The most important and the most interesting rite of the Coptic Church is naturally the Eucharistic Liturgy.[1] We have seen that the parent-rite of Egypt is the now disused Greek St. Mark. The Coptic liturgies began as translation of this. They have three alternative forms. The pro-anaphoral part (to "Sursum corda," which begins the anaphora) is common to all three. This is merely a Coptic version of the St. Mark rite, with certain variants.[2] Its normal anaphora is headed: "of the most blessed Mark or of the holy Cyril,"[3] that is Cyril of Alexandria. It is generally referred to as St. Cyril; but the anaphora, too, is only the Coptic form of the St. Mark rite.[4] Then they have two other foreign anaphoras, one ascribed to St. Gregory (Nazianzene), which has the almost unique peculiarity of being addressed to Christ throughout;[5] the other (of St. Basil) is a shortened and adapted form of the Byzantine Basil Liturgy.[6] Both of these are also from the Greek; both were once used in Greek by the Orthodox. It is then clear that, historically, the anaphora of Cyril or Mark is the most important. This is the old Alexandrine anaphora in its Coptic form; but it is now rarely used. The ordinary Coptic liturgy consists of the invariable pro-anaphora (of St. Mark) with the anaphora of St. Basil. Their Euchologion prints this first. Then follow the two alternative anaphoras: St. Gregory, used three times a year (at midnight on Christmas, Epiphany, Easter), and St. Cyril, used in theory during Advent (the little fast) and Lent (the great fast).[7] Mr. Brightman, rightly from the student's point of view, gives this Cyril anaphora. But as here we intend to describe usual modern Coptic practice, we will suppose the Basil anaphora.
- ↑ Ar.: ḳurbān; Copt.: prosfora.
- ↑ In some ways it represents the old Alexandrine rite better than the Greek form, which has been considerably Byzantinized (p. 276).
- ↑ Brightman: Eastern Liturgies, p. 164.
- ↑ Brightman: Eastern Liturgies, 144-188; Renaudot: Liturg. Orient. Coll. i. 38-51.
- ↑ One Maronite anaphora also has this feature. For the text of Coptic St. Gregory see Renaudot: Liturg. Orient. Coll. i 25-37.
- ↑ Ib. 1-25 (joined to the common pro-anaphora).
- ↑ It seems that in practice the Cyril anaphora is now only used once a year, on the Friday before Palm Sunday (Lord Bute: Coptic Morning Service, p. ii).
