The Vigil is a very important service for the Christians. In Russia we attend it on the eve of the twelve great feasts and on Saturday evening. And, of course, questions arise: How should we pray properly at this service, what parts does it consist of, and what is its meaning? As part of the “Let’s Talk” project of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery’s Spiritual and Educational Center, we spoke about this service with Ilia Alexandrovich Krasovitsky, a teacher of liturgics at the Sretensky Theological Academy.
—Ilia Alexandrovich, let’s start with the terms. Vigil (in Russian: “Vsenoshchnaya,” meaning All-Night Vigil”): did this service really last the whole night in ancient times?
—The concept of “Vigil” corresponds to three words, two Greek and one Latin. The first word is παννυχί, which literally translates from Greek as “All-Night Vigil”—that is, “night prayer”, “panikhiz”.
—It sounds like “Panikhida”, a memorial service.
—Yes, that’s right. Etymologically, this is the same word, but the word παννυχίς has repeatedly changed its meaning over the centuries, and from “night prayer” it changed into a specific service of the daily liturgical cycle. In the Byzantine Empire, starting from the seventh century and later, there was a service of the daily cycle, which was celebrated at the beginning of the night, not all night long, but it was specifically called παννυχίς. It was something like a prayer service—a long and regular daily prayer service. And centuries later, this word started to mean what we know as a memorial service (panikhida). It is actually a prayer service, but for the departed. But originally it was not a purely “memorial” service.
The second term, also Greek, is aγρυπνία, agripnia, which translates literally as “without sleep”—that is, when we stay up and are awake.
—Was this service supposed to be followed by the Liturgy immediately, or do we return home, sleep and then come to the Liturgy?
—According to the current Typicon used by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Vigil does not transition into the Liturgy, so we come back home, get some sleep, but do not have breakfast, because the Liturgy is Communion, and you cannot have breakfast before it.
—By about what century had this service developed?
—It is typical for Palestinian monasteries and Lavras.
Ilia Alexandrovich Krasovitsky
—Can you briefly formulate the essence of the Vigil in simple words?
—Nighttime prayer has always existed in the Church. It is necessary to pray at night, and Christians have known this since the earliest times. Now it is not a generally accepted rule that you must wake up at night, pray for a while, and then you can continue sleeping. But in early Christianity, night prayer was obligatory. Tertullian wrote: “He who does not pray at night is not a Christian.”
—What are the parts of the Vigil?
—The Vigil according to the Jerusalem Typicon (there were also other Vigils, but we serve by the Jerusalem Typicon) consists of Great Vespers with the Litia and festal Matins. There is no break between Great Vespers and the litia for you to go out and have a rest. Though it doesn’t mean there’s no break between them at all. It was supposed to be a break and even a meal between them. The Typicon says that you need to have a snack between Vespers and Matins. By the way, no one has done this for a long time either. And it is supposed to be some rest in the form of listening to edifying reading. According to the Typicon, there is a break between Vespers and Matins at the Vigil, but this is a break without leaving the church. Then the First Hour is always celebrated right after Matins.
—There are several versions as to how the Vigil begins. Some write that it starts with silence, with censing in silence. Others argue that it commences with the ringing of bells, which calls the worshippers to prayer. And others insist that it begins with the priest’s exclamation. Let’s talk about the beginning of the Vigil: which version is correct?
—I would consider the first two versions to be correct. The bells are ringing, the altar is being censed silently, the Royal Doors are opened, and the deacon or the priest can be seen censing the altar in silence. That’s how the Vigil starts.
—What is the meaning of censing in silence?
—All interpretations can be divided into historical and symbolic ones. I have come across such a symbolic interpretation that censing symbolizes the movement of the Holy Spirit, which preceded the existence of the world.
—And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2). And the historical interpretation? Maybe censing as a sign of worship, an ancient one that originated even before the burning of incense?
—Censing is a very ancient rite: the burning of incense is also characteristic of the Old Testament practice. In the days of the Old Testament, they burned incense, but the form of this practice may have been different. And the idea of burning incense dates back to very ancient times; even in pagan cults incense was burned. It was a kind of sacrifice: pagans could burn incense, thus offering a sacrifice to their deity, as they understood it.
Christianity inherited the rite of censing from the Old Testament. It’s a type of sacrifice. In ancient times, people believed that God sensed this sweet-smelling aroma and It pleased Him.
—Then an exclamation follows, and during the censing of the church, Psalm 103 is sung. Why is it sung?
—According to the Typicon, censing should be complete before the psalm. But in practice, it continues during the singing of the psalm. Vespers begins with the introductory psalm, which tells us about the creation of the world.
—Then the litany, next Psalm 1, Blessed is the man. What’s the symbolism here? Why this particular psalm?
