In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or selection from, such prayers.^[1][2]

In the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, canonical hours are also called officium, since it refers to the official prayer of the Church, which is known variously as the officium divinum ("divine service" or "divine duty"), and the opus Dei ("work of God"). The current official version of the hours in the Roman Rite is called the Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: liturgia horarum) or divine office.

In Lutheranism and Anglicanism, they are often known as the daily office or divine office, to distinguish them from the other "offices" of the Church (e.g. the administration of the sacraments).^[3]

In the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches, the canonical hours may be referred to as the divine services, and the book of hours is called the horologion (Greek: Ὡρολόγιον). Despite numerous small differences in practice according to local custom, the overall order is the same among Byzantine Rite monasteries, although parish and cathedral customs vary rather more so by locale.

The usage in Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and their Eastern Catholic and Eastern Lutheran counterparts vary based on the rite, for example the East Syriac Rite or the Byzantine Rite.

Development

Judaism and the early church

The canonical hours stemmed from Jewish prayer. In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelite priests to offer sacrifices of animals in the morning and afternoon (Exodus 29:38–39). Eventually, these sacrifices moved from the Tabernacle to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

During the Babylonian captivity, when the Temple was no longer in use, synagogues carried on the practice, and the services (at fixed hours of the day) of Torah readings, psalms, and hymns began to evolve. This "sacrifice of praise" began to be substituted for the sacrifices of animals. After the people returned to Judea, the prayer services were incorporated into Temple worship as well.

The miraculous healing of the crippled beggar described in Acts of the Apostles 3:1, took place as Peter and John went to the Temple for the three o'clock hour of prayer. The practice of daily prayers grew from the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at set times of the day known as zmanim: for example, in the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Peter and John the Evangelist visit the Temple in Jerusalem for the afternoon prayers.^[4]

Psalm 119:164 states: "Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws" (of this, Symeon of Thessalonica writes that "the times of prayer and the services are seven in number, like the number of gifts of the Spirit, since the holy prayers are from the Spirit").^[5] In Act 10: 9, the decision to include Gentiles among the community of believers, arose from a vision Peter had while praying about noontime.

Early Christians prayed the Psalms (Acts 4:23–30), which have remained the principal part of the canonical hours. By 60 AD, the Didache, recommends disciples to pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day; this practice found its way into the canonical hours as well. By the second and third centuries, such Church Fathers as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian wrote of the practice of Morning and Evening Prayer, and of the prayers at the third, sixth and ninth hours.

From the time of the early Church, the practice of seven fixed prayer times, being attached to Psalm 119:164, have been taught; in Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray seven times a day "on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight" and "the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ's Passion."^[6][7][8][9]

In the early church, during the night before every feast, a vigil was kept. The word "Vigils", at first applied to the Night Office, comes from a Latin source, namely the Vigiliae or nocturnal watches or guards of the soldiers. The night from six o'clock in the evening to six o'clock in the morning was divided into four watches or vigils of three hours each, the first, the second, the third, and the fourth vigil.^[10] The Night Office is linked to Psalm 119:62: "At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments."^[11]

Christians attended two liturgies on the Lord's Day, worshipping communally in both a morning service and evening service, with the purpose of reading the Scriptures and celebrating the Eucharist.^[12] Throughout the rest of the week, Christians assembled at the church every day for morning prayer (which became known as lauds) and evening prayer (which became known as vespers), while praying at the other fixed prayer times privately.^{[13][14][15][16]} In the evening the faithful assembled in the place or church where the feast was to be celebrated and prepared themselves by prayers, readings, and sometimes also by hearing a sermon. Pliny the Younger (63 – c. 113) mentions not only fixed times of prayer by believers, but also specific services—other than the Eucharist—assigned to those times: "they met on a stated day before it was light, and addressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity ... after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to eat in common a harmless meal." (cf. Lovefeast)^[17] This vigil was a regular institution of Christian life and was defended and highly recommended by St. Augustine and St. Jerome.^[18]

The Office of the Vigils was a single Office, recited without interruption at midnight. Probably in the fourth century, in order to break the monotony of this long night prayer the custom of dividing it into three parts or Nocturns was introduced. John Cassian in speaking of the solemn Vigils mentions three divisions of this Office.^[19]

Around the year 484, the Greek-Cappadocian monk Sabbas the Sanctified began the process of recording the liturgical practices around Jerusalem, while the cathedral and parish rites in the Patriarchate of Constantinople evolved in an entirely different manner.^[20] The two major practices were synthesized, commencing in the 8th century, to yield an office of great complexity.^[21]

In 525, Benedict of Nursia set out one of the earliest schemes for the recitation of the Psalter at the Office. The Cluniac Reforms of the 11th century renewed an emphasis on liturgy and the canonical hours in the reformed priories of the Order of Saint Benedict, with Cluny Abbey at their head.

