Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis redirects here--for homynyms of Serapion (including more saints), see Serapion

Serapion

-Physicians:*Serapion of Alexandria , Greek physician*Yahya ibn Sarafyun , also known as Serapion the Elder or Johannes Serapion, Christian physician who wrote two medical compilations in Syriac...

The Sacramentary of Serapion of Thmuis is a work of Saint Serapion, or Sarapion (fl. ca. 330 to 360), bishop of Thmuis

Thmuis

Thmuis is a city of Lower Egypt, on the canal east of the Nile, between its Tanitic and Mendesian branches. In Greco-Roman Egypt, Thmuis replaced Djedet as the capital of Lower Egypt's 16th nome of Kha [ Herodotus ]. The two cities are only several hundred meters apart...

 (Modern: "Tell el-Timai") in the Nile Delta and a prominent supporter of Athanasius

Athanasius of Alexandria

Athanasius of Alexandria [b. ca. – d. 2 May 373] is also given the titles St. Athanasius the Great, St. Athanasius I of Alexandria, St Athanasius the Confessor and St Athanasius the Apostolic. He was the 20th bishop of Alexandria. His long episcopate lasted 45 years Athanasius of Alexandria [b....

 in the struggle against Arianism

Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...

 (sometimes called, for his learning, Scholasticus). He is best known in connection with this prayer-book or sacramentary intended for the use of bishops.

Life

Serapion was Bishop of Thmuis in the Nile delta from ca. 339 and died after 360 AD. A close friend and protege of St Athanasius, he was in his early life a monk and had been a companion of St Antony who had bequeathed one of his two sheepskin cloaks to him. He was sent by Athanasius on a difficult mission to the Emperor Constantius and had addressed to him a series of letters on the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Serapion composed some literary works (including a treatise against the Manichees) and was probably responsible for compiling the sacramentary which bears his name.

Sacramentary

This sacramentary

Sacramentary

The Sacramentary is a book of the Middle Ages containing the words spoken by the priest celebrating a Mass and other liturgies of the Church. The books were usually in fact written for bishops or other higher clegy such as abbots, and many lavishly decorated illuminated manuscript sacramentaries...

, contained in a collection of Egyptian documents in an 11th-century manuscript at the Laura on Mount Athos

Mount Athos

Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...

, was published by A. Dmitrijewskij in 1894, but attracted little attention until independently discovered and published by G. Wobbermin in 1899. It is a celebrant

Celebrant

Celebrant may refer to:* Celebrant or Officiant, the leader of a liturgy or ceremony who is empowered to perform it** In the Catholic and Anglican churches, the celebrant is the person who celebrates a sacrament, e.g., the priest who celebrates the Eucharist or the bishop who ordains a priest*...

's book, containing thirty prayer

Prayer

Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...

s belonging to the mass (19-30, 1-6), baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

 (7-11, 15, 16), ordination

Ordination

In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...

 (12-14), benediction

Benediction

A benediction is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service.-Judaism:...

 of oil, bread and water (17), and burial

Burial

Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...

 (18), omitting the fixed structural formulae of the 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 (I) and to the group 15-18: but whether this indicates authorship is doubtful; for whereas the whole collection is bound together by certain marks of vocabulary, style and thought, 15-18 have characteristics of their own not shared by the anaphora, while no part of the collection shows special affinities with the current works of Serapion. But his name is at least a symbol of probable date and provenance: the theology, which is orthodox so far as it goes, but conservative, and perhaps glancing at Arianism, shows no sign that the Macedon

Macedon

Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....

ian question has arisen; the doxologies, of a type abandoned by the orthodox, and by ca. 370 treated by Didymus of Alexandria as heretical

Heresy

Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...

; the apparent presupposition that the population is mainly pagan (1, 20); the exclusive appropriation of the mass to Sunday (19; cp. Ath. ap. c. Ar. II), whereas the liturgical observance of Saturday prevailed in Egypt by ca. 380; the terms in which monasticism is referred to together point to ca. 350: the occurrence of official interpreters (25) points to a bilingual Church, i.e. Syria or Egypt; and certain theological phrases (y~PeflTos, ~1rf&1luia,,Lvi KciOOXLK1~ ~,csX77&La) characteristic of the old Egyptian creed, and the liturgical characteristics, indicate Egypt; while the petition for rains (23), without reference to the Nile-rising, points to the Delta as distinguished from Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...

. The book is important, therefore, as the earliest liturgical collection on so large a scale, and as belonging to Egypt, where evidence for 4th-century ritual is scanty as compared with Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

.

