service files canon_of_the_synodikon.md

**CANON FOR THE SYNODIKON OF ORTHODOXY**

The other troparion formed part of the ancient office for the First Sunday of Lent, which was dedicated to the Prophets, in particular Moses, Aaron and Samuel. The three are found together in Psalm 96:6, ’ Moses and Aaron were among his priests: and Samuel among those that call upon his name ’ . The present Gospel for this Sunday is also a survival from the ancient office, and it was chosen presumably because of the words of the Apostle Philip to Nathaniel, ’ We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth ’ .

INTRODUCTION

In the Triodia this Canon is ascribed to Theodore the Studite, but it cannot be by him, since he had died several years earlier. The author is almost certainly the Patriarch St Methodios. The troparion of the 8th Ode which speaks of the famous Icon of Christ above the Bronze Gate of the Palace reminds one of the poem on the subject that was written by the Patriarch Methodios to celebrate its restoration. The rubric in the Triodion says, ’after the Dismissal of Matins and before the Liturgy, we go in procession, together with wood of the Cross and the revered Icons, to the place where the Synodikon is to be read. As we go and as we return we sing the following Canon’. If this canon was first sung in 843, it is tempting to suggest that it may have been sung as the clergy and people made their way from the church of the Mother of God in Blachernae, where the vigil had been celebrated, to the Great Church, where the Liturgy was to be celebrated.

It is perhaps worth remarking that one of those present would almost certainly have been a seventeen year old boy from Thessalonika, who had recently been sent to Constantinople on the death of his father and placed in the care of Theoktistos the Logothete, the Empress Theodora’s chief minister. The young man’s name was Constantine; though he is better known by his monastic name, Cyril — the Apostle of the Slavs.

The Canon presents a number of linguistic and historical problems, and this translation is only provisional. One of the historical problems is why such prominence is given to otherwise almost wholly unknown character, Lezix, who appears here as one of the leaders of the iconoclasts. It seems that he was subsequently reconciled to the Church by the Patriarch himself.

The two troparia that are sung after the Canon are not without interest. The first, which is now the Apolytikion for the day, seems to have been a rallying song of the Iconodules, for we read in the life of St Theodore the Studite that shortly after the exile of Patriarch Nikephoros and the removal of the icons, St Theodore organised a solemn procession of the icons, during which this troparion was sung. In his Life we read that ‘he ordered all the monks under him to take the icons in their hands, hold them high and then march round the whole circuit of the monastery, sing the hymn, “We worship your most pure icon, loving Lord”, together with other hymns of victory to Christ the Victor. This took place on the glorious feast of Palms, which we all believers celebrate before the Passion and Resurrection of the Master’ .