The funeral hymns of St John of Damascus

What is this mystery concerning us?
The place and meaning of the eight-mode nekrosima idiomela of John the Monk.

By the Rev Fr Patrick B O’Grady

Presented at Balamand University as a contribution to the conference held on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the founding of the St John of Damascus School of Theology,
1-3 December, 2009.

Abstract:
As a group, the eight-mode nekrosima idiomela of “John the monk” form a succinct catechesis on the meaning of death for the Christian, and a therapy toward repentance and an Orthodox conception of this present life. In this paper, the idiomela are examined from their position in the Church’s service books and interpreted with reference to Holy Scripture and to the other writings of the Damascene.

with gratitude to
the V. Rev Fr Michel Najim

for his friendship in Christ

1. I. Introduction.

I begin by calling to mind the life of Ss Varlaam and Joasaph as told by the Damascene in his work, The Precious Pearl. The pagan king of the Indians, Abenner, wanted his son, Joasaph, to grow up completely shielded from all of the unpleasantries of life, including the ultimate unpleasantness, the knowledge that death must surely overtake him, as it does everyman. So, he placed his son in an enclosed pleasure-palace. But as Joasaph came of age, he became desirous of learning more about life, so eventually he was allowed to leave the pleasure-palace where every one had a “constant smile” (what we call in America a “smiley-face”) and he encountered human misery for the first time. In one of his sorties with his councilors, he saw a poor wretch advanced in age and close to death and found out upon questioning that “death is the appointed doom of all mankind” and that its approach is “inexorable.”[1] As he reflected on that sober encounter, he underwent a spiritual crisis. Into this conflict, he was exposed providentially to Christian teaching, through the holy man, the monk Varlaam, by whom he was finally baptized and strengthened in the Orthodox-Catholic faith.  In America at least, we face a similar situation: we are like Abenner’s son, our culture is obsessed with avoidance of death in every way—people amuse themselves to distraction or drug themselves into oblivion, all the more as death approaches. We place our old folks in segregated spaces—so-called nursing homes—so that we don’t have to look at them and be reminded of death’s nearness. There are few funerals anymore—most opt for drive-by cremations. We want no reference to death—other than the video game version, death-as-entertainment. But like the son of Abenner, we cannot long abide this denial; our soul cries out for meaning in the face of death: “What is this mystery concerning us?” (plagal 4^th mode).

This issue of death is nowhere more clearly and soberly set forth in all its lineaments than in the funeral idiomela of our saint. The Damascene is truly Chrysorrhoas, the “golden-flowing,” as he theologizes with clarity and with a realism much needed amidst the condition of our modern-day avoidance of death. John the monk does not hasten to the resurrection proclamation; we must first consider the tomb.

1. II. The “praises” of the funeral service: the eight-mode idiomela.

The idiomela stand in the weekday Octoechos, dispersed through their modes, in the aposticha of vespers on Friday evening or in the aposticha of praises in Orthros on Saturday morning, depending on the mode. This ancient context serves as the reservoir from which the funeral hymns are taken, as Saturday is the day of the week dedicated to memorials for the dead, it being the day sanctified by the Lord Himself Who ordained the seventh day as a day of rest and fulfilled it with His own rest in the tomb on Holy & Great Saturday.

Tradition, in the form of the Vita of John of Damascus stemming from the 11^th century, tells us that John composed an idiomelon to comfort a fellow-monk over the death of one of his parents. Fudging his rule of obedience which prohibited him from writing at all, John compassionately composed the present hymn of the 3^rd mode, “All human affairs amount to vanity and do not exist after death…” It appears that all eight of them were included by the saint in his compilation of the Octoechos, of which as is well-known, he is credited as author.[2] Evidently, as John composed these hymns and augmented the Octoechos into its nearly modern form, the nekrosima were employed in the funeral service[3] and are now considered jewels in this service, as they provide a treasury of theology and a source of pastoral comfort.

According the Jacobus Goar’s Euchologium, the idiomela of John the monk are integrated into the funeral service. This reflects very ancient practice, as Goar depended on the Barberini Codex among other manuscripts in his critical edition. As is known, the funeral service proper possesses the structure of monastic Orthros, something evident in the pre-modern period, but now somewhat occluded by the heavy apocopation of elements in today’s Orthodox funeral service.  The chart in the appendix may help to clarify this. However, as Ioannes Fountoules aptly points out[4], a lengthy period of abbreviation and mainstreaming of the funeral service has produced a very short service—in comparison with the ancient one—and has often led to liturgical confusion.  There is one curiosity here which must be pointed out, however. St Symeon of Thessalonica, last archbishop there as the Turks conquered in the mid-15^th century, makes no mention whatsoever of the Damascene’s idiomela in his liturgical commentary on the “Service of the Departed”[5] Be that as it may, these idiomela now hold a firm position in all of our current funeral services, in all the local churches of Orthodoxy. Indeed, in one parish in America, these hymns being heard for the first time by newly-converted adults, evoked great admiration. The hearers found them most adequately to address their needs in facing death as the Church guides us.

