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Is there any history of the use of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in any of the Eastern Catholic Churches? I have found it to be a treasure.
Silouan, monk

It is a jewel. Its equivalent in the East, I suspect, would be to add a Canon to the Mother of God (or one of her Canons) as a secondary canon at Matins, or to Compline.

It is always appropriate.

Slava Jesu Kristu,

Yes, accept we call it the Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos and it is meant to be prayed in addition to the Horologion.

Dmitri

Yes Dmitri,

You are right exactly. A western Christian would turn to the Little Office, much the way an eastern Christian would pray the Akathist.

Elias

Bless me a sinner, Venerable Father Silouan!

The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is truly a Latin devotion, but it has a long history of use among some Orthodox Saints, especially St Dmitry Rostovsky!

Following the Union of Brest-Litovsk, many Orthodox Christians of the Kyivan Church went westwards to study theology in the great Catholic universities of the time, including Paris.

They returned home still as Orthodox, but having picked up several western devotions that they adapted and actually promoted in the Orthodox Church.

One such devotion was that to the Immaculate Conception - they belonged to Orthodox Church Brotherhoods that made the "bloody vow" (to defend this doctrine to the death), invoked the Mother of God this way "All Immaculate Mother of God, save us!" and wore the medal of the Immaculate Conception. This has been written up in a number of articles by Eastern Catholic writers, but is mentioned throughout the works of the Orthodox Met. Ilarion Ohienko - he states that even the Akathist of the Immaculate Conception was received into Orthodoxy and widely used at one time (Canonization of Saints in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - postscript).

The OCA website in its "Saints and Feasts" section accurately describes the "Icon of the Conception of St Anne" which is exactly the same as the picture of Our Lady of Grace, standing on the serpent, hands lowered etc.

This was also how Our Lady appeared above the Coptic Church at Zeitoun. The official depiction of Her, based on eye-witness accounts, is exactly that of the western Immaculate Conception!

St Dmitri and others of the Orthodox Kyivan Baroque period translated the Little Office into Slavonic and recited it DAILY.

St Dmitri ALSO translated St Bonaventure's Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary and recited it frequently.

St Dmitri also adapted the devotion to the Joys and Sorrows of the Mother of God that is today even included in Jordanville's prayerbook (Tale of the Five Prayers).

St Dmitri not only recited the Rosary of 150 Hail Mary's daily, he also interrupted his work on the Lives of the Saints to recite a "Hail Mary" or "Bohoroditse Divo" at the start of every hour.

He even awoke to the chimes of the clock at night to recite the Hail Mary this way!

I have seen images of woodcuts from the Kyivan Baroque period of the Kyivan Mohyla Academy where the Little Office of the BVM and the rosary are clearly depicted.

As private devotions, Orthodoxy has nothing against them. At least a number of her Saints didn't anyway . . .

Alex

Slava Jesu Kristu,

My dear Alex,

Where are you getting your history? Although I am aware of my patron's affinity for Latin devotions, I am also aware that most were adaptations of some existing Orthodox customs. The "Bohoroditse Divo" was not the western version from what I have read. Its recitation 150 times is not the Rosary per se. It is no different then Hesychism except that the focus is through Our Lady. The depiction of Our Lady has several variations borrowed by both East and West. This does not indicate a prefernce for either by Metropolitan of Rostov.

Forgive me, but I do not wish to paint the picture of my patron as anything less than a defender of Eastern custom. He was a product of his time and the current religious trends. I do not feel, however, that his zeal for the Faith should be watered down by ascribing devotions to him that may be misleading.

Dmitri

Dear Alex,

Is there a good "Life" of Saint Dmitri in English?

Elias

Dear Dmitri,

Also in response to Fr. Elias, Met. Ohienko did an excellent life of St Dmitry in Ukrainian however where these devotions are mentioned.

The fact is that St. Dmitry borrowed HEAVILY from the West, especially as he collected much biographical material about the lives of the Saints where he came into contact with many western devotions.

It was the spirit of the time, the tremendous Latin influence of the Jesuits etc. that affected the Orthodox Church, as well as the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Orthodox theologians today, such as Alexander Schmemann and Florovsky and Meyendorff have noted these Latin influences in Orthodox theology as well as spirituality.

Meyendorff mentions a Greek theologian who "thoroughly understood the western doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and accepted it."

These were private devotions, mind you, but were very popular.

Have a look at the "Tale of the Five Prayers" of the Jordanville Prayerbook and you can readily see that it is a remake of the Western Renaissance devotion to Our Lady's Joys and Sorrows.

The Rosary of 150 Hail Mary's was certainly around in Orthodox spheres, but St Dmitri and others used it with meditation on mysteries, division into decades etc.

The recitation of the Hail Mary at the turn of every hour is certainly a direct Western import.

The Psalter and Little Office of the BVM were direct translations with slight "Byzantinizations" included.

The majority of my study of Ukrainian Saints of this period has been in Ukrainian.

Dom Aelred Graham, I believe it was, read the lives of Sts. Dmitry and the other Kyivan Baroque Hierarchs and came to the conclusion that they were the most "Catholic" of all the Eastern Saints!

Again, these devotions were practiced on a personal level, they are not popular among Orthodox today.

The Rosary still is popular, and it was essentially received from the Greek Catholics who returned to Orthodoxy in the 19th and 19th centuries. Fr. Serge Keleher who studied this didn't believe the division into decades etc. could have come from anywhere else except from a Latin source.

Fr. Irenaeus Nazarko, OSBM, no friend of Orthodoxy, wrote in "The Light" about Eastern devotion to the Sacred Heart. He then quoted St Dmitry who wrote movingly of the "Wounded Side of Christ and the Blood that flowed from the Pierced Heart of Christ."

