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Penitential canon - Translations, executions, interpretations | Tradition.ru

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Lecture "We read the canon of St. Andrew of Crete, meditate, learn to understand"

The Penitential Canon is divided into four parts and is read at Great Compline, in the evening, on the first four days of Lent. It is also read in full on the Thursday before the week of Mary of Egypt.

The penitential canon can be described as penitential lamentation, revealing to us the whole immensity, the whole abyss of sin, shaking the soul with despair, repentance and hope. With exceptional art, St. Andrew intertwines the great biblical images - Adam and Eve, paradise and the fall, Patriarch Noah and the Flood, David, the Promised Land and above all Christ and the Church - with confession of sins and repentance. The events of sacred history are revealed as the events of my life, the deeds of God in the past, as matters concerning me and my salvation, the tragedy of sin and betrayal, as my personal tragedy. My life is shown to me as part of that great, all-encompassing struggle between God and the powers of darkness that rise up against Him. nine0008

The penitential canon again and again about the spiritual history of the world, which at the same time is the history of my soul. The words of the Canon call me to account, for they speak of events and deeds of the past, the meaning and power of which are eternal, since each human soul - one and only - passes through the same path of trials, faces the same choice, meets the same higher and

essential reality. The examples from Scripture are not merely "allegories" as many people think, who therefore feel that the Great Canon is overburdened with names and incidents that do not belong to them. Such people ask why talk about Cain and Abel, about Solomon and David, when it would be easier to say: "I have sinned"? They do not understand that the very concept of the word sin in biblical and Christian tradition has a depth and richness that "modern man" simply cannot understand, and that therefore his confession of his sins is profoundly different from real Christian repentance. Indeed, the culture in which we live and which forms our modern views, in essence, simply excludes the concept of sin. Because sin is, first of all, the fall of a person from an immeasurable spiritual height, his refusal from his “high calling”. But what significance can this have for a culture that does not know and denies this “spiritual height”, this “calling” and evaluates a person not “from above”, but “from below” - for a culture that, if it does not openly deny God, then in fact, everything, from top to bottom, is materialistic and therefore considers a person's life only from the point of view of material well-being, without recognizing his high, transcendental calling? It regards sin chiefly as a natural "weakness" derived primarily from social disorder and therefore corrected by better social and economic organization. Therefore, modern man, even if he confesses his sins, no longer repents of them. Depending on this or that understanding of his “religious duties”, he either formally enumerates his sins and violations of ritual rules, or he talks with the confessor about his “problems”, expecting some kind of therapy from religion, a treatment that will return him happiness and calm. In neither case do we see the remorse, the shock of a man who, seeing himself as an image of ineffable glory, realizes that he has betrayed this "image", has stained and rejected it with his life; there is no repentance as sadness about sin, coming from the very depths of human consciousness, as a desire to return, as a surrender to God's mercy and love. That's why it's not enough to just say, "I have sinned." These words acquire their true meaning and effectiveness only when sin is perceived and experienced in all its depth and sorrow. nine0008

The meaning and purpose of the Great Canon lies precisely in this, to reveal sin to us and thereby lead us to repentance. But he shows us sin not by definitions and enumerations, but by a kind of deep contemplation of biblical history, which is truly the history of sin, repentance and forgiveness. This contemplation introduces us to a completely different spiritual culture, calls us to accept a completely different understanding of a person, his life, his goals, his spiritual "motivations". The Canon restores in us that spiritual attitude within which repentance becomes possible again. nine0008

Alexander Schmemann "Lent"

About Andrew of Crete and his Penitential Canon

Brief comment

Read our brief commentary on each song of the Canon: main ideas, interpretation of numerous biblical references:

