How did they pray: set hours, set prayers, facing east?
What the sources show
Didachec. 100Lord's Prayer daily
The Didache, about 100, tells Christians to say the Lord's Prayer three times a day and to fast on Wednesday and Friday. 1
Tertullianc. 200 · Cyprian of Carthagec. 252Set hours
By about 200, Christians kept the third, sixth and ninth hours, from Acts, plus prayer at dawn and at sunset: the pattern of the later daily office. 35
Origen of Alexandriac. 234 · Tertullianc. 197Facing east
They prayed facing east, toward the rising light, which pagans mistook for sun worship. 24
The answers given:
ApostolicBefore NicaeaNicaea and afterMiddle AgesReformation to today
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Apostolic Fathers
30–150
100c. AD
Lord's Prayer daily
Didache c. 100 ADDidache 8.1–3
Do not let your fasts be with the hypocrites: they fast on the second and fifth day of the week, but you fast on the fourth day and the day of Preparation. Nor pray as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in his Gospel, pray this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name ... for yours is the power and the glory for ever. Pray this way three times a day.
The Lord's Prayer three times a day, with a closing doxology, and fasting on Wednesday and Friday.
Αἱ δὲ νηστεῖαι ὑμῶν μὴ ἔστωσαν μετὰ τῶν ὑποκριτῶν. νηστεύουσι γὰρ δευτέρᾳ σαββάτων καὶ πέμπτῃ: ὑμεῖς δὲ νηστεύσατε τετράδα καὶ παρασκευήν. μηδὲ προσεύχεσθε ὡς οἱ ὑποκριταί, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἐκέλευσεν ὁ κύριος ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ αὐτοῦ, οὕτω προσεύχεσθε: Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου ... ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. τρὶς τῆς ἡμέρας οὕτω προσεύχεσθε.Anonymus Kirsopp Lake The Apostolic Fathers William Heinemann The Macmillan Company London New York 1912 1 Hathi Trust (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg1311.tlg001) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
Before Nicaea
150–325
197c. AD
Facing east
Tertullian c. 155–c. 220 ADApology 16.10
Hence the suspicion, because it has become known that we pray toward the east.
Pagans took this as sun worship. Tertullian denies it.
Full English of this work is being translated · Source text
denique inde suspicio, quod innotuerit nos ad orientis regionem precari.The Latin Library text · English: translated for this page from the Latin
200c. AD
Set hours
Tertullian c. 155–c. 220 ADOn Prayer 25.1–5
As to time, there will be no idleness in outwardly keeping certain hours, I mean those common ones that mark the divisions of the day, the third, sixth and ninth, which we find more solemn in the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit was first poured on the gathered disciples at the third hour. Peter, on the day he saw the vision of the vessel, had gone up to pray at the sixth hour. He and John went into the temple at the ninth.
Tertullian adds the "lawful" prayers at the beginning of day and night.
Full English of this work is being translated
De tempore uero non erit otiosa extrinsecus obseruatio etiam horarum quarundam, istarum dico communium quae diei interspatia signant, tertia, sexta, nona; quas sollemniores in scripturis inuenire est. primus spiritus sanctus congregatis discipulis hora tertia infusus est. Petrus, qua die uisionem communitatis omnis in illo uasculo expertus est, sexta hora orandi gratia ascenderat in superiora. idem cum Iohanne ad nonam in templum adibatAugust Reifferscheid Georg Wissowa Tertullian Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani opera F. Tempsky G. Freytag Prague Vienna Leipzig 1890 1 Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 20 Internet Archive (OGL CSEL TEI, urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0275.stoa020) · English: translated for this page from the Latin
234c. AD
Facing east
Origen of Alexandria c. 185–c. 254 ADOn Prayer 32.1
Now a few words about the direction one should face when praying. There are four directions, north and south, west and east. Who would not at once agree that the east plainly shows that we should turn that way, symbolically, as the soul looks toward the rising of the true light, when we make our prayers?
Origen says one should face east even if the house's door opens another way.
Cyprian of Carthage c. 200–258 ADOn the Lord's Prayer 35
But for us, dear brothers, besides the hours of prayer kept from of old, both the times and the mysteries of prayer have now increased. For we must pray in the morning, so that the Lord's resurrection may be celebrated by morning prayer ... and again at sunset and the close of day.
Morning and evening, added to the third, sixth and ninth hours: the outline of the later daily office.
Full English of this work is being translated
Sed nobis, fratres dilectissimi, praeter horas antiquitus obseruatas orandi nunc et spatia et sacramenta creuerunt. nam et mane orandum est, ut resurrectio Domini matutina oratione celebretur. ... recedente item sole ac die cessante necessarioWilhelm von Hartel Cyprian, Saint S. Thasci Caecili Cypriani Opera omnia Gerold Vienna 1868 Pars I Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 3.1 Internet Archive (OGL CSEL TEI, urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0104a.stoa015) · English: translated for this page from the Latin
Nicaea to Chalcedon
325–451
370c. AD
Set hours
Basil of Caesarea c. 330–379 ADLonger Rules (Regulae fusius tractatae) 37
The appointed times of prayer in the brotherhoods must not be passed over, times which we have necessarily chosen... Dawn first, so that the first movements of the soul and of the mind may be offerings to God... At the third hour, to rise for prayer and gather the brotherhood together... reminded of the gift of the Spirit, given to the apostles at the third hour, to worship all with one accord... At the sixth hour we judged prayer to be necessary, in imitation of the saints... The ninth hour has been handed down to us by the apostles themselves in Acts as necessary for prayer... When the day is complete, thanksgiving for what was given us in it... Midnight was handed down to us by Paul and Silas as necessary for prayer... And we must rise for prayer before dawn.
Basil's rule for monastic communities (the Asceticon). Question 37 asks about the times of prayer; in the library's locked text the answer begins at the end of the preceding section, so the quote is drawn from sections 36 and 37 together. The day is framed by prayer at dawn, the third, sixth and ninth hours, at the day's end, at midnight and before dawn: the skeleton of the later daily office.
These writers also matter for this question. Their texts will join the timeline above once they are translated.
215
Hippolytus (attributed), Apostolic Tradition 41
The hours of prayer including midnight.
How this page was made
Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.