How I became a liturgist: The Coronation Ordo of Brennan III and Caoilfhionn III

In November, I was asked (or rather, crashed a Facebook convo) regarding the new Eastern heirs coronation wishes. Byzantine!

Having worked with the couple before for their first coronation (wherein I was a spooky Vestal Virgin reading a scary prophecy) I knew that their love of display and theater is something that I had missed dearly living in Caid. At the time, the Norman still had orders back to the East Kingdom, so we were planning on being around for the spring coronation anyway.  I didn’t hesitate in agreeing to help build them their wish. Even after the orders were changed, I decided I wouldn’t drop the project, and that we would find a way to make the pilgrimage back home to the East Kingdom for one event.

Since I was most familiar with the source materials, I would develop the coronation ceremony, as well as ensure that the kingdom looked as fabulous as possible, despite my distance. So in January, after our move across the country, I sat in the library for a few hours and pecked away at the page here on my site to help folks get dressed. Once I was finally able to get internet installed, I located the primary source for the Coronation, and began my work in writing the modus.

I had several personal goals in mind:
– The ceremony had to be based on authentic period procedure.
– The ceremony had to be secularized and welcoming, but still “sacred”.
– The ceremony had to contain the traditions and relics of the East Kingdom.

The first two I could do, but the third I called in the reserves, and reached out to Master Steffan ap Kennydd, who I had worked with before, for his knowledge of ceremony and the needs of an East Kingdom-specific ordo.

The source depended on what period their royal highnesses desired. Both the 6th and 10th Centuries were brought up, and after some gentle nudging toward the later option, I was able to go forward with working with De Cerimoniis/The Book of Ceremonies by Constantine VII Pophryogennetos.  Drafted in the mid 10th Century as a court manual for his heir, the book contains a collection of various ceremonies pertaining to the Byzantine court: coronations of the emperor, the empress, how to address foreign dignitaries, how to invest an officer of the court, and what to wear to the emperor’s birthday dinner. I knew that the coronation ceremony was available online here, but after some eyelash-batting toward the husband following our tax return, I purchased the full paperback copy that was available through Brill Publishing, in an updated translation that would help me pick up anything that was missed, including the separate coronation ceremony of the empress.  (as of April 10th, 2018, I’m not seeing the print version available. Just the ebook here: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/9789004344921 )

It took me a good week to really get my first draft where I wanted it to be. And then, the Facebook chats began. I’m not really sure how other kingdoms work, but at least in the East, being that the coronations are often a production, so there’s a lot of moving parts after just the ceremony.  My work was far from over. I made sure Steffan saw it first, and then passed it on to their highnesses, and Brigantia Principal Herald, Malcolm. For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to go into much detail on what was discussed, but mostly it was taking what I had written, plugging in the East Kingdom ceremonies, and figuring out logistics on music, and the performance of the demes (circus factions) leading the acclamations.

Mistress Margretha reached out to me to help with the music, and we decided that a processional hymn would be ideal. I pinged Martyn Halliwell and Mistress Aneleda for demoi assist, and Martyn just took it and ran with it. We were getting close, and my confidence was waning, if it wasn’t for Margretha and Martyn, I have no idea how I could have pulled it off. Margretha, a Greek native, knew what we needed for a hymn, so she secularized the Christmas Kontakion into a chant, and formed the “manly wall of sound” as she referred to it. Byzantine hymns very rarely have soprano or alto notes, so singing recruitment was a challenge for her. However, she nailed it, as you will see in the videos below.

Here is a link to her source material:

And her hymn:

Greek:
Το Βασίλειον σήμερον άνακτας νέους λαμβάνει
Βασιλέαν ανίκητον, Βασίλισσάν τε ωραία
Αρχοντες μετα Μαϊστόρων ούτους υμνούσιν
Ρόδα δε μεθ’ Ιπποτών δοξολογούσιν
Δι’ημάς γαρ στεφθώσιν
Κολφίννη τε και Μπρένναν εξ Ανατολής

Anglicized:
To Vasilion simeron anaktas neous lamvani
Vasilean anikiton, Vasilissan te orean
Archontes meta Maistoron outous imnousin
Rodha dhe meth’ Ipoton doxologousin
Di’imas gar stefthosin
Kolfinni te ke Brennan ex Anatolis

Translation:
The Kingdom today receives new Sovereigns
Invincible King, Fair Queen
Lords and Masters sing praise upon them
Roses and Knights rejoice
For they are crowned for us
Caoilfhionn and Brennan of the East

Martyn knows how to wrangle a crowd. So rather than go with my original plan of having a chorus of Greens and Blues answering Brigantia, he got the factions to lead the populace, thanks to a handy print-out, and planting folks in the audience. It went off without a hitch the day of and sounded great.

