Anthems to God, connecting centuries (ending)

Anthems to God, connecting centuries (ending) Гимны Богу, соединяющие века (окончание) print version September 2, 2019 16:43 In the July issue of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, a story was started about akathists, one of the most popular among the believers in the genre of church hymns. The total number of Akathists has already exceeded two thousand original texts; they are currently written in 14 languages. Every week, two or three new hymns appear in the world. Who compiled the very first collection of akathists in Russia? Are there any canonical violations in our beloved akathist “Glory to God for all”? What is being done to create a “golden fund” of akathists? These and other questions are answered by a member of the working group on the codification of akathists of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, clergyman of the Saratov diocese, priest Maxim Plyakin . Interview published in No. 8, 2019 (end, start see No. 7 ) ( PDF version ). - Your Reverend, what problems does your working group face? - Firstly, these are situations when we have a definition of the highest church authority, that the anthem is approved, but the anthem itself is not. For example, in 1952, from the Archbishop of Minsk Pitirim (Sviridov), the Synod received a request to approve the akathist to all Turov saints: Cyril, Martin, and Lavrentiya (the author of the akathist is Archpriest Cosma Rain). The synod then decided to approve it for use within the borders of Belarus. Since one of the tasks of our working group is to search for and codify akathists already approved by the church authorities, we, of course, also deal with texts from the 1950s. And when we took up this akathist, it turned out that he wasn’t in the Russian archives that were available to us. They turned to the Belarusian exarchate , but they did not have an akathist either in the archive or in the Turov diocese . Therefore, it remains to be hoped that someday this typewriter of the 1950s will be found. The second problem: the Akathist was approved, but not officially published on time. This happened, for example, with an akathist in honor of St. Tikhon , the Patriarch of Moscow. There is a resolution of the Synod of 1992 and a typewritten copy approved by it. There is the first edition of this akathist, which is already different from archival typewriting. It can be seen that it was edited, really made better, but after synodal approval. There are numerous reprints of this akathist, but all of them - somewhere a little, and somewhere seriously - differ from each other. And when a few years ago the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate decided to reprint this akathist, it was necessary to temporarily abandon this idea. After all, it is not clear which text to take as a basis! This is one and the same akathist, but with inconsistencies that do not allow him to raise the issue of its re-publication now. I hope the hierarchy will resolve this situation. In addition, in the edited version of the text there are a lot of lexical Russisms. Thirdly, if the akathist is approved by the Synod, and there are several akathists with this name. As, for example, an akathist in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God: it was approved by the Holy Synod back in 1914. But with this name, there are two different akathists, and one of them has several seriously differing options. And it is not known which one was approved by the Synod - the corresponding archival documents have not been identified. As a result, we made a compromise decision: the Smolensk diocese determines which akathist they consider the best, and our commission checks the grammar. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill also expressed his opinion on which of the existing options for akathist was the best, as the former bishop of the Smolensk diocese. As a result, they chose the text according to which the Smolensk people had been praying before the Hodegetria icon in the Assumption Cathedral for many years. Or, for example, an akathist to St. Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky). It was written in 1995 by Simferopol archpriest George Severin , who also composed a service to the saint. Over the years, many publishers have made changes to the text. It turned out, probably, five different options. And when this akathist came to our working group, I had to take these discrepancies into account, since each of them was already published in a large circulation and in some places there could be successful editorial finds. After us, this akathist was also corrected by members of the Holy Synod and approved it two years ago. The Greeks, by the way, wrote their own akathist and their service to St. Luke of Crimea. Their author is the now living Metropolitan of Edessa Ioil ( Fancacos ), he also wrote a service to St. Paisius the Holy Mountaineer. The situation is different, if there is a decision of the Synod, it is known which of the hymns it has approved, and in modern publications that are popularly held, this hymn is printed with different interpretations. Then we either direct all church publishers