Listed 10 sub titles with search on: Religious history for wider area of: "GREECE Country EUROPE" .
The Greeks had a number of rituals that they applied to various events
happening in their daily lives. Some were minor, happening several times during
the week. Others were more rare, and were used only when the situation called
for it.
For the most part, Greek religion was an everyday event. The Greeks
did not have a specific day on which they performed their worship ceremonies,
like the Christian Sunday. Instead, the Greeks were constantly aware of the presence
of the gods. To the Greeks, the gods were present in everyday places like the
market, on the streets and in the people's houses. The gods were not confined
to their temples or to their heaven. They were free to roam wherever they chose.
Because of this, the Greeks were always aware of the gods' presence and were comforted
by them.
In front of all houses stood a little shrine, a statue that was dedicated
to a certain god. Usually these shrines were dedicated to either Apollo of the
roads, or to Hermes, patron of all travelers and the bringer of luck. These houses
also had a god to watch over the food and the family's possessions, and a god
to watch over the yard. Every fire burning in every fire place was sacred, and
the Greeks even had a goddess named Hestia managing and protecting the fires.
The worship ceremonies at the gods' homes (like a temple) were relatively
rare. Usually the gods could be found all around, ready to protect and heal their
followers. However, when the time came that they did in fact worship at the temples,
certain rules had to be followed.
The temples were very holy, some more holy than others. Some temples
could only be entered during certain times of the year, while others might only
be entered by the priest and nobody else. When the priest did enter, it was on
very rare occasions, and he only entered for special reasons. These special reasons
might include cleaning the temple or delivering a gift to the god or goddess.
There were also sacred areas, usually gardens, that could never be
walked upon by humans. For example, the grove of Demeter and Kore at Megalopolis,
and the ground sacred to Zeus on the top of Mt.
Lykaion were both off-limits. Anyone who wandered into the sacred areas would
lose his or her shadow and die within the year. Many times, the gods personally
determined a spot to be holy. A spot which had been struck by lightning was fenced
in, and never walked on again. If a person had been killed by the lightning, he
was not removed, but buried in the spot where he died. Nothing could be removed
from a sacred area, even trees from a sacred grove (a grove is a type of forest).
If there was garbage or other types of waste lying on the ground, it was the property
of the gods and must not be touched. The land was not cultivated, or farmed, and
was therefore overcome with weeds and rocks.
During the more special events of a person's life, like birth, death,
and marriage, certain rituals were required. At the point of birth, certain herbs
were laid beside a woman in labor to fight off evil. On the fifth day after the
child was born, the child was carried around the fireplace, and through this ritual
was accepted into the family (unless he or she was to be exposed).
When someone died, the Greeks believed a number of evil forces surrounded
the dead person. A purification of the dead person was necessary to stop the evil
from spreading, with the ultimate goal of getting rid of the evil completely.
If these purification rituals were not performed, the evil could be passed to
anyone who came near the dead body. Outside of the house that contained the dead
body was a bowl of water that the people visiting could use to wash themselves
with. This cleansed them of the evil attached to the house. Everything associated
with the house, like water, food and fire, was unclean and had to be fetched from
outside sources.
Being “clean” was very important to the Greeks. This meant
being without evil. One must be clean before sacrificial rituals, prayer, or when
entering a shrine. For example, women who had just given birth were rejected from
a shrine for forty days, and those who had come into contact with them were restricted
for only two days. Those Greeks who had had a death in the family were restricted
for twenty to forty days, and could not visit the gods until they became worthy
once again.
PATMOS (Small town) DODEKANISSOS
FILIPPI (Ancient city) KAVALA
A titular metropolitan see in Macedonia.
As early as the sixth century B. C. we learn of a region called Datos,
overrun by the inhabitants of Thasos,
in which there was an outlying post called Crenides
(the little springs), and a seaport, Neapolis
or Cavala. About 460 B. C. Crenides
and the country lying inland fell into the hands of the Thracians, who doubtless
were its original inhabitants. Philip of Macedonia
took possession of it, and gave it his name. In 168 B. C. the Romans captured
the place.
