Eastern liturgical rites

Eastern liturgical rites - liturgical rites in Christianity that arose and were traditionally used in the East of the Christian world , including in the territory of the former Eastern Roman Empire ( Byzantium ).

Unlike the western part of the empire, where the Roman ( Latin ) rite prevailed, while the other rites were much inferior to it and limited to small territories or individual monastic orders, in the East, seven powerful liturgical traditions developed from the ancient times, which it is customary to reduce into two families or traditions - Antioch and Alexandria.

• Antioch tradition
  • West Syrian group
    • West Syrian rite (Syro-Antioch)
    • Maronite rite
  • Syro-Asian group
    • Byzantine rite
    • Armenian rite
  • East Syrian Group
    • East Syrian Rite (Chaldean)
• Alexandria tradition
  • Coptic Rite
  • Ethiopian Rite

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church uses a variation of the East Syrian rite. Sometimes the rite of this church is distinguished from the Chaldean proper and is considered a separate Syro-Malabar rite as part of the East Syrian group. Also, the rite of another Indian East Catholic church, the Syro-Malankar , a number of researchers distinguishes from the West Syrian.

The prevalence of Eastern rites, as well as their use by various Christian churches with different dogmas, have gone a very complicated way with the course of history. Currently, they are used by various autocephalous Orthodox churches, Eastern Catholic churches and numerous Christian ancient Eastern churches independent of Orthodoxy and Catholicism.