Liturgical Consummation, Part I: St Ephraim the Syrian

As a few readers may know, I spent the first couple of weeks after school got out for the summer working on an expansion and revision of the paper I presented at the C.S. Lewis & Inklings Society Conference (held here in OKC at Oklahoma City University two years ago) and posted here. The original paper was a very short, informal essay into the topic written quickly and intended to be read to about five or ten people in less than 20 minutes. But when it was considered for inclusion in an anthology of papers from the conference, the editors asked me to bring it a bit more up to snuff. The result is now entitled ‘Likeness & Approach: M.M. Bakhtin, C.S. Lewis, & the Liturgical Consummation of Literary Genre’.

One of the things that I did was to take the suggestion at the end that liturgical poetry could be read as a reconciliation of the virtues of both the novel (as described by Bakhtin) and epic poetry (as described by Lewis) and expand that into a full-fledged thesis, complete with an analysis of three examples of such poetry. Well, this didn’t go over as well with the editors as I’d hoped—at least the analysis didn’t—but since I was loathe to let something on which I’d expended some effort go entirely to waste, I thought I’d at least post it here, in three parts since it is longish. Now, I was never entirely happy with these analyses myself, and at one point was in utter despair that they were even coherent at all. Of course, taken out of context of the entire paper, they will likely be even less coherent. But perhaps someone will get something out of it.

I have included the paragraph—some form of which will still appear in the final paper—immediately preceding the analysis sections to give at least a little bit of context, but maybe I should add one more thing. The distinction between ‘nearness to God by likeness’ and ‘nearness to God by approach’ is one that I have taken from Lewis’s The Four Loves and used as a framework for my analyses of Bakhtin and Lewis on genre. Earlier in the paper I wrote:

He [Lewis] uses the analogy of walking down a mountain towards a village—at any point, one may be quite near the village in the sense of being on a cliff directly above it (corresponding to  ‘nearness by likeness’), but the only way actually to approach the village is by means of the apparently greater distance constituted by a winding path (corresponding to  ‘nearness by approach’). [1] According to this distinction, examples of nearness by likeness would be qualities like beauty, strength, majesty, but nearness of approach would be characterised first and foremost by humility and obedience.

So, hopefully that will be sufficient background for most readers to get some idea of what I’m up to here. Now, back to the lecture at hand:

That said, exactly how does liturgical poetry constitute the ‘consummation’ of literature? The short answer, as should be apparent by now, is that it possesses and communicates not only the virtues of Bakhtinian pre-novelistic and novelistic literature, i.e., nearness to God by approach, but also the virtues of Lewisian, ritualistic epic literature, i.e., nearness to God by likeness. While the latter quality, however, is inherent in the poetic form and liturgical setting of the poetry—it is a ritual genre after all—the nearness of approach in liturgical poetry may require a few examples to be clearly seen. This paper will focus on three, one from each of the three major cultural divisions of ancient Christendom: from the Syriac, the hymn de Fide 31 of St Ephrem the Syrian referred to above; from the Latin, St Venantius Fortunatus’s famous Vexilla Regis; and from the Greek, the Paschal Canon of St John Damascene.

a) St Ephrem the Syrian

In his journal entry for Ash Wednesday, 1747, John Wesley famously wrote of St Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373), ‘Surely never did any man, since David, give us such a picture of a broken and contrite heart’, [2] while Robert Murray has called the Syriac Father ‘the greatest poet of the patristic age and, perhaps, the only theologian-poet to rank beside Dante’. [3] St Ephrem is firmly within the Christian liturgical-poetic tradition of approach/likeness. Although he ‘probably did not know Greek’, Sebastian Brock points out that ‘by the fourth century AD, Greek and Semitic cultures had already been interacting in the Middle East for over half a millennium: no Syriac writer of Ephrem’s time is going to be purely Semitic in character or totally unhellenized…’. [4] Thus, St Ephrem’s poetry certainly does not belong with the truly ‘monoglot’ classical genres. That said, St Ephrem worked primarily within two poetic genres peculiar to the Syriac language: the madrasha and the memra. The former—from which genre the present example is chosen—is a stanzaic form, punctuated by a refrain and based on repeating syllabic patterns, that is, regular numbers of syllables. [5] The intermingled faithful of a Syrian congregation—a local gathering of what St Ephrem calls ‘the Church of the Nations’ [6]—would have participated in St Ephrem’s madrasha by singing the refrain, anticipating the kind of ‘call and response’ performance that Mara Scanlon identifies with Bakhtin’s ‘polyglossia’ and ‘dialogism’. [7]

St Ephrem’s cycle ‘On Faith’ includes a madrasha particularly germane to the present thesis—Hymn 31. [8] After an initial stanza calling for thanksgiving for the various anthropomorphisms of Scriptural language about God, the second stanza of this hymn reads:

We should realize that, had He not put on the namesof such things, it would not have been possible for Himto speak with us humans. By means of what belongs to us did He draw close to us.He clothed Himself in our language, so that He might clothe usin His mode of life. He asked for our form and put this on,and then, as a father with his children, He spoke with our childish state. [9]

The virtues of God being celebrated here, then, are not epic qualities like His majesty and power—in 4.2, it is said that God ‘became like a Hero, a Valiant Warrior’, but the mutability suggested by the verb and the comparative ‘like’ demonstrate that this is every bit as metaphoric as the other ‘terms that He has put on’ in 3.1. [10] Rather than praising God’s ‘likeness’ attributes, this hymn is celebrating precisely God’s condescension: God is the Hero Who drew ‘close to us’ and ‘spoke with our childish state.’ It is a celebration, moreover, in which all strata of society could participate, and thus the hymn exalts ‘them of low degree’ (Luke 1:52), to borrow the language of the Authorised Version. Kathleen McVey has noted that St Ephrem incorporated into the praise of God a class certainly not to be identified with ‘the ruling social group’ [11]—women. [12] In the words of a memra on St Ephrem by Jacob of Sarug:

By you even the sisters are strengthened to speak.
Your instruction has opened the closed mouth of the daughters of Eve,
and with their voices throngs of crowned women are singing out,
and women teachers are being called into the congregations—
a new vision that women will speak the Gospel! [13]

This opening of ‘the closed mouth of the daughters of Eve’ surely belongs with the ‘scandal scenes, eccentric behavior, inappropriate speeches and performances’ that characterize pre-novelistic discourse, [14] and it reminds the modern reader that St Ephrem’s voice is not merely his own, but ‘a voice that feels a possible choral support outside itself’. [15] Finally, the irony that Bakhtin considers inimical to the ancient genres and crucial to the pre-novelistic ones, the ‘laughter that destroys the epic’ [16] can be found in the sixth and seventh stanzas of St Ephrem’s hymn, where Brock notes ‘an undertone of subtle humour, [as St Ephrem] compares God’s efforts to teach humanity about himself to those of someone who is attempting, with the aid of a mirror, to teach a parrot to talk’. [17] A poetry of humor, however subtle, gives voice to the consciousness of human beings who must cease taking themselves too seriously in order to draw near to God by approach.

[1] C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Orlando: Harcourt, 1988), p. 5.

[2] John Wesley, Journals and Diaries III (1743-54), ed. W. Reginald Ward & Richard P. Heitzenrater, Vol. 20 of The Works of John Wesley (Nashville: Abingdon, 1991), p. 162.

[3] Robert Murray, ‘Ephrem Syrus, St’, A Catholic Dictionary of Theology, Vol. 2: Catechism—Heaven (London: Nelson, 1967), p. 222.

[4] Sebastian Brock, The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of St Ephrem, rev. ed. (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 1992), pp. 17, 143.

[5] Sebastian Brock & George A. Kiraz, ‘Introduction’, Select Poems, by St Ephrem the Syrian, ed. & tr. Sebastian P. Brock and George A. Kiraz (Provo, UT: Brigham Young, 2006), p. xiii.

[6] Qtd. in Brock, Luminous, p. 119.

[7] Mara Scanlon, ‘Ethics and the Lyric: Form, Dialogue, Answerability’, College Literature 31.1 (2007), p. 16.

[8] St Ephrem the Syrian, Select Poems, ed. & tr. Sebastian P. Brock & George A. Kiraz (Provo, UT: Brigham Young, 2006), pp. 18-27.

[9] Ibid., p. 19.

[10] Ibid., p. 21. Obviously, I am more than a little hampered in analysing the diction of St Ephrem’s poetry by my complete lack of Syriac!

