Make This the Place Where Your Glory Dwells': Origins and Evolution of the Byzantine Rite for the Consecration of A Church

The Byzantine ritual for dedication of churches, as it appears in its earliest complete text, the eighth-century euchologion Barberini gr. 336, as well as in the textus receptus of the rite, represents a unique collection of scriptural and euchological texts, together with the ritual actions, intended to set aside the physical space of a public building for liturgical use. The Byzantine rite, in its shape already largely present in Barberini gr. 336, actually comprises three major liturgical elements: 1) consecration of the altar; 2) consecration of the church building; 3) deposition of relics. Our earliest Byzantine liturgical text clearly conceives of the consecration of the altar and the deposition of the relics/'renovation' (encaenia) as two distinct rites, not merely elements of a single ritual. This feature of the Barberini text raises an important question, namely, which of these major elements did in fact constitute the act of dedicating/ consecrating the church, and what role did the deposition of relics have in the ceremonies of dedication in the early period of Byzantine liturgical history, considering that the deposition of relics became a mandatory element of the dedication rite only after the provisions to that effect were made at the Second council of Nicaea in 787 CE.

This dissertation examines in special detail the origins and development of the consecration of the altar and the church with oil or chrism as evoking significant parallels to the ritual action of initiation liturgies (washing, anointing, vesting). Such connection provides a glimpse into the early theology behind the act of consecration of a liturgical space. A thorough study of the Byzantine dedication rite also allowed us to reevaluate a prominent role of the liturgies of major imperial cities and cultural centers (Jerusalem, Constantinople) in the formation of the Byzantine liturgical tradition.