The reading of the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is the main feature of this matins. This practice appeared around the 9th century, its background is as follows.
On March 17, 790, an earthquake occurred in Constantinople. This event was so significant that it was included in the Months of Constantinople. The Typikon of the Great Church on March 17 indicates a special paremia for the 6th hour and special readings for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts: prokeimenon, paremia, Apostle and Gospel; at the same time, special prokeimenon and proverbs on March 17 were read instead of ordinary readings. If we consider that in the Typikon of the Great Church only 4 days in March had special readings (except for the memory of the earthquake on March 17, this honorable feature belongs to the feasts of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, St. Thomas of Constantinople (March 22) and the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary), it becomes clear that the memory of the earthquake was a significant day in the Month.
During this earthquake, the nuns of the monastery of St. Patapius (7th century saint, commemorated December 8) in Constantinople came out to the square, fearing to be buried under the rubble, and began to read this penitential canon. This precedent influenced the fact that subsequently the Great Canon became associated with the memory of the earthquake and therefore its church use was primarily correlated with the day on which the liturgical commemoration of the earthquake took place.
It is possible that the reading of the Great Canon was first assigned to the constant date of March 17. Indeed, the Great Canon as a penitential work (a model of repentance) was the optimal liturgical text for such a memory: an earthquake in the biblical and Christian worldview is always perceived as God’s judgment on a sinful people, and therefore the natural reaction to this event is repentance.
At first, the memory of the earthquake “wandered” throughout Triodion, falling on different days. Subsequently, due to the inconvenience of such a situation, it was decided to assign the service of the Great Canon to a specific day of the Triodion. Thursday of the 5th week was chosen as this day and this happened in the 2nd half of the 9th century (however, the stabilization of the day of the Great Canon occurred later; in the 9th–11th centuries the canon was still read on different days of Lent). Why? One of the reasons was probably the fact that at Thursday Vespers a fragment about the destruction of Sodom is read as a proverb; in connection with this, the memory of another disaster sent by God - an earthquake - was designated on this day.
Starting from the 11th century, the life and troparia in honor of the Venerable Mary began to be added to the Thursday service of the 5th week. It is interesting that in the Studios-Alexievsky Typikon (1030s) both the life and the troparia of the canon of St. Maria; however, in the Evergetid Typikon (late 11th - early 12th centuries) both are already indicated. It is believed that the primary addition was the addition of a life, which is connected with the canon ideologically: the Venerable Mary in her life revealed the ideal of genuine and deep repentance, which was destined by Saint Andrew in his canon. Following the life, the troparia of the canon began to be added. It is interesting that these troparia are a special set of prayers; they have their own acrostic and differ from the troparions of the other two days when the memory of the Venerable Mary is celebrated: the menaion canon on April 1 and the canon of the 5th Sunday of Great Lent.
At the same time, the troparions of St. Mary did not immediately take their current place: the Typikon of the Evergetid Monastery prescribes that the canon of Mary should be read not together with the Great Canon, but at the pannikhis (and even another canon is assigned - the 6th tone, compiled by St. Simeon Metaphrastus). Moreover, even in some manuscripts of the 14th century these troparions are absent, and in the old printed Triodions the troparions of the saint are not found in the 2nd song of the canon.
The reading of the life of St. Mary of Egypt is a memorable feature of this service; Moreover, this is the only statutory reading from the entire set of various lives and explanatory readings laid down in the Charter that has been preserved in our parish practice. Considering the length of the service, the fact that the Great Canon is heard standing; the service is called "standing"; and because of the reading of the life of the Venerable Mary - “Mary’s Station”. This name is not used in liturgical books; it is exclusively everyday, colloquial. However, in the 21st century it has become so popular that it has even penetrated into liturgical literature.
On this day, worship is performed only according to the Triodion; The canon of the ordinary Saint Menaion is transferred to one of the Compline services at the discretion of the rector. Let us immediately note that the service of the Great Canon is not combined with any holiday, or even with the forefeast or celebration of the Annunciation. Moreover, even on Wednesday of the 5th week, that is, on the eve of the service of the Great Canon, it is impossible to perform a festive service. Otherwise, at the liturgy on Wednesday, 24 stichera of the Great Canon would have to be sung along with the stichera of the holiday, and this is not only inconvenient from the point of view of the Charter, but incompatible in terms of ideological content. Therefore, it is useful to remember the following rules:
• if the polyeleos holiday occurs on Wednesday or Thursday, then the saint’s service is moved to Tuesday;
• if the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos or a church feast occurs on Wednesday or Thursday, then the service of the Great Canon is moved to Tuesday (the verses of the Great Canon are sung at Vespers on Monday in this case);
• if the forefeast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos occurs on Thursday (accordingly, the feast itself is on Friday), then the canon service remains in place, and the forefeast service is moved to Wednesday.
In general, on the day of the Great Canon, services are performed according to the Lenten rite, but have many individual characteristics.
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (Wednesday)
All features of the service are limited only to the singing of stichera on “Lord, I have cried...”; the rest is the usual following of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.
