Anaphora / liturgyLiving

The so-called Anaphora of Theodore

ܩܘܪܒܢܐ ܢܩܪܒ ܠܐܠܗܐ

Qurbana neqrab l-Alaha

The so-called Anaphora of Theodore, the long East Syriac thanksgiving for the first half of the year.

Last verified 2026-09-20

In Brief

The so-called Anaphora of Theodore is the second East Syriac Eucharistic prayer, the long thanksgiving for the first half of the year, traditionally ascribed to Theodore of Mopsuestia. The entry calls it "so-called" throughout and never claims he wrote it; that is the tradition's title, not the entry's claim.¹ Beside the terse Addai and Mari, Theodore is ample: dialogue, Trinitarian praise, Sanctus, institution, anamnesis and offering, epiclesis, intercessions, doxology.² Traditionally it is prayed from the year's start to Palm Sunday, about sixteen weeks.³

At a Glance

Attribution: Traditionally ascribed to Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350-428); the entry calls it 'so-called' and claims no direct authorship¹
Date: Not established in the sources read; the anaphora is the second 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: Traditionally, from the start of the liturgical year to Palm Sunday (about sixteen weeks); the current Chaldean books order it in Annunciation and from Lent through Palm Sunday³as of 2026-09-20
Structural Type: East Syriac order: dialogue, preface, Sanctus, institution, anamnesis and offering, epiclesis, intercessions, doxology; longer and more expansive than Addai and Mari²
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. 610; the 1893 SPCK interleaved English translation³

The Shape of the Liturgy

1. Opening dialoguethe opening dialogue: 'the Qurbana is offered to God'
2. Preface / thanksgivingTrinitarian praise and the history of salvation
3. Pre-Sanctusthe praise leading to the Sanctus
4. Sanctus'Holy, holy, holy'
5. Post-Sanctusthanksgiving for God's works
6. Institution narrativethe narrative of the supper, with the words over bread and cup
7. Anamnesisthe memorial and offering of the gifts
8. Epiclesis (after anamnesis)the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the offering
9. Intercessionsthe memorial intercessions after the epiclesis
10. Doxologythe closing glorification

Shape of the The so-called Anaphora of Theodore²

Part by Part

Part by part
Part	Incipit	Translation
Opening dialogueThe Syriac incipit above; English sense per the Patriarchate's presentation.	The Qurbana is offered to God…	The priest's invitation; the people answer that it is fitting and right.
PrefaceOur rendering; the 1893 English is a nineteenth-century translation.	Worthy is the glorious Trinity…	Praise of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the history of salvation.
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…	The supper narrative: the bread as Christ's body, the cup as his blood.
Anamnesis and offeringOur rendering; the 1893 English is a nineteenth-century translation.	We commemorate, O Lord, thy death and resurrection…	The memorial of Christ's saving 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 fathers, for the living and the departed…	The memorial intercessions after the epiclesis, for the Church and the world.

Authorship & Date

Theodore of Mopsuestia died in 428, the teacher of Nestorius and the greatest biblical scholar of the Antiochene school. That his name stands over an East Syriac anaphora is not surprising: the Church of the East honored the Antiochene fathers, and Theodore was the greatest of them. That he composed this particular prayer, word by word, is not claimed by the entry and should not be claimed by the reader.

The ascription is traditional. The manuscripts entitle the prayer to Theodore, the printed Takhsa of 1890 prints the title in Syriac, and Renaudot's Latin edition of 1847 gives it as the liturgy of Theodore at volume two, page 610.^1,3 What the title means is that this is the prayer of Theodore'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 Theodore" or "traditionally ascribed to Theodore". No sentence here says Theodore 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, the Lazarists' printed missal, which gives the anaphora in Syriac under Theodore's name as the second of the three.¹ It is the book the East Syriac tradition prayed from, and the shape strip above follows its order: dialogue, preface, Sanctus, institution, anamnesis and offering, epiclesis, intercessions, doxology.

