www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology What is a "Pachida?"

Hello all!

I am enjoying my visits to my local Byzantine
parish...its "small" and "friendly". My child
enjoys it too. I am reading about the history of the Byzantine Rite, and just "being a sheep"...
That is a very good and humble place for me now.
I read here, and I pray, and try to get to Divine Liturgy weekly. My question for this week:
What is a "Pachida"...? I was ready to attend liturgy at our usual time, but this week is a "Pachida"...and we start earlier...What does the word mean? A Feastday? Slava,
Secco

GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!

Hi SECCO...

Do you by any chance mean PANACHIDA?

PANACHIDA is a memorial service that is sung for a deceased person-s.

In my parish,the Panachida is usually sung after Divine Liturgy.

Hope this helps...

mark

Greetings!

Yes, "panachida" sounds right...my apologies, all
so new...I will learn. Is it a funeral service?
It seesm distinct from a liturgy in memory of a person. Christ Indeed!
Secco

Hi Secco

No, it is not a funeral service.

A Panachida is a service to remember the deceased. It is taken seperate from the Divine Liturgy.

In some parishes, it is done 40 days after the person dies.

In my parish, we have a Panachida after Divine Liturgy and it is usually on the anniversary or close to the anniversary of the death of a person or persons.

Hope this helps...

mark

Panachidas are usually celebrated 40 days after a person dies, a year after the die, and then every year on that day. They are also celbrated for all the deceased loved ones of the parish on all Memorial Saturdays--those in Great Lent, the Saturday before Pentacost, Demetrios Saturday, and Radonezh (spelling?) during Pascha. Often with the Panachida is the blessing of Kolyva, a mixture of boiled wheat or barley with fruit, nuts, and sugar. The Kolyva is blessed and eaten in remembrance of the departed and for personal healing.

May their memories be eternal!

Justin

It is really not correct to serve Panachidi (Panikhidi) on Sundays, unless it is the time for Vespers in the afternoon. Sunday is the Day of Resurrection, and therefore, Panachidi are technically opposed to the Resurrectional character of the Sunday Liturgy.

It took some doing, but our new priest strongly discourages the serving of Panikhidi on Sundays. These are now normally relegated to being served BEFORE Great Vespers on Saturday evenings and after Liturgy on Memorial Saturdays. However, prosfora may *always* be sent up on a Sunday morning to commemorate a deceased loved one at the Proskomedia before Divine Liturgy proper.

OrthodoxEast

Dear OE, it is good your priest has corrected that problem. The liturgical spirit of Sundays are completely incompatible with serving Panakhidas.

It is also very appropriate to also serve Panakhidas and bless koliva afterwards for those requesting on Saturdays, as liturgically most Saturdays (Lazarus Saturday, Holy Saturday and great feasts falling on Saturday being exceptions) are dedicated to All Saints and the departed.
Another practice that I also like is to serve Panakhidas during the week before or after Small Compline with the rememberance of sleep, death, etc. being prominent at Compline. Especially Friday night Compline with the wonderful canons for the departed from the Oktoechos.

Another practice of which I am totally ignorant...does anyone feel like giving even more details for a few of us more ignorant Latin Rite folks. For example: Why the Kolyva...what does it represent? Food included in a Liturgy would probably have a special and particular significance.

Unity In Christ

Dear Unity in Christ;

From the ROCA site;

On Friday of the first week. of Great Lent, after Liturgy and the prayer which the priest recites before the ambo, there is. the blessing of the "kolyva," a mixture of boiled wheat and honey. This is done in memory of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro, who helped Christians to keep the fast when, in the year 362, the Byzantine Emperor Julian the Apostate ordered all the food in the marketplaces of Antioch to be secretly sprinkled with the blood of animals which had been sacrificed to idols. St. Theodore the Tyro, who had been burned to death in 306 for his confession of the Christian Faith, appeared in a dream to the Bishop of Antioch Eudocius and revealed to him Julian's secret plan. St. Theodore ordered that during the entire week Christians were not to buy any food in the market places; instead, they were to eat kolyva.

John

I think you mean Radonitsa.

Thank you for the wonderful information, John.

Unity in Christ

Oops, double posting.....

Unity in Christ

Dear UIC, kolyva is one of those pre-Christian practices which have been Christianized. Wheat is symbolic as a microcosm of the Resurrection, i.e. the germ sprouts new life, etc.

Also there is a connection with planting the wheat symbolic of burying the body, etc. It is sweetened with sugar, honey, etc. which is symbolic of the sweetness of everlasting life in Heaven. St. Paul said: "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies" (1 Cor 15:34); and St. John: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (Jn 12:24).

So the kolyvo offered for the departed is really a different practice than that for St. Theodore Tyro of the first Saturday of the Great Fast. Kolyvo blessed at the service for St. Theodore is a historic commemoration of the miracle of his intercession under Julian the Apostate.

Thank you, Diak.

Unity in Christ

Thanks,
Justin