HYMNS
OF
The Eastern Church
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
HYMNS
OF
The Eastern Church.
TRANSLATED,
WITH NOTES AND AND AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
THE REV. J. M. NEALE, D.D.,
Warden of Sackville College.
FIFTH EDITION
LONDON:
J. T. HAYES, 17 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
[Electronic edition with material from the first edition:
LONDON:
J. T. Hayes, 5, LYALL PLACE, EATON SQ.
1862.]
Sion’s lyre, thou best content
That e’er Heav’n to mortals lent,
Though they as a trifle leave thee,
Whose dull thoughts cannot conceive thee,
Though to them thou be a scorn
Who to nought but earth are born,
May my life no longer be
Than I am in love with thee!
WITHER
TO
THE SUPERIOR
AND
THE OTHER SISTERS
OF
The House of Mercy at Clewer.
WITH THANKFULNESS FOR THEIR PAST, AND
PRAYERS FOR THEIR FUTURE SUCCESS,
THESE HYMNS
ARE DEDICATED.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
The following Translations have occupied a portion of my leisure time
for the last twelve years: and some of them have already appeared in more
than one ecclesiastical periodical. So has also great part of the
Introduction.
It is a most remarkable fact, and one which shows how very little
interest has been hitherto felt in the Eastern Church, that these are
literally, I believe, the only English versions of any part of the
treasures of Oriental Hymnology. There is scarcely a first or
second-rate hymn of the Roman Breviary which has not been translated:
of many we have six or eight versions. The eighteen quarto volumes of
Greek Church-poetry
can only at present be known to the English reader by my little book.
Yet surely, if in the future Hymnal of the English Church we are to
build an eclectic superstructure on the foundation of the Sarum Book, the
East ought to yield its full share of compositions. And hence, I cannot
but marvel that the compilers of eclectic Hymnals, such as the (modern)
Sarum, the Hymns Ancient and Modern, and others, have never turned
to this source. Here was a noble field open to them; and to me it is
incomprehensible that they should have so utterly neglected it.
There are difficulties in the task to which it is as well to
revert. Though the superior terseness and brevity of the Latin
Hymns renders a translation which shall represent these qualities
a work of great labour, yet still the versifier has the help of
the same meter; his version may be line for
line; and there is a great analogy between the Collects and the Hymns,
most helpful to the translator. Above all, we have examples enough of
former translation by which we may take pattern.
But in attempting a Greek Canon, from the fact of its being in
prose—(metrical Hymns, as the reader will learn, are unknown,)—one
is all at sea. What measure shall we employ? why this more than that?
Might we attempt the rhythmical prose of the original, and design it
to be chanted? Again, the great length of the Canons renders them
unsuitable for our churches, as wholes. Is it better simply
to form centos of the more beautiful passages? or can separate Odes,
each necessarily imperfect, be employed as separate Hymns? And above
all, we have no pattern or example of any kind to direct our labour.
These questions, and many others, have as yet received no reply;
but will, in time, no doubt, work out their answer. My own belief is,
that the best way to employ Greek Hymnology for the uses of the
English Church would be by centos.
The reader will find, in the following pages, examples of different
methods of treatment. The following are short Idiomela, &c.,
which might serve as separate Hymns:—
- 5. The day is past and over. (Evening.)
- 20. O the mystery, passing wonder. (Maundy Thursday.)
- 28. Christian! dost thou see them? (A Sunday in Lent.)
- 35. By fruit the ancient foe’s device. (Easter Tide.)
- 65. Those eternal bowers. (All Saints.)
- 84. The choirs of ransomed Israel. (Transfiguration)
- 124. Are thy toils and woes increasing? (Passion or Holy Week.)
Centos might perhaps be made from the Canons for:
[1st ed., p. xv: It has been with great thankfulness
that I have seen such copious use made of my Mediaeval Hymns, and my Rhythm
of S. Bernard, in so many modern Hymnals. Permission has usually been most
courteously asked: though in some few cases, whole Hymns have been taken
without the slightest request for leave, or subsequent acknowledgment. I
would therefore request any compiler of a Hymnal who may wish to quote from
the following pages, to be so kind as first to express that wish to the
publisher, or to myself.]
I trust the reader will not forget the immense difficulty of an attempt
so perfectly new as the present, where I have had no predecessors, and
therefore could have no master. If I have opened the way for others to
do better what I have done imperfectly, I shall have every reason to be
thankful. I have kept most of the translations by me for at least the
nine years recommended
by Horace; and now offer them as a contribution to the hymnology of our own
Church. And while fully sensible of their imperfections, I may yet (by way
of excuse rather than of boast) say, almost in Bishop Hall’s words—
“I first adventure: follow me who list,
And be the second Eastern Melodist.”
Sackville College,
Feast of the Epiphany, 1862.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
I had not ventured to hope that, whatever be the beauty of these Hymns in
their original language, a Second Edition of the Translation should so soon
have been called for. And it has been an additional pleasure to me to find
that, notwithstanding the miserable inferiority of the version, the words of
S. Cosmas, S. John Damascene, and S. Joseph of the Studium, have been already
introduced into English congregations. One Hymnal which has been kindly sent
to me, contains no less than eleven Greek Hymns. In the present Edition, all
those versions which did not rhyme,—that is, which would be of no
practical use, are omitted.[Restored in the electronic edition.]
Of the Canon for
S. Thomas’ Sunday more is given: and in some cases where, of alternate
rhymes, the one-half was permitted to remain without consonance, the
defect has been remedied, I hope, without much injury to the sense. It would
be ungrateful if I did not express my gratitude for the way in which my
little book has been received, notwithstanding its manifold imperfections.
Sackville College,
Nov. 16th, 1862.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
It is of course a matter of deep thankfulness to me that the Eastern
Church should now be more and more widely brought before ordinary
congregations by means of some of the following versions. God grant
that this may be one little help towards the great work of Reunion.
I have been more than once asked to what tunes any of the hymns
contained in this little book may be sung. The following is a list
of all the settings with which I am acquainted:—
- “Peace! It is I!” by the Rev. T. Helmore, M.A. Second Edition.
Novello. 1863.
- “The Day of Resurrection:” by the Rev. T. Helmore, M.A.
Novello. 1863.
- “The Day is past and over:” by the Rev. T. Helmore, M.A.
Second Edition. Novello. 1865.
- “The Day is past and over:” by Arthur Henry Brown Organist of Brentwood.
Second Edition. Masters.
- “Fierce was the wild billow:” by Edith Kerr. Novello.
- Fortitude: a Sacred Song. [i.e., “Christian, dost thou see them?”]
Music by M. E. H. S. Novello.
- Hymns of the Holy Eastern Church; set to music for four voices by
Edmund Sedding. London, Masters. [This contains five.]
- Hymns of the Eastern Church. In competent score for four voices.
Second Edition. London: Novello. Leicester: Crossley and Clarke.
[This contains six. As it has no distinguishing title, it is referred
to in the following page as H.E.C.]
In the Church Hymnal of the Rev. J. F. Young, which having appeared
in Philadelphia is reprinting in London, eleven of these hymns occur:
the Greek being given as well as the English.
Each of the above melodies will be found noticed at the end of
the Hymn which has been set to it.
And so once more I commit this attempt to
further the cause of English Hymnology to God’s blessing, and I cannot
do it better than in the quaint old words of a forgotten poet:—
“I long have longed to do some little good,
(According to the best I understood,)
By Thy good grace assisting, which I do
Most humbly beg for: O adjoin it to
My longing ardent soul; and have respect
To this my weak endeavour, and accept
(In Thy great mercy) both of it and me,
Ev’n as we dedicate ourselves to Thee.”
Sackville College,
April, 1866.
INTRODUCTION.
As a general rule, the first poetical attempts of the Eastern, like
those of the Western, Church, were in classical measures. But as classical
Greek died out from being a spoken language,—as new trains of thought
were familiarized,—as new words were coined,—a versification
became valueless, which was attached with no living bonds to the new energy,
to the onward movement. Dean Trench has admirably expressed this truth in
the introduction to his “Sacred Latin Poetry,” and showed how
the “new wine must be put into new bottles.” Ecclesiastical
terms must be used, which rebel against classical metre: in Greek, no
less than in Latin, five words in eight would be shut out of the principal
classical rhythms. Now, the Gospel was preached to the poor. Church hymns
must be the life-expression of all hearts. The Church was forced to
make a way for saying in poetry what her message bade her say.As
an illustration of this remark, it is worth while noticing how
very few examples of Hexameters occur in the New Testament. I believe
that the following are all that are tolerable; that is, that
can so be scanned without one or two false qualities:—
S. Luke 21:18. |
Θριξ εκ της κεψαλησ υμων ου μη αποληται. |
S. John 8:5. |
βαλλει υδωρ εισ τον νιπτηρα, και ηρξατο νιπτειν. |
S. John 8:16. |
ουκ εστι [ν] δουλος μειζων του κυριον αυτου. |
S. John 17:20. |
και περι των πιστευσοντων δια του λογου αυτων. |
Titus 3:2. |
μηδενα βλασϕημειν, αμαχουσ ειναι, επιεικεις. |
Heb. 12:13. |
και τροχιας ορθας ποιησατε τοισ ποσιν υμων. |
There are some which are very near a hexameter: as S. Matt. 23:6—
και τας προτοκαθεδριας εν ταις συναγωγαις.
A tolerable pentameter occurs in Rom. 6:13—
και τα μελη υμων οπλα δικαιοσυνης.
and a remarkable iambic in the Lord’s Prayer.
τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον διδου.
S. Gregory Nazianzen, the first Greek Church poet, used only the
ordinary classical measures. S. Sophronius of Jerusalem employed (and in
their way not unhappily), Anacreontics: and his hymns on various festivals
have some elegance. But there is a certain degree of dilittante-ism,
rather than of earnestness, in these compositions; and the most airy,
tripping, frivolous measure that the Greek Muse possessed, never, by any
possibility, could form the ordinary utterance of the Church. The Church
compositions of S. Sophronius, though called
ποιηματα,
are in fact mere prose: as those grand prayers on the Epiphany.
How then was the problem to be solved as to
the composition of Eastern Church Song? In Latin, somewhat before the
time of S. Sophronius, A.D. 630, it was answered by
that glorious introduction of rhyme. Why not in Greek also?
Now, it is no less true in Greek, than in Latin, that there was
a tendancy to rhyme from the very beginning. Open Homer: look for
caudate rhymes:—
Νημερτης τε και Αψευδης και Καλλιανασσα
Ενθαδ εην Κλυμενη, Ιανειρα και Ιϕιανασσα.
Il. 18:46
Αστεος αιθομενοιο θεων δε Fε μηνις ανηκεν.
Πασι δε θηκε πονον, πολλοισι δε κηδε εϕηκεν
Ως Αχιλευς Τρωεσσι πονον και κηδεα θηκεν
Il. 21:523
Ου μεν γαρ μειζον κλεος ανερος, οϕρα κεν ησιν
Ηο τι ποσσιν τε πεξει και χερσι Fεησιν
Odyss. 8:147
Leonines are still more common. The reader’s attention
is particularly requested to those that follow:—
Il. 2:220. |
Εχθιστος δ Αχιλει μαλιστ ην, ηδ Οδυσηι |
484. |
Εσπετε νυν μοι, Μουσαι, Ολυμπια δωματ εχουσαι |
475. |
Ρεια δοακρινωσιν, επει κε νομω μιγεωσιν. |
3:84. |
Ως εϕαθ οι δ εσχοντο μαχης, ανεω τ εγενοντο. |
5:529. |
Ω ϕιλοι, ανερες εστε, και αλκιμον ητορ ελεσθε. |
6:242. |
Τον δ Ελενη μυθοισι προσηυδα μειλιχιοισι. |
Od. 1:40. |
Εκ γαρ Ορεσταο τισις εσσεται
ΑτρεFιδαο. |
397. |
Αυταρ εγω Fοικοιο
Fαναξ εσομ ημετεροιο. |
4:121. |
Εκ δ Ελενη θαλαμοιο θυωδεος υψοροϕοιο. |
14:371. |
Ασπιδας, οσσαι αρισται ενι στρατω ηδε μεγισται. |
And I might mark multitudes more: but these are enough by way of example.
The question then occurs at once, Why did not the new life, instilled into
the Greek as well as into the Latin language by Christianity, seize the grand
capability of RHYME in the one case as well as in the other?
How stately it would have been in anapaestics! how sweet in trochaics! Why
was it neglected?
For this reason: the reader must remember that HARDLY
ONE1st ed.: NONE OF THE
RHYMES I HAVE BEEN POINTING OUT IN HOMER WOULD
BE RHYMES TO A GREEK EAR. Read them accentually, and
you find
αρισται and
μεγισται
are no more double
rhymes to a Greek than gloriously and furiously are to us:
μουσαι and
εχουσαι,
no more than glory and victory. Accent, in the
decline of the language, was trampling down quantity. Now accent
is not favourable to such rhymes, though many poems have been
thus composed in the newer Greek:
ευρον ϕιλον κοματακη
καθ οπερ τετραγωνακη.
But it was not sufficiently removed from every-day
life,—too familiar,—had too little dignity. There was an
innate vulgarity about it which rendered it impossible to the Church.
Now, let it be observed, accentuation even in Latin was not without its
difficulty. In the new style, dissyllables, whatever their real quantity,
were always read—and so we read them today—as trochees.
Férox, vélox, scéptrum.
Hence a verse in the early metrical hymns, such as—
“Castos fides somnos juvat,”
a dimeter iambic, would have been read in mediaeval times,
Cástos fídes sómnos júvat,
and so have virtually become a demeter trochaic.
Popular poetry soon devised its own metre, political verse,
as it was called, because used for every-day domestic matters.
This was none other than a favourite metre of Aristophanes,—iambic
tetrameter catalectic, our own ballad rhythm:—
“A captain bold of Halifax,
who lived in country quarters.”
And this, sometimes with rhyme, sometimes without, is the
favourite Romaic metre to the present day. For example:—
μη δια θυρας βαινειν δε λεγω τους κλεπταββαδας,
χωστους, εγκλειστους, ελκοντας θηρια, στελοβατας,
παντας οσοι παρα τα νομιμα δρωσι τον βιον,
και τον μονωτροπουντων δε, πλην εν ερημου τροποις.
The Church never attempted this sing-song stanza, and preferred
falling back on an older form.
From the brief allusions we find to the subject in the New Testament,
we should gather that “the hymns and spiritual songs” of the
Apostles were written in metrical prose. Accustomed as many of the
early Christians were to the Hebrew Scriptures, this is not unlikely;
and proof seems strong that it was so. Compare these passages:—
Eph 5:14. |
Wherefore he saith:
εγειρε ο καθευδων,
και αναστα εκ των νεκρων
επιφαυσει σοι ο Χριστος.
|
Undoubtedly the fragment of a hymn. Again:—
Rev 4:8. |
μεγαλα και Θαμαστα τα εργα σου,
Κυριε ο Θεος ο παντοκρατωρ
δικαιαι και αληθιναι αι οδοι σου,
ο βασιλευς των εθνων. |
And nearly coeval with these we have the Gloria in Excelsis,
the Ter Sanctus, and the Joyful Light. Also the Eastern
phase, so to speak, of the Te Deum; the
καθ εκαστην ημεραν.
And to this rhythmical prose the Church now turned.
Then, not to pursue the subject with a detail of which this Introduction
will not admit, we find that by the beginning of the eighth century, verse,
properly speaking (and that with scarcely an exception), had been discarded
for ever from the hymns of the Eastern Church; those hymns, occupying a
space beyond all comparison greater
than they do in the Latin, being written in measured prose. And now to
explain the system.
The stanza which is to form the model of the succeeding
stanzas,—the strophe, in fact,—is called the Hirmos,
from its drawing others after it. The stanzas which are to follow it
are called troparia, from their turning to it.
Let Ps. 119:13, be the Hirmos;—
“I will talk of Thy commandments
and have respect unto Thy ways.”
Then verse 15 would be a troparion to it:—
“With my lips have been I telling:
of all the judgments of Thy mouth.”
So would 17:—
“O do well unto Thy servant:
that I may live, and keep Thy word.”
and Ps. 102:16:—
“When the LORD shall build up Sion:
and when His glory shall appear.”
Let verse 44 be a Hirmos:
“So shall I always keep Thy law:
yea, for ever and ever.”
and 45 will be a troparion to it:—
“And I will walk at liberty:
for I seek Thy commandments.”
These troparia are always divided for chanting by commas,—utterly
irrespective of the sense. This separation into commatisms renders
it very difficult to read them without practice. Take an example,
with the corresponding effect in English:—
Ωιδη α· ηχος δ& 183; ο ειρμος
Θαλασσας το ερυθραιου τελαγος, αβροχοις ιχνεσιν,
ο παλαιος πεζευσας Ισραηλ, σταυροτυποις Μωσεως χερσι,
του Αμαληκ την δυναμιν, εν τη ερημω ετροπωσατο.
“Israel in
ancient times passing on foot with, unbedewed steps
the Red Gulf, of the sea, turned to flight by, the cross-typifying
arms, of Moses the might of Amalek, in the wilderness.”
The perfection of troparia is in a
Canon,
of which I shall say more
presently. I need not trouble the reader with the minute distinction
between troparia and stichera; as a troparion
follows a Hirmos, so a sticheron follows an homoion,
and then becomes a prosomoion. There are also
idiomela,—that is, stanzas which are their own models,—and
an infinite variety of names expressive of the different kind of troparia.