Middle Ages

As the form of fixed-hour prayer developed in the Christian monastic communities in the East and West, the Offices grew both more elaborate and more complex, but the basic cycle of prayer still provided the structure for daily life in monasteries. By the fourth century, the elements of the canonical hours were more or less established. For secular (non-monastic) clergy and lay people, the fixed-hour prayers were by necessity much shorter, though in many churches, the form of the fixed-hour prayers became a hybrid of secular and monastic practice (sometimes referred to as 'cathedral' and 'monastic' models).

Byzantine Rite

In the Byzantine Empire, the development of the Divine Services shifted from the area around Jerusalem to Constantinople. In particular, Theodore the Studite (c. 758 – c. 826) combined a number of influences from the Byzantine court ritual with monastic practices common in Anatolia,^[21] and added thereto a number of hymns composed by himself and his brother Joseph (see typikon for further details).

Western rites

In the West, the Rule of Saint Benedict (written in 516) was modeled on his guidelines for the prayers on the customs of the basilicas of Rome. It was he who expounded the concept in Christian prayer of the inseparability of the spiritual life from the physical life. St. Benedict set down the dictum Ora et labora – "Pray and work". The Order of Saint Benedict began to call the prayers the Opus Dei or "Work of God".

By the time of Saint Benedict of Nursia, author of the Rule, the monastic Liturgy of the Hours was composed of seven daytime hours and one at night. He associated the practice with Psalm 118/119:164, "Seven times a day I praise you", and Psalm 118/119:62, "At midnight I rise to praise you".^[22] The fixed-hour prayers came to be known as the "Divine Office" (office coming from 'officium', lit., "duty").

Initially, the term "Matins" from Latin matutinus, meaning "of or belonging to the morning",^[23] was applied to the psalms recited at dawn. At first "Lauds" (i.e. praises) derived from the three last psalms in the office (148, 149, 150), in all of which the word laudate is repeated frequently, and to such an extent that originally the word Lauds designated the end, that is to say, these three psalms with the conclusion. The Night Office and Lauds are grouped together as a single canonical hour to form a total of seven canonical hours.^[11]: 32

By the fourth century the word "matins" became attached to the prayer originally offered at cockcrow.^[24] and, according to the sixth-century Rule of Saint Benedict, could be calculated to be the eighth hour of the night (the hour that began at about 2 a.m.).^[25][26] Outside of monasteries few rose at night to pray. The canonical hour of the vigil was said in the morning, followed immediately by lauds, and the name of "matins" replaced that of "vigils". Gradually the title "Lauds" was applied to the early morning office.^[27]

Already well-established by the 9th century in the West, these canonical hours consisted of daily prayer liturgies:

• Matins (nighttime)
• Lauds (early morning)
• Prime (first hour of daylight)
• Terce (third hour)
• Sext (noon)
• Nones (ninth hour)
• Vespers (sunset evening)
• Compline (end of the day)

The three major hours were Matins, Lauds and Vespers; the minor hours were Terce, Sext, Nones and Compline.^[28][29]

As the Divine Office grew more important in the life of the Church, the rituals became more elaborate. Praying the Office already required various books, such as a Psalter for the psalms, a lectionary to find the assigned Scripture reading for the day, a Bible to proclaim the reading, a hymnal for singing, etc. As parishes grew in the Middle Ages away from cathedrals and basilicas, a more concise way of arranging the hours was needed. So, a sort of list developed called the breviary, which gave the format of the daily office and the texts to be used.

The spread of breviaries eventually reached Rome, where Pope Innocent III extended their use to the Roman Curia. The Franciscans sought a one-volume breviary for their friars to use during travels, so the order adopted the Breviarium Curiae, but substituting the Gallican Psalter for the Roman. The Franciscans gradually spread this breviary throughout Europe. Eventually, Pope Nicholas III adopted the widely used Franciscan breviary to be the breviary used in Rome. By the 14th century, the breviary contained the entire text of the canonical hours.

