The "Diptych" or the Prayer Roll

(click pictures to enlarge)

"Diptychs;" were an ancient writing tablet. The more elaborate ones were carved from wood, metal or ivory and and functioned as book covers that were re-usable for medieval ecclesiastical manuscripts. Many were used in churches as grand bindings for lists of bishops and other important records. It is in this form that the mention of "diptychs" in early Christian literature is found. The term refers to official lists of the living and departed that are commemorated by the local church. The living would be inscribed on one wing of the diptych, and the departed on the other. The names in the diptychs would be read publicly by the deacon during the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist), and by the priest during the Liturgy of Preparation. Diptychs were also used to inscribe the names of the saints. The term is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches to describe the contents of the diptychs, with all the same connotations.

The Early Christian Prayer Circle
by Hugh Nibely
(excerpt)

The fullest expression of that altruism by which one saves oneself in saving others is a simple but ingenious device employed in the prayer circle; it was the "diptych," a sort of looseleaf notebook or folded parchment placed on the altar during the prayer. It contained the names of persons whom the people in the circle wished to remember. The diptychs are among the oldest treasures preserved in the oldest churches. The name means "folded double," though the documents could be folded triple or quadruple as well if the list of names was very long.(O. Stegmüller, "Diptychon," in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1957) 3:1138.)

The prayer for the people on the list was never part of the later mass but was always a litany, a special appeal for certain persons: "By litanies one intercedes for certain classes of persons."(F. Cabrol, "Diptyques (Liturgie)," in DACL 4:1050.)

The original diptychs were the consular diptychs, carried around by top Roman officials—the mark of the busy pagan executive in high office. According to Leclercq, when bishops became important figures in city politics, high government officials would present them with diptychs "as flattering presents."(Ibid., 1095—96.)
As notebooks they were convenient and practical—just the thing for keeping and handling important lists of names, and to such a use the Christians gladly put them.(Ibid., 1046—47; Stegmüllier, "Diptychon," 1140.)



"In the place of the diptychs properly so designated [those used in government business] there were substituted at an early time notebooks or leaves of parchment which one would place on the altar during the celebration of the Mass. . . . Gradually that practice [the reading of the names (out loud)] was given up, [and] the priest merely referred to all the faithful whose names were written down on the diptychs or the leaves taking the place of diptychs."(Cabrol, "Diptyques," 1061.)

Diptych of Anastasius, consul in 517 (Bishop at the time of the Nicene Council)

The practice of laying names on the altar is of unknown origin though it is very old and, it is agreed, may well go back to the days of the apostles.(Stegmüller, "Diptychon," 1138, 1147; Cabrol, "Diptyques," 1051, citing Bona.)

Confusion with the old Roman pagan custom of reading off the names of donors from such lists caused it to be repeatedly denounced by the early fathers in the West; (Stegmüller, "Diptychon," 1143; Cabrol, "Diptyques," 1059, noting that the donor lists were unknown in the East until Constantine introduced them from Rome.)
but the problem never arose in the East, and "the laying of a small tablet containing the names is to this day the practice in the Western Syrian rite."(Stegmüller, "Diptychon," 1147; cf. 1144—46.)

At first the list of names was read aloud before being placed on the altar, but as that took up too much time (one of the surviving lists has over 350 names) the reading was phased out; "the list could be placed on the altar without any vocal reading of the names." (Ibid., 3:1147, citing the famous Bobbio Missal.)

The common practice of scratching one's name on the altar to assure inclusion in the prayers forever after may go back to old Jewish practice, for in 3 Enoch when the ministering angels utter the prayer (the Qaddish) "all the explicit names that are graven with a flaming style on the Throne of Glory fly off. . . . And they surround and compass the Holy One . . . on the four sides of the place of His Shekhina."(Odeberg, 3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch, ch. 39.)

Also See:
Prayer, Catholic Saints, and the Mormon Temple
Submit a Name to the Prayer Roll
Anyone can call any LDS Temple or call Salt Lake toll-free at 1-800-453-3860 ext. 22685. Submitted names stay on the prayer roll for two weeks. (Names cannot be submitted online.)
LDS Temples-World Map
Temples to Dot the Earth