www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Four Eastern Christian Churches in one morning

This morning I experienced something out of the ordinary. I had occasion to visit four different Eastern Christian churches in Central New Jersey. I had to drop off two of my children (an Eight Grade student and a Pre-Kindergarten Teacher) at eight o'clock in the morning at one of our local Catholic Elementary Schools in Manville, New Jersey.

I had an appointment in Manville at 9:15, so I decided not to go home only to have to turn back. I had been reminded recently that St Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church [stmarysbcc.org] had its Daily Liturgy at 8AM, so I decided I'd have enough time to attend before needing to leave at 9:10 to be at my appointment. St Mary's has a very impressive plant and beautiful temple with a full iconastasis (a little more see through than I'm used to). The 8AM starting time must be the time for the beginning of the Rosary rather than that of the Liturgy, because I was there for most of this devotion. The Rosary is done in the same style as I was used to in Roman parishes (complete with the Fatima Prayer and invocation of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary at the end of each decade and the Hail Holy Queen at the conclusion), but there was a Byzantine Catholic Hymn about the Rosary sang at the very end. Before the beginning of the Liturgy, Fr Edward Cimbala kindly came out to greet me and we exchanged a few words. The Liturgy was entirely sung, with priest, cantors, and congregation doing an admirable job at singing. A few things I noticed:

(a) the Litany of Peace had two petitions added for the departed that I was unused to;

(b) selected verses from the three daily Antiphons were sung together without Little Litanies in between;

(c) the troparia and kontakia after the Little Entry were sung to plainchant melodies unlike the "Kievan" chant I am familiar with;

(d) there was some abbreviation of Litanies, both in number and in petitions, but the Litany of Fervent Supplication was used;

(e) the Creed was sung (to a melody we also use in the Russian Orthodox Church) without the filioque;

(f) the mystical prayers of the priest were mostly chanted aloud;

(g) the words 'Orthodox Christians' were rejected in favour of the term "Christians of true worship;"

(h) the words "unto ages of ages" are replaced by "forever and ever;" and

(i) I noticed some inclusive language in the translation used similar to that used in Roman parishes.

I wish I had been able to stay until the conclusion of the Liturgy, but I had to leave at the end of the Anaphora because of my appointment. I enjoyed my visit and leaned a lot.

My appointment was with Fr James Parsells, the Rector of Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church [ssppoc.org], a parish of the Orthodox Church in America. Fr James is the father of my Son-in-Law, Fr John Parsells, who is Rector of Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church [orthodoxdelmarva.org] in Dagsboro, Delaware. I am quite familiar with Ss Peter and Paul Church. It is really beautifully decorated and I was delighted to venerate it's holy relics and icons again this morning.

Ss Peter and Paul Church rents their upper Church Hall to St Mary and St Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church [smsanj.org] so it was possible for me to visit two Eastern Christian Churches at one address! This Coptic Parish has been transforming a gym with a stage into a place of worship and they are obviously a very pious group of Eastern Christians.

I had a 10 o'clock appointment in Highland Park, NJ. On the way back from that appointment, I spotted the doors of St Mary of Zurovicy Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in Highland Park open because some ladies were cleaning it. I stopped immediately and was allowed in to venerate the icons in the church. The church was originally built by Greeks as St Barbara's Greek Orthodox Church. This parish later moved to Piscataway, New Jersey, and renamed itself St George's.

I could have visited St George's Greek Orthodox Church [stgeorgepiscataway.org] on the way home, as I passed right by it, but I did not have the time!

Fr David Straut

Father David:

Many Easterners may not be aware that the prayer "Hail Holy Queen" was actually written by Saint Isaac the Syrian. It is on page 131 from a book entitled: "An Anthology of Patristic Prayers" published by Holy Cross in Brookline. You may have that in your library.

Sounds like your day was a pleasant one. You experienced many spectrums of the Christian East. Glad that you got to share with us.

Ray

Christ is in our midst!


Bless Father- Thank you so much for sharing this lovely little day trip with us! It's such a treat that these parishes all have nice websites with photos of their parish and parish life. There is a quite beautiful slide show of Fr. John Rizkalla's Rite of Reception [smsanj.org] on the St Mary and St Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church site, see the link on the left hand column. I felt blest just watching it. It appears to be in the former gym you speak of.

What a wonderful gift from our Lord!

Thanks Ray!

I have always thought that the prayer "Hail, Holy Queen" was one of the most beautiful Western Prayers. Now I find out it's actually an Eastern prayer! Well, anyway, the customary English translation of this prayer is really marvelous.

Fr David

Is this the prayer or is there a closer one?

link [miadoradoscxiam.blogspot.com]

The same reference continues:
The Latin original is more stark than the usual translation (as above), the latter embellishing some, but in a subtle way.

