ABSTRACT
The most valuable witness to early liturgical practice in Jerusalem is the Spanish pilgrim Egeria, whose pilgrimage there must have occupied much of the period between 381 and 384. From roughly the same period as Egeria, there are interesting accounts of monastic life in Palestine and Egypt left by John Cassian. The next important piece of evidence for the Palestinian monastic office is a ninth- century Sinai manuscript, Gr. 863. The St Sabbas Horologion also provides the normal fixed psalms of Palestinian Vespers. The gradual psalms may have been selected because of their association with pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The lamp-lighting reveals the glory of God who is praised at the onset of darkness. The hymn is a climax reached through alternating thanksgiving for the day and supplication for continuing protection. The original opening psalm of the six may have been 3 on its own, seen as the psalm that began the monastic midnight vigil.