1. III. The idiomela considered as theological jewels.

The appendix carries my translation[6] of the idiomela of St John of Damascus[7].

Organization

TME draws its eight-mode collection from the first sticheron of the vesperal aposticha of Friday evening, for all eight modes except for that of the fourth[8] and the grave[9] modes. However, this method of collecting them is faulty. The correct sequence is retained in the older list[10]. The eight-mode idiomela of St John of Damascus, as a group, possess a sequential array of elements united by a single, uniform petition for the repose of the departed. The hymnody presents the Church in prayer for the departed, even as She interprets the mystery of death now confronting us in the funeral service. The alternative idiomela mentioned in TME (see above) interrupt this unified sequence of teaching and therefore can be seen to be out of sync with the genuine eight.

1. A. The fact of death and its personal experience is set before us.

The 1^st mode idiomelon teaches us that life is tainted with grief and is fleeting. Grief entered human experience with the fall and touches everything. Nostalgia attends even joyful experiences and all events are vaporous and fleeting. “??? ????” –in a single moment, and death is upon us. We face the sure fact of death’s imminence. We are FRAGILE.

In the 2^nd mode, we learn that death comes; and what is our response? ?????!  Woe is me! Frustration (tears and supplication) attends the soul at death. All petition to men and angels ceases. The soul is separated from the body: ?????! We are HELPLESS.

It is to be noted that the idiomelon specified by TME, ????? ??????????, does not fit in this schema, as it takes up the theme of dissolution of the elements and bodily resurrection overtly, seemingly blunting the realism of the Damascene—a realism necessary for therapeutic grief and the development of spiritual sobriety. Note that the resurrection element (the “happy ending”) lies hidden[11] in the Damascene hymns. The faithful must take death seriously as a terminus of this life’s sojourn.

1. B. Death is the great leveler: interpretation of temporal affairs in the face of death.

This section presents the heart of what must be heard. In the 3^rd mode hymn he tells us that the personal status of a man has no value in death. Wealth and reputation are useless beyond the grave. Man’s standing in life amounts to VANITY.

Then in the 4^th mode our catechesis continues. In death, contact with the world ceases. There is no more passion, opportunity, largesse, and status. We are DISTRACTED.

Note that the idiomelon in TME, ????? ???????????, is the first sticheron of the praises all of which are assigned to Theophanes, according to the Parakletike. Also, it is the only one found in the funeral service group which is not marked as a nekrosimon in the Parakletike. It does not fit in the schema here, as it deals with the separation of the soul from the body (a theme presented earlier) directly in the midst of the theme of the transience of temporal affairs and the vanity of life.

Finally, the idiomelon in the Plagal 1^st mode asserts that all men, of any social standing, are equalized in death.  The same bare bones are everyman’s, “Who then is king or soldier, wealthy or poor, righteous or sinner?” Status no longer holds meaning; “I am earth and ash.” We are EARTHEN.

1. C. Theology: why has death intervened?

We must know our created state and the reason for this sobering mystery, in order to benefit from what it would teach us. The idiomelon in the Plagal 2^nd mode carries the doctrine that man is created with a bipartite constitution, a body drawn from earth and a divinely in-breathed soul. The nature of bodily death and its role in redemption cannot be grasped, unless we know our CREATED HYPOSTASIS, conjoint with visible and invisible elements.

Then, the reason for our sorrow is given. In the Grave mode we hear that man, as divine image and likeness (elsewhere described by St John as marked by self-determination), fell from Paradise through partaking of the food and, as a consequence, returned to the earth from which he was taken. We are FALLEN.

NB: The short idiomelon in TME, ?????????, ????? ????, amounts to a mere petition without any dogmatic or admonitory content.

1. D. Death in its material realism is set before us.

To bring us back to the moment at hand in this funeral service, the Plagal 4^th mode idiomelon is unsparing in its depiction of corporeal lifelessness. “I lament and I mourn when I think on death and see the beauty fashioned for us according to God’s image, lying in the tombs – lifeless, devoid of glory, without expression.” The church understands and blesses human weeping as a necessary adjunct to death. Remember, “Jesus wept” at the tomb of Lazarus. In popular Greek Orthodox usage, it frequently is sung, instead of the trisagion, to accompany the body from the church temple to the grave. We are LIFELESS.

