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G Radle Dezv Rit Matrim Sin GR 957
G Radle Dezv Rit Matrim Sin GR 957
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following marriage seems to have its origin in these rites and customs surrounding the bridal week of marital consummation. 4. The rites of marriage found in present-day Byzantine euchologies do not, as is often stated, simply take their origins from two rites, the Offices of Engagement and Marriage. Rather, they also originate from a third place: the home. The group of marriage rites originally performed at home would especially include todays Prayer of the Common Cup and the above-cited Prayer for the Removal of the Crowns on the Eighth Day (j.1QC*' I'3'*3E8'*3#% ). Sinai Gr. 957 gives us a colorful example of how, prior to the practice of marriage within the church building, Christian peoples celebrated marriage with priestly blessings at home. The Church came to the couple, entering their home as they sought to begin their journey forming a new household together at the inauguration of their conjugal life. Such nuptial-chamber blessings can be found throughout the Christian world. As we saw, rites of this nature traditionally exist among Chaldean Catholics and Assyrian Orthodox. The West even has its own tradition of nuptial chamber blessings. Some folk customs involving the nuptial chamber can still be seen to this day in Europe, particularly in Greece. The act of associating marriage with the sexual life of a couple is a natural phenomenon, tied to the essence of being human. For Christians, who see the self-giving sexual bond as an icon of Christ and his Church, bed blessings, whether via folk traditions or priestly prayers, are precisely what one would expect to find. List of abbreviations employed in this study
Arranz, Eucologio Costantinopolitano = M. Arranz, LEucologio Costantinopolitano agli inizi del secolo XI. Hagiasmatikon & Archieratikon (Rituale & Pontificale) con laggiunta del Leitourgikon (Messale) (Rome 1996). Badger = G.P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. II (London 1987). Baldanza = G. Baldanza, Il rito del matrimonio nelleucologio Barberini 336. Analisi della sua visione teologica in Ephemerides Liturgicae 93 (1979) 316-351. LHuillier = P. LHuillier, Novella 89 of Leo the Wise on Marriage: An Insight into its Theoretical and Practical Impact in The Greek Orthodox Theological Review 32/2 (Brookline, MA 1987), 153-162. Jacob, Note = A. Jacob, Note sur la prire -3J83' 32* iH:3C* de LEuchologe Barberini in Byzantion 56 (Brussels 1986), 139-147. Kashani-Posner, Marriage = R. Kashani-R. Posner, Marriage in G. Wigoder (ed.), Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem 1996). Koulap = V. Koulap, Coniugalia Festa. Eine Untersuchung zu Liturgie und Theologie der christlichen Eheschlieungsfeier in der rmisch-katholischen und byzantinisch-orthodoxen Kir-
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GABRIEL RADLE
che mit besonderer Bercksichtigung der byzantinischen Euchologien. Das stliche Christentum, Neue Folge, Band 52 (Wrzburg 2003). Moussess = C. Moussess, Les livres liturgiques de lglise chaldenne (Beirut 1955). Muraviev = A. Muraviev, Les rites du mariage dans les glises de langue syriaque in tudes Syriaques 3. Les liturgies syriaques (Paris 2006). Neusner (et al.), Life Cycle = Life Cycle in Judaism, in J. Neusner, A. Avery-Peck, W.S. Green (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Judaism (Leiden 2000), 803. Parenti, Matrimonio = S. Parenti, Matrimonio. In Oriente. in A. Chupungco (ed.), Scientia Liturgica. Manuale di Liturgia (Rome 1998), vol. IV, 267-285. Parenti-Velkovska, Barberini = S. Parenti Elena Velkovska, LEucologio Barberini gr. 336. Seconda edizione riveduta con traduzione italiana (Rome 2000). Passarelli, Stefanoma = G. Passarelli, La Cerimonia dello Stefanoma nei Riti Matrimoniali Bizantini secondo il codice Cryptense Gb VII (X sec) in Ephemerides Liturgicae, 93 (Rome 1979), 381-391. Pentkovsky, Mariage = A. Pentkovsky, Le crmonial du mariage dans lEuchologe byzantin du XIe-XIIe sicle in Le Mariage. Confrences Saint-Serge. LXe semaine dtudes liturgiques (Rome 1994), 259-287. Ritzer = K. Ritzer, Le mariage dans les glises chrtiennes du Ier au XIe sicle (Paris 1970). Yousif = P. Yousif, La clbration du mariage dans le rite chalden in La Celebrazione Cristiana del Matrimonio. Simboli e testi (Rome 1986), 217-259. Zheltov = M. Zheltov, 8&*43$-'+- 1 /.%9: /+/$-:&9"- "&;6&$-'+- + <-.9"1'"- =+'"3"&$-)"1%'+- in !-&%2)1- 3#"'1&: (-)#"&-,4 +*5/*)*1&)#,%46 2#7&%-"*1. (#859%-"*5%*: $*/*2,*12'*: '*%;#"#%<&& =922'*: ."-1*2,-1%*: 3#"'1& ."-1*2,-1%*# 9>#%&# * <#"'*1%&46 !-&%2)1-6 (Moscow 2007), 198-206.
SUMMARY
The tenth-century Palestinian codex Sinai Gr. 957 contains one of the oldest redactions of the Constantinopolitan nuptial rites of Engagement and Marriage. In addition to copying the marriage practices of the tradition of the Byzantine capital, the euchology also includes local marriage rites celebrated at the nuptial bedchamber. These nuptial-chamber blessings have been overlooked or misinterpreted by Byzantine liturgiologists. This article dispels the misunderstandings surrounding these prayers, places them in their historical context, and shows how these prayers from the Byzantine periphery came to influence the development of the Byzantine Rite of Marriage as we know it today.
Gabriel Radle
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