PANNYCHIS. - This word can designate several liturgical Offices in the Byzantine rite.

1) Today among the Greeks the p. is the divine Office that lasts the whole night and therefore corresponds to the vigils of the Latins. This Office is held in monasteries, especially on Mount Athos, 30 to 50 times a year, on the night preceding the great feasts; beginning around 8 or 9 in the evening with Great Vespers, the orthos (= Matins and Lauds) is added to it, with the hours of Prime, Terce, and Sext, so that around 9 or 10 in the morning the Eucharistic liturgy will end. But in parishes, generally, the p. is celebrated in the evening, every Saturday, in an abbreviated ceremony (Vespers, orthos, and Prime), partly read, not sung.

2) The Slavs give the Office described the name vsenoscnoe Bdienie (= all-night vigil) and reserve that of p. for the Office of the dead, which, however, substantially follows the structure of the orthos.

3) In ancient times, as can be gathered from Greek manuscripts, there existed an office called p. which was added to Vespers, or preceded the orthos, or entered into the composition of the apodeipnon; it comprised Psalm 50, one or several canons, and the Great Doxology (cf. A. Dmitrievskij, Opisanie..., I, Kiev 1895, pp. 604 and 607).

Bibliography

BIBL.: P. de Meester, Voyage de deux Bénédicins aux monastères du Mont Athos, Paris 1908, pp. 197-201.

Alfonso Raes

@incollection{ec9_pannychis, author = {Raes, Alfonso}, title = {Pannychis}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {682}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pannychis} }

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