THE TSERKOVNOE OKO (“THE EYE OF THE CHURCH”)

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THE TSERKOVNOE OKO (“THE EYE OF THE CHURCH”)

(printed in the year 7149 from Creation (that is, 1641AD).

ABRIDGED TRANSLATION FROM CHURCH SLAVONIC INTO ENGLISH.

JUNE 2026

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION FOR THE ABRIDGED TRANSLATION OF THE “TSERKOVNOE OKO (“THE EYE OF THE CHURCH”) (printed in the year 7149from Creation; that is, 1641AD). FROM CHURCH SLAVONIC INTO ENGLISH.

FR. PIMEN SIMON - JUNE 2026

The project of translating this book into English began over 40 years earlier than the publication that will now occur in 2026. After the restoration of priesthood for the priestless Old Rite of the parish of the Nativity of Christ in Erie Pennsylvania in 1983, I felt the need for further translation of the pre-Niconian liturgical, or pseudo-liturgical, books of the Russian Orthodox Church. Furthermore, I felt that the ongoing presence of a New-Rite ROCOR parish in Erie was beneficial, since I recognized that many Orthodox Christians, particularly those raised in parishes serving predominantly in Church Slavonic might not wish to attend a  parish serving predominantly in English, and/or might also not wish to attend a  parish using the Old Rite,  Thus, shortly after the restoration of priesthood to the Church of the Nativity, I offered the translating opportunity to Fr. German Ciuba, the rector of the ROCOR New Rite Our Lady’s Nativity parish in Erie. The dual purpose was, first of all, to accomplish the needed translations, and secondly, to provide some monetary remuneration to enable Fr. German, and whoever would follow him, so as to be able to remain at the Church of our Lady’s Nativity, in light of the fact that there were a very small number of parishioners attending there who could support a full-time priest. Of course, the willingness of Fr. German Ciuba to accept this task led him to become the translator for every one of the publications published over many years by the Church of the Nativity of Christ.

 When Fr. German left the parish of Our Lady’s Nativity in 1986, Fr. Thomas Marretta followed as the rector there. It was at that time that I offered Fr. Thomas the opportunity to translate the early chapters of the Tserkovnoe Oko. Over the next several years he did so, all in handwritten manuscript form. Over a period of time these manuscript forms were digitized, and sometimes revised in some minor ways. Thus, Fr, Thomas should be given credit for his role in the original translations of the early portions of the book. He has not been given the opportunity to edit the chapters he translated so many years ago, so I offer my apologies if any of these early chapters may not be precisely the way he originally translated them.

Also, over the years, I have consulted Fr. German, and Bishop John of Caracas and South America, the overseer of the Old Rite, for translations of several intricate passages in the book that I had difficulty translating. But, in the final analysis, the vast majority of the translation and editing has been done by me, and if there are criticisms of the translations or the style of the corpus, they lie with me, and I ask for forgiveness for any inaccuracies in this translated book.

Now, for the important notes:

This is a reference book. Were it a book used for liturgical purposes, rather than for reference purposes that primarily explain the rubric for Orthodox Christian services, I would have striven much more diligently to ensure that there were no stylistic differences in different portions and sections of the book. Fr. Thomas primarily translated using old English style of verse, pronouns and the like. For example, such phrases as: “if a feast falleth” or “thou dost” may be present. And as I worked on this book for well over 25 years, at times I would forget exactly what style others or I had utilized. But I was not overly concerned about this, because I would find similar discrepancies in style from chapter to chapter in the original Church Slavonic book. In one section I might find a direction highlighted in red; and in another section the same sort of direction was printed in black. I don’t want to spend a great deal of time on the possible inconsistencies in style, but over time I ceased obsessing about this, because the book will never be read orally. It will be consulted for instructional purposes, and I truly doubt that those who utilize this book will even notice that there may be stylistic differences from place to place. They will utilize the instructions, and most likely not notice style. However, if there are stylistic differences in different sections of the book that are distracting to any readers, I offer my deep bow and ask for your forgiveness!

This is an abridged version of the original Church Slavonic Tserkovnoe Oko: There are a few editor’s notes scattered throughout this work, but this is not an edited version, but an abridged version attempting to translate as accurately as possible the original corpus of the book.

The abridgement takes place in the following ways:

1. The original book lists the rubrics for the services for every day of the year. What I did was to provide the translation of the original chapters that explain how to serve the standard pre-Niconan Russian Orthodox services. Then, I made sure that I translated and included in this English version of the book every great feast; “polyeleosniy” feast; and doxology feast of what one might call the universally celebrated feasts of the Lord, of the Theotokos, and of the saints of the Church. These of course, do not include the specific services for saints glorified after the schism of the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid 17h Century, since this Tserkovnoe Oko was published before the schism.