A collection of any number of
troparia, preceded by their Hirmos,
sometimes merely quoted by its initial words, sometimes given at
length, and with inverted commas, is an Ode.
Let the Hirmos, be as before—
“With my lips have I,” &c.
and the Ode might follow thus:—
Hirmos.
“With my lips have I been telling: of all the judgments of Thy mouth.
“Let us break their bonds asunder: and cast away their cords from us.
“I am weary of my groaning: and every night I wash my bed.
“For he lieth waiting secret: ly as a lion in his den.
“I am poured out like water: and all my bones are out of joint.”
Glory.
“I will talk of thy commandments: and have respect unto thy ways.”
Both now.
And let this be most carefully observed: an Ode is simply a
Sequence
under somewhat different laws. Just when the Greek system of
ecclesiastical poetry was fully developed, S. Notker and the Monks of S.
Gall hit out a similar one for the Latin Church: the Sequence or the Prose.
It was not copied from the East, for we have
S. Notker’s own account
of the way in which he invented it. It prospered to a certain extent; that
is, it became one, though the least important, branch of Ecclesiastical
verses.
Now the perfection of Greek poetry is attained by the Canons at Lauds,
of which I proceed to speak.
A Canon consists of Nine
Odes,—each
Ode containing any number
of troparia from three to beyond twenty. The reason for the number nine
is this: that there are nine Scriptural canticles, employed at Lauds,
(εις τον Ορθρον),
on the model of which those in every Canon are formed:
- of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea
- of Moses in Deuteronomy (chap. 33)
- of Hannah
- of Habakkuk
- of Isaiah (26:9-20)
- of Jonah
- of the Three Children (verses 3-34 of our “Song” in the Bible Version)
- Benedicite (the “Prayer of Azarias”, verses 35-66)
- Magnificat
and Benedictus.
From this arrangement two consequences follow. The first, that, as the
Second Canticle is never recited except in Lent, the Canons never have any
second Ode. The second, that there is generally some reference, either
direct or indirect, in each Ode, to the Canticle of the same number: in the
first Ode, e.g., to the Song of Moses at the Red Sea: in the third
to that of Hannah. This gives rise, on the one hand, to a marvellous amount
of ingenuity, in tracing the most far-fetched connexions,—in
discovering the most remote types;—it brings out into the clearest
light the wonderful analogies which underlie the surface of Scripture
narration; and so far imbues each Ode with a depth of Scriptural meaning
which it could scarcely otherwise reach. On the other, it has a stiffening
and cramping effect; and sometimes, especially to the uninitiated, has
somewhat of a ludicrous tendency. It would be curious to sum up the variety
of objects of which, in a thousand Sixth Odes, we find Jonah’s Whale
a type. On the whole, this custom has about the same disadvantages and
advantages which Warton points out as resulting from the four rhymes of a
Spenserian stanza;—the advantages,—picturesqueness, ingenuity,
discovery of new beauties: the disadvantages,—art not concealed by
art, tautology, imparity of similitudes, a caricature of typology, painful
and affected elaboration.
The Hirmos, on which each Ode is based, is
sometimes quoted at length at the commencement, in which case it is always
distinguished by inverted commas; or the first few words are merely cited
as a note to the singer, for whose benefit the Tone is also given.
The next noticeable matter is that these Odes are usually arranged after
an acrostich, itself commonly in verse: sometimes alphabetical. The latter
device was probably borrowed from the Psalms; as for example the 25, 112,
119. The arrangement is not to be considered as a useless formality or
pretty-ism: it was of the greatest importance, when so many
Canons had to be remembered by heart. We know to what curious devices the
Western Church, in matters connected with the Calendar, had recourse as a
Memoria Technica; and not a few of her short hymns were alphabetical,
either by verses or by lines. I know no instance of any other kind of
acrostich. Besides the line which forms the initials of Greek Canons,
the name of the composer likewise finds a frequent place. And it is worth
noticing that, whereas the authors of the world-famous hymns of the
West, with a few exceptions (such as the Vexilla Regis, the Dies
Irae, the Veni Sancte Spiritus), are unknown, the case in the
East is reversed. The acrostich may, or may not, run through the Theotokia,
of which I now proceed to speak.
Each Ode is ended by a troparion, dedicated to the celebration of S.
Mary, and thence named Theotokion. Sometimes there is another, which
commemorates her at the Cross; and then it is a Stauro-theotokion.
In long Canons, a stanza, sometimes intercalated at the end of the third or
sixth Odes, is called a Cathisma, because the congregation are then
allowed to sit. There is also the Oicos, literally the
House,—which is the
exact Italian Stanza,—about the length of three ordinary
troparia. The Catavasia is a troparion in which both choirs come down
together, and stand in the middle of the Church, singing it in common.
The acrostichs are usually in iambics,—sometimes none of the
best: e.g.—
εκπληττομαι σου τους λογους Ζαχαρια,
on the feast of S. Zacharias the Prophet:—and generally bringing in
some paronomasia on the Saint’s names; as—
ϕερωνυμον σε του Θεου δωρον σεβω, on
that of S. Dorotheus.
Or again:—
τρυϕης μεθεξειν αξιωσον με, Τρυϕων& 183;
and of S. Clement:
μελπω σε, κλημα της νομτης αμπελου.
But there are examples of acrostichs which take the form of an
hexameter, as—
εικαδι ουρανου εις ξενιην Ξενη ηλθε τεταρτη.
τον παναριστον εν ασκηταις Μακαριον κυδαινω·
and
Τιμοθεον τον Αποστολον, ασμασιτοισδε γεραιρω·
and
τον θεορημονα Γρηγοριον τον αιοδιμον αδω·
I shall more than once have occasion to observe that, while the earlier
Odes, which treat of such subjects as the Resurrection, Ascension, Nativity,
are magnificent specimens of religious poetry, the later ones, composed in
commemoration of martyrs, of whom nothing but the fact of their martyrdom
is known, are often grievously dull and heavy. Herein the Eastern Church
would have done well; to have had, for such as these, a Canon of the Common
of Martyrs, instead of
celebrating each differently; if the tautology which composes such Odes
can indeed be called different.
I said,
some short time since,
that the Greek Ode and the Latin
Notkerian Sequence were essentially the same. This being so, it is to
introduce confusion into the very axioms of hymnology to call that kind of
Sequence, as Mone does, by the name of Troparion. The Troparion does not
answer to the Sequence, but to each stanza of the Sequence. The differences
between Odes and Sequences may be briefly summed up as follows:—
1. The Hirmos in the former has a number of Troparia following it
and based on it, whereas in the latter the Troparia run in couples;
that is, one Hirmos has one follower, or Troparion, and
there an end; then, another follows another, and so on. There are sometimes
triplets, but these are not common.
2. The Hirmos in Greek Odes is always an already existing
Troparion; whereas, in Latin, the writer generally composed that as much
as any other part of the Sequence. But in certain Sequences this was not
always the case. Godeschalkus sometimes took a verse from the Psalms.
3. Sometimes, indeed, a whole Sequence was made super some other
Sequence, and then it became a vast Troparion, the different verses taking
the place of the commatisms in Greek Odes. In the February number of
The Ecclesiologist for 1859, is given a list of Hirmos-Sequences,
from the Brander MS. of S. Gall. But even in these cases, it is better not
to call them Troparia, as they have so little real resemblance to Greek
stanzas of that kind: I had rather see them called Homoia.
4. The rhythm in the Greek is far more exact.
Not only the syllabic arrangement, but the
accentuation is the same; whereas in Latin, the accentuation is often
counter; that is, an iambic dimeter in the Hirmos is answered by a
trochaic dimeter in the Troparion. For example, if the Hirmos were,—
“The LORD is great in Sion;
and high above all people,”
the requirements of a Sequence would be satisfied with the Troparion,
“Look upon my misery:
and forgive me all my sins.”
Such a licence would not for one moment be allowed in the Greek.
I next have to speak of the books in which Greek Hymnology is to
be found. They consist principally of sixteen volumes.
α. Twelve of the
Menaea:—which would answer, in Western Ritual, to the
Breviary, minus the ferial offices. But, whereas in the
West the only human compositions of the Breviary are the lections
from the sermons of the Fathers, the hymns, and a few responses—the
body of the Eastern Breviary is ecclesiastical poetry: poetry not,
strictly speaking, written in verse, but in measured prose. This is
the staple of those three thousand pages—under whatever name the
stanzas may be presented—forming Canons and Odes; as, Troparia,
Idiomela, Stichera, Stichoi, Contakia, Cathismata, Theotokia, Triodia,
Staurotheotokia, Catavasiae,—or whatever else. Nine-tenths of the
Eastern Service-book is poetry.
β. The Paracletice, or
Great Octoechus: in eight parts.
- This contains the Ferial Office for eight weeks. Each week has on
Sunday—
- A Canon of the Trinity.
- A Canon of the Resurrection.
- A Canon of the Cross and Resurrection.
- A Canon of the Mother of GOD (one or more).
- On Monday:
- A Canon of Penitence.
- A Canon of the Angels.
- On Tuesday:
- A Canon of Penitence.
- A Canon of the Forerunner.
- On Wednesday:
- A Canon of the Cross.
- A Canon of the Mother of GOD.
- On Thursday:
- A Canon of the Apostles.
- A Canon of S. Nicolas.
- On Friday:
- A Canon of the Passion.
- A Canon of the Mother of GOD (two).
- On Saturday:
- A Canon of Prophets and Martyrs.
- A Canon of the Dead.
In the first week, the whole of the Canons are sung to the
first Tone: in the second, to the second, and so on. The Greek
Tones answer to our Gregorian, thus:—
Latin. | Greek. |
Tone I. | I. |
II. | I. Plagal. |
III. | II. |
IV. | II. Plagal. |
V. | III. |
VI. | Varys (heavy.) |
VII. | IV. |
VIII. | IX. Plagal. |
The Paracletice forms a quarto volume (double columns) of 350
pages: at least half is the work of Joseph of the Studium. The
Octoechus, sometimes called the Little Octoechus, contains the
Sunday services from the Paracletice: they are often printed separately.
γ. The Triodion: the
Lent volume, which commences on the Sunday of the Pharisee and Publican
(that before Septuagesima) and goes down to Easter. It is so called,
because the leading Canons have, during that period, only three Odes.
δ. The
Pentecostarion,—more properly the Pentecostarion
Charmosynon,—the Office for Easter-tide. On a moderate
computation, these volumes together comprise 5000 closely printed quarto
pages, in double columns, of which at least 4000 are poetry.
The thought that, in conclusion, strikes one is this: the marvellous
ignorance in which English ecclesiastical scholars are content to remain
of this huge treasure of divinity—the gradual completion
of nine centuries at least. I may safely calculate that not one out of twenty
who peruse these pages will ever have read a Greek “Canon”
through; yet what a glorious mass of theology do these offices present! If the
following pages tend in any degree to induce the reader to study these books
for himself, my labour could hardly have been spent to a better result.
EPOCHS OF
GREEK ECCLESIASTICAL POETRY1st ed. only, p. B.
Like that of the Latin, the Poetry of the Greek Church may be divided
into three epochs:—
I. That of formation, while it was gradually throwing off the
bondage of classical metres, and inventing and perfecting its various
styles; and this ends about A.D. 726.
II. That of perfection: which, as we shall see, nearly coincides
with the period of the Iconoclastic Controversy, A.D. 726-820.
III. That of decadence: when the effeteness of an effeminate
Court, and the dissolution of a decaying Empire, reduced ecclesiastical
poetry, by slow degrees, to a stilted bombast, giving great words to little
meaning, heaping up epithet on epithe, tricking out common-places in diction
more and more gorgeous, till sense and simplicity are alike sought in vain.
A.D. 820-1400.
FIRST EPOCH.
A.D. 360—A.D. 726.
It is not my intention to dwell on the hymn writers of this period,
such as S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Sophronius, because their works
have not been employed in the Divine Office, are merely an imitation
of classical writers, and, however occasionally pretty, are not the
stuff out of which Church-song is made. There is but one writer in
this epoch who gives spring-promise of the approaching summer, and
that is S. Anatolius.
S. Anatolius.
+ 458.
The first poet who emancipated himself from the tyranny of the old
laws—hence to be compared to Venantius Fortunatus in the West—and
who boldly struck out the new path of harmonious prose, was S. Anatolius
of Constantinople. His commencements were not promising. He had been
apocrisiarius, or legate, from the arch-heretic Dioscorus to
the Emperor’s Court: and at the death of S. Flavian, in consequence of the
violence received in the “Robbers’ Meeting” at Ephesus,
A.D. 449, was, by the influence of his Pontiff, raised to
the vacant throne of Constantinople. He soon, however, vindicated his
orthodoxy; and in the Council of Chalcedon, he procured
the enactment of the famous 28th Canon, by which, (in spite of all the
efforts of Rome,) Constantinople was raised to the second place among
Patriarchal Sees. Having governed his Church eight years in peace, he
departed to his rest in A.D. 458. His compositions are not
numerous, and are almost all short, but they are usually very spirited.
STICHERA FOR A SUNDAY OF THE FIRST TONE.
6,4,6,4
Anatolius, ~458
ζοϕερας τρικυμιας.
Fierce was the wild billow;
Dark was the night;
Oars laboured heavily;
Foam glimmered white;
Trembled the mariners;
Peril was nigh;
Then said the GOD of GOD,
—“Peace! It is I!”
Ridge of the mountain-wave,
Lower thy crest!
Wail of Euroclydon,
Be thou at rest!
Sorrow can never be,—
Darkness must fly,—
Where saith the Light of Light,
—“Peace! It is I!”
Jesu, Deliverer!
Come Thou to me:
Soothe Thou my voyaging
Over Life’s sea!
Thou, when the storm of Death
Roars, sweeping by,
Whisper, O Truth of Truth!
—“Peace! It is I!”
[The above hymn has been set by my friend Mr. Helmore; also in
H. E. C., of which it forms No. 1: also by Miss Kerr. The last
melody is, to my mind, especially beautiful.]
EVENING HYMN.
την ημεραν διελθων.
This little hymn, which, I believe, is not used in the public service
of the Church, is a great favourite in the Greek Isles. Its peculiar style
and evident antiquity may well lead to the belief that it is the work of our
present author. It is, to the scattered hamlets of Chios and Mitylene, what
Bishop Ken’s Evening Hymn is to the villages of our own land; and its melody
singularly plaintive and soothing.
7,6,7,6,8,8
Anatolius, ~458
The day is past and over;
All thanks, O LORD, to Thee!
I pray Thee, that offenceless
The hours of dark may be.
O Jesu! keep me in Thy sight,
And save me through the coming night!
The joys of day are over:
I lift my heart to Thee;
And call on Thee, that sinless
The hours of sin may be.
O Jesu! make their darkness light,
And save me through the coming night!
The toils of day are over:
I raise the hymn to Thee;
And ask that free from peril
The hours of fear may be.
O Jesu! keep me in Thy sight,
And guard me through the coming night!
Lighten mine eyes, O SAVIOUR,
Or sleep in death shall I,
And he, my wakeful tempter,
Triumphantly shall cry:
“He could not make their darkness light,
Nor guard them through the hours of night!”
Be Thou my soul’s preserver,
O GOD! for Thou dost know
How many are the perils
Through which I have to go:
Lover of men! O hear my call,
And guard and save me from them all!
[set by Mr. Helmore: also by Mr. Arthur Brown. Both
settings have reached a second Edition.]
S. Stephen’s Day
STICHERA AT VESPERS
7,6,7,6
Anatolius, ~458
τω Βασιλει και Δεσποτη.
The LORD and King of all things
But yesterday was born:
And Stephen’s glorious offering
His birthtide shall adorn.
No pearls of orient splendour,
No jewels can he show;
But with his own true heart’s-blood
His shining vestments glow.
Come, ye that love the Martyrs,
And pluck the flow’rs of song,
And weave them in a garland
For this our suppliant throng;
And cry,—O thou that shinest
In grace’s brighest ray,
CHRIST’s valiant Protomartyr,
For peace and favour pray!
Thou first of all Confessors,
Thou of all Deacons crown,
Of every following athlete
The glory and renown:
Make supplication, standing
Before CHRIST’s Royal Throne,
That He would give the kingdom,
And for our sins atone!
[In contrast with the above Stanzas, the reader may not be
displeased to compare the celebrated sequence of Adam of S. Victor, Heri
mundus exultavit; which has never yet, I believe, appeared in
English.]1st ed. only, p. 8-10.
8,8,7,8,8,7
Adam of St. Victor
HERI MUNDUS EXULTAVIT
Yesterday, with exultation
Joined the world in celebration
Of her promised Saviour’s birth:
Yesterday the Angel nation
Poured the strains of jubilation
O’er the Monarch born on earth.
But today, o’er death victorious,
By his faith and actions glorious,
By his miracles renowned,
Dared the Deacon Protomartyr
Earthly life for Heav’n to barter,
Faithful midst the faithless found.
Forward, champion, in thy quarrel!
Certain of a certain laurel,
Holy Stephen, persevere!
Perjured witnesses confounding,
Satan’s Synagogue astounding
By thy doctrine true and clear.
Lo! in Heav’n thy Witness liveth;
Bright and faithful proof He giveth
Of His Martyr’s full success:
Thou by name a Crown impliest;
Meetly then in pangs thou diest
For the Crown of Righteousness!
For a crown that fadeth never,
Bear the torturer’s brief endeavour,
Victory waits to end the strife.
Death shall be thy birth’s beginning,
And life’s losing be the winning
Of a true and better life.
