Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

SERAPION, or SARAPION

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 662 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

SERAPION, or SARAPION Or. C. 350), See also:bishop of Thmuis in the See also:Nile See also:Delta and a prominent supporter of See also:Athanasius in the struggle against Arianism (sometimes called, for his learning, Scholasticus), is best known in connexion with a See also:prayer-See also:book or sacramentary intended for the use of bishops. This document, contained in a collection of See also:Egyptian documents in an Irthcentury MS. at the Laura on See also:Mount See also:Athos, was published by A. Dmitrijewskij in 1894, but attracted little See also:attention until independently discovered and published by G. Wobbermin in 1899. It is a celebrant's book, containing See also:thirty prayers belonging to the See also:mass (19-30, 1-6), See also:baptism (7-11, 15, 16), ordination (I2-14), See also:benediction of oil, See also:bread and See also:water (17), and See also:burial (18), omitting the fixed structural formulae of the See also:rites, the parts of the other ministers, and almost all rubrication, except what is implied in the titles of the prayers. The name of Serapion is prefixed to the anaphora of the mass (1) and to the See also:group 15-18: but whether this indicates authorship is doubtful; for whereas the whole collection is See also:bound together by certain marks of vocabulary, See also:style and thought, 15-18 have characteristics of their own not shared by the anaphora, while no See also:part of the collection shows See also:special See also:affinities with the current See also:works of Serapion .l But his name is at least a See also:symbol of probable date and provenance: the See also:theology, which is orthodox so far as it goes, but " conservative," and perhaps glancing at Arianism, shows no sign that the Macedonian question has arisen; the doxologies, of a type abandoned by the orthodox, and by c. 370 treated by See also:Didymus of See also:Alexandria as heretical; the apparent presupposition that the See also:population is mainly See also:pagan (1, 2o); the exclusive See also:appropriation of the mass to See also:Sunday (19; cp. See also:Ath. ap. c. Ar. whereas the liturgical observance of Saturday prevailed in See also:Egypt by c.

38o; the terms in which See also:

monasticism is referred to—together point to c. 350: the occurrence of See also:official interpreters (25) points to a bilingual See also:Church, i.e. See also:Syria or Egypt; and certain theological phrases (uyEPI97TOS, iamb µia, µdv,l KLLOoXLK17 EKKA'7eia) characteristic of the old Egyptian creed, and the liturgical characteristics, indicate Egypt; while the See also:petition for rains (23), without reference to the Nile-rising, points to the Delta as distinguished from Upper Egypt. The book is important, therefore, as the earliest liturgical collection on so large a See also:scale, and as belonging to Egypt, where See also:evidence for 4th -See also:century See also:ritual is scanty as compared with Syria. The rites See also:form a See also:link between those of the Egyptian Church See also:Order (a 3rd- or See also:early 4th-century development of the Hippolytean Canons, which are perhaps Egyptian of c. 26o) and later Egyptian rites—marking the See also:stage of development reached in Egypt by c. 350, while exhibiting characteristics of their own. I. The Mass has the Egyptian notes—a prayer before the lections, elsewhere unknown in the See also:East; an exceptionally weighty See also:body of intercessions after the catechumens' dismissal, followed by a See also:penitential See also:act, probably identical with the E o7.LoXbyr7vls of Can. Hippol. 2, which disappeared in later rites; a setting of the Sanctus found in several Egyptian See also:ana•-phoras; the See also:close connexion of the commemorations of the offerers and of the dead; and the form of the conclusion of the anaphora. The structure of the communion—with a prayer before and prayers of thanksgiving and blessing after—shows that Egypt had already See also:developed the See also:common type, otherwise first evidenced in Syria, c.

375 (Ap. Const. viii. 13). Among the special characteristics of Serapion are the simplicity of the Sanctus, and of the Institution, which lacks the dramatic additions already found in Ap. Const.; the See also:

interpolation of a passage containing a See also:quotation from See also:Didache 9 between the institutions of the bread and of the See also:chalice; the form of the ava7. viyrls; and the invocation of the Word, not of the See also:Holy See also:Ghost, to effect See also:consecration. That the See also:Lord's Prayer before communion is not referred to may be only because it is a fixed See also:formula belonging to the structure of the rite. II. The Order of Baptism has a form for the consecration of the water, and a preliminary prayer for the candidates, perhaps alluding to their See also:exorcism; a prayer 1 These are: a vigorous and acute refutation of the Manichaeans, and some letters. A book on the titles of the See also:Psalms has not survived. for steadfastness following the renunciation and the See also:confession of faith; the form of See also:anointing with oil; appropriate prayers preceding and following the act of baptism; and the prayer of See also:confirmation with See also:imposition of the See also:hand, See also:chrism and See also:crossing. All this corresponds to and fills up the outline of the Church Order and allusions in 4th-century writers, and is in See also:line with later Egyptian rites. III. jForms of Ordination are provided only for deacons, presbyters and bishops, the orders of divine institution (12).

_ They are concise, but of the normal type. That for deacons (12) commemorates St See also:

Stephen, invokes the Holy Ghost, and prays for the gifts qualifying for the diaconate. That for presbyters (13) recalls the See also:Mosaic LXX, invokes the Holy Ghost, and asks for the gifts qualifying for See also:administration, teaching, and the See also:ministry of reconciliation. That for bishops (14) appeals to the See also:mission of our Lord, the See also:election of the apostles, and the apostolic See also:succession, and asks for the " Divine Spirit " conferred on prophets and patriarchs, that the subject may " feed the See also:flock " " unblamably and without offence continue in " his See also:office. The See also:minor orders, interpreters, readers and subdeacons (25) are evidently, as elsewhere in the See also:middle of the 4th century, appointed without sacramental ordination. IV. The use of exorcised or blessed oil, water and bread is fully illustrated by the lives of the fathers of the See also:desert (cp. the Gnostic use, Clem. Al. Excerpta 82). Serapion has a form of benediction of oil and water (5) offered in the mass (like Can. Hippol. and Ch. Ord. for oil), probably for the use of individual offerers.

A longer form. for all three matters (17) perhaps has in view the See also:

general needs of the Church in the visitation of the sick. The occurrence in both prayers of " the Name " and the See also:commemoration of the See also:Passion, Resurrection, &c., corresponds with early allusions, in See also:Origen and elsewhere, to the usual form of exorcism. V. For burial of the dead Serapion gives a prayer for the departed and the survivors (18). But the funeral procession is alluded to (EKKOE4oj4VOV), and in the mass (r) the particular commemoration of departed persons is provided for. Hence we have the elements of the 4th-century funeral, as we know it in Egypt and elsewhere: a preliminary office (of readings and psalms) to which the prayer belongs, the procession (with psalmody) to the See also:cemetery, the burial and the mass See also:pro domitione.

End of Article: SERAPION, or SARAPION

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
SERAPHIM 		[next]
SERAPIS

Site © 2006 - Net Industries