Part 3 historical prospective of the liturgy iconostas
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Historical prospective of the liturgy
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Part 3 historical prospective of the liturgy iconostas
- 1. Historical Prospective of the Liturgy-Part III DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM ICONOSTAS ipodiakonos zoran j. bobic
- 2. Iconostas – Meaning… Sanctuary is the dwelling-place of God on earth; It is Holy by the Eucharistic presence of Christ himself; We call it: “Holy Place” or “Holy of Holies”; Iconostas: a). Royal Doors (Holy Doors) b). Deacon’s Doors Iconostas: it bears representations of the inhabitants of heaven, of which the sanctuary is a symbol; Iconostas: is far from meaning of being static or symbolic; Iconostas: primary role is dynamic, functional and separates the sanctuary from the body of the Church;
- 3. Iconostas – History… Origin: Church of Syria, where veil hid the sanctuary (close to 4th century); St. John Chrysostom speaks in Antioch about the veil in A.D. 390; Veil was introduced to “hide” and “separate” form faithful; After Arian controversy and Nicaean dogma even more to “hide”; Iconostas has an architectural parent: the “Cancelli”; “Cancelli” – found in 4th century: Rome, Syria and Palestine; “Cancelli” – trellis wall of marble, 3-5 ft. high dividing sanctuary; The present iconostas, carefully prescribed arrangement was Introduced in the early 14th century;
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Because the sanctuary is the dwelling-place of God on earth and is made holy by the Eucharistic presence of Christ himself, the Byzantine Church calls it the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. That is why it is separated from the church proper by the iconostas, a solid, richly ornamented screen, covered with icons. The iconostas represents one of the main differences between the Latin and the Byzantine Churches in their approach to God. There are three openings in the iconostas. At the center, the double doors are called Royal Doors or Holy Doors because at the Eucharistic Liturgy the King of Glory comes forth through them to feed his flock with his own body and blood. Only the ordained may pass through them, and only at the proper points of the divine services as indicated by the rubrics. On the sides are the smaller, Deacon's Doors, used mostly by deacons during the services. The iconostas bears representations of the inhabitants of heaven, of which the sanctuary is a symbol. More specifically, the iconostas represents the general judgment. As Christ in his glory is surrounded by rows of heavenly beings on the iconostas, so at the Last Judgment Christ, surrounded by the choirs of angels, will come to judge the living and the dead, to separate those who will live eternally in heaven from those who will be excluded from it forever. The meaning of the iconostas, however, is far from merely static or symbolic : its primary role is dynamic, functional; it separates the sanctuary, the Holy Place, the Holy of Holies from the body of the church. As only the ordained were allowed to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple at Jerusalem, now none of the faithful are permitted into the sanctuary unless they are appointed to serve there. No woman, whatever her age or social position, may enter the sanctuary at any time.
- Besides emphasizing the awesome sacredness of the sanctuary as the abode of Christ in the Eucharist, the iconostas ' hides ' this holy place (and all the sacred Mysteries taking place within it) from our unworthy eyes. We cannot appreciate the true significance of the iconostas unless we understand the theology, the devotional tradition and spirituality which induced it. Its origin goes back to the churches of Syria where a veil hid the sanctuary at the close of the fourth century already. When he speaks of to the Divine Liturgy at Antioch about A.D. 390, St. John Chrysostom refers to the veil used there as if it were an established custom : " ... When you hear, ' Let us all entreat together ... ', when you see the veil drawn aside ... then bethink you that heaven is rent asunder from above and the angels are descending. " The true explanation for this veil is not the Old Testament precedent (except perhaps only indirectly) but the idea, the whole frame of mind regarding the Sacrament being " terrifying" or " awful " emphasized in Syrian devotion by the language of fear in the sermons of the time; thus, we witness the use of such expressions by Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and others. In Syrian tradition, the notion of " the holy" had long been associated with that of" the dangerous. " Because of the terror inspired by the Eucharist, combined with its mystery, veils were introduced to hide and separate it from the faithful. After the Arian controversy and the Nicaean dogma, fuller appreciation of the divinity of Christ also had much to do with the hiding of the Eucharist. Because of the greater awareness of who Christ was, the familiar approach of Mary Magdalen and the Samaritan woman disappeared. Furthermore, at the time of mass-conversions, both the established faithful