Whom the HOLY GHOST endueth,
Whom celestial light imbueth,
Stephen penetrates the skies:
There GOD’s fullest glory viewing,
There his victor strength renewing,
For his near reward he sighs.
See, as Jewish foes invade thee,
See, how JESUS stands to aid thee:
Stands, to guard His champion’s death!
Cry that opened Heav’n is shown thee:
Cry that JESUS waits to own thee:
Cry it with thy latest breath!
As the dying Martyr kneeleth,
For his murderers he appealeth,
And his prayer their pardon sealeth,
For their madness grieving sore;
Then to CHRIST he sleepeth sweetly,
Who His pattern kept completely,
And with CHRIST he reigneth meetly,
Martyr first-fruits, evermore!
STICHERA FOR CHRISTMAS-TIDE.
7,6,7,6
Anatolius, ~458
μεγα και παραδοξον Θαυμα.
A great and mighty wonder!
A full and holy cure!1st ed.: The festal makes secure:
The Virgin bears the Infant,
With Virgin-honour pure!
The Word becomes Incarnate,Compare S. Thomas: Verbum supernum prodiens, Nec Patris linquens dexteram.
And yet remains on high:
And Cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds from the sky.
And we with them triumphant
Repeat the hymn again:
“To GOD on high be glory,
And peace on earth to men!”
While thus they sing your Monarch,
Those bright angelic bands,
Rejoice, ye vales and mountains!
Ye oceans, clap your hands!
Since all He comes to ransom,
By all be He adored,
The Infant born in Bethlehem,
The Saviour and the LORD!
And idol forms shall perish,
And error shall decay,
And CHRIST shall wield His sceptre,
Our LORD and GOD for aye.
[In Mr. Young’s book. Melody of Christus der ist mein Leben.
Harmony by M. Vulpius, 1609.]
IDIOMELON FOR CHRISTMAS.1st ed. only, p. 13.
i
Anatolius, ~458
In Bethlehem is He born,
Maker of all things, everlasting GOD!
He opens Eden’s gate,
Monarch of Ages! Thence the fiery sword
Gives glorious passage; thence
That severing mid-wall overthrown, the Powers
Of earth and Heav’n are one:
Angels and men renew their ancient league,
The pure rejoin the pure
In happy union! Now the Virgin-womb,
Like some cherubic throne,
Containeth Him, the Uncontainable:
Bears Him, Who while they bear
The Seraphs tremble: bears Him, as He comes
To shower upon the world
The fulness of His everlasting love.
SECOND EPOCH.
A.D. 726—A.D. 820.
The second period of Greek Hymnology is very nearly, as I said,
coincident with the Iconoclastic controversy. Its first writer, indeed,
died shortly after the commencement of that stormy age, and took no share
in its Councils or sufferings; while the last hymnographer who bore a
part in its proceedings, S. Joseph of the Studium, belongs to the decline
of his art. With these two exceptions, the ecclesiastical poets of this
period were not not only thrown into the midst of that great struggle,
but, with scarcely one exception, took an active share in it.
A few words on that conflict of one hundred
and sixteen years are absolutely necessary, if we would understand
the progress and full development of Greek Hymnography. No controversy
has been more grossly misapprehended; none, without the key of
subsequent events, could have been so difficult to appreciate.
Till Calvinism, and its daughter Rationalism, showed the ultimate
development of Iconoclast principles, it must have been well nigh
impossible to realize the depth of feeling on the side of the Church,
or the greatness of the interests attacked by her opponents. We may,
perhaps, doubt whether even the Saints of that day fully understood
the character of the battle; whether they did not give up ease, honour,
possessions, life itself, rather from an intuitive perception that
their cause was the cause of the Catholic faith, than from a logical
appreciation of the results to which the Image-destroyers were
tending. Just as in the early part of the Nestorian controversy, many
and many a simple soul must have felt intuitively that the title of
Theotocos was to be defended, without seeing the full consequences
to which its denial would subsequently lead. The supporters of Icons,
by universal consent, numbered amongst their ranks all that was pious
and venerable in the Eastern Church. The Iconoclasts seem to have
been a legitimate outbreak of that secret creeping Manichaeism, which,
under the various names of Turlupins, Bogomili, or Good-men,
so long devastated CHRIST’s fold.
We must keep the landmarks of the controversy in sight. Commenced by
Leo the Isaurian, in A.D. 726, the persecution was carried
on by his despicable son, Constantine Copronymus, who also endeavoured to
destroy monasticism. The great Council of Constantinople, attended by
338 prelates, in 752, which rejected the use of images, was the culminating
success of the Iconoclasts. Lulling at the death of Constantine, the
persecution again raged in the latter years of his successor Leo, and
was only terminated by the death of that prince, and the succession of
Constantine and Irene. The Second Council of Nicaea, Seventh Oecumenical
(A.D. 787), attended by 377 Bishops, seemed to end the
heresy; but it again broke out under the Iconoclast Emperor, Leo the
Armenian (813), and after having been carried on under the usurper Michael,
and his son Theophilus, ended with the death of the latter in 842. In the
Hymnographers of this epoch, it may be noticed that the Second Council of
Nicaea forms the culminating point of ecclesiastical poetry. Up to that
date, there is a vigour and freshness which the twenty-eight years of
peace succeeding the Council corrupted, and that rapidly, with the
fashionable language of an effete court, and deluged with Byzantine
bombast.
S. Andrew of Crete.
A.D. 660 A.D. 732.
Andrew was born at Damascus, about the year 660, and embraced the
monastic life at Jerusalem, from which city he sometimes takes his name.
Hence he was sent on ecclesiastical business to Constantinople, where
he became a Deacon of the Great Church, and Warden of the Orphanage. His
first entrance on public life does no credit to his sanctity. During the
reign of Philippicus Bardanes, (711-714) he was raised by that usurper
to the Archiepiscopate of Crete; and shortly afterwards was one of the
Pseudo-Synod of Constantinople, held under the Emperor’s auspices in
A.D. 712, which condemned the Sixth Oecumenical Council, and
restored the Monothelite heresy. At a later period, however, he returned
to the faith of the Church, and refuted the error into which he had fallen.
Seventeen of his Homilies, rather laboured than eloquent, remain to us:
that in which he rises highest is, not unnaturally, his sermon on S. Titus,
Apostle of Crete. He died in the island of Hierissus, near Mitylene, about
the year 732.
As a poet, his most ambitious composition is the Great Canon;
which, partially used during other days of Lent, is sung right
through on the Thursday of Mid-Lent week, called, indeed, from
that hymn. His Triodia in Holy Week, and Canon on Mid-Pentecost,
are fine; and he has a great variety of spirited Idiomela scattered
through the Triodion and Pentecostarion.
STICHERA FOR GREAT THURSDAY.
8,7,8,7,8,7
Andrew of Crete (~660-732)
το μεγα μυστηριον.
O the mystery, passing wonder,
When, reclining at the board,
“Eat,” Thou saidst to Thy Disciples,
“That True Bread with quickening stored:
“Drink in faith the healing Chalice
“From a dying GOD outpoured.”
Then the glorious upper chamber
A celestial tent was made,
When the bloodless rite was offered,
And the soul’s true service paid,
And the table of the feasters
As an altar stood displayed.
CHRIST is now our mighty pascha,
Eaten for our mystic bread:
Take we of His broken Body,
Drink we of the Blood He shed,
As a lamb led out to slaughter,
And for this world offered.
To the Twelve spake Truth eternal,
To the Branches spake the Vine:
“Never more from this day
Shall I taste again this wine,
Till I drink it in the kingdom
Of My FATHER, and with Mine.”
Thou hast stretched those hands for silver
That had held the immortal Food;
With the lips that late had tasted
Of the Body and the Blood,
Thou hast given the kiss, O Judas;
Thou hast heard the woe bestowed.
CHRIST to all the world gives banquet
On that most celestial Meat:
Him, albeit with lips all earthly,
Yet with holy hearts we greet:
Him, the sacrificial Pascha,
Priest and Victim all complete.
[In Mr. Young’s book. Melody of Pange lingua, harmonised by
Dr. Schroeder. I may add that I purposely chose this Stanza to suit
the melody of S. Thomas’s great bymn.]
TROPARIA FOR PALM SUNDAY.
The following Stanzas are from the triodion sung at
Compline on Palm Sunday: which has the same name among the Greeks as
among ourselves.
10,9,10,9
Andrew of Crete (~660-732)
Ιησους υπερ του κοσμου.
Jesus, hastening for the world to suffer,
Enters in, Jerusalem, to thee:
With His Twelve He goeth forth to offer
That free sacrifice He came to be.
They that follow Him with true affection
Stand prepared to suffer for His Name:
Be we ready then for man’s rejection,
For the mockery, the reproach, the shame.
Now, in sorrow, sorrow finds its healing:
In the form wherein our father fell,
CHRIST appears, those quick’ning Wounds revealing,
Which shall save from sin and death and hell.
Now, Judaea, call thy Priesthood nigh thee!
Now for Deicide prepare thy hands!
Lo! thy Monarch, meek and gentle by thee!
Lo! the Lamb and Shepherd in thee stands!
To thy Monarch, Salem, give glad greeting!
Willingly He hastens to be slain
For the multitude His entrance meeting
With their false Hosanna’s ceaseless strain.
“Blest is He That comes,” they cry,
“On the Cross for man to die!”
THE GREAT CANON,
CALLED ALSO
THE KING OF CANONS.
It would be unpardonable not to give a portion
of that which the Greeks
regard as the King of Canons—the Great Canon of the Mid-Lent
week. It is a collection of Scriptural examples, turned to the purpose of
penitential Confession. It is impossible to deny the beauty of many stanzas,
and the ingenuity of some tropological applications. But the immense length
of the Canon, for it exceeds three hundred stanzas, and its necessary
tautology, must render it wearisome, unless devotionally used under the
peculiar circumstances for which it is appointed. The following is a part
of the earlier portion.
6,6,8,6,10,10
Andrew of Crete (~660-732)
Ποθεν αρξομαι θρηνειν;
Whence shall my tears begin?
What first-fruits shall I bear
Of earnest sorrow for my sin?
Or how my woes declare?
O Thou! the Merciful and Gracious One
Forgive the foul transgressions I have done.
With Adam I have vied,
Yea, passed him, in my fall;
And I am naked now, by pride
And lust made bare of all;
Of Thee, O GOD, and that Celestial Band,
And all the glory of the Promised Land.
No earthly Eve beguiled
My body into sin:
A spiritual temptress smiled,
Concupiscence within:
Unbridled Passion grasped the unhallowed sweet:
Most bitter—ever bitter—was the meat.
If Adam’s righteous doom,
Because he dared transgress
Thy one decree, lost Eden’s bloom
And Eden’s loveliness:
What recompence, O LORD, must I expect,
Who all my life Thy quickening laws neglect?
By mine own act, like Cain,
A murderer was I made:
By mine own act my soul was slain,
When Thou wast disobeyed:
And lusts each day are quickened, warring still
Against Thy grace with many a deed of ill.
Thou formed’st me of clay,
O Heav’nly Potter! Thou
In fleshly vesture didst array,
With life and breath endow.
Thou Who didst make, didst ransom, and dost know
To Thy repentant creature pity show!
My guilt for vengeance cries;
But yet Thou pardonest all,
And whom Thou lov’st Thou dost chastise,
And mourn’st for them that fall:
Thou, as a Father, mark’st our tears and pain,
And welcomest the prodigal again.
I lie before Thy door,
O turn me not away!
Nor in mine old age give me o’er
To Satan for a prey!
But ere the end of life and term of grace,
Thou Merciful! my many sins efface!
The Priest beheld, and passed
The way he had to go:
A careless glance the Levite cast,
And left me to my woe:
But Thou, O JESU, Mary’s Son, console,
Draw nigh, and succour me, and make me whole!
Thou Spotless Lamb divine,
Who takest sins away,
Remove, remove, the load that mine
Upon my conscience lay:
And, of Thy tender mercy, grant Thou me
To find remission of iniquity
[In Mr. Young’s book: composed by Dr. Schroeder.]
STICHERA FOR THE SECOND WEEK OF THE GREAT FAST.
6,5,6,5
Andrew of Crete (~660-732)
ου γαρ βλεπεις τους παραττοντας.
Christian! dost thou see them
On the holy ground,
How the troops of Midian
Prowl and prowl around?
Christian! up and smite them,
Counting gain but loss:
Smite them by the merit
Of the Holy Cross!
Christian! dost thou feel them,
How they work within,
Striving, tempting, luring,
Goading into sin?
Christian! never tremble!
Never be down-cast!
Smite them by the virtue
Of the Lenten Fast!
Christian! dost thou hear them
How they speak thee fair?
“Always fast and vigil?
Always watch and prayer?”
Christian! say but boldly:
“While I breathe, I pray:”
Peace shall follow battle,
Night shall end in day.
“Well I know thy trouble,
O my servant true;
Thou art very weary,—
I was weary too:
But that toil shall make thee,
Some day, all Mine own:
But the end of sorrow
Shall be near My Throne.”
[In H. E. C., where it is No. 2. Also, as Fortitude, a Sacred Song,
by M. E. H. S. This is, of course, not intended to be used in Church;
but, as a song, it is extremely pretty.]
MESO-PENTECOST.1st ed. only, p. 30-32.
10,6,6,10,8,10
Andrew of Crete (~660-732)
[The day which halves the distance between Easter and Pentecost,
is a feast of no small dignity in the Oriental Church; and the Canon at lauds
is the composition of our present poet. I will try a portion of it in
rhymeless lyric meter, which, to my own mind, gives the truest representation
of the original.]
Exult, ye Gentiles! mourn, ye Hebrews! CHRIST,
Giver of Life, hath burst
The fetters of the Tomb:
And raised the dead again, and healed the sick.
This is our GOD, Who giveth health
To every soul believing on His Name.
Marvel of marvels! Thou, O LORD, didst turn
The water into wine,
As once Thou spak’st the word
To Egypt’s river, and forthwith ‘twas blood.
All praise to Thee, O LORD, Who now
By laying down Thy glory, man renew’st!
O overflowing stream of truest life,
Our Resurrection, LORD!
Thou for our sakes didst toil,
Thou for our sakes—so Nature willed—didst thirst:
And resting Thee by Sichar’s well,
Of the Samaritan didst seek to drink.
Thou blessest bread, Thou multipliest fish,
Incomprehensible!
Thou freely feed’st the crowd,
And givest Wisdom’s spring to thirsting men.
Thou art our SAVIOUR, O our GOD!
Giver of Life to them that trust in Thee!
Glory.
Three co-eternal, co-enthroned, I laud:
The unbegotten SIRE,
And Co-existant SON,
And SPIRIT, co-eternal with the Twain:
Tri-hypostatic Essence! One
In might and majesty and Godhead sole.
Both now.
Mother of GOD! Thou only didst contain
The Uncontainable;
And brought’st the Infant forth,
Ineffable in Thy Virginity.
Hence without ceasing, O most pure,
Vouchsafe to call down blessing on Thy flock!
Catavasia.
Thou turned’st the sea to land, when Thou didst whelm
Pharoah and all his host,
His chariot and his horse:
And ledd’st Thy people to the Holy Mount.
Sing we, said they, to Thee our GOD,
Mighty in War, this Ode of Victory!
S. Germanicus
A.D. 634—A.D. 734
S. Germanus of Constantinople was born in that city about 634. His father,
Justinian, a patrician, had the ill-fortune to excite the jealousy of
the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, who put him to death, and obliged Germanus
to enrol himself among the Clergy of the Great Church. Here he became
distinguished for piety and learning, and in process of time was made Bishop
of Cyzicus. In this capacity he assisted, with S. Andrew of Crete, in the
Synod of Constantinople of which I have just spoken: and no doubt, he might
be the more favourably disposed to Monothelitism because he had been so
deeply injured by its great opponent, Pogonatus. However, he also,
at a late period, expressly condemned that heresy. Translated to the throne
of Constantinople in 715, he governed his Patriarchate for some time in
tranquillity. At the beginning of the attack of Leo the Isaurian on Icons,
his letters, in opposition to the Imperial mandate, were the first warnings
which the Church received of the impending storm. Refusing to sign the
decrees of the Synod which was convoked by that Emperor in
A.D. 730, and stripping off his Patriarchal robes, with the
words—“It is impossible for me, Sire, to innovate, without the
sanction of the Oecumenical Council,” he was driven from his See, not,
it is said, without blows, and returned to his own house at Platanias, where
he thenceforth led a quiet and private life. He died shortly afterwards,
aged about one hundred years, and is regarded by the Greeks as one of their
most glorious Confessors.
The poetical compositions of S. Germanus are few.
He has stanzas on S. Simeon Stylites, on the Prophet Elias, and on
the Decollation of S. John Baptist. His most poetical work is perhaps
his Canon on the Wonder-working Image in Edessa. But probably
the following simpler stanzas, for Sunday in the Week of the First
Tone, will better commend themselves to the English reader.
A Sunday in the Week of the First Tone
8,8,8,8,8,8
Germanicus (634-734)
By fruit, the ancient Foe’s device
Drave Adam forth from Paradise:
CHRIST, by the cross of shame and pain,
Brought back the dying Thief again:
“When in Thy kingdom, LORD,” said he,
“Thou shalt return, remember me!”
Thy Holy Passion we adore
And Resurrection evermore:
With heart and voice to Thee on high,
As Adam and the Thief we cry:
“When in Thy kingdom Thou shalt be
“Victor o’er all things, think of me!”