—About eighty percent of the service consists of singing or reading psalms. There are specially selected psalms—that is, such and such a psalm is sung or read in this place because it fits the meaning. The second way to use psalms is sequentially, one after another. Blessed is the man is an option for using the Psalter sequentially, because it is Psalm 1.
—Next is the litany and “Lord, I Have Cried”.
—We have come to the essential, most ancient and the richest part of Vespers in its ideas. The most important parts of Vespers are “Lord, I Have Cried” and “O Gentle Light.” Lord, I Have Cried—these are specially selected psalms. The main psalm of Vespers is Lord, I Have Cried (Psalm 140), and the refrain to it is O Gentle Light. Why does Lord, I Have Cried have to be sung during Vespers? It’s very easy to explain. Because it contains the words: May my prayer ascend unto Thee, like smoke from the censer, and may the raising of my hands be as an evening sacrifice to Thee. Is it possible not to sing this psalm at Vespers after that? And this is marked by censing. The second censing at the Vigil takes place during the singing of Lord, I Have Cried. Maybe it’s because the censer is mentioned here, or maybe it’s just because it’s the main psalm of Vespers and it must be emphasized.
What’s the idea behind this? Besides the fact that this is the evening prayer, there is also the raising of my hands… an evening sacrifice. What is the raising of my hands? It’s prayer.
—Was that how they prayed in ancient times?
—Yes, everyone prayed like that. Raising your hands and arms is a position of prayer. Translating this phrase from the psalm into an understandable language, we can say: “May my prayer be instead of sacrifice.” Presumably, King David wrote that he wouldn’t offer a sacrifice: he’d rather just pray. This psalm is performed every evening, supplemented by refrains. They vary every day: the psalms are the same every day, while the refrains change. They are called the Stichera for Lord, I Have Cried. They can be on the theme of a feast, the day of the week, of a saint, and so on.
—We have such an interesting effect; in fact, it is a combination of Old Testament verses with New Testament hymns.
—Definitely! The entire service is based on this: to combine a verse from the Old Testament with some refrain, composed in Christian times and reflecting the current reality. The Old Testament—the New Testament: virtually the entire service is based on this combination.
—This part concludes with a hymn called the Dogmatikon (or the Theotokion-Dogmatikon). Please tell us about it. Why is it called this, and why does the theme of the Virgin Mary appear here?
—There are various hymns in honor of the Theotokos. There are supplicatory hymns when we simply pray to the Mother of God, there are hymns of praise when we glorify Her, and there are so-called dogmatika. What is the theology related to the Theotokos, which is called Mariology, about? Why do we venerate the Mother of God? Because the Lord Himself became incarnate through Her. The most important element is connected with the Mother of God. Once, the Liturgy could be celebrated at Vespers. This happens during Lent now, but it was probably much more common in the early Church. And it was the entry of all the worshippers into the church.
—Where were they before that?
—Either they were outside, or they were in the courtyard of the church. Ancient Byzantine churches always had a large courtyard, like an open large vestibule. For instance, the faithful could be waiting for the bishop in the courtyard. Or they may all have come from some cross procession. “Having come to the setting of the sun…” Who came to the setting of the sun? It is us because we have lived to see the evening.
“Having beheld the evening light, we praise the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; God.” What’s the point here? Apart from the fact that it is a hymn about Christ, the evening service in ancient times had a very specific meaning. The point was to light the lamp. A wide range of early texts tell us that we light a lamp in the evening. We don’t just light a candle, but in a sense it’s a ritual act. Lighting a lamp or bringing a lamp into your room was accompanied by prayer—thanking God for giving us a candle, which allows us to see something in the dark. And in the Christian awareness, the candle was obviously associated with Christ Who came to enlighten the world. The hymn O Gentle Light is quite obviously a hymn during the lighting of an evening candle. And now let someone dare to say that a candle is not to be lit during O Gentle Light!
—Does the tone change during the proclamation of the Prokeimenon? Is it already the tone of the next week?
—No, the new tone is used from the very beginning of the Vigil. The tone refers only to the hymns of the Octoechos. For Sunday services, the main book is the Octoechos. And the whole Octoechos is subordinated to the system of tones. How many tones are there in the Octoechos? The name itself suggests that there are eight of them. Each of the eight tones begins on Saturday evening and continues until the morning of the following Saturday. But this is only in the Octoechos system.
—Next, we are interested in the litia (a service inside the service). What is it?
—The litia is a cross procession. It is always associated with leaving the church. No one can say that it is absent in the modern service: the clergy come out of the altar and stand in the doorway. And that’s the essence of the litia. It is a part of the Vigil. In ancient times, the monks of the Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, which is where our Vigil originated, walked around the whole monastery during the Vigil, entering all the churches that were built there. They also went into the bakery, where they blessed bread, and they also went up to the graves of St. Sabbas and other monks and read a prayer for their repose, enumerating their names. By the way, the Jerusalem Vigil is unthinkable without a litia. It is an integral part of it.
