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 153 “Be exalted, O Bridegroom, like Abraham, and blessed as was Isaac, and increase as did Jacob, walking in peace and keeping God’s commandments in righteousness.” Then taking the bride’s he says: “And you, O Bride, be exalted like Sarah, and rejoice as did Rebecca, and be as fruitful as Rachel, delighting in your husband while observing all that the law requires, for this is what is pleasing to God.”“ Just as the paranymphs exchange the couple’s rings in the rite of engagement, so here, after the crowning, in some places it is customary for them to exchange the crowns on the heads of the couple. These symbolic gestures have a double meaning, both spiritual and ecclesial. In the Byzantine liturgical books, paranymphs go by the term sÿnteknos (koumbari). It is a Byzantine term that indicates—as at Baptism—spiritual paternity or maternity, or rather the spiritual espousal with which the paranymphs are united to the espousal of the couple. The paranymphs, then, are not simply witnesses to the marriage bond, but rather guarantors of the faith and fidelity of the spouses; they aid the spouses by living and testifying to the profound union of Christ with the Church in their conjugal life. They also represent the ecclesial community before whom the spouses celebrate this sacrament. The role attributed to the paranymphs, then, goes beyond the function of simple witnesses. Though, certainly, they are called to provide proof of the consent given and of the matrimonial rite, they have yet another attribute: similar to the godparents and Baptism, they must help the spouses to bring about the community of life and love that their matrimonial consent spurs them on to perfect. Another meaningful element of this rite in the Byzantine liturgy is the offe- ing made to the spouses of a cup of wine. They drink from this cup as a sign of the new covenant and new union just made. At times in a few places the priest throws the cup to the floor and smashes it, symbolizing the indissolubility and the total, exclusive fidelity of the couple. In some places the paranymphs too drink of this wine, which indicates that they take on the particular duty of helping the spouses persevere in the unity and indissolubility of their matrimony. Matrimony is a participation in the dual covenant: that of God with mankind, and that of Christ with the Church, his mystical body. Besides this meaning, the glass of wine offered to the spouses and to the paranymphs commemorates the wedding at Cana. “It is essential to notice, at the wedding of Cana, not only the presence of the Redeemer, but also the likewise necessary presence of the most holy Virgin. These two characters are the true protagonists of that wedding. These two are at the center of the nuptial feast. The earthly spouses are just a reflection of them: Christ and the Virgin; the Creator and the creature full of grace. In relation to them, the two contracting humans are no longer there as a couple in and for themselves, but as a reflection of the supernatural couple that, once vanished, makes us return to the shadows, to the figures of the Old Testament.”81 The prayer of benediction over the common " Ibid., 69-70. 81 G. Ferrari, II matrimonio nella tradizione patristica, in Oriente Cristiano 12 (1972) 2.
