Dear Father, The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the Akathistos in connection with devotion to Our Lady. I have never heard of it. Can you tell me what it is?
The Catechism mentions this prayer in Part Four, dealing with Christian prayer, in Article Two on “The Way of Prayer”.
After commenting on the words of the Hail Mary, the Catechism goes on to say: “Mediaeval piety in the West developed the prayer of the Rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours.
In the East, the litany called the Akathistos and the Paraclesis remained closer to the choral office in the Byzantine churches while the Armenian, Coptic and Syriac traditions preferred popular hymns and songs to the Mother of God” (CCC 2678).
Those of us familiar with Marian devotion in the West-ern tradition, with its emphasis on such devotions as the Rosary, Angelus, Memorare, etc, have probably never heard of the Akathistos. We are thus grateful to those who wrote the Catechism for including much material on the Eastern tradition, broadening our horizons and making us aware of a whole dimension of the Church of which we were quite unaware.
Returning to your question, the Akathistos is one of the most wellknown prayers or hymns to Mary in the Eastern tradition.
It is chanted in Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches on the five Fridays of Lent in preparation for Holy Week and the Easter services, as well as at other times.
The hymn seems to have originated in the 6th century, and has been added to over the years.
It is associated with a great favour attributed to Our Lady in Constantinople in 626.
In that year, during Emperor Heraclius’ reign, Constantinople was besieged by the Sassanid Persians and Avars who came with a fleet of ships and over 80,000 soldiers.
There were only some 12,000 soldiers to defend the city.
After several months of the siege, with the people of Constantinople becoming desperate, the Patriarch Sergius led a procession around the city carrying an icon of the Theotokos, the God-bearer Mary, praying for deliverance. A great storm arose and in the huge waves most of the ships of the attackers were sunk and the enemy retreated.
The people then spontaneously filled the Church of the Theotokos and spent the night giving thanks to Our Lady, chanting praises including the Akathistos.
The name Akathistos in Greek means literally not seated. In the Eastern tradition, the people always stand while reciting the prayer as they do while listening to the Gospel.
The Akathistos is divided into four sections, correspond-ing to the themes of the Annunciation, Nativity, Christ and finally the Theotokos herself. In Lent, one part is used on each of the four first Friday evenings and the entire Akathistos is recited on the fifth Friday.
The prayer consists of 24 stanzas, each consisting of a Kontakion, or prayer, followed by an Oikos, with responses of the people. The first word of each Oikos begins with a different letter of the Greek alphabet, from the first to the last.
The first Kontakion makes reference to Our Lady’s power in defending the people: “Queen of the Heavenly Host, defender of our souls, we thy servants offer to thee songs of victory and thanksgiving, for thou, O Mother of God, hast delivered us from dangers.
But as thou hast invincible power, free us from conflicts of all kinds that we may cry to thee.” The people respond: “Rejoice, unwedded Bride!”
This is followed by the Oikos, which says: “An Arch-angel was sent from Heaven to say to the Mother of God: Rejoice! And seeing Thee, O Lord, taking bodily form, he was amazed and with his bodiless voice he stood crying to her such things as these.”
The people respond with a series of chants, beginning: “Rejoice, thou through whom joy will flash forth! Rejoice, thou through whom the curse will cease! Rejoice, revival of fallen Adam! …”
Fr Vincent McNabb, who translated the hymn into English in London in 1934, wrote in his foreword that no apology was needed for introducing the Akathistos to the Christian West and, indeed, that the West might well be apologetic about its neglect, or ignorance of such a liturgical and literary masterpiece.