Divine Liturgy in commemoration of, whom?

[Paul Cowan]

I suppose I should ask my own priest but as long as I have so many here to pick the brains of...

July 20, we celebrated a Divine Liturgy to the Glorious Prophet Elias
September 2, we celebrated to St Andrew the Fool for Christ
September 11, we celebrated to Apostle Philip of the Seventy
October 9th, we celebrated a Divine Liturgy to Apostle James Alephaues
October 18, we will be celebrating one to Apostle and Evangelist Luke
October 23, to the Apostle James, Brother of our Lord
October 26, to the Great Martyr Demetrius

These of course are not all but were the only weekly bulletins I had available to me tonight.

My question is how does the Church decide which particular saint is to be celebrated with a Divine Liturgy. We have so many saints who are remembered on any given day. Why a particular one? Who decides? All the above are names known to me. But we have also celebrated Liturgys to Saints I have never heard of before.

Paul

[Father David Moser]

My question is how does the Church decide which particular saint is to be celebrated with a Divine Liturgy. We have so many saints who are remembered on any given day. Why a particular one? Who decides? All the above are names known to me. But we have also celebrated Liturgys to Saints I have never heard of before.

Paul


The "menaion" is the calendar of all the saints on the days on which they are celebrated along with their lives and services. The menaion is available in various forms from liturgical calendars to collections of lives of saints and collections of the daily services. The liturgy always includes the commemorations of the saints of the day through special hymns. The stichera at vespers and in the canons of matins teach us about the lives and deeds of the saint. The menaion assigns a particular saint out of those remembered on to be the primary remembrance - usually that is a matter of tradition - however a particular parish, if they have the service to the saint, can choose to sing the service to a different saint from that day. Usually such a choice is made if there is some special reason to remember a particular saint, such as being the patron of a parish or the patron of members of a parish, or having some particular importance to the clergy or members of a parish.

Fr David

[Paul Cowan]

however a particular parish, if they have the service to the saint, can choose to sing the service to a different saint from that day. Usually such a choice is made if there is some special reason to remember a particular saint, such as being the patron of a parish or the patron of members of a parish, or having some particular importance to the clergy or members of a parish.


Thank you Fr. David,

So you are saying it is possible for my (plural) priest to serve a liturgy for a Saint I hold dear?

How does this play out when he is asked to serve a Liturgy for 40 days for a departed person? Is this the same service or is it a 40 day memorial service? I have heard some priests can not or will not do a 40 day service but ask the person go to a Monastery to fulfill this request.

Paul

[Olga]

If the Antiochian church uses the same practice as the Greek, the short memorial service (mnimosyno) is sung towards the end of the Divine Liturgy. The text of this service is the same for everyone, except for the intoning of the name/names of the departed. I have not come across the practice of holding a specific liturgy commemorating a particular saint for the purposes of commemorating a departed person (this sounds a bit like the "private memorial masses" conducted in the Roman Catholic Church).

The Slavic practice is to hold a "stand-alone" memorial (panikhida) service, which runs for about 20 minutes. In my experience, these are held either after the completion of the Divine Liturgy, prior to an evening Matins or Vigil service, or after this service.

Both the short Greek mnimosyno and the longer Slavic panikhida are derived from the text of the funeral service, not the Liturgy, hence the absence of a tradition of serving a liturgy to the patron saint of the departed.

There are, of course, the general commemorations of the dead, held in Great Lent on the "Saturdays of the Souls" and at certain other times of the year. These en masse commemorations are held towards the end of Liturgy in both Greek and Slavic traditions.

[Father David Moser]

Thank you Fr. David,

So you are saying it is possible for my (plural) priest to serve a liturgy for a Saint I hold dear?


Of course, on the feast day of that saint, the liturgy of that day would commemorate that saint and his service would be sung. However, you wouldn't have the service done "out of order". If you want to have a personal service done for a particular saint on a day that is not his feast, then in Russian tradition you would have the molieben (prayer service) served (in Byzantine tradition I think the equivalent would be a paraklisis.)



How does this play out when he is asked to serve a Liturgy for 40 days for a departed person? Is this the same service or is it a 40 day memorial service? I have heard some priests can not or will not do a 40 day service but ask the person go to a Monastery to fulfill this request.

The regular service for that day would be celebrated and the litany for the departed would be included remembering the name of the departed one. At the Great Entrance, the name of the departed one is also mentioned. In Russian tradition, a separate pannykhida or a memorial service may be said following the liturgy (the pannykhida is basically an abbreviated funeral service and the trisagion is the graveside service from the funeral).

Fr David Moser

[Nina]

I have heard some priests can not or will not do a 40 day service but ask the person go to a Monastery to fulfill this request.

Paul

I just received a letter from a monastery for names of departed, or living because they will have a 40 day service. If you would like, PM me for the address.