As I shared in the last installment of this article, the Liturgy of Basil the Great, which is the prescribed liturgy of the Great Fast, was the result of Basil shortening an existing Liturgy     that was used in Jerusalem. Over time, however, the core of his Liturgy, namely the Anaphora, was expanded through the insertion of creedal statements. These statements are embedded in the priestly prayers that are taken, in part, in silence.

In particular the prayer after the Holy, Holy, Holy and the expansion of the Anamnesis were influenced by the Christological debates of that period. These changes appear to have been   influenced by the dogmatic definitions of the Synods of Antioch in 341 and 345. According to the tradition of the Eastern Church, this Liturgy is practically the work of St. Basil with due allowance made for changes that happened in the course of time. It is older than either     of the other two Byzantine Liturgies, namely that of John Chrysostom and the Presanctified Liturgy.

Tradition also tells us that Basil was instrumental in creating several other Anaphoras which are used by various Eastern Churches. These may be classified into two families: Caesarian (Byzantine) and Alexandrian (Coptic). The Syriac and Armenian Anaphoras are probably derived from the Byzantine Greek with some modifications. The Ethiopian is a translation of the   Coptic Anaphora, while the Coptic, Arabic and Greek Egyptian liturgies are substantially the same. These Egyptian Anaphoras of St. Basil are different from the Byzantine liturgy and do not possess all the characteristics of the standard Alexandrian Rite but appear rather to be modeled on the Syrian type, so they are probably an importation into Egypt. The Greek Egyptian contains several prayers (identical with those in the Byzantine liturgy) expressly ascribed to St. Basil and from these it may derive its title.

If you have a chance, you should take home (and then bring back) a Basil the Great Liturgy booklet and read the priestly prayers which I only partially say aloud. The prayers are magnificent, albeit, longer than Chrysostom’s Liturgy. I know that, because of their length, I read that rather quickly and some may find it difficult to truly grasp the depth of the prayers.

It must be remembered that in the early Church the Anaphoras were not standardized but left, rather, to the spontaneous creativity of the celebrant.