On Typika and Beatitudes

According to the Typikon of Violakis, the Typika (Psalms 102 and 145) and Beatitudes should be chanted every Sunday, unless a feast of Christ or the Theotokos, or its apodosis, falls on the same day. As Violakis writes in his Protheoria:

"Every Sunday in the liturgy, the Typika and Beatitudes are chanted without fail (ἀπαραιτήτως) with their eight resurrectional troparia from the Octoechos. However, when the forefeast or afterfeast of Dominical or Marian feasts, or the memories of celebrated Saints fall on a Sunday, then four Resurrectional troparia are chanted with four troparia from the Sixth Ode of the Canon of the feast or saint."

For the feast days of "celebrated" saints, Violakis also requires Typika and Beatitudes:

"On the feast-days of celebrated saints, on whichever day of the week they may fall, the Typika are appointed without fail (ἀπαραιτήτως), since the Saints do not have verses for Antiphons." 

In other words, the feast days of Saints do not have specially chosen psalm verses that go with the Antiphons, like the ones for feasts of the Master or the Theotokos (which can be found in most Greek Orthodox Epistle books). Therefore, Antiphons could not be chanted for those days.

This reasoning seems to be a reaction against Violakis' predecessor, Konstantinos Protopsaltis, whose Typikon (printed fifty years earlier in 1838) appointed antiphons for the following feasts of these major saints:

• October 26th - St. Demetrios 
• November 8th - Holy Archangels 
• December 6th - St. Nicholas 
• January 1st - St. Basil 
• January 30th - Three Hierarchs 
• June 24 - Nativity of the Forerunner 
• June 29 - Sts. Peter and Paul 
• August 29 - The Beheading of the Forerunner

Since the Saints do not have verses for Antiphons, as Violakis mentioned, Konstantinos provided what I assume are his own. 

However, these antiphons proved problematic to Violakis since their appointment was inconsistent. Why does St. Demetrios get antiphons, but not St. Panteleimon? As it turns out, all the feasts for which Konstantinos appoints antiphons are ones which the Patriarch would preside at from his Patriarchal Throne, according to a list that Konstatninos provides at the end of his own Typikon. 

However, using this criteria appeared too idiosyncratic to Violakis, and all of Konstantinos' antiphons were cut, except those for January 1st, using the reasoning that the Circumcision of Christ is a Feast of the Master. The "Committee Report" to Patriarch Dionysios which appears in the beginning of the Violakis Typikon, cites correcting "inconsistencies and errors" in Konstantinos' Typikon as a major goal of the new Typikon, especially in its instructions on the feast days of Saints. Therefore, the Violakis Typikon, which critics like to paint as "innovative," actually restored a more traditional practice in abolishing the Antiphons on Saints' Days.

Oddly enough, Violakis does add antiphons in two places where Konstantinos does not have them: The Sunday of Orthodoxy and the Worship of the Cross during Great Lent. As these are the two longest Sundays of Lent, they were perhaps introduced to save time. He also appoints Antiphons for the entire forty days of Pascha, admitting that this is not the practice of more ancient typika.

In most Greek Orthodox parishes across the world today, it is rare to hear the Typika and Beatitudes, unless one is in a monastery or a more traditional parish. In their place, the Antiphons are chanted, with verses pulled from the Typika psalms ("Bless the Lord, O my soul...") as a nod to the previous practice. 

I often wonder when the Antiphons began displacing the Typika on a regular basis, but I have a feeling that the practice had already begun during Violakis' lifetime based on his unusually strongly worded instruction (saying they should be done "without fail"). As the Industrial Revolution spread, the clock began displacing liturgical time, and the need for the services to fit into certain time-blocks became necessary. Chanting the antiphons saves about ten minutes and gives the chanters' voices a bit of a break.

However, the Typikon of Violakis leaves no doubt that the Typika and Beatitudes should be heard on a regular basis.