Nazarko then had this to say about this Orthodox saint, "Anyone who could write so beautifully was truly a Saint of God!"

I don't have time to revisit my past researches in this area, that occurred, in any event two decades ago.

I'm not asking you to take my silly word for it (for who am I really?) but please do, when you have time yourself, undertake a comprehensive study of the Kyivan Baroque period and of St Dmytry's world.

Alex

Slava Jesu Kristu,

Thank you, Alex, I shall. However, I still feel we must be careful not to try and wax over these men and their devotions to Orthodoxy simply to make it easier to Western tastes. This is something our Russian brothers are still struggling with and we have enough problems of our own.

Dmitri

Dear Dmitry,

Actually, I was simply reporting what I know to be true about the spirituality of the saints of the Kyivan Baroque Period.

The Orthodox Church herself seems not to have minded their Latin-inspired private devotions.

So why should we?

Alex

Alex writes:

>>>Actually, I was simply reporting what I know to be true about the spirituality of the saints of the Kyivan Baroque Period.

The Orthodox Church herself seems not to have minded their Latin-inspired private devotions.

So why should we?<<<

I am not a student of this era - But what I have run into is the idea that the Russian Orthodox Church was responsible for its own persecution under Communism, because it embraced western theology, just as the rest of Russia was embracing western language [French], ideas, and technology.

So that the gist - And unfortunately the gist is all I have - is that it was the ROC's embrasure of what it saw in the RC west that turned it away from Orthodoxy to the degree that God gave it the chastizement of the Communist regime... And that this is one of the reasons why Orthodox tend to be more than just a little wary of theological intercourse with non-Orthodox confessions.

I really cannot defend the thesis - I just pass it along as a possible answer to your question.

geo

Dear Alex,

I've wanted to say for a while that I always love your historical posts and articles. All the information you give about that whole Kyivan Baroque period is fascinating! (Saint Peter Mohila is one of my favorite saints so I am a little biased. Maybe when I get around to making my website dedicated to him I'll ask you for some input.)

Anyway, I couldn't find that icon you mentioned on the OCA site. Can you supply the URL?

Thanks!

S'Bohom,

-Dave

Dear Dave,

Actually it's not an actual icon, but a description of the "icon of the Conception of St Anne."

Prof. Poselyanin in his "Bogomater" describes it as well and lists several Orthodox miraculous copies (such as the Icon "Immaculate Virgin") that are venerated in Orthodoxy.

St Peter Mohyla is one of my favourite saints as well!

His Catechism, as you know, originally contained the doctrine of Purgatory, which was later expunged by other Patriarchs.

Mohyla continued to teach it within his own Kyivan jurisdiction nevertheless.

And St Dmitry of Rostov was "called up on the carpet" by the Russian Synod to actually answer charges against the Orthodoxy of his personal views, largely having to do with the Immaculate Conception et alia.

Alex

Monk Silouan,

As Fr. Elias mentioned one can always add a Canon or Akathist to Compline. The latter is quite popular and is part of the official liturgical cycle during the Great Fast. On the 1st, 2nd 3rd, and 4th Fridays of the Great Fast a fourth of the Akathist is taken with Compline. On the 5th Friday the entire Akathist is taken. For those who wish I don't see why this couldn't be done regularly.

However, I must make a comment here. The Byzantine Church has much devotion to the Mother of God built right into its services. Each Hour of the Divine Office has a couple Theotokion -a Troparion honoring the Mother of God. Every service has as part of its dismissal the prayer "More honorable than the Cherabim..." "It is truly proper to glorify you who have borne God..." is sung at every Divine Liturgy. On the other hand, aside from the Marian Antiphon at Compline, the Latin Church has little Marian devotion as an actual part of official Liturgies. I think this is why the Latin Church created so many paraliturgical services (like the Little Office and the Angelus)and private devotions to the Mother of God.

In Christ,
Lance

Dear Lance,

Yes, you are right absolutely!

But the Little Office of the BVM was not primarily about a paraliturgical devotion to the Mother of God.

The Latin Church has its litanies, processions, rosaries, chaplets, what have you.

The Little Office was originally conceived as a kind of "Lay Daily Office" as can be garnered from the many extant copies of the "Books of Hours."

Many lay people, and Third Order monastics, often created their own Books of Hours, as did St Thomas More, for example.

A large part of it was the Little Office with its variable portions to reflect the liturgical seasons, a manageable daily allotment of Psalms and Anthems together with a focus on the Incarnation of Christ through the Mother of God.

The Little Office followed closely the structure of the regular Daily Office of the Latin Church and so kept the laity in close touch with the prayer of the Church, even though time constraints kept them from participating in the full Office.

Over time, the Church adopted this Office alongside the Daily Office as a form of Marian devotion.

But the Little Office contains many Psalms and other prayers that one would not normally find in traditional Marian devotions in either East or West.

Your own creation of a Daily Horologion for lay people and others who have jobs is a "Little Office" as well!

The Paternoster Psalter or recitation of 150 Our Fathers in place of the Psalms, discussed by Karl Jungmann, was called the "Little Psalter" and the Rosary itself could be an "Office substitute" with two decades apiece for each of the seven daily offices and three for Matins and these were said at the same times as the Hours.

The Jesus Prayer can also be used in this way in the East, as you know better than I.

Here is a page that discusses the Little Office from a Western Orthodox point of view:

http://www.westernorthodoxy.com/BookOfHours.html

Isn't this Forum wonderful?

Alex

[ 08-28-2002: Message edited by: Orthodox Catholic ]