The Triodion of Colors The Paschal Midnight Office, celebrated right before the start of Easter Matins, begins the Triodion of Colors (Greek: Pentikostarion), which embraces the period from Easter to the 1st week after Pentecost. The Colored Triodion contains much less original material than the Octoechos and

Russian Lenten Stew For 4 servings of “Russian Lenten Stew” you will need: Potatoes - 550 g, Cabbage - 350 g, Onions - 100 g, Carrots - 100 g, Pearl barley - 90 g, Salt, Fresh dill. Rinse the cereal and boil until half cooked. Add finely

Lenten botvinya Sort out the sorrel, simmer, adding a little water. Same with spinach separately. Rub sorrel and spinach through a sieve, cool the puree, dilute with kvass, add sugar, lemon zest, refrigerate. Pour the botvinya into plates, adding slices to taste

The quantitative scope of this cycle, its liturgical-theological significance and place in the church calendar were not immediately determined.

If we talk about the internal content and structure of the Lenten Triodion, then it distinguishes three groups of memories. Firstly, this is Holy Week, which follows the fast of Lent with the three preparatory weeks preceding it. Secondly, the Lenten Triodion included the commemoration of the Sunday days of Pentecost, which are now removed from liturgical practice: they are spoken of only in the contents of self-consents and in individual Sunday canons. In accordance with them, for example, in the second week the parable of the prodigal son is remembered, in the third - about the publican and the Pharisee, etc. And, finally, a special layer is made up of a group of menain memories - transferred to a movable liturgical circle from a stationary one.

The oldest of these structural and content elements is not the three preparatory weeks, as one might assume, but the Easter fast, that is, the fast during Holy Week. Undoubtedly, it was established by the apostles according to the commandment of Christ - to fast on the day “when the Bridegroom is taken away from them” (Matthew 9: 15). Its duration was different in different places. Uniformity was probably hampered primarily by the fact that not all Christians celebrated Easter at the same time. In the same way, the full cycle of commemorations of Holy Week was not immediately established in all Churches. Apparently, this was done first in Jerusalem.

It is fundamentally important that it was the expansion of the Easter fast that gave rise to the Fast of Lent. True, the existence of the 69th Apostolic Canon prompts us to attribute the origin of this fast to the apostolic era: “If anyone does not fast on the Holy Pentecost before Easter, or on Wednesday, or on the heels, in addition to the obstacle from bodily weakness, let him be cast out, and if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated.” But this evidence is not reliable, for “the apostolic rules, together with the collection of apostolic decrees, the conclusion of which they constitute, were formed only in the second half of the 4th century,” while the time of formation of Pentecost must be counted from the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 4th centuries. The place of its establishment should most likely be sought in Syria, but in Rome and Alexandria it was an alien phenomenon.

The earliest “indisputable evidence of the 40-day fast preceding Easter (including Holy Week), according to most researchers, should be considered the 2nd festive (Easter) letter (330) of St. Athanasius the Great,” where Pentecost is seen as an ascetic preparation for the Easter holiday .

A very controversial question for historical liturgics about the methods of calculating Pentecost requires clarification. In the 4th century there were at least two of them in the East. One of them, the Palestinian one, is indicated in the work of Eusebius “On Easter”, in the Easter messages of St. Athanasius, as well as in the catechumens of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. It is considered more ancient. Another method, the Antiochian one, arose later. Mentions of it can be found in the apostolic decrees and in the works of St. John Chrysostom. In essence, both of these calculations agree with each other; the difference was initially only in the quantitative interpretation of the Easter fast.

According to Eusebius, Lent - with the inclusion of Holy Week - lasts six weeks. But it follows from this that it consists of 42 days, and not 40. The last figure is obtained if Friday and Saturday of Holy Week are excluded from the Easter fast. Saint Athanasius does not make such truncations. And in this regard, it is not entirely clear according to which system - Palestinian or local - he calculates the Pentecost, since in Alexandria back in the first half of the 3rd century, under Saint Dionysius, the Easter fast actually lasted a whole week.

As part of the Antiochian calculation, the pre-Easter fast included a full week, and special six weeks were assigned for Lent.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the following fact: initially, both methods of calculation certainly led to the fact that there were less than 40 fast days in Lent, since Sundays were exempt from fasting. According to the instructions of St. Athanasius the Great, in Alexandria, in addition, Saturdays were also subtracted from this number of fasting days, with the exception of the Saturday of Holy Week. Thus, it turns out that there were only 31 days of fasting together with the Easter fast. All this leads us to assume that the number 40 was taken from the examples of historically attested 40-day fasts. As is known, the Holy Scripture repeatedly points to them: these are the prophets Moses and Elijah and, of course, Jesus Christ Himself.

The desire to bring Lent into strict compliance with its name, that is, to actually have exactly 40 days of fasting, over time caused the emergence of new ways of calculating it. To facilitate further reasoning, it is worth repeating once again: the Palestinian method did not give the desired figure, because even if you do not separate the Easter fast from Pentecost and recognize Saturdays as fast, the total number of fast days will still be only 36.

The Antiochian calculus seems more satisfactory. But, again, it is necessary to fulfill the condition of the merging of Easter Lent and Lent. True, in this case the number of fasting days - excluding Sundays - will be 42. If we consider the fast of Lent separately, as was customary in the 4th century, the number of days will be reduced to 36.