On “Lord, I cried...” a total of 30 stichera are sung (taking into account the stichera on “And now” - 31 stichera): the daily stichera of the Triodion for 6 (self-agreed - twice, martyr and similar - once each) and 24 stichera of the Great Canon, also called “stichera according to the alphabet”. “Glory” is the last stichera “alphabetically”; “And now” is another stichera, not included in the number of 24 stichera, but having the same final phrase “Lord, first even to the end...”. The choruses for the stichera are indicated in the Triodion itself: they are taken mainly from “Lord, I have cried...” from the verse “They will fall into their own sleep...” and to the end; when these verses end, two verses are taken from the verse, and for the remaining ones - the chorus “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.”
Matins
Celebrated on Wednesday evening: the evening service consists only of Matins and the 1st hour added to it.
The beginning of Matins is in full rite (with the reading “Heavenly King...”).
After "Alleluia" the Trinity Voices are read/sung (as usual).
Kathisma one (8th); The sedals after the kathisma are read from the Octoechos with the addition of the martyrdom (of course, there is no small litany).
Immediately after the sedals, the 1st half of the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt is read. As a rule, the life is read by a priest.
Psalm 50 (as usual, the choir before the psalm sings “Lord, have mercy” (three times), “Glory”, the reader sings “And now” and reads the text of the psalm). Immediately after the psalm, the canon is sung (the prayer “Save, O God, Thy people...” is not said).
Canon. The choir sings Irmos twice. The troparion (as many as there are in the Triodion) is read by the clergy in the center of the church (for this, the priests, at the beginning of the singing of the irmos, come out of the altar through the side doors), and the choir before each troparion sings the chorus. Bible songs are not sung; for all the penitential troparia, the choir sings the refrain “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.” At the end of each song there are two troparions dedicated to the Venerable Mary, and one troparion in honor of the author of the canon. Before them the choruses “Reverend Mother Mary, pray to God for us” and “Reverend Father Andrew, pray to God for us” are sung. At the end of the song, “Glory” is always sung before the Trinity, and “And now” before the Theotokos.
The 2nd and 3rd cantos of the Great Canon have two parts, each of which has its own irmos. On the 2nd song at the end of the 1st part, before the Mother of God, the choir sings the chorus “Most Holy Theotokos, save us”, then another irmos sings and the troparia of the 2nd part are read. On the 3rd song at the end of the 1st part there is also the Trinity, before which “Holy Trinity, our God, glory to Thee” is sung (before the Theotokos - also “Most Holy Theotokos, save us”).
Katavasia - only for the 3rd, 6th, 8th and 9th cantos, the same irmos (for the 3rd canto - 2nd irmos).
According to the 3rd song: sedalny Triodion.
Immediately after the sedals - the 2nd half of the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt.
On the 4th, 8th and 9th songs three songs are added. They are read before the hymn of the Great Canon. The Irmos of the Trisongs are omitted, and the troparia with the verse “Holy apostles, pray to God for us” are immediately read (all the troparias of the Trispes are dedicated to the apostles). Before the Mother of God we read the verse “Most Holy Theotokos, save us”, before the Trinity of the 2nd Trisong - “To the Most Holy Trinity, our God, glory to Thee” (according to the remark of the Typikon, among the Trisongs “Glory, even now, we do not say”).
According to the 6th song: kontakion “My soul...” (usually sung and in the church people kneel) and ikos. Immediately after the ikos, “Blessed” is sung with troparions (in practice, more often the choir sings only the verses of “Blessed”, and the reader reads the troparion; in some parishes, two readers read everything without the participation of the choir: one reads only the verses, the other - the troparia).
According to the 9th song: “It is worthy to eat...” is not sung in practice (although the Charter does not contain direct instructions on this).
The Lenten voices are luminous.
The end of Matins is according to the Lenten rite.
The prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian is said with 3 bows (there are no instructions about shortening bows; this is a popular and widespread practice).
On the clock
There is no kathisma at the 1st hour (!), during the remaining hours the kathismas are read without singing (i.e., “Glory” between kathismas is not sung, but read).
The Lenten troparia are read without singing and without bowing.
According to “Our Father...” Kontakion of the Great Canon “My Soul...”.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian with three bows (at the 1st hour the final Trisagion and “Lord, have mercy” are omitted 12 times, immediately after the bows the prayer “Christ, the true Light..." is read).
Release at the end of the 1st hour is daily. It is appropriate to commemorate the Venerable Andrew of Crete and Mary of Egypt during the holidays, since in the service (in the canon) there are hymns dedicated to them.
Fine
“Blessed” is read without singing, “Glory, even now”: “Remember us, Lord...” (read without bowing).
According to “Our Father...”: Kontakion of the Great Canon “My Soul...”.
After “God, gracious to us...” the priest says the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian with three bows, then the reader: “Amen,” “To the All-Holy Trinity...”.
Everyday leave (same as at the end of the 1st hour).
The last feature of this day is the obligatory celebration of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts for the sake of the Great Canon, which in itself has no features.
