Guest Lecture by Faculty Member

Dr Andrew Mellas presented a lecture on St Romanos the Melodist and the songs of Pascha to the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University on the 4th of March. Dr Mellas explored how the Paschal hymn of Romanos the Melodist sought to shape an emotional and liturgical community in Constantinople, inviting the faithful to experience the dialectic between the beginning of salvation history and the end of all things. The tears of Romanos’ protagonist, Mary Magdalene—who was conquered by weeping but overcome by the fire of love—embodied a metamorphosis of grief into joy. In the liminal space between the absence and presence of Christ’s body, during the interlude between crucifixion and resurrection, Romanos’ song elicited a longing for the eschaton that is yet to come but already dawning.