CANON TO ST. PAISIUS THE ATHONITE

Ode 1
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.

Afflicted by many temptations, I flee to you, crying out as to my mediator with God:  Bring peace, Father, to my life and grant me good health, too.

Inspired Father Paisius, having completed your life in a holy fashion, you always consecrate and deliver from every evil those who approach your protection.

Let us praise the champion of Panagouda and the Mother of God in odes, entreating them to intercede with the Savior and to rescue those in dangers and afflictions.

Ode 3
Irmos.  You covered the vault of the sky with a roof, O Lord, and built the church; confirm me in your love, O summit of desires, support of the faithful and only compassionate Lord.

Honoring you as in a choir, we all cry out, Father, praising your trials and your struggles against the leader of the unclean spirits, from whose madness save us who hymn you, O saint.

Let us all glorify with hymns the initiate of ineffable things, the wonderworking saint and the champion of all Greece, receiving the fullness of his gifts, with which the Paraklete has adorned him.

As the defense of all against terrible afflictions, in your mercy you alone, O Virgin, guard those who hymn you by the intercessions of Paisius, the all-merciful elder of all Greeks.

[Prayer following Ode 3.]

Divine Father, preserve from dangers your servants, who ask for your help amid sufferings, and drive away their anguish and apathy.

Ode 4.

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

Guard us, we ask you, from distress and keep watch over the faithful in the protection of our Christ, St. Paisius, for you are the new blossom of Athos, the venerable boast of the church and the adornment of all monks.

Stricken by the wickedness of the enemy, I take refuge in your defense, crying out, "Bring peace to my life, Father, and grant me health." 

O, the new and wondrous miracles worked by your grace!  I will plait for you hymns with such words; I quail, O Father, and am amazed.

My all-holy Queen, unconquerable wonder of the angels: Enable me to hymn you as the mother of the Savior of all.

Ode 5

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

You have truly become the father and the defender of all who are in distress and our delight in life, for you furnish to all your divine protection.

We have acquired you as our strength amid our sufferings, O  Paisius, and we flee to you with fervent prayers for you are our intercessor with the all-merciful God.

Guard us who honor you, Paisius, imparting to us from the suffering of Christ the purposefulness and ardor of divine faith.

We joyfully raise a hymn to you, O pure one, as you are truly the sweetness of the angels and by the birth of your Son the end of the bitterness of Eve.

Ode 6
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 the heavens, availing ourselves of your endurance and bravery in trials and terrible attacks, Paisius, our Father; wherefore we all exalt you publicly.

As one who performs mighty deeds of wonder, heal, O Father, the painful sicknesses of those who seek out your help, wonder-working Paisius.

Glorifying you, pure Mother of God, we exalt our souls to the heavens, being confident in the love of your Son; we hope in your maternal intercessions, begging you to grant that we attain to the enjoyment of the delight of Paradise.

[Selected prayers following Ode 6.]

Preserve from dangers, Paisius, your suppliants and grant help to your monastery, O Saint, for you enjoy boldness of speech with the Lord.

We recognize you as the mystic of Athos, the dignity of monks, the all-honorable adornment of priests, the noblest physician, the father of orphans, the restoration of those who have fallen, O Saint, and the deliverance of the possessed; the cause of peace and great joy.  Wherefore we cry out to you:  Do not cease to watch over, to heal, and to guard your servants, Father Paisius.

Ode 7

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.

You passed your whole life in simplicity, and you served God and men, praying day and night, O Saint, and bearing our burdens, all-blessed Paisius.

We seek your paternal intercession with God on our behalf, thrice-blessed one, so that we may be preserved from dangers and the madness of the evil adversary, having confidence, Father, in your great compassion. 

You were loved by all as one who pours forth love for us abundantly and heals our wounds, driving away demons and delivering us from distresses, always furnishing grace to all who ask you.

We hymn you gratefully, Virgin and Mother most favored by God, for you bore the Savior of the world and the all-merciful God without knowing man; always intercede with him that we men be saved.
 

Ode 8
Irmos.  The king of Heaven whom the hosts of angels hymn, hymn and exalt him above all forever.

