ADDENDA. S. JOANNIS DAMASCENI HYMNI. Canon in Dormitionem Dei Genitricis.
A I. I will open my mouth and I shall be filled with the Spirit, and I shall pour forth a word to the Queen Mother; and I shall be seen joyfully celebrating, and I shall sing, rejoicing, of her wonders.
II. O youthful virgins, raise now together with Mary the prophetess the song of departure; for the Virgin and sole Theotokos is being escorted to the heavenly inheritance.
III. Worthily, as upon an animate heaven, the heavenly divine tabernacles received thee, O all-pure one; and thou stoodst, brightly adorned as a bride all-blameless, before the King and God. Confirm, O Theotokos, thou living and incorrupt fountain, those who sing thy praises in a spiritual choir; and in thy divine memory grant us the crowns of glory. Brought forth from a mortal womb according to nature, thou didst accomplish an exit befitting thee, O pure one; and having brought forth true Life, thou hast passed on to the divine and subsistent life. A crowd of theologians from the ends of the earth, and a multitude of angels from on high, hastened by an omnipotent nod to Sion, to minister, O praiseworthy Lady, at thy burial.
IV. Gazing at the divine, unsearchable counsel of the incarnation of the Most High from thee, O Virgin, the prophet Habakkuk cried out: Glory to Thy power, O Lord. B It was a marvel to behold the animate heaven of the universal King traversing the chasms of the earth. How wondrous are Thy works! Glory to Thy power, O Lord. If the incomprehensible fruit of her through whom heaven was enriched endured burial willingly as a mortal, how shall the Virgin who gave birth without male union refuse burial? At thy transition, O Mother of God, the hosts of angels covered thy most spacious, God-receptive body with their most sacred wings in trembling and joy.
V. Everything stood amazed at thy divine memory; for thou, O Virgin who hast not known man, didst pass from earth, as an ark of life, to the heavenly dwelling, bestowing peace as a reward upon all who sing thy praises. C Let the trumpets of the theologians sound forth today; and let the many-voiced tongue of men now praise thee. Let the air, shining with infinite light, resound; let the angels celebrate with hymns the falling asleep of the all-pure one. D
A The vessel of election shone forth in thy hymns, O Virgin, all in astonishment, all departing, sanctified to God, being all-worthy of God and truly appearing so, O all-praised Theotokos.
VI. Celebrating this divine and public festival of the Mother of God, O wise ones of God, come, let us clap our hands, glorifying the one born of her for the faithful. From thee has life risen, not breaking the keys of virginity. How, then, having been the immaculate and primarily life-giving tabernacle of thy body, hast thou become a participant in the experience of death? Being the temple of Life, thou hast attained eternal life; for through death thou hast passed to life, thou who hast given birth to Life subsisting.
B VII. The wise ones of God did not worship the creature instead of the Creator, but courageously enduring the threat of fire, they rejoiced, singing: "O most praiseworthy Lord and God of our Fathers, blessed art Thou." Young men and virgins, venerating the memory of the Virgin and Mother of God, elders and princes and kings with judges, sing: "O Lord and God of our Fathers, blessed art Thou." Let the heavenly mountains ring with the trumpet of the Spirit, let the hills rejoice and leap for joy; divine apostles, the festival of the Theotokos; today let us celebrate mystically. The all-holy transition of thy divine and incorrupt Mother has shaken the supercelestial hosts of the powers above; rejoice with those who sing to thee upon earth: "O God, blessed art Thou."
C VIII. The birth of the Theotokos saved the holy children in the furnace; then it was prefigured, but now it is fulfilled, and has stirred the whole world to sing: "Praise the Lord, all ye works." Thy memory, immaculate Virgin, the Principalities and Powers and Virtues, Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, cherish with praises, and the fearful Seraphim; but we, the race of men, hymn and superextol thee unto all ages. He who dwelt strangely in thy immaculate womb, taking on flesh, receiving this thy all-holy spirit, rested within it as a debtor Son. D Therefore, O Virgin, we hymn and superextol thee. O wonders of the ever-virgin and Mother of God that are beyond understanding! For having inhabited the tomb, she showed it to be a paradise, to whom we who stand here today joyfully sing: "Sing and superextol the Lord."
IX. Let every earth-born one leap for joy in the spirit, bearing a torch. And let the nature of immaterial minds go forth in praises, venerating the holy transition of the Mother of God, and let it cry out: "Hail, most blessed Theotokos, pure, ever-virgin." Come, let us rejoice in Sion, on the divine and fat mountain of the living God, gazing upon the Theotokos; for Him, as if in a mirror, as a mother...
to the more excellent and divine tabernacle into the Holy of Holies, she has transferred.
Agite, o fideles A (Come, O faithful, let us approach the sepulcher of the Mother of God; and let us embrace it, sincerely pressing our hearts, lips, eyes, and foreheads; and thence let us draw abundant gifts of healings, flowing from an ever-welling fountain.)
Accipe a nobis A (Receive from us, O Mother of the living God, this funereal chant; and protect us under the shadow of your light-bearing and divine grace; granting triumphs to the king, peace to the Christ-loving people, forgiveness to those who sing, and salvation for their souls.)
Idiomela pertaining to the Exodiasticon
B Quænam vitæ voluptas, perstat doloris expers, Quæ gloria permansit, in terra diu duratura? Panta skias asthenestera, panta oneiron apatelotera (All things [are] weaker than a shadow, all things more deceptive than dreams). Mia rope, kai tauta panta thanatos diadechetai (A single moment, and death overtakes all these things).
All' en to photi, Christe, tou prosopou sou, Kai to glykasmo tes ses horaiotetos, On exelexo, anapauson, hos philanthropos. (But in the light, O Christ, of your countenance, and the sweetness of your beauty, grant rest to him whom you have chosen, as you are the lover of mankind.)
Heu me! qualem luctam anima e corpore separata sustinet? Heu me! quantum plorat, nec est qui misereatur ejus. Ad angelos si convertat oculos, irrite C deprecatur? Si ad homines tendat manus, opem qui ferat, non invenit.
Idcirco, dilecti fratres, brevitatem vitæ contemplati, Requiem defuncto huic, a Christo deprecemur, Et magnam animabus nostris misericordiam.
Vanitas sunt humana cuncta, quæ post mortem non amplius exstabunt, Non paramenei ho ploutos, ou synodouei he doxa (Wealth does not remain, nor does glory accompany us). Epelthon gar ho thanatos tauta panta exephanistai (For when death arrives, it makes all these things vanish).
