These essays offer ministers of the Church -- priests, religious, and laity -- the most up-to-date liturgical scholarship so that they may look ahead to the needs of their assemblies.

Publisher Comments

Much has been written regarding the western liturgy; the same cannot be said of the Byzantine liturgy. Father Taft contributes to a remedy of that shortfall through this work. In it he traces the origins of the Byzantine Rite during its period of formation: from its earliest recorded beginnings until the end of Byzantium (1453 c.e.). While the rite has undergone some change in the period since then, its outlines remain essentially the same.