THE CANON TO THE AWE-INSPIRING PROTECTION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

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.

We all greet and kiss the form of your icon as a treasury of divine gifts.  Our Awe-inspiring Protection, pour forth your divine dew on us.

O awe-inspiring Protection, your icon pours forth rivers of help and mercy; compassionately show your favor like dew to those who take refuge in you amid dangers.

Amid dangers, afflictions and sufferings, we fervently seek you out, our awe-inspiring Protection, so that we may be delivered quickly from them, and having escaped destruction, say the Rejoice to you.

As a great refuge of Christians, O Virgin, your holy icon, the awe-inspiring Protection, banishes the invisible enemy.

 

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.

You are the refuge of those who are grievously exhausted; wherefore we beseech you, O Virgin, most favored by God, to give your awe-inspiring and sweet protection to those who cry to you and take refuge in you.

Choirs of Christians hold the dazzling icon of the Mother of God as a treasure, and as they cry to you, O Awe-inspiring Protection, you hurry to help and deliver them.

Your sacred icon of the awe-inspiring Protection, which is the boast and the delight of all the faithful, is truly highly honored manna and a well dripping with dew for those who hymn you.

Most admirable Maiden, hear us all and very quickly end the storm of our temptations, so that we may cry unto you, O awe-inspiring Protection, "Receive, Virgin Mother, our hymns to your might."

 

[Prayers read between odes 3 & 4.]

O awe-inspiring Protection, protect from misfortunes and dangers your servants who venerate your icon with faith.  

Kathisma. Tone 2.
Awe-inspiring Protection and the invincible strength of the powerless and their strong fortress, we cry to you zealously, Mother of God:  furnish gifts from your icon to all who run to you with faith and affection.

Ode 4.

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

Scatter the tempest of the passions and the storm of faint-heartedness; with your compassionate gaze fill those who hymn you with joy.

My awe-inspiring Protection, you cause streams of gladness to pour forth, healing our pains and quickly illuminating our gloomy darkness.

You are our hope and boast, our refuge and defense, our protection and consolation, O all-pure Maiden.

Holding in your hands our Lord and God as an infant, earnestly intercede with him to deliver us from torments.

 

Ode 5.

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

O all-holy and pure Virgin Mother, utterly destroy every enemy, visible and invisible, by your awe-inspiring Protection.

Cause sweetness to pour mystically from your divine icon upon the souls of those who praise you in song, for we kiss your icon with all our heart when we see it.

Look compassionately upon those who surround your icon and fervently seek strength from you with unspeakable groans and tears.

The people of Phodíx have your icon as their guardian, fortress, protection and sentinel; therefore, we all rejoice greatly.

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."

You heal the wounds of the souls of those who faithfully venerate you, O Maiden, and who fervently seek out your grace, praying day and night to you; beseech your Lord and Son unceasingly on behalf of all men.

O awe-inspiring Protection, quench the fire of our pains with the dew of your intercessions and grant your grace to the faithful, so that we who fervently seek out your protection may all take refuge in you amid our trials and tribulations.

O awe-inspiring Protection, your icon shines brighter than the sun on all men; venerating it with contrition of soul, we cry to you.

Deliver, O awe-inspiring Protection, your servants from trials and dangers; graciously transform the bitterness of our terrible diseases into sweetness, so that we may splendidly magnify your grace in hymns with joy. 

Kontakion. Tone 2.

Come, ye faithful, to the icon of the awe-inspiring Protection; let us piously venerate it, for it pours forth heavenly dew and dispenses mighty strength to those who flee to it faithfully.

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 have truly magnified, O Maiden, the icon of your divine form, to which we the faithful cry out:  "O awe-inspiring Protection, come quickly and guide us safely to the haven of the divine will."

Your icon truly conveys calmness to us; it is altogether filled with grace, O Mother of God, and is merciful to all men.  Strengthen with your awe-inspiring Protection those who faithfully contemplate you, the boundless ocean of mercy. 

We await divine mercy to come now through you, O all-pure Virgin; accept the voices of your servants and grant them deliverance, grace and abundant mercy.  O awe-inspiring Protection, save those who suffer.

Cure completely, O awe-inspiring Protection, sicknesses of the soul; by the radiance of repentance direct us all safely into your salvific pastures, so that we may cry out with affection to you the Rejoice, O Virgin that is hymned by all.

 

Ode 8.

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

Who would have been able to easily put an end to the griefs of our souls, O Virgin, if your divine intercession had not quickly succeeded in doing so? 

O awe-inspiring Protection, change our despondency into joy and calm, which gives joy and salvation to the faithful.

O awe-inspiring Protection, we who amid dangers and troubles have found your holy icon as our fortress and haven glorify it with hymns.

Surrounding the image of your all-holy form, we cry out with affection:  "Be gracious, O Virgin, to your suppliants."

 

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.

Take pity, O Virgin, on your fervent suppliants and free them from both trials and sufferings, destroying utterly the pains of their souls.

We sing your praises, O highly favored Virgin, and reverently we honor your icon, begging you fervently to never abandon your servants.

Intercede unceasingly with the beneficent God, prevailing unceasingly upon him with your arms, O Lady, and dispensing to all the faithful your awe-inspiring protection and mercy.

Pour forth love and compassion from the august icon of the awe-inspiring Protection, drenching all who venerate you.