[11] Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, ed. Michael Holquist, tr. Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist (Austin: U of Texas, 1998), p. 4.

[12] Kathleen McVey, ‘Ephraem the Syrian (ca. 306-373)’, Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Vol. 2, 2^nd ed., ed. Everett Ferguson, 2 vols. (NY: Garland, 1997), p. 376. Brock refers to St Ephrem as ‘a poet who wrote specifically for women’ (‘Introduction’, Hymns on Paradise, by St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, NY: SVS, 1990], p. 22).

[13] Kathleen McVey, ‘Jacob of Saruge on Ephrem and the Singing Women’, American Foundation for Syriac Studies, n.p., n.d., Web, 1 June 2012. Jacob’s memra is also quoted at length by Brock (‘Introduction’, pp. 22-5).

[14] Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, ed. & tr. Caryl Emerson (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1994), p. 117.

[15] Mikhail Bakhtin, Art & Answerability, eds. Michael Holquist & Vadim Liapunov, tr. Vadim Liapunov (Austin: U of Texas, 1995), p. 170.

[16] Bakhtin, Dialogic, p. 7, 23.

[17] Brock, Luminous, p. 60.

'I Am a Writer's Tablet'—The Feast of the Annunciation

Today, 25 March on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos has called it ‘the beginning of all the feasts of the Lord’. [1] Concerning this day, St Nicholas (Cabasilas) has written:

If there is ever a time when a man should rejoice, exult, and cry out with gladness, when he should go off and search for what great and brilliant statements he might utter, when he should wish to be vouchsafed sublimity of ideas, beauty of diction, and powerful oratory, I see no other occasion than this day, on which an Angel came to earth from Heaven bearing every good tiding. [2]

I posted a couple of links and comments here last year, as well as John Donne’s beautiful sonnet, ‘Annunciation’. Today, I will post a couple of passages from patristic homilies, part of a poem by an Orthodox writer, and a brief hymn from the Matins of the Feast. First, here is the account of this miraculous event from the Prologue:

When the most holy Virgin had lived and served in the Temple at Jerusalem for eleven years, and was by then fourteen years old—when, that is, she was entering on her fifteenth year—the priests informed her that, according to the Law, she could no longer remain in the Temple but must be betrothed and marry. But, to the great surprise of all the priests, the most holy Virgin replied that she had dedicated herself to God and wished to a maiden remain till death and enter into wedlock with no-one. Then, by God's providence and under His inspiration, Zacharias, the high priest and father of the Forerunner, in consultation with the other priests, chose twelve unmarried men from the tribe of David so that they might entrust the Virgin Mary to one of them to preserve her virginity and care for her. She was thus entrusted to Joseph, an old man from Nazareth and a kinsman of hers. In his house, the most holy Virgin continued to live in the same manner as in the Temple of Solomon, passing her time in the reading of the sacred Scriptures, in prayer, in pondering on the works of God, in fasting and in handwork. She scarcely ever left the house, nor took an interest in worldly matters or events. She generally conversed very little with anyone, and never without a particular need. She was intimate only with the two daughters of Joseph. But when the time prophesied by the Prophet Daniel had come and when God was pleased to fulfil the promise made to Adam when He drove him out of Paradise, and to the prophets, the mighty Archangel Gabriel appeared in the chamber of the most holy Virgin, at the precise moment (as some priestly writers have related) that she was holding open on her lap the book of the Prophet Isaiah and pondering on his great prophecy: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son’. Gabriel appeared to her in angelic light and said to her: ‘Rejoice, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee!’, and so forth, just as is related in the Gospel of the divine Luke. With this angelic greeting and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the salvation of mankind and the renewal of creation were set in motion. The Archangel turned the first page of the story of the New Testament with the word ‘Rejoice!’, to show by this the joy that the New Testament signifies for mankind and for all things created. And therefore the Annunciation is looked upon as a joyous, as well as a great, feast. [3]

I for one have always been moved by the simplicity of the Panagia’s final response—‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word’ (Lk 1:38), which Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid has paraphrased as, ‘I am a writer’s tablet; let the Writer write upon it whatever He wishes. Let the Lord do as He wills.’ [4] It is this that I’d like to focus on in my choices of material here. First, from the homily on today’s Feast by St Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki:

How did the highly favoured Virgin, with her unrivalled and holy understanding, respond to these words? She ran to God and reached out to Him in prayer, saying to the Archangel, ‘If, as you tell me, the Holy Spirit shall come upon me, purifying my nature still further and strengthening me to receive the unborn Saviour; if the power of the Highest shall overshadow me, forming Him Who is in the form of God as man within me and bringing about a Birth without seed; if the holy Child which shall be born is to be the Son of God and God and the everlasting King, since with God nothing is impossible’, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38). And the angel departed from her, leaving the Maker of all united with a bodywithin her womb. By means of this union, which was the object of his ministry, he had procured salvation for the world. Isaiah clearly revealed all this beforehand by what he was so blessed as to be counted worthy to experience. He did not see the Seraphim take the live coal directly off the heavenly, spiritual altar. The Seraphim took it with tongs, and it was by means of these that he touched the Prophet’s lips to purify him (Isa. 6:5-7). The tongs were the same as the burning bush which was not consumed by the fire, in that great vision seen by Moses (Exod.3:2-6).

Surely it is obvious to anyone that the Virgin Mother is both the burning bush and the tongs. She conceived the divine fire within her and was not burnt, and an Archangel ministered at the conception, and through her the Bearer of the sins of the wold was united with the human race, purifying us thoroughly by means of this indescribable bond. The Virgin Mother, and she alone, is the frontier between created and uncreated nature. All who know God will recognize her as the one who contained Him Who cannot be contained. All who sing hymns to God will praise her next after Him. She is the cause of the benefits which preceded her, the protectress of those which came after, and through her those good things which are eternal shall be received. She is the theme of the prophets, the first of the Apostles, the support of the martyrs, the dais of the teachers. She is the glory of those on earth, the delight of those in heaven, the adornment of the whole Creation. She is the beginning, fount and root of the hope stored up for us in heaven. [5]

Next, another hesychast Father of 14th-c. Thessaloniki, St Nicholas (Cabasilas), has written very movingly indeed on the Panagia’s momentous fiat:

5. Having in this way taught and persuaded her, God made her His Mother and borrowed flesh from her with her knowledge and consent, in order that, just as He was conceived voluntarily, it might equally come about for His Mother that she should conceive voluntarily and become His Mother willingly and by her own free decision; and so that, even more importantly, she might not simply contribute to the Oeconomy of the Incarnation as one who had been conscripted like some puppet, but might herself offer her own self and become a fellow-worker with God in His Providence for the human race and, thereby, be made a partaker and sharer with Him of the glory deriving therefrom; and so that, furthermore, just a s the Savior Himself became man and the Son of man not only for the sake of the flesh, but also had a soul, a mind, and a will, and everything else that is human, He might in the same way obtain a perfect Mother who would minister to His Nativity not only through the nature of her body, but also through her mind, her will, and all that she possessed, and that the Virgin might thus be His Mother in both flesh and soul and might endow the ineffable birthgiving with human nature in its totality.

. . .

9. . . . And so it was that with a blessed tongue, an unperturbed soul, and thoughts full of tranquility she said: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word’ (Lk 1:38).

10. These were the words that she said, and they were fulfilled at once: ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14); and, after giving her reply to God, she received the Spirit that created from her that flesh which was one with God. . . . O sacred voice! O words of great power! O blessed tongue, which restored the entire inhabited earth in one fell swoop! O treasury of a heart which, by a few words, poured out upon us an abundance of good things! These w ords made the earth Heaven, emptied Hades of its prisoners, caused Heaven to be inhabited by men, joined Angles with men, and formed the Heavenly and earthly races into a single chorus around Him who is both, being God but becoming man.

