When it is said
It is sung at Matins on Easter night as the last of the Paschal stichera. Then the choir sings “Christ is risen” again and again while the people greet one another with a kiss.
The Paschal stichera are sung again at Vespers and Matins on each day of the week after Easter.
Its call to forgive can be prayed at home at any time of year.
Where it comes from
No author known
Where the words come from
St Gregory the Theologian was made a priest against his will on Christmas Day 361. He ran away, but came back before Easter. Few came to hear his first sermon on Easter Day 362, because his people in Nazianzus were displeased with him. He opened it with the words this hymn now sings, then forgave the “noble tyranny” of his ordination and asked pardon for his own delay.
Gregory the Theologian, Oration 1.1, and the introduction to Oration 2, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 7 (1893); Rostislav Gan, “The Ending of the Paschal Stichera”, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
The Paschal stichera
A sticheron is a short hymn sung after a verse of a psalm. On Easter night the Paschal stichera follow verses of the Psalms, from “Let God arise” to “This is the day which the Lord hath made”. This hymn is the last of them. It follows “Glory to the Father” and ends with the Easter hymn “Christ is risen”.
What the words mean
Brothers, even those who hate us
Choirs often sing this line with a pause after “brothers”, as if the hymn were speaking to the people in church. The archpriest Rostislav Gan warned in a note for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia that the pause spoils what St Gregory meant. The line asks us to call even those who hate us “brothers”.
Rostislav Gan, “The Ending of the Paschal Stichera”, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
The Scripture in it
Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil …
Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ἀναστάσεως ἡμέρα, καὶ λαμπρυνθῶμεν τῇ πανηγύρει,
καὶ ἀλλήλους περιπτυξώμεθα.
Εἴπωμεν ἀδελφοί, καὶ τοῖς μισοῦσιν ἡμᾶς·
Συγχωρήσωμεν πάντα τῇ Ἀναστάσει,
καὶ οὕτω βοήσωμεν·
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν, θανάτῳ θάνατον πατήσας,
καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι, ζωὴν χαρισάμενος.
From the service of Pascha, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (glt.goarch.org).