Stefanos Alexopoulos

Academic Area

  • Liturgical Studies/Sacramental Theology
  • School

  • School of Theology and Religious Studies
  • Expertise

  • Byzantine Liturgical History
  • Biography

    Fr. Stefanos was born in Zimbabwe, raised in South Africa and Greece, and received his higher education in the United States, earning a B.A. in Religious Studies from Hellenic College, a M.Div. from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, both in Brookline, MA., and a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame. In 2003 Fr. Stefanos returned to Greece where he served as a parish priest and taught for the College Year in Athens Program, for the Greco-Roman Program of St. John's University/St. Benedict's College, Collegeville, MN, and for the Pastoral Institute of the Archdiocese of Athens, Church of Greece. In 2009 he was elected Assistant Professor of Liturgy at the Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens. In the Spring of 2012 he was invited to teach at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University as a visiting professor. His work has appeared in English, Greek, German and Russian. He is the author of The Presanctified Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite: A Comparative Analysis of Its Origins, Evolution, and Structural Units in the series Liturgia Condenda 21 (Peeters Publishers, 2009), and Introduction to Eastern Liturgies (Liturgical Press, 2022) (co-authored with Maxwell Johnson). He is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Society of Oriental Liturgy, which he served as Secretary between 2006-2012, and currently serves as Vice President.  He is an ordained Greek Orthodox priest, the son and grandson of priests. Fr. Stefanos joined the Faculty of the School of the Theology and Religious Studies at Catholic University of America in the Fall of 2013.

    His research focuses on aspects of Byzantine Liturgical History, Eastern Liturgical Traditions and Liturgical Renewal, and the relationship between private piety and "official" liturgy. His current projects include a book-length study on the history of the private "Office of Holy Communion" in the Byzantine rite.

    Publications

    •  Introduction to Eastern Christian Liturgies

      Introduction to Eastern Christian Liturgies

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    • The Presanctified Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite

      The Presanctified Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite

      The Presanctified Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite: A Comparative Analysis of its Origins, Evolution, and Structural Units in the series Liturgia Condenda 21.

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    • Inquiries into Eastern Christian Worship

      Inquiries into Eastern Christian Worship

      Rev. Alexopoulos co-edited Inquiries into Eastern Christian Worship: Selected Papers of the Second International Congress of the Society of Oriental Liturgies. 

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    • A Living Tradition

      A Living Tradition

      Rev. Alexopoulus co-edited A Living Tradition: On the Intersection of Liturgical History and Pastoral Practice (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2012), with David A. Pitt and Christian McConnell.

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    • Studies on the Liturgies of the Christian East

      Studies on the Liturgies of the Christian East

      Rev. Alexopoulos co-edited Studies on the Liturgies of the Christian East: Selected Papers from the Third International Congress of the Society of Oriental Liturgy

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    Latest Publications

     

    “Anamnesis, Epiclesis and Mimesis in the Minor Hours of the Byzantine Rite,” Worship 94 (2020) 228-245
     
    “The Gospel Narrative in Byzantine Liturgy” in T. Nicklas, K. W.Niebuhr, M. Seleznev (eds.), History and Theology in the Gospel Narratives (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020) 235-246

    “The Canonization of the Greek Martyrs of 1922: Is it a Novelty?” in Nina Glibetic and Gabriel Radle (eds.), Explorations in Eastern Christian Liturgy: Selected Papers of the Sixth International Congress of Oriental Liturgy, Studies in Eastern Christian Liturgies 4 (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2022) 141-154

    “The Use of the Bible in Byzantine Liturgical Texts and Services” in the Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity, ed. Eugen Pentiuc (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022) 243-260

    “Prayer at the Eucharist: Shifts in the Use of Scripture” in H. Buchinger and C. Leonhard (eds.), Liturgische Bibelrezeption: Dimensionen und Perspektiven interdizilinärer Forschung in the series Forschungen zur Kirchen und Dogmengeschichte 108 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022) 411-427

     “Synaxis” in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 31:529-537

    “Die Liturgie in den östlichen Kirchen,” in Martin Klöckener and Reinhard Meßner (eds.),  Handbuch der Liturgiewissenschaft Gottesdienst der Kirche 1.1 (Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2022), 206-267

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