Supplicatory Canon to the All-holy Malevi Icon of the Mother of God by St. Gerasimos of Little Anne Skete

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.”

Having borne in the likeness of the flesh the myrrh of life, O myrrh-streaming Mary, deliver me from the stench of the passions by the myrrh of your divine icon.

Your icon, which abundantly produces myrrh with your assent in Maleví, O Mother of God, gladdens and cheers every day those who approach it with faith.

Look graciously on those who stand by your icon most reverently and give to us, O Mother of God, the fulfilment of all our requests.

We praise in song the multitude of your miracles and we cry with faith, “Myrrh-streaming Mary, rescue us from every harmful misfortune out of your motherly kindness.”

 

Ode III

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.

Deliver from the deceit of invisible enemies and from manifold infirmities and misfortunes, O myrrh-streaming Mother of God, those who reverently receive your divine myrrh and glorify you.

As you stopped the grievous disease of cancer by the anointing of your holy myrrh, pure Virgin, so heal even me, for I am terribly sick, myrrh-streaming Maiden, so that I may honor you.

Your icon in Maleví is wonderfully seen as a fountain of myrrh, astounding all men and healing diseases of souls and bodies, for which we proclaim your generous grace.

As you have truly been revealed to be a temple of holiness, O Virgin, you therefore sanctify by your divine myrrh those who take refuge in you in the Maleví monastery and glorify your miracles, O Maiden.

 

Prayers following Ode III.

O myrrh-streaming Maiden and Mother of God, preserve those who are anointed with your holy myrrh from every harmful attack of the serpent.

Kathisma.  Tone 2.  Fervent Intercession.
O pure Virgin!  Our fountain of compassions and divine kindness! You have caused a fountain of myrrh to pour forth from your divine icon, from which, O Maiden, those who partake with faith are filled with a mystical fragrance and joy, proclaiming your divine miracles.

 

Ode IV

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

With the anointing of your myrrh, O Maiden, purify us who have been defiled by the adversary, for you poured forth the myrrh of life for the world.

Truly wondrous has your icon in Maleví proven to be, O Maiden that is honored by all, for it ever gushes forth divine myrrh by the divine Spirit.

Those who with faith receive your myrrh, O Queen, are healed of every injury and affliction, and your miracles are proclaimed.

O myrrh-streaming Queen of all, deliver those who take refuge in your icon from diseases and all kinds of suffering of soul and body.

 

Ode V

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

Look upon us who run faithfully to your protection, O Mother of God of Maleví, and grant joy to our souls.

Be our sure protection, myrrh-streaming Mother of God, and in all things defend and rescue those who ask for your swift help.

As you healed the diseases of eyes, I entreat you to also open the eyes of my heart, myrrh-streaming Mother of God.

Performing many miracles, your divine myrrh gladdens the faithful, O Mother of God, and drives away the attack of the demons.

 

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.

As you rescued from the bonds of barrenness women who faithfully approached you, O myrrh-streaming Maiden, so deliver even me from the bonds of malice, and bind me tightly to the bond of love of my Creator.

Behold, from every side throngs of Christians with reverence flock together to you in your holy monastery, O Maiden, and receiving your divine myrrh, they cry to you with all their heart, “Fill us with your joy, O Lady.”

You bore the myrrh of life, being yourself a vessel of myrrh of heavenly graces.  Deliver those who worship with complete faith before your myrrh-streaming icon, O Maiden, from the hard-to-bear stench of diseases and afflictions.

Approaching your monastery of Maleví and being filled with heavenly fragrance from your holy myrrh, O Virgin, we proclaim your wondrous works to all and cry out, “Deliver us from the stench of the passions.”

 

Prayers following Ode VI.

The Kontakion.  Tone 2.  To those of your blood.
O myrrh-streaming Mother of God and pure Virgin, as you are full of kindness, unceasingly beseech your Son to grant forgiveness of sins to those who faithfully run to you.

Prosomoion.  Tone 2.  Having laid all hope.
Pure Virgin, since you bore Christ, the inexhaustible myrrh and the Savior of all, you have made the world fragrant with divine grace.  And now, O Lady, you gladden our souls with the holy myrrh which gushes forth abundantly from your icon at the visitation of your glory, and you always drive away the soul-destroying stench of the passions and diseases and all grievous despondency from our hearts.

 

Ode VII

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.

Above all spices, O Virgin, as the Scriptures say, the fragrance of your myrrh gladdens with its sweet smell the hearts and perceptions of all who always proclaim, “Blessed are you, O God of our fathers.”

With the invisible sprinkling of your divine myrrh, myrrh-streaming Maiden, wash away the filth of my fetid soul and brighten me, for I proclaim, “Blessed are you, O God of our fathers.”

As a wholly fragrant meadow, your Maleví monastery is set before all, in which, O Mother of God, your holy icon, as a wholly sweet-smelling flower, makes us fragrant and pours out myrrh there.

Make known to me the path of life, O Virgin, for I fall before your icon.  Rescue me from every deadly trackless sojourn, so that I may cry out faithfully to you, “Hail, joy of the faithful, most highly favored Virgin.”

 

Ode VIII

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

The grace of your holy myrrh has gone out into all the world, O Mother of God, and the throngs of the faithful celebrate in hymns your glory.

Rescue, O Virgin, from painful symptoms those who fall before your divine icon and are anointed with your holy myrrh.

Everyone who approaches your monastery in Maleví is hallowed by your holy myrrh and proclaims your miracles, O Mother of God.

O myrrh-streaming Virgin, deliver those who supremely exalt your incomprehensible Son from diseases of body and sufferings of soul. 

 

Ode IX

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.

Your myrrh, O Maiden, distributes healings to all, and your all-holy icon pours it forth always on all who receive it with faith.

As a fragrant lily, your myrrh-streaming icon breathes forth a divine fragrance on those who faithfully hasten to your temple, O all-pure Virgin.

You, who groan wretchedly because of your calamities and diseases, approach the myrrh of the Mother of God in order to receive healing.

Render my mind victorious, O Mother of God, over every kind of wickedness of the passions by the wondrous fragrance of your myrrh.

 

ENDNOTES FOR THE CIRCUMSPECT

This Ποίημα is by St. Gerasimos of Little Anne Skete and is available online at (among other sites) https://www.proseyxi.com.  I thank Zoilus for his invaluable vetting of the Greek and thank my eagle-eyed Aeteia, my lawfully wedded, for proofing the English with her incisive insights.  Maleví is pronounced roughly mah-leh-VEE.  The reader is directed to John Sanidopoulos' Mystagogy Resource Center for a quick background on this amazing icon.  The very fortunate may refer to Mother Nectaria's book, Evlogeite:  A Pilgrim's Guide to Greece for her discussion of the same.

 

Ode I. 
“Gladdens and cheers up” (εὐφραίνει καὶ τέρπει).  An example one of the favorite rhetorical devices of the hymnographers, synonymia, or the piling up of synonyms.  One of the difficulties of translating Greek hymns is making them sound natural in English.  English, like French, does not bear up well in long sentences.  Even if we eliminated the synonymia by dropping, say, "cheers up," this sentence is fatally long by one extra adverb ("every day").  We have to suppose that these hymns are not understood by most of the monks singing or hearing them.  The monks who do understand them appreciate them in the way that Pindar may be appreciated--as a pleasant or even stirring medley of images and concepts. 

Finally, we have to remember that the hymnographers, like Homer, are constantly looking for ways to pad their hymns to suit the demanding requirements of meter.  When a hymnographer uses synonyms side-by-side or lists seriatim the titles of the Mother of God, one may reasonably suspect such metrical padding.  (For Aristophanes' indirect but amusing comments on the dangers of meter to a poet, see his The Frogs.  Search the PDF cited for "Found his oil-can gone."  This play is also the source of the famous Brekekekex koax koax.  A dual language edition may be found here.)  
“Misfortune” (ἀνάγκη), but it may also mean physical need, fate in philosophy, necessity in logic, physical suffering or agony.  Muraoka defines it distinctively as “plight with little scope for manoeuvring,” which allows him to translate it according to context as dire straits, shackles, constraint etc.  I decided to treat ἀνάγκης τε καὶ βλάβης as hendiadys, since the best translation of βλάβη in English is the potentially trivial mischief, while harm is a little tricky to work out in non-legal and hymnographical contexts.  “Rescue us from every misfortune and harm” seems to my ear to fall flat.

 

Ode III.

"So . . . so" seems repetitive in English, but in Greek the first so (οὕτω) is correlative and the second (ἵνα) is a purpose marker.

 

Ode IV.

"Injury" (βλάβης).  A favorite word of the hymnographers.  It can mean anything from harm (the most common translation) to damage, corruption, loss, 
mischief, disgrace, calamity, hardship, woe, affliction, distress, injury.  Modern Greek lexica favor injury.  I have a notion that disgrace--an important feature of Mediterranean ethos from Homer on--is meant, especially since it is conspicuously absent from our hymns.  

“The myrrh of life,” i.e., Christ.

“Divine myrrh by the divine Spirit” (θείῳ Πνεύματι . . . μύρον θεῖον).  I am guessing that metrical considerations forced St. Gerasimos to repeat “divine” twice in so short a space, but the hymnographers as a class are inclined towards fullness of expression.

 

Ode VII.
“Above all spices” (ὑπὲρ πάντα Παρθένε, γραφικώς τὰ ἀρώματα ἢ τοῦ μύρου σου) has to be a reminiscence of καὶ ὀσμὴ μύρων σου ὑπὲρ πάντα τὰ ἀρώματα· μῦρον ἐκκενωθὲν ὄνομά σου (Song of Songs 1:2).  The puzzling adverb, γραφικώς, is explained once we know that modern Greek γραφικὸς means “scriptural.”  The odd ἢ is supposed to be the def. art.

“Proclaim” (βοώντων).  I am reconsidering βοάω.   It seems to me that the other definitions are appropriate—proclaim, sing at the top of one’s lungs, invoke etc.  
I have always been puzzled by the amount of hollering in the hymns. 

“Aspersions” (ῥαντισμοῖς).  On the plus side, aspersion refers to sprinkling in a ceremonial context, which makes it appropriate for this hymn.  On the negative side, we nowadays cast aspersions.  Sprinkling is out, since it has only the wrong connotations—rain showers and lawns—even though it refers to roughly the same physical act as aspersion.  Also, sprinkling resists pluralization in English.

 

Ode IX.

“Kind” (σχέσεως) could also mean “occurrence.”