The Feast of the Prophet Habakkuk

In the Byzantine Rite, December 1st, 2nd and 3rd are the feast days of the prophets Nahum, Habakkuk and Sophonias (Zephaniah) respectively, whose books are placed next to each other in the Bible, the 7th, 8th and 9th of the twelve minor prophets. When Cardinal Cesare Baronius revised the Roman Martyrology in the later 1560s, he added the first and last of these on their Byzantine dates. Habakkuk, however, is noted together with his fellow prophet Micheas (Micah) on January 15th, a date connected with the discovery of their relics in the time of the Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379-95; Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. 7, 29)

The Prophet Habakkuk, by Girolamo Romanino, from the Sacrament Chapel of the church of St John the Evangelist in Brescia, Italy. (1521-4.) The quotation on the banderole, the opening words of his canticle in chapter 3, follows the Old Latin text, which was translated from the Septuagint, rather than the Vulgate version of St Jerome.

Of these three, Habakkuk is by far the most prominent in the liturgy, because the canticle which forms the third chapter of his book is used in the Divine Office of all the historical Christian rites. In the Roman Rite, it is said at Lauds on Friday, one of the very ancient series of seven Old Testament canticles already mentioned in the Rule of St Benedict; the beginning of it forms the first tract of the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday. In the Ambrosian Rite, it is said from the first Sunday of October until Palm Sunday as the third of three Old Testament canticles at Matins of Sunday, and of feasts of the Lord that occur within that period. In the Byzantine Rite, it is the fourth of the nine odes of Orthros which form the basis of that hour’s longest and most complex feature, the canon. (It should be noted that in Greek his name is either “Ambakoum” or “Abbakoum”, the latter of which becomes “Avvakum” in Church Slavonic.)

Unlike most of the other prophets, major and minor, Habakkuk gives no biographical details about himself, but he can be dated to the end of the 7th century BC, or beginning of the 6th, since his book is concerned with the rise of the Neo-Babylonian (or Chaldean) Empire in that period. He also appears in the deuterocanonical addition to the book of Daniel known as the story of Bel and the Dragon, chapter 14 in the Vulgate.

Habakkuk and the Angel, by Gian Lorenso Bernini. ca. 1656-61; in the Chigi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome (Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Bede735)

The prominence of his canticle in the liturgy is due especially to the Septuagint version of part the second verse, which reads, “In the midst of two living beings (or ‘animals’) thou shalt be made known.” As I have explained on various other occasions, this was understood by the Church Father from the very earliest times as either a reference to the ox and the ass at the manger in which Christ was laid when He was born, or to Moses and Elijah appearing alongside Him at the Transfiguration, or to the two thieves crucified with Him.

However, this reading does not correspond to the Hebrew text, as St Jerome notes in his commentary on the book, and he therefore wrote in his translation, “thy work, in the midst of the years bring it to life.” Perhaps to compensate for the resulting loss of what was already in his time an old exegetical tradition, he then translated the word “yish‘i – my salvation” in verse 18 as “Jesu meo – my Jesus.” The Roman Rite, however, still uses the older version in the aforementioned tract of Good Friday, and in one of the responsories on the feast of the Circumcision.

The first tract of the Mass of the Presanctified, Domine, audivi, Hab. 3, 1-3.

The Byzantine tradition simply presumes that like all the prophets, Habakkuk foresaw the coming of the Redeemer as God in the flesh. Thus we read at Vespers of his feast, “Standing on divine watch, the venerable Habbakuk heard the ineffable mystery of Thy coming unto us (vs. 1), o Christ, and he prophesied most clearly the proclamation of Thee, foreseeing the wise Apostles as steeds roiling the sea of the many gentile nations (vs. 15).” And at Orthros, the sessional hymn after the third ode of the canon: “Thou didst stand on the divine watch, o blessed and divinely inspired one, and with prophetic eyes thou didst perceive the coming of God; wherefore also thou didst cry out with fear, o Habakkuk, ‘O Lord, I have heard of Thy dread coming, and I sing of Thee, Who didst will to bear the flesh of earth which Thou didst receive from the Virgin!”

Since his canticle is part of Orthros every day, Habakkuk is mentioned in the canons of many feasts. On Christmas, for example, the second canon speaks of him as follows: “In song did the Prophet Habbakuk of old proclaim beforehand the renewal of the mortal race, ineffably deemed worthy to see the type; for the Word came forth from the mountain (vs. 3), the Virgin, as a new Babe, for the restoration of the people.”

The prophet Habakkuk depicted in a Greek liturgical psalter of the 11th century. On the right he is shown standing and praying, with a female figure representing Babylon sitting on the ground behind him. In the upper part, the angel is carrying by the hair, as narrated in Daniel 14. (Bibliothèque national de France, supplément grec 610)

The Feast of the Prophet Obadiah, and the Vigil of the Presentation

With the exception of the so-called Maccabee brothers, the Church in the West has never generally celebrated feasts of Old Testament Saints. (The Carmelite Order venerates the Prophet Elijah as one of its founders, and some churches in Venice, which has many close cultural ties to the East, are dedicated to figures such as Moses, Job and Jeremiah.) On the other hand, in the Byzantine Rite, most of the prophets are celebrated liturgically. The Tridentine reform was very concerned to emphasize the common theological patrimony of the Western and Eastern parts of the church, as united witnesses against the innovations of the protestant reformers, and in function of this, Cardinal Baronius added many mentions of Old Testaments Saints to the Roman Martyrology, on or near their Byzantine feast day.