In general, when modern secular books reference canonical hours in the Middle Ages, these are the equivalent times:

• Vigil (eighth hour of night: 2 a.m.)
• Matins (a later portion of Vigil, from 3 a.m. to dawn)
• Lauds (dawn; approximately 5 a.m., but varies seasonally)
• Prime (early morning, the first hour of daylight, approximately 6 a.m.)
• Terce (third hour, 9 a.m.)
• Sext (sixth hour, noon)
• Nones (ninth hour, 3 p.m.)
• Vespers (sunset, approximately 6 p.m.)
• Compline (end of the day before retiring, approximately 7 p.m.)

Church bells are tolled at the fixed times of these canonical hours in some Christian traditions as a call to prayer.^[30]

Roman Rite

In the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, bishops, priests, deacons and the members of the consecrated life are obliged to recite the hours each day, keeping as far as possible to the true time of day, and using the text of the approved liturgical books that apply to them.^[31][32] The laity are encouraged to recite the prayer of the hours.^[33]

Diurnal offices

The diurnal offices or daytime offices (Ecclesiastical Latin: horae diurnae) are the canonical hours during the day. Interpretation of their number and identity varies.

The monastic rule drawn up by Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 – c. 547) distinguishes between the seven daytime canonical hours of lauds (dawn), prime (sunrise), terce (mid-morning), sext (midday), none (mid-afternoon), Vespers (sunset), compline (retiring) and the nighttime canonical hour of vigil. It links the seven daytime offices with Psalm 118/119:164, "Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules";^[34] and the one nighttime office with Psalm 118/119:62, "At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules",^[35][36][37]

In this reckoning, the one nocturnal office, together with Lauds and Vespers, are the three major hours, the other five are the minor or little hours.^[38][39][40]

According to Dwight E. Vogel,^[41] Daniel James Lula^[42] and Elizabeth Moore^[43] the diurnal offices are Terce, Sext, and Nones, which are distinguished from the major hours of Matins, Lauds and Vespers and from the nighttime hours of Compline and Vigil.

Revisions

The Council of Trent, in its final session on 4 December 1563, entrusted the reform of the Breviary to the Pope.^[44] On 9 July 1568, Pope Pius V, the successor of the pope who closed the Council of Trent, promulgated an edition, known as the Roman Breviary, with his Apostolic Constitution Quod a nobis, imposing it in the same way in which, two years later, he imposed his Roman Missal.^[45] Later popes altered the Roman Breviary of Pope Pius V. Pope Pius XII began reforming the Roman Breviary, allowing use of a new translation of the psalms and establishing a special commission to study a general revision, with a view to which all the bishops were consulted in 1955. His successor, Pope John XXIII, made a further revision in 1960.

Second Vatican Council revisions

Following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church's Roman Rite simplified the observance of the canonical hours and sought to make them more suited to the needs of today's apostolate and accessible to the laity, hoping to restore their character as the prayer of the entire Church.

The council abolished the office of Prime,^[46] and envisioned a manner of distributing the psalms over a period of more than 1 week.^[47] The Roman breviary is published under the title Liturgia Horarum. A translation is published by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. under the title The Liturgy of the Hours in four volumes, arranged according to the seasons of the liturgical year.

The current liturgical books for the celebration of the hours in Latin are those of the editio typica altera (second typical edition) promulgated in 1985. The official title is Officium Divinum, Liturgia Horarum iuxta Ritum Romanum, editio typica altera.

Official English translations

• The Divine Office is translated by a commission set up by the Episcopal Conferences of England and Wales, Australia and Ireland. First published in 1974 by HarperCollins, this edition is the English edition approved for use the above countries, as well as many Asian and African dioceses.
• Catholic Truth Society published Prayer During the Day in 2009.
• The Liturgy of the Hours is translated by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). First published in 1975 by Catholic Book Publishing Company in the US, this edition is the English edition approved for use in the US, Canada and several other English-speaking dioceses.

Current practice

After the Second Vatican Council, which decided that the hour of Prime should be suppressed,^[48] as it was perceived as duplicating Lauds, Pope Paul VI decreed a new arrangement of the Liturgy of the Hours.^[49]

The major hours consist of the Matins (or Office of Readings), Lauds and Vespers. The character of Lauds is that of praise, of Vespers, that of thanksgiving. The Office of Readings has the character of reflection on the day that is past and preparing the soul for its passage to eternal life. In each office, the psalms and canticle are framed by antiphons.

Byzantine Rite usage

Historical development

Because the Rite of Constantinople evolved as a synthesis of two distinct rites – cathedral rite of Constantinople called the "asmatiki akolouthia" ("sung services") and the monastic typicon of the Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified near Jerusalem – its offices are highly developed and quite complex.

