S. Stephen the Sabaitę. A.D. 725... ... .A.D. 794. S. Stephen, called the Sabaïte, from the monastery of S. Sabbas, was the nephew of S. John Damascene, who placed him in that house. He was then ten years of age: he passed fifty-nine years in that retreat; and was the earliest of the hymnographers who lived to see the final restoration of Icons. He has left but few poetical compositions. The two best are those on the Martyrs of the monastery of S. Sabbas-(March 20)-on which a monk of that house would be likely to write con amore; and on the Circumcision. His style seems formed on that of S. Cosmas, rather than that of his own uncle. He is not deficient in elegance and richness of typology, but exhibits much of sameness, and is occasionally full of very hard metaphors, as when he speaks of “the circumcision of the tempest of our souls." He is commemorated on the 13th of July. IDIOMELA IN THE WEEK OF THE FIRST OBLIQUE TONE. These Stanzas, which strike me as very sweet, are not in all the editions of the Octoechus. I copy from a dateless Constantinopolitan book. κόπον τε και κάματον. Art thou weary, art thou languid, Art thou sore distrest? "Come to Me"-saith One-" and coming, Be at rest!" Hath He marks to lead me to Him, If He be my Guide? "In His Feet and Hands are Wound-prints, And His Side." Is there Diadem, as Monarch, That His Brow adorns? "Yea, a Crown, in very surety, But of Thorns!" If I find Him, if I follow, What His guerdon here? "Many a sorrow, many a labour, Many a tear." If I still hold closely to Him, "Sorrow vanquish'd, labour ended, If I ask Him to receive me, Will He say me nay? "Not till earth, and not till heaven Pass away!" Finding, following, keeping, struggling, Is He sure to bless? "Angels, Martyrs, Prophets, Virgins, Answer, Yes!" S. Tanasius. + A.D. 806. Tarasius, raised by Constantine and Irene from the post of Secretary of State, at one step, though a layman, to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, (784 A.D.) was the chief mover in the restoration of Icons and the Second Council of Nicæa. Strongly opposing the divorce of Constantine from Maria, he refused to celebrate that Emperor's nuptials with Theodora. But when they had been performed, he was with some difficulty persuaded to pardon the priest who had officiated at them. On this, S. Plato, and the monks of the all-influential Studium, forsook his communion; nor was the schism composed till the Patriarch yielded and retracted his pardon. He died February 25, A.D. 806, on which day he is commemorated both by the East and West. His hymns are unimportant. The longest is the Canon on the Invention of S. John Baptist, May 25. It is in no wise remarkable. Nor do I know any of his compositions which would be sufficiently interesting to the English reader, to make it worth versification here. |