It should also be taken into account that in the second half of the 4th century in the East the custom was established, in addition to Sunday, to also honor Saturday. It becomes a day of liturgical meetings; fasting is prohibited on Saturday. Lenten Saturdays, in addition to the Saturday of Holy Week, are also exempt from fasting, as a result of which the number of fasting days in Lent is reduced even more.

The new methods of calculation that have emerged are intended to correct these shortcomings. Rome preserved the ancient Palestinian Pentecost the longest. An amendment was made only in the 7th century: then the beginning of fasting was moved to Wednesday of the seventh week before Easter, that is, four more days were added to the previously existing 36 days of fasting, so that the result was exactly 40 days.

The first attempts to correct the calculation of the Pentecostal period appeared where it, strictly speaking, originated - in Syria. Here eight weeks are observed before Easter. At the same time, in Syria they did not fast on Sundays and Saturdays, with the exception of Holy Saturday, which involves the Easter vigil. In other words, if eight Sundays and seven Saturdays are subtracted from eight weeks, 41 days of fasting remain, which are called holidays here.

This method of calculation was quite widespread in the East. At the beginning of the 4th century it existed as a firm custom in the Antiochian Church. However, despite its antiquity, it did not establish itself among the Orthodox inhabitants of the East. Thus, in Jerusalem, where it existed at the end of the 4th century, in the 6th century Patriarch Peter, in his Easter message, calculates the Pentecost already according to the Antiochian method.

However, the practice of eight weeks of fasting existed in the East for a long time - almost until the 9th century. In the 7th century it became extremely widespread due to the following circumstance. According to the Alexandrian chronicle of Patriarch Eutyches, after Heraclius ended the Persian War (629), the inhabitants of Jerusalem turned to him with a request to execute the Jews of Jerusalem because the latter committed a lot of violence against Christians during the war and were in relations with the Persians. The ruler hesitated for a long time in fulfilling their request and agreed to this only when the subjects promised that they would take all the blame upon themselves and that they would fast for another week before Lent, since until now they had observed it halfway, abstaining from meat and eating cheese and eggs. After the death of Heraclius, the promise was forgotten, and the inhabitants of Syria returned to their previous custom. Only the Copts continued to observe strict fasting during cheese week, calling it the fast of Heraclius. It is possible, however, that they developed an eight-week fast much earlier - following the example of the Syrian Monophysites.

In addition to the addition of the eighth week, another attempt was made in the East to correct the calculation of fasting - by attributing to it the first three days of Holy Week. Such a system still exists among the Nestorians: they call the above days the last days of fasting.

Most likely, the Greeks quickly forgot what kind of order was established under Heraclius. But the tradition that during his reign they made some addition to the Pentecostal Church was still preserved. This can explain the presence already in the 8th century in the Greek Church of the tradition of semi-lenten preparatory, that is, cheese week. In other words, a compromise was found between the eight-week fast, which was practiced earlier, and the seven-week fast. The introduction of cheese week can also be considered as a form of protest of the Orthodox against the Monophysites.

Be that as it may, this insertion is of great importance for the formation of the Lenten Triodion in general and its local editions in particular. Thus, in Palestine the number of days of preparation for Lent was limited to Cheese Week. In Constantinople, on the contrary, over time their number increased by another two weeks. In the Constantinople evangelists of the 9th-10th centuries, the week of the Prodigal Son, preceding the Meat Festival, is usually already celebrated. Consequently, here it is considered a week preparatory to fasting. The reason for the change in its liturgical status was probably the content of the Gospels for this week: their tendency to mark the last weeks before Lent with special readings is clearly visible. The Gospel of Luke is assigned to this part of the year. In the previous weeks, conception occurs sequentially: 66 (26th week), 71, 76, 85, 91, 93, 94; on the last two Sundays - the publican and the Pharisee, as well as the prodigal son - the order returns back: 89 and 79. For the meat-eating and cheese weeks, conceptions are no longer taken from the Evangelist Luke, but from Matthew (106 and 17).

As for the initial preparatory week of the tax collector and the Pharisee, it was counted among the days of preparation much later than the week of the prodigal son. Moreover, in the 12th century, the first week already firmly occupied its current place. The main reason for its accession was, according to I.A. Karabinov, not so much the content of its evangelical conception, but its ideological and polemical basis. We are talking about denouncing the Armenians who are spending this week in a strict fast, which they call “arachawork”, which means “first”. A similar fast is observed by all Eastern heterodox Christians under the name of the Fast of the Ninevites. As you can see, the method of criticism of the Armenian custom chosen by the Greeks was the same as in relation to the eight-week Monophysite Pentecost: it consisted in the fundamental exemption of the publican and Pharisee on Wednesday and Friday from fasting during the week.

Menaion memorials in the Lenten Triodion

Let us now consider those memories of Pentecost that were transferred to it from the stationary - monthly - circle.

The transfer of memories probably began to be practiced already from the first days of the existence of Pentecost and therefore has an obvious explanation: if a certain memory fell on any weekday day of Lent, then, according to ancient custom, it was impossible to celebrate it. Saint Athanasius (Sakharov) wrote: “In general, the memories of the weeks of Great Lent are menaine memories and as such cannot have an organic connection with the rest of the Lenten service.” This prohibition, in turn, affected the distribution of menain memorials in the triodion on Saturdays and weeks. An exception, it must be said, very later, made according to the definition of the Trullo Council, was made only for the Annunciation: a full liturgy was assigned to it - regardless of the day of the week.