What gratitude could we express to you for these words? What should we call you, of whom nothing human is worthy? Our words derive from existing things, whereas you surpass the whole world beyond every sublimity. If words are to be offered to you, this, I ween, is a task for Angels, for a Cherubic mind, for a fiery tongue. Hence, having mentioned, as far as we are able, those things which redound to your praise, and having chanted hymns to you, our salvation, to the best of our ability, we ask next for an Angelic voice. We will conclude with the salutation of Gabriel, adorning the sum of our oration with this additament: ‘Rejoice, thou who art full of Grace, the Lord is with thee’ (Luke 1:28). May you prepare us to make a habitation for Him within ourselves, for this is conducive to His glory and to the laudation of you who gave birth to Him, when we not only talk about it, but also put it into practice, for unto Him belongs glory unto the ages. Amen. [6]

And now for a telling in verse of this very event. Whatever one may think of the presentation of the teaching of Lao Tzu in Hieromonk Damascene’s Christ the Eternal Tao [7], I for one found the poem which forms the centrepiece of the book quite lovely in places. I have long been particularly struck by a passage dealing with the subject of today’s Feast, hearing a reading of which lodged it into my brain and rather guided this post all along (Second Ennead, Chapter 15, ll. 7-30):

The Mind spoke, and through His Word
Answered the earth’s elemental moan.
Above that roaring cry
He answered with a still, small voice:
I will come. Will you receive me, then?
But no man heard that voice.
Only a small, young woman,
Who had lived, unknown, in silence and purity in the Great Temple
Was given to hear it.
And in a still, small voice She gave voice to the whole earth.
She answered for all those beings and created forms who could not speak;
She answered for all the people who could not hear.
And to the question of the Uncreated Mind,
She answered: Yes,
I will receive You.
Be it unto me according to Your Word.

In Her the Way had found the lowest place in the entire earth—
The nadir of the Valley,
The supreme humility, lowliness—
And there He came and made His abode.
He took flesh of Her whom He loved above all others who dwelled on the earth,
Who was meek and humble like Himself.
And lowering Himself, emptying Himself, in His love, to the lowest place,
He became a tiny child within Her, the Mystic Mother. [8]

Finally, while most of the hymns for the Feast focus on words of the Archangel Gabriel, at last, in the final Theotokion of the eighth ode of the Canon of the Feast, we read:

‘Thou dost appear to me to speak the truth’, answered the Virgin. ‘For thou hast come as an angel messenger, bringing joy to all. Since, then, I am purified in soul and body by the Spirit, be it unto me according to thy word: may God dwell in me. Unto Him I cry aloud with thee: O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord.’ [9]

One last bit of ‘good news’ on this Feast of the Ευαγγελισμός: Felix Culpa of the original ‘flagship Orthodox blog’ has returned. See his bevy of posts today, and offer a prayer of thanks to God for his health.

[1] Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos, The Feasts of the Lord: An Introduction to the Twelve Feasts & Orthodox Christology, tr. Esther Williams (Levadia, Greece: Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 2003), p. 24.

[2] St Nicholas (Cabasilas), ‘Homily on the Annunciation’, Orthodox Tradition XXII.2, 2005, p. 3.

[3] St Nicholas (Velimirović), The Prologue from Ochrid, Vol. 1, trans. Mother Maria (Birmingham: Lazarica, 1986), pp. 326-7.

[4] Bl Theophylact of Ochrid, The Explanation by Bl Theophylact of the Holy Gospel According to St Luke, tr. Fr Christopher Stade (House Springs, MO: Chrysostom, 1997), p. 18.

[5] St Gregory Palamas, Mary the Mother of God: Sermons by St Gregory Palamas, ed. Christopher Veniamin (South Canaan, PA: Mt Thabor, 2005), pp. 58-9.

[6] St Nicholas (Cabasilas), pp. 6, 11-2.

[7] There is a critical response, for instance, by Dr Jeremias Norman, Professor Emeritus, Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle—‘The Daode Jing from an Orthodox Perspective’, Orthodox Tradition XXII.1, 2005, pp. 17-23.

[8] Hieromonk Damascene (Christensen), Christ the Eternal Tao, illust. Lou Shibai & You Shan Tang (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1999), pp. 84-5.

[9] The Festal Menaion, tr. Mother Mary & Archim. Kallistos (Ware) (South Canaan, PA: STS, 1998), p. 457.

Finding St Mary of Egypt

I’ve already put up my usual daily post today, but I noticed on StatCounter that it looked like someone may have had difficulty finding last year’s post for the feast of St Mary of Egypt—a post which may have some interest since today is the Sunday of St Mary of Egypt. Anyway, I thought I would post a link to it (here), as well as a hymn or two from the Vigil for those like me who unfortunately missed it:

Sessional Hymn
Tone Eight

All the rebellious impulses of the flesh thou hast subdued by thine ascetic labours, showing the many courage of thy soul. Desiring to behold the Cross of the Lord, O honoured Mother, in sanctity thou hast crucified thyself unto the world, and thou hast sought with eagerness to emulate the angels in their way of life. Therefore with faith we honour thy memory, O blessed Mary, and we pray that full remission of our sins may be given to us through thine intercessions. [1]

And here is the final sticheron from Lauds. Let us take it to heart as we prepare for the final week of the Great Fast:

Tone One

The Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and abstinence with holiness: and so the rich shall not enter into it, but those who entrust their treasures to the hands of the poor. This is what David the Prophet teaches us, saying: The righteous man shows mercy all the day long; his delight is in the Lord, and walking in the light he shall not stumble. All this was written for our admonition, that we should fast and do good; and in exchange for earthly things may the Lord reward us with the things of heaven. [2]

One final thing: today I will choose the winner of the book giveaway! I shall make the announcement tomorrow and post all of the entries.


[1] The Lenten Triodion, tr. Mother Mary & Archim. Kallistos (Ware) (South Canaan, PA: St Tikhon’s Seminary, 1994), pp. 452-3.

[2] Ibid., p. 461.

'An Illustrious Image of the Virtues'—St Philothei of Athens

Today, 19th of February on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of St Philothei of Athens (1522-1589), ‘the protectress of Athens and of its imperiled citizens, especially of oppressed women and virgins.’ [1] Last year I wrote a rather lavish post for St Philothei, my sister’s patron Saint, and I do not have much new material this year. But here is what I have, and I also refer readers to the previous post (here).

First, the account of St Philothei’s life from The Great Horologion:

Saint Philothei was born in Athens in 1522 to an illustrious family. Against her will, she was married to a man who proved to be most cruel. When he died three years later, the Saint took up the monastic life and established a convent, in which she became a true mother to her disciples. Many women enslaved and abused by the Moslem Turks also ran to her for refuge. Because of this, the Turkish rulers became enraged and came to her convent, dragged her by force out of the church, and beat her cruelly. After a few days, she reposed, giving thanks to God for all things. This came to pass in the year 1589. She was renowned for her almsgiving, and with Saints Hierotheus and Dionysius the Areopagite is considered a patron of the city of Athens. [2]

In last year’s post I referred extensively to the Life of St Philothei compiled by Holy Apostles Convent, which includes a translation of a very early Life of the Saint—apparently written somewhere from 1598 to 1602 [3]—as well as the following excerpt from the ‘Introduction’ to the Life & Service of the Saint published by the Archdiocese of Athens. Speaking of the charitable works of St Philothei, N.B. Tomadakis of the University of Athens writes:

Certainly, philanthropy was one of her main motives. At a time when there were no hospitals, no shelters for the poor, no homes for the elderly, and asylums for the protection of women, their place was taken by monastic institutions. In addition to her dedication to a virtuous life, practicing philathropy by offering protection, giving alms and ministering to the poor and sick, providing Christian training by teaching everyone ecclesiastical letter and liturgical knowledge, the holy woman contributed the following.

First, she founded schools for the children of the Athenians, to open their eyes to the tradition and renown of their ancestors. ‘Lay hold of instruction, lest at any time the Lord be angry’ (Ps. 2:12). Philothei brought this scriptural quote to reality. Within her flickered the hope of the rebirth of the Byzantine Empire and . . . the early deliverance from the bestial yoke of the conquerors.

