The Liturgy of Saint Cyril is one of the three Anaphoras used at present by the Coptic Orthodox Church and it retains the liturgical peculiarities which have originated in the early Christian Egypt, thus forming the core of the historical Alexandrian Rite. When reference is made to its Greek version, this text is usually known as Liturgy of Saint Mark.
According to liturgical tradition, Christianity was brought in Alexandria in Egypt by Saint Mark. The town then acquired importance as a center of church government and Christian theology with its Catechetical School. The liturgical uses that developed locally are known as the Alexandrian Rite, and the texts used for the celebration of the Eucharist are known as the Liturgy of Saint Mark. The lingua franca of the Western world in the early centuries of Christianity was the Koine Greek, and the Liturgy of Saint Mark was in such a language. The translation of this liturgy in Coptic, used by most of Egyptian population at that time, is attributed to Saint Cyril of Alexandria in the first half of the 5th century. Thus the Greek version of this liturgy is usually known as Liturgy of Saint Mark, while its Coptic version is regularly called Liturgy of Saint Cyril, even if the formal name of the latter is "the Anaphora of our holy father Mark the Apostle, which the thrice-blessed Saint Cyril the Archbishop established". The oldest survived complete manuscripts of both the Liturgy of Saint Mark and of Saint Cyril date from the High Middle Ages. From the 5th century to the High Middle Ages both versions developed on parallel and mutually interconnected lines, with reciprocal translations and with most of the additions added to both of them. Both versions have some own peculiar material. The use of the Liturgy of Saint Mark by the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria was blamed by the Patriarch of Antioch and canonist Theodore Balsamonat the beginning of the 13th century.
Manuscript Tradition
The first millennium witnesses of the early stages of this liturgy are the following fragments:
the Strasbourg papyrus, written in the 4th or 5th century, includes the first part of the preface, with the paraphrase of Malachi followed by some short intercessions and it ends with a doxology. Scholars disagree on whether this prayer in the 3rd century was in itself a complete anaphora.
the John Rylandsparchment 465, written in Greek in the 6th century and badly conserved, includes the text from the first epiclesis up to the end of the anaphora.
the British Museum Tablet, written in Coptic in the 8th century, includes the text from the first epiclesis up to the second epiclesis.
Other ancient texts which belong to the Alexandrian Rite are important in the study of the development of the Liturgy of Saint Mark: the Anaphora of Serapion is the earlier witness of some ancient material, the Anaphora of Barcelona and the Deir Balyzeh Papyrus are different developments based on the same material, the Cathecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem are useful to trace the relationship with the Liturgy of St. James. The earlier manuscripts of the Liturgy of Saint Cyril date from the 12th century and are in Bohairic Coptic. It is not known whether they derive directly from the Greek or through lost Sahidic versions. These manuscripts include some additions not found in the Liturgy of Saint Mark in Greek, but in general their readings are closer to the first millennium fragments than those of the Greek version. The earlier manuscripts of the Liturgy of Saint Mark are: the Codex Rossanensis, the Rotulus Vaticanus, the incomplete Rotulus Messanensis. Another witness is the lost manuscript of the library of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, copied in 1585–6 by Patriarch Meletius Pegas. The Rotulus Vaticanus, and even more the text copied by Pegas, show a progress in the process of assimilation to Byzantine usages.
Structure of the anaphora
The anaphora of Saint Mark found in the High Middle Ages manuscripts shows all the typical peculiarities of the Alexandrine Rite, such as a long Preface which includes an offering and immediately followed by the intercessions, two epiclesis, the absence of the Benedictus in the Sanctus. The structure of the anaphora can be so summarized:
a second epiclesis directed to the Holy Spirit, with an explicit request to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This epiclesis uses the aorist tense, thus simply narrating a conversion without stating whether it occurs in the present, future or past.
a final prayer for the fruits of the Communion.
In the present use of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the section containing the Intercessions and the second Oblation has been moved to the end of the anaphora, following the pattern used in the Coptic Liturgies of Saint Basil and Saint Gregory based an Antiochene structure.
