Tuesday, September 23, 2014

A Byzantine Subdiaconal Ordination in Bratislava

On Sunday, September 14, His Excellency Peter Rusnák, Bishop of Bratislava in Slovakia, celebrated a hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Catholic Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross for the titular feast, and conferred the tonsure and the orders of Acolyte, Lector and Subdeacon on Dr Andrej Skoviera. The website of the Eparchy of Bratislava has posted two large photogalleries of the event, which you can see here and here. (The automatic translator on the Chrome web-browser seems to do reasonably well with Slovakian.) Our congratulations to Dr Skoviera and the Eparchy of Bratislava - многаѧ и благаѧ лѣта!!

In the Byzantine tradition, the three orders of Acolyte, Lector and Subdeacon are often conferred at the same ceremony. Here the bishop gives the ordinand a candle as part of the rite of ordaining an Acolyte.
The newly made Lector sings a lesson as part of the Ordination ritual, apart from that of the Divine Liturgy.
Tonsure
 

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Pontifical Divine Liturgy for Pentecost in Bratislava

The website of Slovakia’s state-owned radio and television company has a beautifully made video of the Pontifical Divine Liturgy celebrated by Bishop Peter Rusnák on Pentecost Sunday at the Greek-Catholic Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, seat of the Eparchy of Bratislava. (click here for link; video not embeddable.) I had the good fortune to spend most of Holy Week at this church one year; it is small, but boasts an amazing choir and a devout congregation who sing well and enthusiastically. Bratislava, (also known as Pressburg in German and Pozsony in Hungarian) is the capital of Slovakia, and traditionally a Latin-Rite city. (The city’s Franciscan church featured in one of our NLM quizzes.) The Cathedral of the Exaltation was originally built as a cemetery chapel for the large Hungarian minority in the city; it has only been a Greek-Catholic church since 1972, and a cathedral only since the establishment of the Eparchy of Bratislava in 2008. It is wonderful to see what a vibrant community has been established in so short a time, especially given the years of Communist persecution.
The façade of the Greek-Catholic Cathedral
The iconostasis 
Lining up for Confessions on Spy Wednesday, 2010, at the Capuchin Church. I saw Confession lines spilling out of several churches in Bratislava that day.

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