STICHERA FOR THE SECOND WEEK OF THE GREAT FAST. οὐ γὰρ βλέπεις τοὺς ταράττοντας. Christian! dost thou see them How the troops of Midian Prowl and prowl around? Christian! up and smite them, Smite them by the merit Christian! dost thou feel them, Christian! never tremble! Never be down-cast! Smite them by the virtue Of the Lenten Fast! Christian! dost thou hear them, How they speak thee fair? "Always fast and vigil? Always watch and prayer?" Christian! answer boldly : "While I breathe I pray: Peace shall follow battle, Night shall end in day. "Well I know thy trouble, Thou art very weary,- But that toil shall make thee, Some day, all Mine own: But the end of sorrow Shall be near My Throne." S. Germanus. A.D. 634........A.D. 734. S. Germanus of Constantinople was born in that city about 634. His father, Justinian, a patrician, had the ill-fortune to excite the jealousy of the Emperor Constantine Progonatus, who put him to death, and obliged Germanus to enrol himself among the Clergy of the Great Church. Here he became distinguished for piety and learning, and in process of time was made Bishop of Cyzicus. In this capacity he assisted, with S. Andrew of Crete, in the Synod of Constantinople of which I have just spoken; and no doubt, he might be the more favourably disposed to Monothelitism, because he had been so deeply injured by its great opponent, Pogonatus. However, he also, at a late period, expressly condemned that heresy. Translated to the throne of Constantinople in 715, he governed his Patriar chate in tranquility. On the attack of Leo the Isaurian on Icons, his letters, in opposition to the Imperial mandate, were the first warnings which the Church received of the impending storm. Refusing te sign the decrees of the Synod which was convoked by that Emperor in A.D. 730, and stripping off his Patriarchal robes, with the words-"It is impossible for me, Sire, to innovate, without the sanction of the Ecumenical Council," he was driven from his See, not, it is said, without blows, and returned to his own house at Platanias, where he thenceforth led a quiet and private life. He died shortly afterwards, aged about one hundred years, and is regarded by the Greeks as one of their most glorious Confessors. The poetical compositions of S. Germanus are few. He has stanzas on S. Simeon Stylites, on the Prophet Elias, and on the Decollation of S. John Baptist. His most poetical work is perhaps his Canon on the Wonder-working Image in Edessa. But probably the following simpler stanzas, for Sunday in the Week of the First Tone, will better commend themselves to the English reader. By fruit, the ancient Foe's device CHRIST, by the Cross of shame and pain, Thy Holy Passion we adore And Resurrection, evermore: Thou, after three appointed days, Thy Body's Temple did'st upraise : And Adam's children, one and all, With Adam, to New Life didst call. "When Thou," they cry, "shalt Victor be "In that Thy kingdom, think of me!" |