Rite of the Church of Jerusalem

The Christian liturgy of Jerusalem is formed at the 4th century and disappears from the normative use about the 12th century. Upstream the influence of the Judaism in fact a subject of study interesting to include/understand the origin of Christian institutions as central as the mass or the Easter. Downstream it influenced good number of other liturgical traditions, in the East as in Occident. This double aspect justifies a special treatment within the framework of a gate on Christianity.

Opening remarks

The rite of Jerusalem was known mainly at the time modern by the Liturgy of Jacques saint, of which there exists a good dozen editions since the 16th century. But it passed in the liturgical research foreground little before the First World War by the discovery of three fundamental documents: The single manuscript of the account that a Gallo-Roman matron, Égérie, made of her pilgrimage in the East at the end of the 4th century (1884), the liturgical headings of a manuscript of the old men lectionnaire Armenian, translated into English (1905), and headings of two manuscripts of the old men lectionnaire géorgien, published and translated into Russian (1912).

The libraries of Greek manuscripts and géorgiens, at the Sinai, in Tbilissi, in Grottaferrata, preserve manuscripts resulting more or less directly from Byzantine Palestine. These manuscripts are far from all to be at the present time published, but the field of research includes/understands from now on also calendars, horologes, manuscripts hymnic and homiletic, especially in géorgien, to which one can formerly add the biblical manuscripts which contain liturgical notations, in all the spoken languages in Christian Palestine (Arab, géorgien, syro-Palestinian).

Géorgiens, like the Armenians before them, were installed out of Holy Land at the beginning of the Byzantine period. They translated in their language of the documents which do not exist any more in Greek, their source language. They enable us today to open an enthralling research field on the origins of the Christian liturgy.

Euchology

By “euchology” one understands all that relates to the words of the liturgy, i.e. the prayers. The term extends at the headings, with the explanations, which accompany them in the manuscripts. A part only of the material is sufficiently known to be able to be indicated here.

The Liturgy of saint Jacques brother-of-God

Structure

The general structure of this Liturgy is not different from the other forms of Messe which we know, namely:

the liturgy of the word (known as also of the catechumens, because open formerly also to not-baptized). It includes/understands biblical songs and readings.

the liturgy of the faithful ones. It includes/understands the offering, and the dedication, of the bread and the wine for the communion. The Greek terminology in Jerusalem at the time Byzantine speaks about “proscomidie”, equivalent of “anaphora” or, in araméen, “qurraba” (one also finds “qurbana”).

Before the liturgy of the word, the form géorgien envisages an offering preliminary of the bread and wine, comparable, in short, with the Prothesis of the Byzantine Rite current if it is not that it takes seat, in theory, with the furnace bridge (and not in). Curiously the Greek form is unaware of this preliminary offering, and the prayers which accompany it in géorgien are omitted or moved at other places of the Liturgy. The Liturgy of Jacques saint thus includes/understands an antiquated form, probably the oldest known form, prothesis , but at the same time, in its Greek version, it omitted this rite of offering. The reason of its omission comes out from a tight study of the tiny differences between the texts géorgien and Greek: there is in géorgien a sacrificial vocabulary which tended to make already prothesis a sacrifice, whereas this vocabulary should be held with the offering during the liturgy of the faithful ones.

One can divide the second part into five sections:

song of entry which accompanies a procession (normally circular, furnace bridge with the furnace bridge) with the bread and the wine, followed Symbole of faith, kiss of peace and various prayers of which oldest is a prayer of offering (to be compared with the offertoire Latin tradition). This section corresponds to the “liturgy of the deposition” whose an author speaks about the 4th century, Theodore de Mopsueste.
the eucharistic Prayer of which the structure is rigorously trinitaire and includes/understands:

1. the dialog of introduction (practically identical in all the Liturgies),
a prayer of praise (a eucharistie , with the etymological direction) to creative God,
the Trishagion or Sanctus ,
2. a prayer of praise with anamnèse of the economy of the hello, which returns, in Saint-Jacob (what is one of the characteristics of this Liturgy), to mention the Law and prophets and then only the incarnation of Christ,
words of the eucharistic institution (" this is my corps" , etc),
the anamnèse, with the clean direction (" thus remembering… ": mention of the big events of the life of Christ, including her return at the end of times…),
the oblation (" we offer… " to you;),
3. the épiclèse,