Second, Philothei aimed at protecting the daughters of Athens from the disgrace of conversion to Islam. . . . The danger of being subjected to conversion existed not only for the noble daughters who were forcibly abducted by the Turks because of their beauty and grace, but also for the simple ones, the peasant girls, who were forced to work in Turkish homes and farms in order to sustain themselves. Pressure, necessity, and ignorance (the great deceiver) were causes in forcing the maidens into submission. However, Philothei, with her convent of virgins (Parthenona), her schools, her convent’s metochia (metochia) and family ties, was capable of either strengthening those under duress or sending them away and hiding them. This was done until their consciences recovered or the danger subsided; and, until fear was replaced by a spirit of faith and sacrifice for the sake of the Christian faith . . . . [4]

On the subject of the Life & Service of the Saint, Kontoglou tells us that the mysterious author was ‘some wise and pious man called “the Hawk” [!]’, and cites as an example of the beautiful encomia therein, ‘For thou, honoured one, didst possess the meekness of David, the wisdom of Solomon, the manliness of Sampson, the hospitality of Abraham, the patience of Job, the divine ascesis of the Forerunner . . .’ [5] One can find the entire Greek text—in an edition predating Tomadakis’s intro—here, and an English rendering of just a sampling of the texts here. The English translation does not strike me as nearly as faithful as it could have been. Nevertheless, in conclusion here are two stichera from Vespers for the Saint, such as they are:

O all-laudable Philothei, * we extol thee in songs of praise * as a habitation of every excellence; * as an illustrious image of the virtues; the bond of love; * the renowned and good report, * as the crown fair with many gems; * the most tranquil port; * the delightful and gentle mouth of wisdom; the bright light among monastics; * the holy river of sympathy.

As a brilliantly beaming star * in the darkness thou didst shine forth; * as a fragrant flower exhaling sweet perfume * in mystic meadows, O Philothei, didst thou blossom beautifully; * as the light and as the sun * thou in Athens didst brightly rise, * heating
with thy warmth * and enlight’ning all them that had been darkened in the somber gloom of bondage; * wherefore, we honour thy memory.

[1] The Lives of the Spiritual Mothers: An Orthodox Materikon of Women Monastics and Ascetics Throughout the Year, According to the Church Calendar, tr. & comp. Holy Apostles Convent (Buena Vista, CO: HAC, 1993), p. 73.

[2] The Great Horologion (Boston: HTM, 1997), p. 425.

[3] Lives, p. 73.

[4] Ibid., pp. 78-9.

[5] Photios Kontoglou, ‘Ἡ Πολιοῦχος τῶν Ἀθηνῶν Ἁγία Φιλοθέη’ (here).

Many years to my sister, Philothei!

'The Banquets of the Holy Word'—Early Mediæval Poetry on St Scholastica

Thanks to Brigit of Under the Oak fame, I have been made aware of some wonderful old sources on St Scholastica, woefully overlooked in my post for her feast Tuesday. Here, at the Monastic Matrix site—edited by Lisa Bitel, author of the article on St Brighid I linked to here—there are Latin texts and translations of three poems about St Scholastica, one by St Aldhelm of Sherborne (c. 639-709), whom the Venerable Bede calls ‘a man of wide learning . . . remarkable for his erudition in both ecclesiastical and in general studies’, [1] and two by Paul the Deacon of Monte Cassino (c. 720-799), famed for his history of the Lombards. They were translated by Mary Forman, OSB, and originally published in Vox Benedictiana in 1990. [2]

I had planned simply to post St Aldhelm’s poem here, and direct readers to the Monastic Matrix page to read the others, but when I tried to read them myself I found them badly jumbled. Fearing that other readers may have a difficult time reading the poems too, I copied and pasted them into a Word document, arranged them correctly, and decided to post all three of them here. I have no idea if the breaks here represent original ones, or if they are page breaks reproduced from the journal, but not knowing what else to do I left them in. I have left out the Latin texts in the interest of reducing the size of the post. Consequently, I decided also to leave out Forman’s notes documenting the texts she used, but I kept three explanatory notes on the last poem.

Incidentally, the image above is a 12th-c. fresco of St Scholastica from Monte Cassino.


A Song about St Scholastica
by St Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne

Scholastica took her very name from schola,
God enriches her abundantly with heavenly favour,
She who gained golden rewards by her virginal vow.
Concerning whom a little twig of nourishing life
is wont to scatter excellence
as widely as the world extends.
Because the virgin impatiently urges her brother
who is joined to her by a covenant of kinship,
and supports her pleas with reasoned argument
So that, at night, they might partake
of the sweet courses of the holy books
and the banquets of the holy word.
From which the breasts of many
are sufficiently filled,
And the hearts of holy people nourished.
But the faithful brother is not moved by any pleas,
Nay rather he disdains his holy sister in his words.
Then the virgin urged the good Christ in her heart
to deign to heal the wound of sorrow for her.
Thus soon the whole sky grows dark
with a stormy whirlwind
and the vault of the heaven with gloomy air.
Huge rumbling thunder,
mingled with flashing lightning bolts,
And the Earth quaked,
trembling from the great noise.
Wet fleecy clouds moisten it with dewy drops,
And the air bedews the land with gloomy showers.
The valleys are filled
and abundant streams overflow,
Then unwillingly he remained
who before had deliberately refused
what his distressed and weeping sister had sought.
So God heeds those who ask with burning heart,
Even when they pay attention to words
which do not console.


A Metrical Life of St Scholastica
by Paul the Deacon

The beautiful spouse of God, Scholastica, seeks
the heights of heaven
The beautiful spouse of God enters
the bridal chamber.
Today she is raised above the stars
with angelic hands,
Today she consorts with the angelic hosts.
Thus the company of saints in the stars
shout with joy to the Lord,
Thus our people on earth
shout with joy to the Lord.
Hence the evil band of demons grieves and groans,
Hence the ancient serpent groans and grieves.
This life tolerates his snares in everything,
But dying she vanquishes his snares.
Dedicated from her earliest years to God,
She remained a virgin.
From her infancy, the virgin was dedicated to God.

Desiring the kingdom of heaven,
she left her country with her brother,
Desiring the kingdom of heaven, she sought Cassino.
Benedict established for himself a dwelling
in a sanctuary on the peak,
But the sister established for herself
a dwelling on the plains.
The brother was wont to descend each year,
The brother was wont to visit his sister.
It was the next day that the virgin left her body,
She sought heaven; it was the next day.
As was his custom,
the brother descended from the sanctuary,
He visited his sister,
as was his custom.
When the dawn arises, their meeting takes place
And with the rising dawn, a conversation arises.
They exchange words about the kingdom
and everlasting life,
They exchange words about the combats of Satan.
The sun sinking to the ocean now buries the light,
Phœbus bears shadows, sinking to the ocean.
As was their custom,
they had given foods which their souls loved,
And they give foods to their bodies
as is their custom.
Eating, the virgin sighs;
indeed, she brings forth gasps from her heart,
The brother fashions words;
eating, the virgin sighs.
Her loving mind burns,
her ear earnestly seeks discourses,
Her mouth tastes foods, her loving mind burns.

Becoming more hungry
as she is accepting different foods,
Becoming more hungry not for banquets
but for conversation.
Now as both prepare to clear the table
and the foods,
Now as both prepare to give thanks to God.
Grieving in mind, she hesitates and fears to speak.
Finally, grieving in mind, she speaks these things.
‘O venerable Father,
you have no mercy on me, who grieves,
You forsake your sister; O venerable Father.
I beseech you to remain here;
Behold the light of day is receding,
Now darkness approaches,
I beseech you to remain here.’
‘So as to prevent you from asking
for these things which you demand, sister,’
the most holy father says,
‘I will grant them not at all
So as to prevent you from asking.’
Grieving, she immediately moistens her face
with profuse tears,
Grieving, she immediately lowers her head to the table.
For her the Lord was hope,
thus does the sorrowful one entreat the Lord,
What he wishes may be done,
since for her the Lord was hope.
All the surface of heaven is covered
with dark clouds,
All the surface of heaven grows dark with clouds
Frequent lightning bolts flash,
blasts of wind beat down,
As the heaven falls, frequent lightning bolts flash.

Seeing it, her brother
asks why he should rebuke her,
Seeing it, her brother stays the night in the house.
When the next day comes,
the turbulence and darkness flee,
the path lies open to the just man.
When the next day comes.
Three days after his departure from there,
she passed on,
Three days after this sign, she passed on.
Benedict looks up at the heights
and prays to heaven,
Thus does he look up at the soul of his sister
in the heights.
In the form of a bird,
she flew to the heights like a dove,
What she was, was revealed
through the form of a bird.
He gives thanks to the Almighty One
that his sister seeks the heavens:
He explains to the brothers
that his sister seeks the heavens.
He puts the body of his sister
in the tomb prepared for himself
And afterwards he puts his own body
in that very tomb.
One sepulchre holds them whom one will held:
One sepulchre holds them whom one womb begets.
Exceedingly wondrous signs
make people rejoice in life
The dead ones effect exceedingly wonderful signs.
Here we saw many men snatched away
from the devil,
Here we saw mad men made healthy.

