Psaltiki: the online journal

Volume 3, Issue1. Summer 2011

INSIDE
Lifting our Voices
everett ferguson | Chant

Holy Week on
Mount Athos Award
psaltiki | Mission

Logos & Melos

p.a. paschos | Hymnology

Regarding
Spiritual Reading and
Ecclesiastical Chant
porphyrius kafsokalyvitis |
Fathers

Kanons
in the Great Compline
konstantinos terzopoulos |
Typikon

w w w . p s a l t i k i . o r g

www.psaltiki.org/journal/

T H E P S A LT I K I J O U R N A L
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 1. S U M M E R 2 0 11
Mount Athos

Cover
Philotheou Monastery,
Christ Pantokrator.

Psaltiki, Inc.

psaltikiMission
Dedicated to the Byzantine
Chant heritage.

Contributors

Everett Ferguson

Lifting our Voices

The a capella nature of music
in the Christian Church.

Saint Maximus Confessor (VIIth Century)

Mystagogy
What do the divine songs
symbolize?

Psaltiki, Inc.

The Psaltiki Holy

Week on Mount
Athos Award
The second recipient of the
Award, the Rev. Deacon John
Efthymios Afendoulis.

P.B. Paschos

Logos & Melos

Prayer, poetry, the
Psalter and the origins of
ecclesiastical hymnography.

Elder Porphyrius Kafsokalyvitis

Regarding Spiritual
Reading and Ecclesiastical Chant
Saintly advice on the value
of spiritual reading and the
Churchs chant tradition.

Konstantinos Terzopoulos

Kanons in the Great

Compline
Discussing the use of canons
in the Great Compline
during the Great Fast.
Tables for the year 2011 in
both the new-style and oldstyle calendar traditions.

Psaltiki: The Online Journal Editor: Rev. Dr. Konstantinos Terzopoulos, email: frc@psaltiki.org; Editorial Assistant:
Thomas Carrol. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 149161, Orlando, FL 32814. Psaltiki, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in
the State of Florida dedicated to the advancement of the Psaltic Art in America and its study around the world.
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ISSN 1946-7532. Copyright 2008 Psaltiki, Inc. and the Authors. Email: psaltiki@psaltiki.org
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For submission requests, contributors should supply three copies of their transcript. All transcripts should be double
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PSALTIKIMISSION
Perpetuating the Psaltic Heritage
saltiki, Inc. is a non-profit organization promoting
the advancement and perpetuation of the Psaltic Art,
better known as Byzantine and post-Byzantine chant and
Hymnology.

Psaltiki supports the chant heritage and tradition

through the creative initiating of educational projects,
the development of various multimedia, online
resources, publications, recordings, as well as financial
gifts in support of worthy projects, individual scholars,
researchers and musicians engaged in exemplary activities
and endeavors related to Psaltikis purpose.

, ,

,
,
.
Just as we make known and signify the thoughts of the
soul through the words we express, so too the Lord
wished the melody of the words to be a sign of the
spiritual harmony of the soul, and ordained that the
canticles be sung with melody and the psalms be read
with the canticles.

Saint Athanasius the Great (ad 296-373),

Letter to Marcellunus.
Helen Petriti-Stratigos Memorial Fund
n MemoriumHelen Petriti-Stratigos (Aegina:
November 8, 2010) Memorial Fund Established. At the
familys request, the Helen Petriti-Stratigos Memorial Fund
has been established in order to perpetuate her heartfelt
love for the Churchs chant heritage.

We pray for the eternal rest and repose of the servant of

God, Helen, a long-time resident of Sausalito, CA. To

donate visit:
www.psaltiki.org/stratigos/
2011 Psaltiki Holy Week on Mount Athos Award Recipient
he Rev. Deacon John Efthymios Afendoulis
is the recipient for the 2011 Psaltiki Holy Week on
Mount Athos Award. He is a Master of Divinity student
in his final year of studies at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
School of Theology (Brookline MA). Endowed with a
keen interest in the Psaltic Art, Fr. John was a doublemajor at UCLA, where he studied Ethnomusicology and
History, graduating in 2003.

www.psaltiki.org/athos/
Mission
saltiki is dedicated to education, empowering, and
connecting the next generation of chanters in America.
We are dedicated to enriching and informing the present
environment of psaltic culture in America in order to
enhance and cultivate a spirit of excellence worthy of
this great musical inheritance and the spiritual benefits
it provides via the Orthodox liturgical life, the arts and
beyond.

All projects are geared toward the advancement of the

Psaltic Art, its application, appreciation, preservation and
perpetuation by focusing on at least one of the following
core areas:
1. Education,
2. Visibility, and
3. Psaltic Community.
Established in the year 2007 and receiving 501(c)(3)
classification in 2008, Psaltiki, Inc. is presently in its
plenary first phase. In this phase the organization looks
toward foundational development and strategic planning.
Psaltiki is studying the prospects of providing educational
services by utilizing the electronic mediums available

today.
Today, Byzantine chant is a rapidly vanishing sacred
art form in America. Unfortunately, past generations of
chanters have not left behind a new generation of pupils.
For various reasons, the Church has not developed a
formal educational system to ensure the continuation of
our Byzantine chant heritage. Partial, inadequate, piecemeal solutions have not resulted in the needed creation
of a sustainable educational plan that could be fruitful
in supplying the Church with a continuous, renewable
source of personnel to carry on this all-important
ministry and great spiritual heritage.
It is not that the talent and desire do not exist. Whenever
people of musical aptitude are exposed to Byzantine
chant, they are often fascinated and desire to explore.
The aural tie with our ancient Christian roots and this
uniquely Orthodox art form is spiritually uplifting and
inspirational. Unfortunately, teachers are nowhere to be
found. In our seminaries instruction is aimed toward
the practical, non-specialized needs of preparing the
clergy, who are not necessarily musically inclined. Due to
financial, linguistic, and geographic obstacles, schools of
chant do not exist in America and have not been integral
to the American Orthodox experience.
Self-help resources abounding on the Web usually assume
a certain level of familiarity and knowledge of the chant
tradition and are not designed to produce chanters or
provide a complete educational experience. Past attempts
to transpose the chant corpus into Western Notation have
often either over-simplified or distorted the melodies to
the point where they are unrecognizable, awkward and
uninspired, failing to bring about the desired results. In
short, no viable means exists to successfully introduce and
train chanters and readers to serve the liturgical needs of
the Church.
At Psaltiki we believe it is time to re-order and re-imagine
how one can learn this rich Orthodox liturgical heritage.
In harmony with the Book of Psalms of the ProphetKing David, the hymnographic and chant heritage of the
Orthodox Church stands at the very center of its spiritual

and liturgical life. The Church has always lived in a mystic

link between earth and heaven using the Divine Services
to raise the faithful to the eternal reality of the heavenly
Church triumphant. Her divine poetry and chant are
important partners in this process of anagogyraising
the hearts of the faithful to the Lord. Along with the
beauty of the Churchs architecture, the oil lamps burning
before the holy Icons, the vestments, readings and the
scent of incense, the words of the divine hymnslogos
and melodies of the sacred chantsmelospoint the
faithful to the eternal reality which the earthly eye has not
seen, nor ear heard (Isaiah 64.4; 1 Corinthians 2.9).
The story of our Orthodox hymnography is one at the
heart of our liturgical life, one richer and more surprising
than we have been told. Beginning with the earliest
known Christian hymn written with ancient Greek
Hypolydian musical notation in a late third century
papyrus fragment (Oxyrhynchus No. 1786), Orthodox
chant notation continues to develop its unique forms.
Soon after the Iconoclastic period in the eighth century,
new forms of Byzantine chant notation emerged with
the compilation of the Oktoechos hymnbook of Eight
Modes by Saint John of Damascus. The musical tradition
continued to grow, providing the Church with master
composers hundreds of years before the Classical
musical tradition even began in the West, including such
notable figures as Romanos Melodus, Xenos Korones,
Joannes Glykys, Joannes Koukouzeles, and others. The
chant tradition was passed down through the centuries
in the Church, both East and West (although it would
take a different course in the West). Through the work
of the Three Teachers, Gregorios, Chourmouzios and
Chrysanthos, in 1814 the tradition finally reached its
present notational form, commonly referred to as the New
Method.
For many Orthodox Christians in America, basic
questions concerning the venerable art of Byzantine
liturgical chant abound: What is Byzantine chant, and
where does it come from? What purpose does it serve,
and how did it take on its present form, style, and unique
sound? How can I learn when I have no teacher? While

interest is on the rise, resources to learn this ancient

art form and assure its continuation in America are
inadequate. Psaltiki is dedicated to these needs.
Psaltiki relies on volunteers and donations of money,
materials and services to create and conduct its projects.
We look forward to your participation!
www.psaltiki.org

CONTRIBUTORS
EVERETT FERGUSON (Lifting our Voices)

is Professor of Church History Emeritus at

Abilene Christian University. He is the recipient
of numerous academic and scholarly honors
and a member of the Council of the association
internationale detudes patristiques and past
president of the North American Patristics
Society. In 1998 he was presented with a
festschrift, The Early Church in Its Context:
Essays in Honor of Everett Ferguson (Leiden).
Dr. Ferguson has been co-editor of the Journal
of Early Christian Studies.
P.B. PASCHOS (Logos and Melos: Chapter
Two) is Distinguished Professor Emeritus
of Byzantine Hymnography in the School of
Theology of the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens, Greece. A prolific author,
his publication Logos and Melos (Athens 1999)
is a practical pre-introduction to the study of
the Byzantine liturgical hymnography of the
Orthodox Church based on his course lectures.

ELDER PORPHYRIUS KAFSOKALYVITIS

(Regarding Spiritual Reading and
Ecclesiastical Chant) was born in 1906 on the
Island of Evia. By the age of fourteen the young
Porphyriusthen still known by his baptismal
name of Evangeloshad dedicated himself to
strict asceticism and prayer as it was practiced
at the hermitage of Saint George at the Skete
of the Kafsokalyvia, in the desert at the

southern tip of Mount Athos. His counsels to

literally thousands of faithful who were blessed
to receive his spiritual guidance have proven
to be a treasure of practical spirituality for the
contemporary soul.
KONSTANTINOS TERZOPOULOS (Kanons
in the Great Compline) is a Greek Orthodox
Priest on the Island of Aegina, a theologian
and published scholar in the fields of Byzantine
Chant and Liturgy. He is the Executive Director
and co-founder of Psaltiki, Inc., the author
of
(Athens 2004), the
upcoming annotated translation with an
introduction of the Protheoria of the Biolakes
Typikon, a recipient of the 2011 Music &
Letters Journal Award and currently preparing
a critical edition of St Anastasius Sinaitas
Homilia de sacra synaxi.

