The Rite of the Eucharistic Liturgy in the Oldest Russian Liturgics - Some CONCLUSIONS by Pr. Michael Zheltov

 

Some CONCLUSIONS BY Pr. Michael Zheltov to the Chapter "The Rite of the Eucharistic Liturgy in the Oldest Russian Liturgics (13th-14th centuries)" - after [section]
"Pre-Philothean Russian Eucharistic Formularies: A Witness to Some Lost Greek Tradition?"

From his book "A Slavonic Translation of the Eucharistic Diataxis of Philotheos Kokkinos from a Lost Manuscript (Athos Agiou Pavlou 149) + many other articles" [on offer by the translator, VID]

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The peculiar features of the oldest pre-Philothean Slavonic redaction of the Eucharistic formularies, which stand behind the Old-Russian and the most ancient Bulgarian manuscripts, are not attested in the classical Constantinopolitan sources. They bear some resemblance to the characteristic features of the South Italian and Palestinian Greek traditions, yet they are different. Therefore, it is clear that the oldest Slavonic sources are witnesses to some other tradition, the corresponding Greek sources of which are lost (or, let us hope, have not been discovered yet). This should not be a surprise. Everyone knows that the ancient lectionary of Jerusalem is preserved only in Armenian and Georgian translations; the ancient Jerusalem Tropologion only in the Georgian manuscripts of Udzvelesi Iadgari; the Typikon of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Alexios the Studite, only in the Old-Russian translation, etc.

Concerning the tradition witnessed in the oldest Slavonic Leitourgika, it is not at all clear what ecclesiastical center it belonged to. I suggest that it was Thessaloniki. First of all, it is natural to suppose that Bulgarian liturgical translations of the 10^th century were made using the Thessalonian originals, because the Greek-Slavonic contacts at the time were the most intense exactly in the Thessalonian region. Secondly, Pentkovsky came to the same conclusions of a Thessalonian origin of the earliest Slavonic liturgy after he studied not the euchological, but the hymnographic and lectionary material²⁴. Thirdly, even the late Thessalonian authors of the 14–15^th centuries witness that the Thessalonian Church was observing its own distinct liturgical usages. St Nicholas Cabasilas even cites our prayer 2.3.b (this citation remained unnoticed by the editors of his commentary²⁵).

If the Thessalonian theory is correct, then the oldest Slavonic Leitourgika present us with an invaluable picture of 9–10^th-century Thessalonian Eucharistic practice. But even if it is not correct, the oldest Slavonic material is a precious source for further study. In any case, the overall picture of Byzantine liturgical history is more complex than was thought of before. The so-called «Byzantine rite» is not a single tradition, but a set of close traditions, both interfering with and/or originating from and influencing one another.