Christo propterea immortali clamemus: Ton metastanta ex hemon anapauson, (Grant rest to him who has departed from us,) Entha panton estin euphrainomenon he katoikia (Where the dwelling place is of all who rejoice).
Ubi mundi est affectus? Ubi rerum inanium species? Ubi aurum et argentum? Ubi turba et tumultus famulorum? Omnia pulvis, Omnia cinis, Omnia sunt umbræ. Verum accedite et immortali regi clamemus: D
Lord, grant to him who has migrated from us A a share in your eternal goods, giving him rest in unfailing blessedness.
NOTICE REGARDING THE SIX FOLLOWING HYMNS
(ANG. MAI, *Spicileg. Rom.* IX, p. xxi, 713 sqq.)While examining Greek codices in the Vatican library, an unexpected thing happened to me. For while I was inspecting a poetic volume, in which—not without a large collection of scholia—there are Pindar, Hesiod, parts of Homer, Aeschylus, and Theocritus, I noticed six folia written in a slightly different hand in various parts of the codex. There, I found as many prose hymns of Saint John Damascene, which the Greeks call *canones*, completely unpublished and unknown to Allatius himself, Fabricius, and Lequinius, who wrote so accurately about the works of that holy man. Nor are these folia foreign to the codex, nor were they inserted later; but because the scholia on the aforementioned poets occasionally became sparse and left an empty space—if not of the whole page, at least of a large part of it—some scribe or the owner of the codex, finding this vacant space, transcribed there these hymns of Damascene, of which he was particularly fond, interspersed with the profane scholia: even though some parts of these same hymns have perished due to the usual fates of codices. I, therefore, both for the sake of such an author, whose name appeared in the titles of the individual hymns, and finding delight in the matter itself, could not bear that these remnants of Christian value, B not to be despised, should lie dispersed any longer in a pagan tomb. The order of the hymns in the codex is this: I, f. 4 and 5, to Saint Basil the Great; (1) II, f. 5, to Saint John Chrysostom; III, f. 107, to Saint Nicholas of Myra; IV, f. 107b, to Saint Peter, prince of the apostles; V, f. 153, to Saint George the martyr; VI, f. 172 and 173, to Saint Blasius, also a martyr. In helping to properly establish these according to the norms and laws of the Greek liturgy, R. Petrus Matranga, a Greek-Sicilian, to whom I have referred elsewhere for the sake of honor, provided me with useful assistance. Certainly, the occasion will likely not be wanting when it will be permitted to present these beautiful hymns with a Latin translation and a suitable commentary: for now, however, they can hardly find a place in the corner of a full volume. Meanwhile, John Damascene provides a new and trustworthy witness regarding the deeds, writings, miracles, and martyrdoms of the aforementioned saints. The wisdom and piety of Basil and Chrysostom are celebrated, the virtues and wonders of Nicholas; in the fourth, Damascene says that the Church was entrusted by Christ to Peter, whom he governed excellently like a ship. He calls Peter, moreover, the guardian of Rome, the keeper of the treasures of the heavenly kingdom, the rock of faith, and the firm foundation of the Catholic Church. He also mentions the return of this same Peter to Jerusalem (under the emperor Claudius), and he does not remain silent about his triumph over Simon Magus. The hymn to Saint George the martyr will perhaps be read with more interest because the history of this holy man is still shrouded in many shadows. Finally, the hymn to the martyr Blasius suffers from scarcely any short lacuna; wherefore we see a description of his deeds and miracles. But why should I praise the hymnographic power of Damascene? It was long ago highly praised by John of Jerusalem, his biographer, in chapter 31 et seqq., and also by Suidas, C s.v. *Iwan. Damask.*, in these very full words: "His writings and his musical *canones*, both in iambics and in prose; for the musical *canones* of John and Cosmas have not accepted, and would not accept, any comparison, as long as this life of ours shall reach its end." Among the writings of John are counted the *canones* of the hymns, written both in iambs and in prose. These *canones* of the songs, both those of John and those of Cosmas, have never admitted any comparison with the writings of others of the same kind, nor will they admit it as long as the life of men endures.
NOTES. (1) This hymn is clearly different from the other one by the same Damascene to Saint Basil, which is read in the Greek *Menaion* on the first of January, and whose words we have cited in vol. VI, Pref. p. 38. Indeed, just as we have in books multiple homilies by the same orator on one and the same subject or holy man, as the annual feast day recurred, so also hymns were multiplied for the same anniversary cause. ANG. MAI reports this in the aforementioned place: "In codex [Vat. 225] f. 250, it is read: *Damascenus in the canon to the great Basil says: The Son is, he says, the image of the Father, and the Spirit is the image of the Son.*" ED. PATROL. D
SIX HYMNS OF JOHN THE MONK
HYMN IN HONOR OF SAINT BASIL BY JOHN THE MONK
Whose first letters are: I sing to the great Basil with chants. Ode 1, Tone 2, Plagal. A *The waves of the sea.* From the heights of heaven, look down upon us, O divine, venerable, and sacred head; direct our speech, and always guide our life toward what is better. According to Paul, you felt an unceasing desire to be released from the bonds of the body; yet, as a servant of the merciful God, you judged it more needful for our sake to remain in the flesh. You appeared as one great in signs and wonders; for by the fearful invocation of Him who shattered the brazen gates of Hades, you crushed the iron bars, and restored to the faithful the temple from which they had been excluded. It were fitting that your angelic life, and the immaterial existence in material form which you led upon this earth as an earthly angel, should be honored and crowned with the divine chants of the immaterial angels. *Theotokion.* The crossing of the ancient Israel through the sea prefigured you; for they traversed the wet abyss without getting wet, just as you, O immaculate Virgin, gave birth without seed.Ode 3. *You, who are above the waters.* In order to receive the entire radiance of the holy Trinity, you cleansed your mind of every material impression; you polished it with virtues as a clear and most pure mirror. B The throng of monks found in you a new Moses; they hold your words as divine laws, and your writings on the ascetic life as Mosaic tablets to cultivate virtue. You preached the Father without beginning, the Son co-eternal with Him, and the Holy Spirit; and you theologized that the one divinity is the consubstantial unity of the three persons; for the holy Trinity is one God. You strengthened the faith of the orthodox with the doctrine of the wise apostles; and, O Basil, you firmly established that proclamation which had been besieged by the voices of the impious. C *Theotokion.* A splendid cloud of light arose from your loins, O Virgin, the Sun of glory, revealing the splendors of the uncreated divinity to all creation, and vanishing the deception of atheism.
