their priests hurry through a service, in a language they hardly understand,[1] with gross carelessness.
The Jacobite Divine Office is also very ancient in form and very interesting. Since Dr. Anthony Baumstark's publications about it,[2] it may easily be studied. They have the usual hours: Vespers (ramshâ); Nocturn (lelyâ); Morning office (ṣafrâ, (
Greek characters), more or less our Lauds); and day hours for the third, sixth, and ninth hours (not for the first). Their Compline (suttârâ, "protection") is a later addition. The essence of this office is naturally the psalter, sung in the old Antiochene order. It contains also lessons (Biblical and legends of saints), hymns (sedre, p. 348 and 'enyâne),[3] prayers, and so on.[4] The Jacobite Calendar also represents the old order of Antioch. They follow the Julian reckoning. The year begins on the first of October. From December 1 they have a fast (Advent) in preparation for Christmas. Five Sundays before Christmas they begin to prepare for it in their prayers. Christmas (Bēth yaldâ, December 25) and Epiphany (Bēth denḥâ, January 6) follows, as with us. The "praise of the Mother of God" is December 26, Holy Innocents December 27, St. Stephen January 8. Candlemas comes on February 2. The last two Sundays before Lent are for the dead, the first for the clergy, the second for the laity. The last week before Lent is the "fast of Ninive" (p. 287). The seventh Sunday before Easter is "of the approach of the fast"; the great fast (Lent) begins forty days before Palm Sunday. Holy Week, Easter, Ascension day and Whitsunday follow as usual. Before the death (Shunnâyâ) of the Mother of God (August 15), and the Princes of the Apostles (June 29) they fast, like the Copts (p. 287). Scattered throughout
3 The 'enyânâ ("response," from 'nâ, "to hear,") corresponds to the Byzantine (Greek characters); Baumstark: Festbrevier, 69-77.
- ↑ For the training of the Jacobite clergy often means merely the power to read and pronounce Syriac words, without any real study of the language. The Uniates are, naturally, much better equipped. Their Patriarch is a great scholar.
- ↑ Das Syrisch-Antiochenische Ferialbrevier in the Katholik (Mainz) 1902, ii. 401-427, 538-550; 1903, i. 43-54; and: Festbrevier u. Kirchenjahr der Syrischen Jakobiten (Paderborn, 1910).
- ↑ 3
- ↑ Further details in Baumstark: op. cit.
