The Jerusalem Typicon, also known as the Typicon of Mar Saba, is a liturgical book that defined the order of worship, regulated the use of other liturgical books, and determined practices of fasting and monastic discipline in the Middle and Late Byzantine periods. Later this book became the main liturgical ordo of the churches of the Byzantine Rite tradition. Originating in the monastic practices of Constantinople, the Jerusalem Typicon spread to Palestine, where it was adapted to the needs of Palestinian monasteries —chiefly among them Mar Saba—part of the process of Byzantinization of the eastern patriarchates in the 10th–12th centuries. In Palestine, this version of the Typicon was translated into Syriac and Arabic for the use of Melkite Christian communities. It was also re-imported back to Constantinople, perhaps via Mount Athos, and became the dominant liturgical tradition of the capital, from where it also spread to the Slavs and Georgians. The purpose of this Thematic Session is to discuss the state of the research on this important Byzantine liturgical source and to identify key directions for future scholarship. Questions addressed will include: the manuscript sources, problems of their classification, edition, and study; the role of Mar Saba in the development of the Typicon; the spread and adoption of the Typicon and its translations on the Byzantine periphery and beyond Byzantium; the relationship of the Typicon with other liturgical books and canon law; and the place of Mount Athos in the Typicon’s history.
A common understanding is that Byzantine liturgy becomes more or less standardized with the so-called neo-Sabbaitic synthesis and the printing of the Sabas Typikon in Venice in 1545 sealed that standardization, and thus we assume that since then the Byzantine liturgical tradition has remained changeless. This presumption has also led liturgical research to ignore the…
The Syriac Typikon manuscripts Sin. syr. 129 and Sin. syr. 136 preserve two substantially different formularies of the Agrypnia. These divergences reveal not only distinct stages in the historical evolution of the all-night vigil but also differing local conceptions of communal nocturnal worship. Sin. syr. 129 presents an abridged and simplified form of the rite,…
Within the Byzantine liturgical tradition, the period of Great Lent is preceded by a preparatory week commonly referred to as Cheesefare Week. The origin and provenance of this liturgical observance have been the subject of scholarly inquiry on multiple occasions. Nevertheless, a closer examination of its liturgical structure, textual content, and ritual function across various…
Among the oldest Greek manuscripts of the Sabaite Typikon is codex Sinai gr. 1096 (Diktyon 59471), which transmits various local liturgical practices related directly to the Lavra of St Sabas. Although Alexei Dmitrievskii provided a detailed description of the manuscript in 1917, it remains unedited and undervalued in studies of the history of the Typikon…
The liturgy of the Orthodox Christians (“Melkites”) in the patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch underwent a process of Byzantinization which led to a successive adaptation of the Byzantine Greek liturgical books, often at least partially translated into Arabic and/or Syriac and retaining proper rites. Different manuscript traditions of the Arabized liturgical books existed side by…