the commémoraison solemn of alive and late, known as the also memoranda ; this prayer, in Jerusalem, exists in two other forms diaconales (i.e. said by the deacon), one for the end of the liturgy of the word, where it bears, in géorgien, the name of kuereksi (which would come from a Greek word: kêruxis , kéryxie), the other for the anaphora: the deacon said high a form being equivalent to that which said the very low priest to the same moment. The comparison between these three forms and, upstream, the Jewish prayer of the XVIII blessings (and, downstream, the “large synaptie” Byzantine), makes it possible to suppose a common origin, probably Judeo-Christian.
the Our-Father and the prayers which surround it, until the rise in the bread (and of the wine);
the Communion with the fraction of the bread which precedes (and the others ritual gestures: Interference, or later on commixtion, of a piece in the chalice, etc) and the thanksgiving which follows it.

Remarks on its formation

In its fifth mystagogic catechesis, Jean II makes a comment followed by the prayers of the mass, which makes it possible to have an idea of the form of use in Jerusalem at the end of the 4th century (little before Juvénal to which, by comparison, it is probably necessary to allot the oldest form of the Liturgy of Jacques saint). And at the beginning of this century, Eusèbe de Césarée refers interesting to the eucharistic prayer of use in Palestine. Moreover, one finds at Origène, in first half of the 3rd century, a curious allusion to the eucharistic offering. If it is added that the prayer of the XVIII blessings exerted an influence on the formation of an essential prayer in the liturgy of Jerusalem (as one has just seen it), these sources make it possible to propose some assumptions on the formation of the eucharistic anaphora in Jerusalem (or initially in Césarée?).

1) Trishagion and memoranda or a common source: XVIII blessings. They did not form part of the antiquated form of the eucharistic Liturgy, since the XVIII blessings are a prayer of the liturgy of the hours (of the evening and morning, or perhaps, in the Judeo-Christianity, the three early hours). Eusèbe refers already to Trishagion but not yet with the memoranda. In the Palestinian Judaism, Trishagion, the qedushâ , said only saturdays and it is from there that it had to be introduced, by an intermediary Judeo-Christian, in the eucharistic prayer palestininenne.

2) The text of Origène shows the existence of a épiclèse on the bread in the name of the Holy Trinity. This suggests an allusion to the rite of the rise in the bread and wine before the communion, which is indeed, in Saint-Jacob, trinitaire, and not with the oblation of the prayer eucharistic, right before the épiclèse, which also contains a formula of offering (but non-trinitaire). In the first mystagogic catechesis (§ 7), Jean II fact him also allusion to this offering-épiclèse trinitaire before the communion, which shows its importance at one time when the oblation-épiclèse of the eucharistic prayer was not yet completely formed.

3) How, under these conditions, to represent the eucharistic prayer with the second and third centuries? Two things undoubtedly should be distinguished:

- The rite of " communion" , which inherits the rite of the " Fraction of the bread " it is question in New Testament. The prayer comprised an offering trinitaire bread (and wine, but this does not seem to have been of use in all the communities), or more exactly a épiclèse trinitaire on the bread, just like the baptism is done in the name of the Holy Trinity. This rite was to be practiced rather regularly, following the office of the readings and preaching. It is the form taken by the eucharistie in the communities Judeo-Christians, which were to know moreover, at the time of the Jewish celebration of Passover, each year thus, a more elaborate rite, comprising a christologic anamnèse as well as the words of the eucharistic institution.

- A prayer of the type more charismatic, of use in the communities of pagan origin. It was centered on the Christ which one made memory (with, possibly, words of the eucharistic institution). She asked for God (with Christ) the sending of her Spirit (on celebrating or the assembly, but not on the bread or the wine). And it comprised an offering of the bread and wine, a oblation. One finds traces of prayers of this kind on the one hand in writings Gnostique S like the Acts of Thomas or the Acts of Jean, and on the other hand in the prayers which I would call of " parastase" , where the priest, in all the Eastern Liturgies, confesses his unworthiness at the time of approaching the furnace bridge to offer the eucharistie to it. In Saint-Jacob, precisely, prayers of this style also make memory of Christ and request the sending of the Holy Spirit on celebrating (it is the case in the first part of the prayer of which it is question notes 8 below).

4) The eucharistic Liturgy in Jerusalem at the 4th century would be the result of the bringing together between these two fundamental currents in the history of the Paléochristianisme. To the century following Juvénal its last key will add to it by adapting the older form on the model of the eucharistic prayer of the Pères cappadocians (Holy Gregoire de Nazianze and Saint Basile), where the oblation-épiclèse follows the words of the eucharistic institution, whereas, for Jean II still, the oblation and the épiclèse were to precede them.

