Первая Час: Утреннее Богослужение в Христианской Традиции

Prayer at first hour of daylight

Prime, or the First Hour, is one of the canonical hours of the Divine Office, said at the first hour of daylight (6:00 a. m. at the equinoxes but earlier in summer, later in winter), between the dawn hour of Lauds and the 9 a. m. hour of Terce. It remains part of the Christian liturgies of Eastern Christianity, but suppressed within the Latin liturgical rites by the Second Vatican Council. In the Coptic Church, a denomination of Oriental Orthodox Christianity, the office of Prime is prayed at 6 am in eastward direction of prayer by all members in this denomination, both clergy and laity, being one of the seven fixed prayer times. which contains Prime. Like all the liturgical hours, except the Office of Readings, it consists mainly of Psalms. It is one of the Little Hours.

From the time of the early Church, the practice of seven fixed prayer times 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." With respect to praying in the early morning, Hippolytus wrote: "Likewise, at the hour of the cock crow, rise and pray. Because at this hour, with the cock crow, the children of Israel refused Christ, who we know through faith, hoping daily in the hope of eternal light in the resurrection of the dead." The word "Prime" comes from Latin and refers to the first hour of daylight (that which begins at sunrise). John Cassian (c. 360 – c. 435) describes it as matutina (hora), ("a" or "the") "morning hour" (translated also as "Mattins"), a description applied also, according to Alardus Gazaeus even by Cassian, to the dawn hour of Lauds. and which he distinguishes from the one nocturnal office of Night Watch, which he links with Psalm 118/119:62, "At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules",

In the Antiphonary of Bangor (perhaps c. 700) what is generally called prima (hora) is called secunda. F. E. Warren states: "'Secunda' as the equivalent of 'Prima', the usual title of the first of the Day Hours is a very ancient title, but has now gone out of use. It is found in the Missale Gallicanum (p. 179), also in C. C. C. C. MS.272, a ninth century Rheims Psalter". In the Eastern liturgies, the names for this office in the various languages mean "first (hour)".

The various Oriental Orthodox and Oriental Catholic Rites vary in the particulars of the First Hour, but in general tend to have a larger number of psalms in them. In some Rites it is the practice to recite the entire Psalter once a day (as opposed to once a week, as in the Western and Constantinopolitan Rites).

In the Coptic Orthodox Church, an Oriental Orthodox denomination, the prayer time of Prime is prayed at 6 am using the Agpeya breviary.