Service books

Liturgical books are divided into sacred and liturgical and church-liturgical .

Holy Liturgical Books

These are books from the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, adapted for liturgical use:

• The gospel is the most revered book in the church . According to the format, the liturgical gospel is altarless and demanding ;
• Apostle (book) . The liturgical Gospel and the Apostle , in addition to dividing into ordinary chapters and verses, are also divided into special sections called “ quays ”, the numbers of which, according to the celebration of the coming days of Easter , the month of the word , the different faces of the saints and the private trebes , are placed in the appendices of both of these books , with detailed pointers also: prokimnas , alleluiarians , sacraments and liturgical antiphons to them;
• Psalm . Currently, the Divine Service is actively using, mainly, the so-called Lesser Psalter , all of whose psalms are grouped into 20 Kathism . In the Russian and some other Slavic Orthodox local churches, there is a fairly voluminous Psalter , which consists of five parts: 1) Small Psalter , 2) Book of hours , 3) Mesyatseslov , 4) Canon , 5) Semidnev . However, most of the psalmists (often women) at parish choirs prefer to use more compact books and manuals. Owing to the special love of Christians for the Psalms, this is the only book of the Old Testament, which has invariably become the most important liturgical book of Christians, passages from which are repeatedly used by them daily in their services;
• Unused now:
  • Old Testament Scrolls . The first Christians were Jews who for some time still continued to punctually observe all the instructions of the Old Testament religion, including reading and thorough study of all the Holy Books of the Old Testament. The sacred texts of the Old Testament traditionally continued to be written on curling scrolls (the books of the New Testament were immediately written on more convenient bound codes similar to modern books to us). The number of scrolls was large (they were made small, so that when they were rewound, they were less torn). All books of the Old Testament were read in order for 3.5 years (half of the seven-year “ Saturday cycle ”), but the most important (with the prophecies of the Savior ) places were often repeated, especially on the occasion of certain Christian holidays.
  • Apracos (in the Catholicism the Gospel ) is a type of Lecturer ^{[1] [2]} - a collection of passages from the Gospel (sometimes from other scriptures ) arranged in the order of annual festive liturgical readings.
  • Parimeynik ("Profitology" ^{[3] [4]} ). Initially, the authority of the Old Testament books was even higher than the New Testament epistles ( Col. 4:16 ) and the Gospel (in view of the many unverified heretical apocrypha that appeared ) ^[5] . With the increase in the number of New Testament Christian prayers, chants and teachings, the Old Testament readings were reduced, from which only the most valuable places began to be chosen - the parishes , which later became included in Minea and the Triode . All these paremias with the additions of various prayers and teachings were gathered in a paremenik , but it was not further distributed.

Church and service books

Much later, the Holy Liturgical Books began to appear and gradually streamline the Church Liturgical books . Their number is not exactly determined:

