THE AKATHIST HYMN
The God-bearing holy Fathers of our Church, who settled everything in the best manner, arranged the way that we glorify and thank God in our worship. They set the holy services, and their Typical disposition, during the weekly, monthly and annual circle. They arranged and wrote down the order, the Typicon. Through the Typicon we enter into the essence, into the true meaning and we come into the….spiritual website of the Holy Fathers to glorify along with them both God and His MOTHER ...
So, let’s say that Typicon is like a canal,
in which the water flows. Or like a pipe, through which the water is channeled
and transferred, without getting lost in the way..
Any kind of interference with our
Fathers’ Typical orders and with all that they have handed down to us, seems like
we are ...spoiling the canal, and the water flowing in it gets lost in the way.
We can say also that it is like a cable with
circuit, which not only doesn’t bring the light, but even worse, it causes
death.
But there are also some impulsive acts of the people, of our
faithful people, who many times become the guardians of our faith, and many
times they may rightly tend the word of Truth, while that is being...beheaded by
others. So, our faithful people many times act spontaneously, heavenly, simply,
divinely, sincerely, impulsively. And these acts are timeless, and although
they are not dogmatic, they remain unchangeable troughout the ages.
This happened with the Akathist Hymn
In the Ecclesiastical and Hymnological terms, the phrase ‘Akathist
Hymn’ is defining every Orthodox hymn which is being sung while the faithful congregation
is standing.
But mainly, a Hymn dedicated to MOTHER OF GOD, LADY THEOTOKOS hes
been predominated to be called Akathist Hymn, known also as the “National
Anthem” of PANAGIA, the :
To You my Champion and Commander….
which is chanted every Friday of the
Great and Holy Lent. On the first four Fridays only a part of it is chanted, but
on the fifth Friday, which is to say the Friday of the fifth week of the Lent, the
whole hymn is sung.
About that fifth time, the rules of the Typicon, give two options :
The first one says that Akathist Hymn, can be included in the Friday
evening’s Small Compline, and the second option/choice is for the Akathist
to be sung in the service of the Saturday’s Matins. That is why we say, ...Saturday of
the Akathist....
Usually in the parishes the Akathist is conducted on Friday
evening along with the Small Compline, so as to become easier for the faithful to
come and attend ...
In the Holy Monasteries though, usually the Akathist is conducted in
the Orthros (Matins) service, ….early in the morning before dawn…
The Aakathist Hymn is composed of the preamble, and 24 stanzas,
each of them called ...Ikos , with acrostic in Alphabetical order, which
means that each Ikos begins with one of the 24 letters of the Greek Alphabet, from Α , to Ω (Z)....
It is te quintessence, the masterpiece of the Byzantine
Hymnology. It follows the grammatical and syntactic rules of the Ancient Greek
language, with parisyllabic verses and rhyme.
It’s language is sacred, noble and poetical, using many adjectives, and
many antithesis, which colour and extol the hymn, and depict the magnitude, the
hight and the depth and the wealth of it’s noble meanings· the hymn
also contains doctrinal expressions and definitions.
The hymn reveals the splendor of God’s love, the hight of
humbleness, the depth of the dogmatics, the exaltation of THEOTOKOS, God’s mercy, the divine Economy,
the Incarnation of the Word.
It is named Akathist, because
of the standing position in which the faithful are attending it, while it was
being sung. (Akathist in Greek means literally: Without sitting.)
The first time it was chanted, the congregation were standing piously
and with great love towards THEOTOKOS, while they were celebrating the annual feast
of Her Annunciation. That is why the Akathist is related to that Great Feast…
The story of the Hymn goes like this :......
In the year of 626AD , Emperor Heraclius, had marched out against Persians. Abars knew
his movement, and they attacked Constantinople,
since the army was absent in the war far away. The Abars rejected
Emperor’s proposals for reconciliation and on 6th August, they
occupied the Church of PANAGIA in Vlahernes. (in Constantinople )
In cooperation with the enemies of the City, during that night
of 7th, to 8th
August, they were preparing for the
final attack. Patriarch Sergios was walking all around the walls of the City, holding
the Icon of PANAGIA of Vlahernes and was encouraging the faithful to resist and
fight back.