Here was given to many
a voice for the mouth, a light for the eyes
Well-earned strength of feet
was here given to many.
Here almighty God is placated by their merits;
Whatever is sought, here almighty God provides.
May God here and everywhere
protect us with their prayers,
May God rule us and cherish us
here and everywhere.


A Song about St Scholastica
by the Same Author

O blessed sister of Benedict, by the will of Christ
And of the majestic Father, O blessed sister.
Ready to attend to God
You are rightly called Scholastica,
You are seen from your cradle
ready to attend to God.
A vessel for counsel, although then still a young girl,
A treader of the cosmos, a vessel for counsel.
Noble spouse of God, you are adorned with pearls,
you will bear holy lilies, noble spouse of God,
You desire the heights of heaven,
you despised the sweet things of the world,
You desire the lofty mountains
of the everlasting heaven.
All things hateful to you were placed
under the light of Phœbus,
And the seductive things of the earth
were all hateful to you.

You went before the Castalian leaders [3]
as their inspired guide,
Exulting, you illuminated the Castalian leaders.
Behold you joined your own virginal [4]
to the abode of your brother,
Behold your own virginal abides as unplucked.
You are grasped by fragile finger tips,
when exchanging the things of heaven,
And grasping victory
you are grasped by finger tips,
You bring back magnificent trophies, [5]
virtue, zeal, and discipline,
Virgin Daughter of Sion,
you bring back magnificent trophies.
Most chaste one,
we have written other praises in heroic verses,
behold we have written to you in heroic verses:
From which it was clearly shown
by the whole summit of merits
That she is perfect in all things,
from which it was clearly shown.
Let the sisterly vow suffice to excel in prayers
Unconquered by all, let it suffice in prayers.
It remains now to describe her feast day
with swift pen
to render into verse
the place where you were ordered,
it remains now to describe.
Blessed virgin, on the day
you approached the thresholds of the kingdom
on the tenth day in the month of Numa,
blessed virgin.

The sun in Aquarius already snatching away
the twenty-four parts,
the sun in Aquarius.
Nursed by the spiritual unction in wondrous flowers,
Whose odour was evident
from the spiritual unction.
Conveyed by arms of sentinels
to the bosom of Abraham
She will remain in the holy bosom of Abraham:
With virgin choirs
she was laid in a lasting abode
With harmonious praises and virgin choirs.
Organs which resound the odes of the celestial name
Angelic leaders, organs which resound.
You return now to feed on lilies
each with a thousand-fold blossom,
You return now to feed on paradisial lilies.
Here may you thrive, may you be strong,
may you worship, may you love,
Now and forever.
here may you thrive, may you be strong.


[1] Venerable Bede, EH 5:18; The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, tr. Bertram Colgrave, ed. Judith McClure & Roger Collins (Oxford: Oxford U, 1994), p. 267.

[2] Mary Forman, OSB, tr., ‘Poems on St Scholastica’, Vox Benedictina: A Journal of Translations from Monastic Sources (Saskatoon: Peregrina Publishers, 1984-), 7/3 (1990): pp. 229-251.

[3] Tr. note: ‘Castalian leaders’: Castalia was the proper name of a spring on Mount Parnassus which was sacred to the Muses; hence ‘castalian’, pertaining to the Muses.

[4] Tr. note: Virginal: ‘the book containing the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary’: Albert Blaise, Lexicon latinitatis medii aevi, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis (Turnout: Brepols, 1986) in reference to Th. Rymer, Foedera, conventiones, litterae inter reges anglia et alios quosvis imperatores, reges … IX (Hagae Comities, 1739-1745): p. 276. See also Oratio 14 aug., Sacramentarium Gregorianum 147, 1, quoted by Albert Blaise, Le vocabulaire latin des principaux thèmes liturgiques (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966): p. 347.

[5] Tr. note: These trophies refer to the fruits of monastic asceticism; see, for example, RB, Chapters 4, 72, 19 et passim.

'Let the Choir of Virgins & Nuns Be Glad'—St Scholastica

Today, 10 February on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of St Scholastica of Italy (6th c.), Abbess and Sister of St Benedict of Nursia. As Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette, OSB, writes, ‘Just as St Benedict is acknowledged to be the Father of Monks in the West, so we can also rightly call St Scholastica the beloved Mother of Nuns.’ [1] For those who are unfamiliar with her, here is a brief summary from the Oxford Dictionary of Saints:

Scholastica (d. c.543), sister of Benedict and first Benedictine nun. All that is known of her comes from the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. Her nunnery was Plombariola, about five miles from Monte Cassino; Benedict and Scholastica used to meet once a year in a house at a distance from his monastery; on his last visit to her, she asked him in vain to stay longer to discuss ‘the joys of heaven’. When he refused, she prayed for rain to such effect that a violent thunderstorm prevented him leaving and they spent the night as she had wished. She died three days later and was buried in the tomb Benedict had prepared for himself. Her relics were alleged to have been translated to Le Mans when Benedict’s went to Fleury. Feast: 10 February, in the Roman calendar with a high rank in Benedictine nunneries, of which she is the patron. [2]

Unfortunately, last year I essentially exhausted my treasury of material on St Scholastica. In a post on her life (here), I excerpted the entire account of all that is known of her life and death from the sole primary source—St Gregory the Great’s Dialogues. I also included some of the most profound reflections on that account possible, from the pen of the infallible Adalbert de Vogüé, a Western hymn for St Scholastica taken from the hard-to-find Liturgical Year of Dom Prosper Gueranger, and some lovely reflections by the RC blogger, Fr Mark Kirby in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In subsequent posts, I offered a possibly apocryphal story about St Scholastica told by Kathleen Norris along with my reflections on the importance of saintly titles (here), and finally (here), a probably apocryphal letter on Lent attributed to St Scholastica which I found on Fr Mark’s blog (here). Also courtesy of Fr Mark (here) is the ‘Preface [from the Mass] for the Feast of St Scholastica, Virgin’, which I have altered slightly to clarify the divine pronouns:

Truly it is right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give You thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.

Saint Scholastica, obedient to the teaching of Saint Benedict, her brother,
inclined the ear of her heart to the voice of Christ
Who led her into the wilderness
and there espoused her in mercy and faithfulness.

This holy virgin chose the best part,
and in preferring nothing to the love of Christ,
reached that love of Yours which,
being perfect, drove out all fear.

When in earnest prayer she sought your help,
You answered her outpouring of tears
with a sudden downpour of rain amidst lightning and thunder,
and in this You revealed the surpassing power of love.

In the form of a dove,
her pure soul entered the glory of heaven;
seeing this, her brother was filled with joy
and raised his voice in glad thanksgiving.

Now Saint Scholastica rejoices in You who called her,
and praises You forever with the powers of heaven,
with whom we also raise our voices
in this, their endless hymn of praise:

Here is the ‘Collect’ for St Scholastica, taken from the Ohio Anglican blog (here) and similarly altered:

O God, who didst reveal in a vision the soul of blessed Scholastica Thy Virgin entering heaven in the likeness of a dove, that Thou mightest show the way of the undefiled: grant us by the aid of her merits and prayers so innocently to live, that we may worthily attain unto joys eternal. Through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

In conclusion, here is the Magnificat antiphon for St Scholastica:

Let the Christian people rejoice
in the glory of the gracious virgin, Scholastica;
But most of all, let the choir of virgins and nuns
be glad celebrating the feast of her who,
Pouring forth her tears, entreated the Lord;
And because she loved so much,
she obtained greater power from him. [3]

[1] Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette, OSB, A Monastic Year: Reflections from a Monastery (Dallas: Taylor, 1996), p. 45.

[2] Hugh David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford U, 2004), p. 470.

[3] d’Avila-Latourrette, p. 43. Sorry to be so 'Western Ritey' in this post, but unfortunately I don't know of any 'Byzantine Rite' hymnography for St Scholastica at all.

