Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/346

ALEXIAN differ only in the Anaphoras which are joined to a common Preparation and Mass of the Catechumens. The Anaphora of St. Cyril, also called that of St. Mark, together with the part of the liturgy that is common to all, corresponds exactly to the Greek St. Mark. When it was translated into Coptic a great part of the formulas, such as the Trisagion, the deacon's litany, said at the beginning of the Mass of the Faithful, nearly all the short greetings like, and everything said by the people had already become universally known in Greek. These parts were then left in that language, and they are still written or printed in Greek, although in Coptic characters, throughout the Coptic Liturgy. A few prayers have been added to the original Greek Liturgy, such as a very definite act of faith in the Real Presence said by the priest before his Communion. There are also Greek versions of the other two Coptic Anaphoras: those of St. Basil and St. Gregory.

IV. .—In her liturgies, as in everything else, the Church of Abyssinia depends on the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria. The normal and original Ethiopic use is the "Liturgy of the Twelve Apostles", which is the Coptic St. Cyril done into their own language. The Abyssinians have also a number of other Anaphoras (ten or fifteen) ascribed to various people such as St. John the Evangelist, the 318 Fathers of Nicæa, St. John Chrysostom, etc., which they join to the first part of their Liturgy on various occasions instead of its own Canon.

V. .—Of these three groups two, the Copts and Abyssinians, still keep their own liturgies. The Copts use that of St. Basil throught out the year on Sundays and weekdays, and for requiems; on certain great feasts they substitute the Anaphora of St. Gregory; that of St. Cyril is kept for Lent and Christmas eve. This order is common to the Monophysite and Uniate Copts. Very soon after the Arabs conquered Egypt (641) their language became they only one used ever by the Christians; in less than two centuries Coptic had become a completely dead language. For this reason the rubrics of the Coptic liturgical books have for a long tine been written in Arabic as well; sometimes Arabic translations of the prayers are added too. The books needed for the Liturgy are the Khulaji, Kutmarus , a lectionary containing the lessons from Holy Scripture, the Synaxar , which contains legends of saints, sometimes read instead of those from the Acts of the Apostles, and the "Book of the Ministry of the Deacons" (Brightman, lxvii). The Coptic and Abyssinian Uniates have books specially printed for them, which differ from the others only inasmuch as the names of Monophysites are omitted, that of Chalcedon is inserted, and the Filoque is added to the Creed. The Orthodox Church of Egypt has long sacrificed her own use for that of Constantinople. For a time after the Monophysite schism she still kept the Liturgy of St. Mark in Greek. But there were very few Orthodox left in the country; they revere nearly all officials of the Imperial government, and, after the Arab conquest especially, the influence of Constantinople over them, as over the whole Orthodox world, grew enormously. So eventually they followed the Œcumenical Patriarch in their rites as in everything else. The Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria even went to live at Constantinople under the shadow of Cæsar and of Cæsar's Court Bishop. The change of liturgy took place at the end of the twelfth century. Theodore Balsamon says that at that tine a certain Mark, Patriarch of Alexandria, came to Constantinople and there went on celebrating the Liturgy of his own Church. The Byzantines told him that the use of the most holy Œcumenical throne was different, and that the Emperor had already commanded all Orthodox Church throughout the world to follow that of the Imperial city. So Mark apologized for not having known about this law and conformed to the Byzantine use (P.G., CXXXVIII, 954). Since then the Greek Liturgy of St. Mark has no longer been used by anyone. It remains to be seen whether, now that the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem has begun to make some small restoration of her own use (see ), the very determined and strongly anti-Phanariote prelate who rules the Orthodox Church of Egypt (Lord Photios of Alexandria) will not revive, at any rate for one day in the year, the venerable liturgy of his own see.

2em

Alexian Nuns.—Early in the fifteenth century religious women began to be affiliated to the Alexian Brotherhood (see below). These sisters adopted the Rule of St. Augustine and devoted themselves to the same corporal works of mercy as those of the Brothers of St. Alexius, or Cellites. Their habit is black, with a mantle of the same colour and a white cap, whence their common name of "black sisters". The black, or Cellitine, sisters at present have their motherhouse at Cologne. They are not represented in the list of religious women established in the United States and Canada.



Alexians,, a religious institute or congregation, which had its origin at Mechlin, in Brabant, in the fifteenth century, during the terrible ravages of a pest called the "black death". Certain laymen united under the guidance of a man named Tobias