Supplicatory Canon to the Most Holy Mother of God for Every Disease and Infirmity: A poem by St. Gerasimos of Little Anne’s Skete

Troparion
O Mother of God, you are our refuge, strength and the mighty help of the world!  By your intercessions, protect your slaves from every need, as you alone are blessed.

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.

In your sympathy, heal me, O Maiden—for I am desperately sick in body and soul—and I ask for the forgiveness of my sins, for you are the Mother of the compassionate God.

Worn out by invincible misfortunes and grave disease, I am cruelly distressed; I flee to you to find relief from them, O Mother of God.

Heal my body’s pains and wounds with your fervent and providential care, O Maiden, and give me, your suppliant, strength and health, for I have been miserably humbled.

O glory and joy of the angels!  Give me joy, for I have been painfully distressed by bitter infirmities on account of the multitude of my sins, O Mother of God.

 

Ode 3

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.

Since you truly pour forth oceans of healings, heal the disease of my soul and treat the sufferings of my body, O Virgin that is worthy of all praise, so that I may glorify you. 

O Virgin, Mother and Maiden:  in your sympathy heal my affliction and the most grievous wounds of my heart.  Raise me from my bed so that I may always walk according to the will of God.

Exceedingly exhausted from painful sufferings, I have been flung to the ground like a rag by misfortunes, but, O Maiden that is hymned by all, remove from me the heavy burden of my toils and grant me refreshment and strength.

Weakened by wickedness, I have fallen into bitter disease, and my body is afflicted by many pains, O Maiden; offer me your hand of help, pure Virgin, and deliver me from oppressive affliction.

 

Ode 4. 

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

Set my heart free from oppressive pains, pure Virgin, and heal my body, which suffers from the unbearable flame of fevers.

Having been broken by sins, I am oppressed by many painful diseases; nevertheless, raise me up, O Maiden, and grant me healing.

With showers of divine kindness and with the sweetness of your goodness, sweeten the bitterness of my heart, O Virgin, for you are wont to be kind.

O Queen that is worthy of supreme praise, raise up my life, which is distressed by sufferings, diseases and afflictions, and save me, a wretched sinner.

 

Ode 5. 

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

Tormented by the greatest sufferings, I cry out to you, O Mother of God, for you are the refuge of the sick:  “Heal me, your miserable suppliant.”

Look sympathetically on one who is wasting away in diseases and hopes in you with all his soul, O Mother of God, and grant me healing.

I am broken by fatigue, pure Virgin, and faint amid the torments of the bitter disease which has found me.  Pity me, as I suffer wretchedly, and save me.

May I have true strength—your fervent protection—and I will be delivered quickly from the sickness which has found me, all-immaculate Virgin.

 

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.

O Mother of God, you are the delight of angels and the true joy of men.  Heal my soul, which is afflicted by terrible sickness and pain, and grant her joy as the beginning of eternal joy.

O Virgin, you gave birth to the physician and savior of our bodies and souls, and he is our Lord and the maker of all things.  He causes streams of mercy to pour out copiously for us.  Look after my life, which suffers now from harsh trials.

Exceptionally ill, abed without any end in sight and wasting away from bitter sickness, I entreat you as the fountain of mercy to have mercy on me and heal me, O Queen, and grant me the health of soul and body again.

My whole body is in pain and my soul is afflicted by an unbearable stroke of calamity.  As I finish my life with groans, I cry to you from the uttermost depths of my heart:  “Sympathetically deliver me from the dangers which have found me, all-immaculate Virgin.”

 

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.

Furnish even me, a wretched sinner, strength and consolation, and give me health and the forgiveness of my many sins, for you are a fountain of kindness, all-holy Mother of God.

All my bones are in pain from bitter passions and unbearable diseases, and much distress troubles my life, but, all-immaculate Virgin, deliver me from my pains.

My entire life has been filled with passions and every suffering, but behold from on high my affliction, pure Virgin, and in your compassion give me healing.

Look with your compassionate eye upon your suppliant in your mercy, for I am terribly ill, O virgin Mother of God; give to me healing in body and soul and grant me peace. 

 

Ode 8

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

Deliver me from the pollution of my soul, O Mother of God, and heal my weak body with the salvific medicines of your compassion.

Having been led astray by foul deeds, I have become defiled and have grieved Christ, my benefactor; therefore, give me repentance, O Mother of God.

I fall down with a contrite heart and wretchedly cry out to you, O Mother of God:  “Heal the pain incurred by my base life.”

O Maiden, as the fountain of compassion, pardon the measureless sins I have committed in my life and heal me in soul and body.

Stained in my soul by sins, I am afflicted by illness in body, but, O Mother of God, do not disregard me for ever.

 

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.

With your salvific and strengthening intercession, deliver me from the harsh pain of infirmity and heal my soul, which suffers from the passions.

I ignore the way of God and suffer from desperate sicknesses, O Virgin, but I will be healed by your kindness.

Look down from above, O Maiden, upon the pain which scourges my life harshly, and deem me worthy of your sympathy and healing.

I will not cease to hymn you with my unprofitable mouth, O Virgin, for you are the guardian of my life, and from you I receive the dew of healing.

