The Aposticha ( el, Άπόστιχα'; Slavonic: ''stikhíry na stikhóvne'') are a set of hymns (''

stichera A sticheron (Greek: "set in verses"; plural: stichera; Greek: ) is a hymn of a particular genre sung during the daily evening (Hesperinos/Vespers) and morning ( Orthros) offices, and some other services, of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Cat ...

'') accompanied by

psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

verses ('' stichos'') that are chanted towards the end of

Vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic (both Latin and Eastern), Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer time comes from the Latin , meanin ...

and

Matins Matins (also Mattins) is a canonical hour in Christian liturgy, originally sung during the darkness of early morning. The earliest use of the term was in reference to the canonical hour, also called the vigil, which was originally celebrated b ...

in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

and those

Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...

that follow the Byzantine Rite.

Description

The Greek term literally means " ymnson the verses." The aposticha belong to a family of hymns, known as

, which are normally tied to psalm verses in the

Daily Office In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of Fixed prayer times#Christianity, fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or sel ...

. Unlike other stichera, which normally follow their psalm verses, the aposticha are unique in that they precede their psalm verses. Aposticha are found at Vespers every day (except when the Liturgy, whether of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil or the Presanctified Gifts, follows), and at Great Compline when it forms part of a vigil (for Christmas, Theophany and the Annunciation), but at Matins they occur only on ordinary weekdays, being omitted on higher-ranking feast days. At Vespers on Sundays (i.e., Saturday evening) there is one more sticheron than on weekdays. The aposticha at Sunday Vespers form an acrostic in the original Greek (the first sticheron is not part of the acrostic).

References

Sources

* Archimandrite Ephrem, "Aposticha" and "Sticheron" in ''Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity'' (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1999.) * Monks of New Skete
"Introduction"
in ''Hymns of Entreaty'' (Cambridge, New York: New Skete, 1987.)

External links

{{Byzantine music Byzantine music Genres of Byzantine music Eastern Christian hymns Liturgy of the Hours