The Great Entrance is a part of the Liturgy that follows the Gospel reading, the sermon (if the sermon is not delivered at the end of the Liturgy), and the Cherubic Hymn—the most elaborate and the longest hymn the choir sings: “Let us who in a mystery represent [iconize] the cherubim, and who sing then thrice-holy hymn to the life-creating Trinity, now lay aside all earthly cares;” and the deacon follows: “that we may receive the King of all invisibly escorted by the angelic rank. Alleluia.”

While the choir sings, the priest censes around the altar, the bishop’s throne, and the icon of Christ and of Mary. “The priest, lifting the aēr up from on top of the gifts and placing it upon the deacon’s shoulders and recites Psalm 133.2 (“Lift up your hands toward the holies and bless ye the Lord”). Then,

The priest takes up the veiled diskos, kisses it and hands it to the deacon who in turn kisses the priest’s hand. The deacon holds the diskos with all attentiveness and care and holds it at least to the level of his forehead. The priest himself takes up only the veiled chalice, and they set out on the procession. […] [T]he procession sets forth through the north door with lamps and censer. As the procession passes through the nave, the deacon exclaims aloud: ‘All of you, May the Lord God remember in his kingdom, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.’ [The choir or people responds: “Amen.”] […] When the procession reaches the soles, the deacon immediately enters the sanctuary through the holy doors and takes his stand at the southwest corner of the holy table, still holding the diskos and facing west. The priest, facing east, lifts up the chalice and commemorates, first, the hierarch and then whomever he wishes among the living and the departed. After this, the priest enters the altar through the open holy [Royal] doors while the choir concludes the cherubic hymn. The priest places the chalice on the antimēnsion (to the right) then receives the diskos from the deacon, and places it on the left side of the chalice.

Najim, 2025: 152-154.

The Great Entrance is probably the most magnificent moment in the Divine Liturgy, as the deacon, proceeded by the censer, carries the diskos bearing the prepared prosphora, followed by the priest carrying the chalice, who is in turn followed by other deacons and attendants. Hogia Sophia at one point had over 100 priests and deacons and several bishops, in their respective full attire, making the procession through the center of the church under the main done hovering over them at the heights. The sight must have been regal and magnificent.

The main purpose of this procession is to bring the holy gifts to the sanctuary and place them on the altar to be offered as sacrifice in the Eucharistic rite.

The Byzantine Eucharistic sacrifice closely resembles the Levitical sacrifice, which is also depicted in the Letter to the Hebrews, where it is written that Christ is performing the eternal sacrifice in the order of Melchizedek (Heb 7.3).

The Levitical sacrifice involves the movement of bringing the offering(s) from the outer altar, through the altar of incense in the shrine middle of the Tabernacle, and finally to the holy of holies, where the ark is located (Lev 14 and 16; Moffitt 2022: 164). See Milgrom’s Figure 1. The movement of the similar procession is conveyed in the curious expression, “through heavens,” in Hebrews: “… we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens…” (Heb 4.14, 8.1-5; cf., Moffitt 2022: 36). Likewise, the offerings (the prosphora and the cup) are prepared on the prothesis, carried through the north door of the iconostasis, passing through the nave, and brought to the sanctuary through the central (Royal) door, to be laid on the alter to be sacrificed in the Eucharistic rite (Anaphora).

Slaughter is not the central part of sacrifice. In the Levitical sacrifice, slaughter took place away from the outer alter. On the Day of Purification (Yom Kipper), one of the two goats (usually mistranslated as ‘scapegoat’) is release to the wilderness (“to Azazel”), bearing the sins of Israel (Lev 16.6-10). (Milgrom comments: “the biblical rite [Lev 16.6-10] has naught to do with the notions of offering or substitution…” (1991: 1074; cf., 1076, 1078). Instead, drawing near to God to offer the sacrifice (the gift) and to daub the blood in a certain prescribed manner for purgation is the central act of Levitical sacrifice. In Hebrews, Christ offers himself as the eternal (self) sacrifice. Likewise, in the Byzantine Liturgy, the “slaughter” takes place before the Liturgy during Proskomidi. Once the prosphora and the cup are carried through the church in the Great Entrance and into the sanctuary and laid on the altar, the rite of the Eucharist (Anaphora) begins. As if to refer to Christ in his heavenly sacrifice, the priest prays softly in reference to the Bread and the Cup during the Cherubic Hymn: “For it is You that offer and are offered, who receive and are received…”

The Glory of God

As I have said, besides the strong sense of the word ‘symbol,’ we have also lost the Byzantine sense of pageantry.

… just as in the procession of a great king, the lesser come first, and the greater and more dignified come after them in turn, and those who are even closer to the king are more regal, and those next even more honored. After all these, the Great King suddenly reveals himself, with the people praying to him and prostrating themselves, at least those who have not already left, thinking that it was enough to see those who preceded the king.

Plotinus, Enneads 5.5.3; 2018: 586.