Grade 12 Lesson 13 Draft
Learning Outcomes
- G12.LO50 - Analyze the basic Structure of Holy Qurbana as well as other feasts from the perspective of Syriac Liturgical Tradition.
Textbook Lesson
Talmido Resources
- History of the Syriac Liturgy
- It developed as an independent dialect of Aramaic with its script in the 1st century AD. We believe that Jesus spoke Syriac as a form of Aramaic. Since the 2nd century AD, Syriac became predominant in the early Church and was the spoken language of Persia (East) and Palestine (West). Thus it was later identified as Eastern and Western Syriac. Both of these dialects are essentially identical but employ different vowel points and different scripts. The Syriac language reached its zenith between the 4th and 8th centuries AD. This period belongs to the great Syriac fathers and writers, including St. Ephrem of Nisibis, Aphrahat, the Persian sage, and Jacob of Serugh. Naturally, the people who spoke this language also prayed in this language, and slowly a liturgical tradition evolved, the Syriac liturgical tradition.
- Edessa, an ancient city in Mesopotamia, was the cradle of the Syriac language. Syriac started being used as an independent language in this part of the world. Soon, it became the de facto language of Mesopotamia and Syria, and the Christians of this Roman province began to be called Syrians. It did not take long for this language to reach Persia and from there to India, where it continues to be used as the liturgical language of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, preserving the inherited Syriac tradition. As far as historical evidence is available, it is now more or less a fact that the St. Thomas Christians had very intimate relations with the Persian Church from a very early date. (The Byzantine emperor Justinian (518-527AD) expelled the Non-Chalcedonians from Antioch, and they took refuge in the Syriac-speaking Mesopotamia on the Roman-Persian Border (modern Eastern Syria, Iraq, and South East Turkey). The Antiochene liturgical rites were gradually translated into Syriac, and new elements, such as Syriac hymns, were introduced.
- Mar Gregorios of Jerusalem came to Malankara in 1665 and introduced West Syriac liturgical rites. In the turbulent events that followed in the 17th century, the St. Thomas Christians who resisted Latinization entered into an intimate relationship with the West Syrian Church of Antioch. Thus the Liturgy of St. James replaced the Liturgies of Adai and Mari. Visiting Bishops and Patriarchs of the Antiochian Church brought liturgical texts such as the Order of Sacraments of Marriage, Baptism, House Blessing, Funeral rites, etc., to India.
- Articles
