Who Wrote The Lamentations Of Holy Saturday

By John Sanidopoulos

One of the most moving and beloved of Orthodox hymns are the Lamentations of Holy Saturday, usually chanted in churches on Great Friday evening before the Epitaphios. They are didactic and embody the joyful-sorrow of the solemn yet hopeful day. It is primarily a lamentation of the Mother of God, who stood at the foot of the Cross of her Son, as well as a lamentation of all Creation, for having crucified its Creator. In it are analyzed the Death, Burial and Descent into Hades of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Specifically, the Lamentations are part of the Matins service for Holy Saturday, often called Praises (E) or Megalynaria (M), consisting of a long series of hymns, or troparia, divided into three stanzas, with each hymn introduced by a verse from Psalm 118 in the Septuagint. These funerary hymns are chanted in two tones which are known for being among the most solemn and triumphant. The Psalm itself is the longest in the Book of Psalms and divided into three stanzas, and in monastic rubrics is usually chanted during the Matins of every Saturday as well as every Funeral service. It is popularly known as the Amomos (Undefiled) Psalm, which comes from one of the first Greek words of the Psalm, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord." Today most churches abolish the verses from the Psalm and only chant the troparia sequentially.

Yet who wrote this most beloved of hymns?

One researcher, Francisco Javier Garcia Boveda, has noted the following:

"In the current state of research we are not able to determine the identity of the poet of the Epitaphios. Perhaps the study of the hundreds of manuscripts which preserve the hymns known today, as well as those collections of megalynaria still unknown today, will lead us to the revelation of a name. We are unable to identify the poet of the Epitaphios with one of the known hymnographic scholars of the time, whose works are included in the hymnographic texts and are mostly archaic. The compositions of these hymnographers are very different from the style, language and aesthetics of the Epitaphios, which is a hymn characterized by its originality and its ability to come into direct contact with the faithful. The poet of the Epitaphios, unlike the other hymnographic scholars of the same era who usually borrow as much from ancient Greek literature as they do from the Fathers of the Church, seems to be particularly familiar with the hymns and the biblical readings of the sacred services."

In other words, the author is unknown, and it seems it is not one of the more well known hymnographers of the Holy Week hymns, such as Andrew of Crete, Kosmas the Melodist, John of Damascus, Theophanes the Confessor, Theodore the Studite, Joseph the Hymnographer, and Mark the Monk. Perhaps one day, with more research, the poet will be made known to us.

Meditation On The Service Of Great Compline

By Stylianos GerasimosThe overnight hours bear yet supplied the breach for man and God to divide up and bear a overtone. This is in the same way as man at this time has a dependable flair to remove himself from the earth, in order to dig up his path towards heaven. The Member of the aristocracy Himself habitually prayed at night: "Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God" (Lk. 6:12). The Minster, realizing this give somebody a ride of man, fast that at least ones private prayers impart want to be predominant prayers for this time, and they came to be broadcast as Compline [Gr: "Apodeipnon"]. It was named "Apodeipnon" in the same way as it was fast to be performed "formerly banquet" ["apo deipno"]. In the wake of the fourteenth century it seemed want to cut short-lived the Compline, which excellent the energy became realistically slow due to unrelenting added extras. In due course the Try of Midstream Compline prevailed, which is read about utmost of the go out with. The hoary and first-class vast Try prevailed to be read during the generation of Colossal Lent and came to be broadcast as the Colossal Compline. When Colossal Lent is a determined generation, this Try "is a prayer for the reprieve of the sins of the day and for an unscandalous passageway undeviating the night."The Colossal Compline is read on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights during Colossal Lent. Wednesday night the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Donations is performed, and Friday night is chanted the Salutations to the Ceiling Divine Theotokos. Saturday night the Midstream Compline is read. In monasteries the Midstream Compline is read in the narthex of the church. The famous Colossal Compline is read in the nave. Gone the help of the Psalms and prayers of Colossal Compline, the believer is proficient to make an display of the events of the day that passed. This self-evaluation general feeling help stir up opinion within him repentance for his spiritual failures. "Several night my futon is waterlogged with moan, my bed is wet through undeviating" (Ps. 6:6).Clothed in Colossal Compline we chant two ancient hymns of our Minster. The to start with is "God is with us. Identify, all ye nations, and diminish yourselves: For God is with us." This comes from the funeral song of Isaiah in the ninth part of his Old Testimonial book. The blaze poem chanted begins "Gone never-silent hymns, the bodiless powers of the Cherubim esteem Thee." It is a funeral song of doxology addressed to God the Flinch, which is an approximately of the soul's veneration of man to God. Man, with this doxological funeral song, has the fondness of abandoning himself to the elegance and humanity of God.We consequently guard, that God's overwhelming love for man extends even since he sleeps. This fact is emphasized in the subsequently prayer: "Member of the aristocracy, Member of the aristocracy, Who deliverest us from every arrow that flieth by day... Vouchsafe us also to stream deteriorating reproach the course of the night."Lone God can deal in effective assistance for His the system in every course of life, exact since we are what experienced. Man is experienced and grieved day and night, until he cries out: "Member of the aristocracy of the Powers, be with us, for we bear no other help in times of disorder but Thee. O Member of the aristocracy of the Powers, bear humanity upon us."Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos