Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia 10 December 2020
biography, the rite of the reading of the
Ramez Mikhail Keywords: Coptic Church-Liturgy; Hagiography; Hymns; Liturgies; Manuscripts; Saints.
The rite of the reading of the biography (ṭaqs qirāʾat al-sīra) is a Coptic liturgical rite attested in several medieval sources and performed in honor of the Virgin Mary, an angel, one of the martyrs, or saints on their day of commemoration. This rite takes place in the morning between the matins incense service and the prothesis rite (offertory) leading to the eucharistic liturgy. It centers around the reading of the biography of the saint from the large corpus of biographies in Coptic (hagiography, coptic) and later in Arabic translation (Swanson 2011). These biographies belong to the long tradition of hagiographic literature in various languages indexed in such collection as Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca and Bibliotheca Hagiographica Orientalis. As such, this genre should not be confused with the abridged Arabic lives of saints found in the copto-arabic synaxarion, compiled in the 12th/13th century. The rite of the reading of the biography served as a solemn pious practice on the feasts of particular saints, and especially those venerated locally, after whom churches were named, or whose relics were available. As such, it shows a distant connection to the ritual practices that accompanied pilgrimages in late antiquity, which have shaped the way in which saints are honored on their feasts, including the reading of their acts of martyrdom (See for example, Brown 1981, 81–82; Moss 2010, 11–14).
One of the earliest descriptions of this ritual appears in the hymnal known as Tartīb al-bīʿa or Church Order in the manuscript Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, MS Liturgy 74 (AD 1444), fol. 73v–74r, in the context of describing the patriarchal liturgy at the time (Bishop Samuel 2000, 1:16). The rite described there essentially consists of three stages: 1. An introductory stage of censing by the patriarch of the altar, the icon and/or relics and the congregation, accompanied by a Trinitarian hymn (We worship the Father of lights) and its Marian parallax, Hail to Mary (see bohem/parallax); 2. A blessing by the patriarch; and 3. The reading of the biography, concluding with the veneration of the book containing it. The entire rite is spatially oriented towards the saint’s icon and/or relics and serves as a festive highlight on the feasts of saints. Along with the visual and olfactory dimensions enlisted to underscore such a day’s privileged status, the hearing of the biography and chanting of the special bohem/parallax of the saint on this occasion added an auditory dimension to the unique experience of this ritual.
The blessing mentioned in the description of the rite is a lengthy text to be recited by the patriarch or presiding priest, requesting wisdom and understanding and introducing the name of the celebrated saint. Such blessings seem to have varied in their exact expressions and were contained in manuscripts dedicated to the rite of the reading of the biography, such as Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, MS Liturgy 50 (AD 1350) and Berlin Staatsbibliothek, MS Or. Quart. 597 (18th/19th c.), a manuscript explicitly designated as “The book of the hymns of the biography (Kitāb alḥān al-sīra).” Below is an example of the blessing designed for the feast of the birth of the Virgin Mary on 1 Bashans (from Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate Liturgy 50, fol. 3r–4r): The thanksgiving that is read in the beginning of the biography of the saints and martyrs. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God.
Bless me! Behold the prostration! Forgive me, my fathers and brethren. Pray for me with love. © Claremont Graduate University 1 Ramez Mikhail, The Rite of the Reading of the Biography 10 December 2020 That the Lord God, the lover of mankind, may grant me a little knowledge and a sober mind and a heart full of understanding.
That I may read his law and keep his commandments and glorify his great name that is full of glory forever, amen.
And that I may tell you, O my beloved children, who love Christ.
The narrative of the birth of the lady of us all the holy Theotokos Saint Mary on the day of her holy commemoration on which she was born, that is the first of Pashons, may her holy blessings be with us, amen.
A later example of the introductory blessing appears in the Berlin manuscript, which provides alternative blessings for the use of the patriarch or a priest. While the blessing for the priest matches the earlier text presented above, the blessing for the patriarch expands its opening address to God to, “the one without beginning and without end, who is great in his counsel and mighty in his deeds, who exists everywhere, the treasure of good things, and the giver of life, who spoke in the law and the prophets” (fol. 2r–v). Another late manuscript of this ritual is London, British Library, MS Or. 5898 (AD 1705), which describes the ritual largely in agreement with Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate Liturgy 74 nearly three hundred years earlier. While not a manuscript produced for a celebrant, and thus it does not include a priestly blessing, it gives several chants of the bohem/parallax type to be used for this service (Fayez 2016). In fact, the medieval rite of the reading of the biography formed the central liturgical locus for the chanting of one of the bohem/parallax hymns, judging from the number of manuscripts placing this hymn genre in this particular context.