Although the Church of Philippi was of apostolic origin, it was never
very important; it was a suffragan bishopric of Thessalonica.
Towards the end of the ninth century it ranked as a metropolitan see and had six
suffragan dioceses; in the fifteenth century it had only one, the See of Eleutheropolis.
The Archdiocese of Cavala
was reunited to the metropolis in December 1616. In 1619, after a violent dispute
with the Metropolitan of Drama,
Clement, the titular of Philippi, got permission to assume the title of Drama
also, and this was retained by the Metropolitan of Philippi until after 1721,
when it was suppressed and the metropolis of Drama
alone continued.
S. Vailhe, ed.
Transcribed by: Douglas J. Potter
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
GREECE (Country) EUROPE
(1) Rite, Language, Religion
These are three things that must always be distinguished.
A rite is a certain uniform arrangement of formulae and ceremonies used for the
Holy Eucharist, the Canonical Hours, the administration of other sacraments and
sacramentals. These offices, as far as we know, have never been performed in the
same way throughout Christendom. There have always been different rites, equally
legitimate, used in different places by Christians. Obviously each rite was originally
composed in some language.
But rite is not language; the various rites cannot be classified according
to their languages. There are many different rites in the same language; on the
other hand the same rite, remaining the same in every detail, is constantly translated.
Except those of the Armenians, Nestorians, and Abyssinians, all Eastern liturgies
were originally written in Greek. Even the exceptions are only modified derivations
from Greek originals. If, then, we take the language in which a rite was originally
composed as our test, we must describe all Eastern liturgies as Greek. Indeed,
the two great Western parent rites (of Rome
and Gaul) represent, as a matter of fact, modified developments from Greek originals
too. So we should come to the conclusion that every rite in the Church, every
historic liturgy in Christendom is a Greek Rite. If, on the other hand, we make
our test present use in the Greek language, we must separate the Byzantine Liturgy
said in Greek at Constantinople
from what is word for word the same service said in Old Slavonic at St. Petersburg.
It is clear then that language is no clue as to rite. At the head
of all Eastern liturgies, foundations of two great classes, are the Liturgies
of Alexandria and Antioch.
They are not only different rites, their difference underlies the fundamental
distinction by which we divide all others into two main groups; and both are Greek.
And the same Byzantine Liturgy is used unchanged in about fourteen different languages.
A second false criterion that must be eliminated is that of religion.
It would be convenient for classification if members of each Church used the same
rite different from that of any other Church. But this is by no means the case.
The historic origin and legal position of the various rites is a much more complicated
question. The same liturgies (but for a few modifications made by the Roman authorities
in the interest of dogma) are shared by the various schismatical Churches. Indeed,
Catholics and Schismatics often use the same books. The Orthodox Church, that
has for many centuries aimed at an ideal of uniformity in the Byzantine Rite (in
different languages), till the thirteenth century used those of Alexandria
and Antioch too. Now she
has restored the Antiochene Liturgy for certain rare occasions. Other schismatical
bodies have, it is true, each its own rite, though this rite generally contains
alternative liturgies. It will be seen then that these three points are three
quite different questions that must not be confused. In the case of any Christian
bishop or priest we may ask: what is his Church or sect, what rite does he use
and in what language? And the answers may represent all kinds of combinations.
A Catholic may use the Roman Rite in Old Slavonic, the Alexandrine Rite in Coptic,
the Byzantine in Georgian. An Orthodox priest may use the Byzantine Rite in Arabic
or Japanese.
(2) The Essential Note of a Rite
We have seen then that neither its language nor the sect
of people who use it can be taken as essential to a rite. The real note that defines
it is the place where it was composed. All rites had their origin in some one
place or city that was an ecclesiastical centre for the country round. After the
service had been put together and used here, by a natural process of imitation
churches around began to copy the order observed in the great town. The greater
the influence of the city where the rite arose, the more widely the rite spread.
It was not a question of inherent advantages. No one thought of choosing the rite
that seemed most edifying or beautiful or suitable. People simply copied their
chief.
