The History of the Liturgy
How the Divine Liturgy reached its present form: from the Last Supper and the breaking of bread in Acts, through the earliest eucharistic prayers and the Antiochene family of liturgies, to the Byzantine synthesis of Constantinople — and the historical relationship of the two anaphoras now called “of Chrysostom” and “of Basil.”
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox
Overview
The Divine Liturgy did not descend fully formed. It grew — from the Lord’s own action at the Last Supper and the apostolic “breaking of bread,” through the fluid eucharistic prayers of the earliest centuries, into the great regional liturgical families of late antiquity, and finally into the Byzantine rite as it crystallized at Constantinople between the fourth and the fourteenth centuries. This section tells that story on the authority of the historical liturgiologists (above all Robert Taft and Hugh Wybrew), and then focuses on the particular question that most concerns Orthodox readers: what “of Chrysostom” and “of Basil” mean when applied to the two anaphoras that stand at the heart of the rite — a question handled from both sides, tradition and source criticism, without collapsing either.
Files
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| from-the-upper-room-to-the-byzantine-rite.md | The Last Supper and Acts 2:42; the early anaphoras (Hippolytus, Addai and Mari); the Antiochene/West-Syrian family; the Byzantine synthesis (Taft) |
| the-two-liturgies-and-their-authors.md | The historical relationship of the Chrysostom and Basil anaphoras; what “of Chrysostom/Basil” means historically — both sides |
See Also
- The Liturgies of the Orthodox Church — the family of liturgies whose history this section tells
- The Anaphora — the eucharistic prayer at the center of the developed rite
- The Liturgy as Theology — the Presanctified and St. James in the wider history