The Liturgy of Saint James is a form of Christian liturgy used by some Eastern Christians of the Byzantine rite and West Syriac Rite. It is developed from an ancient Egyptian form of the Basilean anaphoric family, and is influenced by the traditions of the rite of the

Church of Jerusalem The Church of Jerusalem can refer to any of these sees or dioceses: *Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem (1st century AD–present) *Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem (638–present), the see of Oriental Orthodox Churches in Jerusalem *Latin Patria ...

, as the ''Mystagogic Catecheses'' of Cyril of Jerusalem imply. It became widespread in Church of Antioch from the fourth or fifth century onwards, replacing the older Basilean Liturgy of

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ� ...

. It is still the principal liturgy of the

Syriac Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg , imagewidth = 250 , alt = Cathedral of Saint George , caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascus ...

, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Maronite Church, the Syriac Catholic Church,

Syro-Malankara Catholic Church The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, also known as the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic '' sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church possessing self-governance under the Code of ...

and other churches employing the West Syriac Rite. It is also occasionally used in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

and Melkite Catholic Church. The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church uses a reformed variant of this liturgy, omitting intercession of saints and prayer for the dead. The liturgy is attributed with the name of James the Just, the brother of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

and patriarch among the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem. The historic Antiochene liturgies are divided between Alexandrian and Cappadocian usages. Among the these, the Liturgy of Saint James is one of the liturgies that evolved from the Alexandrian usage; others include Coptic Anaphora of Saint Basil, the Byzantine

Liturgy of Saint Basil The Liturgy of Saint Basil or, more formally, the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great (Coptic: Ϯⲁ̀ⲛⲁⲫⲟⲣⲁ ⲛ̀ⲧⲉ ⲡⲓⲁ̀ⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲃⲁⲥⲓⲗⲓⲟⲥ, ''Ti-anaphora ente pi-agios Basilios''), is a term for several ...

and the

Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is the most celebrated divine liturgy in the Byzantine Rite. It is named after its core part, the anaphora attributed to Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople in the 5th century. History It ...

. The liturgies attributed to Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil are the ones most widely used today by all Byzantine Rite Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, Byzantine Rite Lutherans, and some

Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of ...

Manuscript tradition

Its date of composition is still disputed, but most authorities propose a fourth-century date for the known form, because the anaphora seems to have been developed from an ancient Egyptian form of the Basilean anaphoric family united with the anaphora described in ''The Catechisms'' of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The earliest manuscript is the ninth-century codex, Vaticanus graecus 2282, which had been in liturgical use at Damascus, in the diocese of

. The only critical edition is the one published by Dom B.-Charles Mercier in the '' Patrologia Orientalis'', vol. 26 (1950).

Order of liturgy

The Liturgy of Saint James the Just is the skeleton of the whole Qurbono Qadisho with all the prayers before the anaphora being exactly the same, no matter which anaphora is chosen. The Liturgy of St James the Just comprises: #The First Service ## Prothesis #The Second Service ##Reading from the Holy Books ### The Trisagion ###Antiphon before the Pauline Epistle (Galatians 1:8-9) ###The Epistle of

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

#The Third Service ##The Husoyo (Liturgy of Absolution) ###The Proemion ###The Sedro (Main Prayer) ###The Etro (Fragrance/incense prayer) #The Anaphora ##The Kiss of peace ##Veiling and placing of the hands prayer ##The Dialogue ##Preface ##

Sanctus The Sanctus ( la, Sanctus, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the ''epinikios hymnos'' ( el, ἐπινίκιος ὕμνος, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition. In Western Christianity, th ...

(Qadish) ##Words of Institution ## Anamnesis ## Epiclesis ##Petitions ##Fracturing ##Liturgy of Repentance ###

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

(Abun dbashmayo) ##Invitation to Holy Communion ##The Procession of the Holy Mysteries ##Prayer of Thanksgiving ##The Dismissal of the Faithful In the books of the Patriarchal Sharfet seminary, this order is clearly strict, with the deacon and congregation prayer being the same no matter which anaphora is used. The only prayer that changes when a different anaphora is used is that of the priest.

Rubrics

The Liturgy of St. James is commonly celebrated on the feast day of Saint James (October 23) and the first Sunday after

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

, and then almost exclusively celebrated on a daily basis in Jerusalem, in the

. The Liturgy of Saint James is long, taking some hours to complete in full. The recitation of the Divine Liturgy is performed according to the worship rubrics of a particular Rite, with specific parts chanted by the presider, the lectors, the choir, and the congregated faithful, at certain times in unison. Like other compositions in the Byzantine tradition, the Divine Liturgy of St. James as celebrated in Greek forms the basis of the English transcription. In its Syriac form, the Liturgy is still used in the Syriac and Indian Churches - Catholic and Orthodox - both in a Syriac translation and in Malayalam and English. During the Offertory, the partiture calls for a

Cherubic Hymn The Cherubikon ( Greek: χερουβικόν) is the usual Cherubic Hymn ( Greek: χερουβικὸς ὕμνος, Church Slavonic ) sung at the Great Entrance of the Byzantine liturgy. History Origin The cherubikon was added as a tropa ...

chanted by readers as the priest brings the gifts to be consecrated onto the altar. In the Latin Catholic Church, this composition became popular as a separate hymn of adoration of the

Blessed Sacrament The Blessed Sacrament, also Most Blessed Sacrament, is a devotional name to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist. The term is used in the Latin Church of th ...

, known in English as '' Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence''.

Musical annotation

The hymnographers of the early Church composed both the words of the sung prayers and the tones of the musical scale to be sung in a single codex for a particular community. The annotation was recorded in close correspondence to the text (for sample codices, see those collated by the North American Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Anthony in Arizona) with neumes indicating the melodic tones and their duration used before the adoption of the Western system of staff and scales became established in medieval times. In those communities that worship in Syriac the neumes are mirror images of those used by the authocthonous Greek and Slavic Orthodox Churches and written and read right to left in accordance with the Syriac script of the prayer texts. ''The English Hymnal'' features the 1906 Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement of the English verses of the Cherubic hymn of the Offertory chant (see above) to the melody of the French folk tune Picardy. The hymn known as Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence is also popular in the Roman Catholic Latin rite as an alternative to the spoken communion antiphon.

References

External links

Byzantine music in English for the Liturgy of St. James

"Liturgy of Jerusalem"

online Syriac Orthodox Resources at The Catholic University of America {{Byzantine Rite, state=collapsed 4th-century Christian texts Eastern Christian liturgies Christian liturgical texts Anaphoras (liturgy) Christianity in Jerusalem Christian terminology James, brother of Jesus