The custom of transferring the memory of saints to Saturdays and weeks during Pentecost existed in all Eastern Churches. Of the ones now recorded, the oldest is probably the memory of the Amasian martyr Theodore Tyrone, who suffered under Maximian and Maximinus. In ancient times he enjoyed great veneration in the East. The reason for the establishment of the holiday is indicated by the famous miracle of 362, when Saint Theodore, appearing in a dream to the Bishop of Constantinople, warned him against Christians consuming foodstuffs that, by order of Julian, were secretly defiled with sacrificial blood.

The veneration of the Holy Cross during the third week of Lent has a similar origin.

In the fifth week of the Lenten Triodi there are two commemorations that have not been transferred. The first of them, being little supported by prayers, is almost invisible. On Wednesday, at the sixth hour, the troparion of prophecy is given: “Through the illnesses of the saints, those who suffered for You.” This is the memory or 42 Amorite martyrs (March 6. - Here and below, the days of memory are indicated according to the Julian calendar. - Ed.), or 40 Martyrs of Sebaste (March 9). The second of these memories is designated by the clearly known canon of St. Andrew of Crete, but it is not easy to say what kind of memory it is. We must immediately exclude the celebration of the reverend himself, since it occurs on the 4th of July. One should assume here the memory of St. Mary of Egypt, which was laid on April 1, but this is hardly probable. For the most accurate definition, one must turn to the Sinai Triodion of the 11th century. It contains a self-vocal sedalen for this day, which can be considered a troparion (tone 6): “God’s rebuke is moving towards us, where will we run, who will we beg? We are caught up in our misfortunes. Look upon us, O Blessed One, before Whom the mountains were terrified and trembled, the sea saw and ran, and all creation was shaken. The angelic face begs You to save the world that You have created, Holy, Holy, Trisagion Lord, save us.” It is clear that the story is about some kind of earthquake. In the months after March 9, there are two memories of the coward: March 17 and April 5. I.A. Karabinov is inclined to believe that the above troparion refers to the first memory. This circumstance is also important: in this case, it is the earthquake that is remembered, and not some other event. The troparion of prophecy for the fourth of the fifth week, which describes a serious disaster, helps to substantiate this thesis: “Thou gracious, long-suffering, O Lord Almighty, send down Thy mercy upon Thy people.” . Even more conclusive is the parimage from Genesis of the indicated day. Its content is Abraham's conversation with God about the upcoming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the Lord promises him not to destroy these cities if there are at least ten righteous people in them. Such an allusion is too transparent and refers to Constantinople. On Monday of the sixth week, the troparion of the prophecy also clearly states: “This is God’s terrible day, which we do not hope to reach in the evening, and you have kindly vouchsafed us to see this, O Trisagion, glory to You.

There is much disagreement about the origin and subject of the Saturday Akathist holiday of the fifth week, which, like the memory of St. Mary of Egypt, was finally established only after the 11th century.

Even more new from the point of view of the final liturgical fixation is the celebration of St. John Climacus (in the fourth week): it appears from the 14th century. Both festivals are undoubtedly transferred from the monthly calendar, where the first is set on April 1, and the second on March 30. It is noteworthy that “the services of Saints John Climacus and Mary of Egypt... were not even included in the Slavic pre-Nikon Triodions - it was recommended to turn to the Menaions for them.”

The last, most recent, memory - of St. Gregory Palamas in the second week of Lent - according to the testimony of the Greek Triodei, was blessed by Patriarch Philotheus at the Council of 1376.

A few words need to be said about two special triode memories - meat and cheese Saturdays. In the first, “the memory of all those who have fallen from time immemorial” is created, and in the second, “the memory of all the venerable and God-bearing fathers who shone forth in ascetic labor.” The memory of Cheese Saturday apparently appeared somewhat earlier than Meat Saturday. The transformation of the latter was greatly facilitated by the reading of the Gospel of the Meat Week about the Last Judgment, indicated for this Sunday by the charter of the Great Church of Constantinople. The comparatively late origin of both of these memories is proven by the liturgical monuments of other Churches. Thus, in the Armenian Church there are no such services at all.

In the modern Lenten Triodion, two main compositional and content layers are clearly distinguished: the Easter fast (Holy Week), which follows the fast of Lent with the three preparatory weeks preceding it, as well as a fairly extensive group of menaic memories transferred to a moving circle from a stationary one. Historically, the liturgical book under consideration also included commemorations of the Sunday days of Pentecost, the remnants of which are considered to be self-concords and some Sunday canons.

The most ancient of the compositional and semantic components is, of course, the Easter fast, the transformation of which towards expansion marked the beginning of the Lent of Lent. Over the course of several centuries, the latter was associated with a different number system, which means it included an unequal number of days.

There is no doubt about the fact of the late inclusion of three preparatory weeks in the Lenten Triodion. At the same time, the very last in the liturgical book under consideration was the week about the publican and the Pharisee.

On the contrary, the transfer of memories from a fixed circle to a mobile one should be attributed almost to the moment of the establishment of Pentecost. It was associated with the impossibility of everyday celebrations during Lent. It was this restriction that led to the distribution of the Menaion memorials on Saturdays and the weeks of Pentecost.

The formation of Lenten parimia

The main genre and content components of the Lenten Triodion, with the help of which the external and internal composition of Easter Lent, Lent, as well as the preparatory weeks are realized, are parimia and chants. True, the first ones are included in the liturgical book under consideration only from the 12th century; until that time, they were usually placed in special vaults, that is, parimiyniks - collections of parimiyny for the whole year.

