CANON TO ST. SISOIS THE GREAT

Ode 1.

Irmos.  Let us sing to the Lord.

By your intercessions quicken me, for I have slain myself by my passions, Father, and you with great boldness stand by Christ, the life of the living.

With divine love, Father, you rejected the desires of the flesh and followed with longing after him who called you, blessed Sisois.

Having received immaterial radiance, Father, within your heart, you were illumined and you utterly destroyed all the mist of the passions.

Save me, for I am buffeted by the surging fury of all pleasures, and you bore the Savior, the tranquility of the whole world, all-pure Virgin.

Ode 3.

Irmos.  You are the steadfastness.

You severely subjected your flesh to your mind, O saint, and your soul was not humiliated by slavery to the passions.

You wisely cultivated the ground of your soul with labors, O saint, causing it to burst into flower with the fruit of impassibility and miracles.
You put on mortification, O glorious among the followers of the life-giving Christ; wherefore he gives you the power to raise even the dead. 

We celebrate you as the hallowed place and spiritual table, O pure one, for you received Christ, who is the bread and life of all.

Ode 4

Irmos.  I have heard, O Lord.

Deluged with a heavy shower of grace, Father, you poured forth rivers of miracles, which cleanses from defilements those who run to you faithfully, O blessed one.

Having purified your soul by making intercessions all night and by services all day, you showed that you were a dwelling place of the Trinity.

Fleeing the world, you went further into the desert, Father, where you awaited him who saves you from faint-heartedness and affliction.

Habakkuk of old foresaw you as the unhewn mountain, all-pure Virgin, from which God appeared and renewed us corrupt sinners.

Ode 5

Irmos:  Rising at dawn we cry to thee.

Having become a temple of the three-sunned divinity, you drove out the images of the passions of your soul.

Having mortified the understanding of your flesh, holy saint, you raised the dead with the cooperation of grace.

Having borne the sun of grace, Mother of God, Virgin, the inmost sanctuary, illumine me, for I am plunged in darkness.

Ode 6

Irmos.  Be merciful to me, Savior.

You escaped the utter destruction of the spiritual sea-monster, Father, having acquired self-control, prayer, genuine love, powerful humility and steadfast love for Christ.

Christ guided your steps to him; the powerful one made you powerful to trample safely on the heads of serpents and scorpions, holy and all-blessed saint.

By your inclination to God, you were plainly reckoned a god; by an absolute love for the light, you became a light, an earthly angel and a heavenly man, holy Father.  

Mary, pure treasure of virginity, cleanse my mind of the darkness of the passions and fill my heart with grace and righteousness, all-immaculate Virgin.

Ode 7.

Irmos:  The youths of the Hebrews.

You displayed all the splendor of the Spirit in your purified mind and you are a luminary of those who shout faithfully, Blessed are you, O Lord our God, unto the ages.
With the divine fire of self-control, you burned up the thorns of sin and you approached the noetic light, crying out, Blessed are you, O Lord our God, unto the ages.

Save me, Mother of the Savior, for I am oppressed by a sea of sins, and rescue me from all kinds of misfortunes inflicted on me by the enemy, so that saved, I may magnify your protection.

Ode 8.

Irmos.  Sevenfold the furnace.

Using continuous prayers and intercessions, you drove the defilement of the passions from your soul and you cleansed the sight of your mind; wherefore you were deemed worthy to foresee prophetically things to come, Sisoes, reverently singing, People, exalt Christ above all forever.

You lived angelically in your body, O saint, and you put to flight the forces of the enemy; therefore, you dwelt with joy in the immaterial life, Father, where with the ranks of angels you now cry out, Ye priests, bless, ye people exalt Christ above all forever.

Cleanse me by your holy intercessions to God, for my soul runs riot with the passions, and deliver me from the captivity which holds me fast, inspired Father, so that I may chant purely:  Ye youths bless, ye priests, hymn, ye people, exalt Christ above all forever.

Sanctified by the Spirit, you received in your womb the Creator of human nature and you bore him indescribably, pure Maiden, whom we unceasingly hymn as we shout, Ye youths bless, ye priests, hymn, ye people, exalt Christ above all forever.

Ode 9.

Irmos.  All who heard shuddered.

An awe-inspiring wonder took place at the time of your death:  your face flashed like lightning more brightly than the sun, Father, when the choirs of the saints stood by to receive your spirit and bring it to God, your Creator.

As you now delight in the divine beauties of Heaven, O blessed one, and are deified by your adoption, and have become brilliant with the radiant splendors streaming from there, by your supplications deliver from the murky filth of the passions those who celebrate your radiant memory faithfully.

Father, you were just and blameless, and refrained from every evil; as an innocent saint you served God in holiness; the Trinity therefore rested on your heart, and you now more clearly delight in him with a far-seen radiance, admirable one.

There is altogether no salvation in me in consequence of my deeds, all-pure Virgin; for by travelling the enemy’s path, I am filled with darkness, but as you caused the light from light to rise for us, illumine me and save me; do not disdain me, for I am perishing dreadfully.

ENDNOTES FOR THE CIRCUMSPECT

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.

Ode 1.

General note.  The first and third troparia and the theotokion of this ode is identical to the first and second troparia and theotokion of the first ode in the Greek Menaion of St. Isaacius, the Abbot of the Monastery of the Dalmatians. 

Before Christ, the life of the living.  Christ is a relic of translation (i.e., a word added by the translator to clarify the translation).