As I have explained in a previous article, the Byzantine Rite does not have a formal Advent in the same sense that the Roman Rite does, but it does nevertheless have a period of preparation for the Nativity. The Old Testament Saints celebrated within this period are all prophets, and today is the feast of the first of these, the Prophet Obadiah (“Abdias” in Greek and Latin), as also noted in the Roman Martyrology.

An illuminated letter at the beginning of the book of Obadiah, in a Bible made in southern France in the first quarter of the 12th century, now known as the Bible of Montpellier; British Library, Harley MS 4772, f° 288r.

Since he gives no information about himself, we know basically nothing about Obadiah; he is traditionally but mistakenly identified with a man of the same name who appears in 3 Kings 18, the servant of King Ahab who saved the prophets of the Lord from the wicked queen Jezabel. His prophecy concerns the fall of the kingdom of Edom, which was descended from Esau, the brother of the Patriarch Jacob, and which the prophet reproves thus: “For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt perish for ever.” There are a number of similarities between his book and the oracles against Edom in Jeremiah 49, for which reason he is generally believed to be a contemporary of his fellow prophet, living around the year 600 BC.

The Byzantine tradition simply presumes that like all the prophets, he foresaw the coming of the Redeemer as God in the flesh. Thus we read at Vespers of his feast, “Being filled with the light that knoweth no setting, and seeing the glory that surpasseth all knowing and understanding, and standing near to the Lord of all things, blessed Abdias, and having become the interpreter of God, beseech Him that peace and great mercy may be granted to our souls.” And likewise, in the canon of his feast, “Thou wast revealed to be like a wedding attendant of the Church, o blessed one, foretelling that the Savior would come forth from Zion, to Whom we cry out, ‘Glory to Thy power, O Lord!’ ” “Wedding attendant” explicitly associates the prophet with the last of his brethren, St John the Baptist, who says of himself, “the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice.” (John 3, 29; at right, an icon of Obadiah painted in 1912, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Vespers in the Byzantine Rite always belong liturgically to the following day, and so on November 19th, they are of the Forefeast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple, the equivalent of a Roman vigil. The Presentation was introduced to the West very late, and has never been celebrated with a vigil, but in the Byzantine Rite, it is one of the Twelve Great Feasts, those of the highest degree of solemnity after Easter. It therefore has both a forefeast and an afterfeast, the latter being the equivalent of an octave, although these vary in length, and that of the Presentation is only four days long. The most important variable texts sung at the Divine Liturgy, the troparion and kontakion, are as follows on November 20th; the former is also sung at the conclusion of Vespers the evening before.

Troparion Today, Anna foretells to us joy, having brought forth as a fruit assuaging grief the only ever-virgin, whom indeed today she bringeth rejoicing to the temple of the Lord, fulfilling her promises, as the true temple and pure Mother of God the Word.

Kontakion All the world is filled today with rejoicing at the great feast of the Mother of God, crying out, She is the heavenly tabernacle!

A Greek icon of the Presentation of the Virgin, 17th or 18th century, now in the National Fine Arts Museum in Valetta, Malta; image from Wikimedia Commons by Matthewsharris, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Prophet Elijah, Epic Hero of the Old Testament, Part Two

In Part One of this article, I outlined the historical literary genre known as the epic, and I suggested that we cannot “fully appreciate and honor the Prophet Elijah without consciously reading his life story as that of an epic hero.” (I also included a technical explanation for the different versions of his English name, if that sort of thing interests you. If it doesn’t, here’s the synopsis: The Hebrew name אֵלִיָּה would have sounded like “eleeyah,” the spelling “Elijah” has been around a long time but no longer encourages Hebraic pronunciation, and the spelling “Elias” came to English from Greek via Latin.)

Now it’s time to look at how we can understand and honor the Holy and Glorious Prophet Elijah, whose feast is July 20th in the Byzantine rite, through the lens of epic heroism.

“Into the Midst of Things”

One of the most well-known features of epic literature is the convention of beginning in medias res, which literally means “into the midst of things” and is used in literary theory for works that dive right into the primary narrative. The epic poet is expected to quickly capture the reader’s attention by dispensing with any sort of preamble and, at least initially, with events that led to the main action of the poem. The Aeneid gives us a fine example:

I sing of arms, and of the man who first
Came from the coasts of Troy to Italy
And the Lavinian shores, exiled by fate.
Much was he tossed about upon the lands
And on the ocean by supernal powers,
Because of cruel Juno's sleepless wrath.

