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 155 riages, just tolerates them, and such a tolerance indicates precisely how inadmissible and defective they are85. Canon three of the synod of Neo-Caesarea (314-319), dealing with those who marry more than once, albeit legitimately, establishes that, “the appointed time of their penance is well known, but their manner of living and faith shortens the time.”“6 Canon seven of the same synod moreover prohibits priests from being present at the nuptial tables of those married a second time, .for, since the digamist is worthy of penance, what kind of a priest shall he be, who, by being present at the feast, sanctioned the marriage?”87 Even the Synod of Laodicea (c. 347-381), canon one establishes that: “According to ecclesiastical rule, we decide that those who have freely and lawfully joined in second marriages, after some time spent in prayer and fasting, should be admitted again to communion.”*8 Saint Basil deals with those contracting second and third marriages in several canons.89 In his canon four, confirming an ancient rule, he imposes on one who marries twice the penance of abstaining from communion for one or two years; for those who marry a third time or more, the penance is instead three or four years. Saint Basil affirms that one should not call these by the name of matrimony, but rather of polygamy, or even of “mitigated fornication.”90 From these norms it results that second marriages in the Eastern tradition, while legitimate, were considered a concession. In fact, the Byzantine ritual contains a distinct rite for the celebration of second or subsequent matrimonies. In the Orthodox editions a preliminary note is attached relating the opinion of Nicephorus the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople (f 828), and of Metropolitan Nicetas of Heraclea (f 1077). According to the former, “one who is married for a second time is not crowned, and it is forbidden to receive holy communion for two years; and one who is married for a third time, for five years.” According to the metropolitan of Heraclea, “it is not customary to crown the digamists; but the great Church of Constantinople does not keep this, and for those marrying a second time it lays crowns, and no one is re85 PL 2: 922. 86 JOANNOU, 76. 87 JOANNOU, 78. 88 Ibid., 130. 89 Discipline Generale Antique: Les canons de Peres Grecs, P. Joannou (par), Grottaferrata 1963, 101-102. 90 Ibid. 90 Ibid.
