Sunday, May 16, 2010

Exact Keepers of the Apostolic Traditions


Glory for the Litia:
Ἀποστολικῶν παραδόσεων, ἀκριβεῖς φύλακες γεγόνατε, ἅγιοι Πατέρες· τῆς γὰρ ἁγίας Τριάδος τὸ ὁμοούσιον, ὀρθοδόξως δογματίσαντες, Ἀρείου τὸ βλάσφημον, συνοδικῶς κατεβάλετε, μεθ΄ὃν καὶ Μακεδόνιον, πνευματομάχον ἀπελέγξαντες, κατεκρίνατε Νεστόριον, Εὐτυχέα καὶ Διόσκορον, Σαβέλλιόν τε καὶ Σεβῆρον τὸν ἀκέφαλον, ὧν τῆς πλάνης αἰτήσασθε ῥυσθέντας ἡμᾶς, ἀκηλίδωτον ἡμῶν τὸν βίον, ἐν τῇ πίστει φυλάττεσθαι δεόμεθα.

Ye have become exact keepers of the apostolic traditions, O Holy Fathers; for in setting forth in council the dogma of the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity in Orthodox fashion, ye cast down the blasphemy of Arius. Then, after censuring Macedonius, the enemy of the Holy Spirit, ye condemned Nestorius, Eutychius, Dioscorus, Sabellius, and Severus the headless. Wherefore, make ye entreaty that we be delivered from their error, and that our life be preserved blameless in the Faith, we pray.

4 comments:

CG said...

Can you enlighten me about 'Severus the headless'? When it came up at Great Vespers on Saturday we thought it must be a misprint for 'heedless' - there are many typos in the text we use. But besides here in your post I've now seen it elsewhere too. Who was this Severus and why was he described as 'headless'?

Felix Culpa said...

Fr John Behr answers:

"A-Cephalous (as opposed to the OCA's auto-cephaly) - Severus was one of the key figures in organizing the non-Chalcedonians (which were viewed by the Chalcedonian Byzantines as being headless - ie not under any of the recognized patriarchates)."

CG said...

Thank you very much for this prompt response, Father. My searches for 'Severus' had failed to pull up such a succinct explanation. I do appreciate your taking the time and trouble to answer me here on this relatively trivial query.

Felix Culpa said...

I was curious myself!