Great Monday hymnography

[Shota]

In this message I wrote something about the hymnography of the Great Monday in the Georgian New Iadgari mss (10th c.). I thought I give more details.

For the Matins on the Great Monday one New Iadgari ms, Sin. Geo. O. 1, has

- Triodion of Kosmas
- Four Stichera and one Theotokion for the Ainoi. The mode is not indicated, but this can mean only one thing: it is the same as of the kanon, i.e. Mode 2. One sticheron, "Through your goodness, o merciful one, be merciful upon me today" must be the same as "Τῇ εὐσπλαγχνίᾳ σου, οἰκτίρμων..." in the Greek Tropologion MG 5. About others I cannot say anything concrete without seeing the full Greek texts from the Greek Tropologion, which are unpublished.

For the Vespers on the Great Monday Sin. Geo. O. 1 has:

- Three Stichera and one Theotokion. The Stichera are the well-known "Κύριε, ἐρχόμενος πρὸς τὸ πάθος", "Κύριε, πρὸς τὸ μυστήριον" και "Κύριε, τὰ τελεώτατα φρονεῖν". The Theotokion is "Rejoice you, o greater one", which is given with an incipit and which I cannot recognise.

Sin. Geo. O. 14 adds four Stichera Aposticha in Mode 4 for the Orthros. I don't know their Greek equivalents.

 

[ΧΡΗΣΤΟΣ ΑΓΙΟΠΟΛΙΤΗΣ]

In this message I wrote something about the hymnography of the Great Monday in the Georgian New Iadgari mss (10th c.). I thought I give more details.

For the Matins on the Great Monday one New Iadgari ms, Sin. Geo. O. 1, has

- Triodion of Kosmas
- Four Stichera and one Theotokion for the Ainoi. The mode is not indicated, but this can mean only one thing: it is the same as of the kanon, i.e. Mode 2. One sticheron, "Through your goodness, o merciful one, be merciful upon me today" must be the same as "Τῇ εὐσπλαγχνίᾳ σου, οἰκτίρμων..." in the Greek Tropologion MG 5. About others I cannot say anything concrete without seeing the full Greek texts from the Greek Tropologion, which are unpublished.

For the Vespers on the Great Monday Sin. Geo. O. 1 has:

- Three Stichera and one Theotokion. The Stichera are the well-known "Κύριε, ἐρχόμενος πρὸς τὸ πάθος", "Κύριε, πρὸς τὸ μυστήριον" και "Κύριε, τὰ τελεώτατα φρονεῖν". The Theotokion is "Rejoice you, o greater one", which is given with an incipit and which I cannot recognise.

Sin. Geo. O. 14 adds four Stichera Aposticha in Mode 4 for the Orthros. I don't know their Greek equivalents.

Dear Shota,
We thank You because Your observations on უძველესი იადგარი[τὸ ἀρχαιότερον Τροπολόγιον] are very helpful for the typology of the book and its content. The georgian version is an older version of what we have. The hellenic ones [and as i am studying the syrians too] are the next stage of the book as i called it " collection of Tropologion" . I have begun to study this topic from 1997, collecting the georgian sources [the old and new finds from Sinai, from Georgia and other places], the hellenic [Sinai] and the syrian. My study is presenting the historical evolution and typology of Tropologion [ იადგარი ] from its origins until the time of the formation of the other liturgical books. My masters M. Arranz, R. Taft, Ch. Hannick C. Renoux S. Brock had underlined the fact that in the translations are preserved older traditions, and with the historical study, i try to figure how these texts are translated from their originals and from which versions and to put the book to its cotext which was different from what we know now. [For this reason i have studied the case of Euchologion and the historical evolution of the other oriental rites because many liturgical uses which at that period were in use now are vanished and are preserved in other rites(see: https://pontificalorientalinstitute.academia.edu/CHRISTOSKANAVAS)]. I hope when i conclude my work we can have an analytic list of what Tropologion in the georgian, hellenic and syrian tradition has.

 

[romanos4]

Shota,

Are the implications of this that originally the Pasapnoaria and Ainoi were in 2nd mode and thus Ἐρχόμενος ὁ Κύριος either was not universally chanted here or was a later development?

Thanks,

R.

 

[Shota]

Are the implications of this that originally the Pasapnoaria and Ainoi were in 2nd mode and thus Ἐρχόμενος ὁ Κύριος either was not universally chanted here or was a later development?

Yes and no. There are two types of Tropologia: Ancient and New (these terms appear in the Georgian mss to make a distinction between two types of books). The ancient one has survived in Georgian translation (there are isolated hymns from it that appear in the modern printed liturgical books, but no integral Greek ms; the Georgian mss are compilations, but their deconstruction is not our task here), while for the new one we have both Greek and Georgian sources (and Syrian ones). A rough distinction between the Ancient and New Tropologia is that the Ancient one predates the work of great Melodoi, John Damascene and Kosmas of Maiouma (other very important Palestinian hymnographers are Stephen the Sabbaite and Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem), while the New one is based on their work. The Ancient Tropologion has its own hymnography for the Great Monday (of which, it seems, only "Φθάσαντες πιστοί" has survived in modern liturgical practice), so in that sense all the hymnography for Great Monday that appears in the New Tropologion is a later development. But we shouldn't directly compare our modern Triodion to the Triodion cycle of the Tropologion, because these are two different books with different liturgies and different calendars. What we see in the modern Triodion is an amalgam of the hymnography from the New Tropologion and the Constantinopolitan hymnography, which is parallel to that of the work of Palestinian Melodoi (thus e.g. Andrew of Crete, Theodore of Studios and Joseph the Hymnographer have their own cycles of kanons for the Holy Week). Some of the New Tropologion hymnography got dropped altogether. I think "Κύριε, ἐρχόμενος πρὸς τὸ πάθος", "Κύριε, πρὸς τὸ μυστήριον" and "Κύριε, τὰ τελεώτατα φρονεῖν" could well be genuine works of Kosmas. I have doubts on attribution of Δευτέραν Εὔαν. This must be Constantinopolitan. "Τῆς ξηρανθείσης συκῆς" is probably also of a later origin, although thematically it does not contradict the Palestinian liturgy.

 

[Shota]

I attach two pages from A. Nikiforova's book with a description of the Great Monday service from the Greek Tropologion MG 5 from Sinai. We see both similarities and differences with Georgian versions (the latter contain in the Triodion cycle some later developments, most notable of which are canons for Sundays of the Great Lent by Elias of Jerusalem and some full canons for the Holy Week).