With divine love.  The word used is ἔρως, which is Classically used mostly of sexual love, but in Orthodox texts used to indicate intense love.  The word for desires in the same sentence is simply the plural of ἔρως. 

Boldness.  See the notes for Ode 3 of the first canon to St. David of Evia.

Utterly destroyed.  The verb ἐξηφάνισας is a good example of a rarely used word in Classical Greek.

Mist.  A favorite expression of the hymnographers.

Buffeted.  The ancient Greeks may have been famous for sailing, but they never romanticized it.  The ocean is frequently used as a metaphor for the violence of the passions.

Tranquility.  γαλήνη denotes the stillness of the sea.

Ode 3.

Mind.  Unusual use of λογισμός, which normally means thought, intention, reckoning, etc. 

Followers.  In Classical Greek, ἰχνηλάτης means tracker (“one skilled in following a track or a trail” [OED]), but in later Greek it came to mean follower.

Ode 4.

Deluged.  Once we move inland, hydrological metaphors become positive. 

"Services" (στάσεσι).  The lexicographers and church historians offer numerous and (for this text) unlikely definitions.  Lampe seems to be most relevant with assembly of the faithful for prayer, from which it was but a step to service.
Fleeing.  φυγαδεύων should mean “chasing,” but the context makes it clear that the hymnographer thought it meant “fleeing [the world].” 

Ἐν ἐρήμοις, ἐμάκρυνας and φυγαδεύων are commonly combined in one way or another among the canons to desert-dwelling saints.

Awaited (προσδεχόμενος).  Or received?  Since the verb is in the present, I am inclined to think await.

Sinners.  A relic of translation to get around the common problem that Greek frequently uses verbs or adjectives to form substantives in a way that is awkward in English.  Without relics of translations, one find οὐκ ὠργίσθης ἐμοὶ τῷ ραθύμῳ καὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ being translated as “Thou wast not wroth with me, the slothful and sinner,” when idiomatic English would say “a slothful sinner.”

Ode 5.

Ode 5 is an example of the occasional ode with three troparia.

Assistance.  συνεργεία (which gives English the ill-famed buzzword synergy) is Greek for cooperation.  The Orthodox conception of salvation is two-sided, as Chrysostom insists.  Nothing could be more inimical than St. Augustine’s claim that he attempted to defend free will, but grace overwhelmed him. 

τρισήλιος:  “having three suns.”  Common way to describe the Holy Trinity.  “Three sunned,” “triple-sun” and “tri-solar” are possible definitions.  All are awkward. 

Images.  ἰνδάλματα is another one of those words rarely used in Classical Greek.  It means image, appearance, hallucination.

Having become.  This hymn is unusual in preferring to express being and becoming with forms of χρηματίζω. 

Ode 6.

Genuine love.  The word for love here is στοργή, which can be translated as affection.  The same word is used in the third troparion.

Sea-monster.  The word which appears in the story of Jonah and, as Liddell-Scott observes, in the story of Andromeda, who was rescued by Perseus.  It can mean any member of the infraorder Cetacea (like a whale) or just a huge fish.  

Trample.  A particularly pertinent power for a desert-dweller.

A god.  The doctrine of theosis, which was best put by St. Athanasius:  Αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐνηνθρώπησεν, ἵνα ἡµεῖς θεοποιηθῶµεν ([God] became incarnate that we might be made into gods).  The oft-quoted translation of this line (“God became man that man might become God”) is not just blasphemous, it is also bad Greek.  

Inclination.  Τῇ νεύσει τῇ πρὸς Θεόν is another favorite collocation as are σαφῶς ἐχρημάτισας and ἄγγελος ἐπίγειος, ἐπουράνιός τε ἄνθρωπος.  In fact, this troparion is nearly identical to the corresponding troparion of the second ode to St. Stylianus (November 26). 

Ode 7.

Save me.  This Theotokion is apparently taken word for word from the canon to Sts. Cosmas and Damian. 

Oppressed.  συνεχόμενον could also be constrained, afflicted, held fast. 

Evils.  κακία is a word with a marvelously wide range of meanings:  wickedness, vice, cowardice, vexation, disgrace and misfortune cover the main features.

Ode 8.

Defilement.  Another capacious word.  Schrevelius defines λύμη as “plague, pest, hurt, ruin, ravage, devastation, destruction, outrage, disgrace, ignominy, impurity.”  Liddell-Scott includes “outrage, maltreatment, mischief, outrages, indignities, corruption.”

Ode 9.

As you now.  Some reconstructive surgery had to be done to accommodate in English the three circumstantial participles which were stuffed into the subordinate clause.  I think Caesar once put three ablative absolutes into one sentence, too. 
Delighting in.  The verb ἐνηδόμενος means to take pleasure in or rejoice in.  We get hedonism from the same root.

Murky filth.  I took the translation of ἀχλυώδους τῶν παθῶν λύμης from the GOA Menaion.

Of Heaven.  These two words form a relic of translation designed to give the reader context; in English delighting in the divine beauties is at best opaque, at worst inviting totally wrong ideas.  

Father, you were just.  This troparion also shows up in the Greek canon to St. Stylianus (November 26) and to St. Eutychius (August 24).

More clearly.  The text contains two adverbs:  τρανότερον (more clearly) and τηλαυγῶς (clearly).  The GOA Menaion renders the latter as “with a far-shining splendor” (with an unnecessary British spelling to signal that this is liturgical English).  I base my translation on Shrevelius.  This troparion illustrates the difficulty posed by the hymnographers when they throw in too many adverbs.