Church Slavonic is the sacred language that unites a number of Slavic Orthodox peoples, regardless of their ethnic and/or linguistic heritage. It is my hope that these resources will bring those who come into contact with this language to a greater understanding of its beauty.

A Church Slavonic Primer

  1. Lesson One – Lord Have Mercy (video) (pdf transcript)
  2. Lesson Two – Holy God (Trisagion) (video) (pdf transcript)
    • Listening practice: audio (Holy God is the first 13 seconds)
  3. Lesson Three – Bless Master, Blessed is the Kingdom (video) (pdf transcript)
    • Listening practice: audio (Valaam monastery recording)
  4. Lesson Four – Glory…Both Now (video) (pdf transcript)
    • Listening practice: audio (starts at 14 s and ends at 18 s)
  5. Lesson Five – To Thee, O Lord; And to thy spirit (video) (pdf transcript)
  6. Lesson Six – Peace be unto All; Peace be unto Thee (video) (pdf transcript)
  7. Lesson Seven – And with Thy Spirit; Grant, O Lord (video) (pdf transcript)
  8. Lesson Eight – For unto Thee are due all glory, honor, and worship: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages (video) (pdf transcript)

Church Slavonic Alphabet chart

Recommended audio for listening/pronunciation practice

(While this is not a paid advertisement, I do get commissions for purchases made through links below.)(If you would like the text for any hymn in order to follow along, write me and I can send it to you.)

Books on/in Church Slavonic

Apps

  • Prayerbook (iPhone) (Android) (the default shows the text in modern Russian font; to change this go into settings (at upper right corner) and choose “Old Church –  All prays in Old Church” (sic.) (Includes (in the following order) Morning Prayers, Evening Prayers, Three Canons for Holy Communion (Repentance, Theotokos, Guardian Angel), Canon of Repentance to Jesus Christ, Canon to the Theotokos at times of suffering, Canon to one’s Guardian Angel, Akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, Akathist to the Theotokos, Akathist to St Nicholas the Wonderworker, Order of Preparation for Holy Communion (Psalms, Canon, Prayers), Prayers of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion)
  • Bible in Russian, Church Slavonic, and Greek (There is only an iPhone version, but if you don’t have an iPhone, you should buy one to use this program)(This is all in Russian, but you should be able to find your way around; the options at the bottom (from left to right): book chooser, search, Russian text (Synodal translation), Church Slavonic text, Greek text)(This is a full bible with the so-called Apocryphal or Non-canonical books)
  • Psalter (iPhone)(Android)(Default uses modern Russian font; to change, scroll to very bottom and open first of two boxes and choose other of two options in first pop down menu; below that option, you can choose size of font.)
  • Bible (Android)(This is a full bible with the so-called Apocryphal or Non-canonical books)(Program in Russian, but you should be able to find your way around.)
  • Accordance (iPhone)(This is a good Bible app in general for free, but if you purchase any paid collection, you get the ability to install your own Bibles; I have created a Church Slavonic New Testament that can then be installed.)

Liturgical texts

The following texts are in pdf format, but if you want files to be able to work with, just email me at norespite3(at)gmail(dot)com and I will send you doc files. However, for this you will need to download several fonts from this webpage. (Additional fonts can be found here and here.) On this page, following each file I will state which fonts have been used.

Links to other resources