East Syriac Rite

The East Syriac Rite, or East Syrian Rite (also called the Edessan Rite, Assyrian Rite, Persian Rite, Chaldean Rite, Nestorian Rite, Babylonian Rite or Syro-Oriental Rite), is an Eastern Christian liturgical rite that employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari and utilizes the East Syriac dialect as its liturgical language. It is one of the two main liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity, along with the West Syriac Rite (Syro-Antiochene Rite).

The East Syriac Rite originated in Edessa, Mesopotamia, and was historically used in the Church of the East—the largest branch of Christianity operating primarily east of the Roman Empire—, with pockets of adherents as far as South India, Central and Inner Asia, and a strong presence in the Sasanian (Persian) Empire. The Church of the East traces its origins to the 1st century, when Saint Thomas the Apostle and his disciples Saint Addai and Saint Mari brought the faith to ancient Mesopotamia (today’s modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and regions along the Turkish–Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders). According to traditional accounts, Thomas the Apostle is believed to have traveled as far as the Malabar coast of southwestern India. This account is not yet confirmed, as the earliest-recorded organised Christian presence in India dates to the 4th century, when Persian missionaries of the East Syriac Rite tradition (members of what later became the Church of the East) established themselves in modern-day Kerala.

The East Syriac rite remains in-use within churches descended from the Church of the East, namely the Assyrian Church of the East of Iraq (including its archdiocese, the Chaldean Syrian Church of India) and the Ancient Church of the East, as well as in two Eastern Catholic churches, the Chaldean Catholic Church of Iraq and the Syro-Malabar Church of India, which are both now in full communion with the See of Rome. The words of Institution are missing in the original version of the Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari. However, the Eastern Catholic churches have added-in the words of Institution in their version of the liturgy. The rite has come to influence the West Syriac Rite, especially through the anaphora of Philoxenus, who introduced Tigrit elements into the liturgy (see the Catholicos of India and the Miaphysite Church of the East, separate from the Nestorian). The East Syriac liturgy was significantly changed from thereon by Nestorian patriarchs who had created the order. The anaphora of Mar Addai and Mar Mari does remain amongst the oldest, and seems to have influenced the Maronite liturgy of Third Peter (Sharar). Other influences did spread throughout the Syriac Orthodox Church through the common root in Edessa. Almost all liturgies have common features, and the liturgy of Mar Addai and Mar Mari is no different. Furthermore, much of the influence of Edessa exerted upon the East Syriac Rite, was also upon the West Syriac Rite, which is why the Syriac Orthodox Church is not very distant (in liturgy) from the Church of the East, as traditions that were there before Nestorian reforms were carried over (St. Philoxenus).

Although Nestorius was condemned in 431 AD through the Council of Ephesus (resulting in a schism with the Catholic Church), the Assyrian Church Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV and Pope John Paul II signed a common declaration at the Vatican in 1994; the Common Christological Declaration (1994) document asserted that the split that occurred due to the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD was "due in large part to misunderstandings," affirmed for both that "Christ is true God and true man," recognized "each other as sister Churches" and vowed to resolve remaining differences. In 2001, the committee, established from the 1994 dialogue, drew-up guidelines for mutual admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, overcoming all other issues.