The Shepherd, February 2005
“THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE CHURCH SERVICES”, 2
However it was not without some struggle and some difficulty that this new material found a worthy place in the the order of services. Along with instances of the acceptance of the more sophisticated compositions within the service structure, there are instances related of the rejection of the newly introduced poetic compositions, particularly on the part of some of the most renowned representatives of the monastic life. Thus, for instance, we have the example of Abba Pambo, a hermit from Nitria in Egypt (near the city of Alexandria). One of the monks of his synodia, being inAlexandria because of the requirements of the monastery, became acquainted with the custom that was then becoming rooted in the practice of the Church in Alexandria of chanting troparia. He returned to his monastery and being depressed by the seeming monotony of the monastic services, he suggested to Abba Pambo that the cause of this monotony was the absence of the troparia from the services. But Pambo rebuked the monk and censure the innovation: “Woe to the day,” he said, “when the monks will abandon the solid food (the Psalms) which was spoken by the Holy Spirit, and will resort to hymns and tones! What sort of compunction and tears will be born of these troparia?” And it was only after a considerable time that the chanting of hymns was introduced fully into the life of the cœnobitic monasteries.
In the life of another ascetic, the venerable Nilus of Sinai, there is a story which in more detail shows that there were, as it were, three strands to Mattins: the monastic practice of Egypt and Sinai, that of Palestine, and parish practice. The most austere and uniform was that of Sinai and Egypt which consisted largely in the recitation of the psalms; the Palestinian was more measured, having psalm recitation and hymns; and lastly the parish practice was replete with much New Testament material and was used in the churches in the cities. 
Resulting from the measured use of psalms in the daily services, there arose a special type of service, called the tri-antiphonal type. Primarily this consisted of a basis of three psalms, which were chanted with verses or refrains interspersed, and were called antiphons. In Mattins and Vespers prayers for the faithful and the catechumens were included, and the order ended with the prayer at the bowing of the heads and a dismissal. The most magnificent services of this type were held at Constantinople in the Great Church of the HolyWisdom; there they had a great number of clergymen and choristers and the services were conducted with much chanting and this is recalled by the fact that they were sometimes referred to as Sung Vespers or Sung Mattins.
A further marked development was the introduction of church poetic compositions in the form of canons, which began to be introduced in the time of the venerable Andrew of Crete (+712 A.D.), and were greatly developed by Saints John of Damascus and Cosmas of Maiuma (+773 A.D.), who gave us the Octoechos. The resultant flowering of liturgical poetry in the sixth to ninth centuries was further augmented from the eighth to tenth centuries by the introduction of materials based on the Old Testament and by the employment of special singers arranged in choirs. It was then that the liturgical compositions came to their full maturity….
[N.B. We have somewhat shortened the above section.]
§ 100. Weekday, Sunday and Festal Vespers and Mattins Distinguished. Every day Vespers and Mattins are served separately, and there are a number of differences between them and their equivalents served as components of a Vigil. Largely this consists in a lessening of the more festive parts of the services. Thus on weekdays, the Royal Gates are not opened in Vespers. The proemial psalm is read and not chanted. There are less verses on “Lord, I have cried.” There is no Vespers entrance; the threefold litany is at the end of the service after the troparia. On daily Mattins there is no polyeleos, nor any of the Resurrection hymns, there is no Gospel reading; the Great Doxology is read not chanted. However, on some days, if there happens to be the memorial of a more revered saint, then the Doxology is chanted according to the typicon. On the days when it is sung and not read, the number of verses on the praises is increased. After the Doxology, we read the prayer, “Vouchsafe, O Lord,” which we have already met on Vespers, then we have the supplicatory litany, the aposticha, the verse, “It is good” (which is not found at Vespers, but corresponds to the Nunc Dimittis read there), the trisagion to Our Father, the troparia and the threefold litany. It is necessary for the faithful to understand this near repetition of the prayers heard on Vespers especially when, as often happens in city churches, Vespers is joined to Mattins.
Besides these variations there are others, which we shall consider below, for Vespers and Mattins served in Great Lent.
… to be continued in the next issue with “The Great Lenten Services.”
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