ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of the adoption of Byzantine rites by the patriarchate of Antioch, which started imperceptibly from the time of the monophysite and monothelite schisms, grew more intense from the moment of the Byzantine reconquest in 969. It would be more or less finalised at the start of the twelfth century as far as services are concerned. Yet the Liturgy of Saint James continued to be celebrated there and it did not disappear completely until the end of the century. Vat. gr. 2282, a parchment volume written in the uncial style, which is the most ancient Greek ms. of the Liturgy of Saint James, dates back to the ninth century. It was used in the diocese of Damascus, because it commemorates among the deceased the bishops who led this church since Ananias. Unfortunately, it does not provide the name of the town bishop, or that of the patriarch in power at the time of its transcription, which deprives us of a precious landmark for dating purposes. In the margin, the volume displays many Arabic headings from the twelfth century. 2 Mgr J.-M. Sauget has just discovered in a fragment displayed in the National Museum of Damascus two Syro-Greek folios of the 508shortened version of the Anaphora of Saint James, dated back to the ninth or tenth century, originating probably from the Patriarchate of Antioch. 3
