Ode VI

Irmos: Celebrating this divine and most honored festival of the Mother of God, come, ye divinely wise, let us clap our hands and glorify God Who was born of her.

Kontakion, in Tone II —

Admonishing for three days the bishops who had fallen away from the Orthodox Faith, with thy divine exhortations thou didst enlighten them; wherefore, having rejected false doctrine and ardently embraced Orthodoxy, they showed thee to be a leader of the saved.

Theotokion: The Archangel Gabriel, appearing before the Virgin in Nazareth, announced the universal mystery, that God desired to be born of a woman in order to deify men. Wherefore, with love do we ever magnify her as the cause of our salvation.

Irmos: Cleanse me, O Savior, for many are my transgressions; and lead me up from the abyss of evils, I pray, for to Thee have I cried, and Thou hast hearkened to me, O God of my salvation.

Kontakion, in Tone VIII: Spec. Mel.: “To thee, the champion leader…” —

Thou didst teach that humble virginity is to be honored and embraced, but didst also magnify honorable matrimony, and didst teach as well that widowhood is likewise to be honored in every way; and thou didst take care for abstinence, teaching thy disciples to follow it and to attain salvation thereby, O thrice blessed father.

Theotokion: Thou didst truly conceive the Word of God in thy womb, O all-pure one, and gavest birth unto Him in manner transcending nature. Render Him merciful unto us on the day of judgment.

Carthage boasteth in thy youth, Tagaste in thy childhood, Rome in thy teaching, and Milan in thy repentance; but most of all the city of Hippo is glorified by thee, as its blessed pastor and honored bishop.

O holy hierarch and theologian, boast of the Church of Christ, instructor in piety and confirmation of the Orthodox Faith, uprooter of heresies and treasury of mystic teachings, blessed father ­Augustine, all-wondrous hierarch, pray thou ever for us all.

Ikos: Enlighten the darkened eyes of my heart, O holy hierarch, and teach me worthily to hymn thy memory and to praise the wondrous life which thou didst live angelically. Teach me to take thy doctrines into my soul, and guide me in walking the path of virtue, that I may never depart from the path which leadeth to life everlasting. Show me what I ought to think, to say and to do. Bind thou my hands and feet with the fear of God; impel me toward the love of Christ, that I may ever perceive and not be deceived by the corruptible beauties of this world. Strengthen us, that we may assiduously seek the things which are to come; and pray thou ever for us all.

The Lord hath glorified thee on earth, O holy one; for in thy divinely wise writings thou shinest forth upon the ends of the world like the radiant sun, O Jerome.

Mortifying the carnal passions by asceticism, O right wise one, thou didst write books and scrolls teaching and explaining the word of God.

Splendid in fasting and great in wisdom, O divinely eloquent one, thou hast received the title of instructor of the faithful, and art now rightly praised by us.

With hymns let us praise the right laudable Jerome, the most venerable among the venerable and the most blessed among the blessed, the instructor and helper of the faithful, crying out to him with love: Rejoice, O divinely wise father!

Ikos: O father Jerome, on earth thou wast seen to be like an angel; wherefore, unbelievers and heretics maliciously cried out against thee. But we Orthodox, rejoicing, cry out to thee such things as these: Rejoice, scion of godly Dalmatia! Rejoice, thou who art its goodly fruit and son! Rejoice, thou who in holiness in the Holy Land wast nurtured! Rejoice, boast of the pious! Rejoice, for thy writings shine forth like light! Rejoice, for thine asceticism is rightly praised! Rejoice, close friend of the wise Augustine! Rejoice, thou who fulfilled his requests! Rejoice, teacher of the faithful! Rejoice, opponent of the ungodly foe! Rejoice, thou who didst behold the city of heaven! Rejoice, thou who therein chantest divine hymnody unto God! Rejoice, O divinely wise father!