Thou, after three appointed days,
Thy Body’s Temple didst upraise:
And Adam’s children, one and all,
With Adam, to New Life didst call:
“When Thou,” they cry, “shalt Victor be
“In that Thy kingdom, think of me!”
Early, O CHRIST, to find Thy Tomb,
The weeping Ointment-bearers come:
The Angel, clothed in white, hath said,
“Why seek the LIVING with the dead?
“The LORD of Life hath burst death’s chain,
“Whom here ye mourn and seek in vain.”
The Apostles, on Thy Vision bent,
To that appointed mountain went:
And there they worship when they see,
And there the message comes from Thee,
That every race beneath the skies
They should disciple and baptize.
We praise the FATHER, GOD on High,
The Holy SON we magnify:
Nor less our praises shall adore
The HOLY GHOST, for evermore;
This grace, Blest TRINITY, we crave;
Thy suppliant servants hear and save.
S. John Damascene.
+ circ. A.D. 780
S. John Damascene has the double honour of being the last but one of
the Fathers of the Eastern Church, and the greatest of her poets. It is
surprising, however, how little is known of his life. That he was born of a
good family at Damascus,—that he made great progress in
philosophy,—that he administered some charge under the
Caliph,—that he retired to the monastery of S. Sabas, in
Palestine,—that he was the most learned and eloquent writer with whom
the Iconoclasts had to contend,—that at a comparatively late period of
life he was ordained Priest of the Church of Jerusalem, and that he died after
754, and before 787, seems to comprise all that has reached us of his
biography. His enemies, from an unknown reason, called him Mansur:
He was called Ibn-Mansur, from the name of his
father.—Assemani, Bib. Orient. ii. 97. R. F. L.
whether he were the same with John Arklas, also an ecclesiastical poet,
is not so certain.
As a poet, he had a principal share in the Octoechus, of which I have
already spoken. His three great canons are those on Easter, the Ascension,
and S. Thomas’s Sunday, the first and third of which I shall give either
wholly or in part. Probably, however, many of the Idiomela and Stichera which
are scattered about the office-books under the title of John and
John the Hermit, are his. His eloquent defence of Icons has deservedly
procured him the title of The Doctor of Christian Art.
CANON FOR EASTER DAY,
CALLED THE “GOLDEN CANON,” OR, THE “QUEEN OF CANONS.”
The circumstances under which the Canon is sung are thus eloquently
described by a modern writer. The scene is at Athens.
“As midnight approached, the Archbishop, with his priests,
accompanied by the King and Queen, left the Church, and stationed themselves
on the platform, which was raised considerably from the ground, so that they
were distinctly seen by the people. Every one now remained in breathless
expectation, holding their unlighted tapers in readiness when the glad
moment should arrive, while the priests still continued murmuring their
melancholy chant in a low half-whisper. Suddenly a single report
of a cannon announced that twelve o’clock had struck, and that
Easter day had begun; then the old Archbishop elevating the cross,
exclaimed in a loud exulting tone, ‘Christos anesti!’
‘CHRIST is risen!’ and instantly every single individual of
all that host took up the cry, and the vast multitude broke through and
dispelled for ever the intense and mournful silence which they had
maintained so long, with one spontaneous shout of indescribable joy and
triumph, ‘CHRIST is risen!’ ‘CHRIST is risen!’
At the same moment, the oppressive darkness was succeeded by a blaze
of light from thousands of tapers, which, communicating one from
another, seemed to send streams of fire in all directions, rendering
the minutest objects distinctly visible, and casting the most vivid
glow on the expressive faces full of exultation, of the rejoicing
crowd; bands of music struck up their gayest strains; the roll of
the drum through the town, and further on the pealing of the cannon announced
far and near these ‘glad tidings of great joy;’ while from hill
and plain, from the sea-shore and the far olive-grove, rocket after rocket
ascending to the clear sky, answered back with their mute eloquence, that
CHRIST is risen indeed, and told of other tongues that
were repeating those blessed words, and other hearts that leap for joy;
everywhere men clasped each other’s hands, and congratulated one another,
and embraced with countenances beaming with delight as though to each one
separately some wonderful happiness had been proclaimed;—and so in
truth it was;—and all the while, rising above the mingling of many
sounds, each one of which was a sound of gladness, the aged priests were
distinctly heard chanting forth a glorious old hymn of victory in tones
so loud and clear, that they seemed to have regained
their youth and strength to tell the world how ‘CHRIST
is risen from the dead, having trampled death beneath His feet, and
henceforth they that are in the tombs have everlasting life.’”
That which follows is the “glorious old Hymn of Victory.”
ODE 1.
7,6,7,6
John Damascene, 780
αναστασεως ημερα.
’Tis the Day of Resurrection:
Earth! tell it out abroad!
The Passover of gladness!
The Passover of GOD!
From Death to Life Eternal,—
From this world1st ed.: From earth unto to the sky,
Our CHRIST hath brought us over,
With hymns of victory.
Our hearts be pure from evil,
That we may see aright
The LORD in rays eternal
Of Resurrection-Light:
And, listening to His accents,
May hear, so calm and plain,
His own—All Hail!—and hearing,
May raise the victor strain!
Now let the Heav’ns be joyful!
Let earth her song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein:
Invisible and visible
Their notes let all things blend,—
For CHRIST the LORD hath risen,—
Our joy that hath no end.
[Set by Mr. Helmore: a very spirited melody. Also in Mr. Young’s book:
composed by Dr. Schroeder.]
ODE III.
10,9,10,9
John Damascene, 780
Δευτε πομα πιωμεν.
Come, and let us drink of that New River,
Not from barren Rock divinely poured,
But the Fount of Life that is for ever
From the Sepulchre of CHRIST the LORD.
All the world hath bright illumination,—
Heav’n and Earth and things beneath the earth:
’Tis the Festival of all Creation:
CHRIST hath ris’n, Who gave Creation birth:
Yesterday with Thee in burial lying,
Now today with Thee aris’n I rise;
Yesterday the partner of Thy dying,
With Thyself upraise me to the skies.
[In Mr. Young’s book: composed by Dr. Schroeder.]
ODE IV.
10,10,10,10
John Damascene, 780
επι της θειας ϕυλακης.
Stand on thy watch-tower, Habakkuk the Seer,
And show the Angel, radiant in his light:
‘Today,’ saith he, ‘Salvation shall appear,
‘Because the LORD hath ris’n, as GOD of Might.’
The male that opes the Virgin’s womb is He;
The Lamb of Whom His faithful people eat;
Our truer Passover from blemish free;
Our very GOD, Whose name is all complete.
This yearling Lamb, our Sacrifice most blest,
Our glorious Crown, for all men freely dies:
Behold our Pascha, beauteous from His rest,
The healing Sun of Righteousness arise.
Before the ark, a type to pass away,
David of old time danced: we, holier race,
Seeing the Antitype come forth today,
Hail, with a shout, CHRIST’s own Almighty grace.
ODE V.
8,7,8,7,8,7
John Damascene, 780
ορθρισωμεν ορθρου βαθεος.
Let us rise in early morning,
And, instead of ointments, bring
Hymns of praises to our Master,
And His Resurrection sing:
We shall see the Sun of Justice
Risen with healing on His wing.
Thy unbounded loving-kindness,
They that groaned in Hades’ chain,
Prisoners, from afar beholding,
Hasten to the light again
And to that eternal Pascha
Wove the dance and raised the strain.
Go ye forth, His Saints, to meet Him!
Go with lamps in every hand!
From the sepulchre He riseth:
Ready for the Bridegroom stand:
And the Pascha of salvation
Hail, with His triumphant band.
ODE VI.
11,10,11,10
John Damascene, 780
κατηλθες εν τοις κατωτατοις.
Into the dim earth’s lowest parts descending,
And bursting by Thy might the infernal chain
That bound the prisoners, Thou, at three days’ ending,
As Jonah from the whale, hast risen again.
Thou brakest not the seal, Thy surety’s token,
Arising from the Tomb Who left’st in Birth
The portals of Virginity unbroken,
Opening the gates of heaven to sons of earth.
Thou, Sacrifice ineffable and living,
Didst to the FATHER by Thyself atone
As GOD eternal: resurrection giving
To Adam, general parent, by Thine own.
ODE VII.
10,10,10,10,8,8
John Damascene, 780
Ο παιδας εκ καμινου.
Who from the fiery furnace saved the Three,
Suffers as mortal; that, His Passion o’er,
This mortal, triumphing o’er death, might be
Vested with immortality once more:
He Whom our fathers still confest
GOD over all, for ever blest.
The women with their ointment seek the Tomb:
And Whom they mourned as dead, with many a tear,
They worship now, joy dawning on their gloom,
As Living GOD, as mystic Passover;
Then to the LORD’s Disciples gave
The tidings of the vanquished grave.
We keep the festal of the death of death;
Of hell overthrown: the first-fruits pure and bright,
Of life eternal; and with joyous breath
Praise Him that won the victory by His might:
Him Whom our fathers still confest
GOD over all, for ever blest.
All hallowed festival, in splendour born!
Night of salvation and of glory! Night
Fore-heralding the Resurrection morn!
When from the tomb the everlasting Light,
A glorious frame once more his own,
Upon the world in splendour shone.
ODE VIII.
8,7,8,7,8,8
John Damascene, 780
αυτη η κλητη.
Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise,
That best and greatest shinest!
Lady and Queen and Day of days,
Of things divine, divinest!
On thee our praises CHRIST adore
For ever and for evermore.
Come, let us taste the Vine’s new fruit
For heavenly joy preparing:
Today the branches with the Root
In Resurrection sharing:
Whom as True GOD our hymns adore
For ever and for evermore.
Rise, Sion, rise, and looking forth,
Behold thy children round thee!
From East and West, and South and North,
Thy scattered sons have found thee!
And in thy bosom CHRIST adore
For ever and for evermore.
O FATHER! O co-equal SON!
O co-eternal Spirit!
In Persons Three, in Substance One,
And One in power and merit;
In Thee baptized, we Thee adore
For ever and for evermore!
[No. 1 in Mr. Sedding’s book. A very appropriate melody.]
ODE IX.
10,11,10,11
John Damascene, 780
ϕωτιζου, ϕωτιζου.
Thou New Jerusalem, arise and shine!
The glory of the Lord on thee hath risen!
Sion, exult! rejoice with joy divine,
Mother of GOD! Thy Son hath burst His prison!
O heavenly Voice! O word of purest love!
‘Lo! I am with you alway to the end!’
This is the anchor, steadfast from above,
The golden anchor, whence our hopes depend.
O CHRIST, our Pascha! greatest, holiest, best!
GOD’s Word and Wisdom and effectual Might!
Thy fuller, lovelier presence manifest,
In that eternal realm, that knows no night!
THE STICHERA OF THE LAST KISS.
Δευτε τελευταιον ασπασμον δωμεν.
The following Stichera, which are generally
(though without any great cause) attributed to S. John Damascene,
form, perhaps, one of the most striking portions of the service of
the Eastern Church. They are sung towards the conclusion of the
Funeral Office, while the friends and relations are, in turn,
kissing the corpse; the Priest does so last of all. Immediately
afterwards, it is borne to the grave; the Priest casts the first
earth on the coffin, with the words, “The earth is the LORD’s and
all that therein is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell
therein.” I have omitted four of the stanzas, as being almost a
repetition of the rest.
9,8,9,8,9,8,9,8,7,7
John Damascene, 780
Take the last kiss,—the last for ever!
Yet render thanks amidst your gloom:
He, severed from his home and kindred,
Is passing onwards to the tomb:
For earthly labours, earthly pleasures,
And carnal joys, he cares no more:
Where are his kinsfolk and acquaintance?
They stand upon another shore.
Let us say, around him pressed,
Grant him, LORD, eternal rest!
The hour of woe and separation,
The hour of falling tears is this:
Him that so lately was among us
For the last time of all we kiss:
Up to the grave to be surrendered,
Sealed with the monumental stone,
A dweller in the house of darkness,
Amidst the dead to lie alone.
Let us say, around him pressed,
Grant him LORD, eternal rest!
Life, and life’s evil conversation,
And all its dreams, are passed away:
The soul hath left her tabernacle:
Black and unsightly grows the clay.
The golden vessel here lies broken:
The tongue no voice of answer knows;
Hushed is sensation, stilled is motion;
Toward the tomb the dead man goes.
Let us cry with heart’s endeavour,
Grant him rest that is for ever!
What is our life? A fading flower;
A vapour, passing soon away;
The dewdrops of the early morning:—
Come gaze upon the tombs today.
Where now is youth? Where now is beauty,
And grace of form, and sparkling eye?
All, like the summer grass, are withered;
All are abolished utterly!
While our eyes with grief grow dim,
Let us weep to CHRIST for him!
Woe for that bitter, bitter moment,
The fearful start, the parting groan,
The wrench of anguish, from the body
When the poor soul goes forth alone!
Hell and destruction are before her;
Earth in its truest worth she sees;
A flickering shade; a dream of error;
A vanity of vanities.
Sin in this world let us flee,
That in heaven our place may be.
Draw nigh, ye sons of Adam; viewing
A likeness of yourselves in clay:
Its beauty gone; its grace disfigured;
Dissolving in the tomb’s decay;
The prey of worms and of corruption,
In silent darkness mouldering on;
Earth gathers round the coffin, hiding
The brother, now for ever gone.
Yet we cry, around him pressed,
Grant him, LORD, eternal rest!
When, hurried forth by fearful angels,
The soul forsakes her earthly frame,
Then friends and kindred she forgetteth,
And this world’s cares have no more claim;
Then passed are vanity and labour;
She hears the Judge’s voice alone;
She sees the ineffable tribunal:
Where we, too, cry with suppliant moan,
For the sins that soul hath done,
Grant Thy pardon, Holy One!
Now all the organs of the body,
So full of energy before,
Have lost perception, know not motion,
Can suffer and can act no more.
The eyes are dosed in death’s dark shadow;
The ear can never hear again;
The feet are bound; the hands lie idle;
The tongue is fast as with a chain.
Great and mighty though he be,
Every man is vanity.
Behold and weep me, friends and brethren!
Voice, sense, and breath, and motion gone;
But yesterday I dwelt among you;
Then death’s most fearful hour came on.
Embrace me with the last embracement;
Kiss me with this, the latest kiss;
Never again shall I be with you;
Never with you share woe or bliss.
I go toward the dread tribunal
Where no man’s person is preferred;
Where lord and slave, where chief and soldier,
Where rich and poor alike are heard:
One is the manner of their judgment:
Their plea and their condition one:
And they shall reap in woe or glory
The earthly deeds that they have done.
I pray you, brethren, I adjure you,
Pour forth to CHRIST the ceaseless prayer,
He would not doom me to Gehenna,
But in His glory give me share!
IDIOMELA FOR ALL SAINTS.
6,5,6,5
John Damascene, 780
τας εδρας τας αιωνιας.
Those eternal bowers
Man hath never trod,
Those unfading flowers
Round the Throne of GOD:
Who may hope to gain them
After weary fight?
Who at length attain them
Clad in robes of white?
He, who gladly barters
All on earthly ground;
He who, like the Martyrs,
Says, ‘I WILL be crowned:’
He, whose one oblation
Is a life of love;
Clinging to the nation
Of the Blest above.
Shame upon you, legions
Of the Heavenly King,
Denizens of regions
Past imagining!
What! with pipe and tabor
Fool away the light,
When He bids you labour,—
When He tells you,—‘Fight!’
While I do my duty,
Struggling through the tide,
Whisper Thou of beauty
On the other side!
Tell who will the story
Of our now distress:
Oh the future glory!
Oh the loveliness!
[No. 3 in H. E. C. A very sweet melody.]
S. THOMAS’S SUNDAY.
The four following Odes are the first four of our Saint’s Canon for S.
Thomas’s Sunday, called also Renewal Sunday: with us Low Sunday. The first
Stanzas are marked with inverted commas, as being Hirmoi.
ODE I.
7,6,7,6
John Damascene, 780
ασωμεν παντες λαοι.
“Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
“Of triumphant gladness!
“GOD hath brought His Israel
“Into joy from sadness
“Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke
“Jacob’s sons and daughters;
“Led them with unmoistened foot
“Through the Red Sea waters.”
’Tis the Spring, of souls today;
CHRIST hath burst His prison;
And from three days’ sleep in death,
—As a sun, hath risen.
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From His Light, to Whom we give
Laud and praise undying.
Now the Queen of Seasons, bright
With the day of Splendour,
With the royal Feast of feasts,
Comes its joy to render;
Comes to glad Jerusalem,
Who with true affection
Welcomes, in unwearied strains,
JESU’s Resurrection.
Neither might the gates of death,
Nor the tomb’s dark portal,
Nor the watchers, nor the seal,
Hold Thee as a mortal:
But today amidst the Twelve
Thou didst stand, bestowing
That Thy peace, which evermore
Passeth human knowing.
Catavasia “‘Tis the day of Resurrection.”
(p. 38.)
[No. 2 in Mr. Sedding’s book. A genuine Easter melody.]
ODE III.
8,7,8,7,8,7
John Damascene, 780
στερεωσον με, Χριστε.
“On the rock of Thy commandments
“Fix me firmly, lest I slide:
“With the glory of Thy Presence
“Cover me on every side;
”Seeing none save Thee is holy,
“GOD, for ever glorified!”
New immortal out of mortal,
New existence out of old:
This the Cross of CHRIST accomplished,
This the Prophets had foretold:
So that we thus newly quickened,
Might attain the heavenly fold.
