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.
Hear, blessed one, the words of my humble soul, and sympathetically
grant me the favor of your protection, O holy and divinely wise Panagis
Paisios.
O holy Panagis Paisios, availing ourselves of
your tomb as of a sacred gift, we ever flee for refuge to it and are speedily delivered from every trouble.
Heal my suffering soul, thrice-blessed Panagis Paisios, for you are a physician of the suffering, and strengthen me to walk the paths of the Lord, wholly
blessed one, by your intervention.
Fittingly we all know you are truly the Mother of
God; after God, we rest our hopes of being saved on you, by the supplications
of the divinely wise Paisios.
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.
Having you as our supplicant with God, O Saint, we, the citizens of Lexuri, faithfully honor and celebrate you, Father Panagis Paisios; by your intervention deliver those who celebrate you from temptations.
I supplicate you, blessed one, to quickly heal my spiritual darkness and the weakness of my flesh, for you loved the poverty of him who takes away the infirmities of the world, Father Panagis Paisios.
Behold those in your pure flock, O Lady; guard them, keep them safe from every attack of life and misfortune, but also keep them invulnerable by your power, divine Maiden of Dias.
Prayers following Ode III
Preserve your servants
from dangers, divinely inspired one, whose divinely appointed defender you have
become, and [be] their guardian and savior, Panagis Paisios.
Hear, O Maiden of Dias and Virgin Mother of God, the
supplications of your servants and deliver them from every kind of danger.
Kathisma.
Fervent Intercession.
You are the fervent supplicant, O Paisios, of those who hasten with affection to
your tomb and celebrate faithfully and call upon you, O blessed one: “Deliver us
from dangers as our unsleeping guardian and great rampart.”
When you appeared to the church as a new and truly
bright star, O saint, you shone on all men and illuminated the pious,
Panagis Paisios.
Divine Panagis Paisios, your life astounded mortals,
Father, and the heavenly hosts rejoiced exceedingly in your struggles.
Cause the disturbances of my life to cease, O holy
one, and by your intercessions calm the storm of the passions of my soul and
body.
Glory of the Cephalonians, the honor of the world, the
boast of Lexuri! O Panagis Paisios, you
have been proclaimed as the glory and foundation of the church!
All-pure Virgin, as our divine Maiden of Dias set free from pains of soul and body those who glorify your mighty works.
Day and night
I appeal to you, my great protector: in
every place and time keep me safe from every mischief and attack of our
adversaries, for I have put my hope in you.
Performing the
Divine Liturgy as a priest of the Most High, most blessed one, you offered the bloodless
sacrifices to God, famed Panagis Paisios;
but do not cease now to beseech him, Father, on behalf of all who honor you
faithfully.
As one who
bore the heavy burden of the day like an approved worker and increased
the talent given to him, you have heard the divine voice saying, “Come here, my
faithful servant, into the joy of your Lord.”
Being the protector of the world, ever-virgin Mother
of Dias, steer me, guide me to the straight road and direct my mind to the
upright paths of righteousness, governing the sojourns of my soul.
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.
Deliver my soul from baneful death, Father Panagis
Paisios, for I have taken refuge faithfully in your tomb, and free me by
your intercessions from every grave disease and from dreadful, constant misfortunes.
The Lord, having known the nobility of your soul, chose you to be another Samuel, O most blessed one. As a minister and a most virtuous shepherd, O Panagis Paisios, you guided the church of Lexuri to the pastures of Paradise.
We have acquired you as a fortress for refuge, the certain salvation of our souls and as sweetness in our afflictions, O blessed
one, and we ever glory in your icon, Panagis Paisios, and now we beg you to
preserve us from all kinds of dangers.
Heal my sick soul with your potent medicine, Mother
of God, and beseech your Son and our God, with the divine Paisios, to save me
from the Gehenna of fire and obtain enjoyment there.
Prayers following Ode VI.
Preserve your servants from dangers and afflictions, for we have acquired you
as a guard and indestructible fortress, O most blessed
Panagis Paisios.
Drive the clouds of despondency from my soul and
grant pure joy to me, your supplicant, O Mother of God, as you are the
receptacle of joy.
Kontakion
Hastening to your protection, O holy one, we are filled with your paternal
gifts, O saint, magnifying Christ who made you our protector, Panagis Paisios, the ornament
of Lexuri.
