When it is said
It is sung near the start of the Russian memorial service, the Panikhida, right after the Alleluia and its verses. A hymn to the Mother of God follows it.
Memorial services are sung on the third, ninth and 40th days after a death and on its anniversary. The Church also sings this hymn on Saturdays, the day of the week it keeps for the departed.
Where it comes from
No author known
Sung for all the departed
The Greek service book for the weeks around Lent gives it as the hymn of a Saturday shortly before Lent, when the Church remembers everyone who has died, in every age. There it asks rest for “the souls of Your servants”. At a memorial service for one person, the same hymn is sung for one soul, with the name.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Triodion, the Saturday before Meatfare Sunday (Greek); Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church (1906)
Who wrote it?
No one knows for certain. The Greek Triodion heads it “of the unworthy Theodore”, as it heads other hymns sung on that Saturday, but it does not say which Theodore. Russian prayer books print it with no author’s name.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Triodion, the Saturday before Meatfare Sunday (Greek); Molitvoslov.com, the order of the Panikhida (Church Slavonic)
The Scripture in it
O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ὁ βάθει σοφίας φιλανθρώπως πάντα οἰκονομῶν,
καὶ τὸ συμφέρον πᾶσιν ἀπονέμων μόνε Δημιουργέ,
ἀνάπαυσον Κύριε τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν δούλων σου·
ἐν σοὶ γὰρ τὴν ἐλπίδα ἀνέθεντο,
τῷ ποιητῇ καὶ πλάστῃ καὶ Θεῷ ἡμῶν.