Rânduiala Tainei Spovedaniei, în edițiile românești ale Molitfelnicului

Abstract

Over time the ordinance of the Holy Sacrament of Confession has seen some changes with regards to the typical side, constantly adapting to the needs of the believers, the fund remaining always the same, maintaining a close connection between apostolic liturgical tradition and the contemporary one. Following closely all these changes is not possible, because there are not any documents that old so as to record the order of the Sacrament of Confession, although this Holy Mystery has been a constant part of the church life. The continuing presence of the Holy Sacrament of Confession in the life of the Church is confirmed including by the editions of our Euchologion, starting with the first edition, in 1545, to the last. Regarding the order of the Sacrament itself, although it knew some enrichment or improvement, however it cannot be said that there are fundamental differences of content, but of form. These differences are observed when comparing Euchologions belonging to the three categories: the first group consisted of the oldest editions of Euchologion in our country since Slavonian Euchologion in 1545, continuing with the one from Campulung (1635), followed by Dosoftei’s Euchologion (1681) at Bălgrad (1689) and ending with the second edition from Buzău (1699 and 1701); the second class is dominated by Saint Antim editions (1706 and 1713) and continues up to the Bucharest edition (1764); the last group starts with Iasi edition (1764) and ends with the latest editions of Romanian Euchologion. A radical transformation of the ordinance the Sacrament of Confession, more simple fied, mainly following the Greek Evhologhion rather than the Slavic Trebnic, it is seen in editions of the second group. In editions of the third group, the significant change resides in the emergence of prayer of absolution of sins by the priest, thought of some scholars as having Latin influence, plus specific euchologions transfer from the end to the beginning of the or der and removal of guidance related to granting epitimy at the end, after saying the absolution formula. The natural transformations of the ordinance of the Sacrament of Confession were made on pastoral reasons, without being affected the doctrinal content of this holy and sanctifying work.