LIFTING OUR VOICES

BY E V E R E T T F E R G U S O N

LIFTING OUR VOICES

This article is adapted from

Everett Fergusons book, A
Cappella Music In Public
Worship, which is being
reissued in its third edition by
Star Bible Publishing. Used by
permission.
February 2000, Gospel
Advocate, pgs. 12-13.
Psaltiki: the Online
Journal thanks the author for
permission to use this article.

uring my graduate study days at Harvard, I

lived in the same dormitory with a Greek Orthodox student who was a graduate of the University of
Athens and a candidate for the masters of theology
degree at Harvard. I asked him if it was correct that the
Greek Orthodox churches did not use instrumental
music in their public worship. He said, Yes. Then, I
inquired as to the reasons why. His reply was most interesting to me: We do not use instrumental music because it is not in the New Testament, and it is contrary
to the nature of Christian worship. He stated my case
for unaccompanied church music better than I could.
In elaborating my reasons for defending a cappella
music in the public worship of the church, I would
like to apply a method of approach that I have found
helpful in considering disputed matters of Christian
practice. This methodology involves three steps: 1. an
analysis of the New Testament evidence, 2. a testing
of ones interpretation of the New Testament by the
testimony of church history, and 3. a consideration
whether there is a doctrinal or theological reason that
explains or gives meaning to the biblical and historical
evidence.
New Testament Evidence

ccording to the New Testament evidence, instrumental music was not present in the worship of
the early church. Singing incontestably was present in
the corporate life of the early Christians (1 Corinthians 14:15; Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19), and this was
rooted in the practice of Jesus with His disciples (Mark
14:26). But there is no clear reference to instrumental
music in Christian worship in any New Testament text.
We may note in passing that the New Testament
passes no negative judgment on instrumental music
per se. It makes neutral references to playing on
instruments (Matthew 11:17), uses instruments for
illustrationswith unfavorable connotations it may
be noted (1 Corinthians 13:1; 14:7) and compares the
heavenly worship to the sound of instruments

LIFTING OUR VOICES

probably under the influence of Old Testament and

temple practice (Revelation 14:2). The situation is
simply that instruments are not referred to in the
churchs worship.
Testimony of History

n J. W. McKinnons doctoral dissertation, The Church

Fathers and Musical Instruments [Columbia University, 1965], later summarized in his article The Meaning of the Patristic Polemic against Musical Instruments [Current Musicology, Spring, 1965, pp. 69-82],
McKinnon presents information about the history of
instrumental music in the church. His studies put the
introduction of instrumental musicfirst the organ
even later than the dates found in reference books. It
was perhaps as late as the 10th century that the organ
was played as part of the worship service. This makes
instrumental music one of the late innovations of the
medieval Catholic church. And that was only in the
Western branch of Christendom, not in the Eastern
Orthodox branch, which we have seen still today does
not use an instrument in worshipexcept for congregations under the influence of Western churches.
Even in the West, the acceptance of instrumental music
has not been uniform. The Reformed and Anabaptist
branches of Protestantism eliminated the instrument
as a Catholic corruption and only came to reaccept it
and then not uniformlyabout the time instruments
were being introduced into churches of the Restoration
Movement. Thus, to abstain from the use of the instrument is not a peculiar aberration of a frontier American sect; this is easily the majority tradition of Christian history. Virtually no one has said it is wrong to
worship a cappella, whereas many have thought instrumental music in worship is wrong. A cappella music is
truly the ecumenical ground to occupy.
The churchs nonuse of instrumental music is in
contrast to the surrounding religious world. Any
nonuse of instrumental music was not in the same
category with nonuse of loud speakers. Instrumental

LIFTING OUR VOICES

music was available and was part of the surrounding

religious practices. Pagan religions used instruments to
accompany their sacrifices and to arouse the emotions
of their worshipers. The instruments accompanied
song. If the church were going to reject instrumental
music because of its association with pagan worship,
song should have been rejected too.
The temple cult of the Old Testament also employed
instrumental music as an accompaniment to its
sacrifices. Here, indeed, we may have a clue to the
nonuse of instrumental music in Christian worship.
When the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial cult
were abolished, naturally its accompaniments were
too. Thus, the incense that accompanied the offering
of animal sacrifices became a symbol of the prayers
of the saints (Revelation 5:8), but there is no reference
to literal incense used in early Christian worship and
several references in early Christian literature explicitly
disowning it. Similarly something external and
mechanical like instrumental music was superseded by
the songs of praise.
Historical evidence makes it most unlikely that use of
an instrument is implied in the term psallo, the Greek
term for music, in the New Testament and shows that
the absence of clear reference to instrumental music in
the churchs worship in early days was not accidental.
It was not mentioned because it was not there, not
because there was no occasion to refer to it. There
is no time when we can point to an original use of
instruments in the church being abandoned.
The Nature of Worship

hus far, we have seen that the testimony of church

history and the circumstances of New Testament
times point to a negative conclusion on the use of instrumental music in early Christian worship. Was there
some reason, other than cultural or sociological, for
the absence of instrumental music in early Christian
worship? We turn now to the doctrinal or theological
aspect of our study. It seems to me that this is the really

LIFTING OUR VOICES

conclusive consideration on which a decision about our

practice today must be made. I would argue that a cappella music is more consistent with the nature of Christian worship. It is really the nature of Christian worship
that determined early Christian practice and should
determine our practice.
Worship is what we offer to God. The important thing
in Christian worship is not our uplift, what pleases
our senses, of what we find aesthetically satisfying.
Instrumental music may put me in a certain mood,
may stir my heart, and may stimulate high sentiments
(as well as lower or lesser sentiments), but my feelings
are not my worship. Instrumental music performed
by someone else cannot be something I offer to God.
Our worship is to be determined by what is rational,

LIFTING OUR VOICES

spiritual and verbal, not by what is emotional, aesthetic

or sensual.
Worship is grounded in our relation to God, as
creature to the Creator. That means we must come
before God on His terms. The gifts we offer are those
He appoints. Instrumental music was an act of worship
and not an aid in the Old Testament. It was a separate
act. Playing an instrument is doing something different
from singing. To offer mechanical music would require
explicit authorization from God.
When Paul was confronted with disorders in the
worship assembly of the church at Corinth, he invoked
the standard of what edifies the church to govern
the conduct of the worshipers (1 Corinthians 14:4,
6, 9, 12, 19, 26). What goes on in the assembly must
be intelligible, understandable. Rational, spiritual,
vocal music corresponds to this criterion. [E]ach
one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an
interpretation. Let all things be done for edification
(1 Corinthians 14:26 rsv). It is difficult to conceive
of instrumental music contributing to the biblical
meaning of edification, building one up in the faith.
It is more likely to interfere with the purposes of
edification than to contribute to them.
The type of vocal praise that evolved in the synagogue
and the early church made instrumental music
irrelevant. It is only the instrumentally conceived
music of modern times that makes us think differently.
It is no wonder, therefore, that historians and
interpreters of church music agree that a cappella
singing is the purest and highest type of church music.
Many quotations could be assembled on this theme.
Historians may not agree on an exclusive stand, but
they do agree that this is the classic form of church
music. I should not be understood as saying that just
because the singing is unaccompanied it measures up
to these standards of Christian worshipas edifying,
spiritual, and an appropriate offering of man to God.
I am simply saying that vocal music is best fitted to
express the nature of Christian worship.

LIFTING OUR VOICES

Conclusion

e are on good historical and theological grounds

to engage in a cappella music in our public worship. This is safe, ecumenical ground that all can agree
is acceptable. Instrumental music cannot be confirmed
as authorized in the text of the New Testament. It did
not exist in worship until centuries after the New Testament was written. Vocal music is more consistent with
the nature of Christian worship.
Neither side of the instrumental music controversy
has had a monopoly on Christian love and humility,
and neither side has reason for pride. My hope is that
we can go beyond our recent history of bitterness
and unite on the original undivided ground of the
Restoration Plea. This should not be done out of the
spirit one side is right and the other wrong. But let
us be New Testament churchesin practice and in
attitude, in loyalty to the Bible, and in the exercise of
Christian freedom.

Dr. Everett Ferguson is Professor of Church History

Emeritus at Abilene Christian University. He is the recipient of
numerous academic and scholarly honors and a member of the
Council of the Association internationale detudes patristiques
and past president of the North American Patristics Society. In
1998 he was presented with a festschrift, The Early Church
in Its Context: Essays in Honor of Everett Ferguson,
(Leiden). Dr. Ferguson has been co-editor of the Journal of
Early Christian Studies.

LOGOS AND MELOS:

CHAPTER TWO
BY P. B. PA S C H O S

LOGOS AND MELOS

t is well known to all how the earliest poetry of

every civilization is religious. This is a reflection of
their metaphysical roots, to which they return with love
at every difficult or joyous moment, sometimes to receive
strength and at other times to rest upon the Creators
bosom, to give thanks, to glorify, to communicate with
him, to open unto him their heartwhether it be full of
pain or joy. And that is where the song begins, the Ode to
the Beloved of ones heart. With the word [logos] one can
only speak, but one can chant with their heart, one can
sing. This communication with God we call prayer. This
very prayer a) can be personal, private, which is usually
a lyrical word, an expression of joy, sorrow, supplication
or petition or doxology, which proceeds with prose
or rhythmic words from mans soul to its Creator
and Fashioner. Prayer b) can also be an expression
of a religious community or group, in which case
according to the tradition preserved in the histories of
civilizationsthey are hymns clothed in music, which
are often accompanied by religious dances when sung.
In these cases the poetry helped the music and music the
poetry in order to produce a synthetic form of sacred art,
which would express the soul of the religious people at
their liturgical gatherings. Of course, there have existed
and do exist hymns that were simple verses, without a
hint of genuine literary creativity and without the ability
to touch the spiritual chords of man through sentimental
means; these hymns, as is natural, disappeared and
were slowly lost, covered by silence. Even when they do
emerge from their silence, they employ the specialized
philologist or linguist for that era, but not the religious or
liturgical gathering. Conversely, poetry that pulsated with
the esoteric power and intellectual elation in the hearts
of men, hearts that wrestle for redemption, struggle to
reach perfect repentance and to approach the paradise
of salvation and theosis, that poetry, with is divine
Byzantine melody, became the inseparable companion
of the faithful at all their liturgical gatherings. But that
poetry also became the refuge of each one separately, in

P.B. Paschos is distinguished

emeritus professor of Byzantine
Hymnography in the School
of Theology of the National
and Kapodistrian University
of Athens. His publication
Logos and Melos is a
practical pre-introduction to
the study of the Byzantine
liturgical hymnography of the
Orthodox Church based on his
introductory course lectures.
The Psaltiki Online Journal is
proud and blessed to have the
authors permission to publish
this practical guide in English
translation.

Prayer and Poetry

LOGOS AND MELOS

their personal hour of great sorrow or joy. Is any among

you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing
psalms (James 5:13).
Hebrew Poetry

he religiousness and reverence of the Hebrew people

is most clearly etched throughout all their literature.
In the Old Testament we follow almost all the stages of
their spiritual life, their experiences, their transitions,
their joys and sorrows. Especially in the poetic books
of the Old Testament, that wealth of varied feelings
and emotions of the Hebrew people are expressed and
which break out in hymns of wonder, thanksgiving,
and gratitude to Yahweh. The infirmity and sinfulness
of weak man and Gods greatness and omnipotence are
revealed. From these contrasts and parallels effortlessly
comes the hymn of praise to the redeeming God, who,
after a few or much trial give redemption and salvation
to the righteous, while punishing and chastening the
unrighteous and lawless.
If one excludes Job, where we have epic and dramatic
elements, if not even tragic, the rest of the poetic books
of the Old Testament are lyrical. It has been remarked by
specialists how in this lyric poetry belong the following
forms: hymns, vow, thanksgiving, various odes or canticles,
elegy, parable, allegory, apothegm, testament, proverb,
enigma and silos [satire] (cf. Th. Borea, Hebrew poetry,
Analekta, 1, Athens 1937, pp. 255 ff.). In the majority
of the poetic books of the Old Testament, their lyric
elements are incorporated with historic elements in a
characteristic way, often giving the ultimate impression
of a didactic and gnomic poetry. The same holds true for
a good part of the historic and prophetic books, but even
more so, of course, for the Deuterocanonical books read
often the festal vespers services throughout the liturgical
year (Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, etc.).
The Psalter

rom the simple and less artful in form ancient

Hebrew poems we reach the first period of
development, the years of King David. With David

LOGOS AND MELOS

and his psalms we enter the second period the poetrys

development, which is simultaneously the colophon of its
glory. David and Solomon are its master composers. All
later Hebrew poets continued or imitated their poetic art,
with either more or less competence.
The themes of Hebrew poetry are joy, sorrow, love,
anger, lament, repentance, and most of all the feeling of
dependence on God. Especially in the Psalter of David
the religious elements become more intense and deep.
For this reason the Psalms became the liturgical book of
Hebrew worship par excellence. The shape and content
of the Psalms compete to see which will reach the height
of perfect first. This marriage of beautiful aesthetic form
and rich, vital content make for the basic characteristics
of every high form of poetry.
Origins of Ecclesiastical Hymnography

o matter the theme being addressed and no matter

how it is sung, the poetry of the Psalter always
contains at its depth a religious hue, if not a deep and
clear spirituality. For this reason it never ceased to be
used liturgically in the Jewish Synagogue, even after
Christs appearance. It is not strange, then, that the first
Christians from the Hebrews continued to use the
Book of Psalms in their worship, which, according to
Saint Athanasius the Great, contains even the emotions
of each soul, and it has the changes and rectifications
of these delineated and regulated in itself (A Letter
to Marcellinus: pg 27.20). The Fathers of the Church
see in the Psalms the voice of the Messiah speaking
prophetically to His people and the chosen people to
their Messiah. Saint Basil the Great does not hesitate
to call the Book of Psalms the Voice of the Church
(Homily on Psalm 29: pg 29.313). This is the case because
the main creator of the Psalter, David, enters the center of
the new Churchs worship, as emphasized by Saint John
Chrysostom:

And everyone offers him with their mouth instead

of myrrh. In the churches there are vigils, and David
is first and middle and last. In the singing of morning

LOGOS AND MELOS

hymns David is first and middle and last. In the tents at

funeral processions David is first and last. In the houses
of virgins there is weaving, and David is first and middle
and last. What a thing of wonder! Many who have not
even made their first attempt at reading know all of
David by heart and recite him in order. Yet it is not only
in the cities and the churches that he is so prominent
on every occasion and with people of all ages; even in
the fields and deserts and stretching into uninhabited
wasteland, he rouses sacred choirs to God with greater
zeal. In the monasteries there is a holy chorus of angelic
hosts, and David is first and middle and last. In the
convents there are bands of virgins who imitate Mary,
and David is first and middle and last. In the deserts
men crucified to this world hold converse with God,
and David is first and middle and last. And at night all
men are dominated by physical sleep and drawn into
the depths, and David alone stands by, arousing all the
servants of God to angelic vigils, turning earth into
heaven and making angels of men (On Repentance: pg
54.12).

