Is the Sabaite Typikon the Liturgical Common Denominator?

[Erick Sampson]

Peter,

There was a time that my curiosity simply could not take it any longer, so I began to research the origins of various Typika that are used across various jurisdictions today (I know, I’m nerd and boring LOL). According to what I found – which was from various sources – at the parish level, the Greek, Antiochian, Russian and OCA traditions all practice, to one degree or another, a condensed form/variation of the rubrics that are set out in the Typikon of St. Sabbas Monastery. Is this true? I understand that this may be an oversimplification (that other Typika were also consulted as various jurisdictions sought to codify Typikons for parish use within their own dioceses), but is it true that the Sabaite Typikon is the most ancient and widely referenced, therefore making it a kind of liturgical common denominator of sorts? Any comment on this is much appreciated.

Thank you for the amazing class, and the wonderful opportunity to ask questions like this!

[Peter George]

Don’t worry, you are totally in the right place for this – I am an extreme Typikon nerd. Also, not to make a plug for Typikon 101, but we will go in depth about the Typikon of St. Sabbas (usually abbreviated TAS) and how it affected our current Typikon in that course (including the history of how we got the Typikon of St. Sabbas in the first place).

Essentially, you are correct. Every modern Typikon has as the TAS source and the challenge is how to condense it for parish usage. The Russians and Greeks/Antiochians basically have different ways of doing this. The Russian solution is essentially to shorten to reduce the amount of psalm verses (e.g. singing 10 certain verses of the polyeleos) whereas the Greek solution is to read the psalms or eliminate them entirely (e.g. the polyeleos is almost never done in a Greek parish). This is partly because the moveable hymns take much longer in a Greek parish due to the style of chant.

[pdfallon]

Since you’ve mentioned Typikon 101, I don’t really understand the course sequence, since Typikon 100 is not listed in the course catalog. What is the difference between 100, that we’re in, and 101? You might have said this in the beginning but I had some technical issues logging into the beginning of the first class.

When will information about the next classes be available? Thanks.

[Peter George]

Hi Paul, Typikon 100 is brand-new this year, which is why it’s probably not in the catalogue.

Typikon 101 basically assumes that you are familiar with the fixed parts of Vespers, Matins and the Liturgy. We were finding that some people didn’t have that down, so we created Typikon 100 as a way to focus on the structures of the services, before we delved too deep into all the variations of the moveable portions.

[Erick Sampson]

That’s amazing! Wow… That means, then, that there really is a real liturgical unity in the Orthodox Christian Church that truly is unparalleled when compared to any of the other heterodox traditions/denominations… I am amazed. I wonder, has there been an effort to translate the Typikon of St. Sabbas into English? Thank you.

Also, thank you for the information on the upcoming Typikon 101 class. Lord willing, I will be here for it! I second Paul’s interest.

[Peter George]

Yes, absolutely! It’s easy to focus on the differences between Eastern Orthodox liturgical practices, but they are much more similar than they are different!

There was an attempt made to translate the Typikon of St. Sabbas into English, but that project was abandoned. Typika are notoriously difficult to translate and part of the issue with St. Sabbas is that there are portions of it that are very difficult to read due to copying errors that have become permanent. It would require a real academic effort to create a critical text. Certainly worth doing, but unfortunately no one has gotten to it yet.

I would love to see you and Paul in 101! It should be offered next semester.

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