Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles

In Brief

The Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles is a Syriac anaphora of the Antiochene family, traditionally ascribed to St Luke the Evangelist, and it is living: it stands in the Maronite Book of Offering, where the celebrant may choose it among the anaphoras.^1,2 The 1992 Book of Offering kept six anaphoras, all described as prior to the tenth century, and gave them "one single text for the words of consecration", the Twelve Apostles' text with slight touch-ups; the 2005 Bkerke edition, with eight anaphoras, prints it at pp. 728-744.^2,3

Its shape, as the current parish booklet gives it, runs the full Antiochene course: the dialogue, the praise and thanksgiving, the Sanctus with the Benedictus, the post-Sanctus, the institution narrative in Syriac, the anamnesis, a single epiclesis after the anamnesis, the intercessions, and the doxology.⁴ There is no freestanding oblation formula between the anamnesis and the epiclesis in the 1992/2012 text; the verb "we offer" first occurs at the head of the intercessions, a textual fact the entry records without drawing doctrine from it.⁴

The Shape of the Liturgy

Part by Part

Authorship & Date

The tradition names St Luke, and the entry keeps the name as a tradition, not as history. Scholarship knows the prayer in two recensions: Raes printed it twice, as nos. V and VI, "Prima" and "Secunda", in Anaphorae Syriacae I.2 (1940).¹ Which of the two underlies the living Maronite and Syriac Orthodox form is not settled in the sources read for this entry, and the entry does not assign it. The booklet in hand follows the 1992/2012 Book of Offering order, in English except for the institution and the epiclesis chant, which are printed in transliterated Syriac.⁴

Witnesses & Editions

The text below is witnessed first by the living book: a 2021 parish booklet from St Anthony's, Lawrence, Massachusetts, giving the anaphora as the Maronite Church now prays it.⁴ Its intercessions name Francis as pope, Bechara Peter as patriarch of Antioch and Gregory as bishop, which dates the booklet; the names are recorded as of 2021 and are not presented as current.⁴ Behind it stand Raes's two recensions of 1940 and the Bkerke 2005 edition's printed text at pp. 728-744, with its choreography: the peace sitting, the Eucharistic Prayer standing, at the epiclesis the deacon bidding all stand in prayer while the celebrant kneels on both knees and the people answer Kyrie eleison, the commemorations sitting, the elevation standing.^1,2

Theology & Spirit

"Truly it is right and just to glorify and praise you, O God the Father": the thanksgiving opens to the Father, with the Son and the Spirit, ringed by the cherubim and seraphim who "cry out, glorify, and proclaim".⁴ The post-Sanctus confesses the holy Trinity and the incarnation of the only-begotten Son of the pure Virgin Mary.⁴

The institution is the one text the booklet keeps in Syriac: "Wabyowmo how daqdom hashodeeleh", "and on the day before his lifegiving passion", bread taken in his holy hands, blessed and broken, "this is my body"; then the cup, "my blood of the new covenant".⁴ The anamnesis answers: "We remember your death, O Lord. We profess your resurrection. We await your second coming."⁴

The epiclesis is the prayer's other Syriac survival, sung as a chant: "Have mercy on us, O Lord", then "'aneen moryo", hear us, O Lord, "may your living Holy Spirit come and rest upon us and upon this offering".⁴ The intercessions open with the offering at last: "We offer you, O Lord, this divine sacrifice for your Church", for the pope, the patriarch, the bishop and all bishops, and then, "Remember, O Lord, the faithful departed".⁴ The doxology closes it: "As it was, is now, and shall be forever. Amen."⁴

Relations

The prayer's closest Syriac kin is the Anaphora of St James: the Twelve Apostles keeps the older single commemoration prayer that St James's Old Syriac Version also had, and like the Syriac St James it addresses its anamnesis to the Son, an early West Syrian trait.¹ It shares the Antiochene shape with the Byzantine anaphora of St John Chrysostom; the entry asserts no historical dependence in either direction, the Engberding, Taft and Spinks arguments not having been directly read.⁴

• Anaphora of St JamescompanionKeeps the older single commemoration prayer that St James's Old Syriac Version also had; like the Syriac St James, its anamnesis is addressed to the Son.¹
• Anaphora of St John ChrysostomrelatedShares the Antiochene shape with the Byzantine Chrysostom anaphora; the entry asserts no historical dependence (the Engberding/Taft/Spinks arguments were not directly read).⁴

Disputed Questions

Which recension is the living one? Raes's "Prima" and "Secunda" both stand in print, and the sources read do not map the 1992/2012 Maronite text onto either.¹ The missing oblation: the text moves from anamnesis to epiclesis with no "we offer" between, and the wider scholarly discussion of the missing oblation, Fenwick, Parenti, Olver, lies outside the sources read here.⁴ The Lukan ascription: tradition, kept as tradition.¹ On each point the entry reports the state of the evidence and stops there.

