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{{Services}}
== Origin of the English Term ==
'''Compline''' is the final church service of the day in the daily liturgical cycle, prior to going to sleep. The English word ''Compline'' is derived from the Latin ''completorium'', as Compline is the completion of the working day. The word was first used in this sense about the beginning of the 6th century by [[Benedict of Nursia|St. Benedict]] in his ''Rule'' (''Regula Benedicti''; hereafter, RB), in Chapters [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/benedict/rule2/files/rule2.html#ch16 16], [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/benedict/rule2/files/rule2.html#ch17 17], [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/benedict/rule2/files/rule2.html#ch18 18], and [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/benedict/rule2/files/rule2.html#ch42 42], and he even uses the verb ''complere'' to signify Compline: "''Omnes ergo in unum positi compleant''" ("All having assembled in one place, let them say Compline"); "''et exuentes a completorio''" ("and, after going out from Compline...") (RB, Chap. 42).
== Historical development ==
:''This section incorporates information from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1917. References to [[psalms]] follow the numbering system of the [[Septuagint]].
The origin of Compline has given rise to considerable discussion among liturgists. In the past, general opinion (including Bäumer and Batiffol) ascribed the origin of this Hour to [[Benedict of Nursia|St. Benedict]], in the beginning of the 6th century. But Father Pargoire and, later still, A. Vandepitte oppose this opinion and seek a more ancient origin for this Hour.
A text in Callinicus (between 447 and 450), first introduced in Father Pargoire's argument, informs us that between [[Vespers]] and the [[Midnight Office]] there was celebrated in the East a canonical Hour called in this text ''prothypnia'', because it preceded the first sleep, being nothing other than what the Greeks today call ''apodeipnon'', on account of the meal it follows. However, in the thirty-seventh question of his ''Great Asketikon'' (''Long Rules''), St. [[Basil the Great]], also, speaks of an intermediate Hour between Vespers and the [[Midnight Office]]. Father Pargoire therefore disputes the assertion that St. Benedict was the originator of Compline, being rather disposed to trace its source to St. Basil.
At any rate, even if these texts do not express all that Dom Plaine says they do, at least they bear witness to the private custom of saying a prayer before retiring to rest. If this was not the canonical Hour of Compline, it was certainly a preliminary step towards it.
The same writers reject the opinion of Ladeuze and Dom Besse, both of whom believe that Compline had a place in the Rule of [[Pachomiusthe Great|St. Pachomius]], which would mean that it originated still earlier in the 4th century.
It is not necessary to enter into this discussion, but it might be possible to conciliate these different sentiments by stating that, if it be an established fact that St. Basil instituted and organized the Hour of Compline for the East, as [[Benedict of Nursia|St. Benedict]] did for the West, there existed as early as the days of [[Cyprian|St. Cyprian]] and [[Clement of Alexandria]] the custom of reciting a prayer before sleep, in which practice we find the most remote origin of our Compline.
==Contemporary Orthodox Practice==
**[[Annunciation]]
Unlike Small Compline, Great Compline has portions of the service which are chanted by the Choir <ref>Except on Friday night, when most of these parts are read. There are also fewer prostrations on Friday night.</ref> and during Lent the [[Prayer of Saint Ephrem|Prayer of St. Ephraim]] is said with prostrations. During the First Week of Great Lent, the Great Canon of Saint [[Saint Andrew of Crete]] is divided into four portions and read on Monday through Thursday nights.
In Greek Prayer Books, a modified form of the Midnight Office is used for morning prayers for laymen, while a modified form of Small Compline is used for evening prayers.
'''Second Part'''
:Psalms 50, 101, and the [[Prayer of Manasseh|Prayer of Manassses]]; the Trisagion, and Troparia of Repentance,<ref>Or, if it is the eve of a Great Feast, the [[Kontakion]] of the day.</ref> ''Lord, have mercy'' (40 times), "More honorable than the cherubim..." and the Prayer of St. Mardarius.
'''Third Part'''
:Psalms 69, 142, and the Small Doxology;<ref>On Great Feasts, the order of Great Compline ends here, and we continue the All-Night Vigil with the Litia.</ref> then the Canon followed by ''It is Truly Meet'', the [[Trisagion]], the hymn "O Lord of Hosts, be with us...", ''Kyrie eleison'' (40 times), the Prayer of the Hours, "More honorable than the cherubim....", the [[Prayer of Saint Ephrem|Prayer of St. Ephraim]], Trisagion, the Supplicatory Prayer of Paul the Monk, and the Prayer to Jesus Christ of Antiochus the Monk.<ref name="NtPray"/> Then the mutual forgiveness. Instead of the normal final blessing by the Priest, all prostrate themseles while the priest reads a special prayer intercessory prayer. Then the Litany and the veneration of Icons and Relics.