CHAPTER XIII
ORTHODOX RITES
All the Orthodox Churches use the Byzantine rite in various languages. The Church of Constantinople has even foisted her use on those of Alexandria and Antioch; and they have forsaken their much older and more venerable liturgies, and have adopted that of the comparatively new see which deposed them from their original places in the hierarchy. It is only among the Copts and Jacobites, whether Uniate or schismatic, that the ancient rites of St. Mark and St. James are celebrated. The Orthodox all follow Byzantium.[1] It is impossible to say exactly when the older uses disappeared. In the 12th century Theodore Balsamon says that the Church of Jerusalem had already adopted the Byzantine rite. It is hardly necessary to point out how different this intolerance of Constantinople is from the attitude of Old Rome. True, the Roman use is enormously the most wide-spread in the Catholic Church, so much so that many people apparently think that it is the only one. But that is part of the general confusion of the Roman Patriarchate with the Catholic Church. The Roman Liturgy
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- ↑ There are two exceptions to this. At Zakynthos the Greek liturgy of St. James is celebrated once a year on October 23rd (St. James's feast); Dionysius Latas, Archbishop of Zakynthos, published the text of this liturgy in 1886. And now the Patriarch of Jerusalem has also restored it for one day in the year (December 31st). It was first used in 1900; Lord Epiphanios, of the river Jordan, celebrated with many priests, and the students of the college of the Holy Cross sang. The edition of Latas was exactly followed, and the service lasted three hours. See E. d'Or. iv. p. 247.
