the mass in the east. vii. chaldean

Irish Jesuit Province

The Mass in the East. VII. ChaldeanAuthor(s): Donald AttwaterSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 61, No. 721 (Jul., 1933), pp. 439-445Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20513574 .

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439

THE MASS IN THE EAST--VII.

CHALDEAN.

By DONALD ATTWATER.

T- EHE Chaldean or East Syrian rite is used both by those Christians who have adhered to the

Nestorian' heresy since the year 431 and by those called Chaldeans, who have during the past 300 years returned from them to the Catholic faith and unity.

Both bodies are at poor agricultural and pastoral people living in Irak and Kurdistan, the Nestorians number ing only about 80,000 and the Catholic Chaldeans (to

whom converts are frequent) 70,000. The latter are organised under the Patriarch-Katholikos of Babylon, with two archbishops and four bishops.

The chief characteristic of a Chaldean church is that the sanctuary is divided from the nave by a, solid wall; this has a door in the middle, of which the curtain is

withdrawn at certain parts of the Liturgy. The altar resembles those of the west, with the Blessed Sacra

ment reserved thereon; men are usually separated from women. The liturgical language is Syriac, but the gospel and epistle are read in Arabic except in those few villages where Syriac, is still spoken. The vestments worn are the usual full eastern ones, with a chasuble like a hoodless cope and the western form of stole. The altar-breads resemble a western host, but are made of leavened dough with a trifle of salt added. When he has vested and prepared the bread the priest

signs himself saying: I In the name of,"I etc., the first verse of the Gloria in excelsis, and the Our Father. Then he stands in the middle of the sanctuary and says three variable prayers and then three variable psalms

1 Nestorlianism consists in affirming that in Jesus Christ two persons are joined together, God the Son and Jesus the Man, and that only the second of these was born of Our Lady. Therefore

Nestorians deny to her the title of " Mother of God " (theotokos). The heresy was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431.



440 THE IRISH MONTHLY

with the ministers; e.g., the prayer "1 of the Antiphon of the Sanctuary " on ordinary days is:

" We are bound at all times to confess and worship and glorify the great, awful, holy, blessed, grace giving and incomprehensible name of thy glorious Trinity and thy grace to our race, 0 Lord of all, Father, Son and Holy Ghost for ever." The cor responding psalms are 15, 150, and 116.

The altar is incensed, the wine and water are poured into the chalice and the deacon invites the people to glorify God, to which they reply with the singing of the Trisagion three times: "Holy God, holy Strong One, holy Deathless One, have mercy on us." On Sundays and feasts of our Lord there are two lessons from the Old Testament and the epistle is sung by the deacon from a low platform in front of the sanctuary-wall. Then he sings Alleluia, thrice and conducts the priest, carrying the gospel-book, to the sanctuary door.

Priest (inaudibly): " We confess and worship and glorify thee for ever, 0 Brightness of the Father's glory who was revealed in a, human body . . . Give

us wisdom by thy law and enlighten our actions, sanctify our souls by thy truth . . . 0 Lord, grant

that thy sweet smell when Mary poured fragrant ointment on thy head may be mingled with this incense . . " (He incenses the book).

Deacon: " Let us stand attentively to hear the holy gospel. Keep still and silent."

Priest: " Peace be with you." People: "And with thee and with thy spirit."

He chants the gospel and then returns to the altar and incenses it while the deacon recites a litany for the good of the Church and of all men:

Deacon: " For the peace, safety and health of all the world and the churches therein."

People : '' Our Lord have mercy on us." Deacon: " For good weather and a fruitful year,

for the fruits of the earth, and for the prosperity of all the world." (" Our Lord.") " For the welfare of our holy fathers, Mar Pius our pope, Mar Emmanuel



TEE MASS IN THE EAST 441

our patriarch, Mar N., our bishop anad all those who serve under them." ("1 Our Lord ") etc.

