When it is said
It belongs to Vespers, the evening service, every day of the year. In the Orthodox Church the day begins at sunset, and the hymn greets the evening light. It comes after the evening psalm, “Lord, I call upon You”, and its hymns. The Byzantine rule books for the services never leave it out, not even at Pascha (Easter).
On feasts and on Saturday evening, the eve of Sunday, the priest comes to the middle of the church with lit candles and incense while it is sung. This is the entrance. On an ordinary weekday, with no entrance, the rule is to read it, and in a Greek monastery the abbot usually reads it himself. Russian parishes sing it wherever there is a choir.
Other churches pray it too. Armenians sing it at Vespers on Saturday evening. Interest in the early Church brought it into Anglican and Lutheran evening prayer: the Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer offers it, as “O Gracious Light”, before the psalms.
Where it comes from
No author known
Ancient already in the 300s
St Basil the Great, a bishop who died in AD 379, wrote of the thanksgiving said as the lamps were lit. No one could say who wrote the words, he said, but the people still used “the ancient form”: “We praise Father, Son, and God’s Holy Spirit.” Writers old and new agree he meant this hymn.
St Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, chapter 29; Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya), “Svete tikhiy”
“Good light!”
Its first words have a parallel in an old Greek custom. When a lamp was carried in at dusk, people greeted it with “Good light!”, as the Roman writer Varro recorded before Christ was born. Clement of Alexandria, a Christian teacher of about AD 200, urged believers to greet God with a like cry: “Hail, O Light.”
Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya), “Svete tikhiy”; Chris Fenner, “The Lamplighting Hymn”, Hymnology Archive
What the words mean
Joyful light, quiet light
Its Greek name, Phos hilaron, means “joyful light”. Old English books say “gladsome”. The Church Slavonic sung in Russia calls it “quiet light” instead, which Mikhail Skaballanovich, a scholar of the services, thought fits the evening. The Light is Christ Himself: the hymn names Him, “O Jesus Christ”.
Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya), “Svete tikhiy”; Skaballanovich, Tolkovy Typikon
What people get wrong
Older than St Sophronius
Russian service books head it “the work of Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem”. Sophronius was a bishop of the 600s, but St Basil called the hymn ancient more than two centuries earlier. Greek books call it “an ancient work, or, as some say, of Athenogenes the martyr”. The Orthodox Encyclopedia says that name came from mixing up two passages: right after the lamp-lighting hymn, Basil mentions a hymn Athenogenes wrote.
The Church Slavonic book of hours (Chasoslov), Vespers; Chris Fenner, “The Lamplighting Hymn”, Hymnology Archive; Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya), “Svete tikhiy”
The Scripture in it
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
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.
In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Φῶς ἱλαρὸν ἁγίας δόξης, ἀθανάτου Πατρός,
οὐρανίου, ἁγίου, μάκαρος, Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ,
ἐλθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλίου δύσιν, ἰδόντες φῶς ἑσπερινόν,
ὑμνοῦμεν Πατέρα, Υἱόν, καὶ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα Θεόν.
Ἄξιόν Σε ἐν πᾶσι καιροῖς, ὑμνεῖσθαι φωναῖς αἰσίαις,
Υἱὲ Θεοῦ, ζωὴν ὁ διδούς, διὸ ὁ κόσμος Σὲ δοξάζει.