Prosomoion
Laying all hope in Heaven, having stored up the fruit
of divine training within, you curbed the terrible serpent who has wounded many
souls, and by the power of the Cross, O saint, you mortified your whole life, having
become the prominent first-fruits of all the fathers. Wherefore, having
obtained the greatest boldness with Christ, entreat him on behalf of us, greatest
Panagis Paisios.
Enable us to live with an upright mind, perfect love
and reverent manners. By your fervent
intercessions with Christ, help us give all our attention to a blameless way of
life.
Set free from trials, dangers, dire straits,
afflictions and demonic mischief those who are emboldened by your protection
and cry out faithfully, Blessed are you, the God of our fathers.
Being an equal of the angels, truly, wholly blessed
father, holy Panagis Paisios, deliver from dangers those who faithfully cry
out, O God of our fathers, blessed are you.
By the supplications of your mother and by the
powerful entreaties of Paisios, long-suffering Word, deliver from dangers those
who honor you with affection, saying, O God of our fathers, blessed are you.
Ode VIII
Irmos. The king of Heaven whom the hosts of angels
hymn, hymn and exalt him above all forever.
Guard and protect forever those who faithfully and
affectionately ask for healing at your tomb, divinely wise saint.
Wholly blessed Paisios, having imitated the life of
the saints in these last days, you gathered together sanctity and grace for your
servants.
Favorably receive those who entreat you fervently, pious
saint, for we ask for grace and glorify God unto the ages.
By the supplications, O Christ our Savior, of your
mother and Paisios, save all who exalt your might supremely unto the ages.
Your city of Lexuri joyfully sings thanksgiving odes to
you, Panagis Paisios, and exults in you, for she has been saved from dangers and
afflictions by your supplications.
You have appeared as the divinely splendid exultation of the monastery of the Theotokos Coroniotissa; wherefore, deliver us from every sorrow, Panagis Paisios.
As you delivered those who before ran
faithfully to you in Lexuri and Cephalonia, so also now deliver me from every
misfortune.
Fill my heart with joy, wholly blessed one, and may
your icon be my refuge, for I run to your divine icon and magnify our Master,
Christ.
Your all-pure Mother, with Paisios, beseeches you
who alone are long-suffering to save from dangers those who magnify you
faithfully.
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.
Please visit the St. Panagis Basias Resource Page of John Sanidopoulos for some background on this saint, which I discovered in Mother Nectaria's book, Evlogeite: A Pilgrim's Guide to Greece.
Ode 1
“Favor” (χάρις) could also be “gift” or “kindness.”
“Holy” (ὅσιε) could be rendered “sainted” or “saint.”
“Divinely wise.”
Θεόφρων
is a word on which the lexicographers do not agree. Montanari says it means “of a divine mind,
sacred, pious.” He also notes that θεοφρόνως means
“piously.” Lampe offers “of godly
mind.” Schrevelius says “inspired,
endowed with a divine mind, a prophet.”
Giles, Maltby, Kontopoulos and Donnegan agree on “divinely wise.” Konstantinidos renders “having a divine mind,
understanding divine things, pious.” Note
that according to Mother Nectaria, the saint’s name was Paisios, but he was
popularly known as Panagis (Παναγής).
The cryptic text appears to be a sub-par version of something like Ἔχοντες Μάρτυς, τοῦ σοῦ λειψάνου τήν χάριν, καταφεύγομεν ἐν τούτῳ πάσῃ ὥρᾳ, καί τῶν ἀπειλούντων, λυτρούμεθα κινδύνων
(Παρακλητικός Κανών εις τον Άγιο Μάρτυρα Σωφρόνιο του εν Παλαιστίνη, Ποίημα
Γεωργίου Αποστολάκη του από Δικαστών [https://www.proseyxi.com/paraklisi-eis-ton-agio-martyra-sofronio-tou-en-palaistini/].
“Having gained”
(πλουτήσαντες): be rich, be rich in (Montanari). Stephanus cites St. Gregory of Nazianzus
inter al. as using this verb in the present signification. I checked Migne’s Latin against the
Greek.
“Trouble”
(πόνου). Montonari offers a wide range
of meanings (labor, fatigue, tiring exercise, combat,
suffering, physical pain, disease, illness, pain, torment, anxiety, difficulty,
trouble). Kyriakides offers a much smaller range (pain, ache, suffering,
trouble). So, too, Kontopoulos (pain, distress, anguish, grief, trouble).
Σαλεύομεν should
mean “we are pitched about, we rock, stagger, totter” etc.