Interpretation

1. The saint characterizes this present life as marked by brevity, vanity, weakness, and deceitfulness; everything is “dust and ashes” (pl 4^th mode). The presence of this well-developed theme in the Damascene’s theology serves as an on-going commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, especially the first chapter, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity… I beheld all the works done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and the choice of one’s spirit.”[12] John develops this last sentiment by stressing in many places how man freely chooses the bad over the good. Evil is sourced in man’s mis-choice[13].  All of this present life is marked by man’s abuse of freedom.  As a result, vanity of life stems from the dominance within each human hypostasis of “these giants”: love of pleasure, love of praise, and love of money.[14] These giants are represented by the opening phrase, “Where is passionate attraction to the world?  Where is the invention of opportunities?  Where the gold and silver?  Where the hustle and bustle of household servants?”  (4^th mode). He asserts that no man sins without one of these false loves at work in him.  The complex of sensuality, pride, and avarice gives rise to vanity and forgetfulness of God.  Death is the final product which comes through indulgence under these giants. Death is also a deliverance to find rest from the struggle. So the ascetic will aspire to mortifying these giants and to receive the grace of God to build the house of virtue while there is time for repentance, in this life.

If one keeps in mind the vaporous nature of this present life, knowing that a mere touch (??? ????, 1^st mode) to the scale of existence, balancing between vitality and mortality, can end it all, one can find repose in the constant remembrance of Christ, in keeping vigilance of heart, and close adherence to the curative ethos of the Church.

1. St John does not sugar-coat death. “As a flower withereth… so doth every human being undergo dissolution.”[15] His realism regarding corporeal death is not muted or softened in any way. No euphemisms stand for the naked event itself. We consider the dead man in the funeral service, present before us: “lifeless, devoid of glory, without expression” (pl 4^th mode). Physical dissolution is called to mind and not cloaked; indeed, all those who hear the hymns are reminded of the nature of the process which will begin at the moment of bodily death. Elsewhere, the Damascene does make a distinction between phthora and diaphthora: that is, between the consequence of death as in the inertness and cessation of the living processes of the body and the further consequence as the body’s process of decay. Christ was subject to phthora, but not diaphthora.[16]

Also, as mentioned above, the emotional element of helplessness presents itself: “Woe is me!  What an agony the soul hath as it is separated from the body!  Woe is me, how many tears doth it shed, and there is none to take pity on it!  The soul inclineth its eye toward the Angels and it supplicateth to no effect; it stretcheth forth its hands unto humans and hath none to help…” (2^nd mode). Indeed, all prayer ceases at death; the fearful moment of the parting of the soul from the body ends all petitioning. This is a profound way of expressing that there is no repentance after death; “behold, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation,”[17] says the apostle to the gentiles. There is no intermediate state.

1. St John’s anthropology is not ambiguous. His clarity of expression, well-known in the Ekdosis, continues to be present in the idiomela: mankind “in the beginning… (was) fashioned according to (the divine) image and likeness”[18] and so he is of bi-natural composition.  “(God) fashioned the body from the earth, and gave man a rational and noetic soul through His own inspiration.”[19] “It must be known that man is of a two-fold constitution: that is, of soul and body, and that he has five senses and five virtues of soul and body, each. The five psychic senses are intelligence, understanding, opinion, fantasy, and perception. And those of the body are sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.”[20] So it is a dreadful and wholly unnatural prospect for the soul to be parted from the body. They were created together (contra Origen; Ekdosis, p. 210) and therefore have never been apart: “What an agony the soul hath as it is separated from the body!” and a similar sentiment dominates the idiomelon of Theophanes included in the group, “most fearful is the mystery of death, how the soul is violently separated from the body. Its harmony and its most natural bond of co-existence is sundered by divine will…” (4^th mode).
2. The whole group of idiomela are truly unified over one central theme: the petition to the Lord that the soul of the departed find rest, in the words of the ancient priestly prayer which no doubt is of older provenance than St John himself, “O God of spirits and of all flesh… give rest (?????????) to the soul of Thy servant, N., who has fallen asleep…” The first commandment of God after creation itself concerns rest: “And on the seventh day God finished the works He made, and He rested on the seventh day” (Gen 2:2). In the epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle interprets this rest of God in a post—resurrectional perspective, anapausis after metastasis: the object of prayer for the dead. Therefore, although St John makes absolutely no direct reference to the resurrection in these hymns, a proper understanding of the petition for rest will lead us to see the paschal mystery unfold for the departed. To find rest, “the rest for the people of God,”[21] one must identify, first through holy Baptism[22] and then through bodily death, with the death of Christ in order to attain unto the resurrection from the dead. Our prayer for rest, then, is an expression of our faith in the divine grace at work in the deceased believer as we witness his passing to the grave and petition the Lord to see to his repose as he awaits the general resurrection. There is no purgatorial element, no middle state involved. Repose involves the cessation of all struggle and an entry into the Promised Land of divine communion in Christ Himself: “For Thou art the resurrection, the life, and the rest (?????????) of Thy servant, N., who has fallen asleep…,” as the concluding assertion of that ancient prayer holds. Grief yields to delight—the paradisiacal delight of life in Christ, Who is Himself the Promised Land foreshadowed in the Old Testament. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed (??????????) us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”[23] As with the Mother of God herself, whose whole metastasis (soul first and then body) stands as archetypal for all subsequent metastases of souls in Christ, and whose repose elucidates the New Testament fulfillment of the divine Sabbath,[24] each believing Christian traces the path of the Paschal victory.[25] The deceased for whom we pray has been discharged[26] from the battles of this life; as we say, “you’ve done your duty, now it is time for Rest.”

