Great and Holy Monday

Holy Monday's commemoration of Joseph the all-comely rests on an ancient Christian reading of the patriarch's life as a foreshadowing of Christ. Joseph's innocent suffering at the hands of his brothers and his sale into slavery for silver were understood to prefigure Christ's betrayal by Judas and His Passion, while his rise from prisoner to vizier in Egypt was read as a pattern of the Passion issuing in the Resurrection. Early interpreters developed this typology in detail: John Chrysostom called Joseph's suffering a type of things to come, and Ambrose of Milan saw his exaltation as prefiguring the resurrection of Christ. Joseph's many-colored coat was interpreted by Caesarius of Arles as representing the diverse nations who would come to follow Christ. Because Joseph's biographical arc so closely mirrors Christ's, the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches came to commemorate him explicitly on Great and Holy Monday.

The day's second theme is drawn from the Matins Gospel, Matthew 21:18-43, which recounts Christ's cursing of the barren fig tree. Tradition interprets the withered tree as an image of fruitlessness and of judgment upon a lack of repentance — the world or the soul made to bear spiritual fruit yet found empty.

In its present form the observance is structured around the Bridegroom Matins served on the evening of the preceding day, together with the services of the Hours with their special Gospel readings and a Vespers combined with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The canon of Bridegroom Matins takes the form of a triode, a canon of three odes. Across the three days the eschatological Troparion of the Bridegroom serves as the common refrain that binds them together.

Through the figure of Joseph the all-comely, the Church presents Holy Monday as a day of typology: the righteous man who suffers innocently, is sold for silver, and is raised to glory becomes a lens through which the faithful read the coming Passion and Resurrection of Christ. What befalls Joseph in the Old Testament is shown to point beyond itself to the events the Church is about to keep.

The cursing of the barren fig tree gives the day its call to self-examination. The Church reads the fruitless tree as the world, and each soul within it, created to bear spiritual fruit but failing in its response to God; its withering stands as a warning of judgment upon barrenness and unrepentance.

The Orthodox tradition treats the three days from Monday through Wednesday as profoundly eschatological, placing the Church's celebrations in the perspective of the End Times and drawing out the eschatological meaning of Pascha. The Presanctified Liturgy carries forward the eschatological discourse of Matthew 24:3-35, and the whole movement of the days proclaims that in Christ's death the old world order is condemned — 'Now is the Judgment of this world' (John 12:31) — so that believers already live in the last time.

The Troparion of the Bridegroom gathers this into a single summons: that Christ comes at midnight and blessed is the servant found watching. Midnight here marks the threshold between the passing world and the coming Kingdom, and the hymn presses each worshipper to examine his own readiness for the Lord's coming.

The days of the Bridegroom are marked by the icon of Christ the Bridegroom, which depicts Jesus wearing a purple robe and a crown of thorns. During Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this icon is placed in the center of the temple for veneration.

Holy Monday's Matins belongs to the Bridegroom Services, so called from their theme of Christ as the Bridegroom of the Church, kept on the evenings of Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The canon of Bridegroom Matins is a triode, a canon of three odes.

Binding the three days together is the Troparion of the Bridegroom, whose sense is that the Bridegroom comes at midnight and that blessed is the servant whom He finds watching. Its midnight imagery marks the boundary between the old world and the coming Kingdom, and it challenges each worshipper to examine his readiness for the Lord's coming.

The Bridegroom Matins are served in the evening, with the icon of Christ the Bridegroom, showing the Lord in a purple robe and crown of thorns, set out in the center of the temple for veneration through Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

• Matthew 21:18-43 — The Matins Gospel for Holy Monday, including Christ's cursing of the barren fig tree.
• Matthew 24:3-35 — The eschatological discourse read at the Presanctified Liturgy.
• John 12:31 — 'Now is the Judgment of this world' — the eschatological key to the three days.