These are the first lines of the poem, and Virgil’s song is already recounting Aeneas’ tempestuous voyage away from Troy. The narrative does not begin with the Trojan War or even the fall of Troy; we will, however, hear about some of that action later, in a flashback. (By the way, I’m using Christopher Pearse Cranch’s 1872 translation here; I’ve sampled many Aeneid translations, and this is my favorite. It’s truly excellent, and not well known.)

The opening lines of the Iliad have an even stronger in medias res feeling, and they also give you an idea of the stylistic differences between Virgil and Homer. (In fairness, though, this is from the Robert Fagles translation, which is superb but probably amplifies those differences.)

Rage – Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.

This is how the story of the Prophet Elijah begins:

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead, said unto Ahab,
As the Lord, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain these years,
but according to my word. (1 Kings 17, 1)

No prelude, no family history, no tales of his previous life, not even the typical prophet-introducing phrase “The word of the Lord came to...” (this comes after his introduction, in the next verse). Elijah simply bursts onto the scene, and before the end of the first verse in which he is mentioned, he is already defying the wicked King Ahab. Biblical scholars puzzle over this abrupt entrance. They observe that we never learn his parentage or tribe, and the epithet “Tishbite” deepens, rather than clarifies, the mystery of his origin.

From a literary standpoint, though, this technique makes sense, as the German commentators Keil and Delitzsch at least partially recognized: “This abrupt appearance of Elijah ... is rather a part of the character of this mightiest of all the prophets.” It is an appearance in medias res, eminently appropriate for an epic hero.

Sacred Digressions

Epic poems are carefully enriched by digressions from the main storyline. This occurs as a story-within-a-story that narrates prior events, as prophecies uttered by a seer, or as episodes that are connected rather loosely to the principal action.

Elijah is fundamentally a prophet, so that connection already exists, and furthermore, his life is episodic, consisting of sudden, brief appearances within the larger frame of a grand mission to defend the cause of God when Israel was drowning in its own iniquity. We feel this especially in the homely stories of the ravens and the widow of Zarephath, which directly follow an introduction that portrays his prophetic mission as intense and momentous.

And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning,
and bread and flesh in the evening;
and he drank of the brook.
And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up,
because there was no rain in the land. (1 Kings 17, 6–7)

So he arose and went to Zarephath;
and when he came to the gate of the city,
behold, a widow woman was there gathering sticks:
and he called to her, and said,
Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. (1 Kings 17, 10)

Digressions bring variety and interest to a narrative, and more importantly, they allow an author to communicate themes and character traits that might be lost amidst the primary action of the epic story. Elijah is not only the bold, fiery prophet of Mount Carmel; he is also a humble, compassionate Israelite who promised the widow that her cruse of oil would not fail, and raised her son from the dead. And that brings us to our next epic moment in the prophet’s life.

The Underworld

The katabasis, from the Greek word for “descent,” is a distinctive feature of epic literature. It refers specifically to a descent into the underworld—that is, the world of the dead. The paradigmatic example occurs in Book 6 of the Aeneid, but not until Dante’s Inferno would epic katabasis reach its poetic and theological summit.

Elijah never descends to the underworld, but we hear echoes of katabasis in the story of the widow’s son, when Elijah confronts death and overcomes it. There are only three instances of someone being raised from the dead in the Old Testament, which suggests that great significance is involved in such events. The detail of Elijah stretching himself upon the dead child three times emphasizes his participation in the death, as though he mystically entered the realm of the dead in order to draw the child out of it.

And he stretched himself upon the child three times,
and cried unto the Lord, and said,
O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.
And the Lord hearkened unto the voice of Elijah;
and the soul of the child came into him again,
and he revived. (1 Kings 17, 21–22)

The Heroism of Faith

The last epic moment that I’ll mention requires little comment. It radiates the heroic energy that we naturally sense in the feats and conquests of ancient heroes, while also utterly surpassing them—for this is a feat of the spirit, not of the body. This is not a conquest of valor and strength and martial skill, however good and noble those things may be, but a conquest of one who prays, and who trusts—against overwhelming odds—that his prayer will be heard.

The passage is simply a masterpiece of epic literature. Saint Elijah the Prophet, defender of Israel against the impious tyrant Ahab, pray for us.

And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces,
and laid it on the wood. And he said,
Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood.
And he said, Do it the second time; and they did it the second time.
And he said, Do it the third time; and they did it the third time.
And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.
And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening oblation,
that Elijah the prophet came near, and said,
O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel,
let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel,
and that I am thy servant,
and that I have done all these things at thy word.
Hear me, O Lord, hear me,
that this people may know that thou, Lord, art God,
and that thou hast turned their heart back again.

Then the fire of the Lord fell,
and consumed the burnt offering,
and the wood, and the stones, and the dust,
and licked up the water that was in the trench.
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces:
and they said, The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God. (1 Kings 18, 33–39)

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For thrice-weekly discussions of art, history, language, literature, Christian spirituality, and traditional Western liturgy, all seen through the lens of medieval culture, you can subscribe (for free!) to my Substack publication: Via Mediaevalis.

