The Byzantine rite and the Preparation of the OfferingsA. King, The Rites of Eastern Christendom, Vol.2, 1948Oakley Austin: The Orthodox liturgy, London, A.R. Mowbray & Co, 1958Ephrem archimandrite: ProthesisPeter D. Day: The Liturgical dictionary of Eastern Christianity, Kent, Burn & Oates, 1993Robert F. Taft: The Byzantine Rite, A Short History, Collegeville, The Liturgical Press, 1992R. Taft: Evoluzione storica della liturgia eucaristica di rito Bizantino..., Dispense, Roma, Pios, 1991Robert Taft: Byzantine liturgy 102-8, here 106-71A. King, The Rites of Eastern Christendom, Vol.2, 1948[152] This preparation of the bread and wine was probably moved to the beginning of the liturgy between the8th and 9th centuries, at the time when the people had ceased to bring their own offerings, and when there wasno longer an actual dismissal of catechumens1. In the 6th century there was still no long ceremony2 of prothesis,but only a simple preparation, such as has survived in the Armenian and Syrian rites. The offertory formerlycoincided with the great entrance and, as we shall have cause to show, a trace of this ancient usage has beenretained in the pontifical liturgy. When the preparation was first moved to the beginning, the ceremony, whichwas very short, was performed in the sceuophylakion,3 where, at least at Constantinople, it continued until the13th century, and from the 11th to the 14th century it was the deacon who cut the host into particles, with thecelebrant giving his blessing4 at the end. Few words, 5 or none at all, accompanied the ceremonies, [153] whichwere developed between the 10th and 15th centuries. Philotheos, patriarch of Constantinople (1354-1355;1364-76), attempted to introduce uniformity in the prothesis ceremony.In the 12th century, there was added to the principal host the particles6 in honour of the saints, and incommemoration of the living and dead. This rite probably originated in Mount Athos, as St. Athanasius7 theAthonite is commemorated. The ...