Ode 4. *The perverse one heard.* Clothed in the chlamys of the sacred priesthood as in a royal mantle, you stood erect before the tribunal; seeing you, the most cruel emperor was troubled and stricken to the heart. D You endured to curse yourself if you dared to deny the most venerable nature of the Holy Spirit;
nor would you consent, unless you confessed him to be, in proper accordance with the Father and the Son, equal in nature and consubstantial with the Holy Spirit. A
By wisdom and knowledge, O Basil, you surpassed all who shared in the same study; for in comparison to your course and your manner of life, they seemed like footmen running beside a Lydian chariot, even when they thought they could keep pace with you.
After you steered the Church, as if it were a ship gravely tossed by the violent storm of heresies, you guided her to the harbor of the orthodox faith, safe from the swells of impiety, using the rudder of your words.
*Theotokion.* — He who is able to blot out sin by a mere nod, blotted out the great sin of the faithful woman; and through you, He scattered the memory of all her evils into total oblivion. B
Ode V. In the bond of charity.
All were inferior to you in wisdom and virtue; just as if rays of light from the sun, O blessed one, were before all men looking from every side towards them; for by the height of your conduct, heaven was revealed in you.
With the heavenly divine bread, through your sublime words, O Basil—for the Word is the bread of the angels—you nourish souls hungering for God and seeking food that does not flow away, but rather remains forever.
Contemplative and constantly thoughtful, O thrice-blessed one, you always appeared simple and frugal in clothing and food, of somber countenance, grave in gait, silent, and not prone to wordiness. C
*Theotokion.* — You, O venerable Virgin, having sanctified your soul and purified your body in advance, when the Holy Spirit came upon you, O all-immaculate one, received within yourself the infinite power of the Most High overshadowing you.
Ode VI. I was captured.
You appeared as the invincible light of the orthodox, but not of the heterodox, brandishing your fiery tongue like a flaming sword, and you confounded your adversaries. You smote the cruel prince of the air, the helper of the sons of disobedience, with it.
Faith is truly the substance of things thought of, but not seen, yet hoped for; having acquired this faith, you wisely disregarded visible things as things that pass away, for the sake of the pursuit of things not seen; for visible things are transitory and unstable, but things not seen are eternal. D
High-minded, yet not low-minded, you were seen fighting for God, while being humble and submissive to everyone for His sake; for although you were a creature of God, commanded even to be a god, you refused to worship a creature as God; for God is the uncreated Creator of all.
You placed virtue in acting, but not in speaking, knowing well that a silent deed is better, as it is said, than an ineffectual word; you taught by doing most things rather than by learning; for he who has done, and then taught, he shall be called great in heaven, as the King of heaven has said.
Ode VIII.
A Borne in an airy chariot—not, however, by fiery horses, but mounting a winged vehicle of virtues—you were carried, O Basil, towards the heavenly goal.With your pastoral staff and spiritual trumpet, chanting a pastoral hymn, you gathered the sheep into one faith, into the same pasture, fleeing the thorny heresies.
New Paul, teacher of the Churches, encompassing the whole earth with your voice, O heavenly mind, thundering theologian and divine trumpet, let Basil be praised.
Whoever bears your Hexaemeron on his tongue and attends to it, perceives the rationale of the creature, and marvels at the Creator, using the vision of the teacher alone.
Deipara.
The same God, having spoken to our fathers of old in many and various ways, has in the end spoken to us in the Son; for the Word of God, co-enthroned with Him, became incarnate and reigned, having been born of you, O holy Virgin.Ode IX. Of the Fathers’ Laws.
B You dispersed the deep and dark night of the shadowy heresies, rising like the sun and spreading the rays of true faith over all, sowing, O Basil, the light of orthodoxy for the inhabitants of the earth; for darkness gives way to light, and falsehood yields to the truth.You adorned yourself with various flowers of divine teaching from spiritual meadows; for you flew around the intelligible gardens of Scripture; like a wise and industrious bee, you stored up the mystic honey of theology, blunting the bitterness of heresies and sweetening those who partake of it. C
Time and the tomb, which bring about oblivion, lost their inherent power; they could not withstand the weight of your sacred memory; for although, O blessed one, you have departed from these lands, yet you live; for the righteous live in God even after death, a life hidden in Christ, of which make us partakers by your prayers.
The column of the desert, Ephraim, saw you as a boundless column of fire; struck by the vision and reaching the city of the Caesars, when he found you mingling with the people, he marveled at wonders greater than the former, since he beheld in a mystery a white dove speaking into your ear. D
Deipara.
He who is incorporeal, clothed in a body, went forth from your womb, O Queen; He who by His word created the incorporeal nature and brought all creatures into existence—both rational and irrational—the Word of God the Father; therefore, extinguish the desires of the body which destroy my soul, O Mother of Life.Ode X. Do not weep for me, O Mother.
After you had celebrated the venerable and truly sacred mystery as a divine high priest of the kingdom of God, O holy Basil,
HYMN ON S. CHRYSOSTOM
receive, O holy Basil, the reward of your priesthood, appearing crowned without the blood of martyrdom. A As in the immense heaven, as in the life-giving sun, He who placed His tabernacle in the sun has also dwelt in you in heaven: "For I will dwell," He said, of those like you, "and I will walk among them in a godly manner."
Returning from the lower reaches to the heavenly homeland, and standing with the angels before the fearful throne of the supersubstantial Trinity, O holy one, for whom you strove with all your might on earth, do not be unmindful of those who are mindful of you. B Wholly confuted by you was he who dared to degrade to his own level the form of the Divinity, basely perverting the Lord’s own nature into a servile form, counting the eternal and uncreated nature as a base creature among the things created.
Breaking through the thick cloud of the flesh and paying the debt to the earth, with intrepid soul and heavenly mind you now inhabit the formless and incorporeal darkness in which it is permitted to dwell and rejoice. C The Church of God, safely established as if on an unbreakable foundation and a solid rock, on the unshakable base of your dogmas, is not moved by the violent blowing of opposing winds, and it venerates and looks up to you.
Deipara. — Thee, O most holy Virgin, an unashamed intercessor and propitious mediatrix, I faithfully set before Him who was born of you; and I entreat you, by your maternal intercessions, utterly to blot out the multitude of my many transgressions. D
JOANNIS MONACHI. HYMNUS IN CHRYSOSTOMUM.
The first letters of the verses signify: "Another John praises you, the golden mouth. A wretched monk and suppliant, John." Tone pl. ii. "Him who hid the Pharaoh in the waves of the sea."
With muddy mouth and earthly tongue, as I hasten to praise you, O Chrysostom, send forth from heaven a most radiant glimmer of divine knowledge and enlighten my mind and my heart at once.