The Prophet Elijah, Epic Hero of the Old Testament, Part One

July 20th in the Byzantine rite is the feast of the Holy and Glorious Prophet Elijah, a man whose singularly exalted status in salvation history suggests that his life deserves more attention than it receives. In my experience, eastern Christianity has been more faithful than western Christianity in celebrating the monumental figures of the Old Testament—men and women whose actions and interior lives emerge not from the records of mere mortals but from the Holy Bible, wellspring of divine Wisdom and the world’s greatest work of literature.

Elijah rebuked a king, brought down “the fire of the Lord” upon Mount Carmel with his prayers, vanquished four hundred and fifty pagan prophets, brought abundance to a desolate widow, raised the widow’s son from the dead, received nourishment from the hand of an angel, conversed with the Almighty on Mount Horeb, divided the Jordan River, and ascended to heaven in a flaming chariot. This is a life that has been studied and contemplated for millennia. This is a story that ignites and ennobles the imagination, and will until the end of time. This is a man who demonstrates to every nation and every age that Christianity is, or at least should be, a religion of heroes.

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The interminable doctrinal disputes that began with the Protestant Reformation have turned our attention away from the literary qualities of the Bible. Indeed, one of the delights of being Catholic is the freedom to savor the Bible as a work of art, without fretting over how exactly its poetic, narrative, and epistolary texts should be translated into dogmas. Mother Church has done this work for us—if we humbly accept her magisterial teachings, we ipso facto accept that the Bible cannot contradict them, and then the many obscure passages of Scripture become as so many dark caves and shadowy woodlands where wonders await us if we are willing to explore, and contemplate, and pray.

Elijah and the widow’s son. Early sixteenth century.

Among the Bible’s forgotten literary qualities are genres and poetic forms that enrich the Truth-telling stories which the good God has written for us. John Milton, of Paradise Lost fame, believed that the Bible was superior to the classics as a work of literature. That’s a bold assessment coming from a Renaissance humanist, and also a compelling one given that Milton was a prodigiously intelligent scholar and classicist.

The epic, defined as “a long narrative poem of heroic action,” is arguably the most influential literary genre in history. The three most famous examples in Western culture are the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, but we could also mention the Divine Comedy, Beowulf, Hesiod’s Theogony, the Song of Roland, and even humanity’s oldest surviving work of written literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is only natural that we would find epic in Holy Scripture as well. Milton interpreted the Book of Job, which was written almost entirely in verse, as an epic, and traces of epic are found, for example, in the poetical prose of Genesis, Exodus, and the Gospels.

Elijah awakened by an angel. Fifteenth century.

The epic mode of thought was more instinctual for inhabitants of the pre-modern world. Not only timeless masterpieces like the Aeneid but also countless oral poems, folk tales, and sagas formed minds and hearts in the poetics of heroism, mortality, prophecy, noble adventure, divine intervention, sacred tradition, majestic language, and communal identity. Modern readers such as ourselves have been raised in and influenced by a very different imaginative and artistic environment, and I don’t think we can fully appreciate and honor the Prophet Elijah without consciously reading his life story as that of an epic hero. I’ll provide some guidance on how to do that in Part Two of this essay.

Addendum: Elias vs. Elijah; or, The Prophet and His English Names

The prophet’s name is a source of much confusion in the English-language biblical tradition. To my great consternation, modern bibles prefer “Elijah,” which has normalized the pronunciation /ɪˈlaɪdʒə/, with the final consonant pronounced like the “j” in “jump” or the “s” in “pleasure.” There is no such sound in the Hebrew name אֵלִיָּה, which if we ignore the initial aleph would resemble “eleeyah.” The consonant in question here is Hebrew yod, which corresponds to English “y” in “you” (and also happens to be a name for the phonetic symbol ⟨j⟩).

During the surge of English-language bible translation in the sixteenth century, “i” and “j” were two different forms of the same letter. We see an example of this in the 1587 Geneva Bible, where the prophet’s name is spelled once as “Elijah” and once as “Eliiah” in the same verse. The more common spelling by far in the Geneva Bible is “Eliiah,” where the second “i” may have had a consonantal value similar to that of modern English “y.” The first edition of the King James Bible also used both “Eliiah” and “Elijah.”

Glenn Bauscher’s translation of the Syriac Bible has “Elyah,” which, though novel, is highly commendable. The most anomalous spelling appears in a nineteenth-century translation of the Septuagint carried out by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton: he predominantly used “Eliu,” because the Septuagint predominantly used the genitive form Ηλιου (“Eliou”) instead of the nominative form Ηλιας (“Elias”). I don’t like the sound of “Eliu,” but neither am I inclined to argue with anyone whose name includes “Sir Lancelot.”

