In the official liturgical language, this sequence is called “Akathistos Hymn” or simply “Akathistos” from the upright posture, which the faithful kept throughout its chanting. Thus, with the words and with the posture of the body, the honor, the special reverence, the thanksgiving towards the one to whom we address our greetings are expressed.
And it is this sequence in our liturgical act today integrated into the liturgical context of the sequence of the little supper, exactly as it was performed tonight. This is how it happens every Friday during the first four weeks of Lent, even on Friday of the Fifth Week, when after the segmental chanting of the first four weeks, the entire hymn is recapitulated. In monasteries, but also in today’s parish practice and earlier according to the various Typicals, we have other liturgical contexts for the chanting of the hymn: the liturgy, the vespers, the pannychidos or a peculiar Theotokos Constantinople sequence, the “embassy”. In all these cases, at a certain point in the common sequence, an interpolation takes place. The canon of the Virgin and the entire or partial stock and houses of Akathistos are chanted.
We will pass by the controversial, on the other hand, issue of the time of writing and the poet of Akathistos. Many are cited as his poets: Romanos Melodos, George Pisidis, the patriarchs of Constantinople, Sergius, Germanus I, the Holy Photius, George Nicomedia (of Sicily), poets who lived from the 7th to the 9th century. The tradition shows great instability and the younger scholars, relying on the few internal indications that exist in the text, some prefer one and others the other of the supposed poets. A historical event, with which the psalm of Akathistos was connected by tradition, could orient us somewhat in our search: The siege and miraculous salvation of Constantinople under the emperor Heraclius on August 8 of the year 626. According to the Synaxarius after at the end of the siege, this hymn was sung in the temple of the Theotokos of Blacherna, as praise and thanksgiving for the salvation, which was attributed to the miraculous power of the Theotokos, the patroness of the City. Patriarch then was Sergius, who took the lead in the struggle for defense. It was easy to consider him a poet of the hymn, although he is not known as a hymn writer, nor was he orthodox. On the other hand, the hymn should have been older, because if it had been written for the salvation of the City, it would only have been possible for it to explicitly speak about it and not refer to other matters, as we will see below. However, the psalm of Akathistos is connected by historical sources to other similar events: the sieges and the salvation of Constantinople under Constantine the Great (673), under Leo Isaurus (717-718) and under Michael III (860).
However, whoever the poet was and with whatever historical event from the above and whether it was primarily connected, one is the indisputable fact, which the relevant sources give us, that the hymn was sung as a thanksgiving ode to the defending general of the Byzantine state during the thanksgiving pannychides that were performed in memory of the above events. According to the synaxarist’s observation, the hymn is called “Akathistos”, because then during the salvation of the City and from then until today, when the houses of this hymn were sung, “righteous people” heard them as a sign of thanksgiving to the Theotokos, while in the houses of of other stock “by custom” they sat down.
But why is it sung during Great Lent? The solutions of the above sieges did not agree with her. On August 8 the siege of Heraklion was lifted, in September the siege of Pogonatos, on August 16 the commemoration of the city’s salvation by Leo Isauros was celebrated and on June 18 the siege of Michael III was lifted. It was obviously associated with Great Lent due to another purely liturgical reason: The great feast of the Annunciation of the Theotokos always falls within the period of Lent. It is the only major holiday, which, due to the mourning character of Lent, lacks pre-holidays and after-holidays. This lack is covered by the psalm of Akathistos, partially during the Friday evening meal and in its entirety during the Sabbath of the 5th week. Friday evening liturgically belongs to Saturday, a day which, together with Sunday, are the only days of the Lenten weeks, during which the celebration of joyous events is permitted, and to which, as we have seen, the week’s holidays are moved. In certain Typicals Akathistos was chanted five days before the feast of the Annunciation and in others on the day of the feast. The Akathistos hymn is the stock of Evangelism, the hymn of the incarnation of the Word of God.
When Akathistos was connected with the historical events, which we mentioned, then a new special prologue was composed, full of praise and supplication, the well-known “Ti hypermacho”. To the defending general, the city of the Theotokos, freed from suffering thanks to her, inscribes the victories and begs her who has the irresistible power to free her from the various dangers in order to glorify her by crying: “Hail, nymph, marry” . The hymn is sung again in pl sound. d.
“I am the victorious general,
as redeemed from afflictions, thanksgiving
I inscribe to you your City, Theotokos;
but as I had the state irresistible,
from ever with perils free,
I cry to you;
Hail, nymph, bloom.”