Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Poets
Saint Romanos the Melodist
Deacon († c. 556)Feast: October 1
“Make my language clear, my Savior, open my mouth and, after filling it, penetrate my heart so that my acts may correspond to my words.” Romanos was born in Syria around 490 to a family of Jewish origin that had probably converted by the time of his birth. He was eventually ordained a deacon and served in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Constantinople.
It is said that he received a vision of the Mother of God, who asked him to swallow a scroll and bestowed on him the poetic charism. Shortly thereafter he sang forth his famous hymn of the Nativity, astounding his hearers with the beauty of his voice and the depth of his theology.
Using a simple Greek (rather than the more literary Imperial style), Romanos became a “homilist-cantor,” who sang his homilies in a metric form known as kontakia, which combined prayer and catechesis. He also incorporated dialogue, as in the lovely Kontakion for Good Friday, where Jesus and Mary speak. “Where are you going, my Child? For whose sake are you finishing this swift race?”…. “Put aside your grief, mother, put it aside; mourning is not right for you who have been called ‘Full of Grace.’” Romanos is thought to have written over one thousand of these hymns.
Heavenly Father, through the prayers
of the Mother of God, grant persuasive eloquence
to those who preach the faith.
