Chrism and Myrrh

[JesuXPIPassio]

Is the Eastern Myrrh the same thing as the Western Chrism? Are they made from the same formula with the same ratio of ingredients, or do the Easterners have a special way of doing it?

 

[bpbasilphx]

“Myrrh” is the usual Slavic word for Chrism, which is actually a Greek word.

Somewhere I have the traditional Russian recipe, which calls for such ingredients as 7 poods of black balsam of Peru and 14 poods or other amounts in strange systems of measurement in a list as long as my arm of things I’ve never heard of before.

You start boiling it at the first of Lent, and clergy are continually reading the Gospels over it as it simmers. Then on Palm Sunday night, more stuff is added. Finally at the Patriarchal Liturgy on Holy Thursday, it’s carried in the Great Entrance, the Patriarch adds the old Chrism to it, and the final prayer is read over it.

 

[bpbasilphx]

“Myrrh” is the usual Slavic word for Chrism, which is actually a Greek word.

Somewhere I have the traditional Russian recipe, which calls for such ingredients as 7 poods of black balsam of Peru and 14 poods or other amounts in strange systems of measurement in a list as long as my arm of things I’ve never heard of before.

You start boiling it at the first of Lent, and clergy are continually reading the Gospels over it as it simmers. Then on Palm Sunday night, more stuff is added. Finally at the Patriarchal Liturgy on Holy Thursday, it’s carried in the Great Entrance, the Patriarch adds the old Chrism to it, and the final prayer is read over it.