What is this mystery concerning us?  How have we been given over to corruption and conjoined to death?  Truly it is by the commandment of God, Who granteth repose to those who have passed over.

+  +  +

Works Cited

Citations from the Holy Scriptures are taken from The Orthodox Study Bible, 2008, except for psalmic references which come from The Psalter according to the Seventy, Boston, 1974.

Book of Needs:
The Great Book of Needs, Vol. 3, St Tikhon’s Seminary Press, South Canaan PA, 1999.  Pages 201-202.

Ekdosis:
John of Damascus, ??????? ??????? ??? ????????? ???????.  In ??????? ??? ????????????????? ?? ????. Chrestos and Zeses, Vol. 1, ????????? ?. ???, Thessaloniki: Sacred Metropolis of Thessaloniki, 1976. (Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, in Greek).

Fountoules:
I. Fountoules, «????????? ????????????.» In ???????????? ??????, same author, Athens: Apostolike Diakonia, 2002. Pp. 149-164. (Issues in Ritual, “Funeral Rites,” in Greek)

Goar:
Jacobus Goar, Euchologium sive Rituale Graecorum, published in 1730 in Venice. Edition of the Akademische Druck und Verlagsanstalt, Graz, 1960.

Najm:
Fr. Michel Najm. ? ???????? ???? ??? ??????? ??? ??????????. Dissertation. ????????????? ????????????, Thessalonica, 1984

Nasrallah:
P. Joseph Nasrallah, Saint Jean de Damas: son époque—sa vie—son oeuvre. Harissa, 1950.

NEA:
?????????? ??? ????????????? ??????????. Athens: Apostolike Diakonia, 16^th edition, 2008. (Funeral and Memorial Services, in Greek)

Parakletike or Octoechos:
??????????? ???? ???????? ? ??????, 2^nd edition, Apostolike Diakonia. Athens, 2003.

PG:
Patrologia Graeca, Migne.

Service Book:
Service Book of the Eastern Orthodox-Catholic and Apostolic Church. Englewood, New Jersey: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, 10^th edition, 1994. Pages 192-194.

Symeon:
Symeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica, ?? ??????. Athens: ? ?????????? ?????, 1862. (Dialogues of St Symeon, in Greek).

TME:
G. Violakis, ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????????.  Athens: B. Saliveros, n.d. (Typikon of the Great Church of Christ, in Greek)

Varlaam and Joasaph:
trans. A. Gerostergios, The Precious Pearl: the Lives of Saints Barlaam and Ioasaph, by St John of Damascus. Belmont, Massachusetts: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1997. [I made reference, here and there, to the Greek text as found in PG 96: 857-1248.]