You, having run past fleeting and decaying glory, and the whole world, and the prince of this world, Satan, O golden man, in place of all things obtained Christ; smitten by whose love, you considered all things to be refuse.
Yielding to the laws of the Savior Christ, from your youth you took up His cross upon your shoulders, and through the labors of discipline you adhered to Him, having mortified the appetites of the flesh.
You inhabited pathless and waterless deserts, homeless, unequipped, without food, and unknown, just like the great Elias and John the Forerunner, whose confidence you strove to imitate, O most holy one.
Having borne a most splendid victory, O blessed one, over the dragon with glorious trophies, like a victor in the Olympic games, being borne by the divine Spirit, you returned again to her who bore you.
Addenda. Hymn in Honor of Saint Chrysostom
ADeipara. — He who sits within the infinite bosom of the divine Begetter, the infinite Father, as the infinite Word, having been circumscribed in the flesh which He took from you, rests as a little child in your immaculate womb, O most holy one.
Ode III. Upon the Waters
Having attained the mind of Christ, you imitated His mercy as much as was possible for a human being; and you were eager for all to be saved through the confession of their evils and their flight from them, and through sincere and fervent acts of repentance.
The Holy Spirit, God, your God, anointed you to pour forth the oil of gladness upon your fellows, and the ointment of divine unction; and most rich grace was shed upon your lips.
B You erupted like a sea, Chrysostom, of most sweet doctrines, drying up at once the muddy and turbid, and the unseen and most salt-bitter marshes of the heretics, and refreshing our hearts.
Deipara. — That you might contain the whole brightness of the Holy Trinity, you shone forth... [/cont] [alt-version omitted]
Ode IV
...your mind appeared purer, O thrice-blessed Chrysostom, having reduced every impure and lustful affection to ashes in the furnace of chastity.
By the fiery rod of your golden doctrines, and by the aid of Christ, you made the sea of avarice, even as it surged, passable for mercy, which before dared not approach it.
By the will of the Chief Shepherd, the good shepherd admitted you to the ministry of the altars, you who would soon be the prince of shepherds.
Deipara. — O Virgin, you who by an incorporeal voice bore the Incorporeal One, who was to take to Himself a body from you, deliver my mind from corporeal affections, you who surpass the bodiless angels.
Ode V. Of Your Divine Manifestation, Christ
He who, even before you were born, foreknew the golden-bright and radiant state of your soul, and who sanctified you before you were formed in the womb, O holy, golden man, He set you as another Jeremiah, clearly, as a watchful shepherd and guardian of His own flock.
D Appointed by God, who provides for our poverty, as the president and helper of the poor, and the common provider for the needy, you used your golden tongue like a golden key to unlock the treasuries and hoardings of the avaricious, and consigned them to the poor.
With deserved speed and deserved zeal, the ardent faith of the pious rulers summoned you, as an angel of God, from Antioch of Syria to the queen of cities, where you were conducted with the greatest glory, with a great retinue, and with worthy honor.
The whole populace of the city, running together as if to a public festival, and hastening out of the city as if to a joyful celebration, with shouts of acclamation...
A exultant, met you, and amid festive processions led you into the city.
Theotokion. — Alone of all generations, you are uniquely named both Virgin and Mother, O Lady, having borne a child pre-eternal and timeless, born indeed of the Father without a mother before all, but from you, O Mother, produced afterward without a father, as He knows.
Ode VI. Rising like a sun gilded with gold and shining with gold, as a bridegroom from the bridal chamber, you illuminated every creature in the height of the Church with the golden rays of your teaching, B and with a mystical spring you dispelled the heavy winter of heresies.
The king was amazed, and the people, and the chorus of priests, seeing the witness of your pure and bright life clearly confirmed from above; for He in heaven, the faithful witness, bore testimony, as He who knows all things, to the beauty of your ways.
Your lips became a mystical lyre of the Holy Spirit, and a melodious cithara, singing a panharmonic melody, a musical song, a clear-toned echo with rhythmic and sweet arrangement, and by the grace of the interweaving of voices, charming and delighting souls.
By your rhetoric you persuaded the ignorant to become friends of God and workers of virtue, and you, O blessed mountain, distilling sweetness, are the divine dew falling from heaven C and fattening the fields of souls; wherefore your words appeared to the peoples sweeter than honey, O Chrysostom.
Theotokion. — Fat mountain, golden lamp, vessel of manna..., golden gate, bush ever burning and never consumed, living throne, sky full of light, renowned seat of Christ, bridal chamber woven with gold, fountain of fragrant odors, tabernacle of God, O Lady, save me.
Ode VII. An ineffable miracle. Watered by the frequent dew and rain of your words, like a fertile and rich land, the Church is aided, and is adorned, D becoming fruitful in the varied store of virtues.
But suddenly the night of despair and the darkness of sorrow, while all was serene, obscured the illustrious bride of Christ, and cast you down, O shining light, through the intervention of the prince of Satan.
Ravenous wolves, wearing the appearance of shepherds on the outside and a sheepskin, but hiding the lupine nature within, and concealing the beast beneath fleece, condemned you, the good shepherd.
Then, as an afflicted widow full of tears, weeping for her bridegroom, the Church bitterly lamented you, O Chrysostom, she who, because of the widow, endured herself the harshest widowhood.
Theotokion. — He who alone judges righteousness has sat upon the throne, O Lady; for He who took flesh from you has shown you to be a fire-formed throne, whence He rests in your bosom, as in a holy throne worthy of the Child.
ADDENDA. Ode VIII. Exult trembling, heaven.
A You, the excellent shepherd of your leader and imitator of the Lamb, like a sheep and a distinguished ram, like a spiritual lamb, the shepherds and wolves seized with wicked hands, not uttering a single sound, and they took you far from the flock unjustly.
Mountains and rocks, and pastures, valleys, abysses, seas and rivers, stars, moon and sun, heaven and earth and every creature was saddened, moved by the iniquity which was then committed by the impious priests.
Another paralytic found the disciple of Christ like another Christ; and immediately he obtained the healing of his disease. For where he had commanded him to have faith, rising up immediately and taking up his bed, B he departed joyful, and celebrating Christ.
So that those who were living in the darkness of impiety might contemplate the light of truth, and might confess as God the spiritual sun those who were serving this sensible sun, you were sent like Paul to distant nations, like a sun to dispel the gloom of unbelief.
Mother of God. – The wisdom of God chose you, the truest image of the Father, and the living and immutable seal. The accurate character, the animated bridal chamber, Mother of God, about to take flesh from you, and to converse in a friendly manner with men. Ode IX is missing.
OF JOHN THE MONK ON SAINT NICHOLAS OF MYRA.
