Anaphora / liturgyLiving

The so-called Anaphora of Nestorius

ܩܘܕܫܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܢܣܛܘܪܝܣ

Qudasha d-Mar Nestoris

The so-called Anaphora of Nestorius, the third East Syriac thanksgiving, used on five feasts.

Last verified 2026-09-20

In Brief

The so-called Anaphora of Nestorius is the third East Syriac Eucharistic prayer, the most expansive, prayed on five occasions in the year and traditionally ascribed to the patriarch of Constantinople. The entry calls it "so-called" throughout and never claims he wrote it; that is the tradition's title.¹ The preface praises the Trinity at length, the institution tells the supper in full, and the extensive anamnesis, epiclesis and intercessions follow.² Renaudot lists the five occasions (II, p. 620); Badger differs on Easter versus Maundy Thursday, and the calendar question is unresolved.³

At a Glance

Attribution: Traditionally ascribed to Nestorius (Patriarch of Constantinople, 428-431); the entry calls it 'so-called' and claims no direct authorship¹
Date: Not established in the sources read; the anaphora is the third of the three East Syriac prayers³
Original Language: Syriac¹
Used By: The Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church (the East Syriac tradition)¹as of 2026-09-20
When Used: On five occasions in the year; Renaudot lists them (II, p. 620), with an unresolved difference against Badger over Easter versus Maundy Thursday³as of 2026-09-20
Structural Type: East Syriac order: dialogue, preface, Sanctus, institution, an extensive anamnesis, epiclesis, intercessions, doxology²
Earliest Witness: Not established in the sources read; the 1890 Urmia Takhsa is the printed witness used here¹
Standard Editions: The 1890 Urmia Takhsa (Syriac); Renaudot's Latin (1847), II, p. 620; the 1893 SPCK interleaved English translation³

The Shape of the Liturgy

1. Opening dialoguethe opening dialogue of the thanksgiving
2. Preface / thanksgivingextensive Trinitarian praise
3. Pre-Sanctusthe praise leading to the Sanctus
4. Sanctus'Holy, holy, holy'
5. Post-Sanctusthanksgiving for God's works through Christ
6. Institution narrativethe narrative of the supper, with the supper told at length
7. Anamnesisan extensive anamnesis and offering
8. Epiclesis (after anamnesis)the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the offering
9. Intercessionsthe extensive intercessions after the epiclesis
10. Doxologythe closing glorification

Shape of the The so-called Anaphora of Nestorius²

Part by Part

Part by part
Part	Incipit	Translation
PrefaceOur rendering; the 1893 English is a nineteenth-century translation.	Worthy is the holy Trinity…	Extended praise of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and God's mercies.
SanctusOur rendering of the standard Sanctus as the 1893 translation prints it.	Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts…	The angelic hymn, sung with the heavenly powers.
InstitutionOur rendering; the 1893 English is a nineteenth-century translation.	In the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had eaten…	The supper narrative, with the supper told at length.
Anamnesis and offeringOur rendering; the 1893 English is a nineteenth-century translation.	We commemorate, O Lord, thy passion, death and resurrection…	An extensive memorial of Christ's work, with the offering of the gifts.
EpiclesisOur rendering; the 1893 English is a nineteenth-century translation.	May thy Holy Spirit come, O Lord, and rest upon this offering…	The Spirit invoked to hallow the offering for the communicants.
IntercessionsOur rendering; the 1893 English is a nineteenth-century translation.	For the holy Church, for the hierarchy, for the living and the departed…	Extensive intercessions after the epiclesis, for the Church and the world.

Authorship & Date

Nestorius was the pupil of Theodore, patriarch of Constantinople, condemned at Ephesus in 431, and the most controversial name in Eastern Christian history. That an anaphora bears his name in the books of the Church of the East is a fact about the tradition, not a verdict on the man. The church that honored the Antiochene fathers kept the prayer under the name of the most famous of them.

The ascription is traditional. The manuscripts entitle the prayer to Nestorius, the 1890 Urmia Takhsa prints the Syriac title, and Renaudot gives it in Latin as the liturgy of Nestorius at volume two, page 620.^1,3 What the title means is that this is the prayer of Nestorius's church, the thanksgiving his name protects, not that his hand wrote it.

The entry's rule is simple and it does not bend it. The prayer is "the so-called Anaphora of Nestorius" or "traditionally ascribed to Nestorius". No sentence here says Nestorius authored it. The scholarly discussion of who did, and when, is collected in the research dossier; the entry records the traditional name and leaves the history to the historians.

Witnesses & Editions

The Syriac witness is the Urmia Takhsa of 1890, which gives the anaphora in Syriac under Nestorius's name as the third of the three East Syriac prayers.¹ It is the book the tradition prayed from, and the shape strip above follows its order: dialogue, preface, Sanctus, institution, the extensive anamnesis, epiclesis, intercessions, doxology.

The Latin witness is Renaudot. His 1847 collection prints the anaphora in Latin at volume two, page 620, with the list of the five occasions on which it is used.³ The English witness is the 1893 interleaved translation of Maclean and Browne, which carries the Nestorius text in English.² The three witnesses agree on the prayer's shape and its place as the third of the set; they differ, as the disputed section records, on one of the five days.

