Kathisma

DIMITRI CONOMOS

Kathisma (Gk. “seat”) is the name given to the monastic division of the Psalter into twenty sessions (kathismata), each one being further subdivided into three stations (Gk. staseis). The term also signifies a set of troparia which is chanted after each kathisma from the Psalter at Matins. The twenty kathismata are distributed between Vespers and Matins, so that all 150 psalms are read during the course of a single week. Normally there is one kathisma recited at Vespers and either two or three at Matins. During Great Lent kathismata are read during the Little Hours also, so that the entire Psalter is completed twice in a week.