'The Saint of Eire's Farms & Hills'—St Brighid of Kildare

Today, 1 February on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Abbess Brighid of Kildare (c. 452-c. 525), the Second Patron of Ireland and ‘the Mary of the Gael’. Her 7th-c. hagiographer, Cogitosus, calls her ‘Brigit of blessed and sacred memory’ and describes her as ‘burning with the flame of an inextinguishable faith’. [1] Owen White’s friend, Edward Sellner, notes that she is ‘the most famous female leader of the early Celtic church’, [2] and Michael Staunton writes that St Brighid ‘is second among Irish saints only to Patrick’. [3] Here is the account of her life in the Great Horologion:

When Ireland was newly converted to the Christian Faith, the Holy Abbess Brigid devoted herself to the establishment of the monastic life among the women of her country, and founded the renowned convent of Kildare—Kil ‘Cell (or Church)’ Dara ‘of the Oak’. She was especially renowned for her great mercifulness, manifested in her lavish almsgiving and in miracles wrought for those in need. The Book of Armagh, an ancient Irish chronicle, calls Saint Patrick and Saint Brigid ‘the pillars of the Irish’ and says that through them both, ‘Christ performed many miracles.’ She reposed in peace about the year 525. [4]

In my main post on St Brighid last year (here), I referred to and briefly summarised a story I first found in a Greek book on Saints of the British Isles. It concerns a blind nun under St Brighid’s care, and as I mentioned last year, it was particularly moving to see a blind lady at a Greek monastery respond to the story when it was read to her. Well, I’ve found my photocopy of the account of St Brighid from that book, and have now translated as best I can this story, the original source of which I don’t know:

One night the abbess Brighid was speaking spiritually with the nun Dara, who was blind. The sweet conversation so engrossed them, that they did not notice that the night had already passed and that in a few moments the sun would rise. It was such a beautiful moment and the abbess Brighid was grieved and became melancholy at the thought that it was not possible for her blind sister to enjoy that magnificent sight. After praying noetically, she made the sign of the cross over the eyes of Dara, who could immediately see, and beheld for the first time the mountains looming around, the glory of the heavens, the forest, the grass and the flowers which shone in the morning light. She remained long absorbed, and at last said to the abbess, ‘Close my eyes again, beloved mother. It seems the beauty of the cosmos has darkened within me the vision of God.’ St Brighid prayed, and the eyes of Dara closed for good, in order to leave the abundant uncreated light to dawn within her. [5]

In a follow-up to my main St Brighid post last year (here), I dealt briefly with the ridiculous notion, unquestioned by so many commentators on ‘Celtic Christianity’, that St Brighid is a thinly disguised pagan goddess. In that post I quoted from and linked to a wonderful article by Lisa Bitel—‘ St Brigit of Ireland: From Virgin Saint to Fertility Goddess’ (the article was also published as ‘Body of a Saint, Story of a Goddess: Origins of the Brigidine Tradition’, and is available as a pdf here [6]). Even the far from credulous Oxford Dictionary of Saints laments that ‘some critics . . . identify Brigid unconvincingly with this heathen goddess’. [7] Furthermore, the inimitable Irish Orthodox blogger, Brigit, at Under the Oak, has a number of posts dealing with the various points typically cited as evidence of this claim, drawing on Christina Harrington’s Women in a Celtic Church: Ireland 450-1150 (Oxford: Oxford U, 2002). The ones that I found there were ‘Saint Brigid and Imbolc’, ‘Brigid the Fire Goddess?’, ‘An Analysis of the Perpetual Fire at Kildare’, and ‘The Oak of Kildare’. I would also strongly suggest anyone interested in St Brighid perusing all of the Under the Oak posts under the label ‘St Brigid’ (here). Just as a sampling of the many wonderful things this blogger has to offer, here, first, is a passage from a book by Alice Curtayne, treating the connection of St Brighid with agriculture:

Saint Brigid is supremely the saint of agricultural life. She is the genius of our Irish homesteads and every farm is in a sense her shrine. She is the tutelar spirit of meadows and gardens. Throughout all her career, she was never dissociated from farm work. She is found milking cows and making firkins of butter, rounds of cheese, and tubs of home-brewed ale until the end. Not even when she was Mother Abbess of all the nuns of Ireland, did she relinquish her rural occupations: we still find her coming in from shepherding, her garments saturated with rain; or supervising reapers from dawn to sunset in the fields around her convent settlement. The Irish missionaries who went to Europe in the succeding centuries carried with them the enthusiastic cult of Brigid and gained for her immense popularity in all the countries they evangelised. But the pastoral character of her cult remained unchanged. Her feast day on February 1st ushers in the springtime and her blessing was always invoked that day on the crops, the flocks and the herds. [8]

Then, Brigit the blogger follows this up with a poem by Michael Walsh (1897-1938), according to Brigit, ‘the “poet of the Ben of Fore” in County Westmeath’:

St Brigid

Thou art the saint of Eire’s farms and hills,
Her hawthorn fields, her lanes of singing birds—
The saint who tended Spring’s green growing things,
The heavenly sheperdress of flocks and herds.

I think of thee as one with quiet scenes
Of rock and stream, of marshes white with flower,
Of children at an open cottage door,
Of rosary-voices in the evening hour.

I link thy name with homely craft and trade,
The wheel that spins, the loom, the milk-maid’s pail;
The very memory like a sweetness dwells
Around the hearth and homestead of the Gael! [9]

By contrast, here is my own poor effort at some lines for St Brighid, conceived as a gift to my wife for her nameday, 2002:

Brighid

I commend thee to thine Artist’s model—
The Mary of the Gael—
Blessing her hallowed name,
Those pagan sounds baptised
In Erin’s cool waters,
Rivers renewed at God’s unveiling.
And as above, so below;
In imitation is our virtue learnt.
So fix thy gaze
On this image of woman holy,
And lowliness learn,
And detachment.
And stand on the threshold
Of the sleeping world,
Tending purity’s flame in constant vigil,
That they may find a waking undreamt of,
And the life thou livest
Hinted in story and stars.

Finally, I would just mention that one of the best places for sources on St Brighid is this site, but Hieromonk Ambrose in New Zealand has also posted an extensive collection of links on this forum at monachos.net. In conclusion, here are the Troparion and Kontakion of the Holy Abbess:

Dismissal Hymn of the Righteous One. Fourth Tone

Having learned of things divine by the words of Patrick, thou hast proclaimed in the West the good tidings of Christ. Wherefore, we venerate thee, O Brigid, and entreat thee to intercede with God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion of the Righteous
One. Third Tone

At the Church of the Oak, thou didst establish thy sacred monasteries for those that took up the Tree of life, even the Precious Cross, upon their shoulders. And by thy grace-filled life and love of learning, thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold and didst thereby nourish the faithful. O righteous Mother Brigid, intercede with Christ, the True Vine, that He save our souls. [10]

Many years on their nameday to my dear wife, to my fellow blogger, and to my friend Owen’s second. May the prayers of St Brighid be with you all.


[1] Oliver Davies, tr., with Thomas O’Loughlin, Celtic Spirituality (NY: Paulist, 1999), pp. 122, 124.

[2] Edward C. Sellner, Wisdom of the Celtic Saints illust. Susan McLean-Kenney (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria, 1993), p. 69.

[3] Michael Staunton, The Voice of the Irish: The Story of Christian Ireland (Mahwah, NJ: HiddenSpring, 2003), p. 47.

[4] The Great Horologion, tr. Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Boston: HTM, 1997), p. 406.

[5] Bishop Christopher (Constantine Commodatos) of Telmissos, Οι Άγιοι των Βρεττανικών Νησών (Athens 1985)—unfortunately, the page number is illegibile on my photocopy.

[6] Lisa M. Bitel, ‘Body of a Saint, Story of a Goddess: Origins of the Brigidine Tradition’, Textual Practice (London: 1987-), 16 (2002), pp. 209-228. When I tried to access the link from my post earlier today, there was a glitch and it wouldn’t load. The author, however, kindly e-mailed me another URL for the site, and also pointed me to the pdf I linked to above.

[7] David Hugh Farmer, ‘Brigid of Ireland’, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford U, 2004), p. 79.

[8] Alice Curtayne, Saint Brigid of Ireland, rev. ed. (Dublin 1955), pp. 67-8 (qtd. here).

[9] Michael Walsh, Walls in the Grass in Michael Walsh—Collected Poems (Dublin 1996), p.110 (qtd. here).

[10] Horologion, p. 407.

