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I had previously mentioned to my friend @MarkRohfrietsch and my other Lutheran friends such as @Ain't Zwinglian and @ViaCrucis and I think also my Anglican friend @Shane R that the Orthodox form of the Hail Mary tends to either be identical to the Roman Catholic one, or so similar in wording as to be effectively the same, but that there are Theotokia (Marian hymns) and antiphons in the Octoechos, or Eight Tones, the hymnal of eight weeks, that look very much like the Lutheran form of the Hail Mary in that they lack the request for intercessory prayer. However, I could not remember exactly where these were. While reading the Vespers for Sunday (said on Saturday) in the Eigth Tone I came across it, known as the Angelic Salutation.
Thus we can see from the above rubrics that the Lutheran form of the Ave Maria does indeed have ancient Patristic precedent, even though the majority of Theotokia do indeed contain petitions, such as the one preceding the above. We can also say Martin Luther’s use of the Ave Maria mirrors the use of the Angelic Salutation in the Prayer Rule of St. Seraphim of Sarov (which is the closest Orthodox equivalent to the Rosary, consisting of typically 100 Angelic Salutations, along with the Our Father, and the Nicene Creed, prayed on a special leather Lestovka that normally costs around $200, but I was able to get one at a parish sale for $10 in a real stroke of luck; the lestovka being the traditional leather alternative to the prayer rope used by both the schismatic Old Believers but in much larger quantities by canonical Russian Old Rite Orthodox in Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus and possibly Georgia, and in at least one parish in the United States (we also have some schismatics in Woodburn, Orgeon, who are of the “Priestless” variety believing the last canonical bishop died in the 18th century, meaning no Eucharist, a very sad condition; I would love to see an effort made to evangelize them, for indeed the Church of the Nativitiy in Erie, PA, was until the 1980s a Priestless parish), which was the norm before the Nikonian form introduced the Greek prayer rope; the original form of Lestovka has different sections for different prayers, for example a counter for 40 Kyrie Eleisons, a section for counting how many times one has Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian said repeatedly during Lent, with prostrations, a section for the Jesus Prayer, and other things; indeed there are so many different counters on the standard Lestovka that one can use it as a kind of analogue computer on which to implement a wide range of prayer rules, by using one section for multiplication and another for addition.
Of course, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox also use a regular English translation of the Ave Maria with intercessory prayers (this being the official English version used by the Syriac Orthodox), or add “Most Holy Theotokos, save us” to the Orthodox Angelic Salutation, and the antiphon “Through the intercessions of the Theotokos, Savior, save us” is commonly heard during the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and there are other prayers of specific Marian devotion that usually feature intercessions in both the Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) and the various Oriental Orthodox liturgical rites (Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian) and there is also the Western Rite Orthodox Communion. And a great many Theotokia from the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy closely resemble the Angelic Salutation in structure, while containing intercessions as well as material proper to the liturgical occasion.
Thus hopefully my confessional Lutheran Orthodox friends will now feel confident if anyone challenges them on the antiquity of their version of the prayer - the correct answer is that the version of the Ave Maria prayed by Martin Luther very closely resembles the ancient Orthodox prayer known as the Angelic Salutation, which is probably a common ancestor of both the Western Hail Mary and of many of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox liturgical and devotional hymns to the Theotokos. In turn, the Angelic Salutation like other older Marian hymns such as All of Creation, by St. John of Damascus (used in the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, as well as the newer and somewhat more commonly heard It Is Truly Meet used in place of All of Creation during the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, written by an anonymous Athonite monk, which is still a thousand years old, but not from the eighth century) or Blessed Are You, O Mary, a late fifth/early sixth century hymn by the Syriac Orthodox hymnographer, St. Jacob of Sarugh (known as the “Flute of the Spirit: for his metrical homilies and hymns complemented those of the fourth century Harp of the Spirit, St. Ephraim the Syrian) show a common lineage back to the ancient Greek hymn Sub tuum praesidium , which survives on a third century papyrus, but could be much older, and was revitalized in the West by a plenary indulgence in the Roman Catholic Church in the 18th century, while the Eastern Orthodox have for at least a thousand years or so used this prayer at the end of Vespers, and the Armenians use it in Compline:
A particularly beautiful class of such hymns, those of which without intercessions might be of great interest to my Lutheran friends, are the Stavrotheotokia, which are hymns which pertain to the real and sorrowful moment when the Theotokos was with our Lord at the food of the Cross, at which time he made St. John the Beloved Disciple her adopted son (I suspect this was as much for St. John’s benefit as it was for hers; if we consider the very long life St. John enjoyed, before becoming the only Apostle to not be martyred but to repose of natural causes, and the short life expectancy of Galilean fisherman due to the dangerous nature of the work and the severe weather the Sea of Galilee remains notorious for even now, and the intemperate nature of St. John and St. James the Great during their formation which caused our Lord to give them the loving and gently amusing nickname “Sons of Thunder” (which is a testament to the gentle nature of Christ our True God, who had a sense of humor but was not cruel about it, nor, in seeking to guide his disciples in the formation of their character, did he resort to cruel manipulations but rather lovingly catered to the needs of each one), and also our Lord holding St. John at the Last Supper - it seems to me probable St. John and St. James were teenagers, and St. John was perhaps between the ages of 13 and 15 - this I should stress is a theologoumemnon, a theological opinion, and in this case a private one, and not an example of the many theologoumemna which are not official church doctrine but are the prevailing view among members of the Orthodox Church.