In addition to the variable parts of the service, the Triodi contains a third element of a completely different kind, associated with purely disciplinary and functional tasks. We are talking about articles from the church charter, which have been introduced into constant use since the 11th-12th centuries.

A comparative analysis of handwritten parimiys cannot give any answer to the question of where and when the system of triode parimias was developed, since even the most ancient of them usually contain the current selection of readings in question.

It is quite obvious that the oldest parts of the named system are considered to be the parimia of Holy Week, and in particular, Great Heel and Saturday. The liturgical parimations of the latter, in fact, relate to the Easter service, or, more precisely, are the transition from Easter on the Cross to Sunday. They belong to the ancient Christian vigil, which took place on the night from Saturday to Sunday in memory of the Resurrection of Christ. The parimia under consideration are clearly divided into three groups: some of them are ordinary, others talk about the Easter holiday, and others address the baptism of the catechumens that took place at the Easter vigil. In this regard, let us compare the words of Archpriest Alexander Schmemann: “The hymns of the Triodion were composed for the most part after the actual disappearance of the “catechumens” (baptized as adults and requiring preparation for baptism). Therefore, they mainly speak and emphasize not baptism, but repentance.”

Ordinary readings are, undoubtedly, the first (Gen. 1: 1-13) and partly the second (Is. 60: 1-16) parimia. In ancient times, liturgical readings were necessarily taken from both Testaments - Old and New. According to the custom that passed into Christianity from Jewry, the first were based on the law and the prophets. In modern worship, a rudiment of this order is all the triode parimia of vespers. The first parimia of Holy Saturday from Genesis is also ranked among the ordinary readings from the law. The second parimia from Isa. 60:1-16 is somewhat related to the baptism of catechumens.

Turning to the parimations of the Good Friday hours, one must first of all point out their undoubted Jerusalem origin, as, indeed, the entire service. In Constantinople, instead of it, the usual Lenten observance of the third and sixth hours was supposed, with parimia from Zech. 11:10-13. It seems that the selection of parimations in the named watches goes back to ancient times.

The same statement will be true for the choice of the parimia of the first hour of Holy Thursday (Jer. 11: 18-12, 15) and Matins of Holy Saturday (Jer. 37: 1-14). The meaning of these prophecies is extremely transparent: the first is about the suffering of Christ and the malice of the Jews against Him, and the second is about His resurrection.

The remaining parimia of Holy Week are in close connection with the parimia of Lent. From the outside, this relationship is manifested in the order of the prokeimnas they carry. The latter are extracted from the psalms in the continuous sequence in which they are located in the Psalter: at the parimia of the sixth hour of Monday of the first week there is a prokeimenon from the first psalm, and at the last parimia of Great Wednesday there is a prokeimenon from the 137th psalm. Of course, such logic was adopted after the entire parimia system of Lent and the first half of Holy Week had already been determined.

The reasons why the books of Genesis, Exodus, Proverbs and Job were designated for fasting reading do not cause serious disagreement among liturgists. The Exodus was taken for Holy Week due to the fact that the person of Moses, the event of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and the establishment of the Old Testament holiday of Easter are prototypes of Christ, His perfect salvation and the New Testament Easter.

The choice of the book of Genesis can be justified in many ways. First of all, this is the most suitable of the books of law for continuous reading during such an extensive liturgical cycle as Lent. The content of Genesis is concentrated primarily around historical events of universal significance, while in other sources there is a clear predominance of legislative elements that were intended exclusively for Old Testament Jews. In addition, the subjects of the Fall, the flood, and others are most consistent with the repentant character of Lent. At the same time, the personalities of the patriarchs and the events of their lives provide a lot of edifying material in a clear, concise, narrative form. In addition, the subject-plot component refers not only to the past tense, but also contains prototypes of New Testament persons and events. In other words, historical didacticism merges with symbolic one. Such a symbiosis becomes even more significant and significant if we consider that the edification is done in the days leading up to Easter - a holiday in memory of the most important events of human salvation.

Kontakion of Saint Roman the Sweet Singer

Another extremely extensive and diverse layer of the Triodion is represented by chants, the number of which exceeds 500. They differ greatly from each other in genesis, form, volume, name, and language. I.A. Karabinov, in the course of studying a huge number of handwritten and printed Triodion, established that the first dated chant in the Triodion dates back to the 5th, and the last - to the 14th centuries. This means that the formation of its genre uniqueness falls on the Byzantine stage of Greek church poetry (not a single work was included in its composition from the first - ancient Christian - period). Despite this diversity, all triode chants have one common origin: they originate from the refrains with which the first Christians accompanied the performance of biblical psalms and songs.

The very nature of the sources of Byzantine hymnography greatly contributed to the fact that its works developed a form of tonic verse, based primarily on semantic parallelism and logical stress.

All this was quite consistent with the ancient Christian way of singing psalms and songs. It is usually called antiphonal, since it consists of alternating verse-by-verse performance of chants by two choirs. The choruses used in this case are called antiphons. Another no less ancient name is translated as “poem”. The third term - ipakoi - was also distinguished by a certain instability. From about the 5th century, troparia appeared, which are understood as short hymns in the proper sense, and not just choruses. But, probably, this name came to them from the latter, for even in later monuments one can find similar prayers, consisting of one verse of a psalm. Thus, the name “troparion” began to be used primarily for hymns connected to Psalm 117 (“God is the Lord”) and biblical songs.

