CANON TO ST. PORPHYRIOS ... by Evangelos ... Revised 1/3/25

Ode I.

Irmos.  After crossing the sea as if it were dry ground and escaping the wickedness of Egypt, the Israelite cried out:  Let us sing to our redeemer and God.

Tormented by many temptations, I take refuge in you as in my mediator with God; make my life peaceful and end the commotion of my wretched heart.

Because you completed your life in a manner pleasing to God, by your prayers you have now found boldness before God; intercede with him to heal the sick, Father, and bring diseases to an end.

As you glorify the Savior in Heaven, keep watch over your monasteries in Athos and Attica, and furnish the power to your children to utterly rout the raging demons.

Let us celebrate the spiritual champion of the Kapsokalyvians and the Mother of God in hymns, asking them to intercede with the Savior and to save those in dangers and distress.

 

Ode III.

Irmos.  O Lord, who covered the vault of the sky with a roof and built the church:  Confirm me in your love, O summit of desires, support of the faithful and only merciful one.

Honoring you, as in a choir, Father, we acclaim you, praising your struggles and contests against the ruler of the unclean spirits.  O saint, from their rage save those who celebrate you.

You truly became a model of obedience and of the height of humility for monks on Mt. Athos and in Evia in the monastery of Haralambos; wherefore you received the power to smite the demons.

Let us all glorify the initiate of unspeakable secrets, the holy wonderworker and the protection of Attica, exalting in hymns the multitude of gifts with which the Comforter has crowned him.

You alone protect all men from terrible distresses, O Virgin; in your mercy you watch over those who hymn you by the prayers of Porphyrios, the all-merciful elder of all Greeks.

Prayers following Ode III
Preserve from dangers your servants, holy Father, especially those who ask for your help in times of suffering; drive away their anguish and despair.

 

Kathisma.  Tone 2.  Fervent supplication.
We ask you to guard us from afflictions, to guard the faithful in the faith of our Christ, St. Porphyrios, for you are a holy offspring of Evia, the venerable glory of the church and boast of all the saints.

 

Ode IV.

Irmos.  I have heard, O Lord, the mystery of your dispensation; I have meditated on your works and glorified your divinity.

Exalted in your struggles against the envious tyrant of men, you advanced to receive, Father, a sacred crown, as the most graceful victor. 

The gift of interpreting mysteries, of foreseeing the future and of healing all diseases has been given to you on account of your labors.

O!  The new and amazing wonders worked by your grace!  With what words should I compose hymns for you?  I am afraid, O Father, and I am astonished.

My all-holy Queen and incomprehensible wonder of the angels: deem me worthy to hymn you, the mother of the Savior of all men.

 

Ode V.

Irmos.  Illumine us with your commandments, O Lord, and by your lofty arm grant us your peace, O merciful God.

Taking refuge in your fervent prayers, we have acquired encouragement amid our sufferings, O Porphyrios, for you are our mediator with the all-merciful God.

Protect us who honor you, Porphyrios; grant us the resolve to suffer for Christ and give us zeal for the divine faith.

We joyfully raise a hymn to you, O Virgin, for you are truly the sweetness of the angels and you have ended the bitterness of Eve by your birth-giving.

 

Ode VI.

Irmos.  I will pour out my supplication to the Lord and to him will I declare my afflictions, for my soul has been filled with troubles and my life has approached Hades, so like Jonah I pray:  Raise me up from death, O God.

We are strengthened by your prayers, O saint, and we raise our souls to Heaven, abounding in patience and courage amid temptations and terrible attacks, O Porphyrios, our father; wherefore we all praise you publicly.

Healing every disease, O saint, you bid us to love the Savior with our whole soul, and mind, and heart, and to send up supplication to him, for the Provider himself is our helper.

Wholly radiant with divine grace was your venerable head, O saint, showing plainly to the woman who had come up to pray that you were an holy initiate of Christ, and her soul was filled with marvel.

Extolling you, pure Mother of God, we fill our souls with calmness, being confident in the love of your Son; hoping in your maternal entreaties, we beg you to help us attain to the enjoyment of delightful Paradise.