In agreement with contemporary witnesses, the

religious poetry of the Psalms had not only penetrated
the liturgical life, but also all the other moments of
personal life of the first Christianswhenever one
needed to express his faith, either alone or with others.
Based on information supplied by contemporary
witnesses, and especially the Apostle Paul, later
researchers note that parallel to the use of the Psalms,
other hymns and ode began to be employed. Pauls Epistle
to the Colossians contains a representative passage,
which is repeated in Ephesians (5:19-20): Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts
to the Lord (Col. 3:16). Many interpret the terms in
this passage as being synonymous; however, we should
accept that, as the term psalmos came to be exclusively
used over time to denote the Psalms of David, the term
hymnos must have referred to early Christian songs
of worship (P.K Christou, 4,

LOGOS AND MELOS

, Thessalonike 1981, pp. 18 ff.). Of course,

other interpretations of these terms can be from various
researchers; among them, Egon Wellesz stands out.
In his A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography
(2nd ed., Oxford 1961, pp. 32 ff.) he maintains that in
accordance with the character of the feast a psalm refers
to either a simple recitation or elaborate cantillation of
one of Psalms of David. A hymn is a poetic text with
initially a character of praise, like those preserved in the
New Testament. In this case the music can be simple or
advanced. Finally, the spiritual odes were songs of the
melismatic type, exultant songs of praise, which passed
from the Synagogue into the Christian Church (cf. K.
Metsakes, B , vol. 1, Thessalonike
1971, pp. 39 ff.). Notwithstanding the interpretation of
these terms, the irrefutable truth remains, that during the
first Christian centuries the faithful felt the strong need to
express their faith not only to God, in general, but also to
the Christ-Savior and Holy Spirit, to the Holy Trinity, and
new hymns are composed for this purpose.
Certainly, when the various groups of heretics would
compose their own hymns with beautiful melodies,
appealing rhythms and meters, but with heretical
content, the Church would analogous hymns with even
better rhythms for use in the new common worship,
requiring melody, rhythm and meter in order to be
attractive to the believers. This the Church did out of its
concern to maintain the Orthodox faith (A. Phytrakes,
, Epostemonike Epeteris
tes Theologikes Scholes tou Panepistemiou Athenon, 19551956, p. 13 ff.). Witnesses from the first Christian centuries
(Pliny, Justin, and others) we can assume that the first
Christian hymns were written to be chanted during the
celebration of the holy Eucharist (E.G. Pantelakes,
, Theologia 16, 1938,
p. 25 ff.), as well as for other worship gatherings. But we
will say more about those hymns below (Chapter a.1.c).

MYSTAGOGY
M A X I M U S C O N F E S S O R 7th centur y

What do the divine songs symbolize?

The spiritual sweetness of the divine songs reveals
the beauty of the sacred good things; that which
moves souls toward the pure and blessed eros, and
also arouses the soul even more to despise sin.
The divine melodies of the hymns reveal the divine
pleasure and gratitude, created in the souls of
all. Those who mystically intone them abandon
past struggles of virtue and are plunged with
youthful energy into the ceaseless struggle for
the divine and incorrupt good things yet to come.

THE PSALTIKI
HOLY WEEK ON
MOUNT ATHOS AWARD

Panagia Glykophilousa: 13-c. panel icon (122 x 73.5 cm.)

BY P S A LT I K I , I N C .

T H E P S A LT I K I
H O LY W E E K
ON
MOUNT ATHOS
AWARD

ince 2009 Psaltiki, Inc. is the proud sponsor

of the Holy Week on Mount Athos Award
(www.psaltiki.org/athos/), established to provide the
opportunity for a student of Byzantine Chant to spend
Holy week in a Mount Athos monastery.
The purpose of the Award is to allow students of the
Byzantine chant tradition to come into contact with the
living psaltic heritage in one of its most traditional settings,
the Monastic Republic of Mount Athos. The Award is
geared toward providing access to artistic excellence and
reinvigorating the chant tradition in America, where
most students of this traditional art form do not have the
opportunity to witness the chant in its native liturgical
setting.
The 2011 Recipient: Fr. John E. Afendoulis

P
Psaltiki is a nonprofit
organization, tax
exempt under Section
501(c)(3), based in
Orlando, Florida whose
mission is to provide
educational resources
toward the promotion
and advancement of
Byzantine Chant.
Psaltiki is dedicated to
educating, empowering
and connecting the next
generation of chanters
in America in order to
enhance and cultivate a
spirit of excellence worthy
of this great liturgical
music inheritance.

The Sacred Monastery of Saint Xenophon, Mount Athos

his years hosting monastic community is the Sacred

Monastery of Saint Xenophon. The year 1998 marked
the monasterys first millennium of existence. Tradition
places a certain Hosios Xenophon who was also a senator
on the site as early as the 6th century; however, the

www.psaltiki.org

saltiki is delighted to announce the 2011 recipient,

the newly-ordained Rev. Deacon John Efthymios
Afendoulis. He is a student in his final year of the Masters
of Divinity program at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School
of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Endowed with a keen interest in the chant heritage of
our Church, Fr. John was a double-major at UCLA, where
he studied Ethnomusicology and History (2003) before
enrolling at Holy Cross. He as also conducted independent
research with Prof. Maria Alexandru (Aristotelian
University of Thessalonike).
With Gods help, Fr. John will be spending Holy Week
2011 at the Sacred Monastery of St. Xenophon on Mount
Athos, all expenses paid by Psaltiki, thank to our generous
financial supporters.
Psaltiki also expresses its gratitude to the Geron Abbot Fr.
Alexios and his brotherhood for receiving our recipient.

T H E P S A LT I K I
H O LY W E E K
ON
MOUNT ATHOS
AWARD

Saint Demetrius: 11th-c. mosaic icon (136 x 73 cm.)

T H E P S A LT I K I
H O LY W E E K
ON
MOUNT ATHOS
AWARD

monasterys documented history begins in the 10th century, when

the then abbot of the community, another Xenophon, attains
funding to build the first katholikon (main Church) next to the
existing chapel of St. Demetrius. He dedicated this Church to Saint
George the Great Martyr and trophy-bearer. The Byzantine Emperor
Alexios I Comnenos is the monasterys first benefactor.
Like many of the older monasterys on Athos, the Katholikon is a
monument to 10-century Byzantine Church architecture and art.
The original mosaic floor is still in place, as are the 6th-century
Christian columns and the marble panels of he 11th-century
templum. The iconography and wall frescoes are from the 16th and
17th centuries.
The new, Great Katholikon was built in the 19th century, is
adorned by eight domes and a marble iconostasis sculpted by a
certain Antonios Litra of the Island of Tinos. Housed in the sacred
alter of the Great Katholikon is the famous Xenophon icon of the
Panagia Keharitomene, the beautiful panel icon of the All-holy
Virgin Mary and Theotokos that adorns the front page of this
article.
The present Abbot, the Archimandrite Alexios came to Xenophon
on Athos with a small group of fathers from the Meteora in Central
Greece to assist the then elderly remnant of fathers that had
persisted at the monastery after the Second World War. In those
thirty-some years the brotherhood has continued to grow and is one
of the most vibrant monastic communities on Mount Athos.
The Xenophon brotherhood has a long tradition of dedication and
cultivation with regards to our Psaltic heritage. Only two years after
Abbot Alexios arrived at Xenophontos with his small brotherhood
of 20 fathers from the Meteora, a group of German musicologists
produced an album containing live recordings from the Paschal
vigil. It appeared as an Archiv Produktion in 1979, Easter on Mount
Athos: the celebration of the night before Easter. Since then the
recording has been re-released as a cd with additional tracks from
the Services of the Holy Passion.
Psaltiki is humbled by their participation in our program of psaltic
renewal.
Past Recipients

n the year 2009 the Psaltiki Holy Week on Mount Athos Award
was received by another Holy Cross seminarian, Mr. George

T H E P S A LT I K I
H O LY W E E K
ON
MOUNT ATHOS
AWARD

Livaditis. A native of Corpus Cristi, Texas, at that time he

was in his final year in the Master of Divinity program. He is
presently working at the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek
Orthodox Church in Brooklyn, New York.
He spent Holy Week 2009 (April 11-21)
in the Sacred Monastery of Simonopetra.
The hospitality and Christian agape
shared with George during those most
holy days of the Orthodox liturgical year
left a lasting impression. This is most
evident in his reflections that have been
published in the previous Volume 2 of
the Psaltiki Online Journal (www.psaltiki.
org/journal), Pascha on Simons Rock:
a personal reflection on my Holy Week
experience in an Athonite monastery
(Vol. 2, No. 1. Fall-Winter 2009).
George arrived on the Saturday of
Lazarus and stayed through to Tuesday of
Bright Week. The video below was created
using photos and audio files he brought
back with him!
Click here to see a VIDEO
glimpse of Georges visit to
Mount Athos!
http://youtu.be/yoTDxZsJKqc

Saint George the Great Martyr:

11th-century mosaic icon (136 x 65
cm.)

T H E P S A LT I K I
H O LY W E E K
ON
MOUNT ATHOS
AWARD

The Psaltiki Holy Week on Mount Athos Award

saltiki, Inc. provides transportation to and from the

select Athonite monastery for Holy Week, as well as
securing the invitation from the monastery to the successful
recipient of the Award. Transportation includes air travel
to Thessalonike, Greece from Boston MA, as well as
expenses for transportation from the Thessalonike airport
to Ouranoupolis, the port for Mount Athos. A paid hotel
reservation awaits the recipient there. The next morning the
Diamoneterion (official visa to enter Mount Athos) must
be attained from the Office for Pilgrims and departure on
reserved transportation from Ouranoupolis to Daphne or the
specific monastery commences.
The successful recipient need only obtain a valid passport
for international travel, as well as the necessary paperwork
needed to enter the Monastic Republic of Mount Athos;
details Psaltiki provides. The recipient is also expected
to respect all monastery etiquette and rules during their
visit. Psaltiki also asks they submit an article about their
experiences to be published in the Psaltiki Online Journal.
A Final Word

f course, there is only one more word left to say. Psaltiki

would love to have your help to make this and other
projects a reality.
Financial underwriting was proudly provided by Bold!
technologies for this years Award.
Please keep Psaltiki, Inc. in your prayers and if the good
Lord leads you, visit our Web site and send a tax-deductable
gift today.
Gods blessings, always!

