A Great And Mighty Wonder
Stichera for Christmas-tide
μεγα και παραδοξον Θαυμα
Version 1. Compare
A Great and Mighty Wonder - Version 2
A Great and Mighty Wonder - Version 3
Words: St. Germanus (A.D. 634--A.D. 734)1
Source: Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D., Hymns of the Eastern Church (London: J. T. Hayes, 1862)
Meter: 76 76
A great and mighty wonder!
The festal makes secure2
The Virgin bears the Infant,
With Virgin-honour pure!
The Word is made Incarnate,
And yet remains on high:3
And Cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds from the sky.
And we with them triumphant
Repeat the hymn again:
“To GOD on high be glory,
And peace on earth to men!”
While thus they sing your Monarch,
Those bright angelic bands,
Rejoice, ye vales and mountains!
Ye oceans, clap your hands!
Since all He comes to ransom,
By all be He adored,
The Infant born in Bethlehem,
The Saviour and the LORD!
And idol forms shall perish,
And error shall decay,
And CHRIST shall wield His sceptre,
Our LORD and GOD for aye.
Sheet Music from Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D., Hymns of the Eastern Church. Fourth Edition. (London: J. T. Hayes, 1882), edited by Very Rev. Stephen Georgeson Hatherly, Mus. B., Archpriest of the Patriarchal Æcumenical Throne.
Notes:
1. In his first edition, Rev. Neale gives attribution to St. Anatolius (d. 458) as noted above. However, in the Fourth Edition of 1882, edited by Very Rev. Stephen Georgeson Hatherly, Mus. B., Archpriest of the Patriarchal Æcumenical Throne, attribution is changed to St. Germanus, with the following note (p. 26):
The original Greek of this Hymn is in two stanzas, both of which in the Menaon, are ascribed to St. Germanus. Adjoining stanzas in the same series of Aposticha from which the first is taken are ascribed to S. Anatolius, hence, probably, the mistake of Dr. Neale in the previous edition, where this hymn occurs as the word of that saint.” Rev. xxx then gives a literal translation of the two verses.
2. In the Fourth Edition, this line is changed to "A full and holy cure." Return
3. In the Third Edition, Rev. Neale notes: "Compare S. Thomas: Verbum Supernum Prodiens, Nec Patris linquens dexteram." Return
Other Notes:
Also in the Third Edition, Rev. Neale notes "Mr. Young’s book. Melody of Christus der ist mein Leben. Harmony by M. Vulpius, 1609."
Sheet Music from J. H. Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young (New York: James Pott & Company, 1887), #59, p. 92.
