Zeon

ZEON. - In the Byzantine liturgy this word designates the hot water which, after being blessed by the priest, the deacon pours into the chalice immediately after the immixtio, while the priest says: "Fervor of faith, filled with the Holy Spirit."

This rite, existing only in the Byzantine liturgy, is not of universal use nor rigorously imposed, and it is still practiced today according to the norm of canon 32, attributed to Patriarch Nicephorus I (806-15). The priest must not celebrate the liturgy without the hot water except in case of necessity or when it is not possible to find it (F. Pitra, Iuris eccles..., vol. II, Rome 1868, p. 330). At the Council of Florence the Greeks were questioned about the rite of the z., but their answer has not come down to us.

In the Ruthenian Synod of Zamosc (1720) that rite was abolished, but it remained in the Eucologio of Benedict XIV (1754) and was restored, under certain conditions, in the Liturgicum, Ruthenian recension, of Rome (1942).

In the present formula the z. has a subjective meaning, symbolizing the fervor of the faithful's faith in the Holy Spirit, whereas, according to the formula prior to the 15th century, the meaning was objective: the fervor of the Holy Spirit. The blessing formula speaks of the fervor of the saints, and Nicholas Cabasilas sees in the rite the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, a fitting commemoration because it is the conclusion of all the mysteries of the Redemption recalled in this sacrifice (cf. S. Salaville, Cabasilas, Explication de la divine Liturgie, Paris 1943, pp. 206-10). But for Symeon of Thessalonica the rite indicates that the dead body of the Lord remained life-giving, because it was not separated from the divinity, nor from the energies of the Holy Spirit, and since heat signifies life, those who receive the Holy Blood, as it were, place their lips to the life-giving side of the Lord (PG 155, 741). This last moralizing intention of Holy Communion is held by modern Greek authors. And while A. Baumstark traces the rite back to ancient table customs (Byzant. - Neugriech. Jahrb., 15 [1939], p. 237) and J. Brinktrine to a simple blessing (Ein auffallender Brauch der byzant. Messliturgie, in Theol. und Glaube, 1937, pp. 637-43), L. H. Grondijs, in a study that is thorough but often unreliable (L'iconographie byzant. du Crucifié mort sur la Croix, 2nd ed., Brussels 1947), merges it with the doctrine of the incorruptibility of the Body of Christ, a false doctrine but one accepted for a moment by the emperor Justinian, in whose time the rite would have had its origin, renewed and made more orthodox by the mystics of the monastery of the Studites in the 11th century (Nicetas Sterathos), perpetuated by Balsamon (PG 137, 619), by Symeon of Thessalonica and by others, and illustrated from the 12th century with the image of Jesus crucified with his side pierced, from which living blood and hot water spurt forth.

The first historical document that proves the rite of the z. is the reply of the Armenian katholikos Moses (574-604; PG 132, 1248-49; better, G. Garitte, La Narratio de rebus Armeniae, Louvain 1952, pp. 243-44). On the other hand, the account of John of Nikiu (H. Zotenberg, Chronique de Jean de Nikiu, Paris 1883, pp. 413-15) and that of the anonymous Life of Theodore Sykeotes (Theophilus Ioannou, Μνημεία ἀγιολογικά, Venice 1884, p. 460) are not to the point. Thus, after the 6th century, there is a complete silence until the canon of Patriarch Nicephorus, while in the liturgical documents the first mention of the rite is found in the 12th-century version of Leo Thuscus.

Alfonso Raes