The Rusyn community in Hungary was delighted to learn that a Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom in Church Slavonic had been composed by contemporary composer Miklós Mohay, ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, and professor and head of music theory department at the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest. His work was inspired by the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom in Church Slavonic by János Boksay, composed 100 years ago. The composer has dedicated the liturgy to the Saint Ephraim Choir and its founder, Tamás Bubnó.
János Boksay was the music officer for the Diocese of Munkács, and conductor of the Greek Catholic Cathedral in Ungvár and the Metropolitan Mixed Choir of Ungvár, who as the rector of Huszt was the spiritual mentor to Tódor Romzsa (Theodore Romzha, a martyr bishop who was beatified more than twenty years ago), and who at the end of his life, as a delegate of the Rusyn National Council, was the representative for Subcarpathia in the Hungarian Parliament, and a figure of pride for the Greek Catholic Rusyn community in Hungary.
Through supporting the production of CDs of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom in Church Slavonic in 2004, 2021, and this year, the community of Rusyns in Hungary contributes to preserving the intellectual and religious values of our people.

Vera Giricz
Spokesperson for the Rusyn community, Hungarian Parliament

Viktor Kramarenko
President, Nationwide Rusyn Self-government of Hungary


Ecclesiastical art from the Byzantine rite has interested me since I was a young man. I was fond of poring over icons, I liked the means of expression, the world of colour, and the spirituality it conveyed to me. Not long afterwards, I began to get to know the liturgical compositions of Russian and Ukrainian composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Bortnianksy, Tchaikovsky, and Glazunov. It was around this time I first came across Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev, which moved me most deeply. I was also interested in Church Slavonic. I was particularly captivated by Rachmaninoff’s two large choral cycles, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and the All-night Vigil. Many years passed before I dared imagine that I might compose such a piece myself. Meanwhile, I was deeply influenced by other things: I heard recordings of the liturgies for mixed voices by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, and later that for male voices by János Boksay (the latter performed by the Saint Ephraim choir), and gradually I began to study the scores too. At concerts by the Saint Ephraim Male Choir, I have heard many Oriental, Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic melodies and arrangements, and works by contemporary composers of many nationalities. It was then I decided to write my own Liturgy. Since I knew the ensemble well (and I had known Tamás Bubnó for even longer), it was obvious that I would compose the piece for them and dedicate it to them.
I envisaged the work not as a concert piece, but to be sung as part of the liturgy, so throughout I attempted to restrict myself to the time limits set by the liturgy. In this, my great predecessors were of assistance. Naturally, I set only the parts to be sung by the choir, leaving the texts for the priest and the deacon untouched. The work consists of twenty movements in Church Slavonic, and I completed it in 2018. The piece does not contain any borrowed melodies; I have tried to shape the musical material based on the choral writing of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, combined with a kind of exalted, ecclesiastical style.
The premiere of the work within a Greek Catholic liturgy was in December 2020 in Budapest. Later, I found out that this was the first complete Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom written since that by János Boksay 100 years ago.

Miklós Mohay

Saint John Chrysostom (398-404) is one of the most respected theologians, teachers, and preachers of the Eastern Church, who was known by the epithet “chrysostomos” (golden-mouthed) due to his gift of eloquence. He was the Archbishop of Constantinople from 398 to 404. In the Eastern Church, the most frequently sung Divine Liturgy is known by his name, and its function is equivalent to that of the Holy Mass in the Western Church.
The spirituality, drama, and theological content of the Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite has inspired composers for many centuries. Thousands of composers, both named and unnamed, have fashioned a musical garb for this liturgical text, trying to grasp its mystical essence. The great genius Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote in a letter to his friend Nadezhda von Meck: “The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is one of the most dramatic works of art ever to come into being in this world…” 
The musical shaping of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom has posed many dilemmas for composers of all ages. Perhaps the most important of them is to what extent they recognize the limitations of musical (self)-realization, for in the liturgy the music is secondary to the nature of the act of worship as a “total artwork”: it should not dominate or be exclusive. Rather, it should assist and serve the liturgy.
Over the twenty-one years of the Saint Ephraim Male Choir, it has sung and performed many Eastern divine liturgies and Western holy masses. Its very existence is for this reason: the purpose it was founded in 2002 was to perform and record the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, written by the priest-composer János Boksay, an important figure in the Hungarian and Rusyn Greek Catholic community.
This CD contains a work by contemporary composer Miklós Mohay, dedicated to the Saint Ephraim Male Choir and its founder Tamás Bubnó, a work the performers are very proud of. It is a large-scale, well-thought-out composition, which grasps the message of the liturgy and aims to convey it. After a long, intensive period spent learning the work, the choir premiered it as part of the divine liturgy celebrated by Father András Dobos, on 12 December 2020. Mohay and Bubnó have for years nurtured a friendly working relationship, so the founder of the Saint Ephraim Male Choir was most pleased to learn that the composer was writing a 4-8 part complete Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom in Church Slavonic. Already during the process of preparing for the premiere, the idea of releasing it on CD arose. With effective support from the Rusyn community and organizations in Hungary, this has now been realized.
This recording consists of the entire twenty-movement work by Mohay in a “quasi” liturgical form: complemented with the deacon’s and priest’s chants and intonations from the Greek Catholic tradition. The former are sung by Tamás Bubnó, the latter by Viktor Papp; both are members of the Saint Ephraim Male Choir.

Tamás Bubnó
Translated by Richard Robinson