Présanctifiés of Jacques saint

An office of Présanctifiés is an office of communion during which one uses the saints gifts (bread and wine) devoted at the time of a preceding celebration. Its origin comes from the use of communier the days of fast, whereas one avoided celebrating the eucharistie these days, the eucharistie having always something of festive (noting in the Roman rite a memory of this use: prohibition to celebrate the eucharistie the Good Friday). In practice, in the current Byzantine rite, this office forms part of the liturgy of the evening, vespers, each Wednesday and Friday during the time of Lent. Monday to Friday the celebration of the eucharistie is prohibited. One thus uses the bread and wine devoted at the time of previous Sunday. The lectionnaire of Jerusalem mentions this office each evening during the third and second weeks before Easter, probably because the third week before Easter represented, in an old tradition, the beginning of the preparation with the baptism and Pascal fast.

As in practice current, the office was celebrated the evening, but a study brought a little closer to the place of the biblical readings, which were not the same ones as the series of the readings of the office of the evening of Lent, makes it possible to suppose that in the beginning it preceded the office by the evening, whereas for the copyists of the manuscripts, the two series of readings were mixed within the framework of the same office, namely the office of vespers (what is also the current practice in the Byzantine rite). In the beginning in any case, the use was to break the fast in the afternoon, per 9th hour, therefore before the office of vespers which took place as from the 10th hour. There thus remained time to take its meal after having communié, but before the office of the evening. It is indeed after the communion that one can take his meal these days, then as in the current rite. It is true that, in practice current, the celebration of the office of the evening is often extremely advanced, sometimes even in the morning….

The manuscripts géorgiens preserve a form of présanctifiée liturgy where some prayers are borrowed from the Liturgy of Jacques saint. The celebration of Présanctifiés is undoubtedly older in Jerusalem than in Constantinople, which developed its own form, often allotted to Gregoire saint (sometimes with Épiphane saint). But, in the absolute, the first certificate of an office of Présanctifiés is to be sought in the rite of Alexandria, at the 5th century, according to an allusion of the historian Socrate de Byzance ( ecclesiastical Histoire , V 22).

It is necessary to distinguish the office from Présanctifiés, which is a rite cathédral, i.e. a rite of the involved church or local bishop, of the offices of private communion, which are characteristic of the monastic rite. Such offices are attested as of the 9th century. The office of “typical” of the current Horologion Byzantine has a memory of this use.

Sources

C. Draper, the Liturgy of Jacques saint: edition criticizes Greek text with Latin translation , Patrologia Orientalis , 26 (1946), 115-256

Mr. Tarchnišvili, Liturgia Sancti Jacobi , in Liturgiæ Ibericæ antiquores ( CSCO 122 & 123), T.I, p. 1-34 and II, p. 1-25, Leuwen, 1950; J. Jedlička, Das Prager Fragment DER altgeorgischen Jakobusliturgie , Archiv Orientalni , 29 (1961), 183-196 (beginning of the same manuscript)

Mr. Tarchnišvili, Missa Præsanctificatorum , in Liturgiæ Ibericæ antiquores ( CSCO 122 & 123), T.I, p. 93-101 and II, p.123, p. 71-77, Leuwen, 1950; B. Outtier, uncial Fragments of Lectionnaire géorgien , Bedi Kartlisa , 33 (1975), 110-118

Liturgical year

Genesis and structures of the liturgical year

The principal article is here.

Places of liturgical station

This sub-section is the subject of a separate page.

Weekly liturgy

Wednesdays and Fridays, days of station

One recognizes in Latin statio, who wants to say at the same time fast and day of fast, a translation of Hebrew my `amad . A station indicates a division of the people of Israel in as many classes as there are divisions of the sacerdotal tribe (Mishna Taanit, 2,7,4,2-3; Megilah , 3,4; Tamid , 5,6; Bikurim , 3,2); it acts, all in all, of Israëlites not priests who lived in the same area that the sacerdotal class of which it was the turn of duty ( mishmar ), the turn to be useful, in the temple (one speaks at that time about 24 sacerdotal classes serving each one one week). The year' shê my `amad took part in the sacrificial worship by accompanying it by the prayer, either in Jerusalem even by a restricted delegation or in the villages from which came the sacerdotal class, where they met, curiously, for the reading of the my `aseh bereshit (= Gn. 1 - 2,3); the fast until the evening is observed Monday to Thursday.

