☦
Liturgical rite or service
Liturgy & Rites
History & Councils

Liturgy of Saint Mark

The Liturgy of Saint Mark is a Greek Eucharistic liturgy formerly used in Alexandria, whose anaphoric tradition is preserved in the Coptic Anaphora of Saint Cyril.[^1]

Also known as: Liturgy of St. Mark · Liturgy of Saint Cyril · Anaphora of Saint Mark

Published 10/2/2026Updated 2 revisionsPage history

Identity and tradition

The Liturgy of Saint Mark is a Greek Eucharistic liturgy formerly used in the Church of Alexandria; a recension of its anaphoric part is preserved in the Coptic church as the Anaphora of Saint Cyril.1 Understanding the Liturgy presents the tradition that Saint Mark brought the liturgy to Egypt and describes its original language as Greek.2

The surviving textual evidence includes anaphoric fragments, one dating to the fourth or fifth century, while complete Greek texts survive in much later manuscripts.3 The traditional association with Saint Mark and the dates of surviving textual witnesses therefore concern different aspects of the liturgy's history.23

Relationship to Saint Cyril

The Coptic translation is traditionally attributed to Saint Cyril, and the differences between the Greek and Coptic versions are characterized as minimal.4 Both appear to derive from the same recension of the old Egyptian anaphora, but each contains distinctive readings and additions.5

The surviving witnesses to the present Coptic text are in Bohairic and none predates the twelfth century; earlier Greek and Sahidic fragments also survive.5 It remains uncertain whether the Bohairic version was translated directly from Greek or through a Sahidic intermediary.5

Eucharistic structure

The anaphora has several characteristically Egyptian features:1

  • Its opening thanksgiving briefly recalls God's saving actions before being interrupted by lengthy intercessions.1
  • The congregation joins the heavenly beings in the triple “Holy,” ending with “Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.”1
  • The following prayer takes up the word “full” and leads into a first epiclesis, asking God to fill the sacrifice with his blessing through the descent of the Holy Spirit.1
  • After the Institution Narrative and anamnesis, a second epiclesis invokes the Holy Spirit upon the people and the bread and wine, asking that he hallow and perfect them.1
  • No intercessions intervene between this second epiclesis and the concluding doxology.1

The anaphora also expresses the universality of the offering through language associated with Malachi's prophecy: “We offer this reasonable and bloodless sacrifice,” offered by all nations from the rising to the setting of the sun.6

Other prayers and ritual features

Outside the anaphora, Egyptian elements include a prayer for forgiveness accompanying the incense before the readings, a prayer of preparation for communion before the Lord's Prayer, and an intercession for the rising of the river waters.7

Surviving Greek manuscripts also exhibit assimilation to Byzantine usage: the readings are reduced to two, a greater entrance includes the Cherubicon, and the creed follows the kiss of peace rather than preceding it in Egyptian fashion.8

In Coptic service books, the Anaphora of Saint Cyril and its accompanying proper prayers are intended for insertion into the common Eucharistic order supplied with the Anaphora of Saint Basil.9

Manuscripts and use

The oldest complete Greek witnesses include the thirteenth-century Codex Rossanensis and the Rotulus Vaticanus of 1207.3 Around 1203, the Byzantine canonist Theodorus Balsamon opposed the use of Saint Mark's liturgy in churches in communion with Constantinople, prescribing the liturgies of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil instead.3

For the Coptic musical tradition, most melodies of Saint Cyril's liturgy have been lost, and the liturgy was regularly used by Patriarch Macarius III (1942–1945), as well as performed by Abuna Pachomius al-Muharraqi.10

References

Sources

  1. 1.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 466)
    MARK, LITURGY OF SAINT, a Greek liturgy once used in the Church of Alexandria. A recension of its anaphoric part is found in the EUCHOLOGION of the Coptic church as the Anaphora of Saint CYRIL. Egyptian peculiarities are most evident in its anaphoric part, whose opening eucharistic prayer, after a brief summary of God's saving actions leading to the mystery of the Eucharist as motives for thanksgiving, is interrupted by lengthy intercessory prayers. The people present are explicitly associated with the celestial beings as they sing the triple "Holy," which ends with "Heaven and earth are full
  2. 2.Understanding the Liturgy — Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 90)
    Saint Mark, one of the seventy Apostles, who brought Christianity to Egypt around the middle of the first century A.D., also brought to Egypt the liturgy that bears his name; The liturgy of Saint Mark. This liturgy which was originally in Greek, is probably the oldest and most authentic liturgy in Christendom.
  3. 3.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 467)
    Fragments of the anaphora (one of them from the fourth or fifth century) and the Coptic recension cast light on the evolution of the anaphoric part of the Liturgy of Saint Mark, but little is known of the history of its nonanaphoric part. Its full text, with the anaphora in its Melchite setting, survives in a few late manuscripts, which do not agree in all details. The oldest of those containing the complete text are the thirteenth-century Codex Rossanensis (now Vat. graec. 1970) and the Rotulus Vaticanus (Vat. graec. 2281) of 1207. In the latter, the process of Byzantinization is further adva
  4. 4.Understanding the Liturgy — Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 96)
    The Greek liturgy of Saint Mark has now been translated into Coptic. Since the translation is traditionally attributed to Saint Cyril, it became known as The liturgy of Saint Cyril. There are basically no differences between the two, the odd word is found in one version and not the other and vice versa.
  5. 5.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 314)
    Although both the Coptic Saint Cyril and the Greek Saint Mark contain textual variants peculiar to the one or to the other, both seem to be derived from the same recension of the old Egyptian anaphora, whose earliest textual witnesses are fragments in Greek. A few Coptic fragments in the Sahidic dialect have also been found. The extant witnesses to the text of the present Coptic Saint Cyril, none of them earlier than the twelfth century, are in the Bohairic dialect, but a Greek text apparently meant for occasional use in the Coptic church survives in a few manuscripts, one of which has been pu
  6. 6.Understanding the Liturgy — Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 17)
    We offer this reasonable and bloodless sacrifice, which all nations from the rising to the setting of the sun, from the north and the south offer to Thee, O Lord; For great is Thy name among the nations (gentiles), and in all places are incense, sacrifice and oblation offered to Thine Holy Name.
  7. 7.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 466)
    The nonanaphoric parts of the Liturgy of Saint Mark also retain typically Egyptian elements. The prayer to accompany the incensation preceding the readings is a prayer for the forgiveness of sin. The prayer preceding the Lord's Prayer is one of preparation for communion, and a petition for the rising of the river waters is found among the intercessory prayers.
  8. 8.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 467)
    The biblical readings have been reduced to two, there is a greater entrance with the singing of the Cherubicon, the creed follows the KISS OF PEACE instead of preceding it in Egyptian fashion, diaconal litanies in the Byzantine manner have been introduced, and several prayers have been borrowed from the Byzantine rite.
  9. 9.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 314)
    In the Coptic euchologia the Anaphora of Saint Cyril in the strict sense, prefaced by proper prayers of the veil and of the kiss of peace and followed by proper prayers of the fraction (with its preface), of embolism and of inclination after the Lord's Prayer, and of thanksgiving and of inclination after communion, is designed for insertion into the common order of the eucharistic liturgy which is given in connection with the Anaphora of Saint Basil.
  10. 10.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 73)
    Unfortunately, most of the melodies of the Liturgy of Saint Cyril have been lost, and it can no longer be performed in its entirety. The most recent record of its performance is that of Patriarch MACARIUS III (1942-1945), who used it regularly. Immediately thereafter, there may have been a few priests in Upper Egypt who remembered his manner of celebrating the anaphora. Abuna Pachomius al-Muharraqi, vice-rector of the CLERICAL COLLEGE, also performed it on various occasions.

Explore

Related articles

  • Cronius of Nitria

    Cronius of Nitria was a saint and ascetic associated with Scetis who later served Saint Antony of Egypt and met Palladius in Alexandria.[^1][^2]

  • Saint Verena

    Saint Verena was a fourth-century Egyptian holy woman associated with the Theban Legion, remembered in Switzerland for asceticism, healing, religious instruction, and care for the poor and sick.[^1]

  • Holy Saturday

    Holy Saturday, also called Great Saturday or the Saturday of Joy, commemorates Christ’s body resting in the tomb and heralds his Resurrection.[^1]

  • Islamization of Nubia

    Nubia’s transition from Coptic Christianity to Islam was gradual and regionally varied, involving weakened church institutions, political change, migration, intermarriage, and Sufi teaching.[^1][^5][^7][^8]

  • Pope Mark II

    Saint Mark II was the forty-ninth patriarch of the See of Saint Mark (799–819), a preacher and writer commemorated on 22 Baramudah.[^1]

  • Papyrus M 636

    Papyrus M 636 is a Coptic liturgical manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan collection, dated to the ninth or eighth–ninth century, and a principal witness to dialect H, or Hermopolitan.[^1][^4]

Backlinks

What links here

This article was drafted from the sources listed above with AI assistance and reviewed by an editor before publication.