EUCHOLOGION

Originally a comprehensive prayerbook but now confined to the prayers used in the evening and morning offering of incense, and the three anaphoras of BASIL THE GREAT, GREGORY THE THEOLOGION, and CYRIL THE GREAT, the last being the Liturgy of Saint Mark the Apostle.

The first bilingual (Coptic and Arabic) euchologion, named the Great Euchologion, was printed at Rome. It consisted of two parts; Part 1, printed in 1761, contained, among other things, prayers used in the ordination to the various grades of the clergy, the ordination of monks, the consecration of bishops, the consecration of new churches, and the consecration of the holy chrism. Part 2, printed in the following year, comprised prayers for the consecration of church vessels, the baptismal font, and the altar, the order of the service of foot washing on Maundy Thursday, the service of genuflexion, the service of the prayer of the basin (on the seventh day after the birth of the infant), and the blessing of the betrothed on the fortieth day after marriage. It also included the readings from the Gospels for Palm Sunday and the two feast days of the cross.

ARCHBISHOP BASILIOS