In parallel a tradition of fast developed each Monday and Thursday, whose make state the Jewish sources ( mishna Your `anit , 1,4-6.9) as well as a Christian text of the end of the first century (Didachè, 8,1), but is to say that the Christians chose in the place Wednesdays and Fridays. These two days are remained officially days of fast (or abstinence) until the evening, in certain currents of the Eastern monachism.

In Jerusalem like everywhere else in Christian antiquity, Wednesday and Friday are days of station. According to Égérie, these days one goes to the church of Sion for the office of the ninth hour when one celebrates the oblation (the eucharistie). One goes then in procession in Anastasis for the office of the evening (chapter 27). She reports other details: during the time of Lent, the oblation is removed to allow the " hebdomadiers" not to break the fast (this fast of several days points out that of the year' shê my `amad ); at the time of a festival of martyrs which would fall one Wednesday or Friday, the oblation takes place in Lent anyway; and during the Time Pascal, the fast is removed while the oblation is placed the morning, like one usual Sunday. In fact of other sources allow to say that before the 4th century the eucharistie was well celebrated the days of fast (Wednesdays and Fridays), but the morning (Tertullien, Of oratione , 19,1-4); and that it is well after the office of the ninth hour (and not after the office of the evening) that the fast was broken (id., 2,3; 10,2.5; Épiphane, Panarion , Expositio fidei , 22,1-5).

Both lectionnaires (Armenian and géorgien) do not give the texts which would have been read with the eucharistie of Wednesdays and Fridays of the ordinary Temps. One was in particular to read there the Gospels of the cycle of which it is question above. They preserve only the cycle quadragésimal for these two days, where it is seen that the office of readings from now on moved 9th per 10th hour, although one is always in Sion. The lectionnaire géorgien gives readings for other days of the Lent, including for saturdays and Sundays when these readings can go up at the time contemporary of the Armenian old man lectionnaire (beginning of the 5th century). The office of the evening in week seems from now on to be done each day in Sion (and not only Wednesdays and Fridays).

In addition the lectionnaire géorgien refers to the office of the Présanctifiés and it is certain that this rite from now on was introduced in the beginning to answer the problem mentioned by Égérie (how communier Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent whereas the celebration of the eucharistie is reserved for Saturdays and Sundays of Lent). The old layer of the headings relative to this office even suggests that the readings followed by the communion was done before the office of the evening, therefore within the framework of the office of the ninth hour, which is the former use for the office in Sion, attested by Égérie. In the current Byzantine rite, and the second layer of the lectionnaire géorgien, the communion takes place after the office of the evening, in which the readings are inserted.

Watchmen of Saturday

The pèlerine Égérie evokes a vigil (one night of day before) in Anastasis of Friday evening at the Saturday morning during the time of Lent (27, 7; 29,1). Watchmen of Saturday are mentioned by Cassien like an apostolic heritage: " since the origin of the religion and Christian faith at the time of preaching apostolique" ( cenobitic Institutions , III 91) " observed so far in all Orient" ( ibid , 91). They do not seem to be entered the ordinary rite cathédral, since one finds no indication of it clarifies in the lectionnaire; however, one can observe in the cycle of the Lent of the lectionnaire géorgien a case of " Vespers + Liturgie" fourth Saturday before Easter (n°463) and of the same last Saturday (the night before the Pascale vigil), where the document mentions the celebration of the office of the morning (n°704 and n°168+) followed by a Tropaire and readings (n°705-707; n°169+-173+). The Greek document which contains the headings of the Great Week ( stavrou 43, to see above) described with a certain detail this vigil, called “agrypnie”.

This type of vigil belongs to the monastic liturgy and not to the liturgy cathedral itself, i.e. in the presence of the bishop. The Greek document in question explicitly says it by indicating that the heading concerns the monks “spoudaïtes” (i.e. monastery of the spoudaeon attached to Anastasis dice the 5th century) and that the bishop arrives at Anastasis only at the end of the vigil for the office of the morning. In addition the text refers to the reading of the Psautier of which it quotes the first verse. This is characteristic of the monastic vigils of the Palestinian rite.

It is difficult to explain the presence of this watchman of Saturday without admetttre the importance of the heritage and the Jewish influence on the formation of the Christian liturgy. Because if during the night of the Friday to Saturday is taken care, it can be only because of the sabbatical rest, the Shabbat, principal day of the week in the Bible and the Judaism.