 

Selected prayers following Ode 6.

Preserve from dangers, Porphyrios, your suppliants, and grant help to your monastery, O saint, inasmuch as you have boldness with the Lord.

The Kontakion.  Tone 2.  Protection of Christians.

You are the comforter of all who groan and the support of those whose faith is shaken.  Wherefore we faithfully all hasten to your grace to receive abundant help on the sea of life and in the storm of calamities.  We your servants beg you to give us strength and health of soul by your prayers to God, O father.

 

We acknowledge you, O saint, as the guide of the Kapsokalyvians and Mount Athos, the glory of monks, the most honorable boast of priests, the noblest doctor, the father of orphans, the restoration of the fallen, O saint, and the deliverance from demons; you are the giver of calmness and the cause of great joy.  Wherefore we cry to you, O Father Porphyrios:  Do not cease to watch over us, to heal and to protect your servants.

 

Ode VII.

Irmos.  The youths from Judea, having come to Babylon of old, by their faith in the Trinity trampled down the flame of the furnace, chanting, O God of our fathers, blessed are you.

In simplicity you passed your whole life and served God and men, praying day and night, O saint, and bearing our burdens, all-blessed Porphyrios.

We seek out your paternal intercession with our God, thrice-blessed one, that we be preserved from danger and the rage of our evil enemy; we take heart in your great compassion.

You were loved by all, as one who wells up and overflows with love; you always heal our wounds, drive out demons, deliver us from troubles and furnish grace to all who ask for it.

Faithfully we celebrate you in song, Virgin and most highly favored Mother, for you have virginally borne for the world the Savior and all-merciful God, to whom you pray always that men be saved.

 

Ode VIII.

Irmos.  The king of Heaven whom the hosts of angels hymn, hymn and exalt him above all forever.

For the health and well-being of the world, you offer your prayers to Christ, wherefore we hymn you, Godly-wise Porphyrios.

Forgive the multitude of my sins, Savior, through the fervent supplications of Porphyrios, and grant me to live my life in repentance.

Give peace to my troubled heart, soothing the griefs of distress by your grace, O Father, for you are the benefactor of the suffering.

You have become a mother perfect in virginity, bearing our God and Savior, and prevailing upon him to save all men from danger.

 

 

Ode IX.

Irmos.  O Mother of God, we who have been saved through you fittingly confess you and, with the incorporeal choirs, magnify you, O pure Virgin.

Have mercy on your suppliants and those who fall down before you, awaiting your compassion.  Grant them grace, health and repentance.

After receiving his speech, the former mute, as he had been saved by you, brought you thanks, while his relatives marveled and honored you. 

O new among the saints, you astound all men by your miracles, O Father Porphyrios, drawing grace from above by your humility.

We hymn you, O Virgin, full of grace, for you have given hope to the world by bearing the Savior, God and man, for all.

 

 

ENDNOTES FOR THE CIRCUMSPECT

SOURCE:  Among others, https://proseuxi.gr/paraklitikos-kanon-agiou-porfiriou/.

I thank Zoilus for proofing the Greek and I thank Aeteia, my lawfully-wedded, for proofing the English.  Any errors surviving their ministrations are purely my own.

1/3/25  I have revised this canon very carefully, applying lessons learned from about 50 canons.  I spent a little time adjusting the translation in various places and a lot of time on providing explanatory notes.

The reader may know that “September and October” refers to the menaia of those months in the Greek version.  I use this nearly 200,000 word resource as a corpus for gauging various features of hymnographic vocabulary.  Furthermore, “Perseus” refers to the 32 million word library of online Greek texts.  Perseus is useful for checking out words in the mostly non-Patristic texts.  Finally, COD is The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Current English, 6th ed (1976).   

 

Ode I. 