However, Lampe finds waver can become ride at anchor
and so rest, depend on.
Ode 3
“Keep”
(συντήρει), using the modern meaning of this word.
“From every attack of life” (πάσης ἐπηρείας τοῦ βίου) is an admittedly odd phrase.
“Diotissa” is
the popular name for the icon of the Mother of God of Blachernae. According to Mother Nectaria, a tiny island
off the coast of Cephalonia had a small chapel dedicated to this icon to which
St. Panagis “often retired for short periods” (Evlogeite! A Pilgrim’s Guide to Greece, p.
190). The name of this island is Dias,
whence Diotissa.
Prayers
following Ode III
Konstantinidos and
Stephanus define θεοφόρος as Deum ferens and θεόφορος as divino motu latus. The lexicographers seem to ignore the
distinction. For example, Lampe,
Montonari, Kyriakides and Sophocles define θεοφόρος as Deum ferens and do not acknowledge the
proparoxytone. Giles simply used both
definitions for the paroxytone.
I suspect that the best
general translation is Giles’ divinely inspired, but in certain contexts
(divinely) inspired, sacred and holy might do. For example, in modern Greek “the holy
fathers” is rendered as οἱ θεοφόροι πατέρες (Kontopoulos).
Θεόφορος is variously defined as inspired
or possessed by a god (Great Scott, Konstantinidos); God-bearing,
inspired (E. A. Sophocles); divinely inspired (Giles); divine,
sacred, holy (Kyriakides); divinus, plenus Deo
(Suicerus); divino motu latus, divino spiritu afflatus
(Stephanus).
“Defender”
(προστάτης) is a two-sided word that is crucial to euergetistic norms. From the point of view of his betters, from
whom he tries to secure the interests of his clients or dependents, he is a supplicant;
from the point of view of the dependents, he is a defender, a champion
or a protector. Although champion
is a very useful word for προστάτης, its athletic connotations in English may
intrude unwarranted athletic notes.
Zoilus cautions that such notes may be quite in place. He observes “that St. Paul included a fair
number of athletic metaphors in his epistles. So it strikes me that athletic
imagery in hymns wouldn’t be too farfetched.”
In fact, the constant recourse to epinician motives in all canons to
saints (but not to the Mother of God) strongly supports Zoilus’ position.
“Guardian.” φύλαξ can also mean protector
and defender. Our hymnographers
are not shy about figures of repetition.
“Savior” (ῥύστης) or
“liberator, deliverer.” More repetition.
In Homer we read ῥυτήρ (protector, defender). According to Great
Scott, ῥυστήρ (deliverer) is a “rare and late form of ῥυτήρ.” Our word, ῥύστης, is,
according to Montanari and Great Scott, found in the LXX and pseudo-Lucian
(i.e., late). Lampe does not include it
and the New Testament authors do not know it.
In euergetism, the προστάτης of the community is paid back with praise
and titles (such as “the father of his country”). “Defender,” “guardian” and “savior” are among
titles so used. The word ῥύστης
does not, like σωτήρ, have
soteriological overtones. According to Bauer, σωτήρ was originally
“a title of divinities,” later applied to “deserving” men. In the NT, it is applied only to God. I suppose that our hymnographer was using ῥύστης
to acclaim St. Panagis in proper, euergetistic style, but signalling heavily to
his audience—or to the few Greeks in the nave who knew enough Koine—that he was
not confusing the saint with Christ our God.
Kathisma
Προστάτης
supplicant, defender, protector M.
Πρόμαχος = προμαχεών rampart, bulwark SOPH.;
battlement Great Scott; defence, rampart SCHR.
Ode IV
“To the church” (τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ). In
other canons we find ὡς ἀστήρ τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐφάνης, ὥσπερ νεόφωτος ἀστήρ, τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐφάνης, Νεόφωτος
ἀστήρ, τῇ Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, Ἐφραὶμ Θαυματουργέ, ἀληθῶς ἀνεδείχθης, ἣν (i.e., the church)
καταυγάζεις ὡς ἀστήρ, ὅτι ἄρτι τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, λαμπρός ἀστήρ ἐφάνη.
ἀγλάϊσμα is best defined by DGE: adorno (ornament), ornamento
(ornament, decoration), ornato (adornment); gloria, (glory,
fame), gozo (joy, delight), alegría (joy, delight).