Local variations

Two main strata exist in the rite, those places that have inherited the traditions of the Russian Church which had been given only the monastic sabbaite typicon which is used to this day^[50] in parishes and cathedrals as well as in monasteries, and everywhere else where some remnant of the cathedral rite remained in use; therefore, the rite as practiced in monasteries everywhere resembles the Russian recension, while non-Russian non-monastic customs differs significantly. For example, in the Russian tradition, the "all-night vigil" is served in every church on Saturday nights and the eves of feast days (although it may be abridged to be as short as two hours) while elsewhere, it is usual to have Matins on the morning of the feast; however, in the latter instance, Vespers and matins are rather less abridged but the Divine Liturgy commences at the end of matins and the hours are not read, as was the case in the extinct cathedral rite of Constantinople.

Also, as the rite evolved in sundry places, different customs arose; an essay on some of these has been written by Archbishop Basil Krivoshein and is posted on the web.^[51]

Liturgical books

The Horologion (῾Ωρολόγιον; Church Slavonic: Часocлoвъ, Chasoslov), or Book of Hours, provides the fixed portions of the Daily Cycle of services (akolouthies, ἀκολουθίες) as used by the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches.

Into this fixed framework, numerous moveable parts of the service are inserted. These are taken from a variety of liturgical books:

• Psalter (Greek: Ψαλτήρ(ιον), "Psalter(ion)"; Slavonic: Ѱалтырь or Ѱалтирь, "Psaltyr") A book containing the 150 Psalms^{[note 1]} divided into 20 sections called Kathismata together with the nine Biblical canticles which are chanted at Matins; although these canticles had been chanted in their entirety, having over time come to be supplemented by interspersed hymns (analogously to stichera) to form the Canon, the canticles themselves are now only regularly used in a few large monasteries.^{[note 2]} The Psalter also contains the various "selected psalms", each composed of verses from a variety of psalms, sung at matins on feast days, as well as tables for determining which Kathismata are to be read at each service; in addition to the Psalms read at the daily offices, all the Psalms are read each week and, during Great Lent, twice a week.
• Octoechos (Greek: Ὀκτώηχος; Slavonic: Октоихъ, Oktoikh or Осмогласникъ, Osmoglasnik)—Literally, the Book of the "Eight Tones" or modes. This book contains a cycle of eight weeks, one for each of the eight echoi (church modes of the Byzantine musical system of eight modes), providing texts for each day of the week for Vespers, Matins, Compline, and (on Sundays) the Midnight Office. The origins of this book go back to compositions by St. John Damascene.
• Menaion (Greek: Μηναίον; Slavonic: Минїѧ,^[52] Miniya)—A twelve-volume set which provides liturgical texts for each day of the calendar year,^{[note 3]} printed as 12 volumes, one for each month of the year.^{[note 4]} Another volume, the General Menaion contains propers for each class of saints for use when the propers for a particular saint are not available. Additionally, locally venerated saints may have services in supplemental volumes, pamphlets, or manuscripts.
• Menologion A collection of the lives of the saints and commentaries on the meaning of feasts for each day of the calendar year, also printed as 12 volumes,^{[note 4]} appointed to be read at the meal in monasteries and, when there is an all-night vigil for a feast day, between Vespers and Matins.
• Triodion (Greek: Τριῴδιον, Triodion; Slavonic: Постнаѧ Трїѡдь, Postnaya Triod; Romanian: Triodul), also called the Lenten Triodion. The Lenten Triodion contains propers for:
  • the Pre-Lenten Season
  • the Forty Days of Great Lent itself
  • Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday
  • Holy Week
• Pentecostarion (Greek: Πεντηκοστάριον, Pentekostarion; Slavonic: Цвѣтнаѧ Трїѡдь, Tsvetnaya Triod, literally "Flowery Triodon"; Romanian: Penticostar) This volume contains the propers for the period from Pascha to the Sunday of All Saints. This period can be broken down into the following periods:
  • Bright Week (Easter Week) Commencing with matins on Pascha (Easter Sunday) through the following Saturday
  • Paschal Season—The period from Thomas Sunday until Ascension
  • Ascension and its Afterfeast
  • Pentecost and its Afterfeast
  • All Saints Sunday (the Sunday after Pentecost)
• Synaxarion (Greek: Συναξάριον; Romanian: Sinaxar)—The Synaxarion contains for each day of the year brief lives of the saints and meanings of celebrated feasts, appointed to be read after the Kontakion and Oikos at Matins.
• Irmologion (Greek: ῾Ειρμολόγιον; Slavonic: Ирмологий, Irmologii)—Contains the Irmoi chanted at the Canon of Matins and other services.
• Priest's Service Book (Greek: ῾Ἱερατικόν, Ieratikon; Slavonic: Слѹжебникъ, Sluzhebnik)—Contain the portions of the services which are said by the priest and deacon and is given to a deacon and to a priest with his vestments at ordination.^{[note 5]}
• Bishop's Service Book (Greek: Ἀρχιιερατικόν Archieratikon, Slavonic: Чиновникъ, Chinovnik) the portions of the services which are said by the Bishop; for the Canonical Hours, this differs little from what is in the Priest's Service Book.
• Gospel Book (Greek: Ευαγγέλιον, Evangélion) Book containing the 4 Gospels laid out as read at the divine services.^{[note 6]}
• Apostle Book (Greek: Απόστολος, Apostolos; Slavonic: Апостолъ, Apostol) Contains the readings for the Divine Liturgy from the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles together with the Prokeimenon and Alleluia verses that are chanted with the readings.^{[note 6]}
• Patristic writings Many writings from the Church fathers are prescribed to be read at matins and, during great lent, at the hours; in practice, this is only done in some monasteries and frequently therein the abbot prescribes readings other than those in the written rubrics. therefore it is not customary to enumerate all the volumes required for this.
• Collections (Greek: Ανθολόγιον, Anthologion; Slavonic: Сборникъ, Sbornik) There are numerous smaller anthologies available^{[note 7]} which were quite common before the invention of printing but still are in common use both because of the enormous volume of a full set of liturgical texts and because the full texts have not yet been translated into several languages currently in use.
• Typicon (Greek: Τυπικόν, Typikon; Slavonic: Тѵпико́нъ, Typikon or уста́въ, ustav) Contains all of the rules for the performance of the Divine Services, giving directions for every possible combination of the materials from the books mentioned above into the Daily Cycle of Services.

