Euchologion

For the Book of Common Order, sometimes

called The Order of Geneva or Knoxs Liturgy,
see that entry.

The Euchologion (Greek: ; Slavonic:

, Molitvoslov ; Romanian: Euholo-
giu/Molitfelnic) is one of the chief liturgical books of the
Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches, con-
taining the portions of the services which are said by the
bishop, priest, or deacon (it corresponds more or less to
the Roman Catholic Missal, Ritual, and Pontical com-
bined). There are several dierent volumes of the book
in use.
A server holding the Archieratikon for the Russian Orthodox
Patriarch of Moscow

1 Types
Romanian: Liturghier) containing Vespers, Matins,
The comprehensive version is called the Great Eucholo- Compline and Divine Liturgy, plus supplementary
gion (Greek: , Eucholgion to mga; material
Slavonic: , Bolshi
The Small Euchologion or Book of Needs
Ierisky Molitvoslv; Romanian: Arhieraticon), and con-
(Greek: , Hagiasmatrion;
tains the following:
, Mikron Eucholgion;
Slavonic: Trbnik; Romanian: Molitfel-
The parts for the priest and deacon at Vespers, nic) contains the mysteries (except liturgy) which
Orthros (Matins), and the Divine Liturgy, to- would be used by a priest, as well as the other
gether with supplementary material (Prokeimena, services that would be commonly called for in a
Calendar of Saints, etc.) parish.
The remaining Sacred Mysteries (sacraments),
The Ritual or Pontical (Greek: ,
monastic tonsure, Blessing of Waters, etc. The texts
Archieratikon, Slavonic: , Chinovnik;
for these and the following services are provided in
Romanian: Arhieraticon) contains the portions of
full.
Vespers, Matins, liturgy and the mysteries that are
Services performed by a bishop (ordination, performed by a bishop.
consecration of a church)
Various blessings and prayers for occasional use
(Blessing of a House, Visitation of the Sick, and 2 Content
funerals)
The Euchologion contains rst, directions for the dea-
Services of supplication (Molebens) con at the Vespers, Matins, and Divine Liturgy. The
priests prayers and the deacons litanies for Vespers and
(For a full description of the contents and or- Matins follow. Then come the Liturgies (Eucharist): rst,
der of the Great Euchologion, see below, under rubrics for the Divine Liturgy in general, and a long note
Content) about the arrangement of the prosphora (breads) at the
Proskomide (Liturgy of Preparation). The Liturgy of St.
The other books contain only portions of the Great Eu- John Chrysostom is the frame into which the other Litur-
chologion: gies are tted. The Euchologion contains only the parts
of priest and deacon in full length, rst for the Liturgy of
The Priests Service Book (Greek: , St. John Chrysostom, then for those parts of Liturgy of
Hieratikon; Slavonic: , Sluzhbnik; St. Basil that dier from it; then the Liturgy of the Pre-