Go Deeper

One rubric carries the prayer's theology in gesture. At the epiclesis the deacon bids all stand in prayer, the celebrant kneels on both knees, and "Answer us, O Lord" is said three times, the people answering Kyrie eleison: the whole assembly on its feet around the kneeling priest while the Spirit is invoked on the offering.² The 2005 book's obligatory Syriac texts, the entrance, the Trisagion, the pre-anaphora and the institution narrative, explain why the institution and the epiclesis chant are the two places where this booklet, otherwise in English, breaks into transliterated Syriac.²

On Domus Dei

• The Maronite Rite
• The West Syriac Rite

Recommended reading

• St Anthony Maronite Parish, Lawrence, MA, Sundays of Pentecost – Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles, 2021.The living Maronite text read in full: the 2012 Book of Offering order, with transliterated Syriac at the institution and the epiclesis chant. Read online
• Varghese, Baby, “The Anaphora of Saint James and Jacob of Edessa”, Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, Brill, 2008), pp. 239-264, 2008.Raes's two recensions (I.2, 1940), the single commemoration prayer, the anamnesis addressed to the Son, the 'Christ ate his body' tradition in the institution narrative. Read online
• Gemayel, Boutros (Archbishop), trans. Stephen Hector Doueihi, “Qurbono: The Book of Offering. General Introduction and Explanation (Bkerke, 31 July 1992)”, Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn (reprinted with permission), 1992.The 1992 book's six anaphoras, all 'prior to the tenth century', and the single text for the words of consecration. Read online

