16 Facts About Vespers

Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies.

Vespers typically follows a set order that focuses on the performance of psalms and other biblical canticles.

Vespers, called Evening Prayer, takes place as dusk begins to fall.

Vespers are known by the Aramaic or Syriac term Ramsha in the East Syriac liturgy which was used historically in the Church of the East and remains in use in Churches descended from it, namely the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

Vespers is the only service in the Armenian daily office other than the Morning Service which has hymns proper to the commemoration, feast, or tone assigned to it: a vespers hymn after Psalm 142 and the “Lifting-up Hymn” after Psalm 121.

Related searches

Vespers undergoes a wide range of changes depending on the liturgical season.

Vespers, as a whole, is an introduction and preparation for the Liturgy, consisting of a collection of prayers, praises and Thanksgiving prayers which request the Lord's blessings upon the sacramental service.

Rite of Vespers Praises in the Coptic Orthodox Church is as follows:.

Rite of Vespers Raising of Incense in the Coptic Orthodox Church is as follows:.

The Liberal Catholic Rite includes Vespers, including the Te Deum as an alternative to the Magnificat.

Daily office books that conform to the historic structure of Vespers have been published by the Pilgrim Press and Westminster John Knox Press.

Vespers is, therefore, together with Vigil, the most ancient Office known in the Church.

Vespers, then, was the most solemn office of the day and was composed of the psalms called Lucernales.

Notwithstanding the changes brought about in the course of time, Vespers still remains the great and important Office of the evening.

Solemn Vespers differ in that the celebrant wears the cope, he is assisted by assistants in copes, incense is used, and two acolytes, a thurifer, and at least one master of ceremonies are needed.

Psalms and hymns of the Vespers service have attracted the interest of many composers, including Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Anton Bruckner.