Akathist by Mykhayl

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(STAND)

MOTHER KYIV… 86-100 verses (899)
MEDITATION 6

(Chanter:)
Apostolically blessed Kyiv is not only the mother of Rus’ but the incubating cradle of Slavic Christendom, though attacked on all sides including from with in. * From the heart of European to its eastern borderland a vigil is kept against the false gods whose servants come from Christian stock, especially in our day and age.

CHANT 6

(CLERGY:)

Attention! A reading from Saint Matthew:

(ALL:)
+ Glory be to you O Lord glory be to You
Alleluia, alleluia!
(CLERGY:)
(Jesus commanded;) “Go therefore making disciples of all nations, baptizing them * in the name of + the Father, and of + the Son, and of the + Holy Spirit.” (Matt 28:19)

(ALL:)
+Glory be to you Our God glory be to You
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
(MAY SIT IF FATIGUED)
(ALL:)
86 Rejoice ever remembering that the Viking warlord Oleh swept down * like a biting northern wind upon Kyiv’s sunny civilization,

Glory be the converted co-rulers Saints Askold baptized Nicholas * and Dyr christened Wisdom are paid tribute with crowns of martyrdom (882).

87 Rejoice despite the mortification while the warlord Ihore swears peace * in a treaty with Byzantium he does so on a pagan totems,

Glory be for his Christian comrades accompany the envoys of Constantinople * to the Kyivan sanctuary of Saint Elijah for prayerful solace (945).

88 Rejoice admiring the formable royal widow from Kyiv * Saint Oil’ha (Olga) accepts with her baptism the name Helena, (Olena / Ellena).

While in Constantinople she wisely choose her suitor the Emperor * to stand as her godfather, keeping him her bachelor kin (955).

89 Rejoice acknowledging that while this determining woman is Kyivan regent * numerous schools, hospitals and churches are erected throughout Rus’,

As is the case over the grave of the martyred co-monarchs Askald is built Saint Nicholas church * while over Dyr’s is built the Sophia sanctuary, both directed by Saint Oil’ha.

90 Rejoice despite distress over her pagan grandson ordering of child sacrifice * with the lots falling in Kyiv upon Christian Varangian victims (Scandinavian émigré 983),

In refusing such a prestigious honor the chosen Saint Ivan * joined by Saint Theodore his father becomes the first hoi-polloi martyrs of Rus’ (983).

91 Rejoice as Roman history is wisely revisited by the Rusyn’ state, * in seeking a faith in order to internally fuse a nation into solidarity.

The pagan monarch of Kyiv sent a delegation to report on the neighboring religions: * Arabic Islam and the Judaic tribe of Khazars, Roman Christian orthodoxy and Byzantine Christian catholicism.

92 Rejoice heeding to the ambassadors of Volodymyr (Vladimir) upon their return * from Byzantium’s Hagia Sophia Cathedral came this report:

“While in their Christian sanctuary we knew not if we stood within the bosom of heaven itself * or was still standing upon the face of the earth “

93 Rejoice in order to sanctify this marriage between Byzantine princess Saint Anne * and the blinded pagan Kyivan knight Volodymyr,

Glory be this great monarch’s eyes were opened with the enlightenment of baptism * in the church of St Basil whose baptismal name he took at Korsun.

94 Rejoice receiving the Slavonic priests of the Christian old ritual * who was summonsed from all corners of the lands of Kyiv – Rus’,

In order to perform a massive baptism upon the populous of Kyiv * in their vernacular, in the apostolic formula, in the waters of the expansive river Dnepro (988).

95 Rejoice for these missionaries of Rus’ redefine the borderlands of European Christendom * upon which Pope John XV (the 15th / fifteenth) commemorated Kyivan Christendom with a gift of the skull relic of Saint Clement (989),

Glory be while the missionaries christened west, east, and to the sea but remember to lament for the green disciples * who voyaging north finding stubborn resistance to the unity of truth.

96 Rejoice though we morn for the princely orphans of Saint Vladimir * Saints Boras and Hlib martyred by their pagan brother as passion-bearers (1015).

The relics of the holy brothers are transferred to Vyshhorod * the thoroughfares were so crammed with pilgrims disarray it was reported in the day’s chronicles (1115).

97 Rejoice inscribed for posterity that their Christian brother * Yaroslaw ascended the throne of Kyiv ruling most wisely (1019).

He builds a patriarchical cathedral with a scriptorium library * along with multiple academy schools, boarding orphanages, elderly hospitals, and abbey churches (1037).

98 Rejoice with delight as new Kyivan monasteries mushroom through the catacombs * cultivated by our holy fathers Saints Anthoniy of the near and Theodosius of the far caves (1067-74).

While joining the senior catacombs of the iconoclast black-robed refuges, they foreran the monastic discipline in the Kyivan hills at Zverynetsky (780).

99 Rejoice remembering as Saint Hyacinth was offering holy mass * in the Dominican convent he established invading Tartars attacked Kyiv,

Clutching the holy Eucharistic sacrament embraced by purple * Hyacinth still in liturgical vestments prepare to flee in all hast.

100 Rejoice amazed as the alabaster statue of the “Kieff (Kyiv) Madonna” speaks to the Saint: * “Why take my Son but leave Me behind?” On the old calendar feast of the Dormition (Julian Assumption, Aug 28 nc)

Glory be as the mighty Dnepro waters parts like the Red Sea in Exodus so these refugee could turn west to Lviv, * Saint Hyacinth continues on to enshrines the “bulava” (scepter) bearing crowned Kieff Madonna in Krakow, to our day (1250).