Thou Who comprehendest all things,
Comprehended by the tomb,
Gav’st Thy body to the graveclothes
And the silence and the gloom:
Till through fast-closed doors Thou camest
Thy Disciples to illume.
Every nail-print, every buffet,
Thou didst freely undergo,
As Thy Resurrection’s witness
To the Twelve Thou cam’st to show:
So that what they saw in vision,
Future years by faith might know.
Catavasia. “Come, and let us drink of that New River.”
(p. 97.)
[No. 3 in Mr. Sedding’s book.]
ODE IV.
7,7,7,7,8,8
John Damascene, 780
μεγα το μυστεριον.
“‘CHRIST, we turn our eyes to Thee,
“‘And this mighty mystery!’
“Habakkuk exclaimed of old,
“In the HOLY SPIRIT bold:
“‘Thou shalt come in time appointed,
“For the help of Thine anointed!’”
Taste of myrrh He deigned to know,
Who redeemed the source of woe:
Now He bids all sickness cease
Through the honeycomb of peace:
And to this world deigns to give
That sweet food1st ed.: fruit by which we live.
Patient LORD! with loving eye
Thou invitest Thomas nigh,
Showing Him that Wounded Side:
While the world is certified,
How the third day, from the grave,
JESUS CHRIST arose to save.
Blest, O Didymus, the tongue
Where that first confession hung:
First the SAVIOUR to proclaim
First the LORD of Life to name:
Such the graces it supplied,
—That dear touch of JESU’s side!
Catavasia. “Stand on thy watch-tower, Habakkuk the Seer.”
(p. 98.)
ODE V.
10,9,10,9
John Damascene, 780
εκ νυκρος ορθριζοντες.
“Reconciliation’s plan devising,
“Fellow-sharer of the FATHER’s Throne,
“Thee, O CHRIST, we, very early rising,
“Tender lover of our spirits, own!”
When Thy Friends, with deep dismay confounded,
Stood amazed, and knew not where to fly,
All the darkness that their souls surrounded
Thou didst scatter with Thy drawing nigh.
Touch how aweful, how consolatory!
When, O Thomas, thou didst stretch thine hand,
And that Side, resplendent in its glory,
Didst explore, because He gave command!
Unbelief of Thomas was the Mother
Of Thy Church’s most unshaken Creed:
Thou, O SAVIOUR, wise above all other,
Had’st, before the world was, thus decreed.
Catavasia. “Let us rise in early morning.”
(p. 100.)
S. Cosmas,
Surnamed the Melodist.
+ A.D. 760.
S. Cosmas of Jerusalem holds the second place amidst Greek Ecclesiastical
poets. Left an orphan at an early age, he was adopted by the father of S.
John Damascene; and the two foster-brothers were bound together by a
friendship which lasted through life. They excited each other to Hymnology,
and assisted, corrected, and polished each other’s compositions. Cosmas,
like his friend, became a monk of S. Sabas: and against his will was
consecrated Bishop of Maiuma, near Gaza, by John, Patriarch of
Jerusalem; the same who ordained S. John Damascene Priest. After
administering his diocese with great holiness, he departed this life
in a good old age, about 760, and is commemorated by the Eastern Church
on the 14th of October.
“Where perfect sweetness dwells, is Cosmas gone;
But his sweet lays to cheer the Church live on,”
says the stichos prefixed to his life.
His compositions are tolerably numerous, and he seems to have taken
a pleasure in competing with S. John Damascene, as in the Nativity, the
Epiphany, the Transfiguration, where the Canons of both are given. To
Cosmas, a considerable part of the Octoechus is owing. The best of his
compositions, besides those already mentioned, seem to be his Canons on
S. Gregory Nazianzen, and the Purification. He is the most learned of
the Greek Church poets: and his fondness for types, boldness in their
application, and love of aggregating them, make him the Oriental Adam
of S. Victor. It is owing partly to a compressed fulness of meaning,
very uncommon in the Greek poets of the Church, partly to the unusual
harshness and contraction of his phrases, that he is the hardest of
ecclesiastical bards to comprehend.
CANON FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.
This is perhaps the finest, on the whole, of the Canons of
Cosmas; and may fairly be preferred to the rival composition of S. John
Damascene.
ODE I.
7,7,7,11,11,8
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
Χριστος γενναται δοξασατε.
CHRIST is born! Tell forth His fame!
CHRIST from Heaven! His love proclaim!
CHRIST on earth! Exalt His Name!
Sing to the LORD, O world, with exultation!
Break forth in glad thanksgiving, every nation!
For He hath triumphed gloriously!
Man, in GOD’s own Image made,
Man, by Satan’s wiles betrayed,
Man, on whom corruption preyed,
Shut out from hope of life and of salvation,
Today CHRIST maketh him a new creation,
For He hath triumphed gloriously!
For the Maker, when His foe,
Wrought the creature death and woe,
Bowed the Heav’ns, and came below,The reference is, of course, to Psalm 18:9:—“He
bowed the Heavens also, and came down.”
And in the Virgin’s womb His dwelling making
Became true man, man’s very nature taking
For He hath triumphed gloriously!
He, the Wisdom, WORD, and Might,
GOD, and SON, and Light of light,
Undiscovered by the sight
Of earthly monarch, or infernal spirit,
Incarnate was, that we might Heav’n inherit;
For He hath triumphed gloriously!
[In Mr. Young’s book. The melody by Dr. Schroeder.]
ODE III.
9,8,9,8,7,5,7,5
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
τω προ των αιωνων.
Him, of the FATHER’s very Essence,
Begotten, ere the world began,
And, in the latter time, of Mary,
Without a human sire, made Man:
Unto Him, this glorious morn,
Be the strain outpoured!
Thou That liftest up our horn,
Holy art Thou, LORD!
The earthly Adam, erewhile quickened
By the blest breath of GOD on high,
Now made the victim of corruption,
By woman’s guile betrayed to die,
He, deceived by woman’s part,
Supplication poured;
Thou Who in my nature art,
Holy art Thou, LORD!
Thou, JESUS CHRIST, wast consubstantial
With this our perishable clay,
And, by assuming earthly nature,
Exaltedst it to heavenly day.
Thou, That wast as mortal born,
Being GOD adored,
Thou That liftest up our horn,
Holy art Thou, LORD!
Rejoice, O Bethlehem, the city
Whence Judah’s monarchs had their birth;
Where He that sitteth on the Cherubs,
The King of Israel, came on earth:
Manifested this blest morn,
As of old time never,
He hath lifted up our horn,
He shall reign for ever!
ODE IV.
7,6,7,6,7,6,7,6,7,7
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
Ραβδος εκ της ριζης.
Rod of the Root of Jesse,
Thou, Flower of Mary born,
From that thick shady mountain
The reference is to the
Song of Habakkuk; [3:3],
where the LXX. give—“GOD shall come
from Teman, and the Holy from the thick and shady mountain of
Paran.”
Cam’st glorious forth this morn:
Of her, the ever Virgin,
Incarnate wast Thou made,
The immaterial Essence,
The GOD by all obeyed!
Glory, LORD, Thy servants pay
To Thy wondrous might today!
The Gentiles’ expectation,
Whom Jacob’s words foretell,
Who Syria’s pride shalt vanquish,
Samaria’s pride shalt quell;
Thou from the Root of Judah
Like some fair plant dost spring,
To turn old Gentile error
To Thee, its GOD and King!
Glory, LORD, Thy servants pay
To Thy wondrous might today!
In Balaam’s ancient vision
The Eastern seers were skilled,
They marked the constellations,
And joy their spirits filled:
For Thou, bright Star of Jacob,
Arising in Thy might,
Didst call these Gentiles first-fruits
To worship in Thy light.
They in holy reverence bent,
Gifts acceptable present.
As on a fleece descending
The gentle dews distil,
As drops the earth that water,
The Virgin didst Thou fill.
For Media, leagued with Sheba,
Falls down and worships Thee:
Tarshish and Ethiopia,
The Isles and Araby.1st ed. reverses the order of the previous two pairs of lines.
Glory, LORD, Thy servants pay
To Thy wondrous might today!
[In Mr. Young’s book. The melody by Dr. Schroeder.]
ODE V.
11,10,11,10,8,8
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
Θεος ων ειρηνης.
Father of Peace, and GOD of Consolation!
The Angel of the Counsel dost Thou send
To herald peace, to manifest Salvation,
Thy Light to pour, Thy knowledge to extend;
Whence, with the morning’s earliest rays,
Lover of men! Thy Name we praise.
’Midst Caesar’s subjects Thou, at his decreeing,
Obey’dst and was enrolled: our mortal race,
To sin and Satan slave, from bondage freeing,
Our poverty in all points didst embrace:
And by that Union didst combine
The earthly with the All-Divine.
Lo! Mary, as the world’s long day was waning,1st ed.: Behold! the Virgin, prophecy sustaining,
Incarnate Deity conceived and bore;
Virgin in birth, and after birth1st ed.: Virgin still, remaining
And man to GOD is reconciled once more:
Wherefore in faith her name we bless,
And Mother of our GOD confess.
ODE VI.
10,10,10,10,10,10
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
σπλαγχνων Ιωναν.
As Jonah, issuing from his three days’ tomb,
At length was cast, uninjured, on the earth;
So, from the Virgin’s unpolluted womb
The Incarnate WORD, That dwelt there, had His Birth:
For He, Who knew no taint of mortal stain,
Willed that His Mother spotless should remain.
CHRIST comes, Incarnate GOD, amongst us now,
Begotten of the FATHER ere the day:
And He, to Whom the sinless legions bow,
Lies cradled, ‘midst unconscious beasts on hay:
And, by His homely swaddling-bands girt in,
Looses the many fetters of our sin.
Now the New Child of Adam’s race draws nigh,
To us, the faithful, given: This, this is He
That shall the Father of Eternity,
The Angel of the Mighty Counsel, be:
This the eternal GOD, by Whose strong hands
The fabric of the world supported stands.
ODE VII.
8,8,8,8,8,8
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
οι παιδες ευσεβεια.
The Holy Children boldly stand
Against the tyrant’s fierce command:
The kindled furnace they defy,—
No doom can shake their constancy:
They in the midmost flame confessed,
“GOD of our Fathers! Thou art blest!”
The Shepherds keep their flocks by night;
The Heav’n glows out with wondrous light;
The glory of the LORD is there,
The Angel-bands their King declare:
The watchers of the night confessed,
“GOD of our Fathers! Thou art blest!”
The Angel ceased; and suddenly
Seraphic legions filled the sky:
“Glory to GOD,” they cry again:
“Peace upon earth, good will to men:
“CHRIST comes!”—And they that heard confessed,
“GOD of our Fathers! Thou art blest!”
What said the Shepherds?—“Let us turn
This new-born miracle to learn.”
To Bethlehem’s gate their footsteps drew:
The Mother with the Child they view:
They knelt and worshipped, and confessed,
“GOD of our Fathers! Thou art blest!”
ODE VIII.
10,10,10,10,8,9,8,9
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
θαυματος υπερϕυους η δροσοβολος.
The dewy freshness that the furnace flings
Works out a wondrous type of future things:
Nor did the flame the Holy Three consume,
Nor did the Godhead’s fire thy frame entomb,
Thou, on Whose bosom hung the WORD:
Wherefore we cry with heart’s endeavour,
“Let all Creation bless the LORD,
And magnify His Name for ever!”
Babel’s proud daughter once led David’s race
From Sion, to their exile’s woful place:
Babel now bids her wise men, gifts in hand,
Before King David’s Royal Daughter stand,
The Mother of the Incarnate Word:
Wherefore we cry with heart’s endeavour,
“Let all Creation bless the LORD,
And magnify His Name for ever!”
From music grief held back the exile’s hand:
How sing the LORD’s song in an alien land?
But Babel’s exile here is done away,
And Bethlehem’s harmony this glorious day
By Thee, Incarnate GOD, restored:
Wherefore we cry with heart’s endeavour,
“Let all Creation bless the LORD,
And magnify His Name for ever!”
Of old victorious Babel bore away,
The spoils of Royal Sion and her prey:
But Babel’s treasure now, and Babel’s kings,
CHRIST, by the guiding star, to Sion brings.
There have they knelt, and there adored:
Wherefore we cry with heart’s endeavour,
“Let all Creation bless the LORD,
And magnify His Name for ever!”
ODE IX.
10,10,10,10,7,7
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
μυστηριον ζενον.
O wondrous mystery, full of passing grace!
The grot becometh Heav’n: the Virgin’s breast
The bright Cherubic Throne: the stall that place,
Where He, Who fills all space, vouchsafes to rest:
CHRIST our GOD, to Whom we raise
Hymns of thankfulness and praise!
The course propitious of the unknown Star
The Wise-men followed on its heavenly way,—
Until it led them, beckoning from afar,
To where the CHRIST, the King of all things, lay:
Him in Bethlehem they find,
Born the SAVIOUR of mankind.
“Where is the Child,” they ask, “the new-born King,
Whose herald-light is glittering in the sky,—
To Whom our offerings and our praise we bring?”
And Herod’s heart is troubled utterly.
Armed for war with GOD, in vain
Would he see that Infant slain.
TRANSFIGURATION.
I shall, perhaps, render the following Canon more acceptable to
most readers if, instead of translating the Odes in detail, I make a cento
from the more remarkable Troparia.
They are principally from the first four Odes.
7,6,7,6
Cosmas, the Melodist, 760
χορος Ισραηλ.
The choirs of ransomed Israel,
The Red Sea’s passage o’er,
Uprais’d the hymn of triumph
Upon the further shore:
And shouted, as the foeman
Was whelmed beneath the sea,—
‘Sing we to Judah’s Saviour,
For glorified is He!’
Amongst His Twelve Apostles
CHRIST spake the Words of Life,
And showed a realm of beauty
Beyond a world of strife:
‘When all My FATHER’s glory
Shall shine expressed in Me,
Then praise Him, then exalt Him,
For magnified is He!’
Upon the Mount of Tabor
The promise was made good;
When, baring all the Godhead,
In light itself He stood:
And they, in awe beholding,
The Apostolic Three,
Sang out to GOD their Saviour,
For magnified was He!
In days of old, on Sinai,
The LORD of Sabaoth1st ed.: LORD Jehovah came,
In majesty of terror,
In thunder-cloud and flame:
On Tabor, with the glory
Of sunniest light for vest,
The excellence of beauty
In JESUS was expressed.
All hours and days inclined there,
And did Thee worship meet,
The sun himself adored Thee,
And bowed him at Thy feet:
While Moses and Elias,
Upon the Holy Mount,
The co-eternal glory
Of CHRIST our GOD recount.
O holy, wonderous Vision!
But what, when this life past,
The beauty of Mount Tabor
Shall end in Heav’n at last?
But what, when all the glory
Of uncreated light
Shall be the promised guerdon
Of them that win the fight?
[No. 5 in Mr. Sedding’s book.]
S. Tarasius
+ A.D. 806.
Tarasius, raised by Constantine and Irene from the post of Secretary
of State, at one step, though a layman, to the Patriarchate of
Constantinople, (A.D. 784) was the chief mover in the
restoration of Icons and the Second Council of Nicaea. Strongly opposing
the divorce of Constantine from Maria, he refused to celebrate that
Emperor’s nuptials with Theodora. But when they had been performed, he
was with some difficulty persuaded to pardon the priest who had officiated
at them. On this, S. Plato, and the monks of the all-influential
Studium, forsook his communion;
nor was the schism composed till the Patriarch yielded and retracted his
pardon. He died February 25th, A.D. 806, on which day he
is commemorated both by the East and West. His hymns are unimportant. The
longest is the Canon on the Invention of S. John Baptist, May 25th. It is
in no wise remarkable. Nor do I know any of his compositions which would
be sufficiently interesting to the English reader, to make it worth
versification here.
S. Theophanes
A.D. 759—A.D. 818.
S. Theophanes, who holds the third place among Greek Church-poets,
was born in 759, his father being Governor of the Archipelago. Betrothed
in childhood to a lady named Megalis, he persuaded her, on their
wedding-day, to embrace the monastic life. He retired to the
monastery of Syngriana, in the early part of the reign of Constantine
and Irene. From the fiftieth year of his age he was nearly bedridden;
but his devotion to the cause of Icons marked him out as one of the
earliest victims of Leo the Armenian, who, after imprisoning him for two
years, banished him to Samothrace. On the third day after his arrival in
that inhospitable region, worn out with sufferings and sickness, he departed
this life: A.D. 818. He is chiefly famous for his History,
with which we have now nothing to do. With the one exception of S. Joseph
of the Studium, Theophanes is the most prolific of Eastern Hymnographers;
and in his writings we first see that which has been the bane and ruin of
later Greek poetry, the composition of hymns, not from the spontaneous
effusion of the heart, but because they were wanted to fill up a gap in
the Office-book.
Because the great festivals and the chief Saints of the Church had their
Canon and their Stichera, therefore, every martyr, every confessor, who
happened to give his name to a day, must have his Canon and Stichera also,
just for uniformity. How different the Latin use, where not even the
Apostles have separate hymns received by the whole Church, but supply
themselves from the Common! Hence the deluge of worthless
compositions that occur in the Menaea: hence tautology, repeated till
it becomes almost sickening; the merest commonplace, again and again
decked in the tawdry shreds of tragic language, and twenty or thirty
times presenting the same thought in slightly varying terms. Theophanes,
indeed, must be distinguished from the host of inferior writers that
about his time began to overwhelm the Church. Many of his subjects
are of world-wide interest. The Eastern martyrs, whom he celebrates,
are, for the most part, those who have won for themselves the greatest
name in the annals of history. But still we find him thus honouring
some, of whom all that can be said is, that they died for the Name of
CHRIST. And though the poet brings more matter to his task
than do others, many long stanzas, that keep pretty close to their
subject, concerning a Saint of whom there is nothing especial to say,
must become tedious.