The spelling “Elias” appears in the Coverdale Bible (1535), the Bishops’ Bible (1568), and the Douay-Rheims (1609). The prophet’s Hebrew name ends in the letter hei, equivalent to English “h”; the “-s” ending is a Greco-Roman phenomenon: Greek pronunciation didn’t allow for an “h” sound at the end of a word, and translators of the Septuagint replaced the “-ah” in names such as “Elijah,” “Isaiah,” and “Jeremiah” with “-as.” This was carried over into the Vulgate and thence to some English versions of the Bible.

To continue to Part Two, click here.

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For thrice-weekly discussions of art, history, language, literature, Christian spirituality, and traditional Western liturgy, all seen through the lens of medieval culture, you can subscribe (for free!) to my Substack publication: Via Mediaevalis.

The Feast of the Prophet Obadiah, and the Vigil of the Presentation

Purely by coincidence, today is the day on which the Roman Breviary reads the first half of the shortest book in the Old Testament, that of the Prophet Obadiah (“Abdias” in Greek and Latin), and also his feast day, as noted in the Martyrology. (This happens in any year in which the Dominical letter is c, and the 19th of November thus falls on a Friday.) With the exception of the so-called Maccabee brothers, the Church in the West has never generally celebrated feasts of Old Testament Saints. (The Carmelite Order venerates the Prophet Elijah as one of its founders, and some churches in Venice, which has many close cultural ties to the East, are dedicated to figures such as Moses, Job and Jeremiah.) On the other hand, in the Byzantine Rite, most of the prophets are celebrated liturgically. The Tridentine reform was very concerned to emphasize the common theological patrimony of the Western and Eastern parts of the church, as united witnesses against the innovations of the protestant reformers, and in function of this, Cardinal Baronius added many mentions of Old Testaments Saints to the Roman Martyrology, on or near their Byzantine feast day.

An illuminated letter at the beginning of the book of Obadiah, in a Bible made in southern France in the first quarter of the 12th century, now known as the Bible of Montpellier; British Library, Harley MS 4772, f° 288r.

Since he gives no information about himself, we know basically nothing about Obadiah; he is traditionally but mistakenly identified with a man of the same name who appears in 3 Kings 18, the servant of King Ahab who saved the prophets of the Lord from the wicked queen Jezabel. His prophecy concerns the fall of the kingdom of Edom, which was descended from Esau, the brother of the Patriarch Jacob, and which the prophet reproves thus: “For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt perish for ever.” There are a number of similarities between his book and the oracles against Edom in Jeremiah 49, for which reason he is generally believed to be a contemporary of his fellow prophet, living around the year 600 BC.

The Byzantine tradition places his feast within the period of the Nativity fast, the equivalent of the Roman Advent, and it is simply presumed that like all the prophets, he foresaw the coming of the Redeemer as God in the flesh. Thus we read at Vespers of his feast, “Being filled with the light that knoweth no setting, and seeing the glory that surpasseth all knowing and understanding, and standing near to the Lord of all things, blessed Abdias, and having become the interpreter of God, beseech Him that peace and great mercy may be granted to our souls.” And likewise, in the canon of his feast, “Thou wast revealed to be like a wedding attendant of the Church, o blessed one, foretelling that the Savior would come forth from Zion, to Whom we cry out, ‘Glory to Thy power, O Lord!’ ” “Wedding attendant” explicitly associates the prophet with the last of his brethren, St John the Baptist, who says of himself, “the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice.” (John 3, 29; at right, a Russian icon of Obadiah painted in 1912, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Vespers in the Byzantine Rite always belong liturgically to the following day, and so on November 19th, they are of the Forefeast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple, the equivalent of a Roman vigil. The Presentation was introduced to the West very late, and has never been celebrated with a vigil, but in the Byzantine Rite, it is one of the Twelve Great Feasts, those of the highest degree of solemnity after Easter. It therefore has both a forefeast and an afterfeast, the latter being the equivalent of an octave, although these vary in length, and that of the Presentation is only four days long. The most important variable texts sung at the Divine Liturgy, the troparion and kontakion, are as follows on November 20th; the former is also sung at the conclusion of Vespers the evening before.

Troparion Today, Anna foretells to us joy, having brought forth as a fruit assuaging grief the only ever-virgin, whom indeed today she bringeth rejoicing to the temple of the Lord, fulfilling her promises, as the true temple and pure Mother of God the Word.

Kontakion All the world is filled today with rejoicing at the great feast of the Mother of God, crying out, She is the heavenly tabernacle!

The Feast of All Saints 2020: The Patriarchs and Prophets

From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the fourth day in the Octave of All Saints.

The holy solemnity of this day is also of course dedicated to the saints most dear to God, the fathers of the Old Testament, whose prayers and deeds rightly should be both remembered and imitated. Greatly desiring the coming of the Savior, being chosen and raised up (by God) in the promise made to the royal house, and in the priestly succession, they beat down their enemies, and raised up a temple to the Lord as a type of the Church, to show that Our Lord Jesus Christ would break down the tyrannical law of the devil, for the salvation of the faithful, and being Himself both king and priest, would order a royal priesthood in His Church. Upon these men, glorious in their virtues and the merits of their lives, followeth the chosen order of the holy Prophets, to whom was entrusted, because of the purity of their lives, the blessed series of revelations, telling of the salvation that was to come, and the same portion of inheritance promised. At the last, the Forerunner of Christ, John, succeeded them, a man wholly angelic, of whom the Lord Himself foretold through the mouth of Malachi, “Behold I send my angel before Thy countenance, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.”

