MANTIS RELIGIOSA

Liturgy of Chrysostomos, The Golden-Mouthed

MANTIS RELIGIOSA | FILM

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Валаамская Литургия св. Иоанна Златоустого

The Valaam Liturgy of St.John Chrysostom [↓]

Иеродиакон Герман (Рябцев)

Иерей:
Благословенно Царство Отца, и Сына, и Святого Духа, и ныне и присно, и во веки веков.

Хор:
Аминь

Диакон:
Миром Господу помолимся

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О свышнем мире и спасении душ наших Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О мире всего мира, благостоянии Святых Божиих Церквей и соединении всех Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О святем храме сем и с верою, благоговением и страхом Божиим входящих в онь Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О Великом Господине и Отце нашем Святейшем Патриархе Алексии, о Господине нашем Преосвященнейшем митрополите (или: архиепископе, или: епископе) (имя рек), честнем пресвитерстве, во Христе диаконстве, о всем причте и людех Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О Богохранимей стране нашей, властех и воинстве ея Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О граде сем (или: веси сей; если в монастыре, то: о святей обители сей), всяком граде, стране и верою живущих в них Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О благорастворении воздухов, о изобилии плодов земных и временех мирных Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О плавающих, путешествующих, недугующих, страждущих, плененных и о спасении их Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
О избавитися нам от всякия скорби, гнева и нужды Господу помолимся.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
Заступи, спаси, помилуй и сохрани нас, Боже, Твоею благодатию.

Хор:
Господи, помилуй.

Диакон:
Пресвятую, Пречистую, Преблагословенную, Славную Владычицу нашу Богородицу и Приснодеву Марию, со всеми святыми помянувше, сами себе и друг друга, и весь живот наш (всю жизнь нашу) Христу Богу предадим.

Хор:
Тебе, Господи.

Иерей:
Яко подобает Тебе всякая слава, честь и поклонение. Отцу, и Сыну, и Святому Духу, ныне и присно, и во веки веков.

Хор:
Аминь.

Liturgy of the Catechumens

The Deacon goeth out from the Bema, and standing in the accustomed place, and adoring thrice, saith,
Bless, Master.
The Priest aloud:
– Blessed be the kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to the ages of ages.
The Choir: Amen.
The Deacon, or if there be none, the Priest:
– In peace let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir.: Kyrie eleison.
– For the peace from above, and the salvation of our souls, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– For the peace of the whole world, the welfare of the Holy Churches of God, and the union of them all, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– For this holy house, and them that with faith, reverence, and fear of God, enter into it, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– For our Archbishop (name,) the honourable Presbytery, the Diaconate in Christ, all the clergy and the people, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– For our most religious kings, in the keeping of God, all their court and their army, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– That He would fight with them, and put down every enemy and foe under their feet, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– For this holy abode (name,) every city, county, and the faithful dwelling in them, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– For favourable weather, plenty of the fruits of the earth, and peaceful times, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– For them that travel by land or by water, sick persons, labourers, and prisoners, and their salvation, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– That He would deliver us from all trouble, wrath, peril, and want, let us pray of the Lord.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– Help, save, pity, and guard us, O God, by Thy grace.
The Choir: Kyrie eleison.
– Commemorating our most holy, pure, most blessed, glorious Lady, the Mother of God, and ever-virgin Mary, with all the Saints, let us commend ourselves and each other, and our whole life, to Christ our God.
The Choir: To Thee, O Lord.
The Priest, aloud:
– For to Thee is due all glory, honour, and worship, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now, and ever, and to ages of ages.
The Choir:⁠ Amen.

The Liturgy

The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is the most celebrated divine liturgy in the Byzantine Rite. It is named after its core part, the anaphora attributed to Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople in the 5th century.
It reflects the work of the Cappadocian Fathers to both combat heresy and define Trinitarian theology for the Christian Church. This liturgy was probably used originally by the School of Antioch (John having been a deacon and priest in Antioch) and, therefore, most likely developed from West Syriac liturgical rites. In Constantinople, it was refined and beautified under John’s guidance as Archbishop (398–404). As a divine liturgy of the Church of Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, it became over time the usual divine liturgy in the churches within the Byzantine Empire. Just two divine liturgies (aside from the presanctified), those of Saints John and Basil the Great, became the norm in the Byzantine Church by the end of the reign of Justinian I. After the Quinisext Council and the liturgical reforms of Patriarch Theodore Balsamon, the Byzantine Rite became the only rite in the Eastern Orthodox Church, remaining so until the 19th and 20th Century re-introduction by certain jurisdictions of Western Rites.
The liturgy of Chrysostom was translated into Latin by Leo Tuscus in the 1170s.

St. John Chrysostom
archbishop of Constantinople
Born: 347 Antioch Turkey
Died: September 14, 407 (aged 60) Comana Turkey

St. John Chrysostom, (born 347 CE, Antioch, Syria—died September 14, 407, Comana, Helenopontus; Western feast day September 13; Eastern feast day November 13), early Church Father, biblical interpreter, and archbishop of Constantinople. The zeal and clarity of his preaching, which appealed especially to the common people, earned him the Greek surname meaning “golden-mouthed.” His tenure as archbishop was stormy, and he died in exile. His relics were brought back to Constantinople about 438, and he was later declared a doctor (teacher) of the church.

