www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Patriarch Filaret considers unity with U.G.C.ATHOLIC CHURCH

Dear Aleksandr,

Sorry to do this to you, but I'm the editor of the reprint of the book in question, so I feel an obligation. The Kyivan Liturgy was not and is not a figment of anyone's imagination. Should you wish more information about it, if you can read Church-Slavonic (as I have the impression is the case) order a copy of the Liturgicon of St. Peter (Mohyla) from Eastern Christian Publications.

It is also true - and verifiable - that the Russian government, for reasons best known to itself, forbade the use of the Kyivan Liturgy around 1720.

If you already have texts of the Old-Rite services, you'll find a comparison of the pre-Nikonian Moscow version with the Kyivan version worthwhile.

Fr. Serge

Was it that late? Paul Meyendorff, in Russia, Ritual and Reform, seems to indicate that the old books were outlawed as early as 1664 or so, but continued in use in many places simply because the supply of new books did not keep up with the demand (and were very expensive, to boot). Certainly the synod of 1667 mandated the exclusive use of the reformed books:


Perhaps in the 1720s the extension of Russian jurisdiction into former Lithuanian and Polish lands brought more pre-Nikonian parishes under Muscovite rule?

In the 18th century the first lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were annexed by Russia in 1772. But what was going on earlier in matters of ecclesiastical jurisdiction - I don't know.

The year 1772 marks the first partition of Poland, but in the 17th century, the boundaries of Poland-Lithuania reached far into what is now Ukraine, and through the various shifts resulting from conflicts such as the Great Northern War, areas which had been in dispute shifted into Muscovite jurisdiction.

Many thanks to Fr. Serge not only for his posting of historic fact, but his efforts in making the Mohylian Liturgikon available. Дуже дякую!!!

As much as some would like to ignore or make it go away, yes, there is a distinctly particular Kyivan liturgical development.

It is interesting that there are those on both sides of the fence who wish it would go away--Greek Catholics unhappy with elements long considered "Russifications" that turn out to be part of the authentic Slavic usage; and Orthodox unhappy to discover elements long believed to be "latinizations" are in fact part of the Orthodox heritage. The Kyivan liturgical tradition can be the nucleus around which a united Kyivan Church can reform.

Thanks for the compliment - I hope you are enjoying the Liturgicon edited by Saint Peter (Mohyla). He also did a justly famed Trebnyk, which was reprinted (in two distinct reprints) in 1988. The one which can actually be read is that of Arkady Zhukhovsky and the Shevchenko Scientific Society.

There are of course other books which help us to become more familiar with various aspects of the Kyivan liturgical tradition (I've been working on the Arkhieratikon for the past few years), but reprints are not cheap, nor are they easily accomplished.

Happy reading!

Fr. Serge

Thanks again. My fifth- or sixth-hand photocopy of the 1646 Trebnyk is largely illegible.

Again, you are most welcome. You want one in two colors, with good, clear, print - bearing in mind that we are discussing the seventeenth century.

Fr. Serge

The boundary of Lithuania in 1635 was far to the east of the 1770 boundary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth_1635.png

In the 1630s, the border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extended as far east as Smolensk, and its territory encompassed all three of the modern Baltic states, as well as all of Ukraine and Belarus. The gradual disintegration of the Commonwealth began in the last decades of the 17th century, and by the end of the reign of Peter the Great, the border had moved considerably farther to the west.

Thus, the decrees of the Synods of 1665 and 1666 would have had no effect outside of Muscovite territory, and the pre-Nikonian books would have continued in use, until such time as new areas of Polish-Lithuanian territory were absorbed by Moscow. The ensuing reorganization of ecclesiastical jurisdictions would have resulted in some dioceses where the pre-Nikonian books were used, and others where the Nikonian books had been in use for several decades. The Russian government, the arm by which Church decrees were enforced, would then have responded by making the Nikonian books mandatory within the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.