1
2 3 PUBLICATION

sanctied Gifts, beginning with the Hesperinon (Vespers) In modern Euchologia, however, it is usual to add the
that always precedes it. Apostles (the readings from the Epistles) and Gospels
After the Liturgies follow a collection of the Sacred for the Great Feasts (these are taken from the two books
Mysteries (sacraments and sacramentals) with various that contain the whole collection of liturgical lessons),
rules, canons, and blessings. First the rite of churching and lastly the arrangement of the court of the Ecumenical
the mother after child-birth (euchai eis gynaika lecho), Patriarch, with rubrical directions for their various duties
adapted for various conditions, then certain "Canons of during the Liturgy.
the Apostles and Fathers regarding Baptism, prayers to Thus the Euchologion is the handbook for bishops,
be said over Catechumens, the Rite of Baptism, followed priests, and deacons. It contains only the short responses
by the ablution (apolousis) of the child, seven days later; of the choir, who have their own choir-books (Horologion
Exorcisms of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom, and for the xed portions of the services, and the Triodion,
the Rite of Consecrating Chrism (myron) on Holy Thurs- Pentecostarion, Octoechos and Menaion for the propers).
day. Then follow the Ordination services for deacon,
priest, and bishop (there is a second rite of ordaining
bishops according to the exposition of the most holy
Lord Metrophanes, Metropolitan of Nyssa), the bless- 3 Publication
ing of a hegumenos (abbot) and of other superiors of
monasteries, a prayer for those who begin to serve in theThe most ancient document of the Rite of Constantinople
Church, and the rites for minor orders (reader, chanter, (which is similar to the Antiochene Rite) is the Barberini
and subdeacon). Euchologion (gr.336), a Greek manuscript written around
[1]
The ceremonies for tonsuring monks or nuns come next, 790 A.D.
the appointing of a priest to be confessor (pneumatikos) The rst printed edition was published at Venice in 1526.
and the manner of hearing confession, prayers to be said This was followed by another, also in Venice, in 1638
over persons who take a solemn oath, for those who incur of the Euchologion used by Jacques Goar for his edition.
canonical punishments, and for those who are absolved Another edition was published at Venice in 1862, which
from them. forms the basis of the current edition of the Great Eu-
Then comes a collection of prayers for various necessi- chologion, such as that published by Astir at Athens in
ties. A long hymn to Our Lady for forgiveness of sins, 1970. The text in the Venetian edition of 1862 was the
written by a monk, Euthymius, follows, and we come basis of the edition published in Bucharest in 1703. The
to the rites of betrothal, marriage (called the crown- 7th edition, edited by Spiridion Zerbos, was printed in
ing, Stephanoma, from the most striking feature of the 1898 at the Phoenix press (typographeion ho Phoinix) at
ceremony), the prayers for taking o the crowns eight Venice, the ocial Greek Orthodox printing house.
days later, the rite of second marriages (called digamy, The Orthodox Churches that use other liturgical lan-
digamia, in which the persons are not crowned), and the guages have presses (generally at the capital of the coun-
very long unction of the sick (to agion elaion), prescribed try, Moscow, Bucharest, Jerusalem) for their transla-
to be performed by seven priests. tions. The Euchologion was rst translated into Church
Next, consecrations for new churches and antimensia (the Slavonic in the 9th century. The denitive version of the
corporal containing relics used for the Divine Liturgy; Euchologion used in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was
it is really a kind of portable altar), the ceremony of prepared by Peter Mohyla, and published in 1646 (repub-
washing the altar on Holy Thursday, erection of a Stau- lished in Paris, 1988). This edition contains some 20 rit-
ropegion (a monastery that is exempt from the control uals that were of local origin and are not performed in
of the local bishop, being instead subject directly to the other Eastern churches (e.g., services for the uncovering
Patriarch or Synod of Bishops), the Lesser Blessing of of holy relics and for the blessing of monasteries).
Waters (hagiasmos), and the Great Blessing of Waters Provost Alexios Maltzew of the Russian Embassy Church
(used on Theophany), followed by a sacramental which at Berlin edited the Euchologion in Old Slavonic and Ger-
consists of bathing (nipter) afterwards. man with notes (Vienna, 1861, reprinted at Berlin, 1892).
After one or two more ceremonies, such as a rite of the A complete Euchologion, in several volumes, was printed
Kneeling Prayer (gonyklisis) on the evening of Pentecost, in Moscow by the Synodal Press in 1902.
exorcisms, prayers for the sick and dying, come the dis-
Greek-Catholics use the Propaganda edition and have a
tinct burial services used for laymen, monks, priests, chil-
compendium (mikron euchologion) containing only the
dren and any burial occurring during Bright Week. Then
Liturgies, Apostles and Gospels, baptism, marriage, unc-
follows a miscellaneous collection of prayers and hymns
tion, and confession (Rome, 1872). J. Goar, O. P., edited
(marked euchai diaphoroi), Canons of penance, against
the Euchologion with very complete notes, explanations,
earthquakes, in time of pestilence, and war, and two ad-
and illustrations (Euchologion, sive Rituale Grcorum,
dressed to the Theotokos. More prayers for various oc-
2nd ed., Venice, fol., 1720), which became the standard
casions end the book.
work of reference for Byzantine Rite Catholics.
 3

4 Oriental Orthodox
Euchologia are also found among the Coptic, Armenian
and East Syrian Churches, which dier from the Byzan-
tine. The Euchologion of Bishop Serapion, a contempo-
rary of St. Athanasius (c.293 373), contains texts from
the Alexandrian Rite.[2]

5 Notes
[1] E. Whitaker, M. Johnson, Documents of the Baptismal
Liturgy (Liturgical Press, 2003), ISBN 0-8146-6200-5, p.
109.

[2] Louis Duchesne, Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evo-

lution (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Lon-
don, 1903), p. 75.

6 References
This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.
(1913). "article name needed ". Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton., s.v., Euchologion

7 External links
Account of the discovery of the Euchologion of Mar
Sabbas

The Barberini Euchologion

Euchologion is an Arabic and Greek manuscript
from 1682
4 8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

8 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1 Text
Euchologion Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchologion?oldid=762285408 Contributors: Charles Matthews, Neutrality,
Woohookitty, BD2412, Rjwilmsi, FlaBot, Russavia, Fastifex, Waelsch, SmackBot, Melchoir, D39, Andrew c, Eliyak, InfernoXV, Cyde-
bot, Kupirijo, Missvain, Nick Number, Sumguy2, R'n'B, MishaPan, Aymatth2, Huku-chan, Mild Bill Hiccup, Xenon54, A ntv, Kbdankbot,
Addbot, LilHelpa, Xqbot, Omnipaedista, EmausBot, Lipsio, Helpful Pixie Bot, Davidiad, Marcocapelle, Greenknight dv, Mutley1989 and
Anonymous: 2

8.2 Images
File:Inauguration_of_Dmitry_Medvedev,_7_May_2008-12.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/
Inauguration_of_Dmitry_Medvedev%2C_7_May_2008-12.jpg License: CC BY 4.0 Contributors: http://kremlin.ru/dyn_images/
big200321.jpg Original artist: Presidential Press and Information Oce

8.3 Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0