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[German Version] (Gk τὸ ζέον, “something hot, boiling”), hot water mixed with the consecrated wine immediately before communion in the Byzantine liturgy (VI), to warm it to the temperature of life-giving blood. The ceremony is one of the few that was never based on a practical need. First attested in Constantinople in 582, it was in use even earlier in the Syrian church. Nikolaos Kabasilas saw it as representing the descent of the Holy Spirit on the church. This interpretation (probably secondary) is based on the formula in the textus receptus of the Divine Liturgy that is recited wh…

[German Version] (Aug 16, 1812 Kostroma, Russia – Oct 11, 1875 Sergiyev Posa, Russia). In 1832 he became professor, in 1862 – without having taken monastic vows, as was usual at the time – rector of the Moscow Spiritual Academy, which under him blossomed and achieved highest rank among the Russian academies. Gorsky was the most important initiator of the historical school of Russian theology, which largely on the basis of his work adopted the critical methods of Western theology. His importance as…

[German Version] (Sep 16, 1754, Michailov – Apr 2, 1829, Rjazan'), Russian lay theologian, teacher of Hebrew and Greek, and, finally, lecturer with the rank of collegiate assessor. His most important work is the first Russian commentary on the divine liturgy (VI) on a historical-critical basis (still current at the end of the 20th cent.) with a marked, Catholic emphasis on the sacrificial character of the liturgy and a rich, always well-documented use of Western literature. The author revised the commentary a number of times, and it continues to be reprinted. Karl Christian Felmy Bibliog…

[German Version] (Boris Dorofeevich Jarushevich; Dec 31, 1891, Kovno – Dec 13, 1961, Moscow), Russian metropolitan. In 1922 Nikolai became bishop of Peterhof; in 1940, archbishop of Wolhynien and Luck; in 1941, metropolitan of Kiev; in 1944, metropolitan of Kruticy; in 1946, head of the church foreign office. Nikolai gave full support to Stalin’s foreign policy but worked domestically as an important popular preacher and defender of Orthodoxy. When support of Soviet policy under Nikita Khrushchev …

[German Version] (Dec 1, 1861, Svyatoe Ozero, Ryazan’ Oblast – Nov 26, 1941, Irpen’), archpriest, professor of apologetics at the University of Kiev (not at a seminary). As one of the most creative theologians of the period of awakening prior to 1917 and the first among strictly academic theologians to oppose the ideas of A. Ritschl, he argued for discarding a onesidedly juridical doctrine of redemption; in later years, he sought to protect the doctrine from the opposite extreme of a purely subjec…

[German Version] (1845, Governorate of Moscow – Jul 14, 1908, Moscow), earned his Dr.theol. at the Moscow Spiritual Academy (Moscow: II) in 1879 with a dissertation on “The Ecumenical Councils of the 4th and 5th Centuries.” He was professor of the history of the Early Church at the Academy from 1874 to 1896 and accepted an appointment at the University of Moscow in 1908. Lebedev is one of the most prominent representatives of the Historical School of Russian theology (A. Gorsky). In his patristic …

[German Version] In the Byzantine and Armenian liturgies (Liturgy: VI), the Cherubim Hymn or Cherubikon is sung at the Great Entrance, when the eucharistic gifts are brought to the altar from the table of oblations: “We, who mystically represent the Cherubim, And chant the thrice-holy hymn to the Life-giving Trinity, Let us set aside the cares of life That we may receive the King of all, Who comes invisibly escorted by the Divine Hosts. Alleluia, alleluia, allelu…

[German Version] (Gk παροιμίαι/ paroimíai) are the Old Testament lections of the Orthodox Liturgy of the Hours (IV). While the usual Sunday Vespers does not include lections, on the eves of feasts of Christ, the Theotokos, and saints, up to three paroemia are generally read, which often interpret OT events as types of the saving events of the New Testament. On the eve of Christmas eight paroemia are read, on Epiphany 13, and on Holy Saturday 15. On feasts of the apostles, they are replaced with readings from the Apostolos. OT par­oemia are also read during morning worship (II, 7) on…

[German Version] (Dec 6, 1863, Kičmengskij Gorodok, Vologda province – Mar 18, 1937, Sofia) was professor of New Testament at St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy from 1894 to 1918, at the University of Petrograd in 1918, and at the Theological Institute there from 1919 to 1921. As professor.of New Testament in Sofia from 1923, Glubokovsky was involved in the formation of the ecumenical movement (Stockholm, 1925). His highly knowledgeable publications in the field of biblical studies, notably with reg…

[German Version] (Nov 20, 1860, Ilinsky Pogost, Russia – Jul 4, 1911, Sergiyev Posad, Russia). Golubchov was appointed lecturer at the Moscow Theological Academy in 1887; in 1893 he became professor of Christian archaeology and liturgics. Unlike earlier Russian liturgiologists, his historical criticism also bore on the history of doctrine: he noted the diminishing role of the laity in worship (II, 7) and changes in the understanding of the liturgy's sacrificial nature. Karl Christian Felmy Bibliography Obituary: Bogoslovskii vestnik, 7–8, 1911, 1–40 K.C. Felmy, Die Deutung der …

