THE SLAVO-RUSSIAN EUCHOLOGION OF THE GREAT CHURCH AND ITS GREEK ORIGINAL

The following article looks at the composition of the Slavo-Russian Euchologion of the Great Church according to State Historical Museum (Moscow) manuscript Syn. 900 in comparison with three Greek copies of this work, which were introduced by Miguel Arranz (Paris, Coisl.213, Grottaferrata, Γ.β.Ι. and Athens 662). It is concluded that the Slavo-Russian version, created at the turn of the XIV–XV centuries, serves as evidence for existence of a new edition of the Euchologion of the Great Church, which was most likely completed under Patriarch Philotheus. This edition of the Euchologion preserved many unique features of the oldest Greek сopy – Coisl. 213 of 1027, which was written at the request of priest Strategius from the church of St. Sophia. In this way, it preserved, more than other Greek copies of the patriarchal prayer books, the rites of the Holy Week performed in the Great church as well as lities for different places in Constantinople, and prayers for various needs. In addition, it also included a number of new rites and prayers for monastic tonsure, communion and repentance, as well as had an inserted Church New Year rite, edited by Patriarch Philotheus. The structure of the ᾀσματικὴ ἀκολουθία went through serious changes: it was re-arranged and broken up into two parts. The Slavonic scribe translated only some services that were in the Greek codex, that is only those that were previously unknown or not very well known in Rus’. For instance, the Slavonic version does not include rites of baptism, marriage, burial, Great Blessing of Water, or the Prayer of Genuflection for the Holy Week, all of which were widely known in Rus’. When translating the Constantinople rites, the Russian scribe left out all of the toponyms, which, as the author of this article thinks, shows his attempt to adapt these services to the Russian ones.