Odes one and two are missing. Ode III. You who are above the waters.
Myra of Lycia brought you forth, blessed Nicholas, a precious ointment, pleasantly affecting the senses of souls with the flowers of graces and the fragrance of virtues. C
The whole world has you as a prompt relief in tribulations, rest in sorrow, consolation in calamities, help in temptations, a salutary remedy in diseases, Nicholas.
Learned in the doctrine of faith, and imbued from childhood with the spiritual and pure milk of piety, you truly became a perfect man, blessed one, and you progressed to the measure of the age of Christ.
Insisting on the footsteps of the Savior, you were not a hireling D, but rather a good shepherd; for you laid down your life for the sheep, fulfilling the Gospel of Christ in your deeds.
Mother of God. – You appeared as a bush wrapped in fire, most celebrated one. The urn or amphora filled with manna signified you, most holy one, about to receive God; for you poured out for us the sweetness of the interior.
A Beholding the star, you directed the invisible ship of the mind toward their movements and brought it to the mountain of peace, like a most excellent pilot sailing through the seas.
With great courage of divine power, you called upon Christ and, O blessed one, set free those who were bound in prison.
Your heart, full of the Holy Spirit, gave forth a sweet fragrance, breathing out a scent of aromatics, once again mingled with splendor and mixed with light.
Theotokion.
The mind of mortals is not able to interpret your birth beyond thought; for the reason of this is utterly inexpressible, and the manner, O Virgin, is incomprehensible.Ode V. I rise early toward you.
By your sweet words you persuaded many to reject the world and to cleave to the calling Master, and to hate the tumults in the world for the sake of divine, supercelestial enjoyments.
Endued with power and divine strength, and fenced about with the armor of the incorporeal, you were not wounded by the arrows of Belial, but rather you yourself wounded his most profane heart.
Mounted upon a four-horsed chariot, a fiery vehicle of virtues, you ascended to heaven, where Christ the forerunner had previously ascended, to be beheld by His face.
Like divine salt, O blessed one, you were cast into the whole world, stopping the putrefaction of despair, drying up the nature of tribulations, and confirming and tightening souls that had grown slack.
Theotokion.
He who did not depart from the paternal bosom rests in your maternal bosom, O Virgin, Christ the God; He who is without a mother proceeded without a father from you; and you have again opened the bosom of Abraham.Ode VI. He is held but not restrained.
BAn observer, and not a violator, of the divine commandment, O blessed one, which says: “Let not your left hand know what your right hand does,” you acted much more perfectly, having made neither the man to whom you were doing good a participant in your design, nor a witness of your intent.
You proved to be a root-cutter, but not a planter, of all malice. Plant in me, O Father, lush and shaded trunks, and branches rich with virtues and holy graces, rooting out my thorny growth and purging the shoots of passions. C
Desiring to obtain celestial, and not earthly, glory, you despised the one that is dragged below as passing away, as dissolving, as comparable to a shadow, as likened to a dream, as unsubstantial, and clearly like smoke vanishing into the air.
Having defiled—but not having fixed by the fear of you—my flesh, and having violated purity like the profane and lecherous Esau, I have made His holy members, O Christ, members of a harlot; wherefore, through the prayers of your Nicholas, sanctify me again. D
A Clothed in a robe made white, not stained by the livid mark of passions, and holding a shining, brilliant torch in your hands, O illustrious Nicholas, you entered the nuptial chamber, the heavenly and mystical bridal-chamber, which may I also attain through your prayers.
Deipara. — You have appeared, O Virgin, higher and more sublime than any creature we perceive with our eyes and mind. For you hold in your arms the Creator of all creatures, as if a throne of fire; pray to Him, I beseech you, to deliver me from the straits and calamities of the lower world, and from the hardening in evil in this world.
Ode VII. Ineffable.
Three virgins, brought into danger with their father, and about to fall into the ultimate abyss of evils and to suffer eternal death, were guided by you, O blessed one, to the harbor of immortal life and the heavenly kingdom.
Your pure heart, O wise one, illuminated by the Sun of glory, shone forth from afar with a more excellent light, and with its own radiance fully illuminated the minds of those who saw it.
In the sling of the divinely woven dogmas, you drove far away the pestilential and heavy wolves, O holy one, and preserved your people safe from the frantic babbling of Arius.
According to Paul, the whole world is crucified to you; you are crucified with Christ who was crucified, and who by His cross dissolved the ancient curse. B
Deipara. — Mother and Virgin, you alone have appeared as mistress on earth; you who suckled the Child born without seed, through whom Israel drank a new drink from the jagged, hard, and waterless rock; and it sucked oil and honey.
Ode VIII. Of the first laws.
A column of fire reaching to the heavens, going before the Christian people, and leading the new Israel, you appeared, O blessed one, illuminating at once the tribes following you, and refreshing them with the dewy cloud of grace; while at the same time obscuring the throng of the impious with mists, gloom, smoke, and darkness. C
Obeying the laws of the Chief Shepherd, you did not appear as a hireling, O Father, but as a good shepherd; for you laid down your life for your sheep, and you gave your own soul for us, imitating God the Word, who poured out His precious blood in a philanthropic manner for those who were ungrateful.
A solace for the faint-hearted, a ready comfort for the afflicted, a capable and most suitable protector of the world, you have appeared as a most splendid sun, riding on the four-horse chariot of virtues, O wise one, and seated on a golden car of graces.
By the splendor of your miracles and the radiance of your benefactions, you illuminate and refresh every soul, O thrice-blessed one, and drive away the darkness of despondency with the light of cheerfulness, joy, and grace. D
Your struggles, and your anxieties, and labors, and your sweat, as a sacrifice of sweet-smelling incense to Christ
and precious ointment offered as a fragrance to Christ, a river of sanctification, and a spring of divine fragrance, and an ocean of miracles, did they place you in the world, O Nicolaus, initiate of sacred things.
A *Theotokion.* Beyond cause, beyond thought, the Word who proceeded from the unoriginated Father, and the cause of all things that are, you embodied, O Maiden; for He had you as the cause, becoming incarnate from you, so that He might save man, as He is human-gracious by nature; through whom He even became man willingly, and conversed with men as a lover of mankind.
*Ode IX. Do not lament me.* Be merciful to me, O Savior, on the day of judgment, when I stand naked before your throne; and consider me then with a merciful eye, through the prayers of the divine Nicolaus; for you alone are truly good and merciful.
As one who loved the gentleness of the God-seeing Moses, you inherited the splendor of his form; for your face, even after death, shone with the brilliant rays of incorporeal light and the most gracious radiance.