to print the version approved by the Synod, or reconsider and approve after corrections the most common version of this akathist to date. For example, there are four different akathists to the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. The author of the very first of them, created in the 1970s and approved by the Holy Synod back in 1992, is Metropolitan of Kharkov Nicodemus. But in the mid-2000s, the Synodal Liturgical Commission radically edited this akathist. In 2008, the Holy Synod considered both versions of the text and considered that the second option was preferable to the one approved earlier. This text is recognized today as an official version for church publishers. There was a case when from the funds of the museum of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese we were sent a copy of the akathist to St. John Damascene. On this typewritten hand of Metropolitan Sergius ( Stragorodsky ), the future Patriarch, it says: "Blessed for church use." And the date is 1928. We do not know if there are other copies of this akathist, it is possible that he exists in a single copy. Honestly, the Soviet period is a headache for us, because the akathist could have never been printed anywhere, including in the documents of the Synod, confirmed by the members of the Holy Synod (or individually by the Holy Patriarch - this could have been under the leadership of Sergius or Alexy I ). - On what grounds is the decision made which of the akathists is preferable? - We consider a whole complex of features - how long the text has been in use, what is its literary quality. We take into account the reviews (if any) of authoritative people of the Church, the number of grammatical errors in a particular akathist, etc. And already by the totality of the signs, we must make a decision after a general discussion at the working group. But sometimes they make it easier for us. For example, from the Don metropolis they sent an akathist to the holy righteous Pavel Taganrog. We were asked to consider this particular, newly written akathist, although he was already the fourth in a row. But all the others were significantly worse, and at the request of the Taganrog deanery, a new one was written, which in the end approved the Holy Synod last year. - And what is the most difficult part in the work of your working group? - A very difficult situation arises if for some reason none of the akathists has yet considered the Synod, and our working group is invited to decide for ourselves which of several options we will work with. So, at a recent meeting, we examined the akathist to the martyrs Guriy, Samon and Aviv, very beloved and honored by our people. Today he wrote two different akathists, and both versions were already printed by church publishers. As a result of the discussion, we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to create a synthetic text: since none of the available Akathists fully satisfied us, the anthem published by the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was taken as the basis. However, part of the rejoicing was taken from the second akathist, after which we unified the style of the text. Very rarely, but it happens that both options are blessed for print. For example, akathists of the Bogolyubsky icon of the Mother of God. The first akathist was written before the revolution in the Bogolyubovsky monastery of the Vladimir diocese . Approved for publication in 1886. But in the 1920s, the Vladimir bishop and one of the most remarkable hymnographers of the 20th century - the future Patriarch Sergius ( Stragorodsky ) - writes a new akathist. He did this at the request of the governor of the Bogolyubov monastery, Hieromonk Athanasius (Sakharov), the future saint and confessor. At the request of Metropolitan Sergius, Patriarch Tikhon approved this acathist on a par with the first. St. Athanasius, while he was personally very skeptical of akathists, admitted that the akathist of Metropolitan Sergius is very good. Both akathists are approved by the Synod. It is characteristic that the Synod does not formally approach the statement of akathist. The hierarchy not only reads, but also corrects the proposed option, sometimes returns for revision. And we are not the last resort here, our function is advisory. As a rule, if there is an amendment of the Synod, then we will introduce it into the text immediately. But sometimes the question arises - to uphold our option or accept the revision of the members of the Synod. In this case, we assemble a working group, study the reviews of the Synod and look for compromise solutions. "Thank God for everything" - Are there canonical violations in the akathist very popular among our people, “Glory to God for all”? - There are no canonical violations there. But this akathist is unaccustomed, since it is an unalloyed Russian language. This is not Slavic interspersed with Russian and not Russian, which “pretends” to be Slavic, it’s just modern Russian. And since the liturgical language of our Church is Church Slavonic, the anthem written in Russian causes a certain dissonance. Its author is Metropolitan Trifon (Turkestanov), a very authoritative, revered spiritual writer. The akathist himself was enormously popular and has been on the list since the 1930s. It is curious that when he came out in the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate in 2007, the editorial foreword read: “Unfortunately, we did not have any authentic manuscript of the akathist“ Thank God for everything ”written by Vladyka Tryphon. <...