The Akathist Hymn
- The Word Akathist
The Greek word " Akathist " comes from the negative prefix "α" and the verb Καθιστός “seated”. This name was given to the hymns of praise to the Virgin because the clergy and the people of Constantinople chanted them during the days of King Heraclius in 626, standing (unseated αΚαθιστός ) in honor of our pure Lady and asking for her support and protection, ready to carry their arms promptly, at the first sign, to repel the attacks of the enemies surrounding the ruling City (Constantinople) just like the Hebrews when they built walls of Jerusalem in the days of the Prophet Nehemiah (Nehemiah 4:11). The translators of our liturgical books have resorted to this phrase: A praise to the Mother of God "not to be seated" or "it is not permissible to be seated."
* Definition of the Akathist:
It is a service of praise to the Mother of God, associated with the Feast of the Annunciation, which falls during Great Lent. In our current practice, we read it in part every Friday evening of the first four weeks of fasting, then we pray it as a whole on the fifth week. The service basically comprises two types of praises, which are “the kondakion” and “the Canon”, recited in the service of small Compline.
* What is the Kondakion?
The kondakion is a poetic style of church hymns and chants in Greek from the sixth and seventh centuries. It is based on narration and relates important events associated with a certain Church celebration. The kondakion generally consists of a short introduction summarizing its content, followed by passages called "verses", numbering between 20 and 30 stanzas –oikos-, each ending with a refrain, which is the last phrase of the introduction, and the kondakion was recited during Matins.
The Akathist of the Mother of God belongs to this type of poetic texts. It is a kondakion about the incarnation of the Word of God and the Annunciation. It consists of a basic introduction "Having secretly received the command, the Archangel," and twenty-four stanzas –oikoi-, that begin with the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. The kondakion service is characterized by two refrains: The first is: "Rejoice, bride without bridegroom," ending the odd verses. The second, which is “Alleluia,” ends the even verses.
* The Style of the Akathist:
In terms of style, we find in the formulation of the Akathist kondakion the use of two literary styles. The first is poetic hymns: the even stanzas and the openings of the odd stanzas. We notice that each even stanza and the openings of the odd stanzas consist of six verses of poetry according to the division in the original Greek language. Thus, we have twelve verses in every two stanzas.
The second style is the hymns of supplication, as in the poetic sentences that follow the openings of the odd stanzas, and begin with the phrase "rejoice". These are formulated according to a pattern of parallelism that is frequently used in Biblical psalms, which consists in repeating one meaning in two different expressions. Here we find again a division based on number 12.
The number 12 enters the poetic composition of the Akathist because of its importance because it symbolizes the Mother of God, "the woman on whose head is the crown of twelve planets" (as in Revelation 12:1).
* The content of the Akathist:
As for the content, the Akhathist kondakion is divided into two parts: historical and theological. The historical section includes the first 12 stanzas or oikoi, and it contains an account of the events of the Annunciation, Birth, and the Presentation of the Lord, as mentioned in the first two chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The theological section includes the last 12 stanzas or oikoi; it contains a declaration of the doctrine of the Incarnation and a reflection on the role of the Mother of God.
* The Akathist Hymn Historically:
As we have seen above, the Akathist kondakion was initially written to be recited at Matins of the Feast of the Annunciation, which was celebrated on December 26, as a precursor to Nativity, which was celebrated together with the Epiphany on January 6. During the reign of Emperor Justinian (527-567), the Annunciation Feast was transferred to March 25, and the service of the Akathist remained, while December 26 became a Synaxis of the Mother of God. Up to that date, the Akathist service was recited once a year at the Matins of the Feast of the Annunciation.
On August 7, 626 AD, after Constantinople escaped from the hands of the Persians and the Avars who were besieging it, the people gathered in the Church of Divine Wisdom, Agia Sophia, and chanted the Akathist service s they were standing. The Patriarch Sergius had added another introduction to it: " To the Invincible Champion”. After that, the Akathist was chanted also on August 7, the day of the deliverance of Constantinople. Later on, this feast merged with the Annunciation.
After the ninth century, there was a decline in the use of the kondakion stanzas in general. The introduction was kept and was called the “kondakion” with one of the stanzas. This is found in our ritual books under the name "kondakion" and "oikos", which is recited immediately before starting the Katavasias. We find this abbreviation in Matins of the Feast of Annunciation, as the kondakion is "To the Invincible Champion" and the oikos is the first stanza of the Akathist, both being read after the sixth ode of the Canon.
