Irmos: Thou art my strength, O Lord, Thou art my power; Thou art my God, Thou art my joy, Who, without leaving the bosom of the Father, hast visited our lowliness. Wherefore, with the Prophet Habbakuk I cry unto Thee: Glory to Thy power, O Thou Who lovest mankind!
From on high the Spirit of Christ breathed upon thee the life-bearing breath which of old divinely entered the upper chamber and filled the disciples; and it showed thee, O father, to be a thirteenth apostle proclaiming the Orthodox Faith.
Theotokion: After the first Adam, Thou didst become the new Adam; coming after our first mother, Thou art the Deliverer and Savior of all; and after death, Thou art the true Life immortal. Wherefore, acknowledging her who gave thee birth to be the Theotokos, we call her, the pure one, blessed, as is meet.
Irmos: I have heard, O Lord, the mystery of Thy dispensation; I have understood Thy works, and have glorified Thy divinity.
Burning greatly with divine zeal, thou didst aid the council in Nicæa; and even before thou wast made a hierarch thou didst preach that Christ the Word is consubstantial with the Father. Wherefore, Christ made thee a chief shepherd and disciple.
Theotokion: When the time of God’s good will arrived, O all-pure one, thou didst receive from the archangel the joyous announcement that through thee God desired to be born: a Light unto the nations and the Glory of Israel.
Entrusted by divine providence with the task of nurturing the Church, O Athanasius, like a scythe thou didst cut down all the spiritually harmful blasphemies of the heretics, severing them at the root; and, watering the seed of the Word, thou didst cultivate it, O wise one.
Arius’ severing of Father from Son and Sabellius’ confusion between Them, which proceed from immeasurable evil unto the dishonor of God Who is equally worshipped, were utterly consumed by thy fiery tongue, O Athanasius, and all heretical blasphemies with them.
Having heard report of the Lord Who calleth all to salvation, thou didst take up the yoke of Christ, accepting baptism with sincere conviction; and while during the day thou didst with piety conduct the affairs of the kingdom arrayed in a purple robe, at night thou didst pray to God clad in a hairshirt.
Thy virtue went forth into all the land of Bulgaria and raised thee up as a model for all thy people; wherefore, they lovingly submitted to thine authority, not only out of fear, but in full conscience.
Where the sin of ungodliness is rife, there doth grace abound, according to the words of the apostle; and after baptism thy God-fearing soul shone forth with the light of the Christ our God, the Sun of righteousness Who hath come from Thæman.
Translated by Isaac Lambertsen. Edition menaion.en.lambertsen.