familiar to English readers by the versions of Neale and others. We have traces of Christian hymns in the New Testament, and Pliny refers to the singing of them in the churches of Bithynia at the time of Trajan.[1] St. Basil refers to a hymn of the martyr Athenogenes, who died in the year 169, "Which as he was hurrying on to his perfecting by fire he left as a kind of farewell gift to his friends."[2] Hymns and psalms always had their place in Christian worship.[3] During the fourth century Church psalmody was much advanced, first in Syria by Ephraim, then at Constantinople by Chrysostom and others, later in the West, especially under the influence of Ambrose. There is a question whether the Greek hymns of the fourth century were metric; but though that may have been the case, there is no doubt that from the eighth century onward Greek hymns were simply rhythmic, not metric, and were used like the psalms for chanting. Three or more stanzas, called troparia,[4] constituted an ode, three odes a triodeon, and three triodia a canon. It was usual for each ode to end with a doxa, i.e. a doxology, and a theotokion,[5] which was a stanza in honour of Mary as the mother of God. These hymns occupy the greater part of the Greek service book. Most of them are rubbish;[6] but among them are gems of immortal value.
The great age of hymn-writers commences with the eighth century, and at its head stands John of Damascus, who was thought to be inspired by the Virgin Mary, the patron of his convent at Mar Saba. His canon for Easter Day, known as the "golden canon," sung at midnight on Easter Eve, begins with the words, "Christ is risen," to which the antiphonal shout is "Christ is risen indeed."
- ↑ Epist. 97.
- ↑ De Spiritu Sancto, xxix. 73. This has been identified with two early hymns, the Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις (Gloria in excelsis), and the φῶς ἱλαρόν, still used in the Greek daily service.
- ↑ e.g. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. v. 28.
- ↑ τροπάριον, a small τρόπος or mode.
- ↑ Θεοτοκίον.
- ↑ A "deluge of worthless compositions," Neale, Hymns of the Eastern Church, 3rd edit. p. 38.
