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The '''Midnight Office''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] ''Mesonytikon'', [[Church Slavonic|Slavonic]] ''Polúnoschnitsa'') is part of the [[Daily Cycle]] of services in the Orthodox Church. The office originated as a purely monastic devotion inspired by [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20119:62;&version=9; Psalm 118:62 (119:62 KJV)], "At midnight I arose to give thanks unto Thee for the judgments of Thy righteousness" , and also by the Gospel parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025:1-13%20;&version=9; (Matthew 25:1-13)].<ref>Throughout this article, the Septuagint numbering of the Psalms is used.</ref>
The name of the Midnight Office is sometimes translated as "Nocturns"; but it should be noted that the service Nocturns in the West "Nocturn" refers to a division within the completely different office of Matins.
Originally, monks would rise in the middle of the night to sing praises to God. [[Symeon the New Theologian|Saint Symeon the New Theologian]] mentions [[Psalm 119|Psalm 118]], a significant component of the Midnight Office on weekdays, being said privately in the cells before Matins.<ref> Bishop [[Hilarion Alfeyev]], ''St. Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox Tradition'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 79.</ref> In most places where the Daily Cycle is observed at the present time, the Midnight Office is combined with [[Matins]] and the First Hour into one of the three daily aggregates called for in the [[Typikon]].<ref>Kovalchuk, Feodor S., ''Abridged Typicon'', 2nd ed., pp 17-19, St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, South Canaan, 1985."</ref>