“In a manner pleasing to God” (ὁσίως).  Unranked.  Bailly reports avec pureté ou sainteté, but in the NT pieusement.  Abbott-Smith reports piously, holily.  Montie reports in a holy, pious, pure, just way.  BGAD reports devoutly, in a manner pleasing to God, in a holy manner.  This word appears in the NT once (1 Th. 2:10) and app. four times in 1 and 2 Clem. 

“Intercede” (μεσιτεύων).  Unranked.  One appearance in NT (Heb. 6:17).  Five hits in September and October Menaia:  once in the form used here and four in oblique participles.  In the same months, μεσιτείᾳ occurs several times.

“In Heaven, keep watch” (ἐν οὐρανοῖς φρουροῖς).  I previously translated as “among heavenly sentinels, keep watch.”  App. I knew that φρουροῖς could be a noun or a verb, and went both ways with it.  I have corrected my error.

“Furnish” (παρέχων).  The point of having a patron was to receive one’s requests.

“Power” (χάρις).  A word which is capable of a remarkable range of meanings and, due to St. Augustine and the accidents of history, a mostly misunderstood word.  IN SHORT:  A look at BGAD and, say, Pindar will confirm that Pindar is more useful to our present text than BGAD.  AT LENGTH:  James R. Harrison notes that St. Paul’s use of grace in Ephesian must be understood within a constellation of themes:  glory, wealth/abundance, mystery, power (Paul's Language of Grace in its Graeco-Roman Context, p. 243) (and of course peace [ibid., p. 230, footnotes 69-71]).  His argument is that St. Paul is using terms taken from “magical papyri and . . . Ephesian inscriptions of Artemis and the mysteries.  Ephesians of Paul would have been alert to their prominence” (243-244).  From another angle, though, Chris Eckerman notes that “scholars generally assume that χάρις, in epinician poetry, has a broad semantic range that includes splendor, glory, charm, favor, ode, grace, gratitude, and service” (“Χάρις in the Epinician Odes of Pindar and Bacchylides”).  The epinician influence on our hymnographers—which Zoilus the Elder inferred from Pindaric vocabulary and expressions—seems to mesh with Harrison’s vision of glory terminology, mystery terminology, power terminology and wealth terminology (ibid., 243).  I am not competent to reconcile the arguments of scholars, but if the reader will understand that neither in St. Paul nor in ecclesiastical hymns does the notion of χάρις have anything to do with the Augustinian trajectory of which Lutheranism, Calvinism and Jansenism are the high points, he has understood enough.  Harrison also notes that according to Spicq, χάρις and δύναμις are “frequently synonymous” (ibid.), which justifies my translation, if the context does not. 
“In dangers and distress” (ἐν κινδύνοις καὶ θλίψεσι).  θλῖψις is not unranked, but it is the 6105th most frequent word.  In the September and October Menaia, 23 hits.

“Spiritual champion” (ἀθλητὴν).  For some background on ἀθλητὴν, see note on Ode V of the canon to Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene.

Ode III.

“Initiate” (μύστην).  Unranked.  One hit in the LXX.  Nothing in the NT.  Eight hits in September and October.  Lampe reports initiate (“of one to whom spiritual truth has been revealed”), expert, confidant.  Montie reports initiator.  Maltby reports “one, who celebrates religious rites” and adds as a synonym ἱερεύς (priest).  Schrevelius reports “teacher of mysteries,” which agrees with Stephanus, who reports non solum discipulus et conscius mysteriorum, sed etiam μυσταγωγός, citing Ps.-Dionysius.  Great Scott reports that μυσταγωγός means more specifically introducing or initiating into mysteries,” more “generally, teacher, guide.”  Great Scott adds that in Sicily μυσταγωγός could mean a cicerone (“guide who understands and explains antiquities etc.” [COD]) in a temple and, finally, cites Justinian as one of his authorities for rendering μυσταγωγός as Christian priest.  My guess is that our hymnographers mean by μύστης expert in mysteries or teacher of mysteries, with a note of priest added.  Expert now tends to refer to technocrats, so that is out.  Teacher of mysteries is viable if no other complicated genitives are involved (like “of the Kapsokalyvians” below).  The words following (“unspeakable secrets”) fairly force the translation most translators reflexively use, whereas later in the canon it will make more sense to say guide.

