“For to You belong all glory” – the liturgical use of an alchemical symbol
Among the manuscripts in the Library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, the one labelled Ms. rom. 1790 occupies a special place. As the title page indicates, it is a Sluzhebnik, a Service Book comprising the liturgies of Saints John Chrysostom and Basil the Great, together with “other hierarchical services.” The codex was produced with the blessing, patronage, and at the expense of Metropolitan Stefan of Wallachia (d. 1668), at a date that cannot yet be accurately pinpointed. Intended exclusively for use by a high priest, it is decorated with several miniatures and contains texts in three languages. The liturgical texts are in Church Slavonic, and the doxological formulas concluding a litany, petition, or prayer that are to be intoned aloud by the priest are not only in Church Slavonic (as per norm) but also in Greek, written in Cyrillic characters and in phonetic transcription. Most of the directions for the liturgist and almost the entire “Order of Consecration of the Metropolitan and Bishop” are in Romanian, written in Cyrillic characters.
The main textual source is the Sluzhebnik printed at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in 1629. Some illustrations also suggest influences from books published in Kyiv and L’viv, but most of the miniatures have no known equivalents.
One of the most spectacular images depicts the Ouroboros of alchemical fame. The snake devouring its own tail is used as the initial letter “O” in the first prayer of the faithful from the Liturgy of Basil the Great: “Ὅτι πρέπει σοι πᾶσα δόξα, τιμὴ καὶ προσκύνησις, τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ Υἱῷ καὶ τῷ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων,” which translates to, “For to You belong all glory, honor, and worship, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages.”
A similar Ouroboros is found in a comparable context in a liturgical manuscript held at the Library of the Romanian Academy [BAR] in Cluj-Napoca—Ms. rom. 1216. Although its source remains a mystery, the presence of an alchemical symbol in a liturgical context highlights the complexity of the phenomenon known as the religious reforms of mid-seventeenth-century Eastern Christianity.
Title and Source:
Ouroboros. Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, First Prayer of the Faithful – Library of the Romanian Academy [BAR] (Cluj) ms. rom. 1216, f. 44v. Courtesy of BAR Cluj.