The final piece, once Steffan had helped determine where we would place the traditional unction of water from the Bay of the Mists (San Francisco Bay), and the swearing of the coronation oaths, was actually writing the oaths. There’s not much in De Cerimoniis regarding this, believe it or not. In period, the patriarch performed the blessing and coronation, which is something that we do not do in the SCA. As far as East Kingdom tradition goes, the transfer of power is peaceful, and the previous royals crown the heirs, who then swear their oath on a relic vial of dirt, from the backyard of Diana Lystmaker where the society was founded. Brigantia performs the unction. The order of operations is fluid, but they have to be in there. Since investiture is also a part of the Byzantine coronation, where the rulers are clothed in the khlamys, that needed to go first. So cloaks, crowns, oaths, and unction are the order we decided on.

This is when Princess Caoilfhionn stepped in. I was at a loss at where to go for oaths. Baroness Konstantia had used a rather loquacious one when she stepped up as Gold Falcon Principal Herald in Calontir, but it seemed too informal for a coronation, as it was strictly an officer’s oath.  Her now-Majesty found the missing puzzle pieces we needed in the Coronation of Anastasius I from the 5th Century. While it was earlier than De Cerimoniis, it provided the puzzle piece needed to complete the Eastern-specific ordo we wanted. Caoilfhionn wrote her own versions of the oaths, which are available here in their primary source form. Since we had acclamations already planned from De Cerimoniis, the ones here were removed. The secularized edit is in the ordo document linked at the conclusion of this entry.

Link: https://archive.org/stream/coronationrites00wooluoft/coronationrites00wooluoft_djvu.txt 

Transcription of primary source:

EMPEROR. It is manifest that human power de
pends on the will of the supreme Glory.

PEOPLE. Abundance to the world ! As thou hast
lived, so rule. Incorrupt rulers for the world ! and
so on.

EMP. Since the most serene Augusta Ariadne
with the assent of the illustrious nobles and by the
election of the glorious Senate and mighty armies,
and the consent of the sacred people, have advanced
me, though unwilling and hesitating, that I should
assume the care of the Empire of the Romans, agree
ably to the clemency of the Divine Trinity

PEO. Kyrie eleeson. Son of God, have mercy upon him.
Anastasie Auguste, tti vincas ! God will keep
the pious Emperor. God gave thee, God will keep
thee ! and so on.

EMP. / am not ignorant hoiv great a weight is
laid upon me for the common safety of all.

PEG. Worthy of the Empire ! Worthy of the
Trinity! Worthy of the City. Out with the in
formers. (This last is doubtless an unauthorised
interpolation.)

EMP. / pray Almighty God that as ye hvped me
to be, in this common choice of yours, so ye may find
me to be in the conduct of affairs.

PEO. He in whom thou believest will save th#e.
As thou hast lived, so reign. Piously hast thou lived,
piously reign. Ariadne, thou conquerest ! Many be
the years of the Augusta ! Restore the army, restore
the forces. Have mercy on thy servants. As Marcian
reigned, so do &>w…(and much more to the same
effect).

EMP. Because of the happy festival of our Empire,
I will bestow 5 solidi and a pound of silver on each
man.

PEO. God will keep the. Christian Emperor.
These are the prayers of all. These are the prayers
of the whole world. Keep, Lord, the pious Emperor.
Holy Lord, raise up thy world. The fortune of the
Romans conquers. Anastasius Augustus, thou con
querest ! Ariadne Augusta, thou conquerest! God
hath given you, God will kesp you.

EMP. God be with you.”

 

Being at this point, about 2 weeks out from the event, things were as good as they were going to get. The husband and I hit the road 5 days before Coronation from Florida, making some mundane stops along the way. We arrived at our crash space for the evening, which doubled as the prep space for the dayboard, so we got to get some catching up in over balls of matzo dough, while the Norman did what he does: design and strike coins for the reign.

But you didn’t come here for coins, you came here for the ceremony. So, here it is, is all of it’s splendiferous PDF form.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eg1wzPEo2_kkXSO0Kh65HFVyB5Djkzf7/view?usp=sharing

And Videos! These are taken with my phone, so professional they are not. Bear with some of the moving and the shaking.

The only hiccup we had is that the bridal tunnel utilized to get the procession where it needed to be created a bottleneck, and we had a backup. Just more time to listen to Margretha’s beautiful hymn, and set the Byzantine mood.

Enjoy!

Hymn:

Procession and Ceremony:

Acclamations:

 

PS: What about the garb? I had maybe 2% to do with that. Baroness Fortune St. Keyne has my trust implicitly, and I just helped her with some basic pointers on the shape of the divetesion, and color of the silk. (The orange was not me!)