Akathist to the Holy Mother of God

About This Event

On Friday 27th February at 6:30pm, Fr Gabriel Diaz-Patri will be singing the Greek office of the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God. The Akathist Hymn is a much loved Lenten Devotion in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions, in which the praises of Our Lady are solemnly sung in this most ancient hymn. All are most welcome! The Akathist will follow the Stations of the Cross at 6pm. ABOUT THE AKATHIST TO THE MOTHER OF GOD: When the word Akathist is used alone, it most commonly refers to the original hymn by this name, the 6th century Akathist to the Theotokos. This hymn is split into four parts when is sung at the "Salutations to the Theotokos" service on the first four Friday evenings in Great Lent during the Office of the Small Apodeipnon (small compline). The four sections correspond to the themes of the Annunciation, Nativity, Christ, and the Theotokos herself; the entire Akathist is included in the Orthros (Matins) of the Fifth Saturday of Great Lent, which for this reason is known as the "Saturday of the Akathist" (and actually sung on the evening of the fifth Friday). In monasteries of Athonite tradition, the whole Akathist is usually inserted nightly at Compline. This profound, devotional liturgical poem, which sings the praises of the Holy Mother of God (the “Theotokos”) and Ever-Virgin Mary is not only the most famous work of Byzantine hymnography -the famous Byzantinist Louis Bréhier said: “By its elegant form, by the depth of the mystical feeling and the musical beauty of the words, the Akathist is unique in Byzantine literature” - but for some is also “the most beautiful, most profound, the most ancient Marian Hymn in all Christian literature”. Fr. Vincent McNabb O.P., a close friend of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, in the forward remarks to his translation of the Hymn into English published in 1934 stated, "No apology is needed for introducing the Akathistos to the Christian West. Indeed the West might well be apologetic about its neglect, or ignorance of such a liturgical and literary masterpiece" . But the Akathist Hymn was not always strange to the Latin West: A Latin version was written down around 800 by Christopher, Bishop of Olivolo (Venice), which had enormous influence on the piety of the Western middle age. Later, in the XVIII century, an indulgence of fifty days has been granted to Catholics of both Eastern and Latin rites by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746 for each recitation of the Akathistos, and a plenary indulgence for its recitation on the day of the Annunciation of our Lady. Pope Benedict XVI said: “The venerable Akathist hymn to the Mother of God represents one of the highest expressions of the Marian piety of the Byzantine tradition. Praying with these words opens wide the heart and disposes it to the peace that is from above, from God, to that peace which is Christ himself, born of Mary for our salvation.”

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