When it is said
In the prayer book it belongs to the Liturgy, among the prayers that come before the offering of the bread and wine.
Anyone may pray it at home for their own bishop, priests and deacons.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Who was Serapion?
Serapion was bishop of Thmuis, a town in the Nile Delta in Egypt, in the 300s. He was a close friend of St Athanasius and of the hermit St Anthony. When Anthony was dying, he gave away his clothes and left one of his two sheepskin cloaks to Athanasius and the other to Serapion. Serapion’s feast is on 21 March.
John Wordsworth, Bishop Sarapion’s Prayer-Book (1923), the introduction, quoting the Life of Antony
A bishop’s book of prayers
The prayer comes from a book of 30 prayers for a bishop to say at the services of a church in Egypt. It survives in one manuscript of the 11th century at the Lavra monastery on Mount Athos. Serapion’s name stands over only two of the prayers, though the whole book is credited to him. The translator John Wordsworth dated it to about AD 350 to 356.
John Wordsworth, Bishop Sarapion’s Prayer-Book (1923), the introduction
What the words mean
Why “our bishop”?
The Greek asks God to make holy “this bishop”, the one present as the prayer was said. Because it prays for him, Wordsworth thought an assistant bishop or a priest might have said it. The plain wording says “our bishop”, so that anyone can pray it for their own.
John Wordsworth, Bishop Sarapion’s Prayer-Book (1923), prayer 25 and its note
The rest of the prayer
After the deacons, the full prayer turns to the subdeacons, the readers and the interpreters. Then it prays for monks and for women who live as virgins, and last for all who are married, with their children. Its closing words, “through Your only Son, Jesus Christ”, come after that last part.
John Wordsworth, Bishop Sarapion’s Prayer-Book (1923), prayer 25
The Scripture in it
But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
They must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Σὲ τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ κύριον ἐπικαλούμεθα, τὸν θεὸν πάσης σαρκὸς καὶ κύριον παντὸς πνεύματος, τὸν εὐλογητὸν καὶ χορηγὸν πάσης εὐλογίας· ἁγίασον τὸν ἐπίσκοπον τόνδε καὶ διατήρησον αὐτὸν ἔξω παντὸς πειρασμοῦ καὶ δὸς αὐτῷ σοφίαν καὶ γνῶσιν, εὐόδωσον αὐτὸν ἐν ταῖς σαῖς ἐπιστήμαις.
παρακαλοῦμεν δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν συμπρεσβυτέρων· ἁγίασον αὐτούς, σοφίαν αὐτοῖς δὸς καὶ γνῶσιν καὶ ὀρθὴν διδασκαλίαν, ποίησον αὐτοὺς πρεσβεύειν τὰς ἁγίας σου διδασκαλίας ὀρθῶς καὶ ἀμέμπτως.
ἁγίασον δὲ καὶ διακόνους, ἵνα ὦσιν καθαροὶ καρδίᾳ καὶ σώματι καὶ δυνηθῶσιν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει λειτουργεῖν καὶ παραστῆναι τῷ ἁγίῳ σώματι καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ αἵματι.
[…]
διὰ τοῦ μονογενοῦς σου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι’ οὗ σοὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος ἐν ἁγίῳ πνεύματι καὶ νῦν καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, ἀμήν.