I would like to thank my friend @MarkRohfrietsch in particular for stimulating my curiosity and prompting me to research this interesting area of liturgical history, which I think Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox participants in Traditional Theology, and also our other participants, such as those from the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, should all find beneficial (and we should try to get some more members of traditional churches - we need more Oriental Orthodox, some members of the Assyrian Church of the East or the Ancient Church of the East, some Old Catholics, perhaps some Moravians, some traditional liturgical Methodists, some liturgical Congregationalists and Reformed Catholics whether from the Reformed Episcopal Church or from liturgical Congregationalist parishes or Scoto-Catholic parishes in the Presbyterian tradition, and others…
*The number of these prayers varies slightly between the Old Rite and Sabaite-Studite typikon used with regional variations in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, half of the Estonian church, Japan, the surviving parts of the Chinese Orthodox Church not exterminated under Mao, and with more extensive variations, in Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, Mount Athos, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Church of Sinai. In North America, the Sabaite-Studite Typikon is used by the massive OCA diocese in Alaska, founded by Russian missionary St. Herman of Alaska in the late 17th century, and home to saints such as St. Peter the Aleut, a 15 year old boy leading a fishing expedition who was martyred by Spanish officials in San Francisco in the 18th century, and St. Innocent of Alaska, and the recently glorified St. Olga, and by those Russian Orthodox parishes of the Orthodox Church in America on the Julian Calendar, and also by ROCOR, the Patriarchal parishes, and the Serbian and Georgian Orthodox. The formation of the Edinovertsy also provided a basis with Russian Orthodoxy (and by extension, Antiochian Orthodoxy) for the formation of the Western Rite Vicarates.
Glory from the Menaion, if appointed, otherwise:
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen
Theotokion:
O unwedded Virgin! * thou who ineffably conceived God in the flesh, * Mother of God Most High: * accept the supplications of thy servants, O all- immaculate one, * granting unto all cleansing of transgressions; * and, accepting now our supplications, ** pray thou that we all be saved.
“Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart ...,” (the Evangelical Canticle known as the Song of Symeon, from Luke ch. 2, also known as the Nunc Dimitis) followed by the Trisagion. Then, the Angelic Salutation:
O Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice, * O Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; * blessed art thou among women, * and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, ** for thou hast borne the Savior of our souls. (This is normally repeated thrice)
Note: If it is a regular Sunday Vigil, we chant “O Theotokos and Virgin ...,” (Thrice). If it is one of the 12 great feasts, we chant the Troparion of the feast (Thrice). If it is a Sunday coinciding with some other feast, we chant “O Theotokos and Virgin ...,” (Twice), and the Troparion of the Feast (Once).
Thus we can see from the above rubrics that the Lutheran form of the Ave Maria does indeed have ancient Patristic precedent, even though the majority of Theotokia do indeed contain petitions, such as the one preceding the above. We can also say Martin Luther’s use of the Ave Maria mirrors the use of the Angelic Salutation in the Prayer Rule of St. Seraphim of Sarov (which is the closest Orthodox equivalent to the Rosary, consisting of typically 100 Angelic Salutations, along with the Our Father, and the Nicene Creed, prayed on a special leather Lestovka that normally costs around $200, but I was able to get one at a parish sale for $10 in a real stroke of luck; the lestovka being the traditional leather alternative to the prayer rope used by both the schismatic Old Believers but in much larger quantities by canonical Russian Old Rite Orthodox in Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus and possibly Georgia, and in at least one parish in the United States (we also have some schismatics in Woodburn, Orgeon, who are of the “Priestless” variety believing the last canonical bishop died in the 18th century, meaning no Eucharist, a very sad condition; I would love to see an effort made to evangelize them, for indeed the Church of the Nativitiy in Erie, PA, was until the 1980s a Priestless parish), which was the norm before the Nikonian form introduced the Greek prayer rope; the original form of Lestovka has different sections for different prayers, for example a counter for 40 Kyrie Eleisons, a section for counting how many times one has Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian said repeatedly during Lent, with prostrations, a section for the Jesus Prayer, and other things; indeed there are so many different counters on the standard Lestovka that one can use it as a kind of analogue computer on which to implement a wide range of prayer rules, by using one section for multiplication and another for addition.
