Placing the Divine Liturgy

For those keeping count, I now personally know two cases of COVID-19 in my own life, but do not be jealous, it's headed your way, too!

If you, like me, are feeling fatalistic about COVID-19 and are resigned to whatever may come then work instead on your spiritual life. Take yourself back some centuries to Constantinople, to the "Great Church" as the Eastern Romans used to call their cathedral, the Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom.

The old Basilica of Saint Peter's in Rome remains a personal interest, but not so much the Hagia Sophia. There are plenty of images of it as it stands today, but few of the Hagia Sophia other than this video few reconstructions of the grand edifice as it stood in Christian days.

NPR recently drew attention to a Stanford recreation of the Great Church's music that was accomplished by popping a balloon. The resonance allowed researchers to "map" the patterns of sound and apply Byzantine chant to those patterns. The resonance is over ten seconds, which makes one wonder whether or not the Greek musical style of droning was meant to carry the note the note further and more distinctly (in key) throughout the cathedral rather than just a stylistic choice as it is today.

But what of its appearance in Greek times?

The Roman rite was essentially the liturgy of Saint Peter's Basilica, ceremonially distilled through monasteries, through the Franciscans and the Roman Curia, and through the local cathedrals which adopted its use. To celebrate the Roman rite is a very catholic, simple thing that does not beckon to any place other than Calvary.

O how different is the Greek rite! The Divine Liturgy, especially in its more unique and special parts, draws very much on the architecture and place of the Hagia Sophia. A Byzantine historian named Bob Atchison offers these stunning images of the Great Church with specific commentary on the use of the ambo, the chancel screen, and the waves in the floor's marbling.

The chancel screen and ciborium, features common to the Roman and Byzantine traditions at this time and lost to both, were made of marble and plated in silver. Over the altar of God stood a gold cross encrusted in jewels. Unlike the iconostasis of today, one could see through the chancel screen; indeed, it was meant to be seen through in the moments when the curtain is open today during the Liturgy. Its principle purpose was not to present icons, but rather to delineate heaven and earth. The deacons' doors were off to the side, not directly visible as they are today. Icons were typically hung on columns and at a height that made it possible to venerate them. They were not yet architectural features.

Perhaps most startling different from any nearly Byzantine church today is the presence of an ambo. The Gospel is brought in procession from the north door of the iconostastis through the Royal Doors and is read from the Royal Doors. The Great Procession with the gifts to be offered as the Body and Blood of Christ follow a similar pattern. At the end of the Divine Liturgy the priest exclaims "Let us go forth in peace" and reads the "Prayer before the ambo." And yet there is never an ambo, just occasionally a movable lectern.

Formerly the ambo was the de facto center of the Hagia Sophia, the place where the most important actions for the congregated faithful took place. Separate from the sanctuary yet connected by a railing from the Royal Doors, the ambo was where the deacon read the Gospel in the midst of the people, making the singing of the words of Christ something of an act of revelation, with the deacon coming from Christ's Holy Place to proclaim the Word.

The cantors used the western, door-facing steps of the ambo to lead the lesser singers—some of them castrati—in the singing of the hymns, psalms, antiphons, troparia, and responses.

The only two times the celebrant would leave the sanctuary, other than for special ceremonies, would be to use the ambo. First, after the Cherubikon the priests in the sacristy would bring the prepared gifts into the Great Church, for the sacristy was another building, and they would be received by the celebrant or the Archbishop at the ambo. Then, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, the celebrant or a concelebrant would approach the faithful  by standing in front of the ambo and read a prayer with them. Foregoing the ambo proper, this is the only time during the Divine Liturgy, fully celebrated with all ranks of clergy, that a priest prays with the congregation rather than on their behalf, popular prayers being consigned to the deacon.

With the ceremonies intact, it would not be difficult to construct new churches that follow the old architecture and use the rites for their intended purpose, but as with the post-Tridentine Roman Mass, the people have become acclimated to something a bit different.