Photius the Patriarch of Constantinople transferred the Akathist service from the Matins of the Annunciation to the fifth Sunday of Lent, because of the possibility that the Annunciation falls between Holy Week and Wednesday after Pascha; he also added the Canon of Joseph the Hymnographer. Since then, the Akathist is celebrated on the fifth Saturday of Lent. For this reason, in our current practice, we recite it completely at that time. As for dividing it into four parts, distributed over four weeks, and linking it to the service of Small Compline, it is a late tradition.
* The author of the Akathist:
Opinions have been diverging over the hymn writer. The Greek scholar Papadopoulos Kerameus attributed it to Photios the Great in the ninth century, but this claim is rejected by the majority today. Others attribute it to the patriarch of Constantinople Sergius I (610-638), or to George Pisides, the keeper of the manuscripts of the Church of Divine Wisdom (Agia Sophia) under King Hercules, although modern scholars more likely attribute it to St. Romanos de Melodist of Emesis, the leader of ecclesiastic poetry and hymns. This saint was born in the late fifth century in Homs, which was the capital of Central Syria, from a family of Jewish origin and was a deacon. He served in the Church of the Resurrection in Beirut and later moved to Constantinople, probably at the end of the reign of King Anastasios I (491-518). The Virgin appeared to him in a dream in the Church of the Kyros District for the Mother of God and pushed him to poetry and writing systems. He reposed around the year 556, leaving more than a thousand religious hymns, none of which remained. The chants today are only two hundred, some of which are scattered in the divine ritual texts.
According to most opinions and the history of the Akathist, the author of the kondakion is most likely Saint Romanos the Melodist, originally from Homs, who was a leading figure in this kind of poetry.
* What is the Canon?
The canon is a new poetic style that emerged with the decline of the kondakion. Church hymns were written in this style between the eighth and eleventh centuries. The canon usually consists of nine parts called "odes". Each ode is composed of multiple stanzas that are chanted according to the tune and the melody of the first stanza, called the Irmos.
The Canon of the Akathist hymn is composed by Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (9th century) who wrote most of the canons in the liturgical books. He was inspired by the ideas in the kondakion. As for the nine major stanzas, or the Oirmoi, beginning with “I shall open my mouth” and what follows, they were composed by St. John of Damascus (eighth century); Joseph the Hymnographer built his canon upon them. The first letters of the stanzas of the Akathist Canon in Greek form the following sentence: "O treasury of joy, you alone deserve a salutation in peace. By Joseph."
* Praise of the Blessed Virgin in the Church
The Akathist hymn was adopted in particular by the Church of Constantinople as a collective prayer to the Mother of God because the "invincible Champion" saved “her city" several times from sufferings. The Akathist was then renown together with the victory of Constantinople, and the experience of the Church of Constantinople spread to the churches east and west (the Akathist was translated into Latin around the year 800). Then the Akathist entered into the realm of community worship (held by the parishes on the evenings of the first five Fridays of the Great Lent, and recited by the monks in the monasteries daily during Small Compline), and circumstantial worship (it takes place in churches or homes occasionally during distress, danger, hardship, epidemic, war, sadness or persecution).
The Akathist continued until the shock came: the city fell on the night of Tuesday, May 29, 1453. The glory of Constantinople fell apart. Paradoxically, the Akathist of the city remained. What are the reasons that led the Orthodox to recite to the present day a prayer that failed to save their "city"?
The Orthodox Church realized that those who stood in the Church of Divine Wisdom in Constantinople, on that last night, held on to the Akathist until they “were uplifting of their minds, and transporting them to heaven” before they were seized by martyrdom. She also realized that "we do not have a lasting city here, but rather we seek the following" (Hebrews 13:14). She realized that Our Lady will remain until the last day an “invincible Champion” for “her City”, which is every city, or rather it is the capital, it is the “whole heart”. The Church understood that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places"(Ephesians 6:12), and that" all evil "that threatens people" comes out from within, out of the heart of men” (Mark 7: 21-23).
Moreover, the prayers that sanctified “such a cloud of witnesses” one generation after another, are capable, when performed with understanding, to sanctify every generation in our days, and to the last day.
