Malankara Catholic Holy Mass (Qurbana)

[LivingWordUnity]

 

[LivingWordUnity]

The one who posted the video on YouTube calls this Mass a Holy "Qurbano." But I see on the internet that it's also spelled "Qurbana." Since I'm not from the Malankara Rite I don't know what the difference is or if there is no difference. If anyone here knows I would appreciate it if you can explain it.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Here's a Malankara Catholic wedding.

 

[GoingByzantine]

The Eastern Churches of Southern India are not my speciality, but they are quite ancient and their traditions are syriac in nature but ultimately quite unique.

 

[dzheremi]

The word should be "Qurbana". It is a Syriac word meaning "Sacrifice", and it's what they call their liturgy, just like how Roman Catholics call theirs "Mass".

Just for comparison's sake (since they have not been separated from their Orthodox mother church for very long; only since 1930), here is a snippet of a Malankara Orthodox Qurbana. You'll notice that even the Orthodox Indians also use the keyboard... (something which I can't understand, personally; when you've got a voice like Isaac Mor Osthatheos has, why do you need anything else? Alas, I am not an Indian...)

Not to be outdone, check out this awesome Malankara Catholic Qurbana celebrated by Fr. Aji Puthoor:

What a voice Fr. Aji has!

 

[dzheremi]

By the way, the difference between "Qurbana" and "Qurbono" is that the first is East Syriac and the second is West Syriac. This is actually an interesting difference in the context of Syriac Christianity in India. Originally, the Church in India was probably aligned with the Church of the East (East Syrian/"Nestorian" Church; the same one that the Chaldean Church in Iraq came out of in the 16th century or thereabouts). Even Malankara Orthodox Church admits this in several books I've read from their authors, though it is not entirely cut and dry (there is some evidence of Orthodox Syriac activity there dating to around the sixth century, though it is not conclusive), which means that prior to the arrival of the Portuguese and the later Coonan Cross Oath in 1653 (which consisted of a section of the preexisting Syriac Christians rejecting the authority of Rome in a very formal way), we can at best safely assume that the Syriac Christians in India would have been using East Syriac language and (probably?) East Syriac forms of worship. A few months after the Coonan Cross oath, the people elected Mar Thoma I (itself an East Syriac form; in West Syriac, the honorific used would be "Mor", not "Mar") as their bishop. Presumably because this did not happen within the confines of any particular church (the Indian Syriacs either being under the administration of the Portuguese following the Synod of Diamper in 1599 or existing in rebellion against that, as with the Coonan Cross Oath faction), the Coonan Cross oath people existed autonomously for a while until 1655, when Mor Gregorios Abdul Jaleel (who was then a delegate of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, but would later serve as the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem) came to Kerala to confirm his consecration.

So in the space of only 56 years (1599 to 1655), the Christians in India went from being East Syrians (from some indeterminate point in the past to 1599), to "Latins" by force (the Synod of Diamper forced them to be under the direct administration of the Latin Archdiocese of Goa), to independent (as in, in communion with nobody, for the two years between the Coonan Cross Oath and the arrival of Mor Gregorios), to West Syrians/Orthodox. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that you still hear East Syriac from these ritually West Syriac churches, given that the East Syrians helped sustain their church for 1500 years or so, versus the last ~400 years of communion with the Syriac Orthodox or the Latins, and only about 80 as a Malankara Catholic Church!

In fact, when searching for Malankara Orthodox videos on Youtube, you will find a lot more under "Qurbana" (East Syriac) than "Qurbono" (West Syriac). And it seems like this is not random, i.e., those who post "Qurbonos" instead of "Qurbanas" quite consciously seem to use West Syriac. I don't even know either dialect, but from what I can tell in the video below, which is an Orthodox Qurbono, the nouns (which, as you've probably noticed by now, have "o" in West Syriac but "a" in East Syriac, though the differences are not always that simple; there are other internal changes sometimes, e.g., W. Syriac shafiro for E. Syriac shapira, both meaning 'beautiful') seem to be all West Syriac forms: Aloho "God", Qadisho "holy", 'Isho Mshiho "Jesus Christ", etc. (instead of East Syriac Alaha, Qadish, 'Isha Mshiha, etc.)

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Dzheremi,

Thank you for explaining that more. I have a lot to learn when it comes to the Eastern churches.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

I find it fascinating that the hand movement of the priest is something that St. Thomas must have done that was passed down through tradition. It's like looking through a 2,000 year window of time.

 

[dzheremi]

What do you mean by "hand movement"? You mean the orans posture?

^ This?

If so, that's something that predates Christianity by quite a lot, and we probably inherited it from the Jews. It used to be common in all Christianity (the image above is from one of the Roman catacombs, 3rd century AD), but now it seems like it's more of a general Eastern thing. Even Muslims do it.

St. Mina, one of the most famous saints in the Coptic Orthodox Church, is often (always? I've only seen so many icons...) depicted in this posture.

Probably if you go to any Eastern church, this is how people will be praying.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

What do you mean by "hand movement"? You mean the orans posture?

That's not what I mean. The priests in the Latin Rite do the orans posture, too. I mean something different. I don't know how to describe it, so I'll show you the parts in the videos where it happens.

For this one, an example can be found starting at time 7:57.

In this one, an example is at 5:55 and at 8:44.

In this one, an example starts at 7:01.

And the priest was doing the same kind of hand motion when there was a Malankara Qurbana on EWTN.

 

[dzheremi]

Oh. Hmm. I hadn't noticed that before. If I had to guess based on the other motions going on in those parts (e.g., during the wedding video at 5:55, when the Catholicos puts his hand on the worshiper's bowed head), I would assume that this is an invocation of the Holy Spirit, though the "fluttering" motion seems to be a uniquely Syriac thing, signifying the fluttering wings of the dove that has always been a symbol of the descent of the Holy Spirit. The first thing that I could find on Google just now when searching for it was a page explaining the Malankara Orthodox Qurbono (viewable here), which states regarding the invocation of the Holy Spirit using this motion: "The consecration is followed by invocation of the Holy Spirit in which the Holy Spirit is called upon to descend upon the gifts. The mystery of the Holy sacrifice is considered to be complete and perfected by the action of the Holy Spirit. The priest waves his hands over the bread and wine with a fluttering motion, signifying the descent of the Holy Spirit. We find the deacon warning the people to stand in awe as the Holy Spirit is descending and hovering over the mysteries. The Holy Spirit is here represented by the dove, flying and hovering over (Mark 1:10). The hands signify the wings of the dove."

It's quite beautiful, I think.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

It's quite beautiful, I think.

I agree, and I learned that the bells signify trembling in the presence of the Lord.