When it is said
There are four Hours, the short services that mark the day: the First at daybreak, the Third at mid-morning, the Sixth at midday and the Ninth at mid-afternoon. This prayer comes near the end of each, after “Lord, have mercy” said 40 times. Each Hour then adds a prayer of its own.
It is also said at Compline, the Orthodox Church’s service after supper, in its short and long forms, and at the Midnight Office, said at midnight. The Orthodox Church in America prints it among its common prayers.
Where it comes from
No author known
Written by St Basil?
The Greek and Slavonic books of hours print it without an author. A number of old manuscript books of hours credit it to St Basil the Great, a bishop of the 300s. The oldest of them, at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, was written some seven centuries after him.
Prayed in Egypt too
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt ends each Hour of its own book of hours, the Agpeya, with a longer form of the same prayer. Which church prayed it first is not known.
Not always forty
The number of times “Lord, have mercy” is said before this prayer was not always 40. A 15th-century book of hours now in Moscow has 30 at the First Hour and 12 at the Ninth. The Ethiopian book of hours has 41 at every Hour.
The Scripture in it
… until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
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.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and he delivers them.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ὁ ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ καὶ πάσῃ ὥρᾳ ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς προσκυνούμενος καὶ δοξαζόμενος Χριστὸς ὁ Θεός,
ὁ μακρόθυμος, ὁ πολυέλεος, ὁ πολυεύσπλαγχνος,
ὁ τοὺς δικαίους ἀγαπῶν καὶ τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ἐλεῶν,
ὁ πάντας καλῶν πρὸς σωτηρίαν διὰ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν,
Αὐτός, Κύριε, πρόσδεξαι καὶ ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ταύτῃ τὰς ἐντεύξεις καὶ ἴθυνον τὴν ζωὴν ἡμῶν πρὸς τὰς ἐντολάς Σου.
Τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν ἁγίασον, τὰ σώματα ἅγνισον, τοὺς λογισμοὺς διόρθωσον, τὰς ἐννοίας κάθαρον καὶ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης θλίψεως, κακῶν καὶ ὀδύνης.
Τείχισον ἡμᾶς ἁγίοις Σου Ἀγγέλοις, ἵνα τῇ παρεμβολῇ αὐτῶν φρουρούμενοι καὶ ὁδηγούμενοι καταντήσωμεν εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα τῆς πίστεως καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀπροσίτου Σου δόξης,
ὅτι εὐλογητὸς εἶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.