* The Akathist in the Orthodox Church and its Connection to the Old Testament
During Great Lent, (i.e. from Monday to Friday every week), the Orthodox Church stops reading the texts of the New Testament, to prepare the faithful to the Feast of Pascha through words of the Old Testament in the seasonal prayers. The "Akathist Hymn" service is a very biblical service, especially abundant with images of the Old Testament that describe the Virgin Mary, how she was chosen by God, how she gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ, her virginity, and her holiness.
Below are excerpts from the Akathist Hymn, with the correspondent biblical references that inspired the hymnographer to describe the Mother of God:
- The Mother Queen (Psalm 45: 9), Book of Christ Living Sealed by the Spirit (Isaiah 11:29), Court of the Only King (Psalm 45:15), Fire Throne of the Pantocrator (Daniel 7: 9), the Unfading Rose (Ezekiel 47: 12 and Psalm 1: 3), the Mother of the Fragrant Apple (Song of Songs 7: 8), the Lily (Song of Songs of Songs 2: 2 and 16), a fountain (Song of Songs 4: 12), like a land that was never plowed (Jeremiah 26:18 and Micah 3:12), a living table containing the bread of life (1 Kings 7:48), and she gave birth to an Immaculate Son (Leviticus 21: 17-18 and 21), carried the Lamb of God (John 1:29), radiant morn (Revelation 22: 16), brought us Christ the Sun (Psalm 84:11, Malachi 4: 2), O dwelling place of Light (Psalm 132: 13), the only Door that was crossed by the Word of God alone (Ezekiel 44: 1-2), Jesus ... seated in glory on the divine throne (Isaiah 6: 1 and John 12:14), Jesus ... seated on a light cloud (Isaiah 19: 1), the Lampstand, the jar containing the manna (Exodus 31: 8), the ladder that brought all to heaven (Genesis 28:12), O depth unfathomable (Job 11: 7), O indescribable altitude (Job 22:12), the One who wreathed to the world a crown (Revelation 12: 1), O Thou who saved the world from the flood of sin (Genesis 7: 7), oh Radiant chamber (Psalm 45:13), a fiery chariot of the Word (2 Kings 2:11), O living paradise containing in its midst the Lord the Tree of Life (Genesis 2: 9). O City of the King of all (Daniel 19:19), oh Uncut Mountain (Daniel 2:45), from which dew came down, who quenched the flame of idolatry (Daniel 3: 19-30), the bedewed fleece that Gideon witnessed of old (Judges 6:38), O, unburning bush (Exodus 3: 2), O bright cloud (Matthew 17: 5), the brave young men did not worship the creature without the Creator, but set foot and feast of fire with courage (Daniel 3: 19-30), O true vine that a ripe cluster (Isaiah 27: 2), O mystical rod (Numbers 17: 8), volume where the Word was inscribed by the finger of the Father (Psalm 40: 7 and Ezekiel 3: 1-3), because the birth of the Mother of God has preserved the pure youth in the furnaces (Daniel 3: 19-30), Moses realized in the bush the secret of your birth (Exodus 3: 2), the youth previously figured in type while they were standing in the middle of the fire without burning (Daniel 3: 19-30), we that by deceit were once stripped naked (Genesis 3: 7), we...who sat in the darkness of sins have seen the light (Isaiah 9: 2), by which we were elevated from the earth to heaven (Genesis 28) : 12), O ever shining star (2 Peter 1:19), a star...bringing into the world the great sun (Ezekiel 44: 2), O who opened the closed Eden for us (Genesis 3: 23-24), O fiery pillar leading men to the life on high (Exodus 13:21), thou who alone art beautiful in women (Song of Solomon 1: 8), O Ark (2 Samuel 6: 9 and 11 compared to Luke 1:43 and 56), a breathing Ark containing inside the Lord Who is the Tree of Life (Hebrews 4: 9).
One must say that listing the graceful attributes of the Most Holy Theotokos in every Akathist by the mouths and hearing of those who love her every Friday eve of this blessed season leads the praying souls to imitate the Mother of God, and thus praises arise towards two virgins: the Virgin Mary and the Church, the Virgin struggling in the desert of Lent until the Bridegroom appears hanging on the cross.
*The Stanzas of the Akathist Explained:
First Part
First stanza
In this stanza, there is a clear reference to the Archangel Gabriel. He is at the first among myriads of angels.