Ripping out from the foundations with the lever of your prayers, and as one shaking walls with the mighty weapon of the cross, you overturned the accursed temples of the wicked gods, and raised up holy houses, O blessed one, to Christ, who is truly and alone God by nature.
Possessing a sleepless eye of the mind and divine wisdom, and carrying a torch burning with virtues and enriched abundantly at all times with the oil of mercy, you have entered into the joy of your Lord.
C Having a mind that is master over desires, O Father, you resisted the prince of the world powerfully, having acquired the Almighty as your helper; and, having reigned over the passions, you appeared in the night to the emperor Constantine.
Neither the sand of the seashore, nor the multitude of waves, nor the drops of dew and the light flakes of snow, nor the chorus of stars, nor the drops of rain and the flowing rivers, nor the waters of springs shall be compared to your miracles, O Father.
*Theotokion.* May the co-eternal Son and Word of God deliver the sons of men to be children of God by grace, who for your sake, O Maiden, became Son of man; He who came to seek me, who am a child of Gehenna, that I might become a child of God.
BY JOHN THE MONK: HYMN TO THE BLESSED PETER THE CHIEF OF THE APOSTLES
The acrostic of which is: I sing a song to you, Peter. A hymn of John.
*Ode I. Tone heavy. With your inclination toward earthly things.* Having burned with longing for the enjoyments of future goods alone, O wise one, you despised fleeting things; whence you clung to Christ and were united with Him in fervent love.
You, who scorched yourself entirely with fire that is incorporeal and divine,
A a coal, which Isaiah once saw—a coal of incorporeal fire burning—you purged the matter of error.
A radiant lamp and a golden-shining torch, illuminating minds with the light of divine teaching, O Peter, the Holy Spirit showed you to the nations dwelling in darkness.
Faith, hope, love: these are the weapons of your warfare; the unbreakable breastplate, the two-edged sword, and the helmet of salvation, O venerable apostle.
[Deipara.] O Theotokos, by your most pure childbirth, the ancient paradise which our foremother had closed is opened B and the original homeland is restored to the human race.
Ode III. Who in the beginning.
You appeared as an eagle carried upon clouds; for in the blink of an eye, by the all-working and divine Spirit, you were translated from Rome to Zion by a cloud, to attend to the living cloud of God.
"What God has cleansed," He who alone is pure by nature, "let no man defile," He says; for all the works of God are pure to the pure; therefore, cleanse me, O Peter, from impure passions by your intercessions.
Having addressed the people in Zion, and being the first to sow the word of faith therein, you immediately brought forth a fertile harvest, bringing forth in Christ to the all-hymned Trinity a venerable church of three thousand souls.
C As a star in the air to those sailing the sea in the midst of the night, likewise you shone with the light of faith upon those navigating the dark and gloomy sea of tempestuous error, O Peter.
[Deipara.] Possessing you as my highest refuge and a most ready helper unto salvation, O Lady, I fervently pray and beseech you: receive my soul as it migrates from the tabernacle and, having abandoned the earth, seeks another region.
Ode IV. Who the paternal.
You who were the first of all the disciples to run to the tomb of Life Itself, awaken me, who am sleeping in the tomb of stony hardness, through repentance. D
The mind shudders to consider how many lands, how many seas you traversed, how many sweats and how many labors you did not hesitate to endure for the Gospel of grace.
Growing old in evil, far from the way of God, I am lame in both knees; reform me, O saint, who am lame with respect to virtue.
Having received from Christ the Church, which the Lord Himself and not men established, you governed it well, as a ship, O apostle.
[Deipara.] The beauty of Jacob, which is clean, and elect, and blameless, which Christ our God loved, who is incomparable in beauty...
pure and elect and blameless, whom D Christ God, incomparable in beauty, has loved; I pray, O Lady, save me.
Ode V. O Lord my God. Guardian of Rome and treasurer of the kingdom, rock of the faith, firm foundation of the Catholic Church, be celebrated in sacred songs. When you asked Christ long ago, O Peter, if you should forgive those who sin against you, you heard: I do not say to you up to seven times, but rather seventy-seven times. Precious before the Lord is the death of his saints, as it is written; but yours, O all-praised one, is truly much more precious, as the true image of the divine passion. All weakness was driven from the believers, and all disease from your healing hands, which, laying them upon the sick, you made them whole, O Apostle. Theotokion. — You raised up, O Theotokos, the humbled nature of men, and lifted it from its ancient fall; for you gave birth to Christ, who lifts up those who are bowed down.
Ode VI. O my Rock. The false signs and phantom powers of Simon the accursed, O Peter, you dissolved and brought to nothing, as the sun puts to flight darkness and mist; and you performed many powers in God. The wisdom of God, which rules over all, has given to you also, O Peter, the power to tread upon scorpions and serpents, both visible and invisible; from whose venomous malice deliver me. And rather, O Peter, your most beautiful feet... The rest is wanting.
JOANNIS MONACHI
HYMN IN BLESSED GEORGE
The first letters of the verses sound: I sing the struggles of George the martyr. Praise of John.Ode I. Tone plagal 4.
The Charioteer
. Having cultivated with the cross the field of your mind, and having sown virtues in it with tears, you reap exultation; D for through martyrdom, O George, you have prepared a harvest filled with spiritual and eternal fruits. Amidst the violent tempest of impiety you stood, O celebrated one, like an unshakable rock, and like a most firm tower, by the noble firmness of your heart breaking the waves of punishments into frothy bubbles. You appeared as a faithful and just lion; for having royally mastered base passions, you intrepidly charged into the stadium like a lion, terrifying the enemies like mere foxes with your kingly roar. You checked the torrent of deceit flowing uncontrollably, O martyr; for its seething and most impetuous force, hitting you violently and rushing upon you harshly, you, like an unbreakable wall, compelled to retreat.Theotokion
A slow and clearly weak tongue, and a mismatched mouth, are struck with awe to address hymns to you, O Lady; for all the fiery, flame-like tongues of the angels, and the mouths of the incorporeal ones, sing to you.Ode III. He who establishes
A In order to attain the glory and life hidden in Christ, you despised fleeting glory, and wisely neglected corruptible life; wherefore through death you found eternal life. You did not fail by laboring, nor were you exhausted when fighting as it were with fire and sword, you who were firmer than iron and all adamant, but you endured all things as a witness of another's suffering. B While you were conversing for Christ, the torturers divide your body into parts with instruments, and divide your limbs into the smallest pieces, O much-suffering one; yet you kept your mind whole and untouched by the love of Christ. Afflicted for the sake of Christ, who was afflicted for you, you glorified Him in your members, as one bearing His stigmata affixed to your flesh, and you yourself were glorified the more, most illustrious George.Of the Theotokos
The storm of sins, the tempest of iniquities, and the successive reefs of malice cast me down into the deep abyss of despair; give me, O Virgin, your hand, lest the wave overwhelm me while alive.Ode IV. You are, Christ, my Lord
You spurned rhetorical wrangling and the trifles of the unwise, who contend bitterly against the truth and against themselves, having loved from your soul, as a wise and sharp-witted man, the wisdom of Christ God, O George. C The typhoon-like blasts of violent tortures, and most bitter rivers of scourges, and a murky, fiery rain all at once set upon you and broke upon you suddenly, but they could not shake the tower of your confession; for it was founded upon the rock. You entered the furnace, kindled with much wood, as if it were a dew-laden bridal chamber; for an angel of God, scattering a certain dew, tempered the heat of the furnace, beat back the flame, and proved you superior to the fire. Bearing in your tongue, O most illustrious one, the living and saving Word of God, you brought to life a Gentile who had died before the descent of Christ; having baptized him with divine baptism, you freed him from the gehenna of fire.Ode V
...and they groaned bitterly, and the herald of God reduced the god of the godless into dust by human voice. Seeing God offended by impious princes, you did not endure it, but, inflamed in your heart by divine zeal, you rebuked the great delusion of those who were wandering, and you confessed Christ as God. D "I shall run the path of your martyrdom, O Savior, and I shall rejoice," you sang, George, while your beautiful feet were being...A fastened by iron sandals and nails, and the pavement was reddened by your blood.