G. Florovsky "Songwriters"

We also know little about the life of the great Byzantine songwriter, St. Andrew of Crete, and also only from the meenia. Theophanes the chronicler names Andrew of Crete among the members of the council of 712, which rejected the acts of the 6th Ecumenical Council, under pressure from imp. Philippic. This was an act of unworthy compliance (or “economia”), but not apostasy… St. Andrew was originally from Damascus, labored in the monastery of St. Sava, and later was a deacon of the Great Church. It is difficult to determine exactly when he was appointed Bishop of Crete. Apparently, he lived to see the beginning of the iconoclastic disputes (a word in defense of the holy icons has been preserved) ... The Monk Andrew was a preacher and a hymnographer. Apparently, he was the first compiler of the canons (the three hymns with the name of Sophronius probably belong to the Monk Joseph the Songmaker, already in the 9th century). Most of the canons of St. Andrew fell into disuse very early. The most remarkable work of St. Andrew is, of course, the Great Canon - we know it in the later processing of the Studites, irmos and troparia of St. Mary of Egypt do not belong to Andrew. Rather, it is a kind of penitential autobiography. Hence the upsurge and tension of personal feeling that pervades this poem of a contrite soul... St. Andrew is characterized by his biblicalism. Sometimes he almost literally repeats biblical texts. The Great Canon is filled with biblical memories. There is a long string of vivid repentant images from the Bible, from Adam to the prudent thief. The Biblical text is very often perceived allegorically, but this is moral, not speculative allegorism... St. Andrew's dogmatic motives are little expressed. Repentant lyrics predominate ... It should also be noted his three odes in the first days of Passion Week (now sung at Compline), on Cheesefare Wednesday, at Compline of the week of Vaii, full canons on the Resurrection of Lazarus, on the week of the myrrh-bearing wives, on the middle of Pentecost, on the day of the Nativity of the Virgin, and a series of “self-consistent…”

As a liturgical form, the canon was further developed and completed in the work of Damaskinos and Cosmas, Bishop of Mayum (it must be distinguished from another Kosmas hymnographer, who was his mentor and Damascus, but it is almost impossible to distinguish between the works of two authors of the same name). In the 8th century Stefan Savvait composed the canons. The iconoclastic turmoil also had a painful effect on the history of liturgical singing.

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S. Averintsev "The Birth of Rhyme from the Spirit of Greek "Dialectics""

Descendants reacted to Roman's legacy in an unusual way. They canonized him and gave his name the honorary title of Sweetsinger, they told legends about him; but they did not leave any of his poems in church use. Where he preceded the story with a meditation on its meaning, they cut off the story and left the meditation. The time for pictorial narratives and dramatic scenes is over; the time has come for contemplation and praise. The genre form of the kontakion is supplanted by the genre form of the canon. The classic of the latter was Andrei of Crete. He wrote the "Great Canon", where images of the Old and New Testaments pass in an endless series, reduced to the simplest semantic schemes. For example, Eve is no longer Eve: it is a feminine and evil beginning inside the very soul of every person:

Instead of sensual Eve, mental Eve is with me -

Passionate thoughts in my flesh...

So, in fact, Roman could also say; but with him it would be a fable "moral" to the story. Andrew of Crete is not interested in narration, he is interested in "morality". The entire "Great Canon" is, as it were, a collection of "morals" to dozens of "fables" missing from it. The concreteness of the "sacred history" ceases to be a symbol and becomes nothing more than an allegory. nine0008

Church poets of subsequent centuries - John of Damascus and Cosmas of Mayum, Joseph the Song-singer and Theophanes the Inscribed, and others, and others - these are not the heirs of Roman; these are the successors of the tradition of Andrey. The structure of the canon assumes that each of its nine "songs" in its verbal and figurative composition is correlated with one of the biblical moments (the first - with the passage through the Red Sea, the second - with the formidable sermon of Moses in the desert, the third - with the thanksgiving of Anna, who gave birth to Samuel , the fourth - with the prophecy of Habakkuk, etc., without any digression). This means that in the Christmas canon the first ode takes on the theme of Christmas, so to speak, in the mode of crossing the Red Sea:

You redeemed Your people of old, O Lord,

With a miraculous hand, pacifying the abyss;

But so is the way to paradise now

You open, Virgin born into the world,

Although man is wholly, but wholly God.

An event ceases to be an event and turns into a mode for one and the same, all the time one and the same meaning. The victory of the canon over the kontakion is the victory of the "Alexandrian" tendency over the "Antiochian" one. nine0008

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Ignatius (Petrovskaya) "The Place of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete and His Other Works in the Songwriting Heritage of the Church"

Liturgical theology and works of church hymnographers.

Life path of St. Andrew of Crete.

Creations of St. Andrew.

Great penitential canon: its history and features.

Building of the Great Canon.

Figurative structure of the Great Penitential Canon.

The Great Canon is a guide to spiritual ascent.

nine0002 Theological Truths in the Great Penitential Canon.

Other creations of St. Andrew for the period of Fortecost.

Creations of St. Andrew of the Paschal cycle.

The Menaion Canons of St. Andrew.