Early life

John was the son of a high-ranking military officer and was raised as a Christian by his widowed mother. Although he studied law under a distinguished pagan rhetorician, Libanius, he gave up his profession to study theology, ultimately becoming an ascetic hermit-monk. When his health gave way, he returned to Antioch and became an ordained deacon in 381 and a priest in 386. Over the next 12 years he established himself as a great preacher, and his homilies (sermons) were well regarded. In 387 John calmed the riotous citizens of Antioch, who had treated the images of the sacred emperors with disrespect and were threatened with reprisals, with a famous course of sermons known as “the homilies on the statues.” His brilliant exposition and moral teaching have the note of universality; his words remain forceful, and his humorous sallies are still as pungent as when they provoked laughter in the congregations of Antioch and Constantinople. He was concerned, above all, for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the needy and oppressed. He was not alone among the early Fathers in speaking out against the abuse of wealth. He believed that personal property is not strictly private but a trust. In his eloquent, moving, and repeated insistence on almsgiving, he frequently taught that what was superfluous to one’s reasonable needs ought to be given away.

Archbishop of Constantinople

In 398 John was called to Constantinople to be its archbishop, much against his will. There he gained a large following among the people, but his teachings on the misuse of riches angered the wealthy and influential. An unscrupulous alliance against him was made by Eudoxia, the wife of the Eastern Roman emperor Arcadius, and the archbishop of the rival see of Alexandria, the powerful Theophilus. In 403 Theophilus convened a synod of disaffected or subservient Syrian and Egyptian bishops at The Oak, across the Bosporus. This gathering indicted John on a large number of charges, many of which were purely frivolous or vexatious. John refused to appear before the synod, whereupon it condemned him and professed to depose him from his see. The emperor Arcadius therefore banished him from the city, recalled him at once, and finally banished him again the following year. He was kept in confinement at Cucusus in Armenia.

John appealed his banishment to the bishop of Rome, Pope Innocent I; the latter, with the help of the Western emperor Honorius, attempted to intervene, but his efforts were brought to nothing by John’s enemies. In exile, however, John found it possible to keep up a lively correspondence with his supporters and was still able to exert a measure of influence in his cause. He was to be removed to an even more remote place at the eastern end of the Black Sea, but he did not survive the exhausting journey. The official rehabilitation of John Chrysostom came about 31 years later, when his relics were brought from Comana to Constantinople and were solemnly received by the archbishop Proclus and the emperor Theodosius II, son of Arcadius and Eudoxia.


Significance and works

John Chrysostom was not outstanding as a theologian nor as a theological writer; it has been said that a detailed history of Christian theology could be written without mentioning his name. He was a superb orator though. In his sermons he seldom used allegory but spoke plainly and combined penetration into the meaning of Scripture with a genius for its personal application. Each of his sermons had its moral or social lesson. His works consist of a large number of scriptural homilies and other sermons, together with some treatises and letters.

The most frequently used of the three eucharistic services of the Eastern Orthodox Church is called the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, but the evidence that he had anything to do with its composition is unconvincing. The Prayer of St. John Chrysostom in The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England is taken from this liturgy, hence the attribution of the prayer.

Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa)

MANTIS, an insect belonging to the order Orthoptera. Probably no other insect has been the subject of so many and widespread legends and superstitions as the common “praying mantis,” Mantis religiosa”. The ancient Greeks endowed it with supernatural powers (μάντις, a diviner); the Turks and Arabs hold that it prays constantly with its face turned towards Mecca; the Provençals call it Prega-Diou (Prie-Dieu); and numerous more or less similar names—preacher, saint, nun, mendicant, soothsayer, etc.—are widely diffused throughout southern Europe. In Nubia it is held in great esteem, and the Hottentots, if not indeed worshipping the local species (M. fausta), as one traveller has alleged, at least appear to regard its alighting upon any person both as a token of saintliness and an omen of good fortune.

Yet these are “not the saints but the tigers of the insect world.” The front pair of limbs are very peculiarly modified—the coxa being greatly elongated, while the strong third joint or femur bears on its curved underside a channel armed on each edge by strong movable spines. Into this groove the stout tibia is capable of closing like the blade of a penknife, its sharp, serrated edge being adapted to cut and hold. Thus armed, with head raised upon the much-elongated and semi-erect prothorax, and with the half-opened fore-limbs held outwards in the characteristic devotional attitude, it rests motionless upon the four posterior limbs waiting for prey, or occasionally stalks it with slow and silent movements, finally seizing it with its knife-blades and devouring it. Although apparently not daring to attack ants, these insects destroy great numbers of flies, grasshoppers and caterpillars, and the larger South-American species even attack small frogs, lizards and birds. They are very pugnacious, fencing with their sword-like limbs “like hussars with sabres,” the larger frequently devouring the smaller, and the females the males. The Chinese keep them in bamboo cages, and match them like fighting-cocks.

The common species fixes its somewhat nut-like egg capsules on the stems of plants in September. The young are hatched in early summer, and resemble the adults, but are without wings.

The green coloration and shape of the typical mantis are procryptic, serving to conceal the insect alike from its enemies and prey. The passage from leaf to flower simulation is but a step which, without interfering with the protective value of the coloration so far as insectivorous foes are concerned, carries with it the additional advantage of attracting flower-feeding insects within reach of the raptorial limbs. This method of allurement has been perfected in certain tropical species of Mantidae by the development on the prothorax and raptorial limbs of laminate expansions so coloured on the under side as to resemble papilionaceous or other blossoms, to which the likeness is enhanced by a gentle swaying kept up by the insect in imitation of the effect of a lightly blowing breeze. As instances of this may be cited Idalum diabolicum, an African insect, and Gongylus gongyloides, which comes from India. Examples of another species (Empusa eugena) when standing upon the ground deceptively imitate in shape and hue a greenish white anemone tinted at the edges with rose; and Bates records what appears to be a true case of aggressive mimicry practised by a Brazilian species which exactly resembles the white ants it preys upon.

1911 Britannica