Page:The travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch - Volume I.djvu/43

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Travels of Macarius.
15

of Moldavia[1], and the Kabi Kachia of Wallachia, and others, following, till he dismissed them with a blessing. The grandees among the Christians continually came to pay their salutations to him.

On the eve of the Sunday of the (الجندريين), our Lord the Patriarch went over to the Patriarchal church, at the invitation of the Constantinopolitan; and they both entered in their μανδύαs (palls) together, and performed at the same time their devotions to the images; and there was standing before each of them a man holding two silver candlesticks with camphor-tapers, from the beginning of the service to the end. The Καθίσματα of the Psalms[2] were recited by one of the deacons, standing between the two Patriarchs. At the Δόξα (Doxology) the priests began to perform, two by two, their Μετάνοιαs[3] to the Constantinopolitan, a first and second time; and as far as five couple, also to the Antiochian: then they went in, and put on their copes, and walked round the Εἴσοδος; and afterwards drew up near the Patriarch, in the form of a half circle. After the deacon had incensed the doors of the tabernacle, throwing the thurible at a distance; and then the two Patriarchs, and the priests, and the rest of the assistants within the choir; the priests began to chaunt "O Divine Light," in a very loud voice. Then the deacon returned to incense the Patriarchs; and the priests began to perform Κορώνη to them, two and two, till they entered the tabernacle, and put off their copes: for such is their custom, on the eve of a Sunday or distinguished festival. These priests belong to the churches of the districts around the Patriarch's palace; and this is a sign that they are preparing overnight for mass, as we mentioned before. At the end of the prayer, after they had taken their blessing together, the two Patriarchs went outside the church, with two torch-bearers before them, and the whole congregation standing in rows. Then one of the torch-bearers shouted with a loud voice, "Paisius, of all holiness, Archbishop of the City of Constantinople, the New Rome, and Patriarch of the Inhabited World, "Πολλὰ τὰ ἔτη"[4] (May your years be many!) three times: whilst the Patriarch, raising

  1. The Kabi Kachia of Moldavia and the Kabi Kachia of Wallachia are the Agents of the Princes of those two Provinces; who reside at Constantinople, to transact the political and ecclesiastical business of their Masters with the Porte and the Greek Patriarchate.
  2. "The Καθίσματα of the Psalms."] The Book of Psalms is, in the Greek Church, divided into twenty Καθίσματα or portions (literally Sessions); which are read at certain times, according to the regulations of the Rubric.
  3. "Their Μετάνοιαs"—inclinations of the body, amounting almost to prostrations, which the priests make to the Patriarch, and Archbishops, proportioned to their respective dignities, at certain periods of the service.
  4. Πολλὰ τὰ ἔτη ("Many years to you!") is also, in common intercourse, the usual salutation.