Removal of the Shroud at Vespers on Holy Friday

This rite is currently performed in different ways in different places of the Russian Church. In other places, the Shroud is placed in the middle of the church immediately after hours, and the people who have come to Vespers already see it lying on a special table set up for this occasion, kiss it and light candles even before the priest arrives. In particular, a similar preparation of the Shroud can be seen in the large Moscow Assumption Cathedral, although with rather interesting features. “At Vespers of the Great Heel,” we read in the book: “The order of priesthood and rituals observed in the large Assumption Cathedral,” the bishop, entering the church, ascended to the place, puts on Lenten vestments in the middle of the church and, having put on, goes to the tomb of the Savior with ripida and with candles, and, having arrived, censes the coffin three times, the same authorities, and, taking off his hat, he lifts the coffin with the authorities onto the frame, and carries it to the prepared place in front of the royal door, and places it there, he also enters the altar and censes the circle of the coffin three times, and the subdeacons with candlesticks walk around. Also the protodeacon: “Bless, lord.” Archimandrite: “Blessed be our God.” Vespers begin... According to the apostle, the protodeacon reads the Holy Gospel behind the Shroud... And in the verse there is a kissing and dismissal of vespers, according to the rite with the trikirias, the bishop kisses the ulcer in the rib and arm, seven in the legs, and packs in the hand, and the authorities just kiss the leg ulcer, and so do all those who have received it.” (Nikolsk. A manual for studying. Charter of theological rights. Church. St. Petersburg. 1874 ed. 3, p. 603, note 3). In other places, the removal takes place after vespers itself, during the singing of the stichera on the verse. This custom in the work of K. Nikolsky, already mentioned by us, is described as follows: “while singing the song: “Who is clothed with light, like a robe, Joseph will fall from the tree with Nicodemus,” which depicts the bewilderment of Joseph and Nicodemus, how they will bury the Lord, what robe they will wear, the priest, depicting Joseph of Arimathea, smells the Shroud lying on the throne, walking around it three times with censer. After the “Our Father,” when singing the troparion: “Blessed Joseph took down your most pure body from the tree, wrapped it in a clean shroud, and covered it with stinks in a new tomb,” the clergy, through the sacred rites themselves, depict what is sung in the troparion. They lift the Shroud onto the heads and, preceded by the deacons with incense, transfer it through the royal doors from the altar to the middle of the church. The head of the priests (and if the removal is carried out by one priest with a deacon, then the priest), in full vestments, carries under the Shroud the Gospel, which rests on the holy Shroud, after placing it in the prepared place in the middle of the church, depicting 1 by the fact that He who is laid in the tomb and entwined with the Shroud is the Word from the beginning (John 1:1). After bringing the Shroud to the middle of the church, after singing “Blessed Joseph,” the song for Glory and Now is sung: “To the Myrrh-Bearing Women.” It is, as it were, a continuation of the troparion “Blessed Joseph” (Handbook for study. Charter, p. 603). In some places, on this vespers, a transition is made from the warm church to the cold one and the shroud is transferred at the indicated time from the altar of the warm church to the middle of the cold church and placed here on the table near the royal doors 2. This duality of liturgical practice depends, without any doubt, on the fact that our modern Rule, or Typikon, does not say a single word regarding the removal of the Shroud at Vespers of Great Heel. This is both quite natural and not at all surprising for someone who is familiar with the fate of the modern Typikon; because the Jerusalem Rules, all the so-called everyday people, or monastic Rules, of ancient Rus' and even our old printed Rules know only one removal of the Shroud, and it was at Matins on Great Saturday, after the Great Doxology, about the removal of the Shroud at the time we describe, i.e., Good Friday at Vespers, all these Rules, in accordance with the ancient practice of the churches of Greece and the lands South Slavic ones are positively kept silent. Consequently, we must think that the custom we are considering began in the practice of our Church much later than 1682, or rather 1695, when our Church Charter, after it was corrected first under Patriarch Joachim and then under Patriarch Adrian, took on its present, unchanged composition and form. Therefore, in order to make a judgment about which of the two existing practices is more appropriate and historically correct, we must turn to a consideration of the sources of the origin of these customs in our liturgical practice and the reasons that contributed to their establishment here. The practice of the first kind (preparing the Shroud immediately after the hours or at the beginning of Vespers without any prayers) stems from attachment to the letter of the current Church Rule, which, as