He was the one who was sent from heaven to preach to the Virgin Mary that she will give birth to Christ, whose kingdom has no end, by the power and coming down of the Holy Spirit.
The content of this stanza is certainly taken from the gospel of Luke the Evangelist: “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth ...” (1: 26-38)
This angel appeared to the priest Zechariah and told him that his barren wife Elizabeth would give birth to a son, John, the Forerunner Prophet and Baptist of Christ.
Second stanza:
Beholding herself in purity, the holy one courageously said to Gabriel…
In this stanza, we find the virgin Mary's answer to Archangel Gabriel, and here the Virgin Mary is called a saint because of her purity. At the end of this stanza, and in the following stanzas, we find the brief claiming (halleluiah) came, which briefly indicates the praise to God.
Third stanza:
In this stanza, we find a request from the Virgin Mary to know what the mind cannot come to know, and the dialogue between her and the angel Gabriel continues.
Here the astonishment appears in the angel's answer to the question of the virgin: "How can a son be born from a pure womb?"
In his eloquent answer, we read that the virgin Mary is the guardian of the indescribable mystery and the faith of those in need of silence and that what she asks about is the introduction of the wonders of Christ, and from it stemmed the rest of his wonders as recorded in the Holy Gospel, and then follow words that refer to the ladder seen by Jacob in a dream, which indicates that Heaven opened between God and mankind.
Fourth stanza:
In it, we find the answer to the question of the Mother of God, about the fact that the Word will incarnate in her womb by the coming down on her of the Holy Spirit.
There is no doubt that this stanza of the Akathist is based on the verse of Luke the Evangelist (1:35): “The angel answered and said to her that the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and the power of the Most-High overshadows you, and therefore the Holy One who is born of you is called the Son of God.”
Fifth stanza:
It mentions the Virgin Mary going to the city of Judah to visit her relative Elizabeth. She wants to congratulate her on what she has been promised, i.e., that she will give birth to a son who will be great. In this meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, we see the end of the Old Testament in the conception and birth of John, for he is the last of the Old Testament prophets and the beginning of the New Testament in the conception and birth of our Lord Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary. Here we note that the acclamations of the child in the womb are taken from the environment in which John the Baptist lived.
Sixth stanza:
There is a depiction of Joseph as he was troubled by the sermon of the Virgin Mary. He only found peace of mind when the angel appeared to him in a dream and foretold him of God's eternal verdict to send the Redeemer to the world as born of his holy fiancée.
Joseph was reasonably troubled because a girl who was found pregnant outside marriage was sentenced to be stoned, according to the Law of Moses.
Seventh stanza:
There is a reference to the shepherds in adoration before the Majestic Child after the angels had appeared to them at the nativity of the Lord Jesus, praising and glorifying God, and preaching to them the great joy that belongs to all peoples. Here we find the story of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, as in the Gospel according to St. Luke.
Eighth stanza:
This stanza clearly refers to the Magi, coming from the East (perhaps from Persia) to Jerusalem. When they saw an asteroid (a strange-looking star) heading towards that city, they followed it to inquire about the king, which is revealed by its appearance and strange path.
The Ninth stanza:
This stanza of the Akathist complements the former one. It mentions the Chaldean youths, that is, the Magi who presented their gifts to the Virgin (to Christ according to the text of the Gospel) as they chanted to the Virgin that she is the mother of the ever-shining Star (Christ) and the secret dawn of Morning. The chants of the Magi abound with attribute addressed to the virgin: she extinguished the furnace of delusion, thus invalidating the worship of corrupt religions; she enlightened the mystagogues of the Trinity (the mystagogue is the one who shares the mystery) i.e. declaring faith in the Holy Trinity; she removed the inhuman “offender” from the presidency and allowed the love of Christ for mankind to be manifest; she saved of the world from idol worship, especially fire worship.
The Tenth stanza:
It talks about the return of the Magi to their country and their preaching about the Savior born in Bethlehem of Judea. This stanza is a continuation to the previous two and the conclusion of the visit of the Magi to the Majestic Newborn Child in Bethlehem, as described in the Gospel of Matthew: “Then the angel suggested to the Magi in a dream not to return to Herod, so they returned on another way to their country, Babylon” (Matthew 2:12).