REGARDING SPIRITUAL READING

AND ECCLESIASTICAL CHANT
BY E L D E R P O R P H Y R I U S K A F S O K A LY V I T I S

REGARDING SPIRITUAL
Elder (Geron) Porphyrius was yearsfrom 1940-1970.
READING AND
born in 1906 on the Island of
In the 1970s Elder
E C C L E S I A S T I C A L C H A N T Evia. By the age of fourteen
Porphyrius laid the
the young Porphyriusthen
foundations for a monastery
still known by his baptismal
Church in Milesi, Attica.
name of Evangeloshad
Plagued with illness
dedicated himself to the strict
throughout his life, the Elder
asceticism and prayer as it
eventually returned to the
was practiced at the hermitage Kafsokalyviathe monastery
of Saint George at the Skete
of his repentancebut on one
of the Kafsokalyvia in the
of two visits back to the Milesi
desert at the southern tip of
monastery, on December 2,
Mount Athos.
1991, the Elder Porphyrius
Soon after his arrival at the
reposed in the Lord.
Kafsokalyvia he was tonsured
His counsels to literally
a monk and received the
thousands of faithful who
name Nikitas. At age twentywere blessed to receive his
one he was ordained to the
spiritual guidance have
Holy Priesthood and received
proven to be a treasure of
the name he would become
practical spirituality for the
known by, Porphyrius.
contemporary soul. It seemed
Gifted with the ability to
beneficial to translate into
Geron Porphyrius of the
see prayers and discern souls,
English some of the Elders
Kafsokalyvia is counted
Porphyrius quickly attained a advice regarding spiritual
among the bright lights of the
readings and the ecclesiastical
spiritual firmament of the Greek name for being a charismatic
spiritual father confessor and
chant for the present offering.
Orthodox Church that has
guide. His reputation brought
The excerpts that follow
shown itself in the last century.
many people to him in search
were translated from the
The excerpts that follow were
of spiritual guidance. After a
publication
translated from the publication
number of parishes on Evia,
,

he ended up at the Chapel


of Saint Gerasimos at the
(Crete: Holy Monastery

Polyclinic in Athens, where
Chrysopigi, 2004 & 2008).
(Crete: Holy Monastery
he would remain for thirty
Chrysopigi, 2004 & 2008).
Through spiritual readings your soul will thrive and will be
sanctified without great difficulty

o you want to find joy in your life? Read the

Holy Scripture; go to Church; approach Christ;
love Him. Be attentive at the divine services, orthros,
hours, vespers, compline, etc., because the Saints write
their words. They are holy words, words of adoration
toward Christ and our all-holy Mother of God. I give
great emphasis to these things. Read each word clearly,

REGARDING SPIRITUAL
READING AND
ECCLESIASTICAL CHANT

with meaning, great desire and intimate devotion. If

something makes an impression on you study it again
privately. We write the book within us and we possess
it whenever we need to recall it in order to deepen our
understanding. Study it for a little while and write it
inside yourself. If you love the words they captivate
you. They contain treasures.
When you chant the kanons do not just say the words,
but relish them. In this way you will be sanctified
quickly, without realizing it. And when you read the
Psalter, read each word clearly, one by one. If only I
could hear someone read the Psalter clearly! Oh, I
would sit there in order to not miss a word. That is how
I learned the Psalter, listening in Church. The Gospel,
however, I learned by section, memorizing verse by
verse.
The kanons and troparia contain treasures

received great benefit from reading the Psalter and

the kanons; I learned not only to read, but whatever
advice I give I learned from there. The kanons and
troparia contain treasures. In them we find the ways
of the Saints, how they loved Christ and triumphed
over evil. They have equal value with the books of Saint
Isaac, Saint Ephraim, and the others. Theophanes,
the Damascene and other Saints wrote the kanons to
the Saints. They praised the Saint whose ways they
knew and showed us the means of repentance. The
hymnographers were Saints. They included their own
sentiments.
This is why I say to you, pay attention to the kanons,
the troparia, etc. Give yourself over to them with your
soul. Savor them. Study them. I pray you come to love
them like I did. Really, I never get enough of them; I
relish in recalling them all, reciting them, chanting
them. I received much from the kanons from my
youth. I loved the troparia so much that after hearing
them once or twice I learned them by heart.
But learning them by heart is not the goal. The aim is
to understand them, deepen your understanding and

REGARDING SPIRITUAL
READING AND
ECCLESIASTICAL
CHANT

receive benefit. We study and memorize the kanons of

the Saints, Holy Scripture and the books of the Fathers
not to delude ourselves and be amazed at ourselves,
recounting the number of books we have read and the
number of verses we know by heart, not even in order
to expand our knowledge, but we read them in order to
learn them and put them into practice with the fear of
God.
The Fathers write their texts and troparia with the
Holy Spirit; this is why they create masterpieces. Their
composition is prayer. Each word is engraved, placed
in such a way as not to be unnecessary. Like the builder
who wants to create an edifice, paying attention to
each stone that he will place, watching the lacing of the
wall so it does not fall, the one who writes with prayer
writes in good order, with harmony, because that
harmony exists in his soul. Whoever lives something,
lives it, is intertwined with it and writes it effortlessly.
There is great benefit to whoever reads it, hears it, and
is moved by it.
There is, however, one danger. If we are not careful,
we can hear them or chant them in a routine manner.
We need to say them and hear them. We often hear the
same thing many times and become bored; we grow
tired of them and then comes the reaction. Then we
feel no benefit, no joy. Despair begins and the devil
does not miss the opportunity for evil. For this reason,
give attention to every word. This needs holy ardor,
commitment.
I love the iambic kanons

love the iambic kanons! John of Damascus has very

lofty meanings. What good is culture? Here we
have the Spirit of God. There is one line I really love,
where it says, And now they humbly pray for the
regeneration ( ). I
believe it is in the iambic kanon, in the second verse,
third troparion of the Ninth Ode. Find it now.

REGARDING SPIRITUAL

READING AND

,
ECCLESIASTICAL CHANT

,

, ,
, , .
The people that delights in Christ has attained its
desire,

Being counted worthy of the coming of God,
And now they humbly pray for the regeneration
that gives life.

O undefiled Virgin, grant them the grace,
To worship Christ in His glory.
Listen, so you understand. It is one manner of
doxology, prayer to God. Of old, when something
unpleasant occurred, they would shave their head
and cover it with ash, wept and mourned when
they grieved. Like what happened with David when
he sinned. He did something similar to show his
contrition. We have comparable phenomena in the
New Testament also. In ancient Greece Potnia was
a leader of the Maenad women. Have you heard of
the Maenads? There are the Maenads, Bacchae, and
Eumenides. The Maenads in ancient Greek religion
were ecstatic women in Kithaeron pines and worshiped
Satan in an orgiastic manner. The Potniadae would
bring themselves to a satanic frenzy. The poet uses
these words, but with another meaning. The word
frenzy is used by us Christians also, but with a
completely difference meaning. There is a great
difference. There, in idolatry, it occurs with satanic
energy. Here, with a divine energy. There, Satan
destroys in order to enslave a soul; here, the Grace of
God comes to inspire, to sanctify, and to create a leap
in the soul.

REGARDING SPIRITUAL
READING AND
ECCLESIASTICAL
CHANT

Say the entire troparion:

And they humbly pray for the regenerations that gives
life.
O undefiled Virgin, grant them the grace.
To worship Christ in His glory.

, ,
, , .
Okay, this is very important. It is a manner of prayer,
doxology, and devotion. Others mocking said, these
men are full of wine (Acts 2:13). Did they not say this
about the Lords disciples on the day of Pentecost?
There is another troparion that talks about the
Bacchae, too; find it.
,
,
, .
,
, .
Though hast overthrown by Thine almighty power
The fierce sin that raised its head in wanton pride,
And raged with blasphemy throughout a world gone
mad.
Those whom in times past it dragged down, today
Thou hast delivered from its snares,
O Benefactor, who of Thine own will hast taken flesh.

This one, too, is important like the other, the previous

one. It has another meaning, though. It shows what
the idolaters did with the idols. But the snares it
speaks of has the meaning that Christ delivers man
from the snares of sin, set by Satan. Lets see; is that
how it works? Though hast overthrown by Thine
almighty power, the fierce sin that raised its head in
wanton pride, and raged with blasphemy throughout a
world gone mad. Those whom in times past it dragged
down, today Thou hast delivered from its snares, O

REGARDING SPIRITUAL
READING AND
ECCLESIASTICAL
CHANT

Benefactor, who of Thine own will hast taken flesh.

The snares are the nets. He set them free. They were
caught there, enslaved. They were stuck in the nets.
Today He frees them. Now you have come and freed
those who were before ensnared in the nets by Satan.
Think about how learned Saint John of Damascus
was! He knew about the worship of the idolaters, how
they worshiped their gods. Since when would we know
these details so well?
Music sanctifies man bloodlessly

yzantine music is very beneficial. There should be

no Christian who does not know Byzantine music.
We should all learn. It has a direct relationship with
the soul. Music sanctifies man bloodlessly, without
difficulty. You become a Saint rejoicing.
Harmony exists in mans soul. In our primordial
spiritual state this harmony existed. For this reason
we say some people have charisma. This is because
they are simple and primordial comes out. We were in
harmony, but now we have fallen into disharmony and
we are happy in it. Do you see these pans people play
today? They try to make harmony, but it is hard to call
this harmony. This, of course, has an effect on their
psyche because they are confused by the harmony they
think they hear. They enjoy the disharmony they hear.
Am I saying this right?
We now have the unnatural, the impostor. This is
what man acquired in the forest. The pans agitate
because they cultivate the deceptive. While the other
one, possessing the primordial, authentic harmony
is delighted and gratified in it and displeased by the
falsetto.
Byzantine music is very simple when the soul is
enamored by it. What benefit this harmony is to the
soul! The one who knows music and has humility also
acquires the Grace of God. He may start to anger, to
explode, but he is afraid of the disharmony because all
sinful conditions are not within the score of harmony.
In this way, a little at a time he comes to hate evil and

REGARDING SPIRITUAL
READING AND
ECCLESIASTICAL
CHANT

to embrace virtue, which is harmony. All the virtues

possess harmony. You cannot have anxieties if you have
harmony. You can live in joy. If you see that some dark
cloud is coming on the horizon of your soul, there is
a troparion that says that even this darkness becomes
a hymn to God. The same power that came to disturb
you and would have devoured you is changed; it is as if
you snatch the same power and sanctify it.
There was once one who had a demon, King Saul,
and David would go and chant and the demon would
leave. He would go with the psalterthe psalter was
a musical instrument. When the noonday demon of
melancholy would seize him David would go and play
the psalter and the demon would leave him.
Where are all those seeking treatment for depression?
When they learn Byzantine music and see the dark
cloud coming to overwhelm them, wham!, they chant
a doxastikon and the darkness that comes to overcome
you in spiritual melancholy becomes a hymn to God.
I believe this. I believe it completely. I tell you that
a musician who loves music and who is pious came
transform his difficulty into a musical composition
or a song. In this way, instead of crying and being
suppressed offers a doxology to God. I tell you, this is
how I believe it; this is how I see it. It does not matter
if one is ten years old or fifteen or twenty or even thirty
years old. Everyone has the inclination from within.
We all have it, if only we awaken it; it is enough to love
the art.
When you sing, however, if you do not have the Spirit
of God the temptation of vanity comes and will trip
you up. That joy, that rejoicing that I tell you of does
not come. Jumbles of egotism come instead. Music, this
holy thing, is supposed to pacify and harmonize. You
cannot think of persons with music. You must be in
time, in meter. Many were lost because of music. Many
souls stumbled, became ill from conceit.
Over there in the desert my Elders didnt tell me to
learn music. I wanted to. I didnt learn, though, I was
deprived of that knowledge. It is good to chant in the

REGARDING SPIRITUAL
READING AND
ECCLESIASTICAL
CHANT

desert because you are unaffected. In contrast, when

you go to Church you have the entire congregation on
your mind; you may be looking at the icons, but you
may also be thinking that everyone is listening to you
and your ego grows. The musician can often lose his
concentration and quality of performance; the spirit
of egotism snares him. His mind may wander where it
should not; a lot can happen. But you will say, Should
we shun music because it puts us into temptation? No.
We should learn music to enter into the spirit of Christ.

KANONS IN THE GREAT

COMPLINE
KO N S TA N T I N O S T E R ZO P O U LO S

Whilst hymning thine Offspring, we all praise thee, O Theotokos (23rd Oikos of the Akathistos);
17th-century wall painting in Church of Hagia Kyriake, Paliachora, Aegina Island (Photo is K.
Terzopoulos)

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

rom Monday to Thursday in the first week of the

Great Fast of the Orthodox Church the Great
Kanon of St Andrew of Crete (circa 650-740) found
in the Triodion hymnbook is divided into four parts
chanted in the Great Apodeipnon (Compline),
either directly after the doxology or at the beginning
immediately after Psalm 69. The question is often
raised as to which kanons should be done in the five
weeks of the Great Fast that follow. The following is
a discussion of this liturgical circumstance, offering
historical context to the use of the kanon genre of
hymns in relation to the special veneration reserved
for the Mother of God and Theotokos inherited from
Byzantium.
This point of departure will be utilized in order to
preface some practical matters regarding the liturgical
function of the Compline Services, both Great and
Small. In the process a word on the services theological
interpretation as it has come down to us through the
Churchs mystagogical tradition is offered, a review
of its liturgical rubrics (taxis) and, finally, a pointed
discussion on the diataxis in the ancient typika and
so-called Biolakes Typikon of the Great Church as it
relates the use of kanons in the Compline. The present
contribution concludes with an addendum in the form
of tables listing the kanons to be used in the Great
Compline Service from the second to the sixth week of
the Great Fast for the year 2011, one for the New Style
and one for Old Style calendars.
The Services of the Great and Small Compline: an
historical glimpse

eferences in the New Testament to daily prayer

devotions (Ac. 1:14, 2:42, 6:4; Rom. 12:12; Col. 4:2)
occasionally mention particular times of prayer, such
as midday, (Ac. 10:9), night,
(Ac. 12:5, 12) and midnight, (Ac.
16:25). The Didache1 clearly speaks of prayer three times

1 The also known as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a late

first or early second century Christian text referenced by Eusebius in the fourth
century and recently re-discovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios, Greek

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

No hymn can recount the wealth

of thy great compassion (Oikos
20 of the Akathistos); 17-th c
wall painting from Hagia Kyriake
Church, Paliachora, Aegina Island;
K. Terzopoulos

Orthodox Metropolitan of Nicomedia. Cf. Cyril Charles Richardson et al., Early

Christian fathers (Library of Christian classics; London: SCM Press, 1953) at 167168.
2 Jean-Paul Audet, La didache : instructions des apotres (Etudes bibliques;
Paris: Gabalda, 1958) at 8.3.
3 Paul F. Bradshaw, Early Christian worship : a basic introduction to ideas
and practice (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1996) 96 p. at 70-74.
4 S. Basilius and M. Monica Wagner (Tr.), Ascetical Works, ed. Roy Joseph
Deferrari (The Fathers of the church, a new translation; New York: Catholic
University of America Press, 1999) at 310.
5 Paul F. Bradshaw, Daily prayer in the early church : a study of the origin
and early development of the divine office (Alcuin Club collections; London:
Published for the Alcuin Club by SPCK, 1981) x, 191 p. at 100, 124-25, 130. On
the patristic interpretation and significance of Psalm 90 to the theme of night
protection, see Joannes Chrysostomus, ,
. 90 [In Psalmum xc], in J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae
Cursus Completus (series Graeca) (55; Paris, 1863), 759-762.