The priest sums up all in a prayer for mercy and grace and the catechumens are dismissed: ". Whosoever has not received baptism, let him go out,"l etc. This is now simply an archaic form (which contains a unique refer ence to the audientes), having no practical result. Then the priest, having the chalice in one hand and the paten in the other, crosses his arms and makes the offertory:

it *... May Jesus Christ, who gave rup himself

for our salvation and has commanded us to commemo rate his death and resurrection, in his grace and

mercy accept this offering from our hands. Amen

Having commemorated the saints, the living and the dead, the priest, bowed low at the foot of the altar, prays for worthiness to sacrifice, while the choir sings a hymn. He sings the Creed with the people, then a prayer, kisses the altar thrice and says to the ministers:

" Brethren, pray for me that this offering may be fulfilled at my hands. "

Deacon: " May God, the Lord of All, empower thee to perfect His will and accept thine offering and be

well pleased with thy sacrifice for us and for thyself and for the four corners of the world." The anaphora2 (or canon) begins with a blessing, two

prayers, and the kiss of peace which is passed by touch ing of hands among the people. The preface is said inaudibly, with uplifted hands, the Sanctws and Bene dictus are sung aloud while the celebrant recites the work of our redemption by Christ. Then he sings or says aloud the words of institution which are nearly as in the Roman Mass, but there are no genuflexions or eleva tions at the consecration. He continues in a low voice, praying for the Church, the Pope and clergy, and for all men, living and dead, and recollecting the intention

2 The Chaldeans have three, of which that in common use is " of the Apostles," not the Twelve but SS. Addai and Mari, early

missionaries in Chaldea.



442 THE IRISEH MONTHLY

for which he is offering; the:n he invokes the Holy Ghost (epikiesis):

"I May thy holy spirit, 0 my Lord, come upon this

sacrifice of thy servants, blessing and hallowing it that it may be to us for the forgiveness of sin, for hope of the final resurrection, and for new life in the King dom of Heaven with all who have been pleasing to thee - .

After further prayers and psalm-verses the celebrant elevates the host, makes the gesture of kissing it, breaks it according to a very complex ritual,3 immerses a particle in the precious Blood, and then elevates the Chalice. He blesses the people:

"I The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of

God and the fellowshitp of the Holy Ghost be with us all, now and for ever. Amen ",

and the deacon invites them to "1 draw near to the

mysteries of the precious Body and Blood of oiur Saviour." They all say the Our Father (with " For thine is the kingdom," etc., added), and the celebrant, half-turning to them, displays the Host and Chalice, saying:

"1 Holy things to the holy.?' People: "O One Father is holy, one Son is holy, one

Spirit is holy. Glory be . . . Amen."7 Priest: "I Behold the Lamb of God who takes away

all the sins of the world "7 (three times). While the choir sings a hymn he receives holy com munion, and then administers it to the people at the door of the sanctuary, generally under the form of bread only but sometimes in both kinds separately, say ing, "The Body of our Lord is given to the devout believer for the forgiveness of sins."I

'He thena cleanses the vessels and! drinks the ablutions, the choir meanwhile singing a coommunion verse and the deacon proclaiming:

"I Let all of us who, by the gift of the grace of the

8 After breaking the fost the priest momentarily rejoins the two pieces along the line of fracture. This ritual gesture was also found in the Celtic Mass of the ancient Irish Church.



THE MASS IN THE EAST 443

Holy Ghost, have: drawn near and been sanctified and have joined in the taking of these, holy, glorious, life giving and divine Mysteries, with one voice confess and praise God who gave them."

People: "1 Glory to him for his gift beyond price." The concluding prayers, after Our Father at the altar,

are recited by the priest at the sanctuary door and vary with the day or feast:

" As thou ha,t made us worthy, 0 <my Lord, to

enjoy thy Body and thy holy Blood, so make us worthy to enjoy thy Kingdom which neither passeth nor is lost to sight, together with all thy saints, now and at all times and for ever." There are, so, far as I have been able to discover,

no translations of the Liturgy as used by Catholics into either English or French. A translation of the

Nestorian version was published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, in 1893, which, of course, differs very little; but the translators and editors somewhat modified the text in the interests of liturgical archaeology.

This series of notes on the naon-Latin Liturgies of the Church cannot be finished without reference to the Malabar rite, and this may be made very conveniently here as it is essentially the same as the Chaldean.