Of course, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox also use a regular English translation of the Ave Maria with intercessory prayers (this being the official English version used by the Syriac Orthodox), or add “Most Holy Theotokos, save us” to the Orthodox Angelic Salutation, and the antiphon “Through the intercessions of the Theotokos, Savior, save us” is commonly heard during the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and there are other prayers of specific Marian devotion that usually feature intercessions in both the Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) and the various Oriental Orthodox liturgical rites (Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian) and there is also the Western Rite Orthodox Communion. And a great many Theotokia from the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy closely resemble the Angelic Salutation in structure, while containing intercessions as well as material proper to the liturgical occasion.
Thus hopefully my confessional Lutheran Orthodox friends will now feel confident if anyone challenges them on the antiquity of their version of the prayer - the correct answer is that the version of the Ave Maria prayed by Martin Luther very closely resembles the ancient Orthodox prayer known as the Angelic Salutation, which is probably a common ancestor of both the Western Hail Mary and of many of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox liturgical and devotional hymns to the Theotokos. In turn, the Angelic Salutation like other older Marian hymns such as All of Creation, by St. John of Damascus (used in the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, as well as the newer and somewhat more commonly heard It Is Truly Meet used in place of All of Creation during the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, written by an anonymous Athonite monk, which is still a thousand years old, but not from the eighth century) or Blessed Are You, O Mary, a late fifth/early sixth century hymn by the Syriac Orthodox hymnographer, St. Jacob of Sarugh (known as the “Flute of the Spirit: for his metrical homilies and hymns complemented those of the fourth century Harp of the Spirit, St. Ephraim the Syrian) show a common lineage back to the ancient Greek hymn Sub tuum praesidium , which survives on a third century papyrus, but could be much older, and was revitalized in the West by a plenary indulgence in the Roman Catholic Church in the 18th century, while the Eastern Orthodox have for at least a thousand years or so used this prayer at the end of Vespers, and the Armenians use it in Compline:
Beneath thy compassion,
We take refuge,
O Theotokos:
do not despise our petitions in time of trouble:
but rescue us from dangers,only pure one, only blessed one.
A particularly beautiful class of such hymns, those of which without intercessions might be of great interest to my Lutheran friends, are the Stavrotheotokia, which are hymns which pertain to the real and sorrowful moment when the Theotokos was with our Lord at the food of the Cross, at which time he made St. John the Beloved Disciple her adopted son (I suspect this was as much for St. John’s benefit as it was for hers; if we consider the very long life St. John enjoyed, before becoming the only Apostle to not be martyred but to repose of natural causes, and the short life expectancy of Galilean fisherman due to the dangerous nature of the work and the severe weather the Sea of Galilee remains notorious for even now, and the intemperate nature of St. John and St. James the Great during their formation which caused our Lord to give them the loving and gently amusing nickname “Sons of Thunder” (which is a testament to the gentle nature of Christ our True God, who had a sense of humor but was not cruel about it, nor, in seeking to guide his disciples in the formation of their character, did he resort to cruel manipulations but rather lovingly catered to the needs of each one), and also our Lord holding St. John at the Last Supper - it seems to me probable St. John and St. James were teenagers, and St. John was perhaps between the ages of 13 and 15 - this I should stress is a theologoumemnon, a theological opinion, and in this case a private one, and not an example of the many theologoumemna which are not official church doctrine but are the prevailing view among members of the Orthodox Church.
I would like to thank my friend @MarkRohfrietsch in particular for stimulating my curiosity and prompting me to research this interesting area of liturgical history, which I think Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox participants in Traditional Theology, and also our other participants, such as those from the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, should all find beneficial (and we should try to get some more members of traditional churches - we need more Oriental Orthodox, some members of the Assyrian Church of the East or the Ancient Church of the East, some Old Catholics, perhaps some Moravians, some traditional liturgical Methodists, some liturgical Congregationalists and Reformed Catholics whether from the Reformed Episcopal Church or from liturgical Congregationalist parishes or Scoto-Catholic parishes in the Presbyterian tradition, and others…
*The number of these prayers varies slightly between the Old Rite and Sabaite-Studite typikon used with regional variations in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, half of the Estonian church, Japan, the surviving parts of the Chinese Orthodox Church not exterminated under Mao, and with more extensive variations, in Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, Mount Athos, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Church of Sinai. In North America, the Sabaite-Studite Typikon is used by the massive OCA diocese in Alaska, founded by Russian missionary St. Herman of Alaska in the late 17th century, and home to saints such as St. Peter the Aleut, a 15 year old boy leading a fishing expedition who was martyred by Spanish officials in San Francisco in the 18th century, and St. Innocent of Alaska, and the recently glorified St. Olga, and by those Russian Orthodox parishes of the Orthodox Church in America on the Julian Calendar, and also by ROCOR, the Patriarchal parishes, and the Serbian and Georgian Orthodox. The formation of the Edinovertsy also provided a basis with Russian Orthodoxy (and by extension, Antiochian Orthodoxy) for the formation of the Western Rite Vicarates.
