, St. Cosmas of Maioum, St. , and Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem. They provided hymnography only for the specific days of the Lenten/Paschal period (see above). For example, St. Cosmas of Maioum wrote a set of hymns for the complete Holy Week, starting with Lazarus’ Saturday: a tetraodion (the Lazarus’ Saturday), a kanon (the Palm Sunday), a triodion, a diodion, a triodion, a kanon, a triodion, a tetraodion (the Holy Week, from Monday till Saturday, accordingly). St. Andrew of Crete wrote a similar set, etc. But they did not provide hymns for ordinary ferial days. In the 9th century a number of non-Palestinian authors, including the Studites, “completed” the Triodion/Pentekostarion by adding sets of hymns for every day (many of these additions are preserved only in manuscripts, and did not find their way to the printed editions of these two books), using the Holy Week cycles of St. Cosmas and St. Andrew as an example. Finally, material from the Prophetologion — prokeimena, “troparia of the prophecies”, and “prophecies” themselves (paroimiai, i. e. readings from the Old Testament) — has been added to the collection, and a classic Triodion appeared. Due to the vast material in the collection, it was soon split into the (Lenten) Triodion and Pentekostarion.

Other hymnographical additions to the Triodion/Pentekostarion Another source of additions to the Triodion/Pentekostarion is the two other general Byzantine hymnographical collections: the and the Oktoechos. Certain Saturdays and the fourth and the fifth Sundays of Lent include services taken from the Menaion, while necessary hymns of the Oktoechos are almost always given in the two supplements to the Triodion, and also scattered through the Pentekostarion.

Theological Additions to Triodion/Pentekostarion In order to define the self-identity of the Byzantine Church two texts of theological significance were added to the Triodion. The first one is the Syndikon of — a list of heresies condemned by the Church of ; many manuscripts do refer to it, but do not actually contain it. The second one is a service dedicated to St. to be sung on the second Sunday of Lent. The commemoration of Palamas appears in the Triodion system only by the second half of the 16th century and it may it have been introduced by Gennadios Scholarios, the first Patriarch of Constantinople under the Osman rule. In the 15th century the scribes of some Triodia/Pentekostaria manuscripts included the Synaxaria of Nicepherus Kallistos, which present a scholarly and theological commentary of this 14th-century author on the feasts and commemorations of this period of the liturgical year. These Synaxaria are usually kept in the printed editions.

Musical manuscripts It should be noted that late musical manuscripts can be also labelled as the Triodion and the Pentekostarion. These contain only a selection of hymns of the original collection, but with an added musical notation. In order to avoid confusion these should be always referred to with a special remark: “mus.”, or so.