"Egyptian Christianity began in Alexandria and was Greek. By the third century, however, there were numerous converts among the Copts, and the Scriptures and liturgy were already in the native tongue. But it was not until the rise of monasticism that the Coptic Church solidified as a native counterbalance to the cosmopolitan, theologically sophisticated, hellenic Church of Alexandria, whose speculative, spiritualizing intellectualism stood in marked contrast to the popular, traditionalistic piety of the South, a largely oral culture transmitted through sayings, proverbs, ritual, rather than through theological treatises. This monastic culture— concrete, popular, ascetic—created the liturgy and offices of the Coptic Church. It is a highly penitential, contemplative rite, long, solemn, even monotonous, with much less speculative poetry, symbolic splendor and sumptuous ceremonial than, for example, the Byzantine tradition.
Today's Coptic Rite is basically the usage of Scetis somewhat modified by later reforms. Patriarch Gabriel II Ibn Turayk (1131-1145) reduced the number of anaphoras to the present three, and Gabriel V (1409-1427) composed a Liturgical Order to unify the divergent usages of Egypt. These regulations still govern the Coptic Rite today.
The basic structure of the office of Scetis described by Cassian is still clearly visible in the hours of the present Coptic Horologion, though in monasteries the weekday hours are now done in common, and the cursus has been filled out with the other canonical hours that ultimately became a fixed part of the official daily prayer cycle in most traditions."
+ Fr Robert Taft, S.J. "The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West:The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today" 2nd Revised Edition (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1993) 250-251
The Word "AGPEYA"
The word AGPEYA takes origin from the Coptic word TI-AGP, which literally means the hour.
The Book of "AGPEYA":
The book of AGPEYA contains the seven canonical prayers which have been cherished and practiced by the faithful Copts of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Egypt.
The Psalms as the core of the Seven Prayers:
The seven canonical prayers have their root in the Psalms. David said;"Seven times a day, do I praise you of your righteous Judgement" (Psalm 118:164). The numerical order of Psalms in this book of prayer conforms to the Coptic Translation.
PRIME(First Hour)
This hour is prayed early in the morning, and commemorates the Resurrection of the Lord (Psalm 62:1).
TERCE(Third Hour)
In this hour of the day, the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles as tongues of fire(Acts 2:15). At this hour also, Our Lord Jesus Christ was condemned.
SEXT(Sixth Hour)
In this hour, Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified (John 19:14)
NONE(Ninth Hour)
This hour commemorates the death of our Lord in the flesh upon the tree and the testimony of the thief at his right hand(Matthew 21:46)
VESPERS(Eleventh Hour)
Instituted to commemorate the removing of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Cross. The wrapping of it in linen, and the annointing of it with sweet spices.
COMPLINE (Twelfth Hour)
This hour commemorates the laying down of the body of Christ in the grave. It corresponds to the last hour of the day before retiring, since sleep is but a temporary death (Psalm 62:6)
MIDNIGHT
This hour includes three services corresponding to the three times our Lord prayed in Gethsemane (Psalm 118:62)
- The First Watch of the midnight prayers
- The Second Watch of the midnight prayers
- The Third Watch of the midnight prayers
The Prayer of the Veil
The prayer of Veil is said daily in the monasteries, after the prayer of teh Twelfth Hour and before the Prayer of Midnight. The present position of this Prayer after the Prayer of Midnight aims to facilitate the daily usage by laymen.
Source: http://www.coptic.net/prayers/Agpeya.html
The Psalms Prayed in the Coptic Orthodox Agpeya (Horologion)
Psalm 50 is said as part of the introduction at every hour.
* Psalm 118 is said in its entirety at the first watch of the Midnight Hour; at Veil only the last three sections are said.
- Prime (18 Psalms Prayed): 1-6, 8, 11-12, 14-15, 18, 24, 26, 62, 66, 69, 112, 142
- Terce (12 Psalms Prayed): 19, 22-23, 25, 28-29, 33, 40, 42, 44-46
- Sext (12 Psalms Prayed): 53, 56, 60, 62, 66, 69, 83-86, 90, 92
- None (12 Psalms Prayed): 95-100, 109-112, 114-115
- Vespers (12 Psalms Prayed): 116-117, 119-128
- Compline (12 Psalms Prayed): 129-133, 136-137, 140-141, 145-147
- Veil (prayed only by bishops, priests and monks and in Monasteries) (32 psalms prayed which includes counting as psalms, the three sections of Psalm 118 from the Midnight Hour): 4, 6, 8, 12, 15, 24, 26, 66, 69, 22, 29, 42, 56, 85, 90, 96, 109, 114-115, 120, 128-133, 136, 140, 145, 118.xx-xxii
- Midnight (32 Psalms Prayed): Psalm 133 Followed by:
- 1st Watch (9 Psalms Prayed): 3, 6, 12, 69, 85, 90, 116-118 (Psalm 118 is split into 22 parts with the response "Glory to You, the Lover of mankind")
- 2nd Watch (10 Psalms Prayed): 119-128
- 3rd Watch (12 Psalms Prayed): 129-133, 136-137, 140-141, 145-147
The following psalms are not part of the Coptic Orthodox Horologion (Agpeya): 7, 9-10, 13, 16-17, 20-21, 27, 30-32, 34-39, 41, 43, 47-52, 54-55, 57-59, 61, 63-65, 67-68, 70-82, 87-89, 91, 93-94, 101-108, 113, 134-135, 138-139, 143-144, 148-150.
