The first part of the present Matins developed from the monastic predawn services (vigil , wake) which was introduced by the monks as a response to Christ’s admonition, ” Stay awake, for you don’t know the day or the hour” (Mt. 25:13) when the Son of Man will come. Daybreak with the coming of the rising of the sun, reminded the Christians of the second coming of our Savior, who is referred to in the Bible as ” the Sun of Righteousness” (Mal. 4:2) and the ” Rising Sun” (Lk. 1 :78).
For this reason, St. Basil (d. 379) admonished his monks: “We must rise for prayer before dawn so that we are not caught by the sun, sleeping” (cf. St. Basil, The Long Rules 37, 5).
This theme, the ” eschatological” expectation of Christ’s final coming, is clearly indicated at the beginning of Matins with the words : “The Lord is God, and He has given us light. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Ps. 118:26- 27). According to The Apostolic Constitutions, written about 380 A.D., morning prayers were introduced by the Fathers to give thanks to God for ” sending us the light” (VIII, 34). The light of day-that reveals the marvelous works of God for which ” everything that breathes should praise the Lord” (Ps. 150:6); the light of fa ith-that reveals the mysteries of God in the person of Jesus Christ, thus explaining the introduction of the reading of the Gospel at Matins.
The earliest description of this predawn celebration is given to us by the famous Spanish pilgrim, Egeria (about 380 A.D.), who attended morning services in Jerusalem. Egeria informs us that on Sundays, in the Church of the Resurrection (An astasis), the predawn services started ” as soon as the first cock crowed” with the recitation of three psalms and a number of prayers. Then the Gospel, describing Christ’s glorious resurrection, was read by the presiding bishop. After the Gospel, all the clergy, faithful and the presiding bishop, chanting hymns, proceeded to the adjacent Church of the Holy Cross (Calvary) where another psalm and prayer was recited. Following the kissing of the relics of the Holy Cross, the bishop imparted a blessing and dismissed the faithful who then returned to the Church of the Resurrection for morning services. Egeria concludes her description with the remark: ” Each day the priests and the deacons alternated in holding the vigil with the people at the Anastasis” (cf. Egeria, Diary of a Pi/grim, 24) .
In his Eighth Baptismal Instruction delivered in Antioch about 388 A.D., St. John Chrysostom admonished the newly-baptized to show ” great zeal in attending morning prayers, daily, in their churches ” to thank God for all the gifts” given them and “to beseech Him for His powerful help” (n. 17). From these words we can deduce that the proper morning services which form the concluding part of the present Matins were arranged as follows: a) to sing praises (thanksgiving) to the Lord (Ps. 149:1) and b) to implore God’s assistance in the fulfillment of our daily duties. Thus, originally, morning services were composed of the recitation of th ree Psalms of Praise (Pss. 148- 150), the chanting of the Morning Hymn (” Glory to God in the highest”), and the recitation of some Morning Prayers, usually led by the deacon. The presiding bishop or presbyter concluded the service by imparting the final blessing and dismissing the people.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia