CANON OF THE ORIENTAL CHURCH

We have already stated that the Canon of the Oriental Church begins at the Preface. That of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is ushered in with this solemn admonition: “Come forward, O men! Stand with trembling awe and look towards the east.” According to nearly all the Oriental liturgies, some such warning precedes the Canon, and the moment the people hear it they become at once erect and attentive. The Maronite laity, who use staves in church to lean upon, as the modern custom of sitting down at Mass is not in vogue with them, are required to stand up here without any support whatever, as a mark of great respect for this most solemn part of divine service. The form of prayer for the spiritual and temporal ruler with the Armenians is thus worded: “For our lord the most holy Patriarch N., for his health and the salvation of his soul.” Then the minor clergy are mentioned: “for all vartabeds, priests, deacons, and subdeacons.” After this comes the name of the sovereign on the throne: “the emperor, the imperial family, the court, and the camp.” This prayer assumes formidable proportions in the Russian Church, for every member of the imperial family must be mentioned in it by name, and woe to the poor priest or bishop who would dare to omit one of them; for the czar is supreme in spirituals as well as in temporals throughout that empire, and arrogates the right to himself of having his name and title, wherever they appear, always written in capital letters (Tondini, The Pope of Rome and the Eastern Popes, p. 95).

The prayer for the temporal ruler in the Liturgy of St. Mark is very beautiful. It runs thus: “The orthodox and Christ-loving king: … lay hands upon the shield and buckler, and stand up to help him; … cover his head in the day of battle; speak good things to his heart for thy Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and all the people that loveth Christ.”

The prayer in St. Clement’s Liturgy is thus expressed: “For every episcopate under heaven of those who rightly divide the word of thy truth let us make our supplication; and for our Bishop James and his parishes let us make our supplication; for the Bishop Clement and his parishes let us make our supplication; for our Bishop Evodius and his parishes let us make our supplication, that the merciful God may vouchsafe them to their holy churches, safe, honorable, full of length of days, and may afford them an honorable old age in piety and righteousness.”