| 94. Church Poetry. Greek Hymns and Hymnists. | ||||
See the Lit. in vol. III. 113 (p. 575 sq.) and 114 (p. 578), and add the following: | ||||
Cardinal Pitra: Hymnographie de l' glise grecque. Rome 1867. By the same: Analecta Sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, T. I. Par. 1876. | ||||
Wilhelm Christ et M. Paranikas: Anthologia Graeca carminum Christianorum. Lips. 1871. CXLIV and 268 pages. The Greek text with learned Prolegomena in Latin. Christ was aided by Paranikas, a member of the Greek church. Comp. Christ: Beitraege zur kirchlichen Literatur der Byzantiner. Muenchen 1870. | ||||
[?]. L. Jacobi (Prof. of Church Hist. in Halle): Zur Geschichte der griechischen Kirchenliedes (a review of Pitra's Analecta), in Brieger's Zeitschrift fuer Kirchengesch., vol. V. Heft 2, p. 177-250 (Gotha 1881). | ||||
For a small selection of Greek hymns in the original see the third volume of Daniel's Thesaurus Hymnologicus (1855), and Baessler's Auswahl altchristlicher Lieder (1858), p. 153-166. | ||||
For English versions see especially J. M. Neale: Hymns of the Eastern Church (Lond. 1862, third ed. 1866, 159 pages; new ed. 1876, in larger print 250 pages); also Schaff: Christ in Song (1869), which gives versions of 14 Greek (and 73 Latin) hymns. German translations in Baessler, l.c. p. 3-25. | ||||
[Syrian Hymnology. To the lit. mentioned vol. III. 580 add: Gust. Bickell: S. Ephraemi Syri Carmina Nisibena, additis prolegomenis et supplemento lexicorum syriacorum edidit, vertit, explicavit. Lips.] 1866. Carl Macke: Hymnen aus dem Zweistroemeland. Dichtungen des heil. Ephrem des Syrers aus dem syr. Urtext in's Deutsche uebertragen, etc. Mainz 1882. 270 pages. Macke is a pupil of Bickell and a successor of Zingerle as translator of Syrian church poetry.] | ||||
The general church histories mostly neglect or ignore hymnology, which is the best reflection of Christian life and worship. | ||||
The classical period of Greek church poetry extends from about 650 to 820, and nearly coincides with the iconoclastic controversy. The enthusiasm for the worship of saints and images kindled a poetic inspiration, and the chief advocates of that worship were also the chief hymnists. Their memory is kept sacred in the Eastern church. Their works are incorporated in the ritual books, especially the Menaea, which contain in twelve volumes (one for each month) the daily devotions and correspond to the Latin Breviary. Many are still unpublished and preserved in convent libraries. They celebrate the holy Trinity and the Incarnation, the great festivals, and especially also the Virgin Mary, the saints and martyrs, and sacred icons. | ||||
The Greek church poetry is not metrical and rhymed, but written in rhythmical prose for chanting, like the Psalms, the hymns of the New Testament, the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum. The older hymnists were also melodists and composed the music. The stanzas are called troparia; the first troparion is named hirmos, because it strikes the tune and draws the others after it. Three or more stanzas form an ode; three little odes are a triodion; nine odes or three triodia form a canon. The odes usually end with a doxology (doxa) and a stanza in praise of Mary the Mother of God (theotokion). A hymn with a tune of its own is called an idiomelon. | ||||
This poetry fills, according to Neale, more than nine tenths or four fifths of the Greek service books. It has been heretofore very little known and appreciated in the West, but is now made accessible. It contains some precious gems of genuine Christian hymns, buried in a vast mass of monotonous, bombastic and tasteless laudations of unknown confessors and martyrs, and wonder-working images. | ||||
The Greek church poetry begins properly with the anonymous but universally accepted and truly immortal Gloria in Excelsis of the third century. The poems of Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 390), and Synesius of Cyrene (d. about 414), who used the ordinary classical measures, are not adapted and were not intended for public worship. | ||||
The first hymnist of the Byzantine period, is Anatolius patriarch of Constantinople (d. about 458). He struck out the new path of harmonious prose, and may be compared to Venantius Fortunatus in the West. | ||||
We now proceed to the classical period of Greek church poetry. | ||||
In the front rank of Greek hymnists stands St. John Of Damascus, surnamed Mansur (d. in extreme old age about 780). He is the greatest systematic theologian of the Eastern church and chief champion of image-worship against iconoclasm under the reigns of Leo the Isaurian (717-741), and Constantinus Copronymus (741-775). He spent a part of his life in the convent of Mar S ba (or St. Sabas) in the desolate valley of the Kedron, between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. He was thought to have been especially inspired by the Virgin Mary, the patron of that Convent, to consecrate his muse to the praise of Christ. He wrote a great part of the Octoechus, which contains the Sunday services of the Eastern church. His canon for Easter Day is called the golden Canon or the queen of Canons, and is sung at midnight before Easter, beginning with the shout of joy, Christ is risen, and the response, Christ is risen indeed. His memory is celebrated December 4. | ||||
