Today, Friday, April 19, the Church celebrates the Akathistos hymn, while according to the calendar, the memory of Saint Theodore and his companions Philippa, Dioscorus, Socrates and Dionysios is commemorated.
The names they celebrate today are as follows: Philippa, Philippia, Filio.
the Standing-Up Hymne
A seated hymn prevailed to say a hymn “Kontakio” of the Orthodox Church, in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos, from the standing position, which the faithful kept during its chanting. The faithful sang the Akathistos hymn standing up, under the circumstances that it is believed to have been sung for the first time, while the congregation watched standing during the sequence of the feast of the Annunciation, with which the hymn was associated.
It is sung as part of the liturgical context of the Little Supper service, in all Holy Temples, on the first five Fridays of Great Lent, the first four in parts, and the fifth in its entirety. It is a hymn consisting of a prologue and 24 stanzas (stanzas) in Greek alphabetic verse, from A to Z (each stanza begins with the corresponding Greek letter in order), and is written on the rules of homotony, isosyllabic and partly of rhyme.
Considered a masterpiece of Byzantine hymnography, its language is serious and poetic and is enriched by decorative adjectives and many figures of speech (contrasts, metaphors, etc.). Its theme is the glorification of the incarnation of God through the Virgin, which is done with many expressions of joy and rejoicing, which give it a triumphant tone.
In the year 626 AD, and while the Emperor Heraclius together with the Byzantine army had campaigned against the Persians, Constantinople was suddenly besieged by the Avars. The Avars rejected any proposal for a truce and on August 6 they occupied Panagia of Blacherna. In cooperation with the Persians, they were preparing for the final attack, while Patriarch Sergius surrounded the walls of the City with the image of the Virgin of Blachernitissa and encouraged the people to resist. That night, a terrible whirlwind, attributed to divine intervention, created a storm and destroyed the enemy’s fleet, while the defenders inflicted enormous losses on the Avars and Persians, who were forced to break the siege and retire inactive.
On August 8, the City had been saved from the biggest threat in its history up to that point. The people, wanting to celebrate their salvation, which they attributed to the help of the Virgin, gathered at the Church of Panagia of Blacherna. Then, according to tradition, the crowd stood up and sang the so-called “Akathisto Hymn”, a thanksgiving ode to the defending general of the Byzantine state, Panagia, attributing the “victories” and the gratitude of “the mighty general”.