The Liturgical Typika

The Liturgical Typika by Archbishop Dr. Job Getcha Institut d’études supérieures en théologie orthodoxe (Chambésy/Genève); Theologicum – Institut Catholique de Paris The term typikon was originally used by the Byzantines for normative documents of both juridical and liturgical character in a monastic setting. Other Greek terms include diataxis (order), diatheke (testament), diatypôsis or hypotypôsis (constitution), hypomnèma (memoir), paradosis (tradition), taxis and taktikon (order). The typikon contains the liturgical order of the divine services as well as direction concerning the organisation and direction of the monastery, the appropriate usage of its goods (such as food and drink), and property. In this article Getcha outlines the emergence of three mainstream traditions of the liturgical typika within Byzantine monasticism: (Neo-)Sabaite, Studite and Evergetine. The first is a matter of contention since church tradition and academic scholarship differ on whether it is the oldest and thus the origin of the typikon. The Studite was the most influential across the Byzantine Empire while the Evergetine tradition had significant influence in imperial foundations in Constantinople. The origin of a typikon lies in the rule, which the founder of a monastery handed down to his disciples. According to church tradition, the first typikon would have been that of Sabas the Sanctified (+532), the founder of a large monastery located eighteen kilometres from Jerusalem in the Kedron Valley. There is a problem to this claim since the oldest Greek manuscripts of the Sabaite typikon date from the twelfth/thirteenth century and transmit a later stage of the Sabaite tradition. Most scholars therefore accept the existence of a “Neo-Sabaite” tradition. However, scholars think that the typika tradition started with Theodore the Studite (+826) and his Diatheke (‘Spiritual Testament’), the Hypotypôsis, which was composed after his death by his disciples. With regard to liturgical regulations, it seems that the Studite tradition largely dominated the monastic liturgy of the Orthodox Church, within and far beyond the boundaries of the Byzantine Empire, until the fourteenth century, including Mount Athos. Most scholars consider today the Typikon of Alexios the Studite as the prototype of most typika of the Studite family. It was composed in 1034 by Patriarch Alexios of Constantinople (1025-1043), formerly a monk at Stoudion, for the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, which he founded near Constantinople. It was precisely this typikon that was translated into Slavonic and introduced after 1051 by the monk Theodosius at the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, and it spread from there to most Russian monasteries. At the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth century, the Typikon of Evergetis becomes a model for two other Constantinopolitan monasteries: Christ Philanthropos and Theotokos Full of Grace, founded by Irene Dukaïna in collaboration with Alexis Comnene. Therefore, in this period of imperial monastic foundations, the Typikon of Evergetis becomes normative in all monasteries of imperial foundation and exists in parallel to the Studite family of typika In the fourteenth century, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Philotheos Kokkinos, contributed to the diffusion and the adoption of the Neo-Sabaite typikon with the redaction of his Diataxis, composed between 1344 and 1347. In Russia, at the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Neo-Sabaite typikon was largely diffused and adopted thanks to the works of the Metropolitans of Kiev Alexis, Cyprian and Photios. The great leaders of Byzantine Hesychasm, who produced what we commonly call today the “Byzantine rite”, introduced the Neo-Sabaite typikon not only in all monasteries but in secular churches as well all over the world. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople issued a new “Typikon of the Great Church of Christ” for parochial usage. It was revised between 1880 and 1888, at the request of the Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III, by the Protopsaltis Georges Violakis. This typikon was in fact a simplified adaptation of the Neo-Sabaite typikon to the needs of a parish. At the basis of this new revised typikon is the Typikon of the Monastery of Pantokrator on Mount Athos. After a lengthy discussion of the history of the Typikon, Getcha explains the liturgical function of the Typikon. The typikon was seen as the liturgical rulebook of the church. Fidelity to the prescriptions of the Typikon is seen as fidelity to the Church. The Typikon is the most recent among the liturgical books, because it implies the existence of all the books it regulates: the Ocktoekhos, the Triodion, the Pentecostarion, the Menologion. The liturgical section of most typika consists of three parts: 1) The general guidelines or a general description of the services: agrypnia, vespers, matins, etc. 2) The Synaxarion or Menologion, which describes the services of the days of the twelve months of the liturgical year (fixed cycle), from 1st September (Indiction) to 31st August. 3) The Triodion cycle, which describes the celebrations of the moveable cycle including the preparatory period to fasting (starting with the Sunday of Publican and Pharisee), Great Lent (Tessarakoste), Great Week, and the Fifty days of Pascha (Pentekoste), ending with the Sunday of All-Saints. The author divides the typika documents into three major categories: 1) Patriarchal typika 2) Monastic foundation typika and 3) Imperial foundation typika. There is a great variety of typika, even within each family or category. Monastic, patriarchal and imperial legislators or reformers, and perhaps manuscript compilers and copyists, consulted the sources they had and made a selection of different usages within the framework of the liturgical tradition which was known to them. .

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