The Creed

28. The Creed is said in both the Latin and Greek liturgy. The practice of saying the Creed during the sacrifice of the Mass was first established in the Greek Church and then introduced in the Latin Church. This is evident from Canon Two of the third Council of Toledo in 589: "That the creed of the faith be said in all churches of Spain or Galicia in accordance with the form of the Oriental churches and of the council of Constantinople at which 150 bishops were present; that it be sung with clear voice by the people before the Lord's prayer is said" (Labbe, Collectionis, vol. 5, p. 1009).

Since the fathers at Toledo appealed to the rite of the Oriental churches in establishing the practice of saying the Creed during Mass, it is quite evident that this practice was first established in the east and spread from there to the west. This is the opinion both of Cardinal Bona, Rerum Lyturgic, bk. 2, chap. 8, no. 2, and of Georgius, de lyturgia Romani Pontificis, vol. 2, chap. 20, no. 2, p. 176.

Adoration of the Cross

Continuing with Our topic, Amalarius in his de Divinis Officiis, chap. 14 (relying on the authority of St. Paulinus' Epistola ad Severum) relates that the Cross on which Christ hung was exposed for the adoration of the faithful in the church at Jerusalem on Good Friday of Holy Week only. He declares that the ceremony of the adoration of the Holy Cross which forms part of the Good Friday service in every Latin church until the present day derived from this practice of the Greeks.

Trisagion

The trisagion: "Holy God, Holy Strong One, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us" is a pious and oft-repeated prayer in the Greek liturgy; Goarius correctly observes this in his in notis ad Euchologium, p. 109, in reference to the Mass of St. John Chrysostom. This prayer originated in a miracle which occurred in Constantinople in the middle of the fifth century. Emperor Theodosius, Patriarch Proclus, and all the people were beseeching God on open ground for deliverance from the destruction which threatened them from violent earthquakes. They suddenly saw a boy snatched up to heaven; when he was returned to earth, he reported that he had heard the angels singing the trisagion. At the bidding of the Patriarch Proclus, the whole people sang it with devotion and the terrifying earthquakes ceased, as is related by Nicephorus, bk. 14, chap. 46, and mentioned by Pope Felix III in his third letter to Peter the Fuller (Labbe, Collectionis, vol. 4). This same trisagion is sung in the western church in Greek and Latin on Friday of Holy Week, as Cardinal Bona remarks (Rerum Lyturgicar., bk. 2, chap. 10, no. 5).

Blessing of Water at Epiphany

The blessing of water on the eve of the Epiphany derives from the rite of the Greek Church, as Goarius shows at length in the case of the Euchology or Ritual of the Greeks. At the present time, on the same day, this ceremony is performed in Rome in the Church of the Greeks, as We recalled in constitution 57, sect. 5, no. 13, and the faithful are permitted to be sprinkled with this holy water.

On the transmission of this rite from the Oriental Church to some western churches two authorities may be consulted: Martene, vol. 4, de antiqua Ecclesiae disciplina in Dovomos celebrandis Officiis, chap. 4, no. 2, and Fr. Sebastianus Paulus of the Congregation of the Mother of God, De ritu Ecclesiae Neritinae exorcizandi aquam in Epiphania, Naples, 1719. The latter writer (part. 3, pp. 177 ff) gives bishops an appropriate admonition not to give cause for rioting by attempting to abolish certain ceremonies which have at a great distance in time made their way into their dioceses from the Greek church. To attack these ceremonies, he says, would give the appearance of criticizing the way the Apostolic See has acted in regard to these rites. Although this See was well aware that these ceremonies had come from the Greek church it permitted them to be observed and attended. On p. 203 he quotes the letter of Cardinal Sanctorius of Sancta Severina written in 1580 to Fornarius, Bishop of Nerita, on this topic of the blessing of water at Epiphany which was performed in his diocese.

Stripping and Washing the Altar

The ceremony of stripping and washing the altar on Holy Thursday is also Greek. A reference to this ceremony is found in the fifth century. St. Sabas mentions it in his Typico, the Order of saying the Divine Office throughout the year. According to Leo Allatius, he died in 451 (de Libris Ecclesiae Graecae, dissert. I, p. 9). If it could be asserted with certainty that the Roman order published by Hittorpius was composed at the command of Pope St. Gelasius, the ceremony of washing the altars on Holy Thursday would be almost as ancient in the Latin Church as it is in the Greek Church, since Gelasius died in 496. But the antiquity of this Order is disputed and, apart from it, St. Isidore, Bishop of Hispala, is the first of the Latins to mention this ceremony. He died in 646. So probably this ceremony came to the west from the east and is observed to this day in some Latin churches with papal approval. In particular it is performed each year on Holy Thursday with great solemnity in the Vatican Basilica.

Suarez, Bishop of Vasionum and Vicar of this Basilica, and John Chrysostom Battellus, Archbishop of Amaseno, who were recently appointed Beneficiates of this Basilica, have each published a thoughtful treatise elucidating this ceremony. Therefore, it is evident from these examples that the Apostolic See, for good reasons, has adopted for the whole Latin Church ceremonies which belong to the Greek Church and has allowed some Latin churches to observe particular ceremonies.