Coptic rite

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Coptic Rite is the worship service of the Oriental Orthodox Coptic Church and the Coptic Catholic Church .

Liturgical history

The Coptic Rite is next to the related Ethiopian Rite the second still living variant of the Alexandrian Rite . By adopting elements from the Antiochene Rite , some of Egypt's own property and the results of more recent developments in the history of the liturgy, it developed into an independent form of liturgy. Liturgical languages ​​are Greek and Coptic, later also Arabic and more recently, especially in the diaspora , modern foreign languages.

  • Heinzgerd Brakmann: The Kopten - Church of Jesus Christ in Egypt. Your story and liturgy , in: A. Gerhards - H. Brakmann (Ed.): The Coptic Church . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1994, 9-27. 196-221 (with ref.).

Sacramental celebrations

Fundamental :

  • OHE KHS-Burmester: The Egyptian or Coptic Church. A detailed description of her liturgical services and the rites and ceremonies observed in the administration of her sacraments . Société d'Archéologie Copte, Le Caire 1967, no ISBN. Translation of the instructions ("rubrics") for all celebrations from the worship books of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Eucharist

The normal form of the Coptic Mass is the St. Basil liturgy with a Eucharistic prayer Antiochian type, the St. Basil's anaphora . It is not identical to the form of the same name in the Byzantine liturgy . Exchange texts offer (a) the anaphora of Gregorios of Nazianzen (also Antiochene type) and the Kyrillos anaphora , which corresponds to the Markos liturgy of the Alexandrian rite . There is a modern form of the Kyrillos anaphora that abandons the traditional Alexandrian structure of this prayer and adapts it to the Antiochene type.

Texts in German translation :

  • The Coptic liturgy. Elevation of evening incense; Incense morning service; Eucharistic Mass . Translated from the original languages ​​and commented by Karam Khella . Theory and Practice Publishing House, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-921866-23-5 .
  • The Coptic liturgy of St. Basil and St. Gregory with evening and morning incense . Translated by Ortrun and Samy Hanna. Luthe-Verlag, Cologne 1990.

Process : Before the priest begins the service, he spreads the chalice cloth on the altar and places the chalice on it, in front of it lays the paten with the host on a palla corporale , and another corporal on the left and right. After dressing, he steps into the church with the acolytes and kneels in front of the king's door. In front of the altar he blesses himself and the people with a cross. Now the bread is wrapped in a corporal and solemnly carried around the altar with the mass. The offerings are blessed. This is followed by the prayer of thanksgiving and an epicsreading (request for the change of gifts). In front of the iconostasis , the priest speaks the confiteor and the absolute prayer. The acolyte reads the readings in Arabic, followed by the trisagion , after which the priest reads the gospel and makes the intercessions.

The canon begins with the prayer for peace. During the “Lift up your hearts” the priest blesses the believers with a cross and corporal, but first with the corporal and then with the cross during the Holy Call ( Sanctus ). In each case afterwards he turns to the south and blesses himself. The climax of the act of sacrifice is the change, the Lord's memory and the calling down of the Holy Spirit ( epiclesis ). At the end of the intercession (diptych) there is a hint with the left hand about the offerings and a simultaneous blessing of the believers. This is followed by prayers with corporals with outstretched hands, the prayer of breaking bread and the first touch of the host with the Holy Blood (wine), where the priest dips his finger into the chalice and uses it to designate the host. Now follows the breaking of bread with the Lord's Prayer, the prayer of the laying on of hands and the prayer of the absolute. Then the priest lifts the middle part of the host, dips it lightly in the holy blood (wine) and thus designates the other parts of the host. The shapes are mixed up. After a second elevation of the sacrificial food comes a communion prayer with adoration of the host and communion of the priest and the believers. After giving thanks, the blessing prayer and the discharge follow.

Baptism, confirmation

The Coptic initiation liturgy combines baptism , confirmation and the first Eucharist of the newly baptized in a single celebration. Their shape is based on the liturgical customs of the early church adult baptism , which, with the necessary adjustments, also apply to children to be baptized .

  • Cyrille Salib: La liturgie des sacrements du baptême et de la confirmation . Le Caire 1968.
  • Oswald Hugh Edward Burmester: The Baptismal Rite of the Coptic Church . In: Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie Copte 11 (1945) pp. 27-86.
  • Gérard Viaud: Les rites du septième jour après la naissance dans la tradition copte . In: Le Monde Copte 2 (1977) pp. 16-19.

Myron consecration

"Myron" is an olive oil enriched with fragrant herbs, which is used in particularly high-ranking sacramental acts. His solemn consecration takes place every several years or even decades by the patriarch and the episcopate gathered around him.