—What is the blessing of the wheat, wine and oil?
—It’s supper.
—But they didn’t eat wheat, did they?
—It’s very simple: there was not only wheat, but also oil. They quickly made a kind of porridge from the wheat and oil on the spot and poured it out to all those present. So the Vigil consists of a walk, supper, some rest with reading edifying literature, and singing. It’s actually a varied way of spending time. The Vigil is very long, so the strain must be multidirectional, otherwise people will not be able to stand it through.
—Are Aposticha based on the same principle as Lord, I Have Cried?
—This is the return to the church from the litia. They are sung by the Octoechos.
—So, we read, “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart,” and the prayers from the Trisagion to Our Father, and sing the troparion. But I wonder why on Sundays the troparion, “O Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice!”, is always sung?
—It’s called the troparion for the blessing of the loaves of bread, during which the table (on which the food is placed) is censed, and after that the prayer for the blessing of the loaves of bread is read. Why is O Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice! sung? Incidentally, according to the old Typicon (it existed before the Jerusalem Typicon), the Sunday troparion should be sung, but no blessing of the loaves of bread is prescribed. The blessing of the loaves of bread is a purely Jerusalem tradition. Even if we open the Octoechos, we will find the Sunday troparion at the end of Vespers. But no one sings it at the Vigil service today. Why? Because the Octoechos has been preserved unchanged, while the Typicon has changed. The Octoechos is older than the Typicon.
Why is O Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice! sung? Because the Sunday troparion will soon be sung again. The Typicon has this idea: “Repeat less”, which is probably why it replaced the Sunday troparion with O Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice!—it seems logical to me.
—Psalm 33 and the priest’s blessing. Why is Psalm 33 sung at the end of Vespers?
—Psalm 33 is a fragment from the typika—that is, a service of the daily cycle. It is present in the Book of Hours. It is read as a separate service during Lent and includes Psalm 33. It is printed in full in the Book of Hours. Why did a fragment from the typika find its way into the end of Vespers? Because they were obviously often united. I have already said that in ancient times Vespers was followed by the Liturgy at once. But the typika is there, all of this together often intertwined—one transitioned into another. And a fragment of the typika found its way into the end of Vespers. By the way, we see the same thing at the end of the Liturgy, when, just before the dismissal, we hear the words, “Blessed be the name of the Lord both now and forevermore” and Psalm 33. What is it? It’s a fragment from the typika as well.
—As for edifying reading at the turn of Vespers and Matins: as far as I know, there are up to seven edifying readings during the Vigil. But it is no longer part of our practice in our days.
—Edifying readings completely disappeared several centuries ago, but I think it’s a very big loss. They should have shortened something else, but not edifying readings. This is a very sensitive loss, because what should be read there is Christian (including exegetical) classical works. These are the best Holy Fathers, the best selections that we should hear at the Vigil. Our Matins consists of fragments, which in ancient times were different separate services. It is important to understand.
—The Six Psalms and the Sunday or festal troparion, followed by the reading of the kathismata. In ancient times, they were sung or recited. Did the faithful sit (as we do) or stand during the kathismata?
—In ancient times, before the Jerusalem Typicon, all the psalms were chanted in a singsong way. The reading of the psalms is a later tradition. The Greek word “kathizo” means “to sit”. Why do we have to sit down after the kathisma? Because it is followed by a kathisma hymn, during which we should sit, which is followed by another reading. Of course, we sit while reading, but we can’t sit while singing the psalms.
—We are coming to the polyeleos. However, it is not always served, and can be replaced by the Evlogitaria. Please explain what the polyeleos is, and what is the Evlogitaria? And in which case is each of them served?
—Unfortunately, we always sing the polyeleos. Why “unfortunately”? Because it’s wrong. The polyeleos should not always be sung on Sundays. On the twelve great feasts—yes. What is “polyeleos” in Greek? “Plenteous in mercy.” Who has plenty of mercy? It’s not hard to guess—God has. Why is this part of the service called the polyeleos? Because at this moment, Psalm 135 is being sung, in which for His mercy endureth forever is repeated many times. Beyond all doubt, it is a purely festive part.
It is connected with taking out the icon of the feast to the middle of the church. By the way, it should be done during the polyeleos, so at this moment all the candles are lit, all the priests put on their phelonia, come out to this icon, and the icon and the entire church are censed.
—Then the Gospel is read, “Having beheld Thy Resurrection O Christ” is sung—a hymn in honor of the Resurrection of Christ—and the canons begin. When did this practice take shape?