IDIOMELA
ON FRIDAY OF CHEESE-SUNDAY,
THAT IS,
OF QUINQUAGESIMA.
At this period of the year the weeks are named, not from the
Sundays that precede, but from those that follow them. Quinquagesima is
termed Tyrophagus, because up to that time, but not beyond, cheese is allowed.
The Friday previous is appropriated to the Commemoration of All Holy Ascetes;
in order, as the Synaxarion says, that, by the remembrance of their conflict,
we may be invigorated for the race that is set before us.
7,7
Theophanes (759-818)
Δευτε απαντες πιστοι.
Hither, and with one accord,
Sing the servants of the LORD:
Sing each great ascetic sire;—
Anthony shall lead the choir:
Let Euthymius next him stand
Then in order all the band.
Make we joyous celebration
Of their heavenly conversation;
Of their glory, how they rise,
Like another Paradise;
These the trees our GOD hath placed,
Trees, with fruit immortal graced;
Bringing forth, for CHRIST on high,
Flowers of Life that cannot die;
With the sweetness that they fling
Mortal spirits nourishing.
Filled with GOD, and ever blest,
For our pardon make request!
Egypt, hail, thou faithful strand!
Hail, thou holy Libyan land!
Nurturing for the realm on high
Such a glorious company!
They by many a toil intense,
Chastity and continence,
Perfect men to GOD upreared,
Stars to guide us have appeared;
They, by many a glorious sign,
Many a beam of Power Divine,
To the earth’s remotest shore
Far and wide their radiance pour.
Holy Fathers, bright and blest,
For our pardon make request!
By what skill of mortal tongue
Shall your wondrous acts be sung?
All the conflicts of the soul,
All your struggles towards the goal;
And your virtues’ prize immense,
And your victories over sense,
How perpetual watch ye kept
Over passion, prayed and wept;
Yea, like very angels came,
Visible in earthly frame,
And with Satan girt for fight
Utterly o’erthrew his might.
Famed for signs and wonders rare,
Join to ours, great Saints, your prayer:
Ask that we, ye ever blest,
May attain the Land of Rest!
STICHERA AT THE FIRST VESPERS OF CHEESE-SUNDAY.
(Quinquagesima.)
ADAM’S COMPLAINT.
The reader can hardly fail to be struck with the
beautiful idea in the third stanza, where the foliage of Paradise is asked to
make intercession for Adam’s recall. The last stanza, Milton, as an universal
scholar, doubtless had in his eye, in Eve’s lamentation.
i
Theophanes (759-818)
“The LORD My Maker, forming me of clay,
By His own Breath, the breath of life conveyed:
O’er all the bright new world He gave me sway,
A little lower than the Angels made.
But Satan, using for his guile
The crafty serpent’s cruel wile,
Deceived me by the Tree;
And severed me from GOD and grace,
And wrought me death, and all my race,
As long as time shall be.
O Lover of the sons of men!
Forgive, and call me back again!
“In that same hour I lost the glorious stole
Of innocence, that GOD’s own Hands had made;
And now, the tempter poisoning all my soul,
I sit, in fig leaves and in skins arrayed:
I sit condemned, distressed, forsaken;
Must till the ground whence I was taken
By labour’s daily sweat.
But Thou, That shalt hereafter come,
The Offspring of a Virgin-womb,
Have pity on me yet!
O turn on me those gracious eyes,
And call me back to Paradise!
“O glorious Paradise! O lovely clime!
O GOD-built mansion! joy of every Saint!
Happy remembrance to all coming time!
Whisper, with all thy leaves, in cadence faint,
One prayer to Him Who made them all,
One prayer for Adam in his fall!—
That He, Who formed thy gates of yore,
Would bid those gates unfold once more
That I had closed by sin:
And let me taste that holy Tree
That giveth immortality
To them that dwell therein:
Or have I fallen so far from grace
That mercy hath for me no place?”
Adam sat right against the Eastern gate,
By many a storm of sad remembrance tossed;
“O me! so ruined by the serpent’s hate!
O me! so glorious once, and now so lost!
So mad that bitter lot to choose!
Beguiled of all I had to lose!
Must I then, gladness of my eyes,—
Must I then leave thee, Paradise,
And as an exile go?
And must I never cease to grieve
How once my GOD, at cool of eve,
Came down to walk below?
O Merciful! on Thee I call:
O Pitiful! forgive my fall!”
Theodore of the Studium.
+ A.D. 826.
Theodore of the Studium, by his sufferings and his influence, did more,
perhaps, in the cause of Icons than any other man. His uncle, S. Plato,
and himself, had been cruelly persecuted by Constantine, for refusing to
communicate with him after his illicit marriage with Theodora, at a time
when, as we have seen, the firmness of even the Patriarch Tarasius gave
way. Raised subsequently to be Hegumen of the great abbey of the Studium,
the first at Constantinople, and probably the most influential that ever
existed in the world, Theodore exhibited more doubtful
conduct in the schism which regarded the readmission to communion of Joseph,
the priest who had give the nuptial benediction to Constantine: but he
suffered imprisonment on this account with the greatest firmness. When the
Iconoclastic persecution again broke out under Leo the Armenian, Theodore
was one of the first sufferers: he was exiled, imprisoned, scourged, and
left for dead. Under Michael Curopalata he enjoyed greater liberty; but
he died in banishment, Nov. 11th, A.D. 826. His Hymns are,
in my judgment, superior to those of S. Theophanes,—and nearly, if
not quite, equal to the works of S. Cosmas. In those (comparatively few)
which he has left for the Festivals of Saints, he does not appear to
advantage: it is in his Lent Canons in the Triodion, that his great
excellency lies. The contrast there presented between the rigid,
unbending, unyielding character
of the man in his outward history, and the fervent gush of penitence and
love which his inward life, as revealed by these compositions, manifests,
is very striking;—it forms a remarkable parallel to the characters
of S. Gregory VII., Innocent III., and other holy men of the Western Church,
whom the world, judging from a superficial view of their characters, has
branded with unbending haughtiness, and the merest formality in religion,
while their most secret writings show them to have been clinging to the
Cross in an ecstasy of love and sorrow.
CANON FOR APOCREOS.
Apocreos is our Sexagesima, and is so called, because meat is
not eaten beyond it. The Synaxarion (which will explain the following
poem) begins thus:
“ON THIS DAY, WE COMMEMORATE THE SECOND AND
IMPARTIAL COMING
of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Stichos. |
When He, the Judge of all things, sits to doom,
Oh grant that I may hear his joyful ‘Come!’
|
This commemoration the most Divine Fathers set after the “two
parables” (i.e., the Gospels of
the two preceding Sundays, The Pharisee and Publican, and the Prodigal
Son) “lest any one, learning from them the mercy of GOD, should
live carelessly, and say, ‘God is merciful, and whenever I wish to
relinquish sin, it will be in my power to accomplish my purpose.’ They
therefore here commemorated that fearful day, that, by the consideration of
death, and the expectation of the dreadful things that shall hereafter be,
they might terrify men of negligent life, and bring them back again to virtue,
and might teach them not simply to put confidence in GOD’s
mercy, considered by itself, but to remember also that the judge is just, and
will render to every man according to his works.” As the Eastern Church
has no such season as Advent, this commemoration becomes more peculiarly
appropriate.
The Canon that follows is unfortunate in provoking a comparison with
the unapproachable
majesty of the Dies Irae. Yet during the four hundred years by
which it anticipated that sequence, it was undoubtedly the grandest
judgment-hymn of the Church. Its faults are those of most of the
class: it eddies round and round the subject, without making way,—its
different portions have no very close connexion with each other,—and
its length is accompanied by considerable tautology. Yet, in spite of these
defects, it is impossible to deny that the great common-places of
Death and judgment are very nobly set forth in this poem. On account of
its length, I give the first three and last Odes only.
ODE I.
10,10,6,6
Theodore of the Studium, 826
την ημεραν την ϕρικτην.
That fearful Day, that Day of speechless dread,
When Thou shalt come to judge the quick and dead—
I shudder to foresee,
O GOD! what then shall be!
When Thou shalt come, angelic legions round,
With thousand thousands, and with trumpet sound,
CHRIST, grant me in the air
With saints to meet Thee there!
Weep, O my soul, ere that great hour and day,
When GOD shall shine in manifest array,
Thy sin, that thou may’st be
In that strict judgment free!
The terror!—hell-fire fierce and unsufficed:
The bitter worm: the gnashing teeth:—O CHRIST,
Forgive, remit, protect;
And set me with the elect!
That I may hear the blessed voice that calls
The righteous to the joy of heavenly halls.
And, King of Heaven, may reach
The realm that passeth speech!
Enter Thou not in judgment with each deed,
Nor each intent and thought in strictness read:
Forgive, and save me then,
O Thou That lovest men!
Thee, One in Three blest Persons! LORD o’er all!
Essence of essence, Power of power. we call!
Save us, O FATHER, SON,
And SPIRIT, ever one!
[In Mr. Young’s book. Composed by Dr. Schroeder.]
ODE III.
10,10,6,6
Theodore of the Studium, 826
Ο Κυριος ερχεται.
GOD comes;—and who shall stand before His fear?
Who bide His Presence, when He draweth near?
My soul, my soul, prepare
To kneel before Him there!
Haste,—weep,—be reconciled to Him before
The fearful judgment knocketh at the door
Where, in the judge’s eyes,
All bare and naked lies.
Have mercy, LORD, have mercy, LORD, I cry,
When with Thine angels Thou appear’st on high:
And each shall doom inherit,
According to his merit.
How can I bear Thy fearful anger, LORD?
I, that have so often transgressed Thy word?
But put my sins away,
And spare me in that day!
O miserable soul, return, lament,
Ere earthly converse end, and life be spent:
Ere, time for sorrow o’er,
The Bridegroom close the door!
Yea, I have sinned, as no man sinned beside:
With more than human guilt my soul is dyed:
But spare, and save me here,
Before that day appear!
Three Persons in One Essence uncreate,
On Whom, both Three and One, our praises wait,
Give everlasting light,
To them that sing Thy might!
ODE IV.
10,10,10,10,6,6
Theodore of the Studium, 826
εϕεστηκεν η ημερα.
The Day is near, the judgment is at hand,
Awake, my soul, awake, and ready stand!
Where chiefs shall go with them that filled the throne,
Where rich and poor the same tribunal own:
And every thought and deed
Shall find its righteous meed.
There with the sheep the shepherd of the fold
Shall stand together; there the young and old;
Master and slave one doom shall undergo;
Widow and maiden one tribunal know.
Oh woe, oh woe, to them
Whom lawless lives condemn!
That Judgment-seat, impartial in decree,
Accepts no bribe, admits no subtilty:
No orator persuasion may exert,
No perjured witness wrong to right convert:
But all things, hid in night,
Shall then be dragged to light.
Let me not enter in the land of woe,
Let me not realms of outer darkness know!
Nor from the wedding-feast reject Thou me,
For my soiled vest of immortality;
Bound hand and foot, and cast
In anguish that shall last!
When Thou, the nations ranged on either side,
The righteous from the sinners shalt divide,
Then give me to be found amongst Thy sheep,
Then from the goats Thy trembling servant keep:
That I may hear the voice
That bids Thy Saints rejoice!
When righteous inquisition shall be made,
And the books opened, and the thrones arrayed,
My soul, what plea to shield thee canst thou know,
Who hast no fruit of righteousness to show,
No holy deeds to bring
To CHRIST the LORD and King?,
I hear the rich man’s wail and bitter cry,
Out of the torments of eternity;
I know, beholding that devouring flame,
My guilt and condemnation are the same;
And spare me, LORD, I say,
In the great judgment Day!
The WORD and SPIRIT, with the FATHER ONE,
One Light and emanation of One Sun,
The WORD by generation, we adore,
The SPIRIT by procession, evermore;
And with creation raise
The thankful hymn of praise.
ODE IX.
11,11,6,6,10,10
Theodore of the Studium, 826
Ο Κυριος ερχεται.
The LORD draws nigh, the righteous Throne’s Assessor,
The just to save, to punish the transgressor:
Weep we, and mourn, and pray,
Regardful of that day;
When all the secrets of all hearts shall be
Lit with the blaze of full eternity.
Clouds and thick darkness o’er the Mount assembling,
Moses beheld the Eternal’s glory, trembling;
And yet he might but see
GOD’s feebler Majesty.
And I—I Needs must view His fullest Face:
O Spare me, LORD! O take me to Thy grace!
David of old beheld, in speechless terror,
The session of the Judge—the doom of error:
And what have I to plead
For mercy in my need?
Nothing save this: O grant me yet to be,
Ere that day come, renewed and true to Thee!
Here, fires of deep damnation roar and glitter:
The worm is deathless, and the cup is bitter:
There, day that hath no morrow,
And joy that hath no sorrow:
And who so blest that he shall fly the abyss,
Raised up to GOD’s Right Hand, and speechless bliss!
My soul with many an act of sin is wounded:
With mortal weakness is my frame surrounded:
My life is well nigh o’er:
The Judge is at the door:
How wilt thou, miserable spirit, fare,
What time He sends His summons through the air?
ORTHODOXY SUNDAY.
The first Sunday in Lent is kept in memory: primarily, of the final
triumph of the Church over the Iconoclasts in 842; and, incidentally, of her
victory over all other heresies. It has a kind of commination appropriate
to itself alone. The following Canon is ascribed to S. Theodore of the
Studium, though Baronius has thought that it cannot be his, because it
implies that peace was restored to the Church, whereas that hymnographer
died while the persecution still continued. Very possibly, however, it was
written on the temporary victory of the Church, which did occur in the time
of S. Theodore; and then, in 842, may have been lengthened and adapted to
the then state of things, perhaps by Naucratius, the favourite disciple of
S. Theodore. It is, perhaps, the most spirited of all the Canons, though
many of its expressions savour too much of bitterness and personal feeling
to be well defended, and the reader must constantly bear in mind that the
poet feels the cause, not so much of Icons, as of the Incarnation itself,
to be at stake. I have only given about one-third of the poem. The
stanzas are these: Ode 1. Tropar. 1, 2; III. 6; IV. 1, 2, 3; V. 1, 3, 4, 5;
VI. 1; IX. 2, 3, 4, 5.
7,6,7,6
Theodore of the Studium, 826
Χαριστηριον ωδην.
A song, a song of gladness!
A song of thanks and praise!
The horn of our salvation
Hath GOD vouchsafed to raise!
A monarch true and faithful,
And glorious in her might,
To champion CHRIST’s own quarrel,
And Orthodoxy’s right!
Now manifest is glory;
Now grace and virtue shine:
Now joys the Church regaining
Her ornaments divine:
And girds them on in gladness,
As fits a festal day,
After long months of struggle,
Long years of disarray.
Now cries the blood for vengeance,
By persecutors poured,
Of them that died defending
The likeness of the LORD:
The likeness as a mortal
That He vouchsafed to take
Long years ago, in Bethlem,
Incarnate for our sake.
Awake, O Church, and triumph
Exult, each realm and land!
And open let the houses,
The ascetic houses stand!
And let the holy virgins
With joy and song take in
Their relics and their Icons,
Who died this day to win!
Assemble ye together
So joyous and so bold,
The ascetic troops, and pen them
Once more within the fold!
If strength again he gather,This is from the magnificent Emmanuel Ode sung at Great Compline on
high festivals.
“Having become mighty, ye have been subdued.
“For God is with us.
“And if ye shall again become mighty, again ye shall be subdued.
“For God is with us.
“And if ye shall devise any device, the LORD shall scatter it,
“For God is with us.”
Again the foe shall fall:
If counsel he shall counsel,
Our GOD shall scatter all.
The LORD, the LORD hath triumphed:
Let all the world rejoice!
Hushed is the turmoil, silent
His servants’ tearful voice:
And the One Faith, the True Faith,
Goes forth from East to West,
Enfolding, in its beauty,
The earth as with a vest.
They rise, the sleepless watchmen
Upon the Church’s wall;
With yearning supplication
On GOD the LORD they call:
And He, though long time silent,
Bowed down a gracious ear,
His people’s earnest crying
And long complaint to hear.
Sing, sing for joy, each desert!
Exult, each realm of earth!
Ye mountains, drop down sweetness!
Ye hillocks, leap for mirth!
For CHRIST the WORD, bestowing
His blessed peace on men,
In Faith’s most holy union
Hath knit His Church again.
The GOD of vengeance rises:
And CHRIST attacks the foe,
And makes His servants mighty
The wicked to o’erthrow.
And now Thy condescension
In boldness may we hymn,
And now in peace and safety
Thy sacred Image limn.
O LORD of loving kindness,
How wondrous are Thy ways!
What tongue of man suffices
Thy gentleness to praise?
Because of Thy dear Image
Men dared Thy Saints to kill,
Yet didst Thou not consume them,
But bear’st their insults still.
Thou Who has fixed unshaken
Thy Church’s mighty frame,
So that hell-gates shall never
Prevail against the same;—
Bestow upon Thy people
Thy peace, that we may bring
One voice, one hymn, one spirit,
To glorify our King!
S. Methodius I
+ A.D. 836.
