THE MEDIEVAL MONASTIC PSALTER OF ORTHODOX ENGLAND, NOTED IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE jc Office of the jphonale Wigorniensis ff Nursia of the Sarum Rite Monasti jint Oswald of York and the Anti Portiforium of Sai vc wwith the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict o in accordanes for use in Orthodox Monasteries of the Western Rite VOLUME XVI The Proper of the Saints for the Julian Month of March .en made from jeventy, y, Boston, Massachusetts, rations from the Psalms have bes ‘The Psalter According to the Si ‘Transfiguration Monaster’ used by permission) (Quo transtated by the Holy x Chureh of Milan and Aquileia, d the Americas— Church of Kiev jas Metropotitan Orthodor Western Europe ani Ukrainian Orthodox Autonomot St Gregory's Press astery of Sts. Cyril and Methodios ‘Abbey of the Holy Name Moni 100 Abbey Lane, Dringiceva 1, West Milford, NJ. USA. Belgrade, Yugoslavia 1998© St, Gregory's Press, 1997. All rights reserved. Imprimatur: + John (LoBue), Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York and New Jersey, Exarch of Canada Autonomous Metropolitan Orthodox Church of Milan and Aquileia, Western Europe, and the Americas— Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kieviti PREFACE The very nature of the Hours of the Monastic Psalter in the Western Rite provides a rich abundance of devotional material for each of the seasons of the Liturgical Year. Although outside of the Holy Triduum and the Week of Pascha the structure of the Psalter does not change, most of the Antiphons, Responsories, Hymns, Scripture and Patristie Lessons, and Collects are changed to correspond to the Feasts and mysteries of Our Lord, the Holy Theotokos, and the Saints. Therefore, to chant the praying of the Psalter it is necessary to have both the Psalter, as structured by St. Benedict of Nursia, and also the Proper portions of the Psalter that are reserved for the particular Feast being observed. This Volume of the Psalter, Volume XVI, the Sanctoral Propers for the Julian Month of March, therefore, is meant to be used from March Ist / 14th through March 3ist / April 13th in simultaneous conjunction with the main portion of the Psalter given in Volume I, the Psalter Outside of Paschaltide. Therefore, on any given Feast day during this Month, virtually every Hour of the Monastic Psalter therefore will require the chanters to have both Volume I and Volume XV of the Psalter in front of them on their analogion or lecturn, and to turn from one to the other, ected to do in this Volume of the Propers of the Saints. In editing these Volumes, ‘ort has been made to minimize the number of times needed fo alternate between the Volumes in use, so that this would be done at most twa or three times per Hour or per Nocturn. Keeping in mind that the structure of the Hours during this Season remains the same as that given in Volume I, it should be always understood that when a portion of any Hour is given in this Volume, it completely replaces the same portion given in Volume I; but any part of any Hour that is given in Volume I, when no replacement for it is given in this Volume, is to be sung iddition to the parts of the same Hour given in this Volume. This, of course, jcludes the Introduction and Conclusions of each of the Hours,, the Hymns at the Little Hours (Prime, Terce, Sext, and None), as well as the Hymns Te Deum and Te Decet Laus at Night Vigils (Matins). To determine the correct day’s text and instructions, it will of course be necessary to have the current year’s copy of the ‘Western Rite Julian Calendar, which is annually obtainable from St. Gregory's Press at one of the addresses given on the title page. If some days in the month of March fall during Holy Week or after Pascha, as inidicated in the yearly calendar, their offices should be done as given in Volume XVII of the Psalter, the Proper of the Saints for the Julian Month of April. Of course, all Feast days contained in this Volume falling during the Seasons of Lent or Passiontide would commemorate the current day in Lent or Passiontide at Vespers and the Morning Solemnity (Lauds), as given for the Antiphons for each particular day in Volumes VII, Proper of the Season for the Season. jontide, according to the Season in which their Feast falls. ‘Once again, the Editors would like to express their enduring gratitude to the Very Reverend Father John Shaw, onetime Dean of Holy Protection Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Father John first pointed us in the direction of these manuscripts, and then spent many hours translating the chant notation and clarifying an understanding of the manuscript which our ineptitude prevented. Likewise, we would want to express our gratitude to Father Justin of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston, Mass. for extending to us the kind permission of Bishop Ephraim for using their translation (1987) of the Psalter. This translation served well our purposes in preserving ancient Orthodox worship, and in the rare places (such as Psalms 13 and 94) where the ancient Western usage derived from the Latin Vulgate translation of St. Jerome of Sidonium had made use of Septuagint manuscripts with additional phrases, these phrases, taken from the translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Brenton (1851), have been included in our Psalter within parentheses. We are confident that this usage has preserved the ancient meaning of the Psalms which were so dear to the early Christians, and which spoke so directly of the prophecies that were fulfilled in the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.iv In editing this material, we have taken some liberties regarding matters of capitalization, hyphenation, and versification (which follows that of the Vulgate), so as to best allow the unpracticed eye to chant these texts prayerfully and with a minimum of error. Also, the chant melodies for the many Hymns have been kept to a simple number preserved in these manuscripts, and variant melodies are provided only when the manuscript so directs. In actual medieval usage, many more melodies were probably utilized at the discretion of the Precentors, depending mainly on the training of the Monks or Nuns. In keeping the number of these lower, it is hoped that our enfeebled minds may not be overly more occupied by the mechanics of chanting our praises than by the content of offering in our prayer. Also, we would like to thank our fellow brethren of the Synod of our Metropolitan Orthodox Church of Milan at St. Hilarion’s Monastery and St. Hilarion’s Guild Press in Austin, Texas for providing so fine a computer typing of the text of the Psalms which we were able to edit. This entire volume is printed using Multi-Lingual Scholar, a word processing DOS program put out by Gamma Productions in Santa Monica, California, combined with our own rendition of Gregorian Chant fonts. This software has made possible that which Monks and Nuns of the ancient Scriptorium could only have dreamed about. This series ided into many Volumes, for which Volume I is the Psalter Outside of Paschaltide, Volume II is the Psalter to be used in Paschaltide (from Low Sunday through the Octave of Pentecost), and Volume III begins the Proper Offices with those for the Season of Advent, and Volume XIII, with those for the Feasts of Our Lord, the Holy Theotokos, and the Saints. The Offices of the Holy Triduum and those of the Week of Pascha, while having a Monastic usage, are not technically part of the Monastic Psalter, as the Cathedral Use like that of Old Sarum, not the Rule of St. Benedict, has provided the structure for these offices ever since the Monastic Council of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in 817 A.D., and thus are provided for in separate Volumes of the Proper. Finally, we apologize that our effort could not prove to be more grand, since, in order to complete these Volumes in a suitable time frame, we have neglected ‘style and the multitudinous ornamentations that our holy predecessors provided in_ their manuscipts. May Heaven forgive us! And may all who use these volumes pray for the souls of the unworthy workers who have put them together. O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us, the sinners. Abbey of the Holy Name February 5/18, 1998 St. Agatha of Catania, V.M