'Light Is Beauty in Beholding'—St Lucy of Syracuse

Today, 13 December on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Virgin Martyr Lucy of Syracuse, Sicily. I posted the Life of St Lucy from the Prologue last year—this year I offer the account of St Lucy’s life from the Great Horologion:

Saint Lucia was from Syracuse in Sicily, a virgin betrothed to a certain pagan. Since her mother suffered from an issue of blood, she went with her to the shrine of Saint Agatha at Catania to seek healing. There Saint Agatha appeared to Lucia in a dream, assuring her of her mother’s healing, and foretelling Lucia’s martyrdom. When her mother had been healed, Lucia gladly distributed her goods to the poor, preparing herself for her coming confession of Christ. Betrayed as a Christian by her betrothed to Paschasius the Governor, she was put in a brothel to be abased, but was preserved in purity by the grace of God. Saint Lucia was beheaded in the year 304, during the reign of Diocletian. [1]

In the passage ‘For Consideration’ in today’s Prologue, St Nicholas (Velimirović) expands in quite an instructive way upon the story of St Lucy distributing her mother’s goods:

To give alms out of one’s own need is true almsgiving. Not even the most hardened sinner sins then, for it is an act precious before God. When St Lucy had seen her sick mother miraculously healed, she suggested to her that her possessions be used as alms to the needy. Her mother replied that she was not willing to relinquish her goods until her death, but agreed that, when that happened, lucy should use them in whatever way she wished. ‘First cover my eyes with earth’, she said, ‘and then do what you will with them.’ Lucy said: ‘He who gives to God only what he cannot take with him into the grave, or make use of in this life, is not very pleasing to God. If you want to do something pleasing to Him, give him that which you yourself need. In death, you can use nothing at all, and need from Him things that you cannot take with you. It is better to give to Christ that which you have while you are alive and well. Give to Him all that you have set aside for me, and do it now!’ The devout mother hearkened to her wise daughter, and did so.

When the torturer Paschasius was trying to force this holy maiden into carnal sin, lucy tried to keep the thought of it from entering her will. When the torturer threatened that his men would defile her by force, saying with a smirk: ‘When you have been defiled, the Holy Spirit will flee from you’, Lucy, full of grace, replied; ‘The body cannot be defiled without the consent of the mind’, and holy Lucy went to her pure death having given away all her goods and having preserved her pure young body from defilement. [2]

The name ‘Lucy’ is of course derived from the Latin lux, for ‘light’. Gordon Giles observes, ‘Before the reform of the Gregorian calendar in the sixteenth century, Lucy’s Day fell on the winter solstice (now December 21), the shortest day.’ [3] Hence the motif of light drawn upon by the Kontakion in Tone 6 from the Akolouthia for St Lucy composed by Reader Isaac Lambertsen:

Upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of unbelief hast thou cast the brilliant beams of thy splendour, O radiant Lucy, namesake of light; wherefore, illumined by the grace of God which shineth in thee like a beacon, we discern the straight and narrow path of faith, which leadeth to the mansions on high, wherein, O most holy martyr of Christ, thou abidest eternally with thy heavenly Bridegroom.

Thus, this holy Virgin can be seen as ushering in the days of increasing light. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, ‘Especially in Sweden her feast on the shortest day of the year has become a festival of light: the youngest daughter, dressed in white, wakes the rest of the family with coffee, rolls, and a special song.’ [4] The Golden Legend rather poetically ties in the meaning of St Lucy’s name to the beauty of her virginity:

Lucy is said of light, and light is beauty in beholding, after that S. Ambrose saith: The nature of light is such, she is gracious in beholding, she spreadeth over all without lying down, she passeth in going right without crooking by right long line; and it is without dilation of tarrying, and therefore it is showed the blessed Lucy hath beauty of virginity without any corruption; essence of charity without disordinate love; rightful going and devotion to God, without squaring out of the way; right long line by continual work without negligence of slothful tarrying. In Lucy is said, the way of light.

The moral purity of virginity is naturally a prominent virtue in the crown of today’s Saint. According to this website, the following passage from St Ambrose’s book On Virginity is read during the office for St Lucy in the Western Church:

You are one of God’s people, of God’s family, a virgin among virgins; you light up your grace of body with your splendor of soul. More than others you can be compared to the Church. When you are in your room, then, at night, think always on Christ, and wait for his coming at every moment.

This is the person Christ has loved in loving you, the person he has chosen in choosing you. He enters by the open door; he has promised to come in, and he cannot deceive. Embrace him, the one you have sought; turn to him, and be enlightened; hold him fast, ask him not to go in haste, beg him not to leave you. The Word of God moves swiftly; he is not won by the lukewarm, nor held fast by the negligent. Let your soul be attentive to his word; follow carefully the path God tells you to take, for he is swift in his passing.

What does his bride say? I sought him, and did not find him; I called him, and he did not hear me. Do not imagine that you are displeasing to him although you have called him, asked him opened the door to him, and that this is the reason why he has gone so quickly; no, for he allows us to be constantly tested. When the crowds pressed him to stay, what does he say in the Gospel? I must preach the word of God to other cities, because for that I have been sent. But even if it seems to you that he has left you, go out and seek him once more.

Who but holy Church is to teach you how to hold Christ fast? Indeed, she has already taught you, if you only understood her words in Scripture: How short a time it was when I left them before I found him whom my soul has loved. I held him fast, and I will not let him go.

How do we hold him fast? Not by restraining chains or knotted ropes but by bonds of love, by spiritual reins, by the longing of the soul.

If you also, like the bride, wish to hold him fast, seek him and be fearless of suffering. It is often easier to find him in the midst of bodily torments, in the very hands of persecutors.

His bride says: How short a time it was after I left them. In a little space, after a brief moment, when you have escaped from the hands of your persecutors without yielding to the powers of this world, Christ will come to you, and he will not allow you to be tested for long.

Whoever seeks Christ in this way, and finds him, can say: I held him fast, and I will not let him go before I bring him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me. What is this ‘house’, this ‘room’, but the deep and secret places of your heart?

Maintain this house, sweep out its secret recesses until it becomes immaculate and rises as a spiritual temple for a holy priesthood, firmly secured by Christ, the cornerstone, so that the Holy Spirit may dwell in it.

Whoever seeks Christ in this way, whoever prays to Christ in this way, is not abandoned by him; on the contrary, Christ comes again and again to visit such a person, for he is with us until the end of the world.

Although St Ambrose draws primarily upon the Song of Songs in the passage above, his exhortation to ‘wait for his coming at every moment’ surely reminds the Christian of the parable of the ten virgins from Matthew 25:1-13, appointed to be read during the Liturgy for St Lucy and beautifully connected to the Saint by the Ikos during the Canon of Matins:

Waiting for the divine Word to come for her, like the wise virgins Lucy filled the lamp of her soul with oil most rich; for having sold all her property, she bestowed all her substance upon the poor and destitute. Wherefore, feeding the hungry and giving drink to those athirst, clothing the naked and providing shelter for the indigent, she laid up for herself great store of the oil of mercy, wherewith to delight her Master. For this cause, let us sinners entreat her with boldness, that she pour forth of her oil and wine upon our manifold wounds, treating the afflictions of our bodies and curing the passions of our souls, that, restored to full health by her, we also may abide eternally with the heavenly Bridegroom.

The great English poet, John Donne, has composed a dark poem for this darkest of days, upon which we nevertheless look forward to the light:

A nocturnall upon S. Lucies day,
Being the shortest day.

Tis the yeares midnight, and it is the dayes,
Lucies, who scarce seven houres herself unmaskes,
The Sunne is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rayes;
The worlds whole sap is sunke;
The generall balme th’hydroptique earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the beds-feet, life is shrunke,
Dead and enterr’d; yet all these seeme to laugh,
Compar’d with mee, who am their Epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers bee
At the next world, that is, at the next Spring:
For I am every dead thing,
In whom love wrought new Alchimie.
For his art did expresse
A quintessence even from nothingnesse,
From dull privations, and leane emptinesse:
He ruin’d mee, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darknesse, death; things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that’s good,
Life, soule, forme, spirit, whence they beeing have;
I, by loves limbecke, am the grave
Of all, that’s nothing. Oft a flood
Have wee two wept, and so
Drownd the whole world, us two; oft did we grow,
To be two Chaosses, when we did show
Care to ought else; and often absences
Withdrew our soules, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death, (which word wrongs her)
Of the first nothing, the Elixer grown;
Were I a man, that I were one,
I needs must know; I should preferre,
If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means; Yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love; all, all some properties invest;
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light, and body must be here.