ENDNOTES FOR THE CURIOUS

The Greek original may be found at https://akolouthies-agion.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post_8929.html.  My thanks as ever to my esteemed Greek editor, Zoilus, and to eagle-eyed Aeteia, my lawfully-wedded, for proofing the English.

 

Ode 1 Notes.

"Awe-inspiring."  Φοβερός means awe-inspiring.  It is normally translated as fearful, which is used transitively to mean causing fear (“whose commandment is strong, and ordinance fearful” [2 Esdras 8:22, KJV]) and intransitively to mean experiencing fear ("Woe to fearful hearts, and faint hands, and the sinner that goeth two ways!" [Sir. 2:12, KJV]).  

"Pour forth" (ανάβλυσον).  Intransitively, bubble up (Donnegan), pour out with force (Giles); transitively, cause to spurt (Donnegan).  This word is liable to a vehemence ill-suited to our hymns (gush out [Schrevelius], 
gush up, spout out [Kyriakides]).    

"Divine dew."  We have to remember that in an arid country like Greece dew and rain have positive connotations which they may not have in, say, the Pacific Northwest.  Wells, fountains, rivers and streams have a tendency to come up as symbols of divine activity; only sailors' fears--heavy weather, rough waves etc.--have negative connotations.  From Homer onwards, the Greeks have had nothing good to say about oceans.  Dr. Johnson remarked that "no man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned" (16 March 1759).

"The Rejoice" (το «Χαίρε»), i.e., the angelic salutation.  While χαίρε does mean rejoice, when used as a greeting, it means hello, good day, 
welcome or good-bye (Montanari).  None of these definitions--not even the much better hail--will ever find their way into a church service; "Rejoice, O Virgin" is too firmly entrenched among Anglophones.  On the subject of Christians being too attached to translations, please see this amusing exchange of letters between St. Augustine and St. Jerome at 

Bible Research:  Internet Resources for Students of Scripture.  St. Augustine's complaint was that St. Jerome's translation of a passage in Jonah had changed the familiar "gourd" (as found in the Greek of the LXX) to "ivy" (as found in the Hebrew).  This change caused "a tumult in the congregation . . . in the town of Oea," which held a firm line on gourds. 

 

Ode 3

"Deliver" (απολύτρωσιν).  Lit., ransom, redemption (Montanari).  In the LXX, emancipation, liberation (Muraoka).  Kyriakides completes the process with deliverance.  Our hymnographers are always looking for synonyms for deliverance.

"Storm" (τρικυμία).  Lit., triple wave.  My esteemed editor, Zoilus, mentions research suggesting that τρικυμία may have meant tsunami.  Kyriakides as often helps us find the modern meaning of the word hiding behind the ancient word.

"Temptations" (πειρασμός).  Can mean experiment, trial (as in make a trial of), temptation, even worry.  It is possibly the only word in the Liddell-Scott which has only Biblical references, the most distinguished of which is of course the Our Father.

[Prayers read between odes 3 & 4.]

"Kiss" (ασπαζόμενους) or greet, embrace, welcome.  Partly a reference to the all-important duty of clients of greeting their benefactor (ἀσπασμός), but also a reflection of Mediterranean exuberance.  

Ode 5

"Mystically" (μυστικώς).  I chose the cheap way out as I could not decide if μυστικώς in this hymn meant secretly, mysteriously, spiritually or even mystically (Lampe).

Ode 6

"Protection (αντίληψιν)."  The word for protection here is not what it is in most of this canon (Προστασία).  As Kittel points out, ἀντίληψις is based on the idea of holding or supporting, which leads to defending, helping and protecting.  Προστασία is as its various definitions indicate (being leader, government, patronage, protection, prestige, grandeur etc. [Montanari]) a horse of a different color.  Προστασία is about taking charge; ἀντίληψις is about helping.  

"Venerate" (προσκυνούντων).  Apparently this act had its origins in kissing, as the simple form of the verb suggests (κυνέω).  The act of falling down (which we tend to think of as the main point) is only a consequence of the fact that greeting or kissing the chthonic gods entailed getting on one's hands and knees.  As Kittel points out, the Seventh Ecumenical Council distinguished the proskynesis due to an icon from the latreia due to God alone.  Schaff lumps ἀσπασμός

(greeting, kissing) together with proskynesis as species of "secondary worship."  The fact that ἀσπασμός refers to a universal, human act lends support to this distinction.  One way to straddle the fence is to render προσκυνέω as venerate, which I have done here.

Ode 8

"If your divine intercession had not quickly succeeded in doing so" (Τας αλγηδόνας των ψυχών, τις δυνήση, διαλύειν ευκόλως, ώ Παρθένε, ει μη φθάση τάχυ η Θεία Σου πρεσβεία).  Tricky patch.  I relied on Great Scott's observations that when φθάνω is used, as here, with an infinitive, it "more frequently in later writers, of actions which one manages to do, does before or has done first or already."
"Gracious" (ἱλέως).  'Ιλέως is Attic for ἴλαος (gracious [Great Scott]; benevolent, kind [Montanari]).  

Ode 9

"[Bent] arms" (αγκάλαις).  Zoilus thinks that the implied expression is metaphorical for "embraces."  Perhaps "arms which held him"?