Holy Mysteries

The holy mysteries or sacraments in the Orthodox Church are vessels of the mystical participation in divine grace of mankind. In a general sense, the Orthodox Church considers everything which is in and of the Church as sacramental or mystical.

The sacraments, like the Church, are both visible and invisible. In every sacrament there is a combination of an outward visible sign with an inward spiritual grace. Saint John Chrysostom wrote that they are called mysteries because what we believe is not the same as what we see; instead, we see one thing and believe another.

The sacraments are personal — they are the means whereby God’s grace is appropriated to each individual Christian. In most of the sacraments, the priest mentions the Christian name of each person as he administers the sacrament.

Etymology

The term sacrament is derived from the Latin sacramentum, meaning "a consecrated thing or act," i.e., "something holy," "to consecrate;" which itself was a Church Latin translation of the Greek mysterion, meaning "mystery."

Seven

Generally, the Church recognizes and counts seven (though not only seven) mysteries:

• Baptism
• Chrismation
• Eucharist
• Confession
• Holy Unction
• Marriage
• Ordination

There has never been a universal declaration within the Orthodox Church that there are only seven sacraments. Early Orthodox writers varied as to the number of sacraments: John of Damascus lists only two; Dionysius the Areopagite lists six; Joasaph, Metropolitan of Ephesus (fifteenth century), ten; and some Byzantine theologians who list seven sacraments differ on the items in their list.

The 15th decree of The Confession of Dositheus from the Synod of Jerusalem (A.D. 1672) says, "We believe that there are in the Church Evangelical Mysteries [i.e., Sacraments of the Gospel Dispensation], and that they are seven. For a less or a greater number of the Mysteries we have not in the Church; since any number of the Mysteries other than seven is the product of heretical madness. And the seven of them were instituted in the Sacred Gospel, and are gathered from the same, like the other dogmas of the Catholic Faith."

Traditional

The more ancient and traditional practice is not to isolate these seven from the many other actions in the Church which also possess a sacramental character. Some of these sacramental activities are:

• the service for the burial of the dead
• the rites for a monastic profession
• the blessing of waters at Epiphany
• the anointing of a monarch.

These also contain a combination of outward, visible signs and inward, spiritual grace. Even the blessings of homes, fields, fruits, cars, and pets have a sacramental nature.

Cycles

In a broader sense, the whole life of a Christian must be seen as a single mystery or one great sacrament. The different aspects are expressed in a great variety of acts, some performed only once in a lifetime (Baptism, Marriage), others perhaps almost daily (Confession, Eucharist).

Sources

• The Sacraments - The Orthodox Faith by Fr. Thomas Hopko
• Orthodox Church by Bishop Kallistos Ware