Appendix A. The Funeral Service, according to Symeon of Thessalonica (XV cent)

Orthros elements identified in red italics
Blessed is our God…
Orthros prooimiakos or hexapsalm
Litany “not in all mss” (Fountoules, TTh)
Alleluia, “O depth of wisdom” “likewise not in all mss” (Fountoules)
Kathisma from Psalter:
Ps 118, Blameless in the way… the 1st of the 3 stases. “Alleluia”
Litany for the departed with O God of spirits…
Ps 118, Thy hands have made me… the 2nd of the 3 stases. “Give rest, O Lord, to Thy servant”
Litany for the departed with O God of spirits…
Ps 118, Look upon me… the last of the 3 stases. “Have mercy on me, O Lord”
	Litany for the departed
As stichera on Ps 118: no evlogitaria
As sessional hymns:
Then the supplicatory troparia are chanted, Give rest with the righteous…
Ps 50:
Canon:
The Praises: idiomela of the Damascene not present
Makarismoi:
Scriptural readings:
(Prokeimenon, and) Apostolic pericope
The chanting of Alleluia, “as a proclamation of the second coming of Christ,” w. censing of the dead, “as one of the faithful” (Symeon)
Gospel reading
Ektenia:
Ektenia, in which each priest says the usual prayer
Aposticha of praises:
The last kiss (teleutaios aspasmos) hymns, 2nd mode
“the foregoing prayer again, as it concludes hymns”
Dismissal
Dismissal with Eternal memory! “shows our unity in Christ with the departed”
Removal of the corpse to the grave, with “Holy God…”

v                 Blessed is our God…

v                 Psalm 118 in three stases with a litany for the dead after each stasis.

v                 The Supplicatory troparia (pl 1^st mode)

v                 Prokeimenon and Apostle

v                 Alleluia w. censing, and Gospel

v                 Ektenia, w. O God of spirits…

v                 Last kiss hymns, followed by the same prayer.

v                 Dismissal and Eternal memory.

Appendix B. THE FUNERAL SERVICE, compared.

Goar (Barberini)

Symeon (XV cent)

Biolakis (TME)

Orthros elements identified in red italics

Blessed is our God…

Orthros prooimiakos or hexapsalm:

Ps 90, He that dwelleth in the help

Litany “not in all mss” (Fountoules, TTh)

Alleluia, “O depth of wisdom” “likewise not in all mss” (Fountoules)

Kathisma from Psalter:

Ps 118, Blameless in the way, w. Litany for the departed and O God of spirits… after each of the three stases.

As stichera on Ps 118:

Evlogitaria for the departed.

Evlogitaria for the departed.

As sessional hymns:

Then the supplicatory troparia are chanted, Give rest with the righteous…

Ps 50:

Psalm 50

Canon:

Canon of Theophanes, pl 2nd

Only the kontakion, “With the saints give rest…”[27]

The Praises:

8-mode idiomela of the dead

8-mode idiomela of the dead

Makarismoi:

makarismoi, w. troparia

Scriptural readings:

(Prokeimenon, and)[28] Apostolic pericope

Alleluia,[29] and Gospel reading

Ektenia:

Ektenia, in which each priest says the usual prayer

If hierarch present, 2 forgiveness prayers

Aposticha of praises:

The last kiss (teleutaios aspasmos) hymns, 2nd mode

Transposed order in Violakis:

“the foregoing prayer again, as it concludes hymns”

Dismissal (then “Eternal memory”)[30]

Dismissal

“Eternal memory!” (Aionia i mnimi

The last kiss with hymns.

Removal of the corpse to the grave, with “Holy God…”

with “I lament and I mourn…”

Appendix C. The text of the nekrosima idiomela of John the monk
My translation compared with those of the authorized texts in the Service Book and the Book of Needs.

1^st Mode

What delight is there in this life which abideth untainted with grief?  All things are weaker than a shadow; all are more whimsical than dreams.  One touch to the scale and death succeeds all this.  But in the light of thy countenance, O Christ, and in the sweetness of Thy beauty, grant repose to him whom Thou hast received, as the Lover of mankind.

Service Book

What earthly sweetness remaineth unmixed with grief?  What glory standeth immutable on earth? All things are but feeble shadows, all things are most deluding dreams: yet one moment only, and Death shall supplant them all.  But in the light of thy countenance, O Christ, and in the sweetness of thy beauty, give rest unto him whom thou hast chosen: forasmuch as thou lovest mankind.

Book of Needs

What sweetness of life abides unaccompanied with grief?  What glory stands unchanged upon earth? All things are but most-feeble shadows; all things are but most deluding dreams.  Yet a moment and death takes all these things.  But in the light of Thy countenance, O Christ, and in the sweetness of Thy beauty, as the Lover of Mankind, grant rest unto him (her) whom Thou hast chosen.

2^nd Mode

As a flower withereth, and as a dream passeth away, so doth every human being undergo dissolution. And then again, when the trumpet soundeth, as in an earthquake, all the dead shall arise to meet thee, O Christ God.  At that time, O Master, number among the dwellings of the Saints the spirit of thy servant who hath passed over from among us.