The oldest hymns of the Lenten Triodion are some of the troparions of prophecies, which, although they were not compiled specifically for the Lenten service, began to be used in it from the 8th century.

The name “ipakoi” was retained by separate hymns set at matins after psalms 134-135 (the so-called polyeleos), 118 (blameless) and the third biblical song.

But for a long time the listed hymnographic terms were used mixedly. Moreover, in modern liturgical books one can find many examples when some kind of chant is called a troparion in one case, and sedal in another. Thus, the troparion of Thomas’s week “To the sealed tomb” serves as the second sedal of the Sunday service of the seventh tone in Octoechos; The troparion to the apostles Peter and Paul (June 29) “The Apostles of the First See” is seated on Wednesday (tone 4).

In other words, all types of works of Byzantine church poetry are ultimately genetically reduced to the ancient refrains with which Christians accompanied the singing of biblical psalms and songs. The only exception to this is the ancient kontakion. Chants of this kind are a long series of stanzas united by an acrostic poem. That is, the poetic form of the kontakion can be qualified as a strophic poem (from 18 to 40 stanzas) of asymmetrical size, fastened by interstrophic isosyllaby (equisyllaby, dividing a verse into rhythmic units equal in number of syllables) and homotonia as the same number of intonation segments in each verse .

This external unity corresponds to the internal coherence of the content. In contrast to the canons, where each troparion stands separately, in kontakia the plot develops sequentially, starting from the first acrostic stanza and ending with the last, so that dividing them into segments is required not so much by semantic logic, but by practical necessity - convenience for singers. The disunity of the troparia in the canons is explained by the fact that they, like all other Byzantine chants in general, are only choruses to biblical chants. Kontakia were originally sung completely independently after the sixth song of the canon; their stanzas followed one after another without inserting any intermediate verses. In its form, the kontakion is a series of sedals, somewhat more extensive compared to the introductory one, with consistently developing content. Consequently, to explain the emergence of this form of Byzantine liturgical poetry, it is necessary to find the reason that, instead of one sedalna, it required a series of stanzas.

To solve this problem, we need to focus on the location of the kontakion in the rite of Matins. It is sung according to the sixth canon of the canon and precedes the main reading of Matins: it is after it that either the synaxarion or the life of the celebrated saint is given. In most cases, the kontakion is also a legend about the celebrated memory - only it is presented in poetic form. All this evokes indispensable associations with lives, legends, and homilies. Thus, it can be assumed that the original purpose of the kontakion was either to serve as a poetic parallel to the reading that follows it, or to complement the latter, or even completely replace it. It is absolutely clear that such a vast content could not be placed within the narrow framework of one sedal, but required a certain set of such stanzas.

The first kontakary hymn-writer, whose personality and works are better clarified and to whom most of the triode kontakia belong, is Saint Roman the Sweet Singer. The following kontakia and ikos are attributed to him: for the weeks - the prodigal son (the author's attribution of which, however, is doubtful), meat-free, veneration of the cross and vai, for Saturdays - Saints Theodore and Lazarus, as well as on Thursday of the fifth week and on Holy Monday and Fridays.

Researchers (theologians, philologists, etc.) are unanimous in the opinion that this hymnographer was not the creator of the kontakion, but he brought its form and content to perfection and went down in history as a brilliant author of works written within the same genre.

To more fully understand the creative phenomenon of Roman Sladkopevets, you need to pay attention to an important personal factor - its origin. The monk was a native of Syria. His creative activity began when he was a deacon of the Church of the Resurrection in the city of Berita (modern Beirut). It is not surprising that in a bilingual culture, Roman turns to non-Greek sources, although he himself wrote exclusively in Greek. The language of his kontakia, despite the classical education of the author, is of a mixed nature: it contains ancient and Central Greek forms side by side. But in general it uses what is called Koine, a common dialect accessible to the masses. The Reverend's style contains equal parts rhetorical and colloquial elements, which corresponds to the teaching objectives of his poetry. The flourishing of hymnography, associated with the name of Saint Romanus, was ultimately determined by the need of the Greek church audience for precisely such poetic forms of religious didactics.

The Syrian sources of his work eloquently speak about this. In the homeland of Saint Romanos, as early as the 2nd century, there was a custom of pronouncing poetic homilies, written in verse using simple meters. The real influence - both direct and indirect - on the formation of his kontakion was exerted by Syriac liturgical poetry, represented by three genres: mimra (researchers also use other transliterations - “speech”), midrash (“teaching”) and sugita (“song”). Mimra is a poetic homily that was recited at matins after the reading of the Gospel. That is, this is a poetic paraphrase of the reading just listened to. Midrash qualifies as a multi-stanza poetic work with an acrostic and refrain. Finally, sugita is a work of a descriptive nature, in which the drama of the development of action was created through the introduction of monologues and dialogues. Moreover, the kontakion cannot be identified with any of the listed works. As N.D. rightly notes. Uspensky, “from the memra Roman Sladkopevets borrowed the very principle of connecting the poem with the Gospel, from the madrasha - the multi-stanza form, refrain and acrostic, and from the sogita - the techniques of dramaturgy.”

Saint Roman made many creative changes to the composition of the kontakion. It must be viewed through the prism of the most significant formal elements for this genre: the strophic distribution of the text and the functional load of the chorus. Roman Sladkopevets, of course, was not their inventor, but he masterfully synthesizes Syrian sources. As a result, the kontakion results in a stable strophic structure, united by a chorus. The inevitable contradiction between the narrative nature of the plot and the certain isolation of each stanza, always crowned by a chorus, is resolved at a semantic level that unites the entire work. That is, the main method of interpretation for Saint Roman is parallelism - compositional and semantic, internal and external, since “kontakia consist of stanzas identical in rhythmic pattern, they contain alliteration and an unchanging refrain.”