You pray to Christ for the health and salvation of the world, wherefore we hymn you, thrice-blessed Paisius.

You, Savior, forgive the multitude of our sins by the fervent supplications of Paisius; also grant me to pass my life in repentance. 

Give serenity to my storm-tossed heart; soothe the griefs caused by dangers through your power, O Father, for you are the benefactor of those who suffer.

You have become a mother perfect in virginity, bearing the God and Savior, entreating whom you save all men from dangers.

Ode 9
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.

In your sympathy, preserve us weak ones who celebrate you from all kinds of diseases, difficult afflictions and deadly attacks and deceptions of the wicked author of evil.

Completing my life amid distresses, sufferings and fearful scourges, Father, I have fled to you for refuge; by no means despise me, but with your visitation deliver me from overwhelming terrors.

We glorify you, highly favored Virgin, for you gave hope to the world, bearing our Savior, God and man, for all.

ENDNOTES FOR THE CIRCUMSPECT

Source:  http://ahdoni.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-post_478.html.  No author is cited.

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.
This canon lacks the irmoi and does not indicate the tone, which makes me think it was meant to be said privately.  I have supplied the most commonly used irmoi. 

Ode 1.  
"Protection."  Oddly enough, Lampe gives only one definition of σκέπη:  lodging.  Montanari offers covering, shelter, defense, protection.  

"Praise."  Aνυμνήσωμεν can be translated as celebrate in song, exalt (Montanari) or praise (Lampe). 

"Champion."  Great Scott and Lampe define ἀθλητής as combatant, champion, Montanari as competitor, athlete (Montanari).  The best translation might be champion, but that is also a very convenient translation for another important word--προστάτης--which is definitely euergetistic, not sportsy.  I settled reluctantly on champion in this ode, though I would generally prefer to say combatant, which keeps the athletic image in view and captures the intensity of the ascetic endeavor.  Athlete is not only rather colorless but it also conjures all sorts of images in the mind of this 20th-century American which are irrelevant or frivolous.  However, there is no denying that "the wonderworking saint and the champion of all Greece" sounds marginally better than "the wonderworking saint and the combatant of all Greece."  Half of the problem of translating is finding the right translation; the other half is making sure that the right translation does not have irrelevant or distracting connotations in the target language.  Note also "all Greece."  Our hymns typically congratulate the islands or regions from which saints come (cf. the sticheron for All Saints of North America:  "Rejoice, O mountains of Pennsylvania; leap for joy, O waters of the Great Lakes; rise up, O fertile plains of Canada").  St. Paisios is one of the saints claimed for all Greece.  

"Anguish."  Άγχος is a modern Greek word.  

"O, the new and wondrous miracles."  This troparion is also used in a canon to St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia.

Ode 3.

"Madness." Mανία can also mean folly or rage (Montanari).

Ode 4.  

Stricken by the wickedness of the enemy.  This troparion also shows up in a canon to St. Nektarios of Pentapolis.

Ode 5.

"Defender" renders προστάτης, an important word in the euergetistic culture to which our hymnographers subscribe.  Montanari offers supplicant, leader, guide, custodian, protector, defender, patron (of metics or clients).

Ode 6.

"Glorifying" renders υμνούντες, which can mean sing a hymn, sing, celebrate in a hymn, commemorate, celebrate, extol, praise, proclaim (Montanari).

Ode 8.

"Storm-tossed" (τρικυμιζούση).  I cannot find this word in the lexica, but it appears in George Polymere's 19th-century English-Greek thesaurus.

"Sufferings and dangers" is a reconfiguration of the literal translation, "the sufferings of dangers."  Such a literal translation cannot be made to sound natural in English.  Just as hymnographers who have studied the rhetoricians like to use hendiadys when we would use attribution (they might say "with spite and envy" instead of "with spiteful envy"), I have a notion that "the sufferings of dangers" is an attempt to avoid what to the hymnographer's ear would be a dull conjunction.  Note that the word in Greek for sufferings is a noun, not a verbal noun.