The Latin witness is Renaudot. His great collection of Eastern liturgies, published at Paris in 1847, prints the anaphora in Latin at volume two, page 610, the early printed doorway for Western readers into the East Syriac prayers.³ The English witness is the interleaved translation made at Urmia in 1893 by Maclean and Browne, which carries Theodore's text in English alongside the Syriac.²

Theology & Spirit

The prayer begins where the Syriac incipit says it begins: the Qurbana is offered to God. The dialogue hands the thanksgiving to the people, and the preface opens the great praise of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the history of what God has done, from creation through the prophets to Christ.² It is longer than Addai and Mari's preface, more expansive, willing to linger over the mercies it thanks for.

The Sanctus comes, "holy, holy, holy", sung with the heavenly powers, and the post-Sanctus thanks God for the works of salvation. Then the institution: the supper narrative, the bread as Christ's body, the cup as his blood, told in full, not dispersed as in the older prayer.² The anamnesis remembers Christ's death and resurrection and offers the gifts, and the epiclesis invokes the Holy Spirit on the offering, in vocabulary the prayer shares with Addai and Mari, the older prayer's invocation taken up and enlarged.

After the epiclesis come the intercessions, the memorial prayers for the Church, the living and the departed, and the doxology closes with glory to the Trinity.² The theology is the East Syriac theology: the Trinity praised, Christ's work remembered, the Spirit invoked, the Church gathered into the thanksgiving. What distinguishes Theodore is amplitude. Where Addai and Mari says it briefly, Theodore says it at length, as if the first half of the year, the long stretch from the year's beginning to Palm Sunday, needed a prayer to match.

Relations

Addai and Mari is the elder. The first East Syriac anaphora stands before Theodore in the books, shorter, older, the apostles' prayer against which Theodore's length is measured.¹ The two are companions, not competitors: the year's two thanksgivings, the short and the long.

Nestorius is the third. The so-called Anaphora of Nestorius follows Theodore as the third of the set, more expansive still, traditionally ascribed to Theodore's most famous pupil.¹ The three stand together in the Takhsa as the Eucharistic prayers of the tradition. Theodore is the middle term: longer than Addai and Mari, less expansive than Nestorius, the prayer of the year's first half.

Anaphora of Addai and MaricompanionThe first East Syriac anaphora; Theodore's longer prayer reuses Addai and Mari's epiclesis vocabulary and follows it in the books.¹
Anaphora of NestoriuscompanionThe third East Syriac anaphora, likewise traditionally ascribed; the three form the East Syriac set, with Theodore the longest.¹

Disputed Questions

Did Theodore 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.

When is it prayed? The traditional span is from the start of the liturgical year to Palm Sunday, about sixteen weeks, with Addai and Mari taking the rest of the year.³ The entry gives this as the traditional use. The current Chaldean ordering, shaped by the synodal renewal, is documented in the research dossier.

Did Theodore of Mopsuestia write this anaphora?

The manuscripts and printed books entitle the anaphora to Theodore of MopsuestiaThe 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.

When is the anaphora used?

Traditionally, from the start of the liturgical year to Palm Sunday, about sixteen weeksThe traditional Assyrian use³

The entry gives the traditional span; the current Chaldean ordering (per the 2019 and 2022 synodal renewal) is documented in the research dossier.

Go Deeper

Two things repay attention. The first is the opening. "The Qurbana is offered to God."² It is the priest's invitation, the handing of the thanksgiving to the people, and in Syriac it is four words. Everything that follows, the long preface, the Sanctus, the institution, the intercessions, is the answer to that invitation. The prayer is long because the offering is great.

The second is the length itself. Addai and Mari is the oldest and shortest; Nestorius is the latest and most expansive; Theodore stands between, the prayer of the year's first half, ample enough for sixteen weeks. The East Syriac tradition did not need three anaphoras, but it kept three, and it ordered them across the year as if the seasons themselves required different thanksgivings. Theodore's is the winter prayer, the long praise for the long stretch before Palm Sunday, traditionally ascribed to the great exegete of Mopsuestia, and best heard as his church's thanksgiving rather than his own composition.

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 Theodore text; the Theodore text; Renaudot1847: II, p. 610.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. 610; II, p. 610 (the anaphora's place in the books).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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