The Byzantine Rite, after the Roman Rite, is the most widespread liturgical tradition in the world, practiced by approximately 200 million believers. Its origins are rooted in an Antiochian background, which the Church of Constantinople elaborated, giving it its own distinct characteristics. At the same time, it has preserved to this day certain archaic traits that Antioch progressively modifi ed or abandoned. Once its liturgical identity was consolidated, the Byzantine Rite underwent an evolution similar to that of the major urban centers of Late Antiquity: the
rite of a city, of a capital, became the rite of a broader jurisdiction and then spread on a global scale.

This book, the first of a two-volume work, concerns the birth, evolution, and the many reforms that affected the liturgical, secular, and monastic rites of Constantinople and its surroundings. It is not a research book but a synthesis; it does not claim to offer a new history but attempts to identify the data considered reliable today, discussing the doubtful ones and leaving unanswered the questions for which a reasonable response is still not possible.