The hands of God, which fashioned man with great wisdom and knowledge, carved you out and adorned you with an ineffable beauty, as a rational statue and a most beautiful image of splendor.
*Theotokion.* The roaring lion goes about seeking to devour me with his teeth; do not hand me over as prey, O all-immaculate one, you who bore God, who with His divine power crushed the jaws of the lions.
Ode VI. I pour out my supplication.
You, who stretched out your hands upon the wood and whose side being pierced by a spear, you proclaimed to be the Word of God and God, were yourself hung upon wood, George, and your sides were pierced by pikes, yet by your prayer you blunted their points.
Harder than stones, as though a patron of stones, you lay stretched out upon the ground, and by the stones cast at you, you pressed out your entrails; yet you yourself sought the Rock of life, the precious stone, Christ.
The son of Gehenna, acting as fuel for the unquenchable fire, covered you with freshly-lit, boiling lime, O martyr; but you found your accustomed protector, who has cherished you from your youth.
You appeared stronger than iron, stone, bronze, and adamant, George; for each of these is dissolved when consumed by fire; but you, filled with grace, overcame the all-consuming fire.
*Theotokion.* You give birth to the Fatherless One, born without a mother, beyond thought, nature, and reason, so that He might make us gods by adoption; deign to grant me, cast down as I am in hope, O Lady, the sweetness of His beauty.
Ode VII. You who came from Judea.
Nothing was able to injure or harm you, the soldier of God, neither the fervor of fire, nor the fury of lions; for God will not deliver up to wild beasts the soul that confesses Him.
By ruling your soul and flesh with reason, O martyr George, you wisely subjected the body to the spirit, the worse to the better, appearing as a precise director of those things pertaining to worth.
O glorious athlete, who possess great boldness before the Savior, scatter, I pray, the multitude of my passions, the load of my evils, giving me respite and a lightening of the weight.
Let the martyr be celebrated in hymns, great in understanding, rich in wisdom, who by his words denounced and by his works triumphed over idle error, and who proclaimed Christ the Son of God and the Word.
*Theotokion.* Be you my protectress, be you my bright defender, O Mother of God! When the final and great necessity lays hold of my soul, deliver me from the aerial robbers.
Ode VIII. The sevenfold furnace.
Athanasius found immortality through you, being radiantly famous for the name of immortality; for by command of the tyrant, once he had mixed a deadly poison for you, he gazed upon B you unharmed.
A Seeing you, he was amazed, and recognized the power of Christ, who brought down death by death. Clothed from heaven with invincible strength and vigor, you endured the torture of the wheel; being cut by swords, being pulled apart in your sinews, and with the harmony of your bones broken, like ears of corn you were harvested of all your sacred fingers. Shredded by raw leather thongs on your hands and feet, you unstrung the iron sinew of the enemy, whose neck was clearly broken. For Christ braced you while you fought for Him, wrapping you in brazen sinews—as the word says—and breathing into you the power to perform wonders in God, and to loosen the power of darkness. That Christ is God and Lord of all creation and Creator of human nature, you compelled even the unwilling demons to confess, though by nature they are liars; for fearing your authority over them, like scourged slaves, they fulfilled what was commanded. - *Theotokion.* Having taken flesh from your all-pure blood, the Bodiless One strengthened with the gift of the Holy Spirit the man who had been subjected to carnal desires and born void of the Spirit, and gave him the power to wisely suppress his unruly body and lead it into servitude, O Virgin.
Ode IX. Every ear stood in awe.
C Having established the footsteps of your mind on the rock of faith, you ground the idols of error into dust; and having bowed your neck to God and been decapitated by the sword, O athlete, you have migrated to the Head of all. Like a lily whiter than snow, you bloomed in the valley of the martyrs; reddened by the divine laver of martyrdom, you appeared as a rose, ruby-colored, sweet-smelling, fragrant, and you breathed upon all a supermundane scent of the passions of Christ. Your much-contending body appeared firmer than any iron, O George, remaining unbruised by the hammers of torture; just as iron dipped in cold water is seasoned by your warm blood, it was hardened by the fire of the love of Christ. D Having conquered by the grace of Christ, who conquered the world, as He said, you overcame the powers of the prince of this world and his inhuman rule; as a victorious athlete you soared from earth to the heavens, to be crowned by the victory-bestowing right hand. Your countless wonders are equal to the waves of the rivers, which you performed while living and still perform after the end; for the just truly live in God even after death; for their souls are in the hand of God. Having no facility of speech, nor a tongue capable of celebrating all your countless deeds as is fitting, accept my words, O ornament of martyrs; I turn and beseech my Savior Christ that He may have mercy on me. *Deest Theotokion.*
HYMN TO ST. BLAISE
A CANON TO SAINT BLASIUS Whose acrostic is: *Germinating the labors of Blasius, I, John, celebrate.*Ode I. Tone 4, plagal. *The Charioteer.* A You truly subjected, O Blasius, the irrational passions to the governing Word; you despised the edict and voice of the king, proclaiming the King whose authority is without successor and whose kingdom is eternal. Grant wisdom to me as I open my mouth, O Word of God, that I may worthily hymn the truly holy Blasius; for You Yourself gave him wisdom, which his adversaries could not withstand. O Father, you became a fruit-bearing branch of the life-giving Vine, adorned with virtues like ripe clusters; and though cut by the sword and trampled by ungracious feet, O Blasius, you poured out for all the wine of compunction. You have been manifestly proved by your works to be, like the great Job, truthful, gentle, merciful, and just, pious and blameless, truly abstaining from every evil thing, O ornament of the martyrs. *Theotokion.* Let us worthily celebrate the holy Virgin, the living city of God, as the precious rod that blossomed from the root of Jesse, bearing Christ, the truly unfading flower, which blossomed from you.