Personality of St. Andrew of Crete

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Vissarion (Nechaev) "Lessons of repentance according to biblical legends" nine0157

The Great Canon belongs to the category of penitential church hymns. It is all aimed at awakening the soul from sinful slumber, revealing to it how pernicious the sinful state is, disposing it to strict self-examination, self-condemnation and repentance, moving it to aversion from sins and to the correction of life. To this end, the creator of the canon brings to the memory of the sinner faces, deeds and events from the Old Testament history, starting with the creation of Adam, and from the gospel, and applying the legends about them to the moral state and needs of the soul, extracts from these legends denunciations, threats, consolations, warnings and instructions. nine0008

The application of biblical tales to the moral state and needs of the soul is expressed in the Great Canon for the most part so concisely that it is not always suddenly and easily possible to understand what the correspondence of one to another consists in. This opens up the need for an explanation of what exactly this correspondence should be seen in, how to understand certain expressions that contain a comparison of objects that apparently do not have a similarity, or represent a remote similarity. Taking upon ourselves the work of this explanation, we wish to give it a conversational character, having in mind not only to satisfy curiosity through the disclosure of the meaning of incomprehensible things, but mainly to promote a repentant and prayerful mood of the soul through spiritually edifying reflections, introducing into the spirit of the great creation of the Cretan saint. In the types of edification, we will also focus on those places in which biblical events are applied so clearly that explaining their relationship to the soul does not present any particular difficulty. nine0008

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Veniamin (Milov) “Church-liturgical edification according to the “Great Canon” of St. Andrew, Archbishop of Crete"

General ascetic ideas of the Great Canon.

Forgiveness of sinners by the Triune God for the sake of the Son of God the Savior and prayers to the Mother of God.

Motivation of the sinner to repentance by the facts of the Biblical history.

The value of the teaching of the Church according to the "Great Canon".

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Cyprian (Kern) "Liturgy.

The first who began to compose the canons was St. Andrew of Crete. Before him, or there were no complete canons at all, but only individual songs, the 8th and 9th, necessarily, and some other; and the very writing of the song of the canon, as a development and addition to the biblical odes, was not known to the Church. In any case, St. Andrew of Crete has the honor of inventing a new image of church poetry and, I must say, he is the most remarkable in terms of content and ability to apply the forms of the canon to this content. nine0008

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M. Krasovitskaya "Liturgy"

The Great Canon is the miracle of all church hymnography, these are texts of amazing power and beauty.

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The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete with a parallel translation into Russian and explanations to the text

The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete with a parallel translation into Russian and explanations of the text. Life of Mary of Egypt. Gospels of the Holy Passion of Christ. Parimias of Holy Saturday. nine0008

St. Andrew of Crete gives many examples of piety and sin from Sacred History, which cannot be understood without knowing the Scriptures deeply. In the explanatory texts, each example or name mentioned in the canon is explained in an accessible way, which reveals the hidden meanings of this prayer reading. The text contains references to the Bible.

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Great supper. Canon of Andrew of Crete

This film prepares the viewer for the perception of the Great Canon of Penitence: tells about its creator, rites and symbols, about the features of its commission in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Titles give Russian translation of all irmos, refrains and some troparia. nine0008

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Translations of the Penitential Canon

Translations of the Penitential Canon

The Great Canon of St.

Andrew of Crete with a parallel translation into Russian (Kedrov) and explanations to the text

Executions of the Penitential Canon

Executions of the Penitential Canon

The Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete in audio performance. First comes the Church Slavonic text, then the Russian translation. Numerous biblical references in the Canon are accompanied by readings of the relevant biblical passages.

The first part of the Canon, read on Monday of the first week of Great Lent, performed by the Choir of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

The first part of the canon read on Monday of the first week of Great Lent. It is sung in a singsong voice with two faces with the canonarch. Choir of the Holy Trinity Ioninsky Monastery. nine0008

Penitential canon in the reading of Patriarch Pimen.

Penitential canon in the reading of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery.

Penitential canon, for choir. Estonian Philharmonic Choir. Composer - Arvo Pärt

Lecture "We read the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, meditate, learn to understand"

One of the characteristic features of Great Lent is a very special service, unforgettable prayers and hymns that renew a person's striving for God, awaken in him the memory of the Heavenly Fatherland. nine0008

A special place among these texts is occupied by the Great Penitential Canon of Andrew of Crete, which is sung (or chanted?) from Monday to Thursday during the first week of Lent. This is a very long prayerful reflection - the search for a lost, like a biblical coin, living heart - and a place in it for the Living God.

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