 

ENDNOTES FOR THE CIRCUMSPECT
I thank my esteemed editor, Zoilus, for checking the rectitude of my Greek and eagle-eyed Aeteia, my lawfully-wedded, for proofing the English with her incisive insights.  All other mistakes may be legitimately attributed to me.
Ode 1.  “Our redeemer and God.”  This is a good example of hendiadys,  the “expression of a complex idea by two words connected with and” (The Oxford Concise Dictionary [6th ed., 1976]).  Some translators, sensing the awkwardness of hendiadys in English, render “God, our redeemer.”  
“Offences” renders πταῖσμα, which Great Scott defines as stumble, trip, false step, mistake, error and misfortune, adding that it is also a euphemism for defeat.  Muraoka says that the word is only used euphemistically for defeat in the battle in the LXX.  Lust et al. report that it occurs once—I Sm. 6:4.  The word is not used in the NT or in the Apostolic Fathers.  Lampe says that it is synonymous with ἁμάρτημα (failure, fault in Great Scott).  Lampe defines ἁμάρτημα under ἁμαρτία as slip, error, sin.  He says that the difference between them is that ἁμάρτημα refers to “the individual act” of sin, whereas ἁμαρτία refers to “sin in the abstract.”  Summing up, it seems that two positions are possible.  The first is that πταῖσμα is simply a synonym used to break up the monotony of saying ἁμαρτία/ ἁμάρτημα.  The second is that πταῖσμα refers to the kind of sin that arises out of a mistake or misstep, as opposed to malice. 
Ode 3.  “Virgin-Mother and Maiden.”  A good example of the hymnographic tendency to stack the titles of the Mother of God.

"Worthy of all praise" renders Πανύμνητε (Montanari), which is usually translated incorrectly as all-hymned, which is meaningless.  No one says of anything or anyone that it is all-praised in English.  The tendency of translators to use meaningless expressions for words that actually have clear meanings must be eschewed.  Lampe also allows praised by all.  
Ode 4.  “Queen” renders Δέσποινα, which Lampe defines as mistress or 
queen.  Montanari allows for mistress, lady, princess, queen and 
empress.  The problem is that the degeneration of our society has nullified the shades of meaning found in Δέσποινα; indeed, our puppet-masters are busy fostering an imperial denial of the female sex per se.  The Christian may generally use mistress or lady as he pleases in these canons.  
"For you are wont to be kind" (φιλάγαθος).  Tricky word.  Cremer provides the most thorough survey of this puzzling word.  This quality refers to someone "who devotes himself in earnest to right doing."  He adds that "ecclesiastical Greek . . . we find the word mostly used in the particular sense of one who likes to be kind, who likes to do good." 
Ode 6.  “Beginning.”  The word υπόθεσις has many different kinds of meanings:  basis, foundation, hypothesis, starting point, book etc.  
“O Virgin, as you gave etc.”  A good example of how convoluted our hymnographers can be.  In morphologically rich languages like Latin and Serbian, word-order is much more flexible than English.  The tendency of English to collapse under the weight of too many subordinate clauses is well known; Dr. Johnson’s success in writing intelligible, nay, euphonious, English in the periodic style is truly underrated.  Another problem is the multitude of associations packed into the space of a single troparion.  I did some violence to the Greek to make the English comprehensible:  "She who heals the physician and savior, O Virgin, of our bodies and souls, which gushes streams of mercy, the Creator of all and Lord:  care for my life, which suffers now from harsh trials" is not comprehensible.  One thinks of Schopenhauer’s censure of contemporary authors in 19th-century Germany who “say what they have to say in long sentences that wind about in a forced and unnatural way; they coin new words and write prolix periods which go round and round the thought and wrap it up in a sort of disguise.”  Having read such German, I sympathize with him.  I have seen Latin, too, which fits his description—Martianus Capella and St. Faustus of Riez come to mind.  St. Gerasimos does not meet Schopenhauer’s standards but occasionally comes close in obscurity and complexity of expression, probably due to the influence of Pindar.  
“The fountain of mercy to have mercy.”  I recall W. Somerset Maughm writing that a friend of his at Oxbridge had shown her professor a sample of Maughm’s prose.  I believe that the learned man censured Maughm for using one word twice on the same page. Greek is often, as here, unapologetically repetitive.
Ode 7.  Give me healing.”  I expanded κατ΄ άμφω (“in both of them”) into “in body and soul,” as this sort of brevity is typical of St. Gerasimos’ style.  However, I omitted “to my soul” at the end since in English the indirect object is implicit and the repetition of the word soul is overwhelming.
Ode 8.  “Pardon.”  Ίλαθι, when transitive can mean make propitious, 
make kind, propitiate, placate, make favorable, expiate or pardon 
(Montanari).  If Great Scott is right to make appease the original definition, then the extended meaning of pardon follows naturally from the notion that if the angry feelings of a god are soothed, he will evidently pardon the culprits.  Montanari cites the OT for the meaning of pardon.  Lust et al. report that 
ἱλάσκομαι means to pardon something (not someone!) in the middle voice but to be merciful or propitious in the passive.  A scholar of the language tells me that "it is important to translate it in a way to indicate good disposition. After all, ilaomai/ilaskomai has the root of ilarion as in Phos ilarion ("gladsome light"). So I would say, in the non-causative, "be gracious, be merciful, be ...." And in the causative form ilaomai/ilaskomai would be make gracious/merciful, turn to mercy, or something of the sort. Intercede is not accurate at all. I also agree that propitiate is awful."