New Publication by Faculty Member

Dr Andrew Mellas, Senior Lecturer in Church History and Liturgical Studies, recently published a volume in the esteemed Popular Patristics Series produced by St Vladimir's Seminary Press. The volume is no.61 in the series which consists of English translations of mainly first millennium Christian texts with this new addition titled Hymns of Repentance by Saint Romanos the Melodist.

St Romanos composed many hymns in Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Justinian, an age of political and cultural transformation. Scripture comes to life in his hymns, inviting the faithful to encounter biblical events in their own liturgical experience, where the human-divine encounter was enriched with sacred music and holy ritual, amplifying moments of desire, sadness, and joy.

This volume brings together for the first time a selection of St Romanos’ hymns about repentance, featuring the original Greek opposite a new English translation. These hymns, which were sung in church during the Lenten journey to Pascha, explore the story of the prodigal son, the crucifixion of Christ, and other important themes, evoking compunction and its purifying power, and praying to God for his great and abundant mercy.

Andrew Mellas is the author of Liturgy and the Emotion in Byzantium: Compunction and Hymnody (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and co-editor (with Sarah Gador-Whyte) of Hymns, Homilies, and Hermeneutics in Byzantium (Brill, forthcoming).