Christ’s Appearance to the People, by the Russian painter Alexander Ivanov (1806-58), now in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. This painting took the artist 20 years to complete, from 1837 to 1857, for which reason he was called “the master of a single work.” (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

The Feast of All Saints 2019: The Patriarchs and Prophets

From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the third day in the Octave of All Saints.

Having invited the orders of the heavenly army and accompanied them with due honors, let us hasten to recite the merits of those who, being of like origin with us, of the earth and upon it, through the grace of God and their own merit, much greater than our own, obtain blessedness in Heaven. Among those chosen by the divine goodness before the Law and under the Law stands the praiseworthy company of the holy Fathers, Patriarchs and Prophets. And the greatest among them all, John the Baptist, holds the first place, who was conceived at the message of the same angel as Christ. At the beginning of his preaching and baptism for the forgiveness of sins, he recognized Him that takes away the crimes of the world on sight, and with his own finger pointed him out. Rightly is he called the precursor of the Lord, the herald of the Judge, and prophet of the most High, since when not yet born, he preceded Christ into this world with wondrous exultation, and in his glorious passion went before Him as He descended into the next.

The Virgin and Child with Ss John the Baptist and Stephen, by Michelangelo Anselmi, ca. 1530

A Medieval Liturgical Commentary on the O Antiphons

We are now more than halfway through Advent, and next Monday the Church will begin to sing the famous O antiphons each day at Vespers. These are one of the most loved features of the Church’s liturgy, and for good reason; the texts are especially rich in references to the Old Testament prophecies of the Divine Redeemer and His coming for the salvation of the human race, and the Gregorian chant with which they are sung is extremely beautiful. The Roman Rite has seven of these, and it of course well known that the first letters of the seven titles (O Sapientia, O Adonai etc.) form an acrostic when read backwards, ERO CRAS, Latin for “Tomorrow I will be.”; this is completed on the last day before the Christmas season formally begins on the evening of the 24th.

The first six O antiphons in the Antiphonary of Hartker, written at the monastery of St Gallen in Switzerland at the end of the 10th century. (Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 390, p. 40 – Antiphonarium officii, https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/csg/0390)

When semidoubling antiphons was the norm in the Use of Rome, the O’s were always doubled, and the choir did not sit after they were intoned, as one usually does for the Magnificat antiphon. Various other particular customs were observed in other places. In the very ancient abbey of Fleury, for example, the intonation of each antiphon was assigned to a particular member of the monastic community: O Wisdom to the abbot, O Lord to the prior, O Root of Jesse to the gardener, O Key of David to the cellarer, (who held the key to all of the storehouses), etc. (Martene, De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus IV.3.3)

The medieval use of Augsburg in Germany contains a particularly interesting enrichment of the liturgy on these days. Each O is accompanied by a special chapter, and a special concluding oration, both of which refer back to it; these form a kind of scriptural and euchological commentary on the much older antiphons. Like many medieval uses, that of Augsburg also added other antiphons to the series, which I will note in another post next week; here are the chapters and prayers which go with the seven oldest antiphons, those found in the Roman Breviary. At Augsburg, the Os began on December 13th, and so I have noted them here.

December 13 (17 in the Roman Breviary)

Capitulum Ego Sapientia ex ore Altissimi prodivi, primogenita ante om- nem creaturam. Transite ad me, omnes qui concupiscitis me, et a generationibus meis implemini.	The Chapter I Wisdom came out of the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before all creatures. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. (Sirach 24, 5 &26)
Aña O Sapientia, * quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti: attin- gens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.	Aña O Wisdom, * that comest out of the mouth of the Most High, that reachest from end to end, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: come and teach us the way of prudence.
Oratio Festinantes, omnipotens Deus, in occursum Filii tui, Domini nostri, nulli impediant actus tereni, sed caelestis sapientiae eruditio faciat nos ejus esse consortes. Qui tecum.	The Prayer Almighty God, let no earthly actions hinder them that ha- ten to meet Thy Son, our Lord, but let the teaching of heavenly wisdom make us His fellow heirs, Who with Thee...

December 14

Capitulum Ecce Deus noster: ecce Domi- nus Deus in fortitudine veniet, et brachium ejus dominabitur: ecce merces ejus cum eo, et opus illius coram illo.	The Chapter Behold our God: behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his re- ward is with him, and his work is before him. (Isaiah 40, 9-10)
Aña O Adonai, * et Dux domus Israël, qui Moysi in igne flam- mae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Si- na legem dedisti: veni ad redi- mendum nos in brachio exten- to.	Aña O Adonai, * and leader of the house of Israel, who didst ap- pear to Moses in the fire of the burning bush, and gavest him the Law on Sinai; come thou to redeem us with arm outstretched.
Oratio Deus, qui hominem de lapsu in mortem Unigeniti tui adventu redimisti: praesta, quaesumus; ut qui ejus gloriosam fatentur Incarnationem, ipsius Redemp- toris consortia mereantur: Qui tecum.	The Prayer God, who didst redeem man from the fall unto death by the coming of Thy Only begotten Son; grant, we beseech Thee, that they who confess His glorious Incarnation may merit the fellowship of that very Redeemer; who liveth and reigneth with Thee...