and the clergy considered that the bulk of these new Christians was not worthy to indulge in that familiarity with holy things to which the small Christian flock had been entitled in the days of the persecutions. The iconostas has an architectural parent : the cancelli, or chancel, found in fourth century churches in Rome, Syria and Palestine. It probably originated from the same sense of fear and consisted in a trellis wall of marble, some three to five feet high; dividing the sanctuary from the rest of the church and pierced with gates. When Justinian rebuilt the incomparable cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during the first half of the sixth century, he somewhat modified the original cancelli. ' The Hagia Sophia has a straight, uninterrupted low wall running along a very large sanctuary or bema, and three doors follow each other in a row. On top of this low wall was a row of silver columns which in turn supported a trabes or beam, running the entire width of the sanctuary and surmounted with statues of the Twelve Apostles. The trabes also supported the curtain and its rod. Many churches of the Byzantine world, in Serbia, Rumania, the Ukraine, and Russia, imitated in one way or another the " great church" of Hagia Sophia. The space between the doors was still left open. If icons were used, they were placed on the crown of the wall or on top of the beam, but this came much later. The solid partition characteristic of the Byzantine iconostas took centuries to develop. The present carefully prescribed arrangement seems to have been introduced early in the fourteenth century in the richly wooded areas around Novgorod where the inhabitants were fine carvers. The Novgorodian iconographers were masters of their art and endowed with an exceptional sense of color. Their school of icon painting is the chief glory of Russian art. The Novgorodians' deep love of icons probably led them to give the iconostas an additional purpose-as a place to hang icons. Its ornateness did not detract from the original purpose of the waist-high barrier made of columns found in early Greek churches; if anything, it emphasized it. The desire for greater adornment extended throughout Russia and the Ukraine, so that within a century or two, the iconostas became almost exactly what it is today. Behind the idea of the iconostas and all its implications is the notion of the awesome Godhead, the Pantocrator, the Heavenly Tsar, the Lawgiver and Judge-combined with that of the repentant humiliation of fallen man striving for ascetic purification. The consuming fire of the unutterable Yahweh became tolerable only through the veil of the iconostas. Greek iconostases are generally lower than the Russian or Ukrainian where icons are arranged according to a definite plan or order and in rows or tiers. No set number of these tiers is prescribed; they may range from one to six (depending on the height of the iconostas) but the usual number is four. The bottom row has the iccn of the Saviour immediately to the right of the holy doors (the epistle side in Latin churches) and next to it, the deacon's south door, then the iccn of the patron saint of the church. Immediately to the left of the holy doors is the icon of the Mother of God, then the deacon's north door, finally the icon of St. Nicholas of Myra. If the patron of the church happens to be St. Nicholas, the icon of St. John the Baptist is placed there, while that of St. Nicholas is placed where the patron of the church should be. Usually, smaller churches have only this bottom row of icons and an image of the Last Supper over the holy doors. The more elaborate iconostases of the larger churches have more rows or tiers, the second of which has the following arrangement: above the holy doors, a large icon of the Last Supper; to its left and right, twelve icons depicting the twelve major feasts of the Lord and his Mother. The icon of the Last Supper has this place of honor above the holy doors to remind the faithful that those wishing to gain entrance into the Kindgom of heaven must be accounted worthy to partake of the Lord's Supper prepared behind those doors and given to the faithful in front of them. In the third tier or row stand the icons of the twelve Apostles with Christ as King and High Priest in the center. The icons of the fourth tier are usually of the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament. Surmounting the iconostas and in its center is the crucifixion scene: the crucified Christ, his Mother, and St. John the Apostle standing by the cross. On the holy doors themselves, which represent the gates of heaven, is the scene of the Annunciation, the prelude to man's redemption and salvation; also, icons of the four evangelists who, like the archangel Gabriel, announced to the world the "good news" of the Saviour. On the deacons' doors are depicted either angels, messengers of God, sent to serve all wishing to attain salvation or· holy deacons, earthly counterparts of angels, who have charge of the sanctuary into which those doors lead. Many Ukrainian churches, however, have an icon of St. Stephen, the first deacon, on the north door and that of St. Lawrence or an angel on the southdoor.