Konstantinos Terzopoulos
is a Greek Orthodox Priest
on the Island of Aegina, a
theologian and published
scholar in the fields of
Byzantine Chant and
Liturgy. He is the Executive
Director of Psaltiki, Inc. and
a recipient of the 2011 Music
& Letters Fund award.

a day in chapter 8, section 3:

.2 After St Constantine the Great prayers
in the Churches would be conducted at particular,
designated hours. Even ascetics in the Syrian and
Egyptian deserts around Palestine would develop a
mix of communal offices within the framework of
their ceaseless prayer, according to the ancient Pauline
admonition to pray constantly (1 Thess. 5:17; Rom.
12:12).3
Although uniformity cannot be asserted in either
the east or the west, by the end of the fourth century
psalmody after the evening meal and before sleep can
be attested to in a number of important sources. In his
list of suitable hours for prayer St Basil the Great relates
in The Long Rules (Q. 37.), Again, at nightfall, we must
ask that our rest be sinless and untroubled by dreams.4
Even though the earliest references to this psalmody
before bed comes out of both the urban and Egyptian
monastic traditions, the office would eventually make
its way into the cathedral order. A common trait
not only among the eastern forms, but also in the
west, is the use of the 90th Psalm. The Sixth Hour
usage is possibly associated with verse 6, nor for the
mishap and demon of noonday, and the Compline
usage with verse 5, thou shalt not be afraid for the
terror by night.5 The 90th Psalm was also one of the
three Psalms used in a liturgical relative of the Great
Compline office, the cathedral Pannychis; it was

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

chanted antiphonally with the refrain ,

.6 Other Psalms in the Great Compline also allude
to the night, specifically Psalms 4, 6, 12 and 30:
Be angry, and sin not; feel compunction upon your beds for
what ye say in your hearts. Psalm 4:5
In peace in the same place I shall lay me down and sleep.
Psalm 4:9
I toiled in my groaning; every night I will wash my bed,
with tears will I water my couch. Psalm 6:5
How long shall I take counsel in my soul with grievings in
my heart by day and by night? How long shall mine enemy
be exalted over me? Psalm 12:2
Look upon me, hear me, O Lord my God; enlighten mine
eyes, lest at my time I sleep unto death. Psalm 12:3
Into Thy hands I will commit my spirit. Psalm 30:5

In addition to the psalms, arranged in sets of three,

the Great Complineconsidered to be the more
ancient of the two offices7is also punctuated with
especially beautiful specimens of early and middle
Byzantine psalmody and hymnography. The antiphonal
singing of verses from the Prophet Isaiah (chapters 8
and 9) with the For God is with
us refrain is well known and beloved to the faithful.
Possibly one of the oldest hymns is the
The bodiless nature of the Cherubim, an elevensyllabic poem which has been preserved in a papyrus
from the sixth centuryLondon, British Library
Papyrus No. 1029.8

6 Ioannes M. Phountoules, (2 edn., ; 2;

Thessalonike: [s.n.], 1977) 40 p.
7 Phountoules alludes to origins sometime between the 14th and
15th centuries in Ioannes M. Phountoules, (Thessalonike:
Patriarchal Institute of Patristic Studies, 1971) 390 at 200.
8 Paul Maas, Ein frhbyzantinisches Kirchenlied auf Papyrus,
Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 17 (1908), 307-311 at 307-311, Paul Maas,
Frhbyzantinische Kirchenpoesie: Anonyme Hymnen des V-VI Jahrhunderts

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

The most common names for this office appear as

or . This means, literally,
after dinner. The word compline in English is derived
from the Latin completorium, possibly referring to the
completion of the day. Some manuscripts will also
refer to the office as , which
reveals the services clear correlation with sleep, as
opposed to being a thanksgiving for the evening meal.
As such its character is more of a private devotion and
not always numbered among the seven praises (Ps.
118:164) of daily prayer.9
A Theological Hermeneutic of the Great Compline

n his treatise On Prayer, the last of the great

Byzantine mystagogues, St Symeon Archbishop of
Thessalonike relates the following regarding the office
of Compline.
During Great Lentboth in the large monasteries and
everywhereit is sung separately after Vespers and the
meal, which takes place only once a day. [i] Compline of
Great Lent, which is called Great Compline, is [ii] divided
into three sections as a type of the Holy Trinity and for
the propitiation of our sins [iii] the psalms and prayers
of Compline are penitential and confessional, seeking
forgiveness and propitiation, and for us to pass the night
unmolested and unpolluted by satanic fantasies, and to
arise with zeal and eagerness at the time of the Midnight
Office and Matins.
[iv] The so-called Small Compline is termed so because
it is briefer and one service, not divided into three sections
like the other. It is recited daily, and its psalms are the same
as the main ones of Great Compline. [ii] They are three as a
type of the Holy Trinity. The most holy Creed is also recited
as a confession of piety, and It is worthy because of the
incarnation of the Divine Word and the intercession of the
Mother of God. In accordance with the patristic tradition,

(Bonn: Marcus & E. Webers Verlag, 1910) 32, Leo Schrade, Wulf Arlt, and
Higini Angls, Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen : Gedenkschrift Leo
Schrade (Bern ; Mnchen: Francke, 1973) v.
9 Phountoules, at 199-205, Ioannes M. Phountoules,
: (Thessalonike, 1993) at 155-159.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

after the Creed we invoke the Mother of God and the angels
and saints to intercede with God for us, as we invoke them
in the Great Church, since it is essential in many respects to
invoke those intercessors and helpers who are closer to God
and have freedom of access and power.
After that the prayer of the Trisagion is recited, being the
start, middle, and end of all services, plus Lord, have
mercy forty times, for the sanctification of the hours and
days of our lifeas also according to custom the invocation
of the Mother of God as more honored than the Cherubim
takes place so that she may keep and protect us under the
shadow of her wings [iv] You know that out of penitence
Kanons are sung with Compline in the evenings, as also the
Great Kanon and Kanons of the Theotokos, and the Service
of the Akathistos every Friday eveningboth in the holy
monasteries and by many others.10

Just as St Basil revealed almost ten centuries earlier in

his Long Rules, the Compline offices ancient purpose
can still be detected in the above description: [iii]
sinless and untroubled rest. St Symeons description
offers a distinction between [iv] the Small Compline
for the entire year and [i] the Great Compline reserved
for fast days, especially the Great Fast, [ii] the trifold
Trinitarian structure of each, and, finally, [v] the use
of Kanons. He makes special mention of the Great
Kanon of St Andrew of Crete (8th c.),11 as well as the
Akathistos.12
St Mark of Ephesus (d. 1444) also attests to two
Compline offices, a longer one during the Holy
Fast and a shorter one for the rest of the year. Both,
however, are characterized as the last service of the day,
as we go off to sleep, offering even the rest of our body

10 Archbishop of Thessalonike Symeon, Saint, Treatise on prayer : an

explanation of the services conducted in the Orthodox Church (The Archbishop
Iakovos library of ecclesiastical and historical sources no. 9; Brookline, Mass:
Hellenic College Press, 1984) xi, 104 p at 68-70.
11 Cretensis Archiepiscopus S. Andreas Hierosolymitanus, Magnus Canon,
in J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae cursus completus (series Graeca) (97; Paris, 1863),
1329-1386.
12 C. A. Trypanis, Fourteen early Byzantine cantica (Wiener
byzantinistische Studien; Wien: Bhlau, 1968) at 29-39.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

as prayer to God.13
Byzantine witnesses of Kanon supplication: the
Akathistos, supplications to the Mother of God, and
the Great Kanon

he oldest extant monastic typikon from the year

ad 1131, Messina manuscript gr 115,14 also makes
a distinction between the Compline in the Great Fast
and that for the rest of the year; however, another
special kind of Compline described for use on Friday
nights can also be detected. This unique office used in
place of or in conjunction with the Compline receives
a unique name, , that is, intercession.15 The
other interesting element is the direct rubric stating,
On Friday evening we do not chant apodeipnon in the
Church, but the presbeian, and not only in this Great
Fast, but on all Fridays throughout the year, unless a
feast of the Lord impedes.16 Quite interesting is the
rubric calling for the use of two, unnamed, specific
kanons:
.
, ,
,
. . ,
, .
.
. ,
,
.
,
. , ,
. ,
.17

13 Ephesius Metropolita Marcus Eugenicus,

[Expositio Officii Ecclesiastici], in J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae
cursus completus (series Graeca) (160; Paris, 1863), 1164-1194 at 1185-88.
14 Miguel Arranz, Le Typicon du Monastre du Saint-Saveur
Messine: Codex Messinensis Gr 115, AD 1131. Introduction, texte critique et
notes (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 185; Roma: Pontificium Institutum
Orientalium Studiorum, 1969) li + 449.
15 Ibid., at 210.24-211.27.
16 Ibid., at 210.24-27.
17 Ibid., at 211.18-27.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

The indication for the use of two specifically

dedicated kanons alternating between mode four
and its plagal immediately conjures the thought
that may have reference to the anonymous kanon
of the Small Paraklesis in mode IV plagal,
,18 and the kanon for the feast
of the Annunciation (25 March) in mode IV, the
main feast of the Virgin Mary, used today also for
the Office of the Akathistos and attributed to Joseph
the Hymnographer, .19 A further
similarity includes the Psalm 142
apolytikia supplicatory kanon unit,20 which is
also imitated in the contemporary Paraklesis office
structure. While these speculations are most certainly
anachronistic, the only truly scientific line of inquiry
would have to depend on research in the manuscript
tradition of both typika and hymnographic manuscript
sources of Constantinopolitan providence, which
would be a worthy line of investigation. Nevertheless,
the similarity with the alternating Great and Small
supplicatory kanons of the 15-day August fast period
of the Orthodox Church is a tempting analogy and
points to the possibility of at least an early precedent.21
Another uniting faction is the term (which
means supplication) used for a special service on
Friday of the first week of the Fast in the typikon of the
Evergetis monastery founded in the eleventh century in
Constantinople.22
Although research is lacking in this area and no
salutations to the Mother of God in the Compline are
18 Orthodox Eastern Church, , ed. Bartholomaios
Koutloumousianos Of Imbros (Venice: Hellenikou typographeiou tou Hagiou
Georgiou, 1856) at 408-415.
19 Josephus Hymnographus,
, in J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae cursus completus (series
Greaca) (105; Paris, 1863), 1020-1028.
20 Arranz, Le Typicon du Monastre du Saint-Saveur Messine: Codex
Messinensis Gr 115, AD 1131. Introduction, texte critique et notes at 211.5-15.
21 The fact that the 9th Ode of the Small Paraklesis kanon contains 5
troparia, as does Josephs kanon in all modes is another interesting detail
needing further investigation.
22 Aleksei Dmitrievsky, [Opisanie liturgicheskikh" rukopisei,
khraniashchikhsia v" bibliotekakh" pravoslavnago Vostoka], 3 vols. (I: Typika,
Chast'; Kiev, 1895) at 519.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

referenced in any sabatic typika,23 it seems that these

witnesses may possibly serve as Byzantine precedents
for the present Greek usage on Fridays in the Great
Fast of combining segments of the Akathistos with the
Small Compline.
In the cathedral typikon, also known as the asmatic
office, the place of the Compline Service is taken by
another service referred to as pannychis,24 and whose
especially appropriate prayers have been preserved
in the important 8th-century Barberini gr. 336
euchology.25 St Symeon also refers to its use during the
first week of the Great Fast in his description of the
asmatic office directly quoted above. The oldest extant
complete typikon of the Great Church and its asmatic
office, the 10th-century Holy Cross manuscript No.
40,26 already makes mention of the use of a kanon, the
Great Kanon of St Andrew
according to Mateos, in its
rubric for Monday in the first
week of the Great Fast,27 while
also emphasizing the custom
for the solemn celebration of
the Pannychis at the outset
of the great Fast, unto the
cleansing and remission of
our sins, and that the Lord
our God save from the
coming judgment:

Ruins of the Byzantine Palace of Porphyrogenitus at Blachernae (photo, public domain)

23 Manoles Theodorakes, , (
) [Symbole (inspecio Solemnitatis)], 10/July-September (2005), 10-16 at
15-16.
24 Phountoules, .
25 Orthodox Eastern Church, Stefano Parenti, and Elena Velkovska,
LEucologio Barberini gr. 336 : ff. 1-263 (Bibliotheca Ephemerides liturgicae
Subsidia; Roma: C.L.V.-Edizioni Liturgiche, 1995) xliv, 382 p. at 140-142.
26 J. Mateos, Le typicon de la Grande glise: Ms. Sante-Croix, no. 40,
Xe sicle. Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes, 2 vols. (Orientalia
Christiana Analecta 165-6; Rome, 1962-63).
27 Ibid., at II 10.14-18.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

,

.28

While the 10th-century typikon of the Great Church

makes no mention of a special Friday evening
supplication to the Mother of God, the diataxis for
Saturday after mid-week gives us a glimpse as to
how the veneration of the Virgin Mary looked in
Constantinople. In the 10th century that which we now
recognize as the Vigil of the Akathistos was celebrated
by the patriarch at Blachernae, not Hagia Sophia.
This is because the veneration of the Theotokos in
Constantinople was especially stational in character.29
While reminiscences of the famous Jerusalem
processions as described by Egeria30 in the fourth
century may be operative J.F. Baldovin warns it would
be a mistake to attempt too direct a line of origin for
the Constantinopolitan practice.31 In order to fully
appreciate this devotion to the Mother of God as it has
come down to us through the Churchs liturgical life a
historical parenthesis can be helpful at this point.
In his Constantinople as Theotokoupolis,32 C.
Mango traces the development of the City from
Christoupolis, as characterized by the 4th-century
Church historian Sozomen,33 to Theotokoupolis by
Theodore Synkellos34 in the seventh century. In the

28 Ibid., at II.14.
29 For a discussion of the routes taken through the City see Albrecht
Berger, Imperial and Ecclesiastical Processions in Constantinople, in Nevra
Necipoglu (ed.), Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography, and
Everyday Life. Papers from the International Workshop held at Bogazii
University, Istanbul, 7-10 April 1999 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2001) at 73-86.
30 Egeria and John Wilkinson, Egerias travels (3rd edn.; Warminster: Aris
and Phillips, 1999).
31 John F. Baldovin, The urban character of Christian worship : the origins,
development, and meaning of stational liturgy (Orientalia Christiana analecta;
Roma: Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1987) 319 p. at 210.
32 Cyril Mango, Constantinople as Theotokoupolis, in Maria Vasilaki
(ed.), Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art (Athens and
Milan: Benaki Museum, 2000), 17-26.
33 Salminius Hermias Sozomenus, Ecclesiastica Historia, in J.-P. Migne
(ed.), Patrologiae cursus completus (series Graeca) (67; Paris, 1863), 940A-B.
34 Graeco-Latini Patres and Franois Combefis, Grcolat. patrum
bibliothec novum auctarium (oper F. Combefis). Tomus duplex (Paris, 1648),
John Wortley, The Oration of Theodore Syncellus (BHG 1059) and the siege of

year AD 425 the Notitia urbis Constiantinopolitanae35

lists twelve churches in Constantinople, none of
which are dedicated to the Mother of
God. While the process seems to begin
with appearances and miracles by the
Theotokos, such as at the Anastasia
Church where St Gregory the Theologian
preached, the first church recorded as
dedicated to the Mother of God well
may be the Theotokos Kyrou, built by
the late fifth century; according to his
Synaxarion this is the very church where
St Romanos Melodos received his gift of
poetry from the Virgin herself!36
The tipping point bringing the
veneration of the Theotokos into
the mainstream of worship life in
Constantinopleespecially following
and in conjunction with the Councils
of Ephesus and Chalcedonwas the
commissioning and building of three
very important churches, according
to tradition, by the Empress Pulcheria
(d. 453) and completed by Leo I
(emperor from 457 to 474) and Verina,
Medieval Map of Constantinople by Cristoforo Buondelmonti,
published in Liber insularum archipelagi (1422)
specifically the churches of Blachernae,37
Chalkoprateia and, the Hodegoi.38 Each of these three
churches are also uniquely related with particular
relics of the Virgin Mary:39 the Blachernae with the
KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

860, Byzantine Studies/tudes byzantines, 4 (1977), 111-126.

35 Otto Seeck, Notitia dignitatum : accedunt notitia urbis
Constantinopolitanae et Laterculi provinciarum (Berolini: Weidmann, 1876) at
229-43.
36 Orthodox Eastern Church et al., Synaxarium ecclesiae
Constantinopolitanae e codice Sirmondiano nunc Berolinensi: Synaxarium
mensis Octobris (62; Bruxellis: Apud Socios Bollandianos, 1902) at 3.5-13.
37 Cyril Mango, The Origins of the Blachernae Shrine at Constantinople,
Actes du XIIIe Congrs international dArchologie chrtienne, II (1998), 61-76.
38 Christine Angelidi, Un texte patriographique et difiant: Le Discours
narratif sur les Hodgoi, Revue des tudes byzantines, 52 (1994), 113-149.
39 John Wortley, The Marian Relics at Constantinople, Greek, Roman, and
Byzantine Studies, 45 (2005), 171-187.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

maphorion,40 the Chalkoprateia with the zone41 and

the Hodegoi with the icon attributed to the Evangelist
Luke and later known as the Hodegetria. All three
Marian relics continue to occupy special places in the
Orthodox liturgical calendar today. July 2nd is the
commemoration of the Deposition of the Maphorion
in the Blachernae. July 31st is the commemoration the
Deposition of the Zone in the Church of Chalkoprateia
at the end of the month of August, which Andronikos
II Palaiologos officially dedicated to the veneration
and supplication of the Theometor.42 In the August
liturgical supplications observed today in the Orthodox
Church with the office of the Paraklesis leading up to
the feast of the Dormition (15 August) the icon of the
Hodegetria is commemorated daily in the following
beloved megalynarion hymn (mode IV plagal):

40 Norman Hepburn Baynes, The Finding of the Virgins Robe, Byzantine

Studies and Other Essays (London: University of London, Athlone Press,
1955), 240-7, Maurice Geerard et al., Clavis Patrum Graecorum : qua optimae
quaeque scriptorum patrum Graecorum recensiones a primaevis saeculis usque
ad octavum commode recluduntur, 6 vols. (Corpus Christianorum; Turnhout:
Brepols, 1974) at 1048, 1058, 1058a, and 1068e, Joannes Damascenus, Homilia II
in Dormitionem B.V. Mariae, in J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae cursus completus
(series Graeca) (96; Paris, 1863), 721-753 at 748-753.
41 Basilii Porphyrogeniti, Menologium Graecorum Basilii Imp. Jussu
Editum, in J.-P. Migne (ed.), ibid.(117) at 613.
42 Christine Angelidi and Titos Papamastorakis, Picturing the spiritual
protector: from Blachernitissa to Hodegetria, in Maria Vassilaki (ed.), Images
of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium (Aldershot
and Burlington: Ashgate, 2005), 209-224 at 383-5, Maria Vasilaki and Benaki
Mouseio, Images of the Mother of God: perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium
(Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub., 2005) xxxii, 383 p.,
24 p. of plates at 216.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

,
,
,
,
,
,
.
Speechless be the lips of the impious,
who refuse to reverence
thy revered icon,
which is known by the name Directress
and which hath been depicted
for us by the Apostle
Luke the Evangelist.

Of these three oldest and major

Constantinopolitan Churches dedicated to the
Mother of God the Blachernae was regarded
as the head, the metropolis, the Virgins most
divine dwelling.43 Built on the site of an older
holy bath (louma), the presence of the Mother of
God at Blachernae would come to be intricately
Whilst hymning thine Offspring, we all praise thee,
associated with the protection of the City during
O Theotokos (23rd Oikos of the Akathistos); detail of
17th-century wall painting in Church of Hagia Kyriake, the ad 625-626 Avar siege. The anonymous
Paliachora, Aegina Island (Photo is K. Terzopoulos)
Chronicon paschale will associate the area of the
Blachernae with the appearance of the Virgin
Mary seen by Avar Chagan44 and bring substance to
the recognition of the Mother of God as systrategos to
the Emperor ,45 46
and .47 In addition to the maphorion

43 Theodore Synkellos, In Depositionem Pretiose Vestis, in F. Combefis

(ed.), Historia hresis Monothelitarum, Sanctque in eam sext synodi actorum
vindici. : Diuersorum item antiqua, ac medii ui, tum histori sacr, tum
dogmatica, Grca opuscula. Accedit Manuelis Palologi in laudem defuncti
Theodori fratris dicta Oratio, qu pleraque Occidentis Grcorum Imperij
tractantur, ac consurgentisque Osmanici : ut et duplici adiunct deliberatiua
Demetrij Cydonij (Paris: Sumptibus Antonij Bertier, vi Iacob, 1648) at 774.
44 L. Dindorf, Chronicon paschale (Corpus scriptorum historiae
Byzantinae, 1; Bonn: Weber, 1832) at 725.10-11.
45 Arranz, Le Typicon du Monastre du Saint-Saveur Messine: Codex
Messinensis Gr 115, AD 1131. Introduction, texte critique et notes at 211.11.
46 Trypanis, Fourteen early Byzantine cantica at Oikos 23, verse 13 of the
Akathistos.
47 Romanus, Paul Maas, and C. A. Trypanis, Sancti Romani melodi cantica:

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

brought from Palestine, as described in the Galbius

and Candidus Legend, eleventh-century evidence
tells of two important panel icons in the sanctuary of
the Blachernae church. Joannes Skylitzes48 writes of a
panel icon of the Virgin of the Nikopoios type, while
the panel icon captured by John Tzimiskes in his 971
Bulgarian campaign is depicted in sources as an icon of
the Virgin Eleousa type, dubbed Blachernitissa.49
By the middle Byzantine period the list of shrines and
monasteries dedicated the Mother of God give a vivid
picture of the truly omnipresent and integral place the
Virgin Mary had in Byzantium, names like Eleousa,
Gorgoypikoos, Kyriotissa, Kyrou, Psychosostria,
Cecharitomene, Therapeuotissa, Pantanassa, Pege,
Peribleptos, and so many more.
This devotion to the Mother of God in
Constantinople would not be relegated to the confines
of the Church buildings, but would often spill out into
the streets in the form of a procession, or litania. We
learn from the 12th-century Typikon of Emperor John
II Komnenos for the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator
in Constantinople that he provided for the Hodegetria
icon to be present at the royal memorials each year.50
We know of at least three regularly occurring
weekly processions with wonder-working icons of the
Theotokos: the Tuesday procession from the Monastery
of the Hodegoi, the Monday procession from
Chalkoprateia with the zone, and the Friday procession
from Blachernae.
A 15th-century narrative discourse or Logos
cantica genuina (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963) at Oikos 23, verse 6 of the
Nativity Kontakion.
48 Joannes Scylitzes, Ioannis Scylitzae synopsis historiarum, ed. Corpus
Fontium Historiae Byzantinae (Series Berolinensis; Berlin: De Gruyter, 1973),
Joannes Scylitzes and John Wortley (Trans.), John Scylitzes, a synopsis of
histories (811-1057 A.D.): a provisional translation (Manitoba: Centre for Hellenic
Civilization, 2000).
49 Angelidi and Papamastorakis, Picturing the spiritual protector: from
Blachernitissa to Hodegetria.
50 John Philip Thomas, Angela Constantinides Hero, and Giles Constable,
Byzantine monastic foundation documents: a complete translation of the
surviving founders typika and testaments, 5 vols. (Dumbarton Oaks studies;
Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2000) at
Vol. 2, p. 756.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

diegematikos recently located at the Athos, Vatopedi

monastery by Criton Chryssochoides and published
by Christine Angelidi51 is an important source for
understanding the Hodegon monastery, the Hodegetria
icon tradition and the weekly Tuesday litania.52 The
name of the monastery, Hodegon, is initially connected
with the miraculous guiding of the blind to a holy
spring where many regained their sight. Eventually the
term would be transferred to the icon, which took the
name from the monastery where it was housed.
A number of sources preserve for us some details as
to how these litaniai looked. One important source
is the Life of St Thomas53 which relates how miracles
occurred along the routes the processions took and
how the icon would process from early morning before
reaching a different Church each time where Liturgy
was celebrated before returning again to the monastery.
An 11th-century British travel account relates how an
exceeding multitude of men and women walking in
from of and behind it, singing praises to the Theotokos
and carrying burning candles in their hands women
dressed in silk clothes, singing religious chants behind
the icon of the Theotokos, like maids after their
mistress. And next to the voice of the Psalmist, youths
and virgins, old and young men, give praise to the
name of God who became incarnated in the Virgin for
our sake.54
Accounts left by Russian travelers to Constantinople