But I am None; nor will my Sunne renew.
You lovers, for whose sake, the lesser Sunne
At this time to the Goat is runne
To fetch new lust, and give it you,
Enjoy your summer all;
Since shee enjoys her long nights festival,
Let mee prepare towards her, and let mee call
This houre her Vigill, and her Eve, since this
Both the yeares, and the dayes deep midnight is. [5]

But to counter his spell, here in full is the translation given by Giles of the famous traditional song,‘Santa Lucia’ (don’t ask me to explain the oddities of the last stanza!):

Hark! through the darksome night
Sounds come a winging:
Lo! ’tis the Queen of Light
Joyfully singing.
Clad in her garment white,
Wearing her crown of light,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.

Deep in the northern sky
Bright stars are beaming;
Christmas is drawing nigh,
Candles are gleaming.
Welcome you vision rare,
Lights glowing in your hair.
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.

The darkness shall soon depart
from the earth’s valleys
thus she speaks
a wonderful word to us
The day shall rise anew
from the rosy sky.
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia. [7]

Incidentally, the mosaic at the top, from San Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, contains ‘the earliest surviving image’ of St Lucy, who is second from the right. [6]


[1] The Great Horologion, trans. HTM (Boston: HTM, 1997), p. 342

[2] St Nicholas (Velimirović), The Prologue from Ochrid, Vol. 4, trans. Mother Maria (Birmingham: Lazarica, 1986), pp. 321-2.

[3] Gordon Giles, O Come Emmanuel: A Musical Tour of Daily Readings for Advent & Christmas (Brewster, MA: Paraclete, 2006), p. 51.

[4] David Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford U, 2004), p. 328.

[5] Herbert J.C. Grierson, ed., The Poems of John Donne, Vol. 1: The Text of the Poems with Appendixes (London: Oxford U, 1966), pp. 44-5.

[6] Farmer, p. 328.

[7] Giles, p. 49.

'In Her Was All Manner of Philosophy'—St Catherine of Alexandria

Today, 24 November on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria. I posted on St Catherine for her feastday last year (here), so I’ll just add one or two things to what I offered there. First, here is the account of her life in the Prologue (St Nicholas [Velimirović], The Prologue from Ochrid, Vol. 4, trans. Mother Maria [Birmingham: Lazarica, 1986], p. 235):

The daughter of King Constus, she lived with her mother in Alexandria after her father’s death. Her mother was secretly a Christian and, through her spiritual father, brought Katharine to the Christian faith. In a vision, St Katharine received a ring from the Lord Jesus Himself as a sign of her betrothal to Him. This ring remains on her finger to this day. Katharine was greatly gifted by God, exceptionally well-educated in Greek philosophy, medicine, rhetoric and logic, and added great physical beauty to this. When the wicked Emperor Maxentius offered sacrifice to idols and ordered everyone to do the same, St Katharine came with daring before him and denounced his idolatrous errors. The Emperor, seeing that she surpassed him in wisdom and learning, summoned fifty of the wisest men, to dispute with her about faith and put her to shame, but Katharine was wiser than they, and put them to shame. The furious Emperor commanded that all fifty wise men be burned. These wise men, at St Katharine’s prayers, all confessed the name of Christ at the moment of death, and proclaimed themselves Christians. When the martyr was in prison, she brought Porphyrius the general, with two hundred of his soldiers, to the Faith, and also the Empress, Augusta-Vasilissa. They all suffered for Christ. At St Katharine’s martyrdom, an angel of God appeared to her, stopping and breaking the wheel on which she was being tortured, and after that the Lord Christ Himself appeared to her, strengthening her. After many tortures, Katharine was beheaded with the sword at the age of eighteen, on November 24th, 310. Milk flowed from her body in place of blood. Her wonderworking relics are preserved on Sinai.

This article, by one Paul Carus in a 1907 issue of The Open Court, points out that the earliest reference to St Catherine is in a 9th-c. document called the Menologium Basilianum, and reads as follows:

The martyr Aikaterina was the daughter of a rich and noble prince of Alexandria. She was very beautiful, and being at the same time highly talented, she devoted herself to Greek literature as well as to the study of the languages of all nations, and so she became wise and learned. And it happened that the Greeks held a festival in honor of their idols; and seeing the slaughter of animals, she was so greatly moved that she went to the King Maximinus and expostulated with him in these words: ‘Why hast thou left the living God to worship lifeless idols?’ But the Emperor caused her to be thrown into prison, and to be punished severely. He then ordered fifty orators to be brought, and bade them to reason with Aikaterina, and confute her, threatening to burn them all if they should fail to overpower her. The orators, however, when they saw themselves vanquished, received baptism, and were burnt forthwith, while she was beheaded.

Holy Transfiguration Monastery’s Great Horologion (Boston: HTM, 1997), p. 322, clarifies a potential point of confusion over the date:

According to the ancient usage, Saints Catherine and Mercurius were celebrated on the 24th of this month, whereas the holyh Hieromartyrs Clement of Rome and Peter of Alexandria were celebrated on the 25th. The dates of the feasts of these Saints were interchanged at the request of the Church and Monastery of Mount Sinai, so that the festival of Saint Catherine, their patron, might be celebrated more festively together with the Apodosis of the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos. The Slavic Churches, however, commemorate these Saints on their original dates.

In regards to my earlier post, I’d like to repeat the interesting point that this woman, who has left no written works behind her, has nevertheless traditionally been considered the patron Saint of scholars and philosophers (she is, for instance, the patron of Balliol College, Oxford). Here is a passage from the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (William Caxton's translation) discussing her philosophical virtues:

First she appeared marvellous in wisdom, in her was all manner of philosophy. Philosophy is divided in three, in theory, in practice, and in logic. Theory is divided in three, that is intellectual, natural, and mathematical. The blessed Katherine had science intellectual in knowledge of things divine, of which she used against the masters, to whom she proved to be but one very God only, and convanquished all the false gods. Secondly, she had science natural of which she used in disputing against the emperor. Thirdly, she had science mathematical, that is a science that be holdeth the forms and the manner of things, and this science had she in despising the earthly things, for she withdrew her heart from all earthly matter. She showed to have this science when she answered to the emperor, when he demanded who she was, and said: I am Katherine, daughter of king Costus, and how she had been nourished in purple. And hereof used she when she enharded the queen to despise the world and herself, and to desire the reign perdurable. The practice is divided in three manners, in ethic, economic, and politic. The first teacheth to inform manners and adorn him with virtues, and that appertaineth to all men. The second teacheth to rule and govern well his meiny, and that appertaineth to them that have men to govern. The third appertaineth to the governors of cities, for she teacheth to govern the peoples, the cities, and the commons. And these three sciences had the blessed Katherine. First, she had in herself all honesty of manners; secondly, she ruled her meiny laudably, which was left to her, thirdly, she informed wisely the emperor. Logic is divided in three, in demonstrative, in probable, and in sophistical. The first pertaineth to philosophers, the second to rhetors and logicians, and the third to sophisters, and these three sciences had Katherine in her, for she disputed with the emperor.

Finally, I shall now, as promised, offer something from the beautiful blog, Under the Oak. The resident blogger there, an Irish Orthodox lady fittingly named Brigit, has discovered an Old Irish poem in praise of St Catherine (here is Brigit’s post, which also features the Irish text; here is her source):

Réalta an chruinne Caitir Fhíona
(Star of the world, Catherine)
Author unknown
Meter: snéadbhairdne

Star of the world, Catherine,
the helper of the Greeks,
Helping the chosen children, saving each,
there at their dying.

Catherine, honored daughter,
branch of virtue,
a face like fresh appleblossom,
green brow.

A green brow on the Greek king's daughter
not captured by a suitor—
in the shade of her cheeks is brightness
and a berry's color.

Berry's color and sun's garland
in crimson cheeks—
many a knee bending from the source
in tufted locks.

In the shape of her curved eyes, Catherine
is not surpassed by Greek women.
Curved eyes do not look at a young man—
bright-toothed dark mouth.

Face like an apple, breast like a swan,
a virgin not violated.
Down is not brighter than her shining white hand—
green eyes, bright cheeks.

The virgin with her cheeks will not be found
without my suit;
stretch your cloak over my madness,
son of Mary.

Brigid of Ireland and Scotland,
the virgin of the islands—
she is the misty-bright flower of the young women,
coral-collared.

Athrachta, helper of Limerick—
speedy enough
is the white-soled young woman of the Boyle,
wax candle.

Gentle white Ciaran, Columcille—
gentle the company—
Patrick, Martin, Mongan, Manann,
Coman, Coireall.

The Trinity, great Mary and Michael—
sunny band—
eleven thousand noble virgins of the Boyle,
flower of pure virgins.