• The Typikon , in Slavonic “Charter,” recommends an ideal example of the conduct of monastery services;
• The pathologist ( Τροπολόγιον ) is a single complex of Sunday and holiday chants of the tropic - elemental type, presumably in the 7th century decaying into Minea (texts of the fixed annual circle of worship), Triode (texts of the moving Easter circle) and Oktoikh (texts of the weekly circle) ^[6] . Later there appeared another liturgical collection of troparia - “Troparion" ^[7] , adapted for singing on crowded choirs ;
• Oktoikh (the book) has Sunday , weekly and Saturday services of eight alternating voices (versions of texts with their own tunes). For convenience, Oktoikh is divided into two almost identical books: 1) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 4th , and 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th ;
• The monthly Minea contains services of enduring holidays with saints for every day of the year. They are divided into 12 books according to the number of months in a year : for some months there may be two, or even three voluminous books;
• The festive Minea incorporated from the Monthly Minea service only the most significant holidays;
• Minea common contains services of the same type to various saints . In General Minea , divine services can be performed for those saints who have not yet been written, or have not been approved by the Publishing Council , or a separate service has not been disseminated enough;
• Additional Minea ^[8] contains services for the newly-glorified saints, not yet included (or recently included) in the Monthly Minea;
• The triode contains the follow-up services of passing holidays and fasts. The triode consists of two books: 1) The Lenten Triode , used from the Publican and Pharisee Week , the whole Great Lent until Great Saturday inclusive, and 2) The Color Triode , used from Easter to All Saints Week ;
• Irmology contains chants used by church choirs from various liturgical books. Urmology using ancient musical signs of znamenny singing is considered a liturgical book , and with modern notes it sometimes already refers to liturgical aids. Previously, there were many diverse liturgical books used in church singing: “ Akolufii ” - Greek. Ἀκολουθίαι, Ἀκολουθιών - followings, " Everyday Life " ^[9] , "Psalter" - Greek. Ψαλτικόν , "Asmatikon" - Greek. Ἀσματικόν ^[10] , "Papadiki" - Greek. Παπαδική , "Anastasimatarius" - Greek. Ἀναστασιματάριον , "Anphology" - Greek. Ἀνθολογία , "Doxastarius" - Greek. Ϫοξαστάριον , “The Verse ”, “The Kondakar” (“Ikimatariy”), “The God-Singer”, “The Reluctant”, “The Descendant” , and others. " Antiphonary " - another ancient ^[11] sheet music liturgical book is now used only in Catholicism;
• Troparion contains troparia , kondakas , theotokos , majesties and some other prayers. It is convenient for use at the Liturgy , prayers , hours , akathists and in home prayers. Due to the emergence of troparia by the newly saints, it is regularly supplemented;
• The bishop's clergyman is published in two (sometimes three) books, contains various orders of bishop's services;
• Servant - a service book with the prayers of priests and deacons . According to the format, the clerk can be a miniature pocket , easily fit in the pocket of the cassock , and with a large font - analogue , opened for convenience on the analogue in the altar at the throne . For Greek-speaking Orthodox, the ministry is called Euchology (from the Greek Prayer Book ), which contains prayers and ordering that are inherent in Russians not only to the ministry , but also to the requisitioners . For the convenience of the clergy during the service, the order is: 1) The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom , 2) The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great , 3) The Follower of the Vespers and Matins , 4) The Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts , contained in the priest , often published in separate small books. There are also such variants of the Servant as the "Lenten servant" ;
• The book contains prayers of the rites of private worship services ( Sacraments and Orthodox rites ). By format, the Trebnik is Big and Small, in two, three, four, and even five books (parts). The abridged requirement is also the Follow-up of prayer songs (or the Book of prayer songs ). From the composition of modern Trebniks, the Chin sequence of the unbelievers to the Orthodox Church (due to anathematisms ), the Chin action, how the Highest E.I.Coronation, and some other ranks that were previously printed by separate, beautifully decorated, liturgical books , were excluded now out of use. Attempts have been made ^[12] to recognize as a full-fledged liturgical book the code of church rules Nomokanon (in the Russian editions the Pilot Book ), which is closely adjacent to Trebnik;
• The Hourly Book contains unchanged prayer texts for the daily worship circle (excluding priestly prayers). The Book of Hours may be the second part of the Following Psalms;
• The canon contains selected canons, akathists, prayers of the daily monastic prayer rule and Prayers for Holy Communion . Therefore, variations in composition of the Canon can be called: Pravilnik , Akathist , Prayer book , Priestly prayer book ^[13] , Mother of God - canons of the Mother of God for every day ^[14] , and other liturgical books and manuals used more in private, home ( cell ), than general church ( temple ) services;
• Sinaksar , Prologue (book) , Paterik , Lives of the Saints , Lives of the Saints , Pilot , Lavsaik , Ladder and other collections of teachings and sermons , according to the Charter , should be read during Orthodox divine services. Due to the fact that at present the readings at church services have almost completely disappeared, some of these liturgical books have actually turned into the category of soulful instructive literature, read only at monastery / seminar meals and in cells.

Litigation aids

Even later, including in our time, various new books and manuals are being compiled, actively used in Orthodox worship, but not having the status of canonical liturgical books, for example:

• Liturgical directions ^[15] ;
• Orthodox calendar ;
• Orthodox liturgical collection ^[16] ;
• The use of church singing ^[17] ;
• " Services of the first week of Great Lent ";
• " Services of the Holy Week ";
• “The great canon of Andrew of Crete. Marino Standing. The Twelve Holy Gospels ”;
• " The rite of Passion with the akathist Divine Passion of Christ " ^[18]
• “ Follow-up to the Holy and Great Easter Week ”;
• “The Day of the Holy Trinity. The Great Vespers, Matins, Liturgy, Vespers for Prayer for the Sake of the Kneeling (in Church Slavonic) ”;
• “ Service to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The rank of burial ";
• various teaching aids , textbooks , cheat sheets , including electronic tips, on the liturgy ;
• and others.

Divisions of Liturgical Books

Modern liturgist A.S. Kashkin divides all liturgical books into three groups:

1. Books containing daily circle services : Servant, Clerk of the Bishop's Clergy, Watch Book and Psalter Following (Part II) .
2. Books containing the prayers of the weekly service cycle : Oktoih and the Psalter Following (Part I) .
3. Books containing liturgical texts of the annual circle (as well as instructions regarding the performance of these services): Minea (all its types), Lenten Triode, Color Triode, Gospel, Apostle, Typicon .

Irmology stands apart, since this book contains selective chants of all three circles of worship ^[19] .

• Family collections

• Vasiliev P.P. Liturgical books // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Petrovsky A.V. Liturgical books // Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia / Edited by Professor A.P. Lopukhin . - SPb. : Edition of Petrograd. Appendix to the spiritual journal " Wanderer ", 1901. - T. II. - Stb. 825-843

• Translation of liturgical books
• Scanned liturgical books (almost all) in pdf format.