When it is said
It is sung near the end of Matins of Holy Wednesday, the third Bridegroom service, which parishes hold on Tuesday evening.
The Triodion sets it again at Vespers of Holy Wednesday.
Where it comes from
Author known
Kassiani
Kassiani was a poet of Constantinople in the time of the emperor Theophilos, who reigned from AD 829 to 842. She founded a convent there, and at least 23 of her hymns went into the Church’s service books. In the Triodion, the book of Lent and Holy Week, this hymn is headed “a work of the nun Kassiani”.
The line the emperor wrote
Byzantine chroniclers say the young Theophilos once thought of choosing Kassiani as his bride. Tradition says that years later he rode to her convent to see her one last time. She hid, leaving the unfinished hymn on her desk. He read it and added one line, about the feet whose sound Eve heard before she hid. When he had gone, Kassiani found his line and finished the hymn.
What the words mean
Which woman is she?
The hymn joins two Gospel scenes. In Luke 7:37-38 a sinful woman wets Jesus’s feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair and kisses them. In Matthew 26:6-13 a woman pours costly perfume on Him, and He says she has done it to prepare Him for burial.
Why on Holy Wednesday
On Holy Wednesday the services set this woman beside Judas. She gives Christ her costly myrrh and kisses His feet, while he betrays Christ for money with a kiss.
The Scripture in it
When a sinful woman from that town learned that Jesus was dining there, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she kissed His feet and anointed them with the perfume.
While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, which she poured on His head as He reclined at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant and asked, “Why this waste? This perfume could have been sold at a high price, and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus asked, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful deed to Me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me. By pouring this perfume on Me, she has prepared My body for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet.
… but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Κύριε, ἡ ἐν πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίαις περιπεσοῦσα Γυνή,
τὴν Σὴν αἰσθομένη Θεότητα,
μυροφόρου ἀναλαβοῦσα τάξιν,
ὀδυρομένη μύρα Σοι, πρὸ τοῦ ἐνταφιασμοῦ κομίζει.
Οἴμοι! λέγουσα,
ὅτι νύξ μοι, ὑπάρχει,
οἶστρος ἀκολασίας, ζοφώδης τε καὶ ἀσέληνος,
ἔρως τῆς ἁμαρτίας.
Δέξαι μου τὰς πηγὰς τῶν δακρύων,
ὁ νεφέλαις διεξάγων τῆς θαλάσσης τὸ ὕδωρ·
κάμφθητί μοι πρὸς τοὺς στεναγμοὺς τῆς καρδίας,
ὁ κλίνας τοὺς οὐρανούς,
τῇ ἀφάτῳ Σου κενώσει·
καταφιλήσω τοὺς ἀχράντους Σου πόδας,
ἀποσμήξω τούτους δὲ πάλιν, τοῖς τῆς κεφαλῆς μου βοστρύχοις,
ὧν ἐν τῷ Παραδείσῳ Εὔα τὸ δειλινόν,
κρότον τοῖς ὠσὶν ἠχηθεῖσα, τῷ φόβῳ ἐκρύβη.
Ἁμαρτιῶν μου τὰ πλήθη καὶ κριμάτων Σου ἀβύσσους,
τίς ἐξιχνιάσει ψυχοσῶστα Σωτήρ μου;
Μή με τὴν Σὴν δούλην παρίδῃς,
ὁ ἀμέτρητον ἔχων τὸ ἔλεος.