The architectonics of the kondakar poem are modeled on a song and, at first glance, quite traditional. But Saint Roman managed to combine a purely external structure with a functional idea-forming component. The division of the text gives rise to interstrophic and intrastrophic connections of various natures: these are both contrasts between verses and integration relations. The repetition of the refrain plays the same role at the level of stanzas as the element of repetition in rhyme: at the same time, the opposition and opposition of stanzas occurs with their mutual projection, which forms a complex semantic and thematic whole. The logical composition of the work is built in the kontakion not in spite of the stanza, but with its help. The introduction is usually contained in one or more of the first ikos, and the conclusion is concentrated in one or more of the last ikos. The main part, naturally, is arranged post-strophically, which is very successful for dramatic development. A special technique of Saint Roman, which unmistakably defines his authorship, is dialogue (external or internal). Replicas are also arranged trophically. Thus, a principle is used that has been known since ancient times, but immediately preceded the Holy Roman in the Syrian midrash and sugita. In the described case, the refrain is addressed to one or another performer. Post-strophic dialogue is the simplest, but most systematic case of the functioning of poetic parts. However, Roman has few kontakia with a purely dialogical structure; mostly the dialogue is placed in a complex narrative context. Another case, also quite common in the work of the monk, is associated with non-compliance with dialogue or reducing it to a minimum. Here the main load is borne by the refrain, which in the kontakion is structurally connected with the ikos, and from the point of view of meaning, holds the entire poem together.

Roman’s proimion stands apart (small stanza at the very beginning of the poem). It most likely developed from the chorus itself in cases where the latter was too short for the people to catch up with it, and was therefore repeated after each ikos. The proimion may not even be related to the subject of the kontakion, but it gives the topic special illumination, usually in an extremely elastic and compressed form.

All of the above does not make it possible to agree with the opinion that the kontakion “was not an organized, consistent collection of songs on a specific topic.”

So, for the formation of the Lenten Triodion, the most important is the following individual authorial innovation of Roman the Sweet Singer: to the exclusively prayerful hymnography cultivated earlier, he, however, based on the experience of his predecessors, who assigned the kontakion a very specific liturgical place, adds a preaching component. In this syncretic context, a complex genre is being developed that combines the narrative nature of the homily with purely poetic means of both expressiveness and organization of the text and has the religious education of Christians as its primary goal.

Many of the works of Saint Roman were not originally intended by him for Lent, but began to be used by the Church in these days later.

The famous liturgist A.A. Dmitrievsky once wrote that contemporary Christians had almost completely lost their correct understanding of Lent. Alexey Afanasyevich found the reason very interesting: people’s ignorance of the texts of the main liturgical book of the Holy Pentecost - the Lenten Triodion. This opinion was expressed at the beginning of the 20th century. It seems that the words of the Orthodox scientist are quite applicable to our time. Alas, even today few church people are well acquainted with the unique patristic creation that forms the basis of Lenten worship. But indeed, the Triodion, open on any page, breaks many stereotypes about the meaning of fasting and instills a completely different experience of fasting in comparison with what we sometimes have.

When familiarizing yourself with the verses of the Triodion, what first surprises you is some kind of unearthly, flighty joy flowing from all the chants. The texts seem to be repentant, but there is quite an Easter rejoicing visible in them! For example, here is the stichera of Monday of the first week of Lent: “We will begin all-honorable abstinence with light, shining with rays of the holy commandments of Christ our God, love with brilliance, prayer with brilliance, purity with purification, goodness with strength; for let us bring light before the holy and three-day resurrection, illuminating incorruption to the world.” A whole stream of dazzling light is poured on us: “light”, “shining with rays”, “brightness”, “brilliance”, “luminiferous”, “illuminating”. The general intonation of the stichera is festive. I immediately remember the words of the Savior, read by the Church before the beginning of Lent, on Forgiveness Sunday: When you fast, do not be sad, like the hypocrites, for they take on gloomy faces in order to appear to people as fasting. Truly I tell you that they are already receiving their reward. And you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face (Matt. 6:16-17). The Triodion, confirming the teaching of the Lord, also tells us that for a Christian, fasting is a spiritual holiday.

The main liturgical book of Great Lent is thoroughly imbued with biblical associations and meanings. In this respect, these texts can be called a great school of exegesis. For example, this is how St. Petersburg is interpreted in the canon. Andrew of Crete, the bigamy of Patriarch Jacob: “I understand that I am two wives, but action and reason are in sight, Leah is an act of slaughter, like one with many children; Rachel's mind is like a lot of work; for apart from labor, neither the deed nor the sight of the soul will be corrected.” It turns out that the patriarch's two wives are important symbols.

“Leah symbolizes that part of the human soul that gives its strength to earthly, sensual life. ...Labor, action (Leah) is something in which a person apparently manifests himself on the outside. And the fruits of the work of these hands are so innumerable that the monk compares them with Leah, as if she had many children - after all, indeed, she gave birth to Jacob more than all the children, while Rachel - only two (Joseph and Benjamin), but at least the closest and most comforting. But Leah, as the book of Genesis specifically points out to us, is “weak in the eyes”: work in itself, not animated by any higher aspiration, turns into a tedious task of obtaining food, and a person who works like this is not much different from those animals that the Lord created before him, without, however, breathing into them the “breath of life” from His Spirit (cf. Gen. 1:20–25, 2:7).”