December 15

Capitulum Ecce radix Jesse ascendet in salutem populorum: ipsum gentes deprecabuntur: et erit nomen ejus gloriosum.	The Chapter Behold the root of Jesse shall arise for the salvation of the peoples; him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his name shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11, 10)
Aña O Radix Jesse, * qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes depreca- buntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.	Aña O root of Jesse, * that stand- est as an ensign of the peoples, at whom the kings shall shut their mouths, whom the Gentiles shall beseech: come thou to deliver us, delay thou not.
Oratio Festina, ne tardaveris, Domi- ne, Deus noster: et a diaboli- co furore nos potenter libera- re dignare: Qui cum.	The Prayer Hasten, delay Thou not, o Lord, our God; and deign Thou mightily to deliver us from the wrath of the devil. Who with the Father...

The Prophet Isaiah, by Antonio Balestra (1666-1740). “And one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.” (Isaiah 6, 6-7 – Public domain image from Wikipedia.)

December 16

Capitulum Dedi te in foedus populi, in lucem gentium, ut aperires oculos caecorum, et educe- res de conclusione vinctos, de domo carceris sedentes in tenebris.	The Chapter I have given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles: that thou may open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoners out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. (Isaiah 42, 6-7)
Aña O clavis David, * et sceptrum domus Israël; qui aperis, et nemo claudit; clau- dis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo car- ceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.	Aña O key of David, * and sceptre of the house of Israel; who openest, and no man shut- teth; shuttest, and no man open- eth: come thou, and lead forth the prisoner from the prison- house, and him that sitteth in darkness, and in the shadow of death.
Oratio Aurem tuam, quaesumus, Domine, precibus nostris ac- commoda: et mentis nostrae tenebras gratia tuae visita- tionis illustra: Qui vivis.	The Prayer Incline Thy ear, Lord, we be- seech Thee, unto our prayers, and lighten the darkness of our minds by the grace of Thy visitation; Who livest.

December 17

Capitulum Orietur vobis timentibus no- men meum sol justitiae, et sanitas in pennis ejus.	The Chapter Unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings. (Malachi 4, 2)
Aña O Oriens, * splendor lu- aeternae, et sol justi tiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.	Aña O Dayspring, * splendor of the light eternal, and sun of justice; come thou, and enlighten them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
Oratio Mentes nostras, quaesumus, Domine, gratia tuae visita- tionis illustra: ut esse te lar- giente mereamur et inter prospera humiles, et inter adversa securi. Qui cum.	The Prayer Enlighten our minds, we be- seech Thee, Lord, by the grace of Thy visitation; that of Thy bounty we may merit to be humble in prosperity, and safe in adversity. Who with the Father.

December 18

Capitulum Ecce dies veniunt, dicit Do- minus, et suscitabo David germen justum: et regnabit rex, et sapiens erit, et faciet judicium et justitiam in terra.	The Chapter Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth. (Jeremiah 23, 5)
Aña O Rex gentium, * et desi- deratus earum, lapisque angu- laris, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.	Aña O King of the gentiles, * and the Desire thereof, and cornerstone that makest of twain one: come, to save man, whom Thou didst make from the mud of the earth.
Oratio Excita, quaesumus, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni: ut ab imminentibus peccatorum nostrorum periculis, te mere- amur protegente eripi, te libe- rante salvari: Qui vivis.	The Prayer Stir up Thy strength, o Lord, we beseech Thee, and come; that we may merit to be deli- vered from the imminent dangers of our sins by Thee our protector, and saved by Thee our liberator. Who livest.

December 19

Capitulum Dominus enim judex noster, Dominus legifer noster, Do- minus rex noster, ipse sal- vabit nos.	The Chapter For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us. (Isaiah 33, 22)
Aña O Emmanuel, * Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos, Do- mine, Deus noster.	Aña O Emmanuel, * our King and Lawgiver, longing of the Gentiles, and Savior thereof: come Thou to save us, o Lord our God.
Oratio Omnipotens Christe, Unige- genite Dei, propitius ad sal- vandum populum in te cre- dentem veni: ut benignitate solita ab omni dubietate et metu temporis nos jubeas liberari: Qui cum Deo Patre.	The Prayer Christ Almighty, Onlybegotten Son of God, of Thy mercy come Thou to save the people that believeth in Thee; that by Thy wonted kindliness, Thou mayest command us to be freed of every doubt, and fear of our times. Who with the Father...