S. Methodius I., a native of Syracuse, embraced the monastic life at
Constantinople. Sent as legate from Pope Paschal to Michael the Stammerer,
he was imprisoned by that prince in a close cell, and there passed nine
years, on account of his resolute defence of Icons. Having been scourged
for the same cause, by the Emperor Theophilus, he made his escape from
prison and when peace was restored to the Church was raised to the
throne of Constantinople. His first care was to assemble a Synod for the
restoration of Icons and it is, properly speaking, that Synod
which the Greeks celebrate on Orthodoxy Sunday. With this Council the
Iconoclast troubles ceased. S. Methodius died November 4th, 846. His
compositions are very few, and are chiefly confined to Idiomela.
That which follows seems to me the prettiest. It is for
a Sunday of the Fourth Tone.This paragraph is in 1st. ed. only.
7,7,6,6,3
Methodius I, 836
ει και τα παροντα.
Are thy toils and woes increasing?
Are the Foe’s attacks unceasing?
Look with Faith unclouded,
Gaze with eyes unshrouded,
On the Cross!
Dost thou fear that strictest trial?
Tremblest thou at CHRIST’s denial?
Never rest without it,
Clasp thine hands about it,
—That dear Cross.
Diabolic legions press thee?
Thoughts and works of sin distress thee?
It shall chase all terror,
It shall right all error,
That sweet Cross!
Draw’st thou nigh to Jordan’s river?
Should’st thou tremble? Need’st thou quiver?
No! if by it lying,—
No! if on it dying,—
On the Cross!
Say then,—“Master, while I cherish
That sweet hope, I cannot perish!
After this life’s story,
Give Thou me the glory
For the Cross!”
S. Joseph of the Studium.
The third period of Greek Hymnology opens with its most
voluminous writer, S. Joseph of the Studium. A Sicilian by birth, he
left his native country on its occupation by the Mahometans in 830, and
went to Thessalonica, where he embraced the monastic life. Thence he
removed to Constantinople, but, in the second Iconoclastic persecution,
he seems to have felt no vocation for confessorship, and went to Rome.
Taken by pirates, he was for some years a slave in Crete, where he
converted many to the Faith; and having obtained his liberty, and
returned to the Imperial City, he stood high in the favour, first
of S. Ignatius, then of Photius, whom he accompanied into exile. On the
death of that great man he was recalled, and gave himself up entirely to
Hymnology. A legend, connected with his death, is related of him. A citizen
of Constantinople betook himself to the church of S. Theodore in the hope
of obtaining some benefit from the intercessions of that martyr. He waited
three days in vain; then, just as he was about to leave the church in despair,
S. Theodore appeared. “I,” said the vision, “and the other
Saints, whom the poet Joseph has celebrated in his Canons, have been
attending his soul to Paradise: hence my absence from my church.” The
Eastern Communion celebrates him on the 3rd of April. But of the innumerable
compositions of this most laborious writer, it would be impossible to find
many which, to Western taste, give the least sanction to the position which he
holds in the East. The insufferable tediousness consequent on the
necessity of filling eight Odes with the praises of a Saint of whom
nothing, beyond the fact of his martyrdom, is known, and doing this
sixty or seventy different times,—the verbiage, the bombast, the
trappings with which Scriptural simplicity is elevated to the
taste of a corrupt Court, are each and all scarcely to be paralleled.
He is by far the most prolific of the hymn-writers.
SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON.
(SEPTUAGESIMA.)
The Sunday before Septuagesima, and Septuagesima itself are,
respectively, in the Greek Church, the Sunday of the Pharisee and
Publican,—and the Sunday of the Prodigal Son,—those parables
forming the Gospel for the day, and serving for the key-note to the
offices. The following Troparia are from the Canon at Lauds on Septuagesima.
(Ode VI. and Ode VIII. Trop. 2, 3.)
8,8,8,8,8,8
Joseph of the Studium
βυθος αμαρτηματων.
The abyss of many a former sin
Encloses me, and bars me in:
Like billows my transgressions roll:
Be Thou the Pilot of my soul;
And to Salvation’s harbour bring,
Thou Saviour and Thou glorious King!
My Father’s heritage abused,
Wasted by lust, by sin misused;
To shame and want and misery brought,
The slave to many a fruitless thought,
I cry to Thee, Who lovest men,
O pity and receive again!
In hunger now,—no more possessed
Of that my portion bright and blest,
The exile and the alien see
Who yet would fain return to Thee.
And save me, LORD, who seek to raise
To Thy dear love the hymn of praise!
With that blest thief my prayer I make,
Remember for Thy mercy’s sake!
With that poor publican I cry,
Be merciful, O GOD Most High!
With that lost Prodigal I fain
Back to my home would turn again!
Mourn, mourn, my soul, with earnest care,
And raise to CHRIST the contrite prayer:—
O Thou, Who freely wast made poor,
My sorrows and my sins to cure,
Me, poor of all good works, embrace,
Enriching with Thy boundless grace!
[In Mr. Young’s book. Melody of Vater unser im Himmelreich:
harmonized by Ch. H. Pink. A striking melody.]
LET OUR CHOIR NEW ANTHEMS RAISE.
7,6,7,6
Joseph of the Studium
A Cento from the Canon for SS. Timothy and Maura; May 3rd.
των ιερων αθλοϕορων.
Let our Choir new anthems raise:
Wake the morn with gladness:
GOD Himself to joy and praise
Turns the Martyrs’ sadness:
This the day that won their crown,
Opened Heav’n’s bright portal;
As they laid the mortal down,
And put on th’ immortal.
Never flinched they from the flame,
From the torture, never;
Vain the foeman’s sharpest aim,
Satan’s best endeavour;
For by faith they saw the Land
Decked in all its glory,
Where triumphant now they stand
With the victor’s story.
Faith they had that knew not shame,
Love that could not languish;
And eternal Hope o’ercame
Momentary anguish.
He Who trod the self-same road,
Death and Hell defeated;
Wherefore these their passions showed
Calvary repeated.
Up and follow, Christian men!
Press through toil and sorrow!
Spurn the night of fear, and then,—
On the glorious morrow!
Who will venture on the strife?
Who will first begin it?
Who will seize the Land of Life?
Warriors, up and win it?
AND WILT THOU PARDON, LORD.
The following Stanzas are a Cento from the Canon for the Monday of the
First Tone, in the Paracletice.
6,6,8,6
Joseph of the Studium
των αμαρτιων μου την πληθυν.
And wilt Thou pardon, LORD,
A sinner such as I?
Although Thy book his crimes record
Of such a crimson dye?
So deep are they engraved,—
So terrible their fear,
The righteous scarcely shall be saved,
And where shall I appear?
My soul, make all things known
To Him Who all things sees:
That so the LAMB may yet atone
For thine iniquities.
O Thou Physician blest,
Make clean my guilty soul!
And me, by many a sin oppressed,
Restore, and keep me whole!
I know not how to praise
Thy mercy and Thy love:
But deign Thy servant to upraise,
And I shall learn above!
[In Mr. Young’s book. Composed by Dr. Schroeder.]
STARS OF THE MORNING.
A Cento from the Canon of the “Bodiless Ones;” Tuesday in the
Week of the Fourth Tone.
10,10,10,10
Joseph of the Studium
Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright,
Filled with celestial resplendence and light;
These that, where night never followeth day,
Raise the Trishagion ever and aye:
These are Thy counsellors: these dost Thou own,
GOD of Sabaoth! the nearest Thy throne;
These are Thy ministers; these dost Thou send,
Help of the helpless ones! man to defend.
These keep the guard, amidst Salem’s dear bowers:
Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, and Powers:
Where with the Living Ones, mystical Four,
Cherubin, Seraphin, bow and adore.
“Who like the LORD?”—thunders Michael, the Chief:
Raphael, “the Cure of GOD,” comforteth grief:
And, as at Nazareth, prophet of peace,
Gabriel, “the Light of GOD,” bringeth release.
Then, when the earth was first poised in mid-space,—
Then, when the planets first sped on their race,—
Then, when were ended the six days’ employ,—
Then all the sons of GOD shouted for joy.
Still let them succour us; still let them fight,
LORD of angelic hosts, battling for right!
Till, where their anthems they ceaselessly pour,
We with the Angels may bow and adore!
[No. 6 in H. E. C.]
CANON FOR ASCENSION DAY.
This is the crowning glory of the poet Joseph; he has here with a
happy boldness entered into the lists with S. John Damascene, to whom, on
this one occasion, he must be pronounced superior. I have preserved the
alphabetic arrangement, and “Joseph’s Ode” at the end. All the
Catavasias are in iambics.
ODE I.
7,7,7,7,7,7+i
Joseph of the Studium
ανεστης τριημερος.
After three days Thou didst rise
Visible to mortal eyes:
First the Eleven worshipped Thee,—
Then the rest in Galilee:
Then a cloud in glory bore
Thee to Thine own native shore.
Boldly David poured the strain:
GOD ascends to Heav’n again:
With the trumpet’s pealing note
Alleluias round Him float;
As He now, by hard-won right,
Seeks the Fount of purest Light!
Crime on crime, and grief on grief,
Left the world without relief:
Now that aged, languid race,
GOD hath quickened by His grace:
As Thy going up we see,
Glory to Thy Glory be!
Catavasia.
θειω καλυϕθεις.
Darkness and awe, when Sinai’s top he trod,
Taught him of faltering tongue the Law of GOD:
The mist was scattered from his spirit’s eye,
He praised and hymned the Maker of the sky,
When He That is and was and shall be, passed by.
ODE III.
8,6,8,6,8,8+i
Joseph of the Studium
επαρατε τυλας.
“Exalt, exalt, the Heavenly Gates,
Ye chiefs of mighty name!
The Lord and King of all things waits,
Enrobed in earthly frame.”
So to the higher seats they cry,
The humbler legions of the sky.
For Adam’s sake, by Serpent-guile
Distressed, deceived, o’erthrown,
Thou left’st Thy native Home awhile,
Thou left’st the FATHER’s Throne:
Now he is decked afresh with grace,
Thou seek’st once more the Heavenly place.
Glad festal keeps the earth today,
Glad festal Heav’n is keeping;
The Ascension-pomp, in bright array,
Goes proudly sky-ward sweeping:
The LORD the mighty deed hath done,
And joined the severed into one.
Catavasia.
ερρηξε γαστρος.
Her fetters of the barren womb it rent,
It crushed the malice of the insolent,
The cry of her—the prophetess, who brought
A contrite spirit, and a humble thought
To Him, Who bids His Throne by earnest prayer be sought.
ODE IV.
8,7,8,7,8,7+i
Joseph of the Studium
Ιησους ο ζωοδοτης.
JESUS, LORD of Life Eternal,
Taking those He loved the best,
Stood upon the Mount of Olives,
And His Own the last time blest:
Then, though He had never left it,
Sought again his FATHER’s breast.
Knit is now our flesh to Godhead,
Knit in everlasting bands:
Call the world to highest festal:
Floods and oceans, clap your hands:
Angels, raise the song of triumph!
Make response, ye distant lands!1st ed. line order:
Know, O world, this highest festal:
Floods, ...
Angels, ...
Make response, ...
For our flesh is knit to Godhead,
Knit in, ...
Loosing Death with all its terrors
Thou ascended’st up on high;
And to mortals, now Immortal,
Gavest immortality.
As Thine own Disciples saw Thee
Mounting victor to the sky!
Catavasia.
Monarch of monarchs, Sole of Sole, to Thee,
WORD, Glorious in Thy FATHER’s Majesty,
And sending Thy co-equal SPIRIT bright
To teach, to comfort, and to guide aright,
Thine own Apostles sang: All glory to Thy might!
ODE V.
10,10,10,10+i
Joseph of the Studium
νεκρωσας τον θανατον.
Now that Death by death hath found his ending,
Thou dost call to Thee Thy loved Eleven;
And from holy Olivet ascending
On a cloud art carried up to Heaven.
O that wondrous Birth! that wondrous Rising!
That more wondrous mounting to the sky!
So Elias, earthly things despising,
In a fiery chariot went on high.
Parted from Him, still they watched His going:
‘Why stand gazing thus?’ the Angel said:
‘This same Jesus, all His glory showing,
Shall return to judge the quick and dead.’
Catavasia.
Quickened and cleansed, receive remission new
In the descending SPIRIT’s fiery dew,
Sons of the Church, and light-formed generation!
For lo! the law goes forth from Sion’s nation,
The cloven tongues of flame the PARACLETE’s salvation!
ODE VI.
8,6,8,6+10,10,10,10,10,10
Joseph of the Studium
ρανατωσαν ημιν ανωθεν,
Rain down, ye heav’ns, eternal bliss!
The Cherub-cloud today
Bears JESUS where His Father is,
Along the starry way!
Sundered of old were Heaven and Earth:
But Thou, Incarnate King!
Hast made them one by that Thy Birth,
And this Thy triumphing.
‘Thy victor-raiment, wherefore red?
What mean the marks of pain
That print Thy form?’—the Angels said,
The ascending Monarch’s train.
Catavasia.
Very Oblation, by the scourges torn!
Nailed to the bitter Cross, O Virgin-born!
As once the Prophet from the monster’s maw,
So now Thy love, accomplishing the Law,
Adam from utter death to perfect Life would draw.
Oicos.
τα της γης επι της γης.
Vanities earthly1st ed.: Things of the earth in earth will we lay,
Ashes with ashes, the dust with the clay:
Lift up the heart, and the eye, and the love,
Lift up thyself, to the regions above:
Since the Immortal hath entered of late,
Mortals may pass at the heavenly gate.
Stand we on Olivet: mark Him ascend,
Whose is the glory and might without end;
There, with His own ones, the Giver of Good
Blessing them once more, a little while stood.
“Nothing can part us,—nor distance, nor foes,
Lo! I am for you, and who can oppose?”
ODE VII.
6,6,8,6,8,8,8
Joseph of the Studium
ϕωτεινη δε, ϕως.
Wafting Him up on high,
The glorious cloud receives
The LORD of Immortality,
And earth the Victor leaves:
The Heavenly People raise the strain,
The Apostles pour the hymn again;—
GOD of our Fathers, Thou art blest
Ye faithful, tell your joys!
All hearts with gladness bound!
GOD is gone up with a merry noise,—
The LORD with the trumpet’s sound!
To Him we cry, by woes once tried,
Now glorious at the FATHER’s side,—
GOD of our Fathers, Thou art blest!
Zealous for GOD of yore,
With zeal still Moses burns:
“Come, Heavenly Spirits, and adore
The Victor Who returns;
Rise, Angel legions, rise and sing
The ancient hymn to greet the King,—
GOD of our Fathers, Thou art blest!”
Catavasia.
Joined with the trumpet-peal, the din and shout,
Cornet flute, sackbut, dulcimer rang out,
And bade adore the golden deity:
The SPIRIT’s gentler voice gives praise to Thee,
O co-eternal One—O consubstantial Three!
ODE VIII.
9,8,9,8,7,5,7,5
Joseph of the Studium
Hirmos. “HIM OF THE FATHER.”
(p. 133.)
τον εν δυσι ταις ουσιαις.
Of twofold natures, CHRIST, the Giver
Of immortality and love,
Ascendeth to the FATHER’s glory,
Ascendeth to the Throne above:
Wherefore He, this glorious morn,
Be by all adored:
Thou That liftest up our horn,
Holy art Thou, LORD!
Slaves are set free, and captives ransomed:
The Nature that He made at first
He now presenteth to the FATHER,
The chains of her damnation burst:
This the cause that He was born,
Adam’s race restored:
Thou That liftest up our horn,
Holy art Thou, LORD!
Emptied awhile of all His brightness,
He entered thus the glorious fight;
O’erthrew the foe, mankind exalted
Far above every Pow’r and Might:
Therefore bare He pains and scorn,
Calvary’s heart-blood poured:—
Thou That liftest up our horn,
Holy art Thou, LORD!
Catavasia.
Praising the LORD they stood, the Martyr Three,
Untouched amidst the fire, and wholly free:
With them associate, let the world’s wide frame
To Him Whose healing dew restrained the flame,
Send up the hymn of praise, and magnify His Name!
ODE IX.
10,9,10,9+i
Joseph of the Studium
ω των δωρεων.
Holy gift, surpassing comprehension!
Wondrous mystery of each fiery tongue!
CHRIST made good His Promise in Ascension:
O’er the Twelve the cloven flames have hung!
Spake the LORD, or ere He left the Eleven;
“Here in Salem wait the Gift I send:
Till the PARACLETE come down from Heaven:
Everlasting Guide and Guard and Friend.”
O that shame, now ended in that glory!
Pain untold, now lost in joy unknown!
Tell it out with praise, the whole glad story,
Human nature at the FATHER’s Throne!
Catavasia.
Declare, ye Angel Bands that dwell on high,
How saw ye Him, the Victor, drawing nigh?
What strange new visions burst upon your sight?
One in the form of Man, That claims by right
The very throne of GOD, the unapproached Light!
Exaposteilarion.
Eternal! After Thine own will
Thou born in time would’st be:
After the self-same counsel still
Was Thine Epiphany:
Thou in our flesh didst yield Thy breath,
Immortal GOD, for man:
Thou by Thy death didst conquer Death,
Through Thine Almighty plan:
Thou, rising Victor to the sky,
Fill’st Heav’n and earth above:
And send’st the Promise from on high,
The SPIRIT of Thy love!
Theoctistus of the Studium.
+ circ. A.D. 890.
He is said to have been the friend of S. Joseph; but is only known to
us by the “Suppliant Canon to JESUS,” to be found at the end
of the Paracletice. The following is a Cento formed from it.
7,6,7,6,8,8,7,7
Theoctistus of the Studium, 890
Ιησου γλυκυτατε.