[German Version] since the 11/12th century, the most important order of the liturgy in Constantinople, which widely superseded the liturgy of St. Basil, which was celebrated only ten times a year, after adopting many of the latter's features. A redaction of an Antiochene precursor to the Chrysostom Liturgy, or its silent prayers, by John Chrysostom cannot be ruled out in view of numerous points of agreement with his work, though not to the extent evidenced in the Liturgy of Sa…

[German Version] (Petrov; May 18, 1730, Moscow – Jan 26, 1801, Novgorod). In 1763 Gavriil became bishop of Tver; in 1770 he became archbishop of St. Petersburg and Reval (Tallinn) and in 1775 archbishop of Novgorod and St. Petersburg. In 1783 he became metropolitan (from 1799 to 1800 of Novgorod only). Trained in the spirit of the theologian Feofan Prokopovich, he lived the life of a strictly ascetic monk. He brought Russian theology back to the sources, embodying the liturgical and ascetic experience of orthodoxy by publishing the Philocalia , translated into Chu…

[German Version] (Makarios, birth name Ioannis; born in Aleppo), Orthodox patriarch from 1641 to 1688. After the death of his wife, Macarius became priest, then bishop of Beroea (Aleppo). He was given the name Macarius in 1641 upon becoming patriarch of Antioch (with see in Damascus). He is noteworthy for his journeys to Moscow, during which he solicited financial assistance. An account of his first journey (1652–1656) through Turkey, Moldavia, Walachia, the Ukraine, and Russia was written by his …

[German Version] In the Orthodox Church, the proskomide (from Gk προσκομιδή, “offering”) is a ceremony preceding the Divine Liturgy (Liturgy: VI; see also Eucharist: III, 3), in which the eucharistic offerings (leavened bread made of wheat flour and wine mixed with water) are prepared. Its other name, prothesis (πρόϑεσις), reflects its connection with the Old Testament bread of the Presence. Originally the rite was performed by deacons in the skeuophylakion (sacristy); today the proskomide is performed by the priest in the sanctuary or in a s…

[German Version] also termed “deification” (Gk θέωσις/ théōsis) is a concept that goes back to ancient Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophy, and was adopted early in orthodox theology on the basis of Pauline (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20; 3:26f.) and Johannine (John 14:23; 17:21) affirmations, and especially on the basis of 2 Pet 1:4. Divinization occupies a central place in the orthodox doctrine of redemption. It is founded on the Christ event, for in Christ, human nature is divinized by its union with the divine nature (Dam. Fid. IV 9). For this reason, the doctr…

[German Version] (1601, Paris – Sep 23, 1653, Paris). As prior of the Dominican convent on Chios (1631–1637), in close interaction with the Greeks there, he began the study of Orthodox worship that he continued in Rome through contact with L. Allatius. The Euchologion (Liturgical books) he published in 1647 relied on the textus receptus published in Venice in 1638, which Goar supplemented with excerpts from older manuscripts (including the oldest Euchologion text in the Greek ¶ codex Barberini 336, 8th cent.) and from the liturgy commentaries of important Byzantine theolo…

[German Version] (Boris Georgievich Rotov; Oct 15, 1929, Frolovo, Rjazan’ region – Sep 5, 1978, Rome), metropolitan. In 1949 Nikodim became a monastic priest; in 1956, head of the spiritual mission in Jerusalem; in 1960, still with the rank of archimandrite, head of the ecclesiastical foreign office of the Russian Orthodox Church; in 1960, bishop; in 1961, archbishop; in 1963, metropolitan of Jaroslavl’, then of Minsk, and finally of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Novgorod. His unusually fast rise…

[German Version] (Ioann Sanin; 1439/ 1440, Jazvišče – 1515, Volokolamsk), Russian saint. First a monk in the monastery of St. Pafnuty in Borovsk, he founded the monastery in Volokolamsk in 1479. He consistently advocated the cenobitic (Cenobites) principle, with the idea that monastery property should be used for social and cultural activities, among others. Joseph and Nil Sorsky were not involved themselves in the bitter controversy between their followers over this principle. Joseph's emphasis o…

[German Version] (in the Orthodox Church). In reference to 1 Cor 11:27–29, the Orthodox Church only allows laypersons to receive communion (Eucharist/Communion) after they have been given express pemission to do so, the latter usually (but not necessarily always) being granted in confession. In some places, a week of fasting and frequent attendance at worship are required. The minimum requirement for priests and laypersons, which may only be departed from in situ…

[German Version] The prothesis is the northern apse of a three-point sanctuary or a niche or table on the wall of the sanctuary. It derives architecturally from the northern pastophorium of Syrian churches. This is where the proskomide takes place. Since Byzantine liturgical commentaries interpret the proskomide as a mystical representation of Christ’s birth and sacrifice on the cross, the Christ-child is often represented on the diskos (in the form of the eucharistic deesis), in later use also Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. Karl Christian Felmy Bibliography G. Babič, “Les dis…