Eleventh stanza:
This stanza refers to the sacred family going to Egypt, whose idols fell upon the arrival of Christ, and we see in this hymn that new people raise chants to the Virgin and attribute to her the rise of humankind, the fall of demons, the fall of deception and exposing the fraud of idols. The people who acclaim her quote symbolic incidents of the Old Testament: the drowning of Pharaoh, the quenching of thirst from the rock and the fiery pillar, the story of the manna and the promised land which produce milk and honey are.
Twelfth stanza:
Old Simon welcomes Christ when Joseph and his mother Mary brought Him to the temple on His fortieth day according to the commands of the Mosaic Law.
Thirteenth stanza:
In this stanza, there is a glorification of the virginity of Mary, and here the people who praise her adorn her virginity with seemingly simple but deep attributes. They call her a flower, a Crown of continence, the Token of Resurrection, who reflects the life of the Angels, Tree of delectable Fruit that nourishes the faithful, a well-shaded Tree under which many find shelter. The one who bears the Guide of those astray, the one who gives birth to the Redeemer of captives; the intercession before the righteous Judge, the forgiveness for many transgressors; the Robe of confidence for those bare of courage, the Tenderness conquering all desire.
Fourteenth stanza:
In this stanza the greeting of all the faithful to the Virgin: Rejoice.
Fifteenth stanza:
This stanza teaches us that Christ, the incarnate God, while on earth, did not leave Heaven according to His divinity because He is the Son of the One who fills the universe, the heavens, and the earth at the same time.
The Mother of God is described as the Gate of the sacred mystery, a doubtful Rumour of the faithless, yet and undoubted Pride of the faithful; an Open to Paradise and key to the kingdom of Christ and thus Hope of eternal blessings. All these epithets resonate with the personality of the Mother of God who opened to the faithful the gates of Paradise and the kingdom of Christ that had been closed by Eve’s transgression to the will of God.
Sixteenth stanza:
It describes the astonishment of the angels before the incarnation of Christ, the Son of God, and the eternal condescendence of God on earth and among men. And the reason for this astonishment is that they have never known anything about the incarnation of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
Seventeenth stanza:
In this stanza, there is a greeting from the believers to the Virgin Mary, who gave birth to Christ the Son of God, the One who amazed the minds of logicians and subtle debaters and left them dumbfounded.
Chants of this stanza are addressed to the classes of scholars, eloquent philosophers, and powerful dialecticians, even to the Athenians famous for their speech, rhetoric, poetry, etc. Moreover, the Mother of God is called the vessel of wisdom, the treasury of God’s providence; a Raft for those who desire to be saved, and a Haven for those who fare on the sea of life.
Eighteenth stanza:
It is a praise to Christ, who was incarnated for our sake and became a human being like us to save the world.
Fourth Part
Nineteenth stanza:
Here is a clear confession that the Mother of God is a virgin and a fence of virgins and that she is all-pure. In her womb is the Maker of heaven and earth and a Nursing-mother of virgins, and therefore, she deserves all glorification and praise.
The Twentieth stanza:
There is praise to the Holy King of the faithful while acknowledging that if they give him odes of praise numberless as the sands, they should still have done nothing worthy of the good things that he bestowed on us.
Twenty-first stanza:
In this stanza, the Hymnographer addresses the words to the Holy Virgin, calling it a bright light that illuminates the minds of those sitting in the darkness of disobedience to know the mysteries of God.
Twenty-second stanza:
In this stanza (hallelujah) praise to our Lord Jesus, who himself came to all human beings to pay their debts and make them return to Paradise after we were in the world of sin and therefore he tore the writ of indebtedness and thus we became free from the nightmare of sin and made us worthy of his grace. The word grace is used here in the sense of the love of Christ Which has no limit, a love that saved humankind from the curse.
Twenty-third stanza:
There is here praise for the Mother of God, because the Lord descended in her womb, sanctified her and gave her glory, and so she became a Tabernacle of God the Word, the Holy one, holier than the Hollies, the Ark made golden by the Spirit, an inexhaustible Treasury of Life, a precious Diadem of godly kings, the venerable Boast of faithful priests, an unshakeable Tower of the Church, Healing for the flesh and Salvation for the soul.
Twenty-fourth stanza:
In this stanza, which concludes the Akathist of the Church, we pray to the Virgin Mary, the Most Holy, and Immaculate, to accept our supplications and save us from all kinds of evils and adversities.
Through the intercessions of the Mother of God, O Savior, save us