Sources

1. ScholarshipVarghese, Baby, “The Anaphora of Saint James and Jacob of Edessa”, Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, Brill, 2008), pp. 239-264, 2008, pp. 255-256; p. 256; pp. 256, 262. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · read in full (browser text of the PDF, pp. 239-264): Greek accepted as the original language; the core back to the 4th/early 5th c. (Tardy); Fenwick's conflation hypothesis (Jerusalem redaction from Palestinian sources + early Basil) with Winkler's critical review noted; the Antiochene version before the Chalcedonian/non-Chalcedonian split, earliest possible date first half of the 5th c.; Syriac translation before the end of the 6th c. (Khouri-Sarkis on literal Greek renderings); the three Syriac manuscript groups (OSV, NCR, textus receptus); the oldest OSV witness BL Add. 14615 (8th-c. palimpsest); Rucker's 57 manuscripts (5 Maronite); Heiming's edition (Anaphorae Syriacae 2.2, Rome 1953, 30 mss., 109-179) 'the most reliable'; the NCR attribution to Jacob of Edessa challenged by Rucker and Heiming (an evolution over one or two centuries, not one man's work); Jacob's commentaries (GS, Th) reflecting OSV not NCR; the sixfold commemoration division (18 prayers in 6 groups) introduced before NCR and widespread by the 10th c.; the Syriac anamnesis addressed to the Son (unlike Greek), long in OSV and abridged in NCR; Bar Kepa's 9th-c. directive to address the prayers to the Father; Jacob of Edessa's biography (En Deba, Eusebona, 'who hated Greeks'); Michael the Syrian's silence on any liturgical revision; the 12th-c. growth of Jacob's authority; the general practice of attributing anaphoras to apostles and Fathers 'to get wider acceptance'; Raes on the Twelve Apostles (II) and Jacob of Edessa institution narratives (Anaphorae Syriacae 1.2, 1940 and 3.1, 1981)
2. Primary textMaronite Patriarchate, Patriarchal Commission for Liturgical Affairs, Kitāb al-Quddās bi-ḥasab ṭaqs al-Kanīsa al-Anṭākiyya al-Suryāniyya al-Mārūniyya. Kitāb al-muʾminīn (the Book of the Mass according to the rite of the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church: the people's volume), Bkerke: Maronite Patriarchate, 2005, pp. 46-48; contents p. 1116; pp. 728-744; pp. 733-734; pp. 924-926.Verified 2026-09-18 · read on the page images of the people's volume, cited by printed page. Title page: title, 'Kitab al-mu'minin', 'Bkerke 2005'. pp. 4-5, the patriarchal decree (register of delegations no. 1512 of 2005), given at Bkerke on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, 29 June 2005, signed and sealed by Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir: it cites CCEO cann. 656 and 657, the letter of Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, head of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, no. 381/2003 of 17 April 2005, approving the use of the book, and the consent of the Synod of Bishops to the new edition prepared by the Patriarchal Commission for Liturgical Affairs; it orders its use in all Maronite churches within the Patriarchate and in the countries of the diaspora from the first Sunday of November 2005, the start of the liturgical year, and forbids the use of any other book for the Maronite Quddas (Mass) from Christmas, 25 December 2005. pp. 8-9, Sfeir's preface: the 'Simple Rite' approved by Patriarch Meouchi with the Synod and put in force by decree no. 43 of 13 April 1973, for one year, experimentally; p. 8, 'circumstances', especially from 1975, when the wars broke out that 'lasted sixteen years', kept the Liturgical Commission from continuing its work 'in a regular manner' (bi-sura muntazama; re-read on the image 18 Sep 2026); the renewed rite 'in a second edition'. p. 32: the Gospel chanted in Syriac and then read in Arabic until the twentieth century. pp. 33-34, the introduction of Archbishop Boutros Gemayel: the first edition, 1594, had 14 anaphoras; that of 1716 also 14, turning Sharar into the rite of the Signing of the Cup; the 1992 edition had 6; two anaphoras of the West Syriac pattern were added, attributed to St John Chrysostom and St John Maron, 'for their relation to the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church and for the great esteem of these two names', so that the collection 'now consists of eight anaphoras'; of the John Maron anaphora 'we find no trace in any of the old manuscripts'; Duwaihy's collection has 34 anaphoras. p. 35: all stand at the elevation and say its prayer with the priest; the Commission insists on Communion under both kinds, the priest dipping the Body in the chalice, 'but the final decision belongs to the Holy Synod'. pp. 46-48, the rules: St Maron on 9 February only (rule 39); the offerings prepared on Sundays and feasts on a small altar to the right of the main altar, on weekdays at the main altar (rule 46); the celebrant chooses one of the eight anaphoras and says it in Syriac or in Arabic (rule 48). p. 53: the celebrant, or whoever he deputes, prepares the offerings; the people sit. p. 54: under 'The vesting' the celebrant vests in the sacristy or at the church door and says quietly (sirran) the psalm 'Have mercy on me, O God' (Ps 50/51), named by its opening words, or one of three other prayers (to p. 55). p. 57: the entrance, standing. The anaphora of the Twelve Apostles, pp. 728-744: the rite of peace, sitting (p. 728), the peace passed with joined hands during a hymn of peace (p. 729); the Eucharistic Prayer, standing (p. 730); at the epiclesis the deacon bids all stand in prayer and the celebrant kneels on both knees, 'Answer us, O Lord' three times, the people answering Kyrie eleison (pp. 733-734); the commemorations, sitting (p. 735); the elevation, standing (p. 739); the Lord's Prayer with hands extended (p. 740); the bowing of heads and the blessing (p. 741); Communion, the communicant bowing and signing himself, with the words 'The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ and his Blood are given to you for the forgiveness of your sins and for eternal life' (pp. 743-744). pp. 924-926, the obligatory Syriac texts: the entrance, the Trisagion, the pre-anaphora and the Institution narrative. p. 1116, the contents: the anaphoras of the Twelve Apostles, St Peter Head of the Apostles, St James Brother of the Lord, St John the Apostle, St Mark the Evangelist, St Xystus Pope of Rome, St John Chrysostom and St John Maron