we have already said, is silent about the removal of the Shroud after Vespers on Good Friday. The priests, who do not want to disrupt the course of the rite of Vespers with customs and rituals not provided for by the Charter, prepare themselves or order the Shroud to be prepared without any religious ceremonies and church songs for their clergy and colleagues, assuming that in this case they remain faithful to the Charter, which, let’s say, not only does not require this preparation, but directly speaks of the removal of the Shroud on Saturday at Matins from the altar, where, as we will see later, according to the Charter, the Shroud should be prepared. As for the practice of the second kind (carrying out the Shroud during Vespers itself, while singing stichera on the stichera), it undoubtedly appeared in our country under the influence of the later practice of the Eastern churches. This is how this custom is practiced today in the Greek and Bulgarian churches. At Vespers of Great Heel, according to the current Statute of these churches, after “Grant the Lord” and the petitionary litany, at the exclamation of the priest, the protopsalt with the rest of the singers stands opposite the royal doors and begins to sing the stichera on the stichera: “When You were Dead from the Tree,” and so on. At this time, six priests, dressed in sacred clothes (ἑνδεδυσάμενοι μετά ἰερατικῆς στολῆς), leave the altar by the northern doors (καί ἑξέρχονται ἐις τήν πύλην τοῦ ἁριστεροῦ χόρου), carrying an epitaph on his head (according to the Bulgarian Typicon - pictorial on the Shroud burial, i.e. our Shroud). The singers walk ahead of the epitaph, continuing to sing the stichera on the stichera, followed by the mikiriy with a divanbol (Turkish word for candlestick), then the deacons with lamps and censers in their hands, and behind them the priests with the epitaph on their heads. As if bringing up the rear of the procession, behind the priests, the archimandrite walks with the gospel in his hands. The singers stop near the so-called edicule, and the epitaph is carried around the edicule three times and then placed inside it (ἔνδόν τοῦ κουβουκλίου). The portar (gatekeeper) appears and places live fragrant flowers on the epitaph. At this time, the patriarch, who did not participate in the removal of the Shroud from the altar, descends from his pulpit (ἐκ τοῦ θρόνου), approaches the edicule, makes an adoration to the epitaph, and then kisses it and, having blessed the people, retires to his place. The choir sings "ἐις πολλά ἔτη". The portarius gives the patriarch “fragrant flowers decorated (with a special arrangement”), that is, something like bouquets of flowers. Then, two in a row, the remaining bishops present in the church, priests, church dignitaries (ἐκκλησιαστηκοί ὀφικίαλοι) approach the edicule, bow, kiss the epitaph and, having received flowers from the hands of the patriarch, retire to their places. During all this time, the second face sings glory and now “Who is clothed with You.” After this, the reading of “Now You Absolve”, the Trisagion, “The Most Holy Trinity” and “Our Father” and the singing, at the exclamation of the priest, of the troparions: “Blessed Joseph” and “To the Myrrh-Bearing Women” and the usual dismissal of Vespers ends. (Constitution of the church. according to the order of Christ. great. church. Constant. ed. 2 Georg. K. Protopsaltov. 1860, p. 291). If we now exclude from the description of the rite we have presented - the removal of the Shroud at Vespers on Friday of Holy Week, the distribution of flowers by the patriarch, which in our Rus', especially in the north, would be far out of season, if we ignore for a while the difference in the removal of the Shroud through the northern doors, which is done, it should be noted, in some churches in our Rus', and not through the royal doors, as we said above, and if, finally, the removal of the Shroud Let us transfer to the singing of the troparion: “Good-looking Joseph,” then the practice regarding this custom in our Church will be positively identical with the practice of the Eastern Churches and the dependence of the former on the latter will become quite obvious. Consequently, if it is necessary to pronounce a judgment on the merits of this or that practice regarding the carrying of the Shroud at Vespers on Good Friday, then our sympathies will be on the side of the practice of the second kind, that is, to carry it out during the singing of the troparion: “Glorious Joseph,” or much better, for complete agreement with the practice of the Eastern churches, during the singing of stichera on the stichera. The singing of the troparion: “Good-looking Joseph,” after placing the Shroud in the prepared place, will be in harmony with the very content of the troparion, which says that good-looking Joseph, having taken the Most Pure Body from the tree and wrapped it in a clean Shroud, “covered it in a new tomb, and laid it.” This practice, or the ritual of bringing the Shroud to Vespers, while singing stichera on the stichera, deserves full attention from the current spiritual authorities and priests, not only because the touching picture of carrying the Shroud on the heads of priests, with the harmonious melodic singing of sublime and beautiful