Liturgical cycles

Various cycles of the liturgical year influence the manner in which the materials from the liturgical books (above) are inserted into the daily services:

Weekly Cycle

Each day of the week has its own commemoration:

• Sunday—Resurrection of Christ
• Monday—The Holy Angels
• Tuesday—St. John the Forerunner
• Wednesday—The Cross and the Theotokos
• Thursday—The Holy Apostles and St. Nicholas
• Friday—The Cross
• Saturday—All Saints^{[note 8]} and the departed

Most of the texts come from the Octoechos, which has a large collections of hymns for each weekday for each of the eight tones; during great lent and, to a lesser degree, the pre-lenten season, the Lenten Triodion supplements this with hymns for each day of the week for each week of that season, as does the Pentecostarion during the pascal season. Also, there are fixed texts for each day of the week are in the Horologion and Priest's Service Book (e.g., dismissals) and the Kathismata (selections from the Psalter) are governed by the weekly cycle in conjunction with the season.

Fixed Cycle

Commemorations on the Fixed Cycle depend upon the day of the calendar year, and also, occasionally, specific days of the week that fall near specific calendar dates, e.g., the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross. The texts for this cycle are found in the Menaion.

Paschal Cycle

The commemorations on the Paschal Cycle (Moveable Cycle) depend upon the date of Pascha (Easter). The texts for this cycle are found in the Lenten Triodion, the Pentecostarion, the Octoechos and also, because the daily Epistle and Gospel readings are determined by this cycle, the Gospel Book and Apostle Book. The cycle of the Octoechos continues through the following Great Lent, so the variable parts of the lenten services are determined by both the preceding year's and the current year's dates of Easter.

8 Week Cycle of the Octoechos

The cycle of the eight Tones is found in the Octoechos and is dependent on the date of Easter and commences with the Sunday after (eighth day of) Easter, that week using the first tone, the next week using the second tone, and so, repeating through the week preceding the subsequent Palm Sunday.^{[note 9]}

11 Week Cycle of the Matins Gospels

The portions of each of the Gospels from the narration of the Resurrection through the end are divided into eleven readings which are read on successive Sundays at matins; there are hymns sung at Matins that correspond with that day's Matins Gospel.