Included below is a more thorough analysis of the structure and rubrics of the Coptic Horologion (Agpeya Prayers) by Fr. Robert Taft:
The Coptic Orthodox Divine Office (ie. The Liturgy of the Hours)
By Fr Robert Taft, S.J. in "The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West:The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today" 2nd Revised Edition (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1993)
i . The Monastic Horologion
The present Coptic Horologion has eight hours: morning prayer, terce, sext, none, eleventh hour (vespers), and compline, plus two hours that are apparently later additions: the "Prayer of the Veil," and a midnight hour comprising three nocturns. Both of these additional hours repeat psalmody already distributed throughout the other six hours. The Prayer of the Veil, a doubling of compline, appears first in Abu'l-Barakat ibn Kabar around 1320, exists only in Arabic sources (a sure sign of its late origin), and is composed of elements from the other hours. It is used only in monasteries.
With the exception of these two later additions, the structure of all these hours is the same:
Variety among the hours is minimal. Morning prayer has the Great Doxology (Gloria in excelsis), as one would expect, and the creed. Other hours also have certain minor peculiarities, but the basic structure is the same. So apart from the later addition of seven further psalms to the original twelve at morning prayer, and some variety in the final prayers, this is the structure of all the traditional hours from morning prayer to compline.
- Fixed initial prayers
- Twelve psalms (ideally)
- Gospel lesson
- Troparia (poetic refrains)
- Kyrie eleison (41 or 50 times)
- Trisagion
- Our Father
- Dismissal Prayer of Absolution
- Final Prayer
The refrains or troparia are a later addition of Palestinian origin, and if we prescind from them we see an office that is almost pure Cassian.
ii. Cathedral Remnants
But in addition to this monastic psalmody we find other services, the Offering of Incense morning and evening, and the threefold Psalmodia of the night, the morning, and the evening, which contain elements apparently of cathedral provenance.
The Offering of Incense is as follows, with the variable or proper parts in italics:
This office contains what seems to be the debris of older cathedral services.
- Fixed introductory prayers
- Invitatory
- Praise of Mary
- Supplications to the saints
- Prayer of Incense
- Incensation of the altar, with short intercessions
- Great Intercession
- Incensation
- Trisagion
- Our Father
- Praise of Mary
- Doxologies (poetic refrains)
- Creed
- Incensation with prayers
- Blessing with candles and cross
- Solemn Kyrie eleison (litany)
- (OT lessons and litanies at Morning Offering of Incense on certain fast days)
- Prayer of the Gospel
- Psalm verse
- Alleluia
- Gospel lesson
- Incensation and short intercessions
- Prayer of Absolution to the Son
- (Reading of the synaxary at Morning Offering of Incense)
- Veneration of cross and gospel
- Final blessing
Even more significant in this regard is the so-called Psalmodia, which refers not to biblical psalmody but the sung office, a term akin to the Greek asmatikos or old sung cathedral office of Hagia Sophia in Byzantine parlance. This Psalmodia has never been subjected to thorough scholarly analysis, and poses numerous problems, but the cathedral elements in its structure are particularly evident in the Psalmodia of the Evening and in the Psalmodia of the Night. The former is rarely celebrated today, but when done it comes between compline (and the Prayer of the Veil in monasteries) and the Evening Offering of Incense. It has the following elements (the variable proper parts are italicized):
Psalmodia of the Evening:
The much longer Psalmodia of the Night, sung between nocturns and the morning office, comprises:
- Fixed initial prayers
- Ps 116
- Hos (ode) 4: Pss. 148-150 with alleluia
- Psali (poetic refrains) of season or feast and day
- Theotokia (Marian hymns) of the day
- Lobsh (crown) of the Theotokia
- Hymn from the Difnar (antiphonary)
- Conclusion of the Theotokia
Psalmodia of the Night:
The Psalmodia of the Morning, which follows the morning office of the Horologion, is made up of only a couple of poetic pieces and can hardly be called an office at all. The Psalmodia of the Evening and of the Night seem to be the remnants, in the first case, of cathedral lauds, and in the second, of lauds again, this time preceded by elements of the old Sunday Resurrection Vigil as reconstructed by Mateos.
- Fixed initial prayers
- Invitatory versicles (chiefly psalmic)
- (Resurrectional praises on Sundays and in Paschaltide)
- Hos (ode)
- 1) Ex 15:1-21 with Psali (poetic commentary on the ode)
- 2) Ps 135 with Psali
- 3) Dan 3:52-88 with Psali of the paschal mystery and Psali of the ode (on the three youths in the furnace)
- Litany of the saints
- Doxologies of the feast or day
- Hos (ode) 4) Pss 148-150 with alleluia after each verse
- Psali of the feast or day
- Theotokia
- Lobsch (crown) of the Theotokia
- Hymn of the day from the Difnar (antiphonary), with its Tarh (response)
- Conclusion of the Theotokia
- Creed
- Concluding litany
- Sanctus
- Our Father
- Dismissal Prayer of Absolution
As for cathedral vespers in the Egyptian tradition, evidence of it can still be found in Ethiopian vespers, which is of Egyptian provenance at least in part; Winkler has identified the residue of an old cathedral vespers in the Coptic Evening Offering of Incense; and Ugo Zanetti has recently found in a fourteenth-century manuscript at the Monastery of St. Macarius in the Wadi an-Natrun a Byzantine-type cathedral evensong or "Prayer of the Eleventh Hour according to the Use of Cairo." Other manuscripts at St. Macarius have the psalter distributed in the Byzantine manner, including the invitatory Ps 103 and the select vesperal psalms of Byzantine Sabaitic cathedral vespers: Pss 140, 141, 129, 116.
Source: Fr Robert Taft, S.J. "The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West:The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today" 2nd Revised Edition (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1993) 252-256
