The Liturgy of St Basil the Great and prayer for war: Part 1

Did St Basil the Great support the war? Photo: UOJ

In the prayer "On Holy Rus", which Patriarch Kirill blessed to be read in all churches of the Russian Orthodox Church and which has led to several priests being defrocked, there are words about granting victory to one of the warring parties. Obviously, this refers to Russia's victory in the war with Ukraine. Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol stated during Christmas readings: "When we win in this sacred war, then the transformation of our Russia will continue." Supporters of the "patriarchal" prayer argue that praying for victory is an ancient Church practice that does not contradict either the Canons or the Gospel.

As evidence of their position, they often cite a part of the prayer from the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, specifically the text from Intercessio (Latin for "intercession"), which speaks of granting victory over barbarian nations to the Orthodox king. What is this text, and is it applicable to the war between Russia and Ukraine?

Intercession from the Liturgy of St Basil the Great

The part of the intercessory prayer (Intercessio) from the Liturgy of St Basil the Great, which war proponents refer to, reads as follows: "Remember, O Lord, the faithful and Christ-loving rulers, whom you have allowed to govern on earth: arm them with truth and cover them with favour as a shield on the day of battle, strengthen their muscle, exalt their right hand, establish their reign, and subdue all barbarian tongues (nations – Transl.) that seek war: grant them profound and lasting peace: speak to their hearts good things concerning your Church and all Your people that in tranquillity we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

Appealing to this text, the war proponents rely on two, in their opinion, indisputable theses:

1. Intercessio is a part of the Eucharistic prayer, which has come to us in an unchanged form through the thousand-year history of the Church, which means that it is sanctified by the authority of Tradition and has always been in the form in which we read it today.
2. Intercessio was written by St. Basil himself and is, therefore, sanctified by the patristic authority.

Based on all of the above, it follows: since the text was written by St. Basil, and the Church has always followed it, it means that the Church has always prayed for the authorities, in the sense of "subduing all barbarian tongues", and "the liturgy is not about a universal sweet peace and pink ponies." If that's the case, then refusing to pray for "victory" is a disagreement with the Church Tradition, which can lead to defrocking and other consequences.

In the end, the text of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is used as evidence that the Church has never embraced "pacifism". But is this so? In other words, has the Church truly never changed anything in the order of commemorating authorities (both secular and ecclesiastical) throughout the entire Liturgy and specifically in Intercessio?

Has the Church changed its attitude towards rulers?

In scientific literature, it is commonly believed that the main part of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great – the Anaphora – indeed belongs to his pen (at least partially). However, "it is incorrect to pose the question of the authorship of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great as a whole: its rite was supplemented and edited over many centuries."

So, Intercessio (intercession) is the name of one of the sections of the Eucharistic prayer, closer to its end. This section contains a list of the names of saints, remembrances of the living and deceased faithful, Church hierarchs and secular rulers, as well as prayers for various needs of the church community.

Indeed, the Church prays for the authorities several times during the Liturgy: during the Litany of Peace (the Great Litany), during the Litany of Completion following the reading of the Holy Gospel, at the Great Entrance, at the end of the Eucharistic Canon, and after the exclamation "Especially for our Most Holy…". The wording of mentioning authorities, pronounced aloud by the priest, sounds like this: "For this God-protected land, its powers and army, let us pray to the Lord, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

But has it always been unchanged?

It turns out that the commemoration of authorities is a part of the Liturgy that changes constantly. In order not to go back into ancient history and tell you how the Church prayed for the rulers in Byzantium or Kievan Rus', let us turn to a time closer to us – the twentieth century.

After 2 March 1917, the head of the Russian state, Emperor Nicholas, abdicated the throne. The clergy faced the question: which authorities to pray for in the Liturgy? The confusion became even greater when Emperor Nicholas' brother also renounced the throne. Therefore, the situation was resolved in different ways. Some, such as Bishop Anastasius (Alexandrov) of Yamburg, used the Old Believer formulation, and some skipped the mention of the "autocratic" Tsar altogether.

On 4 March 1917, Moscow deans (not the Synod!) worked out the wording of the commemoration, which sounded like this: "The God-protected State of Russia, its government and army". But two days later it was replaced by the Synod with the words: "The God-given State of Russia and its Faithful Provisional Government...". But even this wording did not last long. Because of the serious dissatisfaction of the faithful with the mention of the "Provisional Government", already on 6 April 1918, it was replaced by "For the suffering State of Russia and its salvation...".

At the same time, an appointed committee decided to replace the words "Our Faithful Emperor (Name)" with "Your faithful People" in the Troparion and Kontakion of the Holy Cross at the beginning of Matins.

In addition, the verse: "that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness" (1 Tim. 2:2) was added to the already familiar to us "for our God-protected country, its government and army". It is assumed that Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) personally made this edit in 1927, because he believed that praying for authority (albeit anti-religious) was commanded by the Apostle and that, secondly, it (praying) would in some way serve as an open proof of the Church's loyal attitude to the state (Bolychev D., Sr. Prayer for "authorities" in the Russian Orthodox Church // Praxis. 2021. No 2 (7). С. 165-183).

As we can see, the prayer for authorities did not always have the wording it has today and often depended on the political situation and the position of the Church in the state. In other words, changes in formulations regarding both secular and ecclesiastic authorities are not something new and unusual but quite a normal thing.

Moreover, not only the content of the prayer for the authorities in the Litanies was changed but also during the Anaphora, namely the part titled Intercessio, which our opponents consider unchanged. But is that the case?