Next to him, and as melodist even above him in the estimation of the Byzantine writers, is St. Cosmas Of Jerusalem, called the Melodist. He is, as Neale says, the most learned of the Greek poets, and the Oriental Adam of St. Victor. Cosmas and John of Damascus were foster-brothers, friends and fellow-monks at Mar S ba, and corrected each other's compositions. Cosmas was against his will consecrated bishop of Maiuma near Gaza in Southern Palestine, by John, patriarch of Jerusalem. He died about 760 and is commemorated on the 14th of October. The stichos prefixed to his life says: | ||||
Where perfect sweetness dwells, is Cosmas gone; | ||||
But his sweet lays to cheer the church live on. | ||||
The third rank is occupied by St. Theophanes, surnamed the Branded, one of the most fruitful poets. He attended the second Council of Nicaea (787). During the reign of Leo the Arminian (813) he suffered imprisonment, banishment and mutilation for his devotion to the Icons, and died about 820. His Chronography is one of the chief sources for the history of the image-controversy. | ||||
The following specimen from Adam's lament of his fall is interesting: | ||||
Adam sat right against the Eastern gate, | ||||
By many a storm of sad remembrance tost: | ||||
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! | ||||
Beguil'd of all I had to lose! | ||||
Must I then, gladness of my eyes, - | ||||
Must I then leave you, 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 You I call: | ||||
O Pitiful! forgive my fall! | ||||
The other Byzantine hymnists who preceded or succeeded those three masters, are the following. Their chronology is mostly uncertain or disputed. | ||||
Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople in the reign of Heracleus (610-641), figures in the beginning of the Monotheletic controversy, and probably suggested the union formula to that emperor. He is supposed by Christ to be the author of a famous and favorite hymn Akathistos, in praise of Mary as the deliverer of Constantinople from the siege of the Persians (630), but it is usually ascribed to Georgius Pisida. | ||||
Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem (629), celebrated in Anacreontic metres the praises of Christ, the apostles, and martyrs, and wrote idiomela with music for the church service | ||||
Maximus The Confessor (580-662), the leader and martyr of the orthodox dyotheletic doctrine in the Monotheletic controversy, one of the profoundest divines and mystics of the Eastern Church, wrote a few hymns. | ||||
Germanus (634-734), bishop of Cyzicus, then patriarch of Constantinople (715), was deposed, 730, for refusing to comply with the iconoclastic edicts of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741), and died in private life, aged about one hundred years. He is regarded by the Greeks as one of their most glorious Confessors (Neale). Among his few poetical compositions are stanzas on Symeon the Stylite, on the prophet Elijah, on the Decollation of John the Baptist, and a canon on the wonder-working Image in Edessa. | ||||
Andrew Of Crete (660-732) was born at Damascus, became monk at Jerusalem, deacon at Constantinople, archbishop of Crete, took part in the Monotheletic Synod of 712, but afterwards returned to orthodoxy. In view of this change and his advocacy of the images, he was numbered among the saints. He is regarded as the inventor of the Canons. His Great Canon is sung right through on the Thursday of Mid-Lent week, which is called from that hymn. It is a confession of sin and an invocation of divine mercy. It contains no less than two hundred and fifty (Neale says, three hundred) stanzas. | ||||
John of Damascus reduced the unreasonable length of the canons. | ||||
Another Andrew, called j Andreva Purov or Purrov, is credited with eight idiomela in the Menaea, from which Christ has selected the praise of Peter and Paul as the best. | ||||
Stephen The Sabaite (725-794) was a nephew of John of Damascus, and spent fifty-nine years in the convent of Mar S ba, which is pitched, like an eagle's nest, on the wild rocks of the Kedron valley. He is commemorated on the 13th of July. He struck the key-note of Neale's exquisite hymn of comfort, Are you weary, which is found in some editions of the Octoechus. He is the inspirer rather than the author of that hymn, which is worthy of a place in every book of devotional poetry. | ||||
Romanus, deacon in Berytus, afterwards priest in Constantinople, is one of the most original and fruitful among the older poets. Petra ascribes to him twenty-five hymns. He assigned him to the reign of Anastasius I. (491-518), but Christ to the reign of Anastasius II. (713-719), and Jacobi with greater probability to the time of Constantinus Pogonatus (681-685). | ||||