Vigils of resurrection

In the current Byzantine rite, each week takes place an office of vigils (of Agrypnie), which amounts celebrating one following the other the office of vespers and the office of the crossbred ones, however with more solemnity than the other days. One made there for example a “litie” (a procession) at the end of vespers, one reads a Gospel relating to the resurrection of Jesus, one sings a “gun” suitable for the topic of resurrection. It is what the liturgists call the “vigils of resurrection” or “vigils cathedrals weekly”. The origin of this office, and a significant share of its structure and its contents, is in the liturgy of Jerusalem, which one can follow the evolution starting from Égérie. Let us distinguish four parts starting from this description.

1) " The seventh day, Sunday, before the song of the cocks, all crowd is assembled - as far as it can hold in this place, as at Easter - in the basilica which is right beside Anastasis, but outside, where lamps are suspended purposely. From fear indeed not to arrive for the song of the cocks, they come in advance and are assoient there. One says anthems as well as antiennes and one makes prayers with each anthem or antienne. Bus of the priests and the deacons are always there, loans for the vigil, because of the crowd which is assembled. The use is indeed not to open the holy places before the song of the coqs." (24, 8)

It is thus not yet the office of the vigils, but rather a kind of taken care, a Vigile with the etymological direction, while waiting for the office itself which starts with the song of the cock.

It is the same type of prayer which takes place each night before the office of the morning, according to description that Égérie in its work (24, 1,32,1, etc) makes elsewhere, if it is only the song of the cock marks here the end of taken care and the beginning of the vigils whereas it marks the beginning of taken care during the week. Once per week, taken care thus place has before the song of the cock, which is the hour when one opens the doors of Anastasis, whereas the taken care daily one started in Anastasis even with the song of the cock, per hour when it was opened.

The reading of the psautier is often indicated in the liturgical sources during a vigil, in particular in the monastic tradition, and it is probable that here the first certificate of this use is had. By " anthems and antiennes" , should indeed be heard biblical psalms, because the pèlerine does not distinguish clearly between the two. In addition, at that time, the verses of the psalm were regularly alternate with a Antienne, in general one of the verses of the psalm (often the first), and concluded by a prayer (called " collecte" in the Latin liturgy).

It seems that the heading of a manuscript of the lectionnaire géorgien mentioning the reading of only one " livre" during the night Pascale (the manuscript L, with the n°740), refers to this reading of the psautier during a vigil, the psautier being traditionally divided into twenty parts, or " stances". The reading of the lasting psautier of the vigils in any case is indicated by the manuscript S (see below note 15). Other details of the lectionnaire géorgien for the Easter vigils suggests that those preserved elements of the weekly watchmen (see hereafter 4).

2) " But as soon as the cock sang, at once the bishop goes down and penetrates inside the cave, in Anastasis. One opens all the doors and all crowd between in Anastasis, where shine already of innumerable lamps. As soon as the people entered, one of the priests says a psalm and all answer, after which one makes a prayer. Then one of the deacons says a psalm, and in the same way a prayer is made. A third psalm is known as step a clerk, and a third prayer and memory of tous." are made; (24, 9)

This very simple structure, three psalms followed ear-plugs each one of a prayer, is probably the antiquated shape of the office of the crossbred ones. The fact is that the crossbred ones are not mentioned Sunday morning by Égérie. The office of the weekly watchmen would thus not be other thing only the office of the advanced morning per hour of the song of the cock. The liturgical themselves, in particular Armenian sources and géorgiennes, preserved the trace of a weekly office of watchmen composed of three psalms (before a Gospel).

3) " When one said these three psalms and makes these three prayers, here that in more one brings censers inside the cave of Anastasis, so that all the basilica fills up perfumes. Then, as soon as the bishop is held upright inside the grids, it takes the Gospel, comes at the entry and reads itself the account of the resurrection of Seigneur." (24, 10)

The current Byzantine use distinguishes eleven in turn péricopes read during the Sunday vigils (see the study of Janeras quoted below).

4) " The Gospel read, the bishop leaves; it is led with anthems to the Cross and all the people accompanies it. There, one again says a psalm and one makes a prière." (24, 11)

The " Croix" indicate the place in the court in front of Anastasis where the wood of the Cross was (found miraculeusement, according to the accounts of the invention of the Cross, in the foundations of the Jupiter temple where Constantin made build the Christian temple). It is, all in all, Golgotha, name which also this place in the liturgical sources carries. It is there that one still sings a " psaume" , but one sings before, while going to this place since Anastasis, of the " hymnes". The lectionnaire géorgien for the Easter vigils seems to preserve an element of this end of office: one finds three psalms (the PS there. 43,101 and 150, handwritten S with the n°741.1) followed by a Gospel of resurrection (n°742), which corresponds to items 2-3 of the structure described by Égérie, then a song ( gardamotkumaï , n°743, handwritten L), which would correspond to the " hymnes" about which the pèlerine speaks here. The Byzantine tradition itself knows an anthem after the Gospel of the Sunday vigils, the " exapostilaire" , which would be connected directly with this type of song.

