<Palm Sunday>
30. (2) When the service in the Great Church has taken place in the usual way, before the dismissal, the archdeacon makes this announcement: "During this week, starting tomorrow, let us meet at three in the afternoon at the Martyrium" (that is, in the Great Church). And he makes another announcement: "At one o'clock today let us be ready on the Eleona." After the dismissal in the Great Church, the Martyrium, the bishop is taken with singing to the Anastasis. They do in the Anastasis the things which usually follow the Sunday dismissal in the Martyrium, and then everyone goes home and eats a quick meal, so as to be ready by one o'clock at the Eleona church op. the Mount of Olives, the place of the cave where the Lord used to teach.
31.(1) At one o'clock all the people go up to the Eleona Church on the Mount of Olives. The bishop takes his seat, and they have hymns and antiphons suitable to the place and the day, and readings too. When three o'clock comes, they go up with hymns and sit down at the Imbomon, the place from which the Lord ascended into heaven.
<Holy Thursday>
35. (1) Thursday is like the other days from cock-crow till morning in the Anastasis, at nine o'clock, and at midday. But it is the custom to assemble earlier than on ordinary days in the afternoon at the Martyrium, in fact at two o'clock, since the dismissal has to take place sooner. The assembled people have the service.; on that day the Offering is made in the Martyrium, and the dismissal takes place at about four in the afternoon. Before the dismissal the archdeacon makes this announcement: Let us meet tonight at seven o'clock in the church on the Eleona. There is a great effort ahead of us tonight!" - - - (2) Then everybody hurries home for a meal, so that, as soon as they have finished it, they can go to the church on Eleona which contains the cave which on this very day the Lord visited with the apostles. (3) There they continue to sing hymns and antiphons suitable to the place and the day, with readings and prayers between, until about eleven o'clock at night. They read the passages from the Gospel about what the Lord said to his disciples when he sat in the very cave which is in the church. (4) At about midnight they leave and go up with hymns to the Imbomon, the place from which the Lord ascended into heaven.
<Octave>
39. (1) The eight days of Easter they celebrate till a late hour, like us, and up to the eighth day of Easter they follow the same order as people do everywhere else. The arrangements and decorations for the eight days of Easter are like those for the season of Epiphany in the Great Church, and also in the Anastasis, At the Cross, on the Eleona, at Bethlehem, the Lazarium, and elsewhere. (2) On the first Sunday, Easter Day itself, they assemble in the Great Church, the Martyrium, and similarly on the Monday and Tuesday; and when they have had the dismissal, there they always go with singing from the Martyrium to the Anastasis. But on the Wednesday they assemble on the Eleona, on the Thursday in the Anastasis, on the Friday on Sion, on the Saturday Before the Cross, and on the eighth day, the Sunday, they assemble once more in the Great Church, the Martyrium. (3) On each of the eight days of Easter the bishop, with all the clergy, the "infants" who have been baptized, all the apotactites both men and women, and any of the people who wish, go up to the Eleona after their meal (the Eleona contains the cave where Jesus used to teach his disciples) and in that church they have hymns and prayers, and also at the Imbomon (the place from which the Lord ascended into heaven). - - -
40. (1) On the eighth day of Easter, the Sunday, all the people go up with the bishop immediately after midday to the Eleona. They start in this church, taking their places for a time and having hymns and antiphons, and prayers appropriate to the day and place. Then they go up to the Imbomon and do as on the Eleona.
<Pentecost>
43. (3) They have the reading (on Mt Sion) from the Acts of the Apostles, and afterwards the service proceeds as usual, and they make the Offering there. Then as the people are dismissed the archdeacon makes this announcement: “Let us all be ready today on the Mount of Eleona at the Imbomon immediately after midday.” (4) So all the people go home for a rest, and, as soon as they have had their meal, they go up Eleona, the Mount of Olives, each at his own pace, till there is not a Christian left in the city. (5) Once they have climbed Eleona, the Mount of Olives, they go to the Imbomon (the place from which the Lord ascended into heaven), where the bishop takes his seat, and also the presbyters and all the people. They have readings, and between them hymns and antiphons suitable to this day and to the place. Also the prayers which come between are concerned with subjects appropriate to the day and the place. They have the Gospel reading about the Lord's ascension, and then the reading from the Acts of the Apostles about the Lord ascending into heaven after the resurrection. (6) When this is over, the catechumens are blessed, then the faithful. It is already three o'clock, and they go down with singing from there to the other church on Eleona, containing the cave where the Lord used to sit and teach the apostles. By the time they get there it is after four, and they have Lucernare. The prayer is said, the catechumens are blessed, and then the faithful, and they go out. All the people, every single one of them, go down with their bishop, singing hymns and antiphons suitable to that day, and so, very gradually, they make their way to the Martyrium.
(transl. Wilkinson)
| Bibliography |
|---|