“Proclaimed” (ἀνεδείχθης). Great Scott:
proclaim [as being elected to office], dedicate, lift up and show,
display. DGE: revelar, inaugurar, consagrar, proclamar,
declarar, designar, nombrar, mostrar.
Montanari: transform. Kontopoulos:
render. Kyriakides: extol.
Lampe: (in the passive) be
famous.
Ode VI
“Glory”
(καυχώμεθα), but boast and exult (Lampe) are also possible.
Prosomoion
“Training” (μελέτημα anything produced by care and study; meditation, practice
[Schr]).
Omitted: Neither Zoilus nor I could figure out how to
translate ἐβιώσω ἰσαγγέλου
in the context of the prosomoion. It is
not clear why ἐβιώσω is in the middle voice or
what ἰσαγγέλου
agrees with.
Ode VII.
“Dire straits “ (ἀνάγκης). Plight with little scope for manoeuvering;
dire straits; shackles Muraoka; need, suffering, agony, suffering, misfortune
Montanari.
Ode VIII
The first troparion is reconstructed to read “Τοὺς ἐν ἐπίστει [pistei not epistei], καὶ πόθῳ ζητοῦντας, εἰς ἴασιν τὸ [tw not to] σῷ τάφῳ θεόφρον, φύλαττε καὶ σκέπε, εἰς πάντας τοὺς αἰῶνας.”
Ode IX
“Loudly sings” (βοᾶ). That definition is from Montanari, who also
offers invoke, proclaim.
Are these definitions behind all the shouting and crying aloud in our
hymnography? Cf. implore help, celebrate SCHR; importune,
clamor, celebrate, praise Giles; call upon Maltby; call
for aid, celebrate loudly, extol Donnegan.
“Divinely
splendid” (θεοπρεπὲς). Excellent call by Kontopoulos.
The fourth troparion reads Χαρᾶς μοῦ τὴν καρδίαν
πλήρωσον τρισμάκαρ, τῇ θείᾳ εἰκόνι σου προστρέχοντι, καὶ τὸν Δεσπότην
Χριστὸν μεγαλύνοντι. As it stands, it is gibberish. “And may your icon
be my refuge” is a rank interpolation.
My interpolation is based on a survey of similar troparia, which follow.
(1) Σκέπη γενοῦ μοι, καὶ καταφύγιον Κόρη, τῷ ἐν πίστει προστρέχοντι Σοι δούλῳ, καὶ τῆς τρικυμίας, διάσωσον τοῦ βίου.
(2) Πειρασμῶν κλονοῦσι μοι προσβολαί, δεινῆς ἀθυμίας, ἐμπιπλώσαι μου τήν ψυχήν, γαλήνην παράσχου ὁσιώτατε πάτερ, τῷ τῆ θεία κάρα σου πίστει
προστρέχοντι.
(3) Ἄναρχον Θεόν, ἐξευμένισον
Ὀνούφριε,
καὶ τὴν καρδίαν μου πλήρωσον χαρᾶς,
ἵνα
δοξάζω σε Ὁσίων
ἀκροθίνιον. ... Τὴν νεολαίαν,
τῆς
ἐκκλησίας τὴν μάνδρα,
σὺ ὁδήγησον
τάχος τρισμάκαρ, καὶ αὐτῇ παράσχου, ἀκλόνητον τὴν πίστην.
(4) Δίδου τὴν νοητήν, καὶ θείαν εὐωδίαν, τοῖς πίστει προσιοῦσι, τῇ θείᾳ Σου Εἰκόνι
(5) Σωτηρίαν παράσχου τοῖς εὐλαβῶς Δέσποινα, τῇ Σῇ θαυμασίᾳ Εἰκόνι πόθῳ προστρέχουσι καὶ
τὴν
χάριν παράσχου πιστῶς, σὲ προσκυνοῦντι ἐν
πίστει καὶ μεγαλύνοντι.
(6) Ῥανίδας μου τῶν δακρύων, Δέσποινα, μανδηλίῳ τῆς σῆς χάριτος σμῆξον καὶ βοηθὸς ἐν ἀνάγκαις γενοῦ μοι, τῷ μεγαλύνοντι σοῦ τὰ θαυμάσια, Θεογεννῆτορ, ἀσκητοῦ Γερασίμου ἡ σκέπη . . . .
The
key to this business is to know that many or most canons are recycled. The troparia adduced as examples demonstrate
how the same idea is worked out with slightly different details.
“Long-suffering” (μακρόθυμον)
or patient, lenient (Montanari).