3. Primary textGemayel, Boutros (Archbishop), trans. Stephen Hector Doueihi, “Qurbono: The Book of Offering. General Introduction and Explanation (Bkerke, 31 July 1992)”, Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn (reprinted with permission), 1992, the six anaphoras. LinkVerified 2026-09-18 · read in full: the first edition, 'published in Rome between 1592 and 1594' from a manuscript written in 1566, whose publishers 'translated the words of consecration from Latin to Syriac'; the patriarch rejected it, then under the papal delegate Dandini accepted it temporarily (1596); the second edition (1716) 'proved to be more Latinized than the first one', 'the anaphora of the Latin Mass, translated into Syriac and Arabic, was inserted here, while the Anaphora of Sharar was removed'; the third (1763) 'included eight anaphoras instead of the fourteen'; Qozhaya 1816, 1838, 1855, 1872; Beirut 1888 and 1908, where Bishop Youssef Dibs 'placed the Roman anaphora before the other anaphoras'; Jounieh 1959; the 'Simple Rite' of 1973, 'used experimentally for only one year'; all save 1973 published 'without the seal or the signature of the patriarch'; the new text presented to the Patriarchal Synod in 1980 and 1982, 'accepted, definitively, and in all its details' by the Synod and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; the order of the Service of the Word, with the Prayer of Forgiveness with the Incense (Hoosoyo), the Qadeeshat (Trisagion), 'addressed to the Lord Jesus alone' in the Maronite and other Syriac Churches, while 'The Latin Church, theologically speaking, considers this hymn as Trinitarian', and 'almost fifty services, having the same number as the weeks of the year'; the preparation of the offerings assigned 'to the deacon according to earlier tradition'; the liturgical year 'begins with the first Sunday of November and concludes with the last Sunday of October'; the words of the Lord 'are sufficient to consecrate the Qurbono', the meaning of 'the profound bowing of the celebrant after each of the Lord's words', and yet 'we consider the eucharistic prayer as one… it is perfected only by the invocation of the Holy Spirit'; the Lord's Prayer and 'a rite of communal penance'; 'Holy things for the holy', answered 'One Holy Father, one Holy Son, one Holy Spirit'; the farewell, 'Remain in peace, O altar of God'; the Maronites 'preserved the Eastern Syriac anaphora known as the Anaphora of the Apostles or Sharar'; 'six anaphoras only', all 'prior to the tenth century': Twelve Apostles, St Peter Head of the Apostles, St James, St John, St Mark, Sixtus; 'one single text for the words of consecration', the Twelve Apostles' with 'slight touch-ups'; the entrance hymn 'must be sung in Syriac in the Maronite churches all over the world', so that 'Maronites, wherever they may be, will then be able to hear the same hymn, with the same melody, and in the same language', with the Qadishat and the Institution narrative; Sharar 'as it stands now, it cannot be used', surviving as 'a rite of communion for Great Friday'; on 6 June 1992 the Synod allowed celebration facing the people or facing east, the ruling left to the local hierarch; Communion by dipping the Body into the cup and giving it 'directly in the mouth'
4. Primary textSt Anthony Maronite Parish, Lawrence, MA, Sundays of Pentecost – Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles, 2021, PDF ll. 461-661; PDF ll. 562-626; PDF ll. 622-653; PDF ll. 486-514; PDF ll. 508-514; PDF ll. 516-546; PDF ll. 550-566; PDF ll. 583-601; PDF ll. 655-661. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · read in full the anaphora section (PDF lines 461-661): the dialogue ('The love of God the Father…', 'Let us lift up our thoughts, our minds, and our hearts', 'It is right and just'); the praise and thanksgiving ('Truly it is right and just to glorify and praise you, O God the Father…'); the Sanctus with Benedictus; the post-Sanctus ('Holy, holy, holy are you, God the Father, full of mercy…'); the institution narrative in transliterated Syriac ('Wabyowmo how daqdom hashodeeleh…') with English; the anamnesis ('We remember your death, O Lord…'); the epiclesis ('Have mercy on us, O Lord… Send us your lifegiving Spirit…', the Syriac chant ''aneen moryo… ooneethe mor roohokh hayo ooqadeesho. oonagen 'alain oo-'al qoorbono hono.' with English); the intercessions ('We offer you, O Lord, this divine sacrifice for your Church… Francis, the Pope of Rome, Bechara Peter, our Patriarch of Antioch, Gregory, our Bishop…'; 'Remember, O Lord, the faithful departed…'); the closing doxology ('Grant us pardon, O God… As it was, is now, and shall be forever. Amen'). English only except the institution and epiclesis chant, which carry transliteration. A current parish booklet in the 1992/2012 Book of Offering order; names in the intercessions date it (as_of 2021).