Prayers Following Ode III
“Your servants” (τοὺς δούλους σου).  Clients, reports Kent, were those lowly, non-patrician men who needed patricians as patrons. 

“Holy” (Θείοι) or sacred, but not divine.
“Father” (Πάτερ).  See the note on Ode IV on the canon to Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene for details on this honorific terminology.

“Suffering” (δεινοῖς).  Great Scott reports danger, suffering, horror.  Montie reports terrors. 
“Ask” (δεόμεθα).   Montie reports ask, demand, request.  Kittel drops demand.  Neither source, both top-ranked, admit beg.  Zoilus the Elder (orig. a non-English speaker) opined that beg is an Anglophone affair.  Pape’s entries for this verb (bitten, bedürfen) seem to corroborate his opinion, although the DGE does not.  This is one of those points at which one becomes more tolerant of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

“In the faith of our Christ” (τηρῆσαι πιστοὺς τῇ πίστει τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἡμῶν).  BGAD reports that πίστις can mean the content of what Christians believe, i.e., the doctrine.

“Holy” (σεπτὸν).  Unranked.  An amazing 248 hits in September and October.  Great Scott reports holy, august, venerable and ascribes it to late prose (although Aeschylus used the word of the Nile).  Bailly reports digne d’être honoré, auguste.  Lampe reports worshipped, reverenced, sacred, holy. 

Excursus on σεμνός.  Pape reports that σεπτὸς is überhaupt = σεμνός.  This equivalence appears to be supported by an appeal to Pindar.  Slater reports august, revered, sacred, hallowed for σεμνός, which is not easily distinguished from Great Scott’s definition of σεπτὸς (holy, august, venerable).  Lampe reports that σεμνός can mean holy, sacred, godly, religious, ascetic, worthy of respect, honorable, noble, seemly, sober, chaste, serious, little, small.  σεμνός occurs 88 times in September and October.  Kittel appears to skirt circular reasoning by defining σεμνός as that which “calls forth σέβεσθαι [reverence] from others.”  It could be “the majesty of a royal throne, the splendour of dress, the beauty of speech” etc.  He goes on to say that in the LXX σεμνός is used to mean holy (like σεπτὸς).  By the end of the Apostolic Fathers, Kittel says that “everything connected with the world of the Christian faith is σεμνός.”  Bailly adds that this quality is opposed to ταπεινός.

It may be useful to know that σεπτὸς does not appear in Pindar (at least Slater and Rumpel’s Lexicon Pindaricum do not report it), the LXX or the NT, whereas σεμνός appears in all three.  A survey of σεπτὸς and σεμνός in the September Menaion reveals that σεπτὸς and σεμνός can describe anyone and anything; the difference between the two adjectives is that only σεμνός is used to describe the Mother of God.  The fact that σεπτὸς is not found in Scripture may have something to do with this.  Or was it felt to be too recent a word?  Due to the nature of induction, we cannot pretend that this is a law of some sort.  A similar survey of the rest of the Menaion should be performed to settle the issue.

How should σεπτὸς and σεμνός be translated?  Lampe inclines me to say holy, but in certain contexts venerable (as here) or sacred might do.

“Glory” (ἐγκαλλώπισμα).  Montie reports ornament, boast, source of pride.  DGE reports adorno, gala, lujo (of things) and honor, gloria (of persons).  Unranked.  September and October offer a single instance.  Perseus scares up seven appearances of this noun.  Zoilus the Elder detects epinician rhetoric in this kathisma (βλάστημα, καύχημα, ἐγκαλλώπισμα).  The next ode continues in this vein, as Zoilus points out.

Ode IV.

“Struggles” (παλαίσμασι).  Montie reports wrestling, struggle, fight, combat, trial. 

“Sacred” (θεῖον).  Montie reports that θεῖος can mean holy, 
sacred, excellent, extraordinary, marvellous.  Divine is not the only option.