During that night, a really severe
and terrible whirlwind blew through the
saving intervention of PANAGIA , and through her divine aid, and destroyed the
entire hostile navy. When the citizens heard of that, and having been
encouraged by their Patriarch, they fought back powerfully. In revenge, they
caused serious damages and great losses to the enemies. Eventually, they were forced to lift the siege, and leave
empty-handed, and humiliated.
The next day, 8th August, the City was delivered
from the greatest danger by that time. The people, the faithful ones longing to
thank PANAGIA, to WHOM they attributed their
rescue, they gathered in Her Temple, in Vlahernes. Throughout the night, all of
them were standing and singining the Hymn, rendering the thanksgivings to their
Champion and Commander.
…. To You my Champion and Commander,
I your City saved from disasters
dedicate,
O Mother of God, hymns of victory
and thanksgiving;
But as you have unassailable might
from every kind of danger now deliver me,
That I may cry to you: Rejoice,
Bride unwedded.
They continued the Hymn all night long, throughout the night.....
The researchers of History and certainly Ecclesiastical History,
have not yet verified if that wonderful Hymn was composed at that night.
Neither they have identified it’s author· They consider probable that it
had been composed earlier, years ago, and that it was being chanted during
vigils, especially during the vigil of 15th August. In addition they say that during that
all-night long vigil the Hymn was being chanted in a standing position.
In that vigil, the introductory:….”When the bodiless one learned…”, was
replaced with the:…” To you my Champion and Commander….”
This Hymn is as well related to other occasions, when the “Queen of cities” was rescued from enemies.
The Hymn starts as a thanksgiving hymn to THEOTOKOS, as a glorifying and
exalting hymn, and it ends as a poetic and doctrinal one.
In the Synaxarion it is mentioned as a hymn of an unknown writer,
but it comprises doctrinaire views of the third Ecumenical Council. It is also exalting
the incident of Annunciation, and that of the Natinity of our Savior. These two
feasts were being celebrated together, until Emperor Justinian divided them in
two different ones.
These facts make it even harder for the researchers to arrive at
a final conclusion concerning the authorship of the hymn, although the
tradition mentions Saint Romanos the Melodist as the Composer of it.
So, the Hymn was initially chanted in the vigil of the Dormition of
THEOTOKOS, in that great feast. Later on, some Monks who were among the
defenders of the holy icons, transferred
it to be sung during the period of the Holy and great Lent.
Other researchers cosider Saint Cosmas the Poet to be one who wrote.
Definitely the good thing is that
our Church owns that excellent hymn.
The Hymn consists of 24 stanzas, and each of them is called Ikos .
The odd ones conclude with the verse:
Rejoice, Bride Unwedded
and the even ones
with the verse:
Alleluia
It includes 12×13 times the word “rejoice”, which equals to 156, and
other 13 of them are added, for the first stanza is repeated at the end of the
hymn once more.
The faith of the faithful ones saved Cnonsantinople, the Queen of
cities, because through faith and braveness divine grace activated. God’s grace,
which always heals that which is infirm and completes that which is wanting, as
well as the unassailable might of MOTHER
OF GOD, Her protection and Shelter, and Her intermeddling.
Let us approach, and let
us always approach, with the faith that David had, when he stood against
Goliath, with the faith of our Fathers, that faith of our ancestors, of our
Saints. This is the faith which has established the Church and justified us. And
once more, now that we are again in danger to flee away from faith, we beseech
for the intervention of the undefeatable CHAMPION AND COMMANDER, so as to see the
victory, and dedicate to Her the thanksgiving hymns once more. And may we all enjoy
that, through the intercessions of our MOST HOLY LADY THEOTOKOS and EVER VIRGIN
MARY, who is officiating us. AMEN.
in the Mission 2021 April 12th
.
Fifth week of the Fast.
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