The translations of the Scriptural passages are taken from the Douay-Rheims version; where the quotation is different from the actual words of Scripture (a common enough feature of medieval liturgical texts), I have placed the changed words in italics. The translations of the antiphons are based on those in the English version of the Roman Breviary by the Marquess of Bute, with many modifications; those of the prayers are my own. The Chapter which accompanies O Radix Jesse is based on Isaiah 11, 10, but is actually quoted from a responsory of the Third Sunday of Advent. Likewise, the prayer which accompanies O Clavis David is that of the Third Sunday of Advent, and that which accompanies O Rex gentium is that of the First Sunday.

A 15th century stained glass window of Augsburg Cathedral, showing the Coronation of the Virgin Mary at top, the Annunciation on the lower left, and the Birth of Christ on the lower right.

St Abraham the Patriarch, October 9th - Do We Commemorate Old Testament Saints?

Yesterday, October 9th, was the feast day of the Patriarch St Abraham, who is called by the Martyrology “The Father of All Believers.”

It is common for the Saints of the Old Testament to be commemorated in the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern churches, and the Patriarchs and Prophets are commonly patrons of churches, and referred to as Saints. Here is a fresco in which three patriarchs Ss Abraham, Isaac and Jacob appear. These might be life-size on the wall of the church, so that one would get the impression that these figures are praying the liturgy with us.

I started to consider this because this is the latest in the occasional series about images of the Saints named in the Roman Canon, of whom Abraham is one. I realised as I did so that I can't remember ever being present at a Roman Rite church where there was such a commemoration. Perhaps it is time for this to change? Is there a Roman Catholic Church of St Abraham anywhere? Please let me know!

He is clearly a central figure for us. Abraham is referred to in the following passage from the words of the Mass:

Look with favor on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchizedek.

This is not the only daily liturgical reference to Abraham. He is referred to in the Gospel canticles sung daily at Lauds and Vespers, the Benedictus and the Magnificat, and in both of them he is called “Father.” There could be a incensing of his image during either of these on certain days.

The place of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament in salvation history is, as I understand it, that of establishing the practises of faith. In this sense, Abraham clearly has a place in the establishment of liturgical tradition through his being prepared to sacrifice his only son, and ultimately sacrificing a ram.

Here is an image which might be appropriate behind the altar in a church, a 6th century mosaic from Ravenna in Italy.

It connects the sacrifices of Abraham, Abel the Just and Melchizedek with the Mass in ways both obvious and subtle. First the obvious: it connects them with the Mass by placing them in a church and clearly setting Melchizedek’s offering of wine and bread on an altar in greater prominence. The artist tells us directly who they are by writing their names in the picture, something that artists today should perhaps think about. Don’t make the symbolism or connections mysterious; tell us who the people are in writing. If there is an appropriate biblical reference that clarifies things, then write that in the picture too.

The more subtle connection with Christ is the placement of the eight-pointed star on the front of the altar, indicating that the altar itself represents Christ, and the eighth day of Creation, as His Resurrection is celebrated on the eighth day of the week, Sunday.

Another mosaic from Ravenna has Abraham as the theme.

In this we see a depiction of the sacrifice again, but also the scene known as the Hospitality of Abraham, Genesis 18, 1-15, in which he welcomes three strangers. They are three angels under the appearance of men, traditionally seen as symbols of the three persons of the Trinity. This second theme is also the subject of many famous paintings. After an Eastern iconographic depiction, which will be familiar to many through that of Andrei Rublev, I give two Western images. The first is 16th century Italian, the second 15th century Flemish.

The Hospitality of Abraham, 16th-century, Rostov-Suzdal School

Abraham and the Angels, by Sebastiano Ricci, ca, 1694

Abraham and the Angels, by Josse Lieferinxe, ca. 1500

Continue Reading this Article. . .

The Feast of All Saints 2013: The Patriarchs and Prophets

From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the fourth day in the Octave of All Saints:

The holy solemnity of this day is also of course dedicated to the saints most dear to God, the fathers of the Old Testament, whose prayers and deeds rightly should be both remembered and imitated. Greatly desiring the coming of the Savior, being chosen and raised up (by God) in the promise made to the royal house, and in the priestly succession, they beat down their enemies, and raised up a temple to the Lord as a type of the Church, to show that Our Lord Jesus Christ would break down the tyrannical law of the devil, for the salvation of the faithful, and being Himself both king and priest, would order a royal priesthood in His Church. Upon these men, glorious in their virtues and the merits of their lives, followeth the chosen order of the holy Prophets, to whom was entrusted, because of the purity of their lives, the blessed series of revelations, telling of the salvation that was to come, and the same portion of inheritance promised. At the last, the Forerunner of Christ, John, succeeded them, a man wholly angelic, of whom the Lord Himself foretold through the mouth of Malachi, “Behold I send my angel before Thy countenance, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.”

Icon of St. John the Baptist, anonymous Cretan painter, ca. 1600, from the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece. Many icons of St John show him with wings like an angel, in reference to the words cited above from Malachi 3, 1.