Tuesday, July 19, 2011

When Did the Jerusalem Liturgy Disappear?

We have already demonstrated that scholars almost universally acknowledge that Cyril of Jerusalem's catechetical lectures developed from Alexandrian sources. I have went one step further and shown that the Jerusalem liturgy developed from the Alexandrian liturgy of the Letter to Theodore. Now the question becomes - when did it disappear? The Catholic Encyclopedia seems to indicate that this took place in the thirteenth century:

When Theodosius IV of Antioch (1269-1276) was able to set up his throne again in his own city he imposed the Byzantine Rite on all his clergy. At Jerusalem the old liturgy disappeared at about the same time (Charon, op. cit., 11-12, 21, 23).

The Jerusalem Church appears to have retained the Liturgy of St. James on the 23rd of October for a while. Then it too was dropped in the nineteenth century. In 1900 Lord Damianos, the Orthodox Patriarch, revived it for one day in the year, not 23 October but 31 December.


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