'The history of the native Christians of the Malabar coast of India is a long one, complicated by uncertainty. It is sufficient to say that they claim to have been evangelized by St. Thomas the Apostle and therefore all call themselves St. Thomas Christians (Mar Thomakckar); they came under the influence and adopted the Chaldean rites of the Nestorian Church, buit it is not certain that they ever professed the heresy; in 1599 they came under the jurisdiction of the Latin Archbishop of Goa; in 1653, owing to the unreasonable methods of the Portu guese in substituting Europelan for native bishops, re placing local customs and usages by those of the West, and setting up the Portuguese Inquisition, there was a terrible schism, of which grievous effects still subsist.



444 THE IRIS1 MONTHLY

The seceders put themselves, not under the Nestorian kcath1olikos, but under the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, and so in Malabar, Travancore and Cochin to-day are

found, in addition to 458,000 Latin Catholics, 532,000 of the Syro-Malabar rite, under the naative Archbishop of Ernakulam and three bishops; 4 300,000 Jacobites; a small party of Nestorians, a number of "Reformed"

or Protestantised Syrians, and other sects-a terrible example of the damage that may be. done by zealous and ill-informed "westernization."

Among the western practices imposed by the Synod of Diamper in 1599, or adopted later, are communion under one kind, the use of unleavened bread and Roman vestments in the Liturgy, the administration of the sacraments according to the Roman ritual but in Syri.ac; celibacy of the clergy; Roman ecclesiastical dress; the popularisation of weistern extra-liturgical devotions. In their appointments, Malarbarese churches are not distinguishable from those of the Latin rite, but many of the buildings are purely Souith Indian in construction and decoration.

The Eucharistic Liturgy itself preiserves the main lines pf that of the Chaldeans, described above, and its actual text is more close to its original than is the

Maronite Liturgy t.o its parent, e.g., the diaconal litanies' are retained, said at " Low Mass " by the

server, the celebrant making the responses. The language is, of course, Syriac, but there is only one

anaphora (Canon), that of SS. Addai and Mar.

Here then ends this series of short sketches of some of the less familiar ways in which Catholics worship. Some particulars have been given of every one of the eastern Liturgies: sufficient, I hope, to dispel for every reader any idea that the Church has any principle of

world-wide uniformity except in those articles of faith and morals which, being absolute truth, are necessarily the same always and everywhere. There is nought more

* Since 1930 there are also the Malankara Catholics under Mar

Ivanios, West Syrian in rite, as are the Jacobites.



THE MASS IN THE EAST 445

various than man and the work of his hands and mind; were the Church any less various, she would not be Catholic. S

ROBIN SONG. Oh, little Robin, on a tree, Singing there all, plaintively, Come, Oh, come and tell to me The secret of thy threnody!

Has some one robbed thy cosy nest Of moss and cowhair neatly drest

Within a green bank's grassy breast Where all thy treasures were caressed?

In springtide, when the gardener delves And wriggly things disport themselves At morning with the friendly elves Is nothing left for Robin's shelves?

In Autumn when the verdant earth Is full of fruits and homely mirth,

Will no one yield a little worth To fill the fall of Robin's dearth?

In Winter, when the wild winds blow Across the fields of frozen snow In feast or famine sure, I trow, Poor Robin all his friends will know?

Then, Robin, Robin, tell to me As lone you pipe upon your tree

All heart sick and forlornly The secret of thy mystery!

And Robin peering down at me Sang again all wistfully:

"I saw Him dead upon a Tree! cI sing the song of Calvary! !" E. P. DOWLING.

5 It may be noted here that on the feast of Corpus Christi, 1919, took place the first public procession of the Blessed Sacrament ever

seen m the streets of Bagdad. There took part in it representatives of all the races living in and around Mesopotamia, as well as

Indians, French, Irish, English and others; there were Catholic

clergy and laity of the Chaldean, Latin, Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian and Maronite rites, and the Sacred Host was carried by his

Beatitude Mar Emmanuel II Thomas, Patriarch-Katholikos of

Babylon of the Chaldees. Viri religiosi ex omni natione quae sub coelo est:

" "Devout men of every nation under heaven ..." (The

Lesson for Whit Sunday.)



the mass in the east. vii. chaldean

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