Liturgy/Sacrament

• Liturgy
• Sacrament

GENERAL INTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATION

The Ancient Sources

First of all, we must look back at the liturgical sources of the Antiochene Church of which the Syriac Maronite Church is a part. From the time of the Apostles, Antioch has been an important Christian center. There the Christian Good News originated, and from there it spread by sea and land, to the seashores and the mountain tops.

After the Byzantine rule, Antioch was connected to the city of Jerusalem and to the liturgical movement which flourished around the two churches of the Nativity and the Resurrection. With the erection of the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection, the rites of the Church of Jerusalem became the focus of attention for pilgrims, as well as the source of liturgical blossoming throughout the whole East.

When the Maronites emerged as a Christian Syriac Antiochene community, during the fifth century and later, the Antiochene rites were under the influence of those of Jerusalem, particularly the liturgy attributed to Saint James, the first bishop of Jerusalem. However, the Maronites also had a liturgical tie to another important center, that is the Syriac center of Edessa. Edessa, indeed, was the first Christian state as well as the first great political and cultural Syriac center. Its rites were connected to the Semetic Aramaic Syriac legacy. They were not influenced by the Hellenistic Greek legacy as was the Antiochene rite of Jerusalem; rather, they preserved their own distinctive features and expressions which were closer to the Holy Scriptures and to the original Christian theology.

According to the few documents we have at hand, the Maronite rite is closer to the Semetic Syriac rite of Edessa than to the Antiochene Hellenistic rite of Jerusalem. However, in the fifth century, the differences between the two rites were barely noticeable.

The Maronite Liturgical Evolution Until the Tenth Century

Because of the scarcity of documents, it is not easy to define the liturgical evolution undertaken by the Maronite Church from its beginning until the tenth century. However, we are able to detect such an evolution through the liturgical prayers we have, mainly the Anaphora of Sharar and the prayers and hymns of the office known as the Shimto (that is, the simple office): In them the Maronite rite appears to have grown closer to the Antiochene sources of Jerusalem.

The Maronite Rite From the Tenth to the Sixteenth Century

The Maronite liturgical manuscripts now in our possession belong to the period between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. The oldest manuscript of the Maronite Book of the Qurbono is dated back to the middle of the fifteenth century (1454) and contains a few pages which belong to the twelfth century (Vat. 309). These manuscripts show us that the Maronite rite became extremely close to the Antiochene rite of Jerusalem (known as the Western Syriac) and more and more, perhaps definitively, distancing itself from the Eastern Syriac tradition of Edessa.

We do not intend to elaborate this here; rather, we refer everyone to the studies, however minimal in number, dedicated to this matter. In fact, the manuscripts of the Maronite Qurbono, and most of the anaphoras used at that time, had become common with the Western Syriac rite; however, they preserved the Eastern Syriac anaphora known as the Anaphora of the Apostles or Sharar. This anaphora is very close to the Eastern Syriac anaphora in use by the Eastern Syriac Churches, Catholic and non-Catholic.

First Edition of the Book of the Maronite Qurbono

The first edition of the Maronite Book of the Qurbono was published in Rome between 1592 and 1594. The students of the Maronite College in Rome edited this edition under the supervision of the superiors of the college. This edition was taken from a manuscript written in 1566, in the Monastery of Qozhaya, Lebanon by the hermit Mikhail (al-Razzi), who later was elected patriarch (1567-1581), and who was the brother of Sarkis al-Razzi, his successor to the Patriarchal See (1581-1596).

The publishers of this edition altered the prayers of the eucharistic institution of the al-Razzi manuscript: in fact, they translated the words of consecration from Latin to Syriac. When the new edition reached the patriarch, he rejected it at once and prohibited its use. Then pressured by the papal delegate, Dandini, he accepted it on a temporary basis (1596), provided that things would soon be straightened out and the edition would be revised in accord with Maronite sources.

The Succeeding Editions

One hundred twenty years later, despite strong objections formulated in the writings of some Maronite scholars of the beginning of the seventeenth century, the second edition was published (1716). This edition proved to be more Latinized than the first one. In fact, the anaphora of the Latin Mass, translated into Syriac and Arabic, was inserted here, while the Anaphora of Sharar was removed. However, this edition, being the work of the students of the Maronite College, did not register any opposition.

The succeeding editions appeared as exact copies of this second edition, save some trimming in the pages for economic reasons: for example, the third edition (1763) included eight anaphoras instead of the fourteen in the previous editions. The same happened in the four editions published by the Monastery of Qozhaya (Lebanon) in 1816,1838,1855, and 1872. The two last official editions appeared in Beirut in 1888 and 1908 under the care of Bishop Youssef Dibs, Archbishop of Beirut. Bishop Dibs placed the Roman anaphora before the other anaphoras and amended the language of the prayers and hymns. The first edition in the Arabic alphabet was published in Jounieh (1959) by the Society of the Lebanese Missionaries. Finally, an abridged rite, called the "Simple Rite" was published in a booklet in 1973, including only one anaphora. It was used experimentally for only one year.

All these editions, save the " Simple Rite" (1973), were published without the seal or the signature of the patriarch, but "with his knowledge" or "after his consultation," or without any reference to the matter.

Projects of the Reform of the Maronite Qurbono

The first project for the reform of the Qurbono was planned by some of the students of Rome at the beginning of the seventeenth century. They intended to give back to the Maronite Qurbono its Syriac Antiochene sources, which were missing in the first edition. However, the project failed to see the light.

The Synod of Mount Lebanon (1736) decreed that a commission should be established for the reform of all the rites, but mainly the Qurbono. This project never materialized. Before that, Patriarch Stephen Duwaihy, of blessed memory (1670-1704), took pains to assemble the liturgical manuscripts, review them and prepare projects of reform for the Qurbono and for many of the other liturgical rites. He himself wrote that he was "hoping to delight his eyes with the sight of the publication of the liturgical books". However, he left this world with a heavy heart.

During the forties and fifties of our century, there were some other projects of reform for the Maronite Qurbono, but with no result. Then came Vatican Council II (1963-65) with its call for renewal, particularly in the liturgical field. A series of new projects attempted the reform of the Maronite Qurbono. Between 1963 and 1982 we personally witnessed about forty of them. Then, at last, the Patriarch Commission on Liturgy and Synod of Bishops focused their attention on the current project. Indeed, since 1980, this project has undergone a great deal of study and revision through the care and solicitude of the Patriarchal Commission on Liturgy.

The Current Project

This project was presented to the Patriarchal Synod of Bishops in 1980; then it was revised and presented a second time in 1982. When all texts of the project were at last assembled, it was accepted, definitively, and in all its details, by the Patriarchal Synod of Bishops and by the Vatican Congregation for the Oriental Churches. Ready for publication, this project is now published, for the first time, with an official decree attested to by the signature of the Patriarch and with his imprimatur.

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