Liturgy of St. Basil

The Liturgy of Saint Basil or, more formally, the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, is a term for several Eastern Christian celebrations of the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist), or at least several anaphoras, which are named after St. Basil the Great. Two of these liturgies are in common use today: the one used in the Byzantine Rite ten times a year, and the one ordinarily used by the Coptic Church.

The various extant anaphoras attributed to St. Basil in the various Eastern Christian rites may be classified into two groups: one which includes the Egyptian texts, and one which includes all other texts.

The older Egyptian version was found in 1960 in a Sahidic Coptic, in a 7th-century incomplete manuscript. From this version derived the Bohairic Coptic version used today in the Coptic Church, as well as the Egyptian Greek and Ethiopic versions. The Egyptian Greek version contains several prayers (identical with those in the Byzantine liturgy) expressly ascribed to St. Basil, and from these it may derive its title, and it may be used by the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria before this Church entirely renounced at its own liturgical tradition in favour of the uses of Constantinople. The present Arabic text of this liturgy is a translation from the Bohairic Coptic version.

The other group of the Liturgies of Saint Basil includes the Greek version used in the Byzantine Rite, the older Armenian version known as Liturgy of Saint Gregory the Illuminator and an ancient Syriac version. H.Engberding in 1931 suggested that these three versions derives from a lost common source (Ω-BAS) and his conclusions were widely accepted by scholars.

The older manuscript of the Byzantine version is 8th century Codex Barberini Gr. 336, and this text was the ordinary liturgy celebrated in Constantinople before it was superseded in the common use by the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. From this texts derives all the versions used in the Byzantine Rite, such as the Russian and other Slavonic versions, the Georgian version, and the versions used by the Melkite Church in Syriac and Arabic. Always from the Byzantine text derives the Armenian version known simply as Liturgy of Saint Basil.

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