MAŠTOC'. - It is the Armenian Ritual properly so called, which contains the prayers and the practice for the administration of the Sacraments and the Sacramentals. Its origin goes back to the 5th century, and the name is linked to the two holy fathers of the same name, M.-Mesrob of the 5th century, and the patriarch M. II of Sevan (837-97), who collected, translated and ordered the elements that form it. Subsequently it was continually enriched with new canons, translated or written by the Fathers.
In the development of the M. four periods may be noted: 1) the first, 2) the middle, 3) the Cilician, 4) the present. In the first the form is generally compendious and simple (5th-12th centuries); in the second the number of canons increases and the hymns multiply, with frequent sermons by non-classical authors (13th-16th centuries); in the third there is found the Latin Ritual translated for their use into a vulgar tongue of the decadence by the Friars Preachers called Unitores (1317-1600) and then infiltrated into the Armenian one, thus coming to form an unpleasant combination, which caused many quarrels and discords. The fourth, or present, besides the abundance of canons, has prayers, long exhortations, hymns and repetitions with such frequency as to make the rite laborious and difficult.
Many codices of the M. survive: the Mechitarist Library of Venice alone has 127 manuscripts. The oldest (no. 457), on parchment, written before 893, belongs to the first series, and is mutilated at the beginning and at the end. No. 199 of the same Library, of 1216, belongs to the second. And no. 1113, of 1345, on parchment, is of the third. The first edition was made at Constantinople in 1569.
Bibliography2 works
Gregorio Sarkissian