Every page of Scripture is relevant to the person trying to live a spiritual life

Or, for example, the hand of Moses, which turned white from leprosy and was then healed by the Lord (cf. Ex. 4:6-7). The Triodion explains that this sign relates to our Christian life: “May the hand of Moses assure us, O soul, how God can whiten and cleanse the life of a leper, and do not despair of yourself, even if you are a leper.” How many of us would have guessed that the leprosy on Moses' hand indicates our sins? Here and in a number of other cases, Lenten texts prove that every page of Holy Scripture is relevant for every person trying to lead a spiritual life.

And it happens that this or that stichera is entirely woven from passages of the Bible, and the lover of the Book of Life listens with pleasure to these lines, born of the great love of the holy fathers for Scripture. For example: “It is an acceptable time, the day of salvation, let us bring to God the gifts of virtues, in which we have put aside the works of darkness, brethren, let us put on the weapons of light, as Paul cries out.”

By the way, one more thing about the Bible. Triodion shows an excellent example of the interest of the holy fathers not only in the New, but also in the Old Testament. Most of the biblical semantic allusions in the Great Canon are taken from the Old Testament books. Charter biblical readings of the Triodion - Genesis, Isaiah, Proverbs. A rare stichera does not refer us to certain names or events of Old Testament history. How sad it is that Christians of the first millennium knew and loved the Old Testament books, reading them in a Christian way, but a modern Orthodox person sometimes does not understand why he should read Moses or Isaiah. One sometimes even hears from teachers of seminaries and academies that the Old Testament is a shadow of the New, and therefore reading it is not at all necessary for a Christian. However, the Lenten Triodion smashes such theses to smithereens.

All books of the Bible are interconnected, and among them there are no superfluous ones

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are one book with internal integrity. All books of the Bible are interconnected, and none of them are superfluous. We will never understand the New Testament without the Old, and the Old without the New. The amazing interweaving of the meanings of the Old Testament and New Testament books, revealed in Triodion, shows a true Christian attitude towards biblical books. In the Bible everything is one: one explains the other, the first is fulfilled in the second, and the second and first are contained in something third. Some link has fallen out - and perception is already impaired.

Perhaps the most precious meaning of the Triodion is that it conveys the bitter truth about man - one that no one except the Church will tell us. In describing the spiritual state of the sinner, the Triodion is radical to the extreme: “There was no sin in life, no deed, no malice, even though I, the Savior, have not sinned in mind, and in word, and in will, and in sentence, and in thought, and in deed, having sinned, as and no one else ever." It turns out that I am guilty of all sins? Yes exactly. In my heart I carry the imprints of all the sins of the world - as potential, as possibility. If I have not sinned in something in deed, then I have sinned in word; if not in word, then in thought; and if not by thought, then by the secret wishes of the heart. If in fact I did not sin in one way or another, it is only because God saved me from such a situation in which I would not have withstood the temptation and fell. The texts of the Holy Pentecost remind us of the depth of our infection with sin in order to evoke in us a corresponding depth of repentance.

The texts of the Holy Pentecost remind us of the depth of our infection with sin

But along with severe denunciations, the Triodion always gives a warm light of hope, constantly reminding us of the approaching Easter: “Having put off the filthy garments of intemperance, let us put on the bright robe of abstinence, and we will achieve the rebellion of the former, bright Savior.”

I don’t know how similar the ills of church society at the beginning of the 20th century and the 21st century are, but Dmitrievsky’s concern about the poor knowledge of the Triodion by Orthodox people can be shared even now. Yes, ignorance of this book greatly impoverishes us and in many ways deprives our Christianity of the joy of repentance, the beauty of theology, and biblical breadth.

Well, Lent has just begun, and the Holy Triodion has still turned a few pages. It’s just time to pick up this unique patristic creation and test yourself for the Orthodoxy of your understanding of the meaning of Pentecost. I am sure that every person who loves God will feel the joy of acquiring new knowledge in Christ. Perhaps getting acquainted with the Triodion will even open Great Lent to someone from a completely different side. In addition, everyone, without exception, will feel how superficial fish we are in the ocean of knowledge of God that is revealed in liturgical texts. Let us follow the Triodion on our Lenten journey, and its stichera and troparia will certainly lead us to new depths of repentance and reveal hitherto unprecedented spiritual treasures.

About the three main motives of the Lenten Triodion and the meaning of the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Kritsky is told to the portal “Orthodox Life” by the regent of the academic choir of Kyiv theological schools, candidate of theological sciences Archimandrite Leonty (Tupkalo).

Fasting is not an end in itself, but one of the means to achieve the goal - Easter

With the beginning of the Lenten Triodion, with the All-Night Vigil on the eve of the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee, we began our movement towards Easter. Is it so?

Yes, indeed, the Holy Church, wanting to show believers what the essence and true meaning of Christian fasting is, long before the beginning of Great Lent itself, calls with the liturgical texts of the Triodion to enter a time favorable for the soul - “spiritual spring”. The content of the services very figuratively shows the essence of fasting.

Fasting is not an end in itself, but one of the means to achieve the goal - Easter, passing by sin. Fasting leads to a meeting with Christ, Who is the true Easter - “Easter Christ is great and all-honorable.”