2. A great many services are included in the original Church Slavonic book for what I would call: “local Russian saints”. I did not include the vast majority of these, unless I deemed these feast days to have become recognized as feast days commemorated throughout the universal Orthodox Church, such as St. Sergius, or some of the feasts of icons of the Theotokos, such as the Vladimir or Kazan icons. My reasoning for not including the rubric for each of those services just mentioned was twofold:

  a. Once you have the rubric for one of the feasts of icons of the Theotokos, or of local Russian saints, the same rubric will overwhelmingly apply for the rest of those feasts. So, for example, if one’s parish were to celebrate the feast of the icon of the “Joy of all who sorrow”, one can look to the rubric for the Kazan or Vladimir icons of the Theotokos which are included in this abridged English version.

   b. Secondly, I was not intending this book to be for a monastery or parish that serves daily services without exception throughout the entire year. I intended this abridged version of the Tserkovnoe Oko to be for parishes serving weekend services; major and middle rank feast day services; and occasional daily services – particularly during Great Lent.

  c. The titles of these local or regional Russian commemorations are usually printed in red letters in both the Horologian and the Tserkovnoe Oko, and are noted on a particular day after the “universal” saint that has been commemorated for many centuries before the “Russian feasts” were added onto that date.

3. The vast majority of the saints commemorated during the year are given a rank having either 4 or 6 prayers read for them in the Matins Canon on the day of their commemoration. Once again, if one reads the generic rubrics for daily liturgical services in the first chapters in the Tserkovnoe Oko and then looks to the rubric for similar rank saints’ days during the year, it is quite easy to follow the earlier generic rubric included in this abridged edition for the vast majority of saints of similar rank. Also, it is for that reason that I included the specific rubric for several saints of “lesser” rank commemorated in the first month of the liturgical year (September), so that one could have a format for services commemorating “daily” saints throughout the year. And I also included such rubrics for daily services commemorating a forefeast or postfeast of a major feast day – especially if it falls on a Sunday.

4. Perhaps the most significant and essential portions of the book that I translated were the exceptional liturgical circumstances that one could not anticipate without the aid of the Tserkovnoe Oko. These include the multitudinous variations of rubric for feasts such as the Annunciation, the Meeting of the Lord; the finding of the head of the Forerunner; and the feasts of St. George and St. John the Theologian. Since these feasts all fall sometime during the period of the Lenten Triodion or the Flowery (Paschal) Triodion, (except for the meeting of the Lord which can occur before the Triodion period has begun), they are going to coincide with Lenten or Paschal services, thus, creating complexities necessitating the specific rubric for that occurrence, not just a generic rubric for the feast.

5. Also, the very rubrics of daily fasting season services, particularly Great Lent, require specific instructions that I have tried to include in their entirety.

6. If a user of this abridged edition of the Tserkovnoe should find a need for a specific rubric for a particular saint or feast not included in this abridged edition, but part of the original Church Slavonic Tserkovnoe Oko, please notify the rector of our parish, and we will provide you with that specific rubric.

7. There are a very few instances in which instead of using the rubric given in the Tserkovnoe Oko, I used the rubric from the Festal Menaion, because I felt the Festal Menaion’s rubric more closely indicated the likely rubric being followed by parishes for that day. As an example: the Tserkovnoe Oko’s rubric for the feast of the Protection of the Theotokos on October first consisted of a joint celebration of that feast with the commemoration of the Apostle Ananias. But here in Erie, and I suspect in most parishes, the feast of the Protection is celebrated without the additional rubric commemorating the apostle. on that feast day. That is the rubric found in the Festal Menion, and it is the one I used in this book. When I took such liberty, I believe I always inserted an editor’s note explaining my reasoning.

8. If any other portions of the book were abridged, it was usually because some sort of side notes were given in the original text that were not really germane to the rubric; or these notes included several different sources for the same basic explanation. Often these extra explanations were simply repetitive of the earlier explanation. A good example of this was the reasoning for how and why to fast on the day of the beheading of St. John the Forerunner.

9. Once again, I would like to make clear that even if some portion of the corpus of the original complete Church Slavonic Tserkovnoe Oko may be questioned as to its correctness by some, or many of the readers, we translated, not edited. An example: some of what is written about the length of efficacy of the holy water on Theophany eve, or the steps taken if some portion of that holy water falls on clothing, seems confusing or even questionable. But what is printed in this abridged edition is what was written in the original text. If one wants to question any part of the corpus, that was not the purpose of this translation.

10. Finally, instead of rambling on here ad infinitum, I suggest that a thorough perusing of the lengthy Table of Contents will assist the reader in finding what is needed in almost all circumstances for conducting parish services in accord with the liturgical services of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries before the publication of the original text, and for several centuries since its printing. The page numbers given, reflect the page number (in red) in the original Church Slavonic publication, and then, the page number (in black) in the abridged English version. Unlike the common modern method of numbering each page, the methodology in the more ancient Church Slavonic liturgical books was to number each folio, not each page. When the text appeared in the original on the back, unnumbered page, I have designated that page as page (over).

I offer my low bow, pleading for forgiveness for any errors in translation, or failures to include everything that the reader may have wished included in this book. But I believe that this abridged edition will be sufficient to provide any Orthodox Christian parish the ability to conduct liturgical services, and to follow an Orthodox Christian life in a manner consistent with the generations of Orthodox Christians who have preceded us. Please forgive me for any failures in this attempt!

Fr. Pimen Simon     June 2026