A New Source for Childbirth Prayers in the Byzantine Rite

The author presents a list of all of the Greek and Slavonic Byzantine Rite prayers associated with childbirth that have been edited so far. Then, the author provides a description of a 16th century manuscript Greek Euchologion preserved at the National Library of Russia (Rossijskaja Nactional′naja Biblioteka, RNB) in St. Petersburg, shelfmark Greek 617. The manuscript’s contents are described, providing the rubrics and incipits of the prayers of Christian Initiation, marriage, adelphopoiesis, and the reception of the lapsed. A previously unedited prayer for a woman who has suffered a miscarriage and two previously unedited prayers for midwives are edited and commented. The author concludes with some remarks about postpartum purification prayers in the late-Byzantine and post-Byzantine sources.