TheLiturgy of Saint James is a form ofChristian liturgy used by someEastern Christians of theByzantine rite andWest Syriac Rite. It is developed from an ancient Egyptian form of the Basilean anaphoric family, and is influenced by the traditions of the rite of theChurch of Jerusalem, as theMystagogic Catecheses ofCyril of Jerusalem imply. It became the primary Divine Liturgy in theChurch of Antioch and Church of Jerusalem in the early fifth century, soon becoming supplanted by the liturgies ofSaint Basil andSaint John Chrysostom.[1] It is still the principal liturgy of theSyriac Orthodox Church, theMalankara Orthodox Syrian Church, theMaronite Church, theSyriac Catholic Church,Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and other churches employing the West Syriac Rite. It is also occasionally used in theEastern Orthodox Church andMelkite Catholic Church. TheMalankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church uses areformed variant of this liturgy, omittingintercession of saints andprayer for the dead.
The liturgy is attributed with the name ofJames the Just and patriarch among theJewish Christians at Jerusalem.
The historic Antiochene liturgies are divided between Alexandrian and Cappadocian usages. Among these, the Liturgy of Saint James is one of the liturgies that evolved from the Alexandrian usage; others include Coptic Anaphora of Saint Basil, the Byzantine Liturgy of Saint Basil and the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom.[1] The liturgies attributed to Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil are the ones most widely used today by all Byzantine Rite Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, someEastern Catholic Churches, andByzantine Rite Lutherans.
Its date of composition is still disputed, but most authorities propose a late fourth-century date for the known form, because theanaphora seems to have been developed from an early Egyptian form of the Liturgy of Saint Basil influenced by the anaphora described in theMystagogical Catechesis attributed toSt. Cyril of Jerusalem.[1] The earliest manuscript is the ninth-century codex, Vaticanus graecus 2282, which had been in liturgical use atDamascus, in the diocese ofAntioch. Dom B.-Charles Mercier published the only critical edition in thePatrologia Orientalis, vol. 26 (1950).
The Liturgy of Saint James the Just is the skeleton of the wholeQurbono Qadisho with all the prayers before the anaphora being exactly the same, no matter which anaphora is chosen. The Liturgy of St James the Just comprises:[citation needed]
In the books of the Patriarchal Sharfet seminary, this order is clearly strict, with the deacon and congregation prayer being the same no matter which anaphora is used. The only prayer that changes when a different anaphora is used is that of the priest.[citation needed]
The Liturgy of St. James is commonly celebrated on theFeast of Saint James (July 25) and the first Sunday afterChristmas, and then almost exclusively celebrated on a daily basis in Jerusalem, in theEastern Orthodox Church.[citation needed] The Liturgy of Saint James is long, taking some hours to complete in full. The recitation of the Divine Liturgy is performed according to the worship rubrics of a particular Rite, with specific parts chanted by the presider, the lectors, the choir, and the congregated faithful, at certain times in unison. Like other compositions in the Byzantine tradition, the Divine Liturgy of St. James as celebrated in Greek forms the basis of the English transcription.[clarification needed] In its Syriac form, the Liturgy is still used in the Syriac and Indian Churches—Catholic and Orthodox—both in a Syriac translation and in Malayalam and English.
As with other Eastern liturgies, this one calls for aCherubic Hymn to be chanted during theOffertory as the priest brings the gifts to be consecrated onto the altar. In theLatin Catholic Church, this composition became popular as a separate hymn of adoration of theBlessed Sacrament, known in English asLet All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.
The hymnographers of the early Church composed both the words of the sung prayers and the tones of the musical scale to be sung in a single codex for a particular community. The annotation was recorded in close correspondence to the text (for sample codices, see those[2] collated by the North American Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Anthony in Arizona) with neumes indicating the melodic tones and their duration used before the adoption of the Western system of staff and scales became established in medieval times. In those communities that worship in Syriac the neumes are mirror images of those used by the authocthonous Greek and Slavic Orthodox Churches and written and read right to left in accordance with the Syriac script of the prayer texts.
The English Hymnal features the 1906Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement of the English verses of the Cherubic hymn of the Offertory chant (see above) to the melody of the French folk tunePicardy. The hymn known asLet All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence is also popular in the Roman Catholic Latin rite as an alternative to the spoken communion antiphon.
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