When it is said
They come near the start of the morning prayers in the Russian prayer book, which the Orthodox Church in America also uses in English. First come O Heavenly King, the Trisagion and the Lord’s Prayer. Then these three troparia, then “Lord, have mercy” 12 times.
The Church Slavonic book of hours, the Horologion, puts them at its very start. Its first words tell the reader: having risen from sleep, leave your bed, and say these prayers.
Greek Orthodox say them too. In the Greek small prayer book, they come straight after the opening prayers of its morning prayer.
Where it comes from
No author known
From the book of hours
No one knows who wrote them. The priest Pyotr Pchelintsev, in his study of the Russian morning prayers, traced them to the book of hours, where they open the prayers said on rising. Like the other prayers taken from the services, they were first written in Greek.
Priest Pyotr Pchelintsev, on the history of the morning and evening prayers (in Russian); The Church Slavonic Horologion, on Azbyka.ru
Older than the prayer book
Long before printed prayer books, Russian monks said a short service at cockcrow, each alone in his room. Its oldest descriptions are in books of hours of the 1200s and 1300s. Like today’s morning prayers, it held the usual opening prayers, these troparia and the Creed.
Priest Pyotr Pchelintsev, on the history of the morning and evening prayers (in Russian)
Sung in church too
On some days, Matins, the Church’s morning service, sings “Alleluia”. Then, in place of its usual troparia, come the “Songs to the Trinity”. Church hymns are sung in eight tones, or melodies, and these three troparia close the songs of the first, second and third.
What the words mean
The angels’ song
“Holy, holy, holy” is the cry of the seraphim, the angels around God’s throne in the prophet Isaiah’s vision. A Russian note on the prayer explains the line this way: on waking, we sing to God the same song the angels sing.
Why midnight in a morning prayer?
In the book of hours, these troparia come just before the Midnight Office, the Church’s night prayers. A Russian note on the prayer says midnight is the hour of those prayers. Midnight may also picture the Judge’s sudden coming, as in Jesus’s parable of the ten bridesmaids, where the bridegroom comes at midnight. The note reads that coming two ways: each person’s death, and the Last Judgement.
The Scripture in it
And they were calling out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.”
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return—whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning. Otherwise, he may arrive without notice and find you sleeping.
At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Church Slavonic
Воставше от сна, припадаем Ти, Блаже, и ангельскую песнь вопием Ти, Сильне: Свят, Свят, Свят еси, Боже, Богородицею помилуй нас.
Слава Отцу и Сыну и Святому Духу.
От одра и сна воздвигл мя еси, Господи, ум мой просвети и сердце, и устне мои отверзи, во еже пети Тя, Святая Троице: Свят, Свят, Свят еси, Боже, Богородицею помилуй нас.
И ныне и присно и во веки веков. Аминь.
Внезапно Судия приидет, и коегождо деяния обнажатся, но страхом зовем в полунощи: Свят, Свят, Свят еси, Боже, Богородицею помилуй нас.