stichera on the stichera, produces a deep religious impression on the worshipers, which touches the most sensitive strings of their hearts and causes them sincere tears, but also because also that this rite is in complete agreement with the practice of the Eastern Churches, on which our liturgical practice has been completely dependent throughout the entire history of worship in our Church and from whose influence, although unspoken, has not been freed, as the custom we describe shows, to this day. This practice, being in many respects in agreement with the practice of the Eastern Churches, was approved by the most famous high priest of the Russian Church, the late Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret (Moscow diocesan journal, 1876, No. 50 p. 441), many Russian hierarchs who issued their own orders regarding this custom, when the removal of the Shroud had to be done not on the feast of the Annunciation, which occurs on Good Friday (Lithuanian diocesan history, 1877, No. 9, p. 67; Izv. on the Kazan dioceses, 1877, No. 1, p. 15; No. 3, p. 64; Моск. епарх. вед. 1870 г. № 14; Астрах. епарх. вед. 1877 г. № 10; Яросл. епарх. вед. 1877 г. № 2; Тавр. епарх вед. 1877 г. №4; Мин. епарх. вед. 1877 г. № 2, Рязан. епарх. вед. 1877 г. № 14; Харьков. епарх. вед. 1877 г. стр. 168; Смолен. епарх. вед. 1877 г. № 4; Сам. епарх. вед. 1877 г. № 5; Тамб. епарх. вед. 1877 г. № 5; Тульск. епарх. вед. 1877 No. 4) and, finally, even officially approved with some peculiarities by the Holy Governing Synod in 1855 by a special decree (Nikolsk. allowance for the study of the constitution of theological law. Church. p. 604). We can only wish, therefore, that this practice would be adopted in the near future on the pages of our Typikon and thereby eliminate the very numerous cases of evasion from it. Even a superficial review of the above quotes from the diocesan bulletins will fully confirm this latter. The future editor of our church charter, introducing this quite wonderful custom in itself, consistent with the practice of the Eastern Churches and approved by our highest church sanction, the Holy Synod, will remain completely faithful to his historical calling - to harmonize our liturgical practice with the practice of the Eastern Churches. At the same time, he should not forget all those special cases, such as, for example, the coincidence of the service of the Feast of the Annunciation with the service of Great Heel, when real practice requires special adaptations that can be found in the contemporary charter of the Eastern churches and the above-mentioned Decree of 1855. We will say a detailed word about them in due time. The absence of indications in the statute itself on these special cases and on adapting the liturgical practice of our Church to them can always give rise to misunderstandings and difficulties in practice (see the indicated quotes in the diocesan ed.) and even contradictory orders of the same diocesan authority (Izvestia on the Kazan dioceses, 1877, No. 1, p. 15 and No. 3, p. 63). We are no longer talking about the contradiction of all these orders in most cases with the Decree of 1855. All this will be eliminated by the future editor of our Typikon, if he, when entering this custom on its pages, uses the data we have indicated. Summarizing all that has been said, we must come to the following conclusions: The custom of bringing the Shroud to Vespers on Good Friday came to us, undoubtedly, under the influence of the practice of the Eastern Churches around the beginning of the 18th century. The removal of the Shroud, in accordance with the practice of the Eastern Churches and in pursuance of the Decree of the Holy Synod of 1855, must certainly be carried out in all churches after Vespers itself, and not before Vespers or after hours directly, as is done in some places. The very rite of removing the Shroud should be performed either, in accordance with the practice of the Eastern Churches, during the singing of the stichera: “For you who is clothed,” or, as we have already established in practice in many places in Russia and approved by the Holy Synod, during the singing of the troparion: “Blessed Joseph.” In this case, care must be taken that the singing of the troparion is drawn out and the priest must finish taking out the Shroud and place it in the prepared place before singing the final words of the troparion: “and having covered it in a new tomb, put it.” Finally, the removal of the Shroud from the altar to the middle of the church should be carried out not through the royal doors, as is done in most cases among us, but through the northern ones (εἰς τήν πύλην τοῦ ἀριστεροῦ χόρου), as the Charter of the Eastern Churches requires this, from from whom we borrowed this ritual. The bringing out of the Gospel, in this case, is no more and no less than a direct imitation of the bringing out of the Shroud at Matins on Holy Saturday, after the Great Word of Words, as prescribed by the Church Charter. The custom in the churches of the southwestern region to surround the Shroud around the church behind this vespers (Indication of shrines and sacred venerables of Kiev. Ed. 7, 1881, p. 230) does not have any historical data or statutory grounds behind it. You might be interested in: