The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

When St. Basil’s Liturgy is served, how its longer prayers differ from Chrysostom’s, and what a visitor can follow without learning a new service.

You may arrive expecting the usual Sunday Liturgy and find that some of the prayers take longer. If it is one of the appointed days, you are probably hearing the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great.

It is not a different faith or a different Communion. Much of the service will already be familiar from St. John Chrysostom’s Liturgy.

When it is served

In the OCA’s usual order, St. Basil’s Liturgy has ten appointed celebrations each year:

  • The first five Sundays of Great Lent.
  • Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday.
  • Nativity and Theophany, usually on their eves.
  • January 1, the feast of St. Basil.

The arrangement around Nativity and Theophany depends on the calendar, so check the parish’s published schedule for whether St. Basil’s Liturgy falls on the eve or the feast itself. January 1 here is the date on the church calendar the parish follows.

What is different

The chief difference is in the priest’s prayers, particularly the anaphora, the central Eucharistic prayer. St. Basil’s prayer unfolds God’s work of creation and salvation at greater length. Its intercessions remember people in many circumstances of life.

The readings, hymns and movements still belong to a recognizable Divine Liturgy. Some sung portions differ too. On the appointed days when it is joined to Vespers, the beginning will be different from an ordinary Sunday morning.

What a visitor will notice

You may hear longer prayers, or longer stretches of singing while the priest prays. Whether every priestly prayer is audible depends on the parish. There is no need to hunt frantically through a Chrysostom booklet for words that are not there.

Listen for the thanksgiving. The longer prayer is an opportunity to hear how widely the Church remembers the world.

The same preparation for Communion applies. For a first visit, read Your First Divine Liturgy; for the other services, return to Liturgy.

The full text of this Liturgy is now here, with a printable booklet (PDF). This short guide is a place to begin, and the parish’s own service book will help you follow the words used there.