The rites form a link between those of the Egyptian Church Order (a 3rd- or early 4th-century development of the Hippolytean Canons, which are perhaps Egyptian of ca. 260

260

Year 260 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Saecularis and Donatus...

) and later Egyptian rites marking the stage of development reached in Egypt by ca. 350, while exhibiting characteristics of their own.

1. The Mass has the Egyptian notes—a prayer before the lections, elsewhere unknown in the East; an exceptionally weighty body of intercessions after the catechumens dismissal, followed by a penitential act, probably identical with the ouoXiry?yrf~ of Can. Hippol. 2, which disappeared in later rites; a setting of the Sanctus found in several Egyptian anaphoras
   Anaphora (liturgy)
   The Anaphora is the most solemn part of the Divine liturgy, Mass, or other Christian Communion rite where the offerings of bread and wine are consecrated as the body and blood of Christ. This is the usual name for this part of the Liturgy in Eastern Christianity, but it is more often called the...
   
   ; the close connection 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 developed the common type, otherwise first evidenced in Syria, ca. 375 (Ap. Const. viii. 13). Among the special characteristics of Serapion are the simplicity of the Sanctus
   Sanctus
   The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...
   
   , and of the Institution, which lacks the dramatic additions already found in Ap. Coust.; the interpolation of a passage containing a quotation from Didache 9 between the institutions of the bread and of the chalice; the form of the ?ivuviyrir; and the invocation of the Word, not of the Holy Ghost, to effect consecration. That the Lord's Prayer
   Lord's Prayer
   The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
   
    before communion is not referred to may be only because it is a fixed formula belonging to the structure of the rite.
2. The Order of Baptism has a form for the consecration of the water, and a preliminary prayer for the candidates, perhaps alluding to their exorcism; a prayer for steadfastness following the renunciation and the confession of faith; the form of anointing with oil; appropriate prayers preceding and following the act of baptism; and the prayer of confirmation. with imposition of the hand, chrism and crossing. All this corresponds to and fills up the outline of the Church Order and allusions in 4th-century writers, and is in line with later Egyptian rites.
3. Forms 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 Stephen, invokes the Holy Ghost, and prays for the gifts qualifying for the diaconate. That for presbyters (13) recalls the Mosaic LXX, invokes the Holy Ghost, and asks for the gifts qualifying for administration, teaching, and the ministry of reconciliation. That for bishops (14) appeals to the mission of our Lord, the election of the apostles, and the apostolic succession, and asks for the Divine Spirit conferred on prophets and patriarchs, that the subject may feed the flock unblamably and without offence continue in his office. The minor orders, interpreters, readers and subdeacons (25) are evidently, as elsewhere in the middle of the 4th century, appointed without sacramental ordination.
4. The use of exorcised or blessed oil, water and bread is fully illustrated by the lives of the fathers of the 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 general needs of the Church in the visitation of the sick. The occurrence in both prayers of the Name and the commemoration of the Passion, Resurrection, etc., corresponds with early allusions, in Origen and elsewhere, to the usual form of exorcism
   Exorcism
   Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
   
   .
5. For burial of the dead Serapion gives a prayer for the departed and the survivors (18). But the funeral procession is alluded to (KouL~op.~vov), and in the mass (I) 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 cemetery, the burial and the mass pro domitione.

Sources and references

• Dmitrijewskij in Trudy (Journal of the Eccl. Acad. of Kiev, 1894), No. 2; separately (Kiev, 1894); reviewed by A Favlov, Xpiv~ch. Bvravriva, i. 207-213; cp. Byzant. Zeitschr. iv. I (1895), p. 193
• G. Wobbermin in Harnack-Gebhardt, Texte u. Untersuch., new series, ii. 3 b (1899)
• P. Drews, "Über Wobbermins Altchristliche liturgische Stücke aus d. Kirche Ägyptens" in Zeitschr. f. Kirchen-Geschichte, xx. 4 (Oct. 1899, Jan. 1900)
• F. E. Brightman, "The Sacramentary of Serapion of Thmuis" in Journal of Theological Studies, i. and ii. (Oct. 1899, Jan. 1900)
• John Wordsworth, Bishop Sarapion's Prayer-Book (London: SPCK, 1899)
• P. Batiffol
  Pierre Batiffol
  Pierre Batiffol was a prominent French catholic priest and Church historian, known particularly as a historian of dogma....
  
  in Bulletin de lit. eccls. p. 69 sqq. (Toulouse, 1899).