Daily cycle of services

The Daily Cycle begins with Vespers^{[note 10]} and proceeds throughout the night and day according to the following table:

The Typica is served whenever the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated at its usual time, i.e., when there is a vesperal Liturgy or no Liturgy at all. On days when the Liturgy may be celebrated at its usual hour, the Typica follows the sixth hour (or Matins, where the custom is to serve the Liturgy then) and the Epistle and Gospel readings for the day are read therein;^{[note 11]} otherwise, on aliturgical days or when the Liturgy is served at vespers, the Typica has a much shorter form and is served between the ninth hour and vespers.^[54]

Also, there are Inter-Hours for the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours. These are services of a similar structure to, but briefer than, the hours. their usage varies with local custom, but generally they are used only during the Nativity Fast, Apostles Fast, and Dormition Fast on days when the lenten alleluia replaces "God is the Lord" at matins, which may be done at the discretion of the ecclesiarch when the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated.

In addition to these public prayers, there are also private prayers prescribed for both monastics and laypersons; in some monasteries, however, these are read in church. These include Morning and Evening Prayers and prayers (and, in Russia, canons) to be prayed in preparation for receiving the Eucharist.

The full cycle of services are usually served only in monasteries, cathedrals, and other katholika. In monasteries and parishes of the Russian tradition, the Third and Sixth Hours are read during the Prothesis (Liturgy of Preparation); otherwise, the Prothesis is served during Matins, the final portion of which is omitted, the Liturgy of the Catechumens commencing straightway after the troparion following the Great Doxology.

The Midnight Office is seldom served in parishes churches except at the Paschal Vigil as the essential office wherein the burial shroud is removed from the tomb and carried to the altar.

Aggregates

The sundry Canonical Hours are, in practice, grouped together into aggregates^[55] so that there are three major times of prayer a day: Evening, Morning and Midday.^{[note 12]} The most common groupings are as follows:

Ordinary days

• Evening – Ninth Hour, Vespers, Compline^{[note 13]}
• Morning Watches – Midnight Office,^{[note 14]} Matins, First Hour
• Morning – Third Hour, Sixth Hour, and the Divine Liturgy or Typica^{[note 15]}

Weekdays during lentedit

• Evening – Great Compline
• Morning Watches – Midnight Office, Matins, First Hour
• Morning – Third Hour, Sixth Hour, Ninth Hour, Typica, Vespers (sometimes with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts or, on the Annunciation, the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom)

When there is an all-night vigiledit

On the eves before Great Feasts and, in some traditions, on all Sundays, this grouping is used. However, the all-night vigil is usually abridged so as to not last literally "all-night" and may be as short as two hours; on the other hand, on Athos and in the very traditional monastic institutions, that service followed by the hours and Liturgy may last as long as 18 hours.

• Afternoon – Ninth Hour, Little Vespers,^{[note 16]} Compline (where it is not read at the commencement of the Vigil)
• Early night – Compline (where it is not the custom for it to follow small vespers), Great Vespers,^{[note 17]} a reading, Matins, First Hour

When the royal hours are readedit

• Evening – Ninth Hour, Vespers, Compline
• Morning Watches – Midnight Office, Matins
• Morning – First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours and the Typica

On the eves of Christmas, Theophany, and Annunciationedit

When the feast is a weekday (or, in the Russian tradition, on any day for Christmas, Theophany), Vespers (with the Liturgy in most instances) is served earlier in the day and so Great Compline functions much as Great vespers does on the vigils of other feast days.

• Evening – Great Compline (in some traditions) and, if there be an All-Night Vigil, the reading, matins, first hour.
• Morning Watches – (unless there be an all-night vigil) midnight office, matins, first hour.

Alexandrian Riteedit

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The Alexandrian Rite is observed by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Church. The cycle of canonical hours is largely monastic, primarily composed of psalm readings. The Coptic equivalent of the Byzantine Horologion is the Agpeya.

Seven canonical hours exist, corresponding largely to the Byzantine order, with an additional "Prayer of the Veil" which is said by Bishops, Priests, and Monks (something like the Byzantine Midnight Office).

The hours are chronologically laid out, each containing a theme corresponding to events in the life of Jesus Christ:

• "Midnight Praise" (said in the early morning before dawn) commemorates the Second Coming of Christ. It consists of three watches, corresponding to the three stages of Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane ( Matthew 25:1–13 ).
• Prime (dawn) is said upon waking in the morning or after the Midnight Praise the previous night. Associated with the Eternity of God, the Incarnation of Christ, and his Resurrection from the dead.
• Terce (9 a.m.) commemorates Christ's trial before Pilate, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
• Sext (noon) commemorates the Passion of Christ.

Terce and Sext are prayed before each Divine Liturgy.

• None (3 p.m.) commemorates the death of Christ on the Cross. This hour is also read during fasting days.
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