As already noted, if the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos or a church holiday occurs on Wednesday or Thursday of the 5th week of Great Lent, then the service of the Great Canon is moved to Tuesday. This option just happened in the current year 2022, then in the current 21st century the Annunciation will fall on Wednesday or Thursday of the 5th week five more times: in 2033, 2038, 2044, 2049 and 2060.
Along with the Great Canon itself, the chants associated with it are also moved to Tuesday: the stichera “alphabetically,” “Blessed,” and the kontakion “My Soul...”. It is also quite logical to postpone the reading of the life of the Venerable Mary to Tuesday, although the Typikon does not say a word about the transfer of the life. On the contrary, the daytime hymns of Thursday - the initial five stichera on “Lord, I cried...”, the sedal Triodion (located after the 3rd hymn of the canon), the three hymns and stichera on the Matins stichera - remain “in place” and are sung/read on Thursday along with the prayers of the holiday.
So, if the canon is moved to Tuesday, its hymns are combined with the daytime hymns of Tuesday of the 5th week. In general, the service layout is the same as on Thursday, so we will only note some details.
• Vespers on Monday is celebrated in the usual Lenten rite without connection with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. At Vespers, on “Lord, I have cried...” 27 stichera are sung: 3 ordinary stichera from the Triodion and 24 stichera of the Great Canon. It is more convenient to start verses from “Always disappear from me...”, so that the stichera of the Great Canon can be sung with those verses written in the Triodion. Entrance, unlike Wednesday evening, is not performed, although the same stichera “O ineffable condescension...” is sung on “And Now.” At the vespers stichera, the day's stichera are sung without changes.
• In the same way, instead of Great Compline, Little Compline is celebrated “in cells”; in practice it is omitted.
• At Matins, one ordinary kathisma is also read (we will say more about changes in the schedule of kathismas at the end of this paragraph), after which - sedalny from Octoechos with the martyr.
• The three-canticle is added at the beginning of the 2nd, 8th and 9th cantos, and the verse “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee” should be said to the troparions of the three-canticle (this chorus is always indicated for the 2nd canto, and we extend it to the 8th and 9th for uniformity).
• According to the 3rd song of the canon, by analogy with the Thursday service, the sedals are read, which in the Triodion itself are located according to the 2nd and 3rd verses. The scheme of their reading is as follows: sedal “With the warmth of faith...”, “Glory”: “Glorified grace...”, “And now”: “Irresistible prayer...”.
• At the 1st hour there is no kathisma.
• On Tuesday, for the sake of the canon, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated; on “Lord, I cried...”, as is customary for such a service, the stichera are sung at 10: Triodion - 6 and Menaion - 4. At the same time, stichera from the Triodion are first sung from the stichera, then similar ones from “Lord, I cried...”.
1) Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos on Thursday of the 5th week. For this case, Typikon offers the following schedule of kathismas.
Matins
1st hour
3rd hour
6th hour
9th hour
vespers
Saturday
–
–
–
–
1
Sunday
2, 3, 17
–
–
–
–
–
Monday
4, 5, 6
7
8
9
10
11
Tuesday
12
–
13
14
15
16
Wednesday
19, 20, 1
2
3
4
5
–
Thursday
6, 7, 8
9
10
11
12
–
Friday
13, 14, 15
–
19
20
–
18
Saturday
16, 17
–
–
–
–
We see that the following principles are implemented in the kathisma reading scheme:
• kathismas go in order (except for the usual exceptions: the 17th kathisma is skipped, the order of reading kathismas on Friday and Saturday changes), including at Vespers an ordinary kathisma is read.
• On the day of the service of the Great Canon, there should be only one kathisma at Matins, and no kathisma at the 1st hour.
• At Vespers the day before and on the Feast of the Annunciation itself there is no kathisma.
• To compensate for the cancellation of kathisma at Vespers on the Feast of the Annunciation, the reading of kathisma is added on Monday at the 1st hour (the only case in the Charter when there is a kathisma on Monday at the 1st hour). In addition, the 18th kathisma is read only once per week (since it is read more often in other weeks, its single reading on the 5th week as an exception is quite understandable).
2) Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos on Wednesday of the 5th week. This option is not in the Typikon, but it can be compiled based on the previous schedule. Since the holiday here falls on Wednesday, the kathismas at Vespers on Tuesday and Wednesday should be cancelled; on the contrary, the kathisma on Thursday evening must be read. In the same way, the kathisma at the 1st hour on Monday is preserved and the 18th kathisma will be read once. As a result, this schedule option will differ from the previous one only in the period from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening.
Matins
1st hour
3rd hour
6th hour
9th hour
vespers
Saturday
–
–
–
–
1
Sunday
2, 3, 17
–
–
–
–
–
Monday
4, 5, 6
7
8
9
10
11
Tuesday
12
–
13
14
15
–
Wednesday
16, 19, 20
1
2
3
4
–
Thursday
5, 6, 7
8
9
10
11
12
Friday
13, 14, 15
–
19
20
–
18
Saturday
16, 17
–
–
–
–
Note: