Richard Barrett - Let us put away all earthly care: Mysticism and the Cherubikon of the Byzantine Rite in Late Antiquity

The Cherubikon, sung during the Great Entrance in the Byzantine Rite, has been discussed in a number of different ways in the literature -- as a theatrical component of the Divine Liturgy (White 2006 et al), in terms of musicology (Raasted 1986 et al), and as a “synecdoche” of the entire Eucharistic liturgy (Taft 1995). This paper seeks to discuss the Cherubikon in terms of how it is understood in Late Antiquity as describing the liturgical action as mystical experience. The text sung on regular Sundays refers to worshippers as “mystically representing” (μυστικῶς εἰκονίζοντες) the Cherubim; the text for Thursday of Holy Week describes the Eucharist as “the mystical supper” (τοῦ Δειπνοῦ τοῦ μυστικοῦ); and the text sung for the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on weekdays during Great Lent refers to the “mystical sacrifice” (θυσία μυστική). Germanus of Constantinople’s eighth century commentary on the rite describes the hymn and the multisensory liturgical action as being a corporeal gloss on the spiritual reality they describe – the “mystical, living, and unbloody service” (τῆς μυστικῆς καὶ ζωοθύτου καὶ ἀναιμάκτου λατρείας, 37.17-8) – in what Taft (ibid., 54) calls a “prolepis” of the whole Eucharistic action. Germanus uses the same Greek verb to describe the correspondence of the ritual event to the spiritual reality, εἰκονίζω, as the hymn itself uses to describe the relationship of the worshippers to the Cherubim; this is a term traceable to Neoplatonic authors, such as Plotinus, who uses the verb to describe the created order as “an image continuously being imaged” (ὁ κόσμος εἰκὼν ἀεὶ εἰκονζόμενος, Enneads 2.3.18). The engagement with Neoplatonic mysticism is also demonstrable through the influence of Maximus the Confessor, whose Mystagogy Germanus quotes in his commentary (Meyendorff 1984, 105-7). As understood by Late Antique authors such as Germanus, then, the Cherubikon’s use of μυστικῶς indicates a conception of the Byzantine Rite that maps onto Iamblichus’ three degrees of prayer – introductory, conjunctive, and ineffable unification (De mysteriis V.26), with the Liturgy of the Catechumens serving as the introductory stage, the Great Entrance the conjunctive stage, and the Eucharist itself as ineffable unification.