51 Angelidi, Un texte patriographique et difiant: Le Discours narratif

sur les Hodgoi, (Revue des tudes byzantines 52; 1994) at 113-149.
52 Michele Bacci, The legacy of the Hedegetria: holy icons and legends
between east and west, in Maria Vassilaki (ed.), Images of the Mother of
God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium (Aldershot and Burlington:
Ashgate, 2005), 321-336, Berger, Imperial and Ecclesiastical Processions in
Constantinople, Bissera V. Pentcheva, The activated icon: the Hodegetria
procession and Marys Eisodos, in Maria Vassilaki (ed.), Images of the Mother
of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium (Aldershot and Burlington:
Ashgate, 2005), 195-208, Bissera V. Pentcheva, Icons and Power: The Mother of
God in Byzantium (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006).
53 Paul Halsall, Life of St. Thomas of Lesbos, in Alice-Mary Talbot (ed.),
Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints in English Translation (Washington,
D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996), 291-322 at 311312.
54 Ciggaar, Une description de Constantinople traduite par un plerin
anglais, Revue des tudes byzantines, 34 (1995), 211-267.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

in the 14th and 15th centuries55 reveal a situation where

the veneration of the Mother of God and all-holy
Virgin was spread out throughout the week all over the
City and all year long. Take, for instance, the following
vivid example from the Wanderer of Stephen of
Novgorod, probably describing a trip made in the year
1348 or 1349 that describes a weekly procession at the
Hodegetria monastery.
Not far from there [the Panachrantos monastery] is the
Pantanasse Monastery where the Lords Passion relics
are; they are sealed just as the Lords Passion relics at St.
George are. They are divided in two. Since it was Tuesday
we went from there to the procession of the icon of the
holy Mother of God. Luke the Evangelist painted this icon
while looking at [Our] Lady the Virgin Mother of God
herself while she was still alive. They bring this icon out
every Tuesday. It is quite wonderful to see. All the people
from the city congregate. The icon is very large and highly
ornamented, and they sing a very beautiful chant in front
of it, while all the people cry out with tears, Kyrie eleison.
They place [the icon] on the shoulders of one man, who is
standing upright, and he stretches out his arms as if [being]
crucified, and then they bind up his eyes. It is terrible to see
how it pushes him about, for he does not understand where
the icon is taking him. Then another takes over the same
way, and then a third and a fourth take over that way, and
they sing a long chant with the canonarchs while the people
cry with tears, Lord, have mercy. Two deacons carry the
ripidia [liturgical fans] in front of the icon, and others the
canopy. A marvelous sight: [it takes] seven or eight people
to lay [something] on the shoulders of one man, and by
Gods will he walks as if unburdened.56

After the Hodegetria icon, possibly one of the most

well known Byzantine icons of the Virgin Mary
is the one that was enshrined at Blachernae the
Blachernitissa. This is where the holy soros, relics
of the Virgins robe and girdle were housed since
the fifth century (liturgically commemorated on 2

55 George P. Majeska, Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth

and Fifteenth Centuries (Dumbarton Oaks Studies; Washington, D.C.:
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1984).
56 Ibid., at 36.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

July), the same relic now housed at the Vatopedi

Monastery on Mount Athos, complete with the gold
thread added by the empress Pulcheria. At least up
to the Latin occupation in 1204 we read of a special
procession that occurred each Friday throughout the
year and culminating with an evening vigil, where
a veil covering the icon lifted miraculously, and was
eventually termed the synethes thauma (the usual
miracle). This vivid tradition of Marian devotion is
firmly established by the end of the sixth century.57 It
is at this Church that Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ
would receive his vision of the Virgin. This is also
the Church intimately connected with the Akathistos
Hymn.58
Even until its last moments the City would be
placing its hope in the Mother of God, as is reflected
in Michael Critobulus description of the desperate
procession made by the people of Constantinople just
days before the City fell in 1458.59 My purpose here,
however, is not to give a full account of the veneration
of the Virgin Mary in Byzantium,60 but to underline
the fact that there is a venerable continuity with the
past that can still be discerned in our present liturgical
order.
To summarize, the services of the monastic Great and
Small Compline, as well as the cathedral Pannychis
come down to us as a venerable ancient tradition,
complete with their psalmic and hymnographic
elements. In need of further investigation is the
historical development of the hymnbook known as the
Theotokarion.61 This book contains kanons dedicated

57 Pentcheva, Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium at 146-163.

58 Leena Mari Peltomaa, The image of the virgin Mary in the Akathistos
hymn (The Medieval Mediterranean; v. 35; Leiden ;Boston: Brill, 2001).
59 Kritovoulos and Diether Reinsch, Critobuli Imbriotae Historiae (Corpus
fontium historiae Byzantinae; Berolini: W. de Gruyter, 1983) 114*, 266 p., 7 p. of
plates at . . 48, p. 58.9-59.5.
60 For recent scholarship on the subject see Vasiliki Limberis and Orthodox
Eastern Church., Divine Heiress : the Virgin Mary and the creation of Christian
Constantinople (London: Routledge, 1994), Pentcheva, Icons and Power: The
Mother of God in Byzantium.
61 Agapius Monachus, (Venice:
Nikolaos Glykys of Joannina, 1815), Nikodemus Monachus,

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

directly to the Mother of God from hymnographers

stretching from as early as the 8th century and the
likes of St Andrew of Crete and Theodore the Studite.
Organized by mode, it supplies one kanon and a set of
stichera for each day of the week in each of the eight
Byzantine chant modes. In the monastic tradition
these kanons are used in the Vespers or Compline
daily, whenever the commemoration of a celebrated
Saint does not conflict. The tradition of the creation
of similar eight-mode sets of kanons dedicated to
the Theotokos, a particular Saint or liturgical feast
has continued to today. Further scholarly attention is
needed, though, in order to bridge the gap between
present practice and the Byzantine witnesses for
the use of kanons dedicated to the Mother of God.
Nevertheless, we can now return to our topic of the
Compline and its structure as reflected in the received
tradition.

The received tradition:

Small and Great Compline62

wo Compline Services that have been handed down

to the present day and are in universal practice
throughout the Orthodox Church, the Small Compline

, ed. G.
Mousaios (Constantinople: Patriarchal Press, 1849).
62 Georgios Biolakes,
(Constantinople: Patriarchal Press, 1888) xviii+492, Sacred Monastery Of
Dionysiou, Saint,
(Hagion Oros: Sacred Monastery of Saint Dionysios, 2004), Protopsaltes
Konstantinos Byzantios, (1st edn.; Constantinople:
Adelphon Ignatiadon, 1838), Protopsaltes Konstantinos Byzantios,
(2nd edn.; Constantinople: The Patriarchal Press, 1851),
Orthodox Eastern Church and Antonio Pinelli, [To paron Typikon.] ([Tetypotai.
Enetiesin]: [Para Antonio to Pinello, analomasi men, tois autou. Epimeleia de
polle, kai epidiorthosei, emou neophytou Hierodiakonou, tou panierotatou
Metropolitou Philadelpheias.], 1615) 142, [2] leaves, Stavropegic Monastery
of Panagia Tatarnes, Sacred and Archimandrite Dositheos,
(Granitsa: Sacred
Stavropegic Monastery of PanagiaTatarnes Eurytanias, n.d. [2010]), Georgios
Regas, (Liturgica Vlatadon, 1; Thessalonike: Patriarchal Institute for
Patristic Studies, 1994), Hosios Sabbas,
(En tais kleinais
Benetiais: Typithen para Iann Petro ti Pinelli analomasi tois autou, para de
Theophylaktou Hieromonachou tou Tzanphournarou, epimelos diorththen,
1643).

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

and the Great Compline. The order of service is found

in the Horologion, or Book of Hours, following the
Service for Vespers. Either the Small or Great Compline
is said each day, save the week of New Creation, when
a special Paschal service is used that replaces the
Compline as well as the Midnight Service, the Hours
and the Typika Offices.
In general, on the days when we chant God is the Lord
in the Orthros the Small Compline is used and on days
when Alleluia is chanted in the Orthros instead of God
is the Lord the Great Compline is used. However, even
if the Alleluia is to be chanted in the Saturday Orthros
the Small Compline is still used on Friday evenings, as
also referenced in the 12th-century Messina typikon
cited above.63 The other two exceptions are Holy
Thursday and Holy Friday, when the Small Compline is
used.
It is the tradition in the monasteries to read the
Compline in the narthex. Only the Great Compline for
Monday through Thursday of the Great Fast is chanted
in the Church. Outside of the Great Fast the Great
Compline is read chyma and not chanted. This is not
the place to enumerate all the variations concerning
the diataxis for Compline, but there are still a couple
important points that need to be put forth.
With regards to the God is the Lord and Alleluia
in the Service of Orthros, it must be kept in mind
that the Sabaitic typikon appoints Alleluia in the
Orthros for Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the
weeks during the fasts of the Nativity and the Holy
Apostles.64 It should also be mentioned here that the
Great Compline is used in the semi-vigils for the feasts
of the Nativity of Christ (Dec. 25), Lights (Jan. 6)
and the Annunciation (March 25), but only up to the

63 Arranz, Le Typicon du Monastre du Saint-Saveur Messine: Codex

Messinensis Gr 115, AD 1131. Introduction, texte critique et notes at 205-207.
64 Although this is no longer universally practiced, it is not uncommon to
still observe the use of the Mid-hours and Great Compline during these fasts,
especially in the holy monasteries, even though they may not be observing
the other full Lenten elements in the Orthros and Vespers. This is mentioned
to avoid confusion if one were to come across the use of the Great Compline
outside of the Great Fast.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

doxology. From that point the Lite is chanted and the

rest of the Compline is abandoned. Finally, when the
Small Compline is used at the beginning of a vigil the
24 oikoi of the Akathistos, as well as the prayers And
grant, O Master, the prayer to the guardian Angel and
the Theotokos Virgin rejoice, and the censing are all
abandoned.
That said we may now proceed to a discussion of the
use of kanons in the Compline.
Kanons in both Compline Services
The Kanon

he Kanon is a liturgical hymn type may have

appeared as early as the 7th century. The names
of Saints Andrew of Crete (circa 660 - circa 740)
and Germanus (circa 634 - circa 733) Patriarch of
Constantinople are most closely associated with the
kanons origin, while eighth-century Jerusalem is
considered home to some of its most prominent poets,
especially Saints John of Damascus and Kosmas.65
Their liturgical context is that of the Orthros Service.
Both their thematic and practical applications relate
to the Biblical Canticles, referred to as Odes in
Greek.66 As such, they came to form the second part
of the morning Orthros Service, snuggled between
the distributed reading of the Psalter and the Praises,
slowly pushing out the Kontakion hymn form to the
point we find it todaydown to the Koukoulion and,
normally, only the first Oikos.67

