APODEIPNON (Ἀπόδειπνον). - In the churches of the Byzantine rite it is a divine office intended to implore blessing during sleep, which originated in the monasteries of the East. It came after the institution of the night and evening prayers and of the three lesser hours, derived from the aspiration of the religious soul to close the day by commending itself to the Lord and to consecrate rest to him. Such is the sense of question 37 in the prolix rules of St. Basil, composed between 358 and 362, which for the first time gives notice of this prayer, with the prescription of Psalm 90, which has remained to this day.
In the Byzantine rite a distinction is made between the ordinary a. and the great a., recited during Great Lent and on certain vigils of the year. The form of the latter would be more ancient than the simple one, which is, as it were, a summary of it and represents a third part of it. The general scheme of the a. is as follows: 1) Introductory prayers; 2) Invitatory with three psalms; 3) Doxology (Gloria in excelsis with its symbolism); 4) Creed; 5) Trisagion, with appropriate troparia; 6) Kyrie eleison (40 times) with prayers and kontakion or troparia of the Virgin; 7) Apolysis and pardon; 8) Final litanies and blessing. During the week of Easter the a. is composed of certain passages taken from the office of the solemnity. In monasteries the a. is recited in the narthex, and in the laura each monk recites it in his cell.
Bibliography
Placido de Meester