Ode III. *[O Lord, who dwellest in the] heavenly [heights].* Those who wished to take you captive for an unjust slaughter were themselves taken captive by you for eternal life and offered to God as victims far more precious than irrational sheep, to the Almighty. Your wonders, O wise one, are more numerous than the sands of the sea; for you heal the incurable diseases of souls and bodies; you dissolve the sufferings and swellings of throats and stop the flows of the larynx. [The great one of Sebaste...] Through intent vigil and prayer you became a place, a mountain for the Lord and God of Jacob; for a holy tabernacle, and the Spirit, the Trinity, dwelt in your heart. *Theotokion.* We acknowledge you, O Lady, as a heavenly tongs carrying the true coal, Christ, in your arms; with Him, burn up my brushwood-like passions which pollute the brightness of the soul.
Ode IV. *I have heard, O Lord.* You surpassed the senses and left behind what is most base, raised on the golden wings of priesthood and martyrdom. Having become a vessel of perfume for the Holy Spirit and the fragrance of Christ, you spread abroad the sweet odor of His knowledge and His sufferings. The remedy for the sick, the refuge from evil spirits, and a terror to demons, intolerable and a heavy scourge, is your name. As a shepherd you tended the flock, while you yourself were tended from above as a sheep; and you were offered to the Lord as a sheep or a ram, O most holy one. *Theotokion.* [Him who is] in all [things] uncontainable, [who] in the heavens...
A you conceived, O Virgin, more widely than the heavens, beyond understanding; and as a good teacher [you] innocent children and babes neglectful....
Ode V
As you offered [yourself] to God like innocent lambs and aromatics, through a new fire, through a sword [as though] burnt as an offering, [becoming] a fragrance of sweet savor to the Creator; B shaking off the slumber of negligence from your eyelids, you served God day and night, indulging constantly in prayers and psalms and hymns, and becoming a flute for the Lord. Lifting every labor, and healing every infirmity and sickness, those who approached you you refreshed with vows and [your] hand: for freely you received, and freely you gave to all, as a most genuine disciple of Christ. The fruit of your labors brought forth the ear of martyrdom, O Blasius, reaped by the sickle of torments and gathered into the storehouses of the heavens, and becoming the purest bread for the Master. *Theotokion.* Now all generations of generations call you blessed, O all-holy one, as being blessed; for the Lord, who alone is blessed, having delivered me from the power of the demons, appeared most benevolent through you.
Ode VI
As once you plucked the fish bone stuck in the throat of the child, so also now, as for a sharp arrow stuck in the throat of the soul, drive away the thorn of pleasures by your touch. C You stripped off the leathern garments of mortality and the sense of destruction; having laid aside [that] clothing, you attained glory through nakedness; for, stripped [and] bound to the board, you were lacerated in your sides with claws. The soft and weak woman was strengthened by the virtue of your struggles, and manfully fought against the enemy; for she resisted unto blood against evil sin, struggling beyond nature. He who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, having fortified the women by your mouth—whom you begot in chains according to Paul—so strengthened them that they faced swords and whips and fire. *Theotokion.* Finding [you to be] a tabernacle higher than the height of heaven on earth, the Creator of heaven, O Mother of God, went forth as a bridegroom from the light-bearing bridal chamber of your womb, and the God of heaven and of all flesh assumed flesh from thence for himself.
Ode VII. He who from Judea
You carried the divine cross as a most strong staff of old age; the rod of piety was struck with rods now and your staff [it was] and it admonished me. D The voracious mouth of the wolf [you bridled] with a rein... by the protection of divine grace you disperse the crowd of diseases with the radiance of miracles. The women who were thrown into the pit... the heavenly inhabitants
A rendered the happy ones wretched, and cast them into the abyss, performing wonders against them after the manner of Moses.
Theotokion. — That the Creator of the world might save the world, He appeared as a mortal upon earth; for the lover of mankind truly walked among men, revealed as truly human, receiving the form of a servant from a virgin mother beyond all experience.
Ode VIII. In sevenfold measure. As if buoyed up by the Holy Spirit, O Blasius, carried securely upon the back of the lake, you walked fearlessly along the wet path to the whole place, and you sat firmly upon the thin surface of the waters, just as if the abyss itself were gently supporting your body.
Wooden idols, which were accounted as gods, perished utterly; they were plunged into the deep, and underwent the law which they themselves had laid down, as many were cast under the Shepherd Christ, so that the soldiers who served them were overcome either with astonishment or with shame. B
A divine angel, descending upon the rim of the lake, bids greeting to him who sits upon the waters, and flatters him with a sweet kiss, and receiving him into a chariot says: Arise and come, joyfully receive the crown of glory which has been prepared for you.
Earth, and mire, and mud; he who is called tyrant thinketh earthly things and meditates on worldly things; yet with a great prodigy of the power of Christ, you have utterly destroyed the foul demons... C those who had been condemned by infirm parents to truly call upon the Savior.
Theotokion. — As the Creator of human nature dwelt in your womb, O Lady, having made it pure, He restored the original purity which once dwelt in us; and having returned those who were long ago bitterly exiled from the delightful paradise, He caused them in this place to glorify Him.
Ode IX. He stood reprimanding. Indulging like a pig in the mud and mire of sins, and pursuing a slippery life and fleeting pleasure, I am become a prey to the spiritual wolf; may I be delivered by the protection of God from the beast, lest I become the food of these.
Beautiful are your feet, most holy one; for you preached the peace which surpasses all understanding, and the good things beyond comprehension, O Blasius; standing before the king, you prepared for yourself a path upon the waters, and your footsteps were not seen. D
By the snare of fasting you strangled the insatiable greed of the wild beasts, a terrible Scylla, a many-headed hydra, according to the fables; hence you have received the grace to extract without pain the bones stuck in the chest and throat, by the divine touch of your relics.
...having long partaken of the paths of sin with successive diseases, I drag out a life most full of suffering and burdensome; for the... of matter... always carried about,