Theology & Spirit

The prayer is a thanksgiving of unusual fullness. The dialogue opens it, the preface praises the Trinity at length, and the Sanctus, "holy, holy, holy", is sung with the heavenly powers before the post-Sanctus thanks God for the works of salvation through Christ.²

The institution is where the prayer shows its character. It tells the supper at length, the bread as Christ's body and the cup as his blood, lingering over the meal in a way the other two anaphoras do not.² Then the anamnesis, extensive, remembers Christ's passion, death and resurrection and offers the gifts, and the epiclesis invokes the Holy Spirit to come and rest on the offering for the communicants.

After the epiclesis the intercessions open out, long and detailed, for the holy Church, the hierarchy, the living and the departed, and the doxology closes with glory to the Trinity.² The theology is the East Syriac theology throughout: creation praised, redemption remembered, the Spirit invoked, the Church gathered. What distinguishes Nestorius is that it says all of it at the greatest length, as if five days a year required a thanksgiving to match their rarity.

Relations

Addai and Mari is the elder. The first East Syriac anaphora stands at the head of the books, the apostles' prayer, shortest and oldest, against which Nestorius's amplitude is measured.¹ The family resemblance is in the shape: the dialogue, the Sanctus, the institution, the epiclesis, the intercessions after it.

Theodore is the middle. The so-called Anaphora of Theodore, traditionally ascribed to Nestorius's own teacher, stands second in the set, longer than Addai and Mari and less expansive than Nestorius.¹ Teacher and pupil, second and third: the books order them as the tradition remembers the Antiochene succession, whatever the history of the texts.

Anaphora of Addai and MaricompanionThe first East Syriac anaphora; Nestorius follows it in the books as the third of the set.¹
Anaphora of Theodore of MopsuestiacompanionThe second East Syriac anaphora, likewise traditionally ascribed; Nestorius is the most expansive of the three.¹

Disputed Questions

Did Nestorius write it? The books entitle it to him, and the entry records the title.¹ Beyond that the entry does not go. It calls the prayer "so-called" and "traditionally ascribed", and it asserts no historical authorship. The question of who composed it, and in what century, belongs to the scholarship collected in the research dossier.

On which five occasions is it prayed? Renaudot lists five.³ Badger's list differs on one: where one names Easter, the other names Maundy Thursday. Badger's 1852 volumes are not yet in the shared source registry, so the entry cannot cite him here; the research dossier collects the difference. The calendar question is flagged as unresolved. What is certain is that the prayer belongs to five feasts, not to the ordinary Sunday: it is the rare thanksgiving of the East Syriac year.

Did Nestorius write this anaphora?

The manuscripts and printed books entitle the anaphora to NestoriusThe manuscript and printed tradition (as the Takhsa prints it)¹
The ascription is traditional; the entry calls the prayer 'so-called' and claims no direct authorshipThis entry¹

The entry records the traditional title and asserts no historical authorship; the scholarly discussion is collected in the research dossier.

On which five occasions is the anaphora used?

Renaudot lists five occasions (II, p. 620)Renaudot (1847)³

Badger's 1852 list differs on one occasion (Easter versus Maundy Thursday), but Badger is not yet in the shared source registry; the calendar question is flagged as unresolved pending his registration.

Go Deeper

Two things repay attention. The first is the length. The other two anaphoras tell the supper; Nestorius lingers. It is a prayer that wants the thanksgiving to be full, to leave nothing of Christ's work unremembered.

The second is the rarity. Five days. The East Syriac tradition kept three anaphoras and gave the longest to the fewest occasions, as if to say that some thanksgivings are for the year and some are for the feast. The so-called Anaphora of Nestorius is the feast prayer, traditionally ascribed to the most controversial of the Antiochene fathers, prayed rarely and at length, the hallowing of Mar Nestorius in the books of the church that never stopped honoring his teacher's name.

On Domus Dei

The East Syriac Rite

Sources

Primary textLazarists of Urmia (ed.), Takhsa d-Quddasha: the Order of the Holy Qurbana, Urmia, 1890, the title; the 1890 printing; the order of the three; the title (as a traditional title, not a demonstrated authorship).Verified 2026-09-19 · the 1890 Urmia printing read in Syriac: its text of Addai and Mari prints no institution narrative; the narrative exists in the examined copy only as a separately printed leaf of unknown printer and date bound in at that point
Primary textMaclean, Arthur John; Browne, William Henry (tr.), Interleaved English translation of the Urmia Takhsa, Urmia, 1893, the Nestorius text; the Nestorius text; Renaudot1847: II, p. 620.Verified 2026-09-19 · the interleaved English translation dated July 1893: the institution narrative is bracketed on p. [23] as material absent from the printed Takhsa; the bema in the 1890s Urmia usage is the narrow space between the sanctuary wall and a parallel low wall; the whole order read
Primary textRenaudot, Eusèbe, Liturgiarum Orientalium collectio, Paris, 1847, II, p. 620.Verified 2026-09-20 · Seen (via archive.org): the Latin versions of the Coptic anaphoras of Basil and Gregory and of the Ethiopian anaphoras, including the 'Missa S. Basilii' and the Ethiopian Apostles anaphora (pp. 43-59)

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