> Unfortunately, the akathist "Thank God for everything" continues to be published in large print runs with a significant number of missing lines and typos that distort the meaning. We tried to reconstruct his text based on all the options available to us. ” But, as it usually happens, there are still minor differences in one or two words between different texts. And to understand which of them is the text of Metropolitan Tryphon himself is not yet possible. The autograph (author's manuscript) of this akathist has not yet been discovered. It is curious that “Thank God for everything” is translated very actively: there are English, French, Ukrainian versions. He fell in love not only in Russia. And since this akathist, although the most famous, is not the first in Russian, this is a precedent when we do not let him into public worship, but are allowed to pray at home (i.e., for private prayer use), it allows us to think now what to do with the rest of the Russian-speaking Akathists, who have already begun to appear. For example, there is an akathist in Russian dedicated to the Lord (unfortunately, the site where this hymn was published has been deleted with all its contents). It was written by Archpriest Alexander Makarov, rector of the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Yasinovataya in the Donbass. He wrote under fire. But the anthem itself is very bright and joyful, the priest called it "The Joy of the Orthodox." And this feeling of a prayer impulse that you experience when reading even atones for any shortcomings of this akathist. The author of this akathist himself wrote in the preface to the akathist: "In the circumstances, words were needed that would help to see something bright and good in the surrounding chaos." And this is human experience. Bombs are breaking around him, and he is trying to express joy in prayer. This experience also cannot be simply taken and discarded. Poetry and Prose - Have you noted the mutual influence, for example, of Greek on Russian akathist or vice versa? - It must be admitted that we in the akathist creativity influence the Greeks much less than they do on us. The Greeks, in principle, do not like to translate Slavic texts. They consider liturgical texts to be poetry, and akathists in the Slavic language are prose for them. As they say, it’s worthless to force Slavic prose into poetry. Rather, they themselves will write a new hymn to some saint, rather than engage in translation. Although there are exceptions. The Greeks still transferred from Slavic to Greek akathist to Jesus the Sweetest (see: ZhMP . 2019. No. 7). This is a hymn of great beauty. There is evidence that this translation was known to the Monk Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer and had a definite influence on his work (he wrote about a dozen Akathists in Greek). At the same time, Greek creativity quite significantly affects Russian. First of all, through translations. In this context, I already mentioned an akathist to St. Nectarius of Aegina (see: ZhMP . 2019. No. 7). Another case. Several years ago, when the relics of St. Spyridon of Trimyphuntus were brought to Ukraine, the Publishing Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church published a book with the life, ministry and akathist of St. Spyridon. Akathist was translated from Greek into Church Slavonic. We see that the publishers acknowledge the fact that one cannot limit oneself only to the Russian anthem. By this they make it clear: "There is also a Greek akathist, and we offer it to you for prayer." Naturally, many of our akathists, in principle, are oriented towards Greek patterns. The first akathist was written in Greek, and the main, first tradition is the Greek akathists. Before they came to Russia, the akathists were the property of the Hesychasts (silent monks) in Greece. Of course, this could not but affect our anthem-making . - When did the very first collection of akathists appear in Russia? - Probably the earliest known collection of akathists on Russian soil is Canon, belonging to the Monk Kirill Belozersky, a student of the Monk Sergius of Radonezh. It was rewritten at the very beginning of the 15th century. These akathists were written by the Patriarch of Constantinople Isidor Wuhir ( XIV century). Very quickly they were transferred from Greek to Church Slavonic (it is likely that on Mount Athos), and St. Cyril in his Beloozero ordered to copy them (or, perhaps, even copied them himself) for his personal cellon Canon. Among these Greek examples was an akathist to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (from whom our modern comes). There are handwritten copies of this akathist of the XV-XVI centuries. Several akathists were written by the friend of St. Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Philotheus Kokkin . And the fact that our great Hesychasts used akathists in their secret rule also does not allow us to dismiss them - they say, this is “low poetry”. Moreover, among the authors of the akathists are Saints Nicodemus the Holy One, John of Kronstadt, Tikhon Zadonsky, St. Tikhon (Belavin), Patriarch of All Russia, Patriarch Sergius ( Stragorodsky ), Holy Martyr Peter Grigoryev. The saints did not consider it shameful for themselves to write akathists, and not just read them. - Have you come across unusual, strange akathists who were remembered for something? - One of the strangest akathists we have ever seen is an akathist to the previous Pope Benedict XVI (who still lives), written in Slavic . This akathist is incomplete, that is, it lacks four stanzas. Instead of them - a note: "Kondaky and Ikosy over numbers 10 and 11 are missing, for the Pope will still accomplish much." It was written in 2007, two years after the accession of Joseph Ratzinger to the papal throne. Firstly, writing an akathist to the living is wrong. And secondly, to write an akathist in Russia in honor of the Pope, and with the addition that he still has a lot to do, is just strange. And among the terrible akathists (it is also published on the Internet, but not sent to us for censorship), I’ll probably name the “anthem” in honor of the late brother Joseph Munoz , who was the keeper of the famous Montreal Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. He is loved throughout the Orthodox world, prayers are written to him, his icons are already there, many people believe in his holiness, but there has not yet been official canonization. The very presence of akathist before canonization occurs. For example, the akathist to Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) as an ascetic of piety was written by his granddaughter niece long before his canonization. But the akathist to brother Joseph was distinguished by some prohibitive amount of theological mistakes. Already in the first line of the akathist there is the phrase “Taken from the ark of the Novago Covenant ” , and the refrain says: “Rejoice, new wine of the Father of Heaven” , but in relation to a person (and not to God) it is not only indecent, but no longer clever, because these are biblical images attributed to God. When Jose is praised as “the new conquistador to America, decrepit sins” - this is geopolitics. And the rejoice, “Rejoice, rock that’s not insane, smite America” is an example of complete ignorance of the church tradition of understanding biblical texts. That is, in someone’s head it all happened. And for us, this akathist has remained an example of the transcendent theological lack of culture. People somewhere read out a loud epithet and put it into an akathist. And the fact that the “uncreated stone” is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus (Dan. 2:34) and, in principle, cannot be applied to a person as an epithet, that this is heresy, has already remained outside their understanding. But there is also a very joyful surprise. A few months ago, we considered the akathist of the Mother of God for the sake of Her icon "Joy or Consolation." Its author is the new martyr Porfiry Mironositsky, a well-known liturgical scholar, he died during the investigation in 1932. The icon in honor of which this akathist was written was in the temple where Porfiry Petrovich prayed. And when a person who has given half his life to church singing sings the Mother of God himself, this is poetry without exaggeration. We recommended this akathist to the Holy Synod, but there is no solution yet. - Is the “golden fund” of akathists, verified and approved by the Hierarchy, prepared for publication in our Church? - Last year, the Holy Synod decided to prepare such a body of texts for publication at the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate. And we are trying to collect it, and even include there those akathists approved by the Synod who have different interpretations in the text (in the hope that it will be possible either to select the preferred option or to edit these hymns by the directors of the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House and the Publishing Council). The project has not yet been completed, but we expect to place about 250-300 Akathists there. The project involves the Publishing Council and the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Moscow and St. Petersburg Theological Academies, the Office of the Moscow Patriarchate (where the archive of the Holy Synod is stored). The St. Tikhon University also helps our project. It is planned that in each volume there will be 50 akathists, 5-6 volumes will be released. This will be the corps of the most verified akathists. Today there is only one similar publication - this is Akathist, prepared by the late Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev). It was published twice - in 1989 and 1993. But with the claimed multivolume collection, only two volumes went out of print. And even to this Akathist, our working group has questions today. For example, on the basis of which decisions of the supreme church authority, Vladyka Pitirim included this or that akathist in his Akathist. Interviewed by Alexei Reutsky