The prayer has been attributed to the authorship of Saint Isaac the Syrian, as printed in the book that I cited above. Here is the exact wording (practically word-by-word) as found in that book from Holy Cross Orthodox Press:

"Rejoice! O Lady, Mother of mercy, life, sweetness and our hope, rejoice! To you we cry, the children of Eve in exile. Upon you we gaze, groaning and wailing in this valley of lamentation. Wherefore, go ahead, our defender, turn your compassionate eyes to us and with this look show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb, O sweet Virgin Mary."

If I understand this correctly, there is no Latin original, but authored by a saint from the Syriac tradition. It would be interesting to see how this prayer made its way to the West.

I only mentioned it because of Fr. David's wonderful day of "church hopping" and how he shared what he found with us and his reference to the prayer "Hail, Holy Queen".

A question for the moderators: "Should I have started a new thread on this topic?"

Ray

It is indeed remarkably close to the Salve Regina. The link I provided, which raises the question, is not aware of this version as that of St Isaac the Syrian. The question I would have is, what do we know about the original that is the basis for the Holy Cross Orthodox Press English version?

As a faculty member at Salve Regina University and a Orthodox Christian, such an attribution of the Latin Hymn Salve Regina to an eastern origin is news to me and probably most of the faculty. I post the following from the catholic Encyclopedia:

Salve Regina

The opening words (used as a title) of the most celebrated of the four Breviary anthems of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is said from the First Vespers of Trinity Sunday until None of the Saturday before Advent. An exception is noted in Migne's "Dict. de liturgie" (s.v.), namely that the rite of Châlons-sur-Marne assigns it from the Purification B. M. V. until Holy Thursday. An other variation, peculiar to the cathedral of Speyer (where it is chanted solemnly every day "in honour of St. Bernard"), may have been based on either of two legends connecting the anthem with the saint of Clairvaux. One legend relates that, while the saint was acting as legate Apostolic in Germany, he entered (Christmas Eve, 1146) the cathedral to the processional chanting of the anthem, and, as the words "O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria" were being sung, genuflected thrice. According to the more common narrative, however, the saint added the triple invocation for the first time, moved thereto by a sudden inspiration. "Plates of brass were laid down in the pavement of the church, to mark the footsteps of the man of God to posterity, and the places where he so touchingly implored the clemency, the mercy, and the sweetness of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Ratisbonne, "Life and Times of St. Bernard", American ed., 1855, p. 381, where fuller details are given). It may be said in passing that the legend is rendered very doubtful for several reasons:

* the narrative apparently originated in the sixteenth century, and relates a fact of the twelfth;
* the silence of contemporaries and of the saint's companions is of some significance;
* the musical argument suggests a single author of both the anthem and its concluding words.

The authorship is now generally ascribed to Hermann Contractus. Durandus, in his "Rationale", ascribed it to Petrus of Monsoro (d. about 1000), Bishop of Compostella. It has also been attributed to Adhémar, Bishop of Podium (Puy-en-Velay), whence it has been styled "Antiphonade Podio" (Anthem of Le Puy). Adhémar was the first to ask permission to go on the crusade, and the first to receive the cross from Pope Urban II. "Before his departure, towards the end of October, 1096, he composed the war-song of the crusade, in which he asked the intercession of the Queen of Heaven, the Salve Regina" (Migne, "Dict. des Croisades", s.v. Adhémar). He is said to have asked the monks of Cluny to admit it into their office, but no trace of its use in Cluny is known before the time of Peter the Venerable, who decreed (about 1135) that the anthem should be sung processionally on certain feasts. Perhaps stimulated by the example of Cluny, or because of St. Bernard's devotion to the Mother of God (the saint was diligent in spreading a love for the anthem, and many pilgrim-shrines claim him as founder of the devotion to it in their locality), it was introduced into Cîteaux in the middle of the twelfth century, and down to the seventeenth century was used as a solemn anthem for the Magnificat on the feasts of the Purification, Annunciation, and Nativity B. V. M., and for the Benedictus at Lauds of the Assumption. In 1218 the general chapter prescribed its daily processional chanting before the high altar after the Capitulum; in 1220 it enjoined its daily recitation on each of the monks; in 1228 it ordered its singing "mediocri voce", together with seven psalms, etc. on every Friday "pro Domino Papa" (Gregory IX had taken refuge in Perugia from Emperor Frederick II), "pro pace Romanae Ecclesiae", etc. etc. — the long list of "intentions" indicating how salutary was deemed this invocation of Our Lady. The use of the anthem at Compline was begun by the Dominicans about 1221, and was rapidly propagated by them. Before the middle of that century, it was incorporated with the other anthems of theBlessed Virgin in the "modernized" Franciscan Breviary, whence it entered into the Roman Breviary. Some scholars say that the anthem had been in use in that order (and probably from its foundation) before Gregory IX prescribed its universal use. The Carthusians sing it daily at Vespers (except the First Sunday of Advent to the Octave of Epiphany, and from Passion Sunday to Low Sunday) as well as after every hour of the Little Office B. V. M. The Cistercians sang it after Compline from 1251 until the close of the fourteenth century, and have sung it from 1483 until the present day — a daily devotion, except on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. the Carmelites say it after every hour of the Office. Pope Leo XIII prescribed its recitation (6 January, 1884) after every low Mass, together with other prayers — a law still in force.

