When it is said
It is not part of a church service. It comes from St Symeon’s own book of Hymns, and anyone may pray it, at any hour.
This page prints only part of the prayer: its opening, its heart and its close. In the parts left out, St Symeon calls on God by many more names and thanks Him at length for what He has done in him.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Who was St Symeon?
St Symeon the New Theologian was an Orthodox monk and poet. He was abbot of the monastery of St Mamas in Constantinople, and he died in 1022. The Orthodox Church calls only three saints “Theologian”: St John the Apostle, St Gregory of Nazianzus and Symeon. The title honours one who speaks from his own experience of God, not a scholar.
Sent away, and left alone
In 1009 St Symeon was sent into exile across the Bosphorus, the strait at Constantinople. One account says church officials left him there alone, without food, in the middle of winter. He found a ruined chapel on land owned by one of his disciples, who gave it for a monastery. Most of his Hymns were finished in exile.
The prayer that opens his Hymns
St Symeon wrote 58 Hymns, about 11,000 lines of verse, in which he tells of seeing God as light. This prayer stands at their beginning, and the scholar John McGuckin reads it as Symeon’s own. Its Greek title calls it “a mystical prayer”, in which one who already sees the Holy Spirit calls on Him to come.
The Greek text, Holy Metropolis of Morphou; John A. McGuckin, International Journal of Orthodox Theology (2020); Wikipedia, Symeon the New Theologian
What the words mean
“Made me alone on earth”
St Symeon was a monk, and these words come from that life: God “set me apart from all things and made me alone on earth.” He does not hide that he is alone. He tells God so, and asks Him to come and to stay.
The Scripture in it
The true Light, Who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and then he divides up his plunder.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ἐλθέ τό φῶς τό ἀληθινόν, ἐλθέ ἡ αἰώνιος ζωή, ἐλθέ τό ἀποκεκρυμμένον μυστήριον, ἐλθέ ὁ ἀκατονόμαστος θησαυρός, ἐλθέ τό ἀνεκφώνητον πρᾶγμα, ἐλθέ τό ἀκατανόητον πρόσωπον, ἐλθέ ἡ ἀΐδιος ἀγαλλίασις, ἐλθέ τό ἀνέσπερον φῶς, ἐλθέ πάντων τῶν μελλόντων σωθῆναι ἡ ἀληθινή προσδοκία, ἐλθέ τῶν κειμένων ἡ ἔγερσις, ἐλθέ τῶν νεκρῶν ἡ ἀνάστασις, ἐλθέ ὁ δυνατός, ὁ πάντα ἀεί ποιῶν καί μεταποιῶν καί ἀλλοιῶν μόνῳ τῷ βούλεσθαι!
Ἐλθέ, ὅν ἐπόθησε καί ποθεῖ ἡ ταλαίπωρός μου ψυχή, ἐλθέ ὁ μόνος πρός μόνον, ὅτι μόνος εἰμί, καθάπερ ὁρᾷς! Ἐλθέ ὁ χωρίσας ἐκ πάντων καί ποιήσας με μόνον ἐπί τῆς γῆς, ἐλθέ ὁ γενόμενος πόθος αὐτός ἐν ἐμοί καί ποθεῖν Σε ποιήσας με, τόν ἀπρόσιτον παντελῶς! Ἐλθέ ἡ πνοή μου καί ἡ ζωή, ἐλθέ ἡ παραμυθία τῆς ταπεινῆς μου ψυχῆς, ἐλθέ ἡ χαρά καί ἡ δόξα καί ἡ διηνεκής μου τρυφή!
Μεῖνον, Δέσποτα, καί μή ἐάσῃς με μόνον, ἵνα ἐρχόμενοι οἱ ἐχθροί μου, οἱ ζητοῦντες ἀεί τοῦ καταπιεῖν τήν ψυχήν μου καί εὑρίσκοντές Σε μένοντα ἐν ἐμοί, φεύξωνται παντελῶς καί μή ἰσχύσωσι κατ᾿ ἐμοῦ, βλέποντές Σε, τόν ἰσχυρότερον πάντων, ἔνδοθεν καθήμενον ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τῆς ταπεινῆς μου ψυχῆς.
ὅτι Σύ ὑπάρχεις πᾶν ἀγαθόν καί πᾶσα δόξα καί πᾶσα τρυφή καί Σοί πρέπει ἡ δόξα, τῇ Ἁγίᾳ καί Ὁμοουσίῳ καί Ζωοποιῷ Τριάδι, τῇ ἐν Πατρί καί Υἱῷ καί Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι σεβομένῃ τε καί γνωριζομένῃ καί προσκυνουμένῃ καί λατρευομένῃ ὑπό πάντων νῦν καί ἀεί καί εἰς τούς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, ἀμήν.
From the prologue of St Symeon’s Hymns, as printed by the Holy Metropolis of Morphou, Church of Cyprus.