Service Book, Book of Needs

Not present

Another, not in TME.  Same mode

Woe is me!  What an agony the soul hath as it is separated from the body!  Woe is me, how many tears doth it shed, and there is none to take pity on it!  The soul inclineth its eye toward the Angels and it supplicateth to no effect; it stretcheth forth its hands unto humans and hath none to help.  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, as we keep in mind the brevity of our life, let us ask from Christ repose for him who hath passed over, and for our souls, great mercy.

Service Book

Woe is me!  What manner of ordeal doth the soul endure when it is parted from the body?  Woe is me! How many, then, are its tears, and there is none to show compassion!  Turning its eyes to the angels, it supplicates in vain; stretching out its hands to men, it findeth none to succour.  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, meditating on the brevity of our life, let us beseech of Christ rest for him who hath departed hence; and for our souls great mercy.

Book of Needs

Woe is me!  What manner of struggle has the soul when it is parted from the body?  Alas, how much, then, does it weep, and there is none to have mercy on it!  It lifts up its eyes unto the Angels; of no effect does it pray. It stretches out its hands unto men; it finds none to help.  Therefore, my beloved brethren, meditating on our brief life, let us entreat rest from Christ for him (her) that has departed, and for our souls great mercy.

3^rd Mode.

All human affairs are vanity and do not exist after death; the wealthy doth not abide, glory doth not go with us beyond.  For when death cometh to call, all this vanisheth utterly.  Wherefore, let us cry out unto Christ the immortal [King], Grant repose to him who hath passed over from among us, thence where is the dwelling of them that make glad.

Service Book

All mortal things are vanity and exist not after death. Riches endure not, neither doth glory accompany on the way: for when death cometh, all these things vanish utterly.  Wherefore let us cry unto Christ the Immortal King: Give rest in the dwelling place of all those who rejoice to him who is departed from among us.

Book of Needs

All human things are vanity which remain not after death. Riches abide not, neither does glory accompany us on the way.  For when death has come, all these things vanish.  Therefore, let us cry out unto the immortal Christ: Give rest unto him (her) that has been taken from us, where is the abode of all them that rejoice.

4^th Mode. Of Theophanes.[31]

Truly most fearful is the mystery of death, how the soul is violently separated from the body. Its harmony and its most natural bond of co-existence is sundered by divine will.  Wherefore, we beseech Thee, grant repose to him who hath passed over, in the dwellings of Thy righteous ones, O Lover of mankind and Giver of Life.

Service Book, Book of Needs

Not present

Another, not in TME. Same mode.

Where is passionate attraction to the world?  Where is the invention of opportunities?  Where the gold and silver?  Where the hustle and bustle of household servants?  All is dust and ashes, a shadow!  But come, let us cry out to the immortal King: O Lord, of Thine everlasting goods make him worthy who hath passed over from among us, granting him repose in the unageing blessedness!

Service Book

Where is desire for the world?  Where is the display of transient mortals?  Where are the gold and the silver?  Where is the multitude of household servants and their clamor?  All are dust, all are ashes, all are shadows!  But come, let us cry aloud unto the deathless King: O Lord, of thine eternal good things account him worthy who hath departed from among us, giving unto him rest in thy blessedness which groweth not old.

Book of Needs

Where is worldly inclination?  Where is temporary dreaming?  Where are the gold and silver?  Where is the multitude of servants and their clamor?  All dust, all ashes, all shadows!  But, come, let us cry out unto the immortal King: O Lord, count worthy of Thine eternal good things him (her) that hath been taken from us, giving him (her) rest in Thy blessedness that grows not old.

Plagal 1^st Mode.

I remember the Prophet[32] as he cried out, I am earth and ash. And again I considered the tombs and I saw the bones laid bare and I said, Who then is king or soldier, wealthy or poor, righteous or sinner?  But grant repose, O Lord, with the righteous, to thy servant, as Thou art the Lover of mankind.

Service Book

I called to mind the Prophet, as he cried: I am earth, and ashes; and I looked again into the graves and beheld the bones laid bare, and I said: Who then is the king or the warrior, the rich man or the needy, the upright or the sinner?  Yet, O Lord, give rest unto thy servant with the righteous.

Book of Needs

I remembered the Prophet who cried out, “I am earth and ashes.” And again I looked into the graves and beheld the bones laid bare. And I said, “Who then is the king or the warrior, the rich man or the poor man, the righteous or the sinner?”  Yet give rest with the righteous, O Lord, unto thy servant.

Plagal 2^nd Mode.

