EUCHARISTIA PRE ŽIVOT VEČNÝ V BYZANTSKEJ TRADÍCII
EUCHARIST FOR THE ETERNAL LIFE IN THE BYZANTINE TRADITION

Summary/Abstract: This article offers a study about the praxis of viaticum in the Byzantine tradition. At the beginning it is shown that in the first centuries the term viaticum (in Greek efodion) was not used exclusively for the Eucharist received in the last moments of the terrestrial life. The first part of the article deals with four hagiographical fonts: the biographies of St. Melany, of St. Mary of Egypt, of St. Anthony the Great, and of St. Macrina. In the earlier biographies (St. Anthony and St. Macrina), there is no mention of the Eucharist as viaticum. But it does not mean that St. Anthony and St. Macrina did not receive the Eucharist at the end of their terrestrial lives. Furthermore, in these earlier biographies, there is no mention of the Eucharist in general. On the other side, in the posterior biographies (St. Melany and St. Mary of Egypt), we can find the exact mention of the Eucharist as viaticum. After this hagiographical context, the second part of the article deals with the Byzantine liturgical texts of the divine liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great. In the Byzantine lex orandi the Eucharist is perceived as efodion, not only in relation to the last moments of the terrestrial life, but every Eucharist is received as a “food for a journey to the eternal life,” because every Christian is called to be on this journey in every moment of his life.

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