5) the bishop is withdrawn then in his house. As from this moment, all the monks return in Anastasis; one says psalms and antiennes to the paddle, and with each psalm or antienne one makes a prayer. (...) As for the laymen, men and women, those which want it remain on the spot to the paddle; if not they turn over in their houses to lie down and dormir." (24, 12)

The office is thus finished as in point 4, but taken care of item 1 continues now for those which wish it, and that undoubtedly same manner as as in point 1 (more or less solemnized reading of the psautier).

What it is interesting to note here, it is the hour of the end of taken care (the " until the aube"), which is the hour of the end of the office of the morning in week (44, 2). At this time starts, Sunday, the eucharistic Liturgy (25, 1-4).

Sources & studies

P. Maraval, Égérie. Newspaper of voyage (Route) - Valérius of Bierzo. Letter on Bse Égérie (by Mr. C. Diaz there Diaz), ( Christian Sources , 296), Paris, 1982 (réimpr. 1997)

A. Renoux, Armenian codex Jerusalem 121 '', T. II. Edition compared of the text and two others manuscripts, introduction, texts, translation and notes , Patrologia Orientalis , 36 (1971), 141-390

Mr. Tarchnišvili, large the lectionnaire of the Church of Jerusalem (Ve - VIIIe century) , t.I ( CSCO vol. 188, Scriptores iberici T. 9, text; vol. 189, Scriptores iberici t.10, version) & t.II, ( CSCO vol. 204, Scriptores iberici t.13 text; vol. 205, Scritores iberici T. 14, version), Leuwen, 1959 & 1960

S. Janeras, I vangeli domenicale beyond resurrezione nelle tradizioni liturgiche agiopolita E bizantina , in G. Farnedi (ED.), Paschale mysterium (coll Studia ansel. 91, Anal. reads. 10 = mel. S. Marsili), Rome, 1986, p. 55-69

Daily liturgy

Early hours

Vespers

Crossbred

Vigils of the major festivals

The Armenian old man lectionnaire knows three vigils,

those of the Epiphany the night of January 6th (n°1 and 1.b in the edition of Renoux),
those of the Thursday to Friday before Easter (n°39.b-42)

This vigil lasts all during the night, starting with long series of psalms divided into five groups of three - chants with same the Antienne and followed by a “prayer with kneeling” -, chant followed by seven readings stationnales drawn only from the Gospels, dividing Passion into seven parts (Éléona, Imbomon, Éléona, Gethsémani, house of Caïphe, palate of Pilate, Golgotha, with nuances according to the manuscripts). It is this vigil which is at the base of the Chemin of cross of the tradition franciscaine and catholic.

and those of the night of the Saturday to Sunday of Easter (n°44.b-c).

The vigils of the Epiphany and Easter are rather similar. After the lucernaire (the office of the evening), they include/understand twelve readings, of which some are identical for these two festivals. The twelfth, the canticle of Three young person-people in furnace (DNN 3,52-90), is antiphonée: the assembly answers by a not-biblical refrain the various verses of the canticle. A eucharistic liturgy (two at Easter) follows these readings.

Vigils for the 40 {{E}} day after Easter (CH. 42) and for the 40 {{E}} day after the Epiphany (CH. 26) are also mentioned by Égérie. Description is precise enough for the 40e day after Easter: one goes to Bethlehem the day before " after the sixth heure" and, the following day (thus after having slept, as at Easter and with the Epiphany), a eucharistic liturgy is celebrated at the same place.

The lectionnaire géorgien transposes firstly the vigils of the nativity on December 25th and gives for on January 6th a series of readings more appropriate to the set of themes of the baptism of Jesus to whom the Epiphany under the bishop Juvénal evolved. The eucharistie follows from now on the sequence lucernaire-vigils directly. Vigils could exist at the time of other festivals, as with the festivals of the Rise, Transfiguration or Dormition (also in Hypapante and Pentecost), but allusions of the lectionnaire are rather vague.

Sources

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