All night vigil: the canon in Russian parish practice

[Ioannis Fortomas]

Dear All,

I am pretty much familiar with how the average Russian parish serves All Night Vigil, however, I'm a little confused with two things: a) is Psalm 50 read, or do they omit it. b) in what order do they do the Canon, and are there ever abbreviations made (Odes skipped, troparia omitted etc)?

Thanks,
Your in Christ,
Rd. Ioannis

[Olga]

Hello Ioannis, and welcome to the forum!

In my experience of Russian services, Psalm 50 is always read, never omitted. Regarding the canons at Matins, if only one or two canons are appointed (such as is usually the case for the major feasts, including most of the Twelve), then these are sung or chanted in full, though it is common parish practice for the katavasias of odes 3, 6, 8 and 9 to be sung, and the rest omitted. Where three or more canons are appointed, e.g. one canon for the Resurrection, one for the Mother of God, one or more for the saint(s) commemorated, and perhaps a canon of the forefeast or afterfeast of a major feast, then the eirmos of the first canon is sung, then a couple of troparia from each canon per ode are sung, though the last canon in this series (usually of the saint) is usually sung in its entirety. Odes themselves are never skipped, unless the priest is having a particularly bad day!

(To digress a little: This actually happened one night: The choir was singing the last troparion of ode 7, when Father appeared on the ambon, holding the censer, facing the icon of the Mother of God. As soon as the choir finished singing, he raised his censer, and off he went: "The Mother of God, and Mother of the Light ...." A pregnant pause upstairs, a frantic shuffling of paper. I could just imagine the look of alarm on the choirmistress's face, which would have given way to a resigned shrug. When in Rome ... More Honourable than the Cherubim and Ode 9 followed, completely omitting ode 8.)

During Vespers at "Lord, I have cried", and the Praises of Matins, it is common for any verses which are specified to be repeated in the rubrics to be sung once only. It is also common for only one set of sessional hymns to be sung after the readings from the Psalter, rather than the usual three.

I hope this helps. No doubt the fathers of this forum who are of the Russian tradition would add to what I have written.

[Father David Moser]

Dear All,

I am pretty much familiar with how the average Russian parish serves All Night Vigil, however, I'm a little confused with two things: a) is Psalm 50 read, or do they omit it. b) in what order do they do the Canon, and are there ever abbreviations made (Odes skipped, troparia omitted etc)?


a - Ps 50 is chanted right after "Having beheld the Resurrection..." The Gospel book is then placed on an stand in the middle of the Church and will be venerated during the canon by all the faithful. This is on Saturday evenings and on the eves of major feasts (when the Gospel is read at matins). During daily matins, when there is no Gospel reading, the 50th psalm is chanted following the sedalions of the kathismata and then we go right to the chanting of the canon (I think, perhaps there is the prayer "Save O God ..." in there as well - I don't often do daily matins and so am a little rusty in the rubrics.)

b. - the order of the canon is complex, depending upon the day of the week and the level of the feast. Saturday evening we read 4 from the Resurrectional canon (including the irmos), then 1 or 2 for the Cross and Resurrection and 1 or 2 for the Mother of God then the canon(s) from the menaion so that there are a total of 14 troparia for each ode of the canon (including the irmos). Following these troparia, the kathisma is always sung. After the 3rd ode there is a little litany, a kontakion and the sedalen hymns as appointed. After the 6th ode here is a little litany, the major kontakion and eikos of the day. After the 8th ode there is the censing with "The Theotokos and Mother of light..." and the singing of the "More honorable..." with its verses. After the 9th ode is a little litany and the exapostilarion and then on to the rest of the service. This is for Saturday evening, there will be some variation for daily services.

Each parish may do abbreviations of the canon according to the local custom. One such variation is to eliminate all repeats. In my parish, we have the custom of cutting everything in half so that if there are 4 resurrectional troparia, we sing only two (including the irmos) and if there are 2 for the mother of God we sing only 1 and if there are 8 for the saint we only sing 4. I have not seen the katavasia skipped or shortened (as Olga mentioned).

The "Order of Divine Services" published by the St John of Kronstadt Press is an invaluable tool in English for navigating the complex water of the matins canon.

Oh, and if you figure out the regular canon - then we have the lenten order which messes it all up again (in that case we do skip some of the katavsia but not as an abbreviation, but because it is the appointed rubric).


Fr David Moser

[Ioannis Fortomas]

Dear Fr. David and Olga,

Thank you very much for both of your wonderful replies! I think they both explain the issue about the Canon very clearly to me, especially with the ways in which the parishes abbreviate, or might abbreviate during the All Night Vigil.

Yours in Christ,
Rd. Ioannis

[Anthony Stokes]

Dear Fr. David and Olga,

Thank you very much for both of your wonderful replies! I think they both explain the issue about the Canon very clearly to me, especially with the ways in which the parishes abbreviate, or might abbreviate during the All Night Vigil.

Yours in Christ,
Rd. Ioannis

Rdr. Ioannis,
Fr. David explained it very well, but if you are wondering what some parishes might do:

We do skip Psalm 50 on Sundays at my parish, but not for Great Feasts. That's just a local choice we made, partly for time, and partly for the fact that Psalm 50 is used in so many other services.

For the Canons, we do an average of 7 troparia per ode. On a simple Sunday, we would do 2 Resurrection, 1 Cross & Resurrection, 1 Theotokos, 3 for the Saint from the Menaion. On a polyeleon Sunday though, we would do 2 Resurrection, 1 Theotokos, 4 for the Saint. Katavasia on 3,6, & 9 usually, sometimes also on 8, but we do a fairly long setting of the Magnificat.

We also shorten our Kathisma at Matins at a Vigil, but we do the full Blessed is the Man at Vespers.

Other than that, we do everything else pretty completely and come in around 2 hrs 15 min each Saturday night.

Sbdn. Anthony

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Father David Moser wrote:



(I think, perhaps there is the prayer "Save O God ..." in there as well - I don't often do daily matins and so am a little rusty in the rubrics.)

"Save O God..." would only be done at daily Matins during the weekdays of Great Lent.

In Christ- Fr Raphael