May 15, 2012
Newark, NJ: Bishop Jerome celebrated the Liturgy of St. Mark in Our Lady of Kazan Church

On Tuesday, May 8, the feast day of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, celebrated the Liturgy of St. Mark in Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, NJ. What made the event special was the fact that, although the Liturgy of St. Mark was regularly served in the early Christian period, today it is not considered a "typical" part of the Orthodox Church’s modern practice.

Bishop Jerome spoke with the Diocesan Media Office about the significance of St. Mark’s Liturgy, its history and importance for the Church today.

Your Grace, please tell us about the history of St. Mark’s Liturgy.

The Liturgy of St. Mark is considered the oldest Orthodox Liturgy to survive until our times. Several years ago, a handwritten fragment of the service that included parts of the Liturgy’s Eucharistic Canon was discovered, dating back to 200 A.D. This was the primary Liturgy of the Alexandrian Church, served by the great hierarchs of that city, including, for instance, St. Cyril of Alexandria.

Sometime after 1200, it gradually fell out of use. The reason behind this was the Alexandrian Patriarch’s visit to Constantinople. When he served the usual Liturgy in the Alexandrian Rite (that is, the Liturgy og St. Mark – ed.), he was rebuked by the canonist Theodore Balsamon, who maintained that serving any rite other than that generally used in the Imperial City was unacceptable. Paradoxically, Constantinople is commemorated in the Liturgy of St. Mark, but not in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Since the time of Constantinople’s fall in 1453, the Liturgies of Sts. James and Mark are served there once a year. Thus Theodore Balsamon’s argument no longer stands.

Several years ago, you translated the text of the Liturgy from Greek to Church Slavonic. Could you tell us a little more about the translation?

The Liturgy of St. Mark was used to some degree in Alexandria until the 16th century, from whence a copy made in the time of St. Meletius I Pegas, Patriarch of Alexandria, was found in the Patriarchal library by St. Nektarios of Aegina. He took interest in the Liturgy, and there are reports that he even served according to that Rite. In 1955, a copy of the Liturgy was found and published by St. Nektarios, and the Liturgy received widespread prominence among Greek readers.

Yet another version of the Liturgy was edited and published by Dr. Ioannis Fountoulis. One of the main differences in this version is the absence of virtually all of the litanies. As a result, the Liturgy edited by Dr. Fountoulis turned into a series of long prayers. I prefer the version by St. Nektarios – it is a living, beautiful version. I translated this Liturgy in particular from the Greek in 1997. At that time, you couldn’t get a Church Slavonic translation – there was a Russian translation, which consisted mostly of the priestly prayers; but it was missing the litanies, the replies by the choir, and so on.

My translation was approved by the Synod of Bishops in April 2007 and, after some time, the Liturgy of St. Mark was served for the first time in Jordanville.

Did you show the translation to the hierarchs in Russia after the Reunification of the Russian Church?

In May 2007, I gave a copy of my translation to Patriarch Alexey II. Then-Metropolitan Kyrill, since Patriarch, also took an interest in the translation. Last year, at the Patriarch’s request, I submitted a copy of my translation, as well as a translation done in Russia by Priest Mark Borontov, and a copy of the Greek original to Vladyka Sergiy, who heads the commission for preparing service texts for publication. Vladyka Sergiy promised to correct the Slavonic version, but noted that prior to this, the commission must edit 18 other services, projects estimated to take almost three years.

How does this Liturgy differ from the usual Liturgies of Sts. John Chrysostom and Basil the Great?

It is interesting that this Liturgy explains to some degree why in the Russian Church the prayer of the Third Hour is read before the consecration of the Holy Gifts. In the Liturgy of St. Mark, the epiklesis – the calling down of the Holy Spirit on the Gifts – it somewhat longer and more ornate than in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. When celebrating the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom became commonplace in Alexandria, the local clergy felt that the epiklesis was too short. That is when the practice of reading the prayer of the Third Hour first appeared.

Later, the practice was adopted by the Greek Church, and then in Russia, at the dawn of Patriarch Nikon’s reforms. Over a short period of time, the Serbian Church also adopted the practice, but only in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. After some time, the Greeks ceased reading this prayer, while the Russian Church retained it. That is why this prayer has been preserved in the Russian liturgical Rite, but not in the Greek.

What constitutes the significance of St. Mark’s Liturgy for us today?

The fundamental value of this and other ancient liturgies lies in the fact that studying these rites helps us better delve into and understand our own "everyday" liturgical rites. According to His Holiness, Patriarch Kyrill, when he taught theology at seminary, it was with this exact goal in mind that he tried to familiarize the students with as many of the ancient liturgies as possible.

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Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese
Interview by Alena Plavsic