While the anthem is in sonorous prose, the chant melody divides it into members which, although of unequal syllabic length, were doubtless intended to close with the faint rhythmic effect noticeable when they are set down in dividedform:

* Salve Regina (Mater) misericordiae,
* Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
* Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae;
* Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrymarum valle.
* Eia ergo advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
* Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O Clemens, O pia,
O dulcis (Virgo) Maria.

Similarly, Notker Balbulus ended with the (Latin) sound of "E" all the verses of his sequence, "Laus tibi, Christe" (Holy Innocents). The word "Mater" in the first verse is found in no source, but is a late insertion of the sixteenth century. Similarly, the word "Virgo" in the last verse seems todate back only to the thirteenth century. Mone (Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters, II, 203-14) gives nine medieval hymns based on the anthem. Daniel (Thesaurus hymnologicus, II, 323) gives a tenth. The "Analecta hymnica" gives various transfusions and tropes (e.g. XXXII, 176, 191-92; XLVI, 139-43). The composers adopt curious forms for the introduction of the text, for example (fourteenth century):


Salve splendor praecipue
supernae claritatis,
Regina vincens strenue
scelus imietatis,
Misericordiae tuae
munus impende gratis, etc.

The poem has fourteen such stanzas. Another poem, of the fifteenth century, has forty-three four-line stanzas. Another, of the fifteenth century, is more condensed:


Salve nobilis regina
fons misericordiae, etc.

A feature of these is their apparent preference for the briefer formula, "O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Maria."

The anthem figured largely in the evening devotions of the confraternities and guilds which were formed in great numbers about the beginning of the thirteenth century. "In France, this service was commonly known as Salut, in the Low Countries as the Lof, in England and Germany simply as the Salve. Now it seems certain that our present Benediction service has resulted from the general adoption of this evening singing of canticles before the statue of Our Lady, enhanced as it often came to be in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, which was employed at first only as an adjunct to lend it additional solemnity." (Father Thurston; see BENEDICTION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT for some elaboration). Luther complained that the anthem was sung everywhere throughout the world, that the great bells of the churches were rung in its honour, etc. He objected especially to the words "Queen of mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope"; but the language of devotion is not that of dogma, and some Protestants, unwilling that it should disappear from Lutheran churches, reconstructed it "evangelically" (e.g., a version in use at Erfurt in 1525: "Salve Rex aeternae misericordiae".) The Jansenists found a like difficulty, and sought to change the expression into "the sweetness and hope of our life" (Beissel, I, 126). While the anthem thus figured largely in liturgical and in general popular Catholic devotion, it was especially dear to sailors. Scholars give instances of the singing of Salve Regina by the sailors of Columbus and the Indians.

The exquisite plainsong has been attributed to Hermann Contractus. The Vatican Antiphonary (pp. 127-8) gives the revised official or "typical" form of the melody (first tone). The now unofficial "Ratisbon" edition gave the melody in an ornate and in a simple form, together with a setting which it described as being in the eleventh tone, and which is also very beautiful. An insistent echo of this last setting is found in the plainsong of Santeul's "Stupete gentes." There are many settings by polyphonic and modern composers. Pergolesi's (for one voice, with two violins, viola, and organ) was written shortly before his death; it is placed among his "happiest inspirations", is deemed his "greatest triumph in the direction of Church music" and "unsurpassed in purity of style, and pathetic, touching expression."

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13409a.htm

The best version I know of is the jazzed version; about 15 years ago we replaced the older version with the version used in Sister Act (although, unfortunately, sung at a slower pace than the version I attach here:

This is indeed an interesting thread...

I wonder if my father and grandfather who sailed the high seas sang it out there...

Thanks for that!* I had forgotten about "Sister Act". As hard as I find it when we have jazzed up music in Mass, we haven't, yet, had this jazzed up Salve Regina at a Mass I've been to, I really cannot but feel joy watching those YouTube segments of Whoopi and her Sisters, and also the inmates.

Are you saying this is an audio clip on your salve.edu website also?

*What an interesting story behind that prison version you shared [en.wikipedia.org].

Please don't attribute that video to us at SRU; I just like audio of this version. When we sing it as the alma mater, it sounds somewhat like the slow version at the start of the prison version; I would prefer the faster version. The Latin version we used to sing, despite its origin, sounded like a funeral dirge. As far as i know, there is no recording of the song on the SRU site, although you can purchase a dvd of our graduation service if you want to hear us sing the thing.