Folia Canonica 11. (2008)
STUDIES - George Gallardo-Dimitri Salachas: The "ritus sacer" of the Sacrament of Marriage in the Byzantine Churches
THE “RITUS SACER" IN THE BYZANTINE CHURCHES 141 has been sufficiently developed, under the influence of Western thought.28 From the very beginning of the Christian era, marriage was understood as a part of the mystery of the Church. It was therefore incorporated into the life of the Church in general, but especially in the holy Eucharist, where it was originally celebrated. This incorporation of marriage into the life of the Church made it into a Christian marriage. A Christian marriage, obviously, presupposes the faith and the total commitment required by the Church for participation in the life of the Church by her members. After entering a civil union, the Christian couple partook of the Eucharist together, and this was the seal of their marriage, during the first Christian centuries. However, from the fourth century certain formalities of the sacrament of marriage began to be practiced within the context of the Divine Liturgy. As the church grew and the empire became a Christian empire, the state legislation tended to grant the Church an ever increasing control over marriages, particularly from the sixth to the ninth centuries. By the beginning of the tenth century, a rite for the crowning of marriage had appeared separate from the Eucharistic celebration.29 It should furthermore be noted that neither was the Eastern Roman empire lacking a contractual concept of matrimony, and that it was only much later that this gave way to a purely sacral concept in which the sacred rite became the constitutive element of the celebration of the sacrament of matrimony. Still, the Byzantine Church, in the face of the Roman empire, laid claim for many centuries to the right of regulating matrimony in conformity with the Christian faith, requesting the necessary amendments to imperial legislation as soon as such a thing was possible. Already by the end of the first century and at the beginning of the second, Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote: “When men and women marry, the union should be made with the consent of the bishop, so that the marriage may be according to the Lord and not merely out oflust. Let all be done to the glory of God.”10 This same Eastern bishop also exhorted husbands to love their wives “as Christ has loved the Church.” It stands to reason, then, that he is asking the faithful not to marry unless it is blessed by the Church.31 In fact, ancient Eastern canon law stipulated that, without the bishop, nothing should be done in the Church. Canon 39 of the Apostles stated: “ La confession orthodoxe de Pierre Moghila, ed. A. Malvy, Roma 1927; J. Karmiris, Synopsis of the Dogmatic Theology of the Orthodox Church, New York 1973; P. Trembelas, Dogmatique de l’Église Orthodoxe, Chevetogne 1968; V. Lossky, Mystical Thelogy of the Eastern Church, London 1957; J. Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology, New York 1987. 29 Chamberas, 101. 10 PG 5: 724. 11 Ibid.
