Aposticha Prosomia Stichera of the Feast [3] .

Ι ‘See how I wear your image which I fashioned, humbling myself beyond understanding’, said the Lord, ‘What is strange then, my friend, if I bow low beneath your right hand, like one of your fellow servants, and stripped naked wrap myself in the waters? For I wish to clothe those who have been stripped naked with everlasting incorruption.’

Tone 4. You have given as a sign.

Verse: The sea saw and fled; Jordan was turned back [4] .

By the Studite.

Ω ‘You appeared in a body, but a womb received you and remained unconsumed by fire; for the furnace of old which did not burn the Youths was its image. While I who am grass to fire, how may I place my hands on you, Master, before whom tremble all things in heaven and on earth? Jesu, all-powerful, the Saviour of our souls’.

We, the multitudes of monastics, honour you, our Father Theodosios, for through you we have learnt to walk the truly straight path. Blessed are you, for you became Christ’s slave and triumphed over the power of the foe, companion of Angels, colleague of the Venerable and the Righteous. With them intercede with the Lord to have mercy on our souls.

Verse: What troubled you, sea, that you fled? And you, Jordan, that you were turned back? [5]

With the streams of your tears you cultivated the barren desert, and with deep sighings from the heart you made your toils bring forth fruit a hundredfold, and you became a beacon, shining in all the world by your wonders, our venerable Father Theodosios; intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Σ ‘Wash me, who am wholly without stain, in the waters of Jordan’, said the Lord, ‘and human nature, stained by Adam’s transgression, when washed will become new. For when I am baptised, there is the rebirth of every human being through water and the Spirit’.

As you were baptized in the Jordan, Lord, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest; for the voice of the Father bore witness to you, naming you the Beloved Son; and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the sureness of the word. Christ God, who appeared and enlightened the world, glory to you!

Glory. Tone 8.

[1] This Doxastikon is based on the Psalm 45:5, ‘The torrents of the river rejoice the city of God; the Most High has sanctified his tabernacle’. The river is identified with Christ, or with the Holy Spirit, in a number of passages from the Fathers. Euthymios Zigavenos comments, ‘The river is Christ, because of the sweet streams of his teachings that water and rejoice the souls of Christians and bring to produce the fruits of virtue. For the Lord says, through Isaias, ‘See, I turn towards them as a river of peace’ ’. The torrents are also identified with the Apostles.

Apolytikion. Tone 8.

[2] Psalm 73:13.

Of the Feast. Tone 1.

[3] The three prosomia in Tone 4 look like part of an acrostic poem by Joseph the Hymnographer and are part of dialogue between Christ and St John the Baptist. I have included the Greek initial letters to indicate this. There is a similar problem in the Aposticha of Lauds on the 4th and 5th of January, where a poem of Joseph has been dismembered and rearranged.

[4] Psalm 113:3.

[5] Psalm 113:5 .