Orthros

Orthros (Greek: ὄρθρος, meaning "early dawn" or "daybreak") or útrenya (Slavonic ѹ́тренѧ) in the Byzantine Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches, is the last of the four night offices (church services), the other three being vespers, compline, and midnight office. Traditionally, in monasteries it is held daily so as to end immediately following sunrise, in contrast to parishes where it is held only on Sundays and feast days. It is often called matins after the office it most nearly corresponds to in Western Christian churches.

Orthros is the longest and most complex of the daily cycle of services. It is normally held in the early morning, often — always in monasteries — preceded by the midnight office, and usually followed by the First Hour. On great feasts it is held as part of an all-night vigil commencing the evening before, combined with an augmented great vespers and the first hour. In the Russian tradition, an all-night vigil is celebrated every Saturday evening, typically abridged, however, in spite of its name, to as short as two hours. In the Greek parish tradition, orthros is typically held immediately prior to the beginning of the divine liturgy on Sunday and feast day mornings.

The akolouth (fixed portion of the service) is composed primarily of psalms and litanies. The sequences (variable parts) of matins are composed primarily of hymns and canons from the octoechos (an eight-tone cycle of hymns for each day of the week, covering eight weeks), and from the menaion (hymns for each calendar day of the year). During great lent and some of the period preceding it, some of the portions from the octoechos and menaion are replaced by hymns from the triodion and during the paschal season with material from the pentecostarion. On Sundays there is also a gospel reading and corresponding hymns from the eleven-part cycle of resurrectional gospels.

Outline

All of the psalms used herein are numbered according to the Septuagint, which is the official version of the Old Testament used by the Byzantine Rite. To find the corresponding KJV numbering, see the article Kathisma.

In very traditional monasteries, readings from the Church Fathers are read after each of the sessional hymns.

Types of Orthros

There are seven types of Matins:

Basic forms

  • Sunday orthros—The longest of the regular orthros services - Gospel Reading and Great Doxology. If this service is celebrated in its entirety it can last up to six hours but is typically abridged.
  • Daily orthros—Celebrated on most weekdays - No gospel reading, Small Doxology.
  • Feast-day orthros—Very similar to Sunday orthros, excluding those parts which are strictly resurrectional in nature - gospel reading and Great Doxology.

Special forms

  • Lenten orthros—Weekdays during great lent, the Wednesday and Friday of Cheesefare Week, and, optionally when there is no divine liturgy, on the weekdays of the lesser fasting seasons (Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast). The service follows the order of daily orthros but with penitential material added (hymns and prayers), most days have three kathismata from the Psalter, "God is the Lord" is replaced by "Lenten Alleluia" (from which fact these days are identified as "days with Alleluia"). The petition: "O God, save your people and bless your inheritance ..." is read by the priest. There is no gospel reading. The Small Doxology is read and there is special lenten ending of the service, including the Prayer of St. Ephraim.
  • Great and Holy Friday Orthros — Twelve Passion Gospels are interspersed throughout the service; Antiphons are used between the Gospels (these originated in a different office).
  • Great and Holy Saturday Orthros—Lamentations are chanted around the epitaphios, interspersed between the verses of Psalm 118. Contains some elements of the old cathedral office: reading of three pericopes (lessons from the Old Testament, epistle and Gospel) at the end - Great Doxology followed by the procession with epitaphios.
  • Paschal orthros—Celebrated during Bright Week, from the Sunday of Pascha (Easter) through Bright Saturday. The service is vastly different from the rest of the year; only the litanies, canon (the canticles of which are omitted) and lauds are the same; everything else, including the psalms, are replaced by special paschal hymns. The priest vests fully in his eucharistic vestments throughout the week. There is no doxology at all.

See also