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[By this, of course, I mean the diptychs in a liturgical setting, not the common art term for icons and paintings set in a diptych (two-fold) arrangement.]
The diptych was once a literal object kept in the local church, made of wax tablets onto which the names of the living and departed commemorated in the church were kept (one on each leaf/side of the pair), including the bishop with which the local church considered itself to be in communion. Thus when you read about bishops striking one another from the diptych in this or that historical context, it was probably literal up to a certain point in time. I don't know when that would have changed, and I'm not terribly interested in it, but what I am interested in is what it was replaced by, and how this concept of the diptych lives on (or doesn't) in particular traditions.
In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches (and at least some of the "Oriental Catholic" churches, like that of the Maronites), as you can read at the above wiki link under the highlighted text, the diptych is kept in the sense of the liturgical recitation of those names that would've presumably gone onto the physical diptych itself when that was still kept at the local church. As far as I know, Rome in particular has not kept this tradition alive liturgically, though obviously they do keep do keep a list of commemorated patriarchs of their See, though not in diptych form. They have commemorative plaques like this one at St. Peter's in Rome which in some sense partially fulfill the same function (as they obviously would not inter any non-saints there):
In the Coptic Orthodox Church (I don't know if this is the case in the other OO churches), we have what would've gone onto the physical diptych split into a few different sections of the liturgy. The commemoration of the departed saints (مجمع القديسين el magmu'a el qiddiseen) is a part of the liturgy of believers in all three of the Coptic anaphora, and while the lists themselves are roughly comparable (that of St. Basil's liturgy is considerably longer than the other two; not sure why), the surrounding introductory text is quite unique, which means that it is known by different names in Coptic depending on which anaphora is being used (as I believe I've written before, Coptic hymns don't usually have titles as we think of them in the Western sense, but are just known by their opening word or words): Epidi Epchois ("As this, O Lord...") in the anaphora of St. Basil, Arikataxioin Epchois ("Graciously accord, O Lord...") in the anaphora of St. Cyril, and Nenioti Nem Nenesniou ("Our fathers and brethren....") in the anaphora of St. Gregory.
The commemoration of the living bishops is part of the seven short litanies (السبع أواشي الصغار el seb'a awashi el sighar), and is also part of the five short litanies (el khamseen...) as found in the raising of the morning and evening incense. Format-wise, the patriarchs are listed first, with the local bishop or metropolitan listed afterwards, as "His (HH's) partner in the apostolic liturgy, Bishop (Metropolitan) Abba ______".
While you would probably think if you come from the Eastern Orthodox or Catholic traditions that these two together comprise "the diptych", there is actually another part of the Coptic liturgy that is known by that name specifically (the Arabic word for this is apparently ترحيم traheem, though unlike the others I've provided so far, I don't think it's a literal translation). I only realized recently (as in a few days ago) that this was referred to as the diptych in Arabic, since I never knew this term in that language before, and as I've already said, Coptic hymns aren't known by titles. So I knew it by its Coptic opening line, and didn't connect it to the diptych as it is known in other churches, because I had the same understanding of what goes under that name as Byzantine and Latin Christians do. And that is definitely not what this is, though it is a kind of commemoration of the departed, and very similar in its structure to the opening texts of the commemorations of the departed patriarchs. It is known in Coptic is Owoh Nai Nem, and is prayed during Coptic funerals for obvious reasons. The portion marked below as being prayed inaudibly is the form found in the anaphora of St. Basil, while the audible form is from the anaphora of St. Cyril:
Priest (inaudibly):
Remember also, O Lord, all those who have fallen asleep and reposed in the priesthood and in all the orders of the laity.
Graciously, O Lord, repose all their souls in the bosom of our holy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Sustain them in a green pasture, by the water of rest in the Paradise of joy,
the place out of which grief, sorrow, and groaning have fled away in the light of Your saints.
Priest:
Those, O Lord, and everyone whose names we have mentioned; and those whose names we have not mentioned,
those whom each one has in mind and those who are not in our minds;
and those who have fallen asleep and reposed in the faith of Christ.
(The priest mentions the departed)
Graciously, O Lord, repose all their souls in the bosom of our holy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Sustain them in a green pasture, by the water of rest in the Paradise of joy,
the place out of which grief, sorrow, and groaning have fled away in the light of Your saints.
Deacon:
Pray for our fathers and brethren who have fallen asleep and reposed in the faith of Christ since the beginning our holy fathers, the archbishops, our fathers the bishops, our fathers the hegumens, our fathers the priests, our brethren the deacons, our fathers the monks, and our fathers the laymen, and for the full repose of the Christians.
That Christ our God may repose all their souls in the Paradise of joy, and we too, accord mercy unto us, and forgive us our sins.
People:
Lord have mercy.
+++
I'm interested to know what you guys do in the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and traditional/high church Protestant traditions with similar texts, or texts serving similar functions. Do any besides the aforementioned churches liturgically recite diptych-like material? If so, what form does it take? Is there a "cut-off line" for which saints are mentioned in the commemorations? We in the Coptic Orthodox Church sort of skirt this kind of thing by having the synaxarium (which is added to recently enough that the 21 neomartyrs of Libya already have their own page) read from at every liturgy, hence the commemoration of the saints can stay more fixed in time, though it is rather elastic in practice (I have been to liturgies where saints were clearly added, as appropriate to the day). Still in general the list ends sometime in the sixth century with figures like Severus of Antioch, or perhaps Abba Wissa (the disciple and biographer of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, who is also mentioned in the commemoration of the saints and passed in 466 AD), depending on how long he lived (I haven't yet found a biography of him, only his biography of St. Shenouda and some homilies). This can be compared to that of another OO church and found to be quite conservative, as the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Indians include in their commemoration saints who departed as recently as the 1930s (HH Ignatius Elias III, d. 1932).
