Dear Sir,
Thank you for those links!
The Order of the 12 Psalms can indeed be used to replace the Canonical Hours, but they do represent the standard way of reciting the entire book of Psalms among the monks of the Thebaid and elsewhere.
The static set of 12 Psalms was brought to Kiev by St Dositheus. However, in the Rule of St Pachomius of Egypt, an Angel revealed that the entire psalter should be recited 12 psalms at a time.
Thus, at the turn of every hour, day and night, the monastics would say 12 psalms. In the Greek recenscion, 15 psalms began the day at 6:00 am and 15 psalms would end it at 6:00 pm, with 12 psalms at every hour in between.
The Celtic monks adopted this format and the Rule of St Maelruain prescribed twelve 12 and 13 psalm groups to be said at the beginning of each of the 12 day hours. They would then pray in vigil to recite the Psalter again at night.
As an aside, the Anglican family of Nicholas Ferrar at Little Gidding in the 17th century adopted this very same prayer rule and so prayed the psalter twice in every 24 hours.
But using the 20 Kathismata of the Psalter, one would, at a minimum, recite one Kathisma to replace each of the Hours, with the exception that Matins would be replaced by “two or three Kathismata.” Or else one could recite 3,000 Jesus Prayers in a day.
Congratulations on your magnificent work! I’ll be ordering a copy of that beautiful psalter - your choice of the Miles Coverdale translation could not be better!
Alex
Dear Alex:
Thanks for the kind words. I read your post with interest, as I have never before heard of a rule of reciting 12 or 13 psalms every hour. That rule must be intended for a special few, as there would be little time left in the day for the mundane activity necessary to sustain the body, or anything else, for that matter!
Here is what is written in the back of most Church Slavonic psalters concerning the rule of St. Pachomius:
FROM THE FATHERS CONCERNING THE CELL RULE
and about the Prayer which the Angel of the Lord gave to Pachomius the Great.
A brother asked an elder, saying, I pray thee, Father, tell me. How should I spend my time in the cell? And the elder answered, I keep my own rule in this way: at night, I sleep four hours, and for four hours I stand in psalmody, and I work four hours; and during the day, again, I work until the sixth hour, and from the sixth I read, even until the ninth, and from the ninth, I cook my food, and that is how I do in the cell. Again the brother asked, But how many prayers should I say? And answering, the elder said, I do according to the revelation of the Angel, which he gave in writing to St. Pachomius. And you can do likewise. And the brother said, What is the Angel’s revelation, Father? And the elder said, It is recorded in the Angel’s written revelation, how the monks which were under the authority of St. Pachomius might do twelve prayers during the day, and twelve at night, and at the ninth hour three prayers, and to sing a psalm before each prayer. And he said this also, I started slowly, for it is good to keep the rule, even in part, and no one will be sorry. For perfection hath no need of regulation, as thou hast heard from him who said, Pray without ceasing.
The rule which the Angel of the Lord gave to Pachomius the Great.
Begin with the Trisagion. After the Our Father: Lord, have mercy [12]. Glory, Both now: O come, let us worship, thrice. Psalm 50,
Have mercy upon me, O God; I believe in one God; one hundred prayers, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner. And then, It is truly meet…, and the Dismissal. And this is one prayer. It is commanded to perform twelve of these in the day, and twelve at night.
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24 psalms a day over 7 days = 168, which, allowing for some repetition and, perhaps, a special regime on Sundays and holy days, would result in a recitation of the whole psalter once a week. I have never seen a source for how specifically the psalms were distributed over the course of the hours of the day and days of the week. I imagine it may have varied almost from monastery to monastery. We know, for instance, that the distribution of the Psalms provided in the Rule of St. Benedict is very different from the system of kathismata that ultimately prevailed in the Byzantine world. I have never seen the Coptic Agpeya (Book of Hours), but I expect it might follow the Pachomian model.
I have not heard of using kathismata as a substitute for the canonical hours. Rather, reading the Psalter privately is
in addition to the canonical hours, or the Rite of the Twelve Psalms, as discussed earlier. Of course, the laity have no obligation at all to read the Divine Office and “in the cell there is no rule”, as the saying goes, so a person is free to devise any system of prayer that suits his needs and is approved by his spiritual father.
As for the well-known schemes for substituting Jesus Prayers for the services, it is my opinion that these schemes were developed for illiterate folk (the Rite of the 12 Psalms can also be fairly easily memorized), who aren’t able to read the actual Psalter or service books. If one is literate, and has the books, my sense is that it is preferable to follow the received practices as printed in the service books.
David