“O!  The new and amazing etc.”  This troparion is also found in a canon to St. Paisios.  A number of passages in this canon are indeed very similar to the canon to St. Paisios, as the opening troparion suggests.  This is due to the fact that new canons tend to be recycled from older canons, just as most literature is recycled Homer and most philosophy is recycled Plato.

Ode V.

“Protect us who honor you” (Φύλαξον ἡμᾶς τοὺς τιμῶντάς σε). 
A nice summary of the patron-client relationship.

“Virgin” (αγνή).  According to Muraoka and Thayer, αγνή and παρθένος are synonymous.  Montie reports pure, holy, sacred, chaste, with which K. largely concurs.  Slater reports holy.  Cunliffe reports holy, pure, used by Homer to describe goddesses.

Ode VI.

“We beg you to help us attain to” (δεόμενοι ἐπιτυχεῖν).  Lit., “begging to attain to.”

Selected prayers following Ode 6.

Kontakion

“Help” (ἀρωγῆς).  Ranks 5342^nd in Perseus.  Unknown in LXX or NT.  6 hits in September and October. 

“Guide” (μύστην).  See note on Ode III.

“Glory” (σέμνωμα).  Great Scott and Montie report majesty.  This word is unranked; Perseus declines to offer statistics for it.  September and October do not know of it.  Stephanus reports ornamentum and decus.  Mr. K. reports adornment, ornament, subject of pride, glory.   

Πάντιμον unranked.  September and October do not know of it.  Montie reports honored by all.  Schrevelius reports most honorable.

“Restoration” (ἀνόρθωσιν).  Unranked.  September and October do not know of it.  Great Scott reports = ἐπανόρθωσις, which Thayer reports it to mean “restoration to an upright or a right state; correction, improvement . . . of life and character.”  ἐπανόρθωσις is also unranked.

“Boast” (ἐγκαλλώπισμα).  See above in the notes on the prayers following Ode III. 

“Giver” (πρόξενον).  Perseus ranks 4847^th.  Montie reports patron, protector and causer.  Schrevelius reports one who procures anything.  Mr. K. reports author.  Maltby reports that the πρόξενος “received [the] ambassadors [of a state], looked after the concerns of its citizens and promoted its interests in all public matters.”  Donnegan generalizes this pivotal person as “one who . . . procures any advantages for another—one who brings about or is the cause of anything, whether in a good or bad sense.”  There is no question of saving the word-picture of the πρόξενος, especially since we do not employ a man in that office.  Also, even if we look for something like “generous and ready agent,” there are not that many deverbal agent-nouns in a our language which are suited to a liturgical text.  Most are handicapped by having distracting connotations (e.g., donor, presenter), by sounding like nonce-forms (e.g., vouchsafer, conferrer) or by being jargon (e.g., grantor, backer).  The problem is illustrated by Lampe, who summarizes the meaning as “one who effects or secures for another, agent; effecting, productive of.”  In a longish entry demonstrating eight different entities to which the word is applied in the fathers, the only attempt at translating the term is given in the last:  “of Satan, as the agent of death.”  App., Lampe knew that any attempt must fail.  Therefore, I have chosen the blandest definition of all.  Enoch Okode notes that πρόξενος is one of several technical terms for benefactor, which alerts us to the appearance of euergetism.  However, “benefactor of peace” does not sound right, either.
“Cause” (αἴτιον).  Unranked as a neuter noun.

Ode VII.

“And” (τε).  Curious archaism.

Ode VIII.

“Well-being” (σωτηρίας).   Translators reflexively render σωτηρία 
as salvation.  Great Scott reports preservation, deliverance.  Montie adds means of salvation, escape, safe return, health, well being, protection.  It is probably an example of parallelism:  “health and well-being.”  “Deliverance” is used to translate σωτηρία (and is backed by Mr. K.).  These words are paired in the litany in the Greek office of the Small Supplicatory Canon.  Interesting to note that these exact words are found in a 3^rd century inscription in Macedonia.  

“Benefactor” (εὐεργέτα).