The Venerable Theodore the Studite, the author of the stichera on “The Lord cried out...” of the Week of the Raw Fatty, says this: “We will begin the Lenten time brightly, cleanse the soul, cleanse the flesh, fast from all passions, enjoy the virtues and be worthy to see the all-honorable passion of Christ God and Holy Pascha "

The three main motives of all the chants included in the Lenten Triodion: repentance, prayer and fasting

The Lenten Triodion includes chants from various hymns, about 20. The most remarkable of them have come to us from the 8th and 9th centuries: Andrew of Crete, Cosmas of Mayum, John of Damascus, Joseph, Theodore and Simeon the Studites, Emperor Leo the Wise, Theophan the Inscribed, etc. .

What unites them all, why were their songs included in the Lenten Triodion? And why does Lent begin with the canon of St. Andrew of Crete?

Three main and main motives make up the content of all the hymns included in the Lenten Triodion: repentance, prayer and fasting. All of them are beautifully compiled by the holy Studite brothers and other Christian ascetics. These fathers experienced the invaluable benefits of virtues through their own experience and told us about this benefit through worship.

High poetic creativity, with which the famous brothers Joseph, Theodore, and Simeon were endowed by nature, gave rise to a number of works of deep thought and sublime feelings. It is not at all surprising that the Church compares these creations to an angelic song. Almost at the very beginning of the Lenten Triodion we read the following verses: “To the Creator of those above and below, the Trisagion hymn from the angels: Receive the Trisong from men also.”

Lenten Triodion

The main idea of ​​the canon of St. Andrei Kritsky - a call to repentance for sins and repentance

The Holy Church especially honors the Cretan archpastor - St. Andrew. On days of special repentance, such as Great Lent, the Church assigns a central place to the Great Canon in its liturgical rites. Its church reading is performed: on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the first week of Lent in parts and in full at Matins on Thursday of the fifth week of Lent.

The Synaxarion for Thursday of the fifth week gives a remarkable description of the canon: “Along with many other works useful for salvation, St. Andrei also composed this Great Canon, which is immensely touching, for he composed these pleasant songs, having found and collected various stories from the Old and New Testaments - that is, from Adam even to the Ascension of Christ and the preaching of the Apostles. By this he teaches every soul to try as best he can to imitate everything good described in the story, but to avoid everything evil and always resort to God through repentance, tears, confession and other deeds that are truly pleasing to Him.”

“Where will I begin to cry about my accursed life and deeds? Will I make a beginning, O Christ, for this present mourning? But, as the Merciful One, grant me remission of my sins,” St. Andrew appeals to the sinful soul. From his lips one sometimes hears accusations, threats, warnings, instructions to a sinful soul and consolation, which sometimes turns into tenderness from the contemplation of a repentant soul. The main idea of ​​the canon is a call to repentance of sins and instructions on effective means of repentance.

The Great Penitential Canon in the Academic Church is read by the rector of KDAiS, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary

The texts of the Lenten Triodion depict the fruits of humility, patience and love that are born in the virtues of fasting and prayer

- What does “Triodion” mean? What's the most important thing about it? What is its culmination?

The Lenten Triodion received its name mainly because its most important texts—the morning and evening canons—on weekdays throughout Lent consist of only three (hence the name “Triodion”) songs. Moreover, the last two songs - the eighth and ninth - always invariably retain their places in the canon, and the first song changes every day in this order: on Monday - the first, on Tuesday - the second, on Wednesday - the third, on Thursday - the fourth, on Friday - the fifth and on Saturday - the sixth and seventh.

The liturgical texts of the Triodion focus on the fact that only through fasting, repentance and prayer are all the forces of the spiritual-physical nature of man detached from the boundaries of passions and enter into the closest unity with God. First of all, prayer for the human mind, especially repentant prayer, gives true knowledge, serves as real enlightenment for it, “repentant honey, which gives away thoughts and delights thoughts.” With the help of prayer, the Christian’s mind is gradually adored and becomes involved in divine properties.

The texts of the Lenten Triodion also depict the spiritual fruits that are born in the soul of the ascetic through improvement in the virtues of fasting and prayer. The most common focus is on the fruits of humility, patience and love. These qualities are born under the influence of prayer, not individually, but in a harmonious combination.

According to the Triodion, a Christian, laboring in ascetic prayer, does not deserve or “earn” deification, which is the gift of God, but prepares, as far as possible, to accept this gift with dignity. God, by His grace, takes the initiative in the living process of mutual dialogue leading to unity.

This event touches the innermost and inaccessible depths of the soul. Without openness, without a person’s prayer life, such a meeting is impossible. The liturgical texts of the Triodion emphasize that deification is not something metaphorical, but a real transformation and glorification of all human nature.

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Note:

1. “Synaxarion (Greek Συναξάριον) - collection; from Greek συνάγω - collecting, and Greek. σύναξις - meeting; first a meeting of believers on the holiday, later - a collection of information, a brief biography, interpretation of the holidays " // See Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language. T. 4. St. Petersburg: Publishing house. T-va M. O. Wolf, 1909. P. 158. The Synaxarii of the Lenten Triodion, compiled in the 14th century by the church writer Nicephorus Xanthopoulos, reveal to the reader the logic, order, and content of the celebrations established by the Church in the pre-Easter and Easter periods / See Synaxarii of Lenten and Colored Triodeum. M.: Orthodox St. Tikhon's University for the Humanities, 2009. pp. 5-12.