The diptych was once a literal object kept in the local church, made of wax tablets onto which the names of the living and departed commemorated in the church were kept (one on each leaf/side of the pair), including the bishop with which the local church considered itself to be in communion. Thus when you read about bishops striking one another from the diptych in this or that historical context, it was probably literal up to a certain point in time. I don't know when that would have changed, and I'm not terribly interested in it, but what I am interested in is what it was replaced by, and how this concept of the diptych lives on (or doesn't) in particular traditions.
In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches (and at least some of the "Oriental Catholic" churches, like that of the Maronites), as you can read at the above wiki link under the highlighted text, the diptych is kept in the sense of the liturgical recitation of those names that would've presumably gone onto the physical diptych itself when that was still kept at the local church. As far as I know, Rome in particular has not kept this tradition alive liturgically, though obviously they do keep do keep a list of commemorated patriarchs of their See, though not in diptych form. They have commemorative plaques like this one at St. Peter's in Rome which in some sense partially fulfill the same function (as they obviously would not inter any non-saints there):
In the Coptic Orthodox Church (I don't know if this is the case in the other OO churches), we have what would've gone onto the physical diptych split into a few different sections of the liturgy. The commemoration of the departed saints (مجمع القديسين el magmu'a el qiddiseen) is a part of the liturgy of believers in all three of the Coptic anaphora, and while the lists themselves are roughly comparable (that of St. Basil's liturgy is considerably longer than the other two; not sure why), the surrounding introductory text is quite unique, which means that it is known by different names in Coptic depending on which anaphora is being used (as I believe I've written before, Coptic hymns don't usually have titles as we think of them in the Western sense, but are just known by their opening word or words): Epidi Epchois ("As this, O Lord...") in the anaphora of St. Basil, Arikataxioin Epchois ("Graciously accord, O Lord...") in the anaphora of St. Cyril, and Nenioti Nem Nenesniou ("Our fathers and brethren....") in the anaphora of St. Gregory.
The commemoration of the living bishops is part of the seven short litanies (السبع أواشي الصغار el seb'a awashi el sighar), and is also part of the five short litanies (el khamseen...) as found in the raising of the morning and evening incense. Format-wise, the patriarchs are listed first, with the local bishop or metropolitan listed afterwards, as "His (HH's) partner in the apostolic liturgy, Bishop (Metropolitan) Abba ______".
While you would probably think if you come from the Eastern Orthodox or Catholic traditions that these two together comprise "the diptych", there is actually another part of the Coptic liturgy that is known by that name specifically (the Arabic word for this is apparently ترحيم traheem, though unlike the others I've provided so far, I don't think it's a literal translation). I only realized recently (as in a few days ago) that this was referred to as the diptych in Arabic, since I never knew this term in that language before, and as I've already said, Coptic hymns aren't known by titles. So I knew it by its Coptic opening line, and didn't connect it to the diptych as it is known in other churches, because I had the same understanding of what goes under that name as Byzantine and Latin Christians do. And that is definitely not what this is, though it is a kind of commemoration of the departed, and very similar in its structure to the opening texts of the commemorations of the departed patriarchs. It is known in Coptic is Owoh Nai Nem, and is prayed during Coptic funerals for obvious reasons. The portion marked below as being prayed inaudibly is the form found in the anaphora of St. Basil, while the audible form is from the anaphora of St. Cyril:
Priest (inaudibly):
Remember also, O Lord, all those who have fallen asleep and reposed in the priesthood and in all the orders of the laity.
Graciously, O Lord, repose all their souls in the bosom of our holy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Sustain them in a green pasture, by the water of rest in the Paradise of joy,
the place out of which grief, sorrow, and groaning have fled away in the light of Your saints.
Priest:
Those, O Lord, and everyone whose names we have mentioned; and those whose names we have not mentioned,
those whom each one has in mind and those who are not in our minds;
and those who have fallen asleep and reposed in the faith of Christ.
(The priest mentions the departed)
Graciously, O Lord, repose all their souls in the bosom of our holy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Sustain them in a green pasture, by the water of rest in the Paradise of joy,
the place out of which grief, sorrow, and groaning have fled away in the light of Your saints.
Deacon:
Pray for our fathers and brethren who have fallen asleep and reposed in the faith of Christ since the beginning our holy fathers, the archbishops, our fathers the bishops, our fathers the hegumens, our fathers the priests, our brethren the deacons, our fathers the monks, and our fathers the laymen, and for the full repose of the Christians.
That Christ our God may repose all their souls in the Paradise of joy, and we too, accord mercy unto us, and forgive us our sins.
People:
Lord have mercy.
+++
I'm interested to know what you guys do in the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and traditional/high church Protestant traditions with similar texts, or texts serving similar functions. Do any besides the aforementioned churches liturgically recite diptych-like material? If so, what form does it take? Is there a "cut-off line" for which saints are mentioned in the commemorations? We in the Coptic Orthodox Church sort of skirt this kind of thing by having the synaxarium (which is added to recently enough that the 21 neomartyrs of Libya already have their own page) read from at every liturgy, hence the commemoration of the saints can stay more fixed in time, though it is rather elastic in practice (I have been to liturgies where saints were clearly added, as appropriate to the day). Still in general the list ends sometime in the sixth century with figures like Severus of Antioch, or perhaps Abba Wissa (the disciple and biographer of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, who is also mentioned in the commemoration of the saints and passed in 466 AD), depending on how long he lived (I haven't yet found a biography of him, only his biography of St. Shenouda and some homilies). This can be compared to that of another OO church and found to be quite conservative, as the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Indians include in their commemoration saints who departed as recently as the 1930s (HH Ignatius Elias III, d. 1932).
