Council of Ancyra

[Sacred_Heart_WI]

Hi,
I was reading the Council of Ancrya, on the New Advent Encyclopedia, and noticed that the early church required members to perform certain actions if they committed a sin. I was wondering what it meant to be a “Prostrator” and communicate in prayers? I tried looking around and can’t quite come up with the answer. I have copied a brief section of Canon 16 for reference. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Canon 16

Let those who have been or who are guilty of bestial lusts, if they have sinned while under twenty years of age, be prostrators fifteen years, and afterwards communicate in prayers; then, having passed five years in this communion, let them have a share in the oblation.

 

[GodSoughtMe]

I would guess that “Communicate in prayers” is receiving Communion by prayer as opposed to in sacrament. To communicate meant to receive communion for most of English speaking Christianity.

Prostrating is lying prostrate (facing the Earth). My guess is that you had to do this during Mass or some other time a lot.

 

[RedFan]

ὑποπίπτοντες (Lat. substrati) could be translated as “kneelers” rather than prostrators who lie flat on their bellies. That seems to be the sense intended by St. Basil’s exposition of the stages of penitence (of which this is the third). Check out Canon 56 in his Letter to Amphilochius