Theodore Of The Studium (a celebrated convent near Constantinople) is distinguished for his sufferings in the iconoclastic controversy, and died in exile, 826, on the eleventh of November. He wrote canons for Lent and odes for the festivals of saints. The spirited canon on Sunday of Orthodoxy in celebration of the final triumph of image-worship in 842, is ascribed to him, but must be of later date as he died before that victory. | ||||
Joseph Of The Studium, a brother of Theodore, and monk of that convent, afterwards Archbishop of Thessalonica (hence also called Thessalonicensis), died in prison in consequence of tortures inflicted on him by order of the Emperor Theophilus (829-842). He is sometimes confounded (even by Neale) with Joseph Hymnographus; but they are distinguished by Nicephorus and commemorated on different days. | ||||
Theoctistus Of The Studium (about 890) is the author of a Suppliant Canon to Jesus, the only thing known of him, but the sweetest Jesus-hymn of the Greek Church. | ||||
Joseph, called Hymnographus (880), is the most prolific, most bombastic, and most tedious of Greek hymn-writers. He was a Sicilian by birth, at last superintendent of sacred vessels in a church at Constantinople. He was a friend of Photius, and followed him into exile. He is credited with a very large number of canons in the Mencaea and the Octoechus. | ||||
Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople (784), was the chief mover in the restoration of Icons and the second Council of Nicaea (787). He died Feb. 25, 806. His hymns are Unimportant. | ||||
EUTHYMIUS, usually known as Syngelus or Syncellus (died about 910), is the author of a penitential canon to the Virgin Mary, which is much esteemed in the East. | ||||
Elias, bishop of Jerusalem about 761, and Orestes, bishop of the same city, 996-1012, have been brought to light as poets by the researches of Pitra from the libraries of Grotta Ferrata, and other convents. | ||||
In addition to these may be mentioned Methodius (846) Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 891), Metrophanes of Smyrna (900), Leo VI., or the Philosopher, who troubled the Eastern Church by a fourth marriage (886-917), Symeon Metaphrastes (Secretary and Chancellor of the Imperial Court at Constantinople, about 900), Kasias, Nilus Xanthopulus, Joannes Geometra, and Mauropus (1060). With the last the Greek hymnody well nigh ceased. A considerable number of hymns cannot be traced to a known author. | ||||
We give in conclusion the best specimens of Greek hymnody as reproduced and adapted to modern use by Dr. Neale. | ||||
'Tis the Day of Resurrection. | ||||
( j Anastavsew h Jmevra.) | ||||
By St. John of Damascus. | ||||
'Tis the Day of Resurrection, | ||||
Earth, tell it out abroad! | ||||
The Passover of gladness, | ||||
The Passover of God! | ||||
From death to life eternal, | ||||
From earth to the sky, | ||||
Our Christ has 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 heavens be! | ||||
Let earth her song begin! | ||||
Let the round world keep triumph, | ||||
And all that is therein: | ||||
In grateful exultation | ||||
Their notes let all things blend, | ||||
For Christ the Lord has risen, | ||||
Our joy that has no end. | ||||
| ||||
Jesu, name all names above. | ||||
(!Ihsou' glukuvtate.) | ||||
By St. Theoctistus of the Studium. | ||||
Jesu, name all names above, | ||||
Jesu, best and dearest, | ||||
Jesu, Fount of perfect love, | ||||
Holiest, tenderest, nearest! | ||||
Jesu, source of grace completest, | ||||
Jesu truest, Jesu sweetest, | ||||
Jesu, Well of power divine, | ||||
Make me, keep me, seal me Your! | ||||
Jesu, open me the gate | ||||
Which the sinner entered, | ||||
Who in his last dying state | ||||
Wholly on You ventured. | ||||
You whose wounds are ever pleading, | ||||
And Your passion interceding, | ||||
From my misery let me rise | ||||
To a home in Paradise! | ||||
You didst call the prodigal; | ||||
You didst pardon Mary: | ||||
You whose words can never fall | ||||
Love can never vary, | ||||
Lord, amidst my lost condition | ||||
Give for You can give contrition! | ||||
You can pardon all mine ill | ||||
If You will: 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 homes supernal; | ||||
Incorruptible, eternal! | ||||
Treasure no less price has won | ||||
Than the Passion of the Son! | ||||
Jesu, crowned with thorns for me, | ||||
Scourged for my transgression! | ||||
Witnessing, through agony, | ||||
That Your good confession; | ||||
Jesu, clad in purple raiment, | ||||
For my evils making payment; | ||||
Let not all your 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, | ||||
You will be with me to-day! | ||||
Are you weary? | ||||
(Kovpon te kai; kavmaton.) | ||||
By St. Stephen The Sabaite. | ||||
Are you weary, are you languid, | ||||
Are you sore distrest? | ||||
Come to me says 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 labor, | ||||
Many a tear. | ||||
If I still hold closely to Him, | ||||
What has He at last? | ||||
Sorrow vanquished, labor 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! | ||||