The rites were formed at first in the patriarchal cities: Rome,
Alexandria, Antioch,
Constantinople. Jerusalem
had already given hers to Antioch.
The bishops of each patriarchate naturally thought that they could not do better
than celebrate the holy mysteries in the same way as their patriarch. We know
in the West how, long before there were any laws on the subject, every one began
to copy what was done at Rome.
It seemed safest to follow Rome
in the matter. So it was in the East with regard to their patriarchal sees. Local
customs are gradually suppressed in favour of the patriarch's way of doing things.
It was a sign of adherence to the Catholic centre - Alexandria,
Constantinople, or whichever
it might be - to agree entirely with it in rite. Lastly come laws determining
this tendency.
The Roman Rite is used throughout the Roman patriarchate, by the clergy
subject to the pope as their patriarch, and only by them; the Alexandrine Rite
belongs to Egypt - where
the patriarch of Alexandria
has jurisdiction; that of Antioch
to Syria; that of Constantinople
to the Byzantine territory. Such was the principle for many centuries everywhere.
But a rite in spreading out from the patriarchal city where it was composed does
not itself change. Since the invention of printing, especially, and the later
tendency to stereotype every detail of the sacred functions, each rite, wherever
used, is made to conform rigidly with its standard form as used in the central
church.
The real distinction of rites is not by language nor by the religion
of those who may use them, but according to the places where they were composed.
The correct and scientific way of describing any rite, therefore, is always by
the name of a place. Thus we have the Roman and Gallican Rites in the West; in
the East the Rites of Alexandria,
Antioch, Constantinople,
etc. This is the really essential note of any rite, that it keeps even when translated
into other languages.
(3) What is a Greek Rite?
An obvious corollary of what has been said is that we had much better
never speak of a “Greek Rite” at all. Like the cognate expression
“Greek Church” it is a confused and unscientific term, the use of
which argues that the speaker has a mistaken conception of the subject. What is
called a Greek Rite will always be the rite of some city - Alexandria
or Constantinople, and so
on. If one wishes to emphasize the fact that the Greek language is used for it,
that statement may be added. At Athens
and Constantinople they use
the Byzantine Liturgy; it may be worth while to add that they use it in Greek,
since at St. Petersburg and
Sofia they follow exactly
the same rite in Old Slavonic.
The name Greek Rites, however, still too commonly used, applies to
the three classical Eastern uses whose original forms in Greek are still extant.
These are the parent rites of Alexandria
and Antioch and the widely
spread Byzantine Rite. The Alexandrine Liturgy, ascribed to St. Mark, is no longer
said in Greek anywhere. It is the source of the Coptic and Abyssinian Rites. Except
for the services of Egypt
and her daughter-Church of Abyssinia, the Greek Liturgy of St. James stands at
the head of all Eastern rites.
People who speak of the Greek Rite generally mean that of Constantinople.
The name is an unfortunate example of false analogy. We have all learnt in school
of Greek and Roman history, Greek and Roman classics and architecture, and we
know the Roman Rite. It is tempting to balance it with a Greek Rite, just as Homer
balances Virgil. How different the real situation is this article shows. The Byzantine
Rite, to which should always be given its own name, is the most widespread in
Christendom after that of Rome.
It was formed first in Cappadocia, then at Constantinople,
by a gradual process of development from that of Antioch.
The names of St. Basil (died 379) and St. John Chrysostom (died 407) are, not
altogether wrongly, attached to the chief periods of this development. From Constantinople
the rite then spread throughout by far the greater part of Eastern Christendom.
As the power of the patriarchs of the imperial city grew, so did they
gradually succeed in imposing their use on all bishops in communion with them.
Now, except for the two insignificant exceptions noted above, the Byzantine Rite
is used throughout the Orthodox Church. The Use of Constantinople
is also followed by a great number of Catholic Uniats, Melchites in Syria
and Egypt and others in the
Balkans, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Italy,
etc. These people represent the old Patriarchate of Constantinople
in the Catholic Church; but that Church has never, like her Orthodox rival, set
up a principle of uniformity in rite.
Adrian Fortescue, ed.
Transcribed by: Douglas J. Potter
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
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