65 Christian Hannick, The Performance of the Kanon in Thessalonike

in the 14th Century, Studies In Eastern Chant, V/New York (1990), 137-52,
Andreas Phytrakes, (Athens, 1957), Nikolaos B.
Tomadakes, (Thessalonike: P. Pournaras,
1993), Milos Velimirovic, The Byzantine heirmos and heirmologion, in
Leo Schrade, Wulf Arlt, and Higini Angls (eds.), Gattungen der Musik in
Einzeldarstellungen : Gedenkschrift Leo Schrade (Bern ; Mnchen: Francke,
1973), 192-244, Egon Wellesz, A history of Byzantine music and hymnography
(2nd edn.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980) xiii, 461 p., 7, [1] p. of plates.
66 For general surveys of the kanon hymn form, see Hannick, The
Performance of the Kanon in Thessalonike in the 14th Century, (, Phytrakes,
at 45-63, Tomadakes,
at 128-249, Velimirovic, The Byzantine heirmos and heirmologion,
Wellesz, A history of Byzantine music and hymnography at 198-246.
67 J. Mateos, Quelques problmes de lorthros byzantin, Proche-Orient

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

The vigorous growth of the saint commemorations

in the Hagiologion (Sanctorale) between the eighth and
tenth centuries68 was a catalyst for a parallel flourishing
of the kanon hymnographical genre. Of course, this
multiplication of commemorations was highly local,
making older liturgical commemorations more easily
displaced by commemorations of new, local Saints.
This type of liturgical phenomenon is no stranger to
comparative liturgical study. In fact, there exists what
is called a heuristic liturgical rule, dubbed by Anton
Baumstark the Law of Organic Development.69 This
liturgical observation examines how older liturgical
elements are not first completely replaced by newer
ones, but exist side by side. Then gradually, depending
on the importance of the older liturgical element
the newer one may eventually completely eclipse the
more ancient one; however, when the ancient element
is of a higher, more exalted or holier seasonfor
instance, Great Week or the feast of Paschathen the
more ancient elements take precedence. To use Prof.
Baumstarks own words, primitive conditions are
maintained with greater tenacity in the more sacred
seasons of the Liturgical Year.70
There are many examples of these heuristic principles
that would be familiar to the reader. One is the fact
that the Old Testament Canticles are basically ignored
throughout the year in the parishes up to the time of
the Great Fast when they reappear, albeit normally
disconnected from the kanons.71

Chrtien, XI (1961), 212-5, For a discussion of recent liturgical research on the

Orthros, see, J. Mateos, The origin of the divine office, Worship, 41 (1967), 47785, Robert F. Taft, The liturgy of the hours in East and West: the origins of the
divine office and its meaning for today (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1986)
xvii, 421.
68 Nole M. Denis-Boulet, The Christian calendar (Faith and fact books;
London: Burns & Oates, 1960) 125 p. at Chapter VII, Thomas J. Talley, The
origins of the liturgical year (2nd, emended edn.; New York: Pueblo Pub. Co,
1991) xii, 255 p.
69 Anton Baumstark, Bernard Botte, and F. L. Cross, Comparative liturgy
(Westminster and Maryland: The Newman Press, 1958) at 23-30.
70 Ibid., at 27.
71 It should be noted that in the sacred monasteries the Canticles are still
chanted as verses to the Kanons daily and only displaced when called for by the
Typikon, i.e. on the Great Feasts.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

Kanons in the Compline

he use of kanons in the Compline is concisely

summarized in the Kanonarion or liturgical
diataxis for the daily offices found at the beginning of
the Church of Greeces Diptychs for the year 2011:
The Small Compline is read in the narthex every evening
of the year as found in the Horologion (except during the
days of the Great Fast, when the Great Compline is said,
and except for the Week of New Creation, when the special
Paschal service is used). Small dismissal. It is also possible
to chant or read abandoned kanons from the Menaion
or even kanons from the Theotokarion in the Compline,
especially in the sacred monasteries.72

The second part of this diataxis reveals how kanons

are used throughout the year in the Compline.
There are many times when the Services of Saint
commemorations found in the Menaion are
displaced due to either higher or newer feasts or
commemorations. Two common examples are Saint
commemorations that occur on the leave-taking of
a Great Feast and the Service for Saint Cassian the
Roman; his commemoration set for February 29th
can only be celebrated on that day during leap years.
Therefore, his service is either combined with that of
February 28th, as directed in the Menaion, or read in
the Compline.73
Another reason for the displacement of a Saints
Akolouthia is what I will call the traffic jam that
results from the special feasts of the TriodionPentecostarion cycle or the panegyric celebration of
some local Saint or commemoration for which a new
Service has been written. Again, in these instances the
abandoned Akolouthia from the Menaion (kanons
and stichera) are read in the Compline the day before
or as the president assigns. This practice is evident
throughout the year in the Konstantinos Byzantios and

72 Orthodox Eastern Church, 2011, ed.

D. Bilales (Athens: Apostolike Diakonia, 2010b) at 35-36.
73 The Konstantinos Byzantios and Georgios Violakes typika specifically
relegate Saint Services to the Compline on a number of instances; see 9 and 13
September for just two such examples.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

Georgios Biolakes Typika, which constitute the in-force

ecclesiastical order for the Greek Churches today.74
Rubrics in the published Greek Triodia make no
mention of the Friday evening Salutations to the
Virgin Mary, as it is practiced in the Greek parishes
worldwide today on Fridays of the Great Fast; possible
Byzantine precedents to this practice have already been
touched upon above. Instead, we read the Sinaitic order
which states, the Service of the Menaion for Saturday
and Sunday are chanted in the Apodeipnon or when
the Ekklesiastikos determines (after the Prophecy for
the Sixth Hour; Friday in the First Week of the Fast).
Chapter 31 of the Sinai typika75 contain the full
rubrics for the Apodeipnon during the entire period
of the Great Fast. There one can find the specific
rubrics calling for the Service of Saturdays Saint from
the Menaion at the Friday evening Compline and
the Service for Sundays Saint from the Menaion at
the Sunday evening Compline. In addition to this, it
also called for another Compline to take place at the
Cemetery on Friday evening, where the kanons of the
dead from the Mode of the Week are used.
During the Paschal period the tri- and tetra-ode
kanons of Joseph the Hymnographer have been
displaced from their earlier place in the daily orthros to
either the Vespers or Compline offices.76
All of the above, however, basically refers to the Small
Compline. The Great Compline, which is chanted from
Monday to Thursday evening in the Great Fast has an
order all its own when it comes to kanons.

74 Biolakes, , Konstantinos
Byzantios, , Konstantinos Byzantios,
, Konstantinos Terzopoulos, The Protheoria of the Biolakes
Typikon; translation, introduction, and annotations (Rollinsford NH: Orthodox
Research Institute, in press).
75 Dionysiou, ,
Orthodox Eastern Church and Pinelli, [To paron Typikon.], Panagia Tatarnes
and Archimandrite Dositheos,
, Sabbas,
.
76 Stavropegic Monastery of Panagia Tatarnes, Sacred and Archimandrite
Dositheos, (Athens: Sacred
Stavropegic Monastery of Panagia Tatarnes, 1995) at 13-22.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

Kanons used in the Great Compline during in the Great Fast

arlier in this paper it was observed how kanon

usage had already appeared in the Great Church
by the 10th century in conjunction with the Compline
for the weekdays during the Great Fast.77 Today, the
common usage for both the sacred monasteries and
parish is as follows. During the first week of the Fast
the Great Kanon of Saint Andrew of Crete is used,
distributed into four parts. Also unique to the first week
of the Fast is the use of Psalm 69 at the very beginning
of the Great Compline; its normal place is at the outset
of the final psalmic section. The ancient typika, as
well as many older Horologia call for the chanting
of the kanon immediately after this first reading of
Psalm 69. Once the kanon is completed the Great
Compline continues with Psalm 4 and all the rest. The
contemporary parish practice places the kanon after
the Doxology at the very end of the psalmic portion of
the Service, even though it retains the double reading
of Psalm 69 at the beginning and later on.78 While this
minor discrepancy may not be widely known, the use
of the Great Kanon during the first week universal.
The rubrics for the rest of the Great Fast, however, is
relegated to a footnote on the First Sunday of the Great
Fast at the end of the rubrics for the Katanyktikon
Vespers in the authoritative Biolakes Typikon.79
23., On the Great Apodeipnon, footnote 17 reads:

,

.

Today this rubric is combined with another, older one

found in chapter 32 of the Typikon of St Sabas:

77 Mateos, Le typicon de la Grande glise: Ms. Sante-Croix, no. 40, Xe sicle.

Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes at II.10.
78 Biolakes, at 347,
Konstantinos Byzantios, at 159, Konstantinos
Byzantios, at 250.
79 Biolakes, .

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

No hymn can recount the wealth

of thy great compassion (Oikos
20 of the Akathistos); 17-th c
wall painting from Hagia Kyriake
Church, Paliachora, Aegina Island;
K. Terzopoulos

,
. , .
.
, .80

While the Biolakes Typikon makes no mention of

anything other than the kanons of the Theotokarion,
the two Konstantinos Byzantios typika81 mention the
use of kanons from the Menaion or Theotokion in
the compline beginning on the evening of the First
Sunday of the Great Fast. The use of the kanons from
the Theotokarion during the Great Fast in the parishes
is actually another example of Baumstarks Law of
organic development already mentioned above. In the
monasteries the Theotokarion is used throughout the
year whenever Great Vespers is not celebrated.
To recap, beginning on the evening of the First
Sunday of the Great Fast, the kanons used in the
Compline are normally two. The first from the
hymnbook known as the Theotokarion and the second
from the Menaia Akolouthiai of the Saints whose
commemorations will fall from the Saturday of Lazarus
to the New Sunday of Thomas.
The kanons in the Theotokarion are organized by
mode and day, usually beginning with Saturday
evening of Mode I and ending with Friday evening
of Mode IV plagal. After the 3rd Ode of the kanons
the kathisma troparion is taken from the Menaion
and after the 6th Ode the kathisma troparion is used
from the kanon of the Theotokarion. Once the kanons
are finished the stichera prosomoia for the Theotokos
are added from the kanon in the Theotokarion and
from the stichera prosomoia appointed for the ,
for the Saint of the Menaion. In this context
of kanon use verses are usually applied, Most-holy

80 Panagia Tatarnes and Archimandrite Dositheos,

at 347.
81 Konstantinos Byzantios, at 164, Konstantinos
Byzantios, at 256.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

Theotokos, save us for the kanons of the Theotokos and

appropriate verses to the Saint or Saints of the Menaion
kanons, i.e. Saint(s) of God intercede on our behalf.
The Appendium for this paper contains detailed
tables reflecting the rubrics published in 2011 by the
Church of Greece82 and the St John of Krondstandt
Press83 for comparative purposes.
This displacement of the services for the Saints is
really no different from that prescribed for those falling
on Wednesdays and Fridays of the Christmas fast or
the displacement of celebrated Saints to Saturday or
Sunday during the Great Fast, as has been long the
case for Saints Gregory Palamas, Joannes Climacus
and Mary of Egypt. While keeping festal and fasting
seasons in perspective, Orthodox liturgical piety as
expressed in the Churchs venerable typikon tradition
has a wonderful way of keeping the memories of Gods
friends alive in the saint-loving conscience of the
believer!

82 Orthodox Eastern Church, 2011.

83 Orthodox Eastern Church, 2011 Orthodox Liturgical Calendar (Liberty
TN: Saint John of Krondstadt Press, 2010a).

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

Appendium: Tables of Kanons for the Great Compline

during the Great Fast for the year 2011
Table One: Kanons in the Great Compline of the Great Fast for
2011New Style Calendar
(As published in the Diptychs of the Church of Greece)
On the evening of Service of
14 March 16 April
15 March 17 April
16 March 18 April
17 March 19 April
21 March 20 April
22 March 21 April
23 March 22 April
28 March 24 April
30 March 26 April
4 April 27 April
5 April 28 April
7 April 29 April
11 April 30 April
12 April 1 May

Table Two: Kanons in the Great Compline in the Great Fast

2011Old Style Calendar
(As found in The Liturgical Calendar published by St. John of
Kronstadt Press)84
On the evening of Service of
1 March 28 February
2 March 29 February
3 March 3 April
4 March 4 April (St. Joseph)
5 March 4 April (St. George)
8 March 7 March
9 March 6 April
10 March 7 April
11 March 8 April
12 March 9 April
15 March 14 March, 10 April
16 March 11 April
17 March 17 March
18 March 12 April
19 March 19 March
22 March 21 March
23 March
24 March 23 March
26 March 14, 15 April
29 March 27, 28 March
1 April 17 April
2 April 18 April

84 My appreciation goes to Reader Daniel Olson for this citation.

KANONS IN THE
GREAT COMPLINE

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