Can the text of the Liturgy be changed?

The undisputed fact is that for a long time (at least 80 years), in the Service Books of the Russian Orthodox Church, the words from the Intercessio of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great about granting victory to kings over "the nations who seek war" were removed.

Firstly, as we have already mentioned, as of 2 March 1917 there was no longer a tsar. Secondly, Intercessio speaks of the "most pious and faithful" tsar, which Lenin and his colleagues were not in terms of piety, let alone faithfulness. Thirdly, there was a civil war going on in the country, and the Church, represented by its best members, believed that it was impossible to support any side in the internecine strife.

In the Service Books published after 2004, the words about "subduing barbarian tongues that seek war" appear in the Liturgy of St Basil the Great. It is believed that this text was "returned" by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, but we could not find such a decision in the synodal journals for 2003 and 2004. Therefore, the question of who "returned" the "barbarians" to the Service Books published after 2004 remains open, and, as it seems to us, important because words that were neither in the ancient Slavonic Service Books nor the Service Books of the Soviet era, nor in the Greek Prayer Books appeared in Intercessio. For comparison, we give three versions of this text: pre-revolutionary, published in 2004, and before 2003:

The pre-revolutionary text (from "Collection of Ancient Liturgies in Russian Translation," 1875): "Remember, O Lord, the most pious and faithful kings, whom you have allowed to govern on earth: arm them with truth and cover them with favour as a shield on the day of battle, strengthen their muscle, exalt their right hand, establish their reign, and subdue all barbarian tongues that seek war: grant them profound and lasting peace: speak to their hearts good things concerning your Church and all Your people that in tranquillity we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

The Service Book published in 2004: "Remember, O Lord, the faithful and Christ-loving rulers, whom you have allowed to govern on earth: arm them with truth and cover them with favour as a shield on the day of battle, strengthen their muscle, exalt their right hand, establish their reign, and subdue all barbarian tongues that seek war: grant them profound and lasting peace: speak to their hearts good things concerning your Church and all Your people that in tranquillity we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

The Service Book published before 2003: "Remember, O Lord, all principalities and powers, and our brethren in the chamber, and all the host: keep the good in goodness, and make the wicked good through Thy goodness."

As we can see, the first two texts differ significantly from the third one (which does not speak of "the day of battle" and "subduing all barbarian tongues"). Moreover, the first two texts also differ from each other: in the first case it goes about "the most pious and faithful kings", and in the second case – "the faithful and Christ-loving rulers". Agree, the difference is quite significant.

It turns out that the ROC decided to "return" the prayer for the rulers from the Liturgy of St Basil the Great, replacing "kings" with "rulers" and "most pious" with "Christ-loving".

So, even such an important text as the Liturgy can undergo changes and is by no means a "dogma" of the Church? Yes, at least in the part related to "subduing barbarians". The Orthodox Encyclopaedia, published with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill, recognises this, stating that "in the Orthodox tradition, Intercessio, despite a significant degree of fixation in the 17th century, continues to evolve (especially in the part of supplications for secular authorities, which is noticeable when comparing the editions of the Service books published before 1917, under the Soviet regime and in recent years)" as we have seen above.

Where did the "day of battle" go?

But that is not all. War proponents cannot but admit that the form of commemoration of the authorities has changed throughout history and is still changing. However, they claim no change in the part that speaks of "subduing tongues". And therefore, the words about "strengthening on the day of battle" are a thousand-year tradition of the Church, which was interrupted only during the Soviet period. But even here, we will disappoint them.

If our opponents, instead of writing notes on Telegram, were engaged more or less seriously in the theological issues they write about, they would know that the first mention of the Liturgy of Basil the Great dates back to the time of the Theopaschite controversy of the 6th century. At that time, several Scythian monks travelled to Rome, where, in an attempt to resolve the question of the doctrinal formulation "the Son of God suffered in the flesh", they appealed to the authority of St Basil the Great. They quoted the text of his Liturgy, which, they said, "is regularly used by almost the whole East": "Grant, O Lord, strength and intercession. The wicked – we pray to Thee – make good, keep the good in goodness...". Doesn't it remind you of anything?

Of course, you will say, it does – the Service Books published in the Russian Orthodox Church until 2004, in which Intercessio says: "Remember, O Lord, all principalities and powers, and our brethren in the chamber, and all the host: keep the good in goodness, and make the wicked good through Thy goodness."

It turns out that the oldest passage from the text of the Liturgy of St Basil the Great, sanctified by Tradition and the holy Fathers, and quite possibly belonging to the hand of the great saint of our Church, does not contain petitions for the "subduing of tongues" and requests for the strengthening of rulers in the "day of battle".

What does this mean?

Firstly, the ancient text of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great probably did not contain words about "the day of battle" and "subduing tongues". These words are a later insertion, which was introduced into the liturgical text due to changed political circumstances.

Secondly, the commemoration of authorities during the Liturgy has been constantly changing and may change in the future.

Thirdly, prayers for "subduing tongues" by military means were alien to the ancient Church, as evidenced by both the texts of the liturgies and numerous statements of the holy Fathers.

Therefore, we can advise the war proponents that before presenting a quote from the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great as "evidence" of the Church's pro-war stance, you should at least minimally familiarise yourself with the literature on the topic. Then you will not only enrich your theological knowledge with new foreign words but no longer write that Intercessio is the "heart" of the Anaphora.

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