JESU, Name all names above,
JESU, best and dearest,
JESU, Fount of perfect love,
Holiest, tenderest, nearest;
JESU, source of grace completest,
JESU purest, JESU sweetest,
JESU, Well of power Divine,
Make me, keep me, seal me Thine!
JESU, open me the gate
That of old he entered,
Who, in that most lost estate,
Wholly on Thee ventured;
Thou, Whose Wounds are ever pleading,
And Thy Passion interceding,
From my misery let me rise
To a Home in Paradise!
Thou didst call the Prodigal:
Thou didst pardon Mary:
Thou Whose words can never fall,
Love can never vary:
LORD, to heal my lost condition,
Give—for Thou canst give—contrition,
Thou canst pardon all mine ill
If Thou wilt: O say, “I will!”
Woe, that I have turned aside
After fleshly pleasure!
Woe, that I have never tried
For the Heavenly Treasure!
Treasure, safe in Home supernal;
Incorruptible, eternal!
Treasure no less price hath won
Than the Passion of The SON!
JESU, crowned with Thorns for me,
Scourged for my transgression,
Witnessing, through agony,
That Thy good confession!
JESU, clad in purple raiment,
For my evils making payment;
Let not all Thy woe and pain,
Let not Calvary, be in vain!
When I reach Death’s bitter sea
And its waves roll higher,
Help the more forsaking me
As the storm draws nigher:
JESU, leave me not to languish,
Helpless, hopeless, full of anguish!
Tell me,—“Verily I say,
Thou shalt be with Me today!”
Metrophanes of Smyrna.
+circ. A.D. 910.
He was Bishop of that See towards the close of the ninth century,
and is principally famous for his Canons in honour of the Blessed
TRINITY,—eight in number, one to each Tone. They
are sung at Matins on Sundays: and if the writer has not always been
able to fuse his learning and orthodoxy into poetry, nor yet to escape
the tautology of his brother bards, these compositions are stately and
striking. Metrophanes was a vigorous supporter of S. Ignatius; and the
partisan of Rome in her contest with Photius.
It would be impossible, without wearying the reader, to translate
the whole of one of the Triadic Canons; but a Cento from one of them
may not be unacceptable.
O UNITY OF THREEFOLD LIGHT.
From the Canon for Sunday of the Second Tone.
8,6,8,6
Metrophanes of Smyrna, 910
τριϕεγγης Μονας θεαρχικη.
O Unity of Threefold Light,
Send out Thy loveliest ray,
And scatter our transgressions’ night,
And turn it into day;
Make us those temples pure and fair,
Thy glory loveth well,
The spotless tabernacles, where
Thou may’st vouchsafe to dwell!
The glorious hosts of peerless might
That ever see Thy Face,
Thou mak’st the mirrors of Thy Light,
The vessels of Thy grace:
Thou, when their wondrous strain they weave,
Hast pleasure in the lay:
Deign thus our praises to receive,
Albeit from lips of clay!
And yet Thyself they cannot know,
Nor pierce the veil of light
That hides Thee from the Thrones below,
As in profoundest night:
How then can mortal accents frame
Due tribute to the King?
Thou, only, while we praise Thy Name,
Forgive us as we sing!
Beyond Metrophanes, it will not be necessary to carry our translations.
The following names may, however, be mentioned.
Euthymius
+ A.D. 910.
Euthymius, usually known as Syngelus, (the same as Syncellus,
the confidential Deacon of the Patriarch of Constantinople,) who died about
916, is the author of a Penitential Canon to S. Mary, which is highly
esteemed in the East. It would scarcely, however, be possible to make
even a Cento from it which would be acceptable to the English reader.
Leo VI.
+ A.D. 917.
Our next name is that of a Royal Poet, Leo VI., the Philosopher,
who reigned from 886 to 917, and left behind him the Idiomela,
or detached stanzas, on the Resurrection, sung at Lauds. They are better
than might have been expected from an imperial author, and the troubler
of the Eastern Church by a fourth marriage.
The same thing may be said of the Exaposteilaria of his son,
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, whose life lasted till 959.
John Mauropus
+ A.D. 1060.
John Mauropus, Metropolitan of Euchaïta, sometimes called the
last of the Greek Fathers, left a number of hymns, printed at Eton in
1610; and if not boasting much poetical fire, at least graced with a
gentle and Isocratean eloquence. As they have not been employed by the
Church, they claim no further notice here.
With this Metropolitan, Greek Hymnology well-nigh ceased: at
least the only other name that need be mentioned is that of Philotheus,
Patriarch of Constantinople, who died in 1376. This man, the warm supporter
of the dogma of the Uncreated Light, was the composer of several
stanzas for Orthodoxy Sunday, and the Canon for July 16th, on the Holy
Fathers: both in the very worst taste.
APPENDIX
S. Stephen the Sabaite
A.D. 725—A.D. 794.
S. Stephen, called the Sabaïte, from the monastery of S. Sabas,
was the nephew of S. John Damascene, who placed him in that house. He
was then ten years of age: he passed fifty-nine years in that
retreat; and was the earliest of the hymnographers who lived to see the
final restoration of Icons. He has left but few poetical compositions.
The two best are those on the Martyrs of the monastery of S.
Sabas—(March 20th)—on which a monk of that house would be
likely to write con amore; and on the Circumcision. His style
seems formed on that of
S. Cosmas, rather than on that of his own uncle. He is not deficient in
elegance and richness of typology, but exhibits something of sameness,
and is occasionally guilty of very hard metaphors, as when he speaks of
“the circumcision of the tempest of our souls.” He is
commemorated on the 13th of July.
IDIOMELA IN THE WEEK OF THE FIRST OBLIQUE TONE.
These Stanzas, which strike me as very sweet, are not in all the
editions of the Octoechus.[1st ed. adds: I copy from a dateless
Constantinopolitan book.]
8,5,8,3
Stephen the Sabaite (725-794)
κοπον τε και καματον.
Art thou weary, art thou languid,
Art thou sore distrest?
“Come to me”—saith One—“and coming,
Be at rest!”
Hath He marks to lead me to Him,
If He be my Guide?
“In His Feet and Hands are Wound-prints,
And His Side.”
Is there Diadem, as Monarch,
That His Brow adorns?
“Yea, a Crown, in very surety,
But of Thorns!”
If I find Him, if I follow,
What His guerdon here?
“Many a sorrow, many a labour,
Many a tear.”
If I still hold closely to Him,
What hath He at last?
“Sorrow vanquished, labour ended,
Jordan past!”
If I ask Him to receive me,
Will He say me nay?
“Not till earth, and not till Heaven
Pass away!”
Finding, following, keeping, struggling,
Is He sure to bless?
“Angels, Martyrs, Prophets, Virgins,
Answer, Yes!”
[No. 4. in Mr. Sedding’s book: also No. 4. in H. E. C. Both very sweet
melodies;—but that in H. E. C., which gives a different version of
the 4th line throughout, is, to my mind, singularly touching.]
THE PILGRIMS OF JESUS.
7,6,7,6
Joseph of the Studium
O happy band of pilgrims,
If onward ye will tread
With JESUS as your Fellow
To JESUS as your Head!
O happy, if ye labour
As JESUS did for men:
O happy, if ye hunger
As JESUS hungered then!
The Cross that JESUS carried
He carried as your due:
The Crown that JESUS weareth
He weareth it for you.
The Faith by which ye see Him,
The Hope, in which ye yearn,
The Love that through all troubles
To Him alone will turn,—
What are they, but vaunt-couriers
To lead you to His Sight?
What are they, save the effluence
Of Uncreated Light?
The trials that beset you,
The sorrows ye endure,
The manifold temptations
That Death alone can cure,—
What are they, but His jewels
Of right celestial worth?
What are they but the ladder,
Set up to Heav’n on earth?
O happy band of pilgrims,
Look upward to the skies:—
Where such a light affliction
Shall win you such a prize!
THE RETURN HOME.
6,6,6,6,8,8
Joseph of the Studium
1st ed. adds: A Cento from the Canon of S. John Climacos.
Safe home, safe home in port!
—Rent cordage, shattered deck,
Torn sails, provisions short,
And only not a wreck:
But oh! the joy upon the shore
To tell our voyage-perils o’er!
The prize, the prize secure!
The athlete nearly fell;
Bare all he could endure,
And bare not always well:
But he may smile at troubles gone
Who sets the victor-garland on!
No more the foe can harm
No more of leaguered camp,
And cry of night-alarm,
And need of ready lamp:
And yet how nearly he had failed,—
How nearly had that foe prevailed!
The lamb is in the fold
In perfect safety penned:
The lion once had hold,
And thought to make an end:
But One came by with Wounded Side,
And for the sheep the Shepherd died.
The exile is at Home!
—O nights and days of tears,
O longings not to roam,
O sins, and doubts, and fears,—
What matter now (when so men say)
The King has wiped those tears away?
O happy, happy Bride!
Thy widowed hours are past,
The Bridegroom at thy side,
Thou all His own at last!
The sorrows Of thy former cup
In full fruition swallowed up!
[No. 5 in H. E. C. This, of all the melodies written for, or adapted
to, these hymns, is my own especial favourite. One feels that the
anonymous writer of such a plaintive, yet soothing, melody, must have
been one—to quote Archbishop Trench’s words with regard to the author
of Veni, Sancte Spiritus,—acquainted with great sorrows, but
also with great consolations.]
Indexes
Subject Index
Adam of St. Victor,
H3a-p0.1
Anatolius, Saint,
Anatol-p0.1
Andrew of Crete, Saint,
andrew-p0.1
Canon, in Greek Hymnody,
intro4-p0.1
Cosmas, Saint,
cosmas-p0.1
Euthymius,
euthymis-p0.1
Germanus, Saint,
Germanic-p0.1
Hirmos, in Greek Hymnody,
intro2-p0.1
Hymnody, Greek,
Intro-p0.1
John Damascene, Saint,
johndmsc-p0.1
John Mauropus,
mauropus-p0.1
Joseph of the Studium, Saint,
joseph-p0.1
Leo VI,
leo-p0.1
Methodius I, Saint,
method_1-p0.1
Metrophanes of Smyrna,
metropha-p0.1
Ode, in Greek Hymnody,
intro3-p0.1
Sequence, in Latin Hymnody,
intro5-p0.1
Stephen the Sabaite, Saint,
StephenS-p0.1
Tarasius, Saint,
tarasius-p0.1
Theoctistus of the Studium,
theoctis-p0.1
Theophanes, Saint,
theophan-p0.1
Troparion, in Greek Hymnody,
intro2-p0.2
Index of Scripture References
Index of Greek Words and Phrases
- Αυταρ εγω:
1
- εγειρε ο καθευδων, και αναστα εκ των νεκρων επιφαυσει σοι ο Χριστος. :
1
- εικαδι ουρανου εις ξενιην Ξενη ηλθε τεταρτη. τον παναριστον εν ασκηταις Μακαριον κυδαινω· :
1
- μεγαλα και Θαμαστα τα εργα σου, Κυριε ο Θεος ο παντοκρατωρ δικαιαι και αληθιναι αι οδοι σου, ο βασιλευς των εθνων.:
1
- Ασπιδας, οσσαι αρισται ενι στρατω ηδε μεγισται.:
1
- Αστεος αιθομενοιο θεων δε :
1
- Δευτε απαντες πιστοι.:
1
- Δευτε πομα πιωμεν.:
1
- Δευτε τελευταιον ασπασμον δωμεν.:
1
- Εκ γαρ Ορεσταο τισις εσσεται Ατρε:
1
- Εκ δ Ελενη θαλαμοιο θυωδεος υψοροϕοιο.:
1
- Ενθαδ εην Κλυμενη, Ιανειρα και Ιϕιανασσα.:
1
- Εσπετε νυν μοι, Μουσαι, Ολυμπια δωματ εχουσαι:
1
- Εχθιστος δ Αχιλει μαλιστ ην, ηδ Οδυσηι:
1
- Ηο τι ποσσιν τε πεξει και χερσι :
1
- Θαλασσας το ερυθραιου τελαγος, αβροχοις ιχνεσιν, ο παλαιος πεζευσας Ισραηλ, σταυροτυποις Μωσεως χερσι, του Αμαληκ την δυναμιν, εν τη ερημω ετροπωσατο.:
1
- Θεος ων ειρηνης.:
1
- Θριξ εκ της κεψαλησ υμων ου μη αποληται.:
1
- Ιησου γλυκυτατε.:
1
- Ιησους ο ζωοδοτης.:
1
- Ιησους υπερ του κοσμου.:
1
- Νημερτης τε και Αψευδης και Καλλιανασσα:
1
- Ο Κυριος ερχεται.:
1
2
- Ο παιδας εκ καμινου.:
1
- Ου μεν γαρ μειζον κλεος ανερος, οϕρα κεν ησιν:
1
- Πασι δε θηκε πονον, πολλοισι δε κηδε εϕηκεν:
1
- Ποθεν αρξομαι θρηνειν;:
1
- Ραβδος εκ της ριζης.:
1
- Ρεια δοακρινωσιν, επει κε νομω μιγεωσιν.:
1
- Τιμοθεον τον Αποστολον, ασμασιτοισδε γεραιρω·:
1
- Τον δ Ελενη μυθοισι προσηυδα μειλιχιοισι.:
1
- Χαριστηριον ωδην.:
1
- Χριστος γενναται δοξασατε.:
1
- Ω ϕιλοι, ανερες εστε, και αλκιμον ητορ ελεσθε.:
1
- Ωιδη α· ηχος δ& 183; ο ειρμος:
1
- Ως Αχιλευς Τρωεσσι πονον και κηδεα θηκεν:
1
- Ως εϕαθ οι δ εσχοντο μαχης, ανεω τ εγενοντο.:
1
- α.:
1
- αναξ εσομ ημετεροιο.:
1
- αναστασεως ημερα.:
1
- ανεστης τριημερος.:
1
- αρισται:
1
- ασωμεν παντες λαοι.:
1
- αυτη η κλητη.:
1
- β.:
1
- βαλλει υδωρ εισ τον νιπτηρα, και ηρξατο νιπτειν.:
1
- βυθος αμαρτηματων.:
1
- γ.:
1
- δ.:
1
- ε μηνις ανηκεν.:
1
- εησιν:
1
- ει και τα παροντα.:
1
- εις τον Ορθρον:
1
- εκ νυκρος ορθριζοντες.:
1
- εκπληττομαι σου τους λογους Ζαχαρια,:
1
- επαρατε τυλας.:
1
- επι της θειας ϕυλακης.:
1
- ερρηξε γαστρος.:
1
- ευρον ϕιλον κοματακη:
1
- εχουσαι:
1
- εϕεστηκεν η ημερα.:
1
- ζοϕερας τρικυμιας.:
1
- θαυματος υπερϕυους η δροσοβολος.:
1
- θειω καλυϕθεις.:
1
- ιδαο.:
1
- καθ εκαστην ημεραν:
1
- καθ οπερ τετραγωνακη.:
1
- και περι των πιστευσοντων δια του λογου αυτων.:
1
- και τα μελη υμων οπλα δικαιοσυνης.:
1
- και τας προτοκαθεδριας εν ταις συναγωγαις.:
1
- και τον μονωτροπουντων δε, πλην εν ερημου τροποις.:
1
- και τροχιας ορθας ποιησατε τοισ ποσιν υμων.:
1
- κατηλθες εν τοις κατωτατοις.:
1
- κοπον τε και καματον.:
1
- μεγα και παραδοξον Θαυμα.:
1
- μεγα το μυστεριον.:
1
- μεγισται:
1
- μελπω σε, κλημα της νομτης αμπελου.:
1
- μη δια θυρας βαινειν δε λεγω τους κλεπταββαδας,:
1
- μηδενα βλασϕημειν, αμαχουσ ειναι, επιεικεις.:
1
- μουσαι:
1
- μυστηριον ζενον.:
1
- νεκρωσας τον θανατον.:
1
- οι παιδες ευσεβεια.:
1
- οικοιο :
1
- ορθρισωμεν ορθρου βαθεος.:
1
- ου γαρ βλεπεις τους παραττοντας.:
1
- ουκ εστι [ν] δουλος μειζων του κυριον αυτου.:
1
- παντας οσοι παρα τα νομιμα δρωσι τον βιον,:
1
- ποιηματα:
1
- ρανατωσαν ημιν ανωθεν,:
1
- σπλαγχνων Ιωναν.:
1
- στερεωσον με, Χριστε.:
1
- τα της γης επι της γης.:
1
- τας εδρας τας αιωνιας.:
1
- την ημεραν διελθων.:
1
- την ημεραν την ϕρικτην.:
1
- το μεγα μυστηριον.:
1
- τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον διδου.:
1
- τον εν δυσι ταις ουσιαις.:
1
- τον θεορημονα Γρηγοριον τον αιοδιμον αδω·:
1
- τριϕεγγης Μονας θεαρχικη.:
1
- τρυϕης μεθεξειν αξιωσον με, Τρυϕων& 183;:
1
- τω Βασιλει και Δεσποτη.:
1
- τω προ των αιωνων.:
1
- των αμαρτιων μου την πληθυν.:
1
- των ιερων αθλοϕορων.:
1
- χορος Ισραηλ.:
1
- χωστους, εγκλειστους, ελκοντας θηρια, στελοβατας,:
1
- ω των δωρεων.:
1
- ϕερωνυμον σε του Θεου δωρον σεβω:
1
- ϕωτεινη δε, ϕως.:
1
- ϕωτιζου, ϕωτιζου.:
1
Index of Pages of the Print Edition