—The canon is the main genre of Orthodox worship. In this classical form, it appeared in the late seventh to early eighth centuries in the work by Sts. Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus and the most important author—Cosmas of Maium. What is the canon? It is a set of several troparia. There are nine, or more often, eight of them. There are eight in the work by Sts. Cosmas and John. However, there used to be nine before them, but they removed one ode (song), and no one knows why.
—Why is ode two omitted and only read during Lent?
—No one knows. It’s omitted, and that’s it.
—The canon is followed by the exapostilarion or the Hymn of Light or Photogogicon (Svetilen in Church Slavonic). What does the latter mean?
—It is a troparion about light. What kind of light is there at the end of Matins? The light of the rising sun. The sun should be rising at this moment. The Vigil is nearing its end, as is the night, and when the night is over, the rays of the sun appear. Of Whom do they remind the praying Christians? Who are they thinking about? The Dawn of our Salvation. This is Christ. And this is what the troparion called the Hymn of Light is about.
—And what about the exapostilarion?
—The exapostilarion is almost the same as the Hymn of Light, but in Greek.
—Next we have “Let every breath praise the Lord” and the Stichera for the Praises. Is there the same principle here as in the Stichera for Lord, I Have Cried—psalms alternating with the hymnography of the New Testament?
—But these are different psalms. The psalms of matins are called the Psalms of Praise. These are the three final psalms: 148, 149, and 150. They really form a symmetry with “Lord, I Have Cried,” only they are at Matins. And everything is clear: we praise the Lord.
—And the Vigil concludes with the singing of “Most blessed art thou, Virgin Theotokos.” Is it an ancient tradition to conclude the service with a hymn in honor of the Theotokos?
—It’s not a very ancient tradition.
—The Great Doxology: When did it appear? Who composed it?
—The Great Doxology is a series of hymns that are sung in a row. They were compiled many centuries ago. The Great Doxology is included in the Codex Alexandrinus. The arrangement of the hymns in the Great Doxology varies: in different traditions and sources these hymns are combined in different ways. Their order and composition vary too, and there may be all of them, or not all of them. Our Great Doxology is just one of the possible arrangements of these hymns. Besides, in our Book of Hours, these hymns are given not once but twice. Some are designed for Sundays and the great feasts, while others are for weekdays. If we compare them, we will see that they differ significantly from each other—not in the text, but in the structure. So these hymns of early Christianity are comparable to “O Gentle Light” in their origin, and they found their way into our Book of Hours from early Christianity. These ancient hymns partly consist of paraphrased verses from psalms, partly from Biblical canticles, and they are partly original.
—We are approaching the end of the Vigil. There remain the Sunday troparion (if it’s the Sunday Vigil), the litany, the dismissal and the First Hour. What is its meaning?
—The First Hour as a service of the daily cycle developed later than the other hours. It first appeared in the fifth century in a Jerusalem Book of Hours, already a monastic one. That Book of Hours was originally compiled at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but then monastic editions of this Book appeared, basically reproducing it, but altering something, removing something, or adding something of their own. So the service of the First Hour appeared in the monastic versions of this Book of Hours. It does not carry any special symbolism, though.
—Should we connect it with the arrest of Christ, with the Gospel events?
—This version is far-fetched. There is no basis for it either in history or in the text of the service.
—A kind of prayerful sanctification of the day.
—The main task of a monk is to pray to God. So what did early monks want to do? They wanted to pray to God more often. And they added, among other things, the service of the First Hour.
—Now let’s sum up all that has been said and try to answer the principal question: how should we pray at the Vigil properly?
—Well, there are two points here. Firstly: the Vigil is a construct of services of the daily cycle, each with its own set of ideas and meanings. As I said before, the evening is about lighting a lamp. The morning is about sunrise and giving thanks to God. There are ideas related to services of the daily cycle. It’s like a single theme, and the Vigil brings them together.
Secondly: It’s the feast for which the Vigil is celebrated. For example, if it’s Sunday, then a significant part of the service will be devoted to the theme of Sunday. If it’s some particular feast, there will be a different theme. If it was Trinity Sunday recently, then it will be about the Holy Spirit: how He founded the Church, how He sanctified us.
—And in conclusion, please tell us about “More honorable than the Cherubim”.
—“More honorable than the Cherubim ” is an irmos. An irmos is the opening stanza of each ode in the canon. The canon consists of eight odes of troparia, and at the beginning of each ode there is an irmos. It’s a rule, it’s obligatory. What is the role of an irmos? It sets the melody for all subsequent troparia—this is its function. Why is it needed? To set the melody to be sung this way inside the ode. So, “More honorable than the Cherubim” is the irmos of ode 9. It must be ode 9, because it is dedicated to the Mother of God. Why is it sung so often? Because t is loved.