With a beginning and an hypostasis did I receive a constitution, for Thou didst will that Thy creature be constructed of a visible and an invisible nature.  Thou hast fashioned my body from earth, and Thou hast given me a soul by Thy divine and life-creating breath.  Wherefore, O Christ, grant repose to Thy servant in the land of the living, in the tents of the righteous.

Service Book

Thy creating command was my origin and my foundation: for it was thy pleasure to fashion me out of nature visible and invisible, a living creature.  From the earth thou didst shape my body, and didst give me a soul by thy divine and quickening breath.  Wherefore, O Christ, give rest to thy servant in the land of the living, in the habitation of the Just.

Book of Needs

To me, Thy life-effecting command was origin and substance, for having willed to fashion me a living creature out of invisible and visible nature, Thou didst create my body from the earth, and gavest me a soul by Thy divine and life-giving breath.  Therefore, give rest unto Thy servant, O Christ, in the land of the living and in the habitations of the righteous.

Grave Mode.

O our Saviour, Giver of Life, grant repose to our brother who hath passed over from transient affairs, as he crieth out, Glory to Thee.

Service Book, Book of Needs

Not present

Another, not in TME. Same mode.

In the beginning Thou hast fashioned man according to Thine image and likeness; Thou hast set him in Paradise to rule over Thy creatures.  But by the envy of the devil he was led astray and partook of the food and became a transgressor of Thy commandments.  Wherefore, he was condemned to return unto the earth from which he was taken, O Lord, to entreat repose.

Service Book

When in the beginning, thou didst create man after thine own image and likeness, thou didst set him in Paradise to reign over Thy creatures.  But when, beguiled by the malice of the Devil, he tasted of the food, he became a transgressor of thy commandment.  For which cause, O Lord, thou didst condemn him to return again unto the earth whence he was taken, and to entreat repose.

Book of Needs

In the beginning having made man according to Thine Image and Likeness, Thou didst set him in Paradise to reign over Thy creation.  But having been deceived by the envy of the devil, he partook of the food, becoming a transgressor of Thy commandments.  Therefore, Thou didst condemn him, O Lord, to return again unto the earth from which he was taken, and to entreat repose.

Plagal 4^th Mode.

I lament and I mourn when I think on death and see the beauty fashioned for us according to God’s image, lying in the tombs – lifeless, devoid of glory, without expression.  O the wonder!  What is this mystery concerning us?  How have we been given over to corruption and conjoined to death?  Truly it is by the commandment of God, Who granteth repose to those who have passed over.

Service Book

I weep and I wail when I think upon death, and behold our beauty, fashioned after the image of God, lying in the tomb disfigured, dishonored, bereft of form.  O marvel!  What is this mystery which doth befall us?  Why have we been given over unto corruption, and why have we been wedded unto death?  Truly, as it is written, by the command of God, who giveth the departed rest.

Book of Needs

I weep and I wail, when I consider death and behold our beauty, fashioned according to the Image of God, lying in the graves disfigured, bereft of glory, not having form.  O wonder!  What is this mystery concerning us?  How have we been given over to corruption?  How have we been wedded unto death?  In truth, as it is written, by the command of God Who givest rest unto him (her) that has been taken hence.

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[1] Barlaam & Joasaph, p. 72.

[2] See the catalog, taken from Eustratiades, in Nasrallah, pp. 152-155.  It is now generally understood that the Damascene received an Octoechos tradition, but that he compiled and augmented it, thus giving it the shape more or less as passed on to posterity. Cf Nasrallah, “Jean est plutot organisateur de ce livre (Octoechos); il est aussi l’auteur… des idiomeles…,” p. 151.

[3] But not universally; see Symeon.

[4] Foundoules, pp. 158-159. He cites the 17^th century patriarchal characterization of the reason to such abbreviation. Ecumenical Patriarch Paisios I decreed, “The order of the service of those who have fallen asleep here in the region of Constantinople has changed so much that it resembles only a little the type we have in the Euchologion. This is due to such frequent and great plagues which have come upon us, such that the priests do not arrive to bury the bodies. But things must be performed as the form of the Euchologion directs, especially wherever plague does not force us to do violence to this order.”

[5] Symeon, pp. 301-314, esp. p. 308. ???? ??? ??????? ??? ?????? ??? ??????. I find it striking that such an omission was not mentioned in Fountoules, either in his Apanteseis, or anywhere else I looked.  In any event, Symeon presided over the last holdout of the ancient asmatike akolouthia; perhaps the incorporation of the idiomela was at that time a strictly monastic, rather than a cathedral, practice.