  • Samir Khalil: Quelques remarques sur le myron dans l'église copte dans sa relation à l'église syriaque . In: Farādat al-quddās as-suryānī = Le génie de la messe syriaque: patrimoine syriaque; Actes du colloque II. Antélias: Center d'Études et de Recherches Pastorales 1995, p. 107ff.
  • Youhanna N. Youssef / Ugo Zanetti: La consécration du Myron par Gabriel IV 86e Patriarche d'Alexandrie en 1374 AD [The consecration of Myron by the Coptic Patriarch Gabriel IV (1374)] (= Jerusalem Theological Forum 20). Aschendorff, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-402-11027-0 .
  • Youhanna N. Youssef, Sameh F. Soliman: The Rite of Consecration of the Myron (= Publications de la Société d'Archéologie Copte. Textes et Documents 18). Le Caire 2017.

ordination

  • Paul F. Bradshaw: Ordination Rites of the Ancient Churches of East and West . New York 1990.
  • OHE KHS-Burmester: Ordination Rites of the Coptic Church . Société d'Archéologie Copte, Le Caire 1985.
  • OHE KHS-Burmester: The Rite of Consecration of the Patriarch of Alexandria . Société d'Archéologie Copte, Le Caire 1960.
  • R. Mouret: L'ordination d'un diacre dans le rite copte , Mémoire (Masch.) De Diplôme de l'EPHE, Ve section, Paris (1976).

Consecration

  • G. Horner: The Service for the Consecration of Church and Altar according to the Coptic Rite . London 1902, original texts with English translation. (accessible on the internet)
  • The ritual of consecration . In: St. Markus January / February / March 1991, 15-31 (anonymous German translation).

Icon consecration

  • Jacob Muyser: Où sont nos icônes? . In: Les Cahiers Coptes 11 (1952) 23-34.
  • Ugo Zanetti: La prière copte de consécration d'une icône . In: Le Monde Copte 19 (1991) 93-98.
  • YN Youssef, Un jeu de mot dans le rituel de la consécration des icônes . In: Göttinger Miszellen 142 (1994) 109-111.

Marriage

  • A. Raes: Le mariage dans les Églises d'Orient . Éditions de Chevetogne 1958.
  • F. Van de Paverd: Forme celebrative del matrimonio nelle Chiese orientali . In: La celebrazione del matrimonio cristiano. Atti della V settimana dei professori italiani di Liturgia. EDB, Bologna 1977, 11-116. Without ISBN.

Anointing of the sick

See Anointing the Sick in the Coptic Rite

Monastic celebrations

Admission to monasticism consists of two sections: a) tonsure and clothing with a first, provisional monk's / nun's robe, b) solemn clothing with the “holy scheme” (without renewed tonsure), the characteristic robe of a monk / nun.

  • BTA Evetts: Le rite copte de la prize d'habit et de la profession monacale . In: Revue de l'Orient Chrétien 11 (1906) 59-73. 129-148 (after Cod. Bodl. 111; 14th century);
  • L. Villecourt: Le rite copte de la profession monacale pour les religieuses . In: Bessarione 14 (1909/10) 35-49. 301-347 (after Cod. Vat. Copt. 54; 15th century);
  • L. Delaporte: Le rite copte de la prize d'habit et de la profession monacale d'après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale . In: Revue de l'Orient Chrétien 11 (1906) 311f.

Funeral service

  • Lothar Störk: The Coptic funeral rite . In: H. Becker - H. Ühlein (ed.): Liturgy in the face of death. Judaism and Eastern Churches . EOS, St Ottilien 1997. Vol. 2, 839-857 (German translation).

Times of the day

The daytime service of the Copts combines the evening and morning incense offering (= evening and morning praise) as well as the celebrations recorded in the liturgical books Horologion and Psalmodia .

The full list of prayer times includes:

  1. Morning prayer. It was preceded by the “hour of the cockcrow” among the monks.
  2. Third ("third hour")
  3. Sext ("sixth hour")
  4. Non ("ninth hour")
  5. Vespers ("eleventh hour")
  6. Compline (“twelfth hour”), in the monasteries an additional second Compline
  7. Midnight prayer
  • Hans Quecke: Investigations into the Coptic hour prayer . Institut Orientaliste de Louvain, Louvain 1970.
  • Magdi RB Awad: Investigations into the Coptic psalmody . Lit-Verlag, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-8258-0164-9

Festivals and celebrations

  • Maria Cramer (†) - Martin Krause: The Coptic Antiphonary (M 575 and P 11967) . Jerusalem Theological Forum 12. Aschendorff, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-402-11018-8

Holy Week and Easter

Pentecost

  • OHE Burmester: The Office of Genuflection on Whitsunday . In: Muséon 47 (1934) 205-257.
  • S. Pernigotti - A. Amaldi: Pagine di un codice copto-arabo nel Museo Nazionale di S. Matteo in Pisa . Pisa 1982 (1983).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Description of the whole mass celebration with Georg Graf: The ceremonies and prayers at the Fractio panis and communion in the Coptic mass . In: Der Katholik 96 (1916) 235-251. 327-341.