Kontakia (Selected Hymns)

The dramatic theological hymns that defined Byzantine liturgical poetry

Tradition: Byzantine liturgical hymnography

The Virgin weeps, Judas speaks, the cave receives the Infinite — theology as dramatic song in the liturgical assembly

The kontakia of Romanos the Melodist are the supreme achievement of Byzantine liturgical poetry. A kontakion consists of a prooimion (prelude strophe) followed by a series of oikoi (strophes, usually 18–24) all sharing the same metre and linked by an alphabetical acrostic and a recurring refrain. The poems are not merely devotional but dramatic and theological: they give voice to biblical characters in moments of crisis — Mary at the foot of the Cross, Judas before the betrayal, the sinful woman anointing Christ's feet — and use antithesis, paradox, and dialogue to expound Chalcedonian Christology, Trinitarian theology, and eschatological hope. Of the approximately one thousand kontakia attributed to Romanos, about eighty-nine survive (some of debated authenticity). The most celebrated include the Kontakion on the Nativity ("Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One"), the Kontakion on the Betrayal of Judas, the Kontakion on the Passion (Mary at the Cross), and possibly the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos. The kontakia were sung by a soloist in the ambo (pulpit) of the church, with the congregation joining in the refrain — a form of participatory theological education through music. After the eighth century the kontakia were largely displaced in Byzantine liturgy by the canon form (odes by Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus, and others), but the prooimia of several kontakia survive in liturgical use to this day.