[6] There, the reader can compare these with the two English usages currently authorized, that of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (Service Book) and the Orthodox Church in America (The Great Book of Needs).

[7] See below for more. In brief, the idiomela cited in TME (?????????, pp. 436-438) differ in the 2^nd, 4^th, and grave modes from the list given in Goar (pp. 428-429). Indeed, there is confusion: for example, the 4^th mode idiomelon, ????? ???????????…, is not of the Damascene, but rather of Theophanes. It appears that TME simply selected the nekrosima from Friday vesperal aposticha in every case, without other criteria. For example, the correct idiomelon for the 2^nd mode does not stem from the Friday aposticha of vespers, but from Saturday aposticha of praises. One question remains: why did TME choose ????????? ????? ????…for the grave mode, rather than the correct one, ???’?????? ??? ??? ????????…? Was it to provide a brief one just before the last? In any event, NEA (pp. 44-48) solves the problem by including them all, yielding two idiomela for the 2^nd, 4^th, and grave modes—with the correct ones labeled ?????? ????? ??????? (= ???).

[8] The first (and only) nekrosimon at this spot for the 4^th mode is used in the memorial service, ???? ????????? ???????.  So, TME took the first one of the praises; but as indicated in the note above, this is of Theophanes.

[9] TME broke with its pattern of selecting the 1^st sticheron from vesperal aposticha in this case. For what reason did it select the 2^nd?

[10] Cf Goar, p. 428-429. See also two current service books in use in English-speaking Orthodoxy (Service Book, p. 192-194, and Book of Needs, p. 201-202).

[11] And thus we are held in a state of suspense. However, the resurrectional element is present in a subtle way: this is an eight-mode group, eight being a resurrectional symbol (“On the eighth-day…,” John 20:26) and the petition for rest evokes the Paschal mystery.

[12] Eccl 1:2, 14

[13] cf. Ekdosis, p. 258ff; Barlaam & Joasaph, p. 90, “by his own free and deliberate choice turned aside from good to evil”

[14] «?????????, ?????????, ??????????; De Vitiis et Virtutibus, PG 95: 89.

[15] 2^nd mode. Cf Psalm 103:15-16, “Thou wilt take their spirit, and they shall cease; and unto their dust shall they return.”

[16] The relevant section in the Ekdosis (pp. 414-416) is well worth studying. Connected with ????? are the so-called blameless passions: “eating, drinking, weariness, the piercing of nails, death, i.e, the separation of the soul from the body…”  But ????? has another, extended meaning, expressed by the more precise word, ????????: “the Lord did not have this experience (the dissolution of the elements of His body), even though He did in fact undergo ?????, contrary to the Julianists (i.e., those who believed that Christ’s flesh became immune to death from the moment of His incarnation).

[17] 2 Cor 6:2.

[18] Plagal 2^nd mode. Cf Gen 2:7 and Psalm 103:30.

[19] Ekdosis, p. 210.

[20] On the Virtues and the Vices, PG 95: 85.

[21] Heb chapter 4:1-13, esp. vs 10.

[22] Romans 6:3.

[23] Col 1:13.

[24] See the service for the feast of Dormition in the Menaion, August 15: “today thou art translated from earth to heaven” (2^nd vesperal sticheron), “the Ark of God goes to her rest… she is translated from life to life” (doxastikon of the litia).

[25] Najm points out that our Orthodox tradition does not indicate for Mary Theotokos and Virgin a special exception to the path of corporeal death, “(In the time of the Damascene) the Feast of the Dormition was honoured all at once as a commemoration of her death and metastasis, and not separately” (Najm, p. 128, my translation). Consider also the ikon of the feast of Dormition in contradistinction to the western depiction of the Assumption.

[26] Luke 16:4, “when I am put out (?????????) of the stewardship”

[27] TME designates the 8-mode idiomela of the Damascene directly after the Evlogitaria; however, NEA (p. 44) inserts the kontakion of the departed here—the only remainder of the omitted canon.

[28] Goar, p. 430; but dropped in TME. It is restored in NEA, p. 51.

[29] Alleluia “as a proclamation of the second coming of Christ,” with censing of the dead, “as one of the faithful” (Symeon, p. 308). There is no mention of this in TME.

[30] “Memory Eternal” is not mentioned in TME, but this seems to be assumed as part of the dismissal.

[31] This is the only one which is not indicated as “nekrosimon” in the Parakletike.

[32] Moses, see Genesis 18:27.

Tags: funeral hymns of John of Damascus, nekrosima idiomela of John of Damascus, Orthodox funeral, St John of Damascus