Hymns of the Eastern Church
Translated, With Notes and an Introduction
Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D.
Warden of Sackville College
London: J. T. Hayes, 1862
Contents
Limited to Christmas-tide Hymns
S. Anatolius of Constantinople (d. 458)1
Stichera at Vespers, S. Stephen's Day (The Lord And King Of All Things)
Stichera for Christmas-tide (A Great And Mighty Wonder)
Subsequent research indicates that this Stichera was written by S. Germanus2
Idiomelon for Christmas (In Bethlehem Is He Born)
St. Cosmas of Jerusalem, surnamed The Melodist (A.D. 780),3 "Canon for Christmas Day":
Ode I. - Christ Is Born! Tell Forth His Fame!
There was no entry for Ode II.
Ode III. - Him, Of The Father's Very Essence
Ode IV. - Rod Of The Root Of Jesse
Ode V. - Father of Peace, and God of Consolation
Ode VI. - As Jonah, Issuing From His Three Days' Tomb
Ode VII. - The Holy Children Boldly Stand
Ode VIII. - The Dewy Freshness That The Furnace Flings
Notes from Rev. Neale:
1. Rev. Neale's note concerning S. Anatolius:
The first poet who emancipated himself from the tyranny of the old laws—hence to be compared to Venantius Fortunatus in the West—and who boldly struck out the new path of harmonious prose, was S. Anatolius of Constantinople. His commencements were not promising. He had been apocrisiarius, or legate, from the arch-heretic Dioscorus to the Emperor’s Court: and at the death of S. Flavian, in consequence of the violence received in the “Robbers’ Meeting” at Ephesus, A.D. 449, was, by the influence of his Pontiff, raised to the vacant throne of Constantinople. He soon, however, vindicated his orthodoxy; and in the Council of Chalcedon, he procured the enactment of the famous 28th Canon, by which, (in spite of all the efforts of Rome,) Constantinople was raised to the second place among Patriarchal Sees. Having governed his Church eight years in peace, he departed to his rest in A.D. 458. His compositions are not numerous, and are almost all short, but they are usually very spirited.
2. Rev. Neale's Note concerning S. Germanus (A.D. 634--A.D. 734):
S. Germanus of Constantinople was born in that city about 634. His father, Justinian, a patrician, had the ill-fortune to excite the jealousy of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, who put him to death, and obliged Germanus to enrol himself among the Clergy of the Great Church. Here he became distinguished for piety and learning, and in process of time was made Bishop of Cyzicus. In this capacity he assisted, with S. Andrew of Crete, in the Synod of Constantinople of which I have just spoken: and no doubt, he might be the more favourably disposed to Monothelitism because he had been so deeply injured by its great opponent, Pogonatus. However, he also, at a late period, expressly condemned that heresy. Translated to the throne of Constantinople in 715, he governed his Patriarchate for some time in tranquillity. At the beginning of the attack of Leo the Isaurian on Icons, his letters, in opposition to the Imperial mandate, were the first warnings which the Church received of the impending storm. Refusing to sign the decrees of the Synod which was convoked by that Emperor in A.D. 730, and stripping off his Patriarchal robes, with the words—"It is impossible for me, Sire, to innovate, without the sanction of the Aecumenical Council," he was driven from his See, not, it is said, without blows, and returned to his own house at Platanias, where he thenceforth led a quiet and private life. He died shortly afterwards, aged about one hundred years, and is regarded by the Greeks as one of their most glorious Confessors.
The poetical compositions of S. Germanus are few.
He has stanzas on S. Simeon Stylites, on the Prophet Elias, and on the Decollation of S. John Baptist. His most poetical work is perhaps his Canon on the Wonder-working Image in Edessa. But probably the following simpler stanzas, for Sunday in the Week of the First Tone, will better commend themselves to the English reader.
3. Rev. Neale's Note concerning S. Cosmas, Surnamed the Melodist.
S. Cosmas of Jerusalem holds the second place amidst Greek Ecclesiastical poets. Left an orphan at an early age, he was adopted by the father of S. John Damascene; and the two foster-brothers were bound together by a friendship which lasted through life. They excited each other to Hymnology, and assisted, corrected, and polished each other’s compositions. Cosmas, like his friend, became a monk of S. Sabas: and against his will was consecrated Bishop of Maiuma, near Gaza, by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem; the same who ordained S. John Damascene Priest. After administering his diocese with great holiness, he departed this life in a good old age, about 760, and is commemorated by the Eastern Church on the 14th of October.
“Where perfect sweetness dwells, is Cosmas gone;
But his sweet lays to cheer the Church live on,”says the stichos prefixed to his life.
His compositions are tolerably numerous, and he seems to have taken a pleasure in competing with S. John Damascene, as in the Nativity, the Epiphany, the Transfiguration, where the Canons of both are given. To Cosmas, a considerable part of the Octoechus is owing. The best of his compositions, besides those already mentioned, seem to be his Canons on S. Gregory Nazianzen, and the Purification. He is the most learned of the Greek Church poets: and his fondness for types, boldness in their application, and love of aggregating them, make him the Oriental Adam of S. Victor. It is owing partly to a compressed fulness of meaning, very uncommon in the Greek poets of the Church, partly to the unusual harshness and contraction of his phrases, that he is the hardest of ecclesiastical bards to comprehend.
Other Notes:
There were numerous editions of Hymns of the Eastern Church, most of which are available on the World Wide Web, including Google Books and the Internet Archive. Although most editions included text only, the Fourth Edition of 1882, edited by Very Rev. Stephen Georgeson Hatherly, Mus. B., Archpriest of the Patriarchal Æcumenical Throne, did contain musical notation.
Other collections of Eastern church hymns include those by John Brownlie (see Christmas Hymns from John Brownlie) and Bernhard Pick, Hymns and Poetry of the Eastern Church (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1908).
