The Life
Romanos was born around 485 in Emesa (modern Homs) in Syria, possibly to Jewish parents or to a Christian family of Semitic origin. He was baptized as a young boy and developed a deep love for the house of God. He served as a verger in Emesa, was ordained a deacon in Beirut at the Church of the Resurrection, and moved to Constantinople around 500 during the reign of Anastasius I. He served at the Church of the Theotokos in the Kyros district. His harsh and rasping voice made the congregation cringe, and the more educated clergy ridiculed him. On Christmas Eve around 518 he sat down humiliated in a choir stall and fell asleep. The Theotokos appeared to him with a scroll and commanded him to eat it. He awoke, mounted the ambo, and chanted in a wondrous voice his first kontakion: “Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One.” He composed nearly a thousand kontakia and likely the Akathist Hymn. He reposed around 556.
Romanos was born in the Syrian city of Emesa (modern Homs) around the year 485. The tradition records he was born of Jewish parents, though some modern scholars argue he was born to a Christian family of Semitic origin. He was baptized as a young Christian boy. He grew up in a bilingual Syriac-Greek environment. He developed a deep love for the house of God from his earliest years. As a young man he served as a verger in Emesa, lighting the lamps of the church and preparing the censer for the liturgical services. The simple practical service in the liturgical life of the parish church was the beginning of his formation in the liturgical and musical tradition of Eastern Christianity. The Syriac hymnographic tradition that descended from Saint Ephrem the Syrian (commemorated January 28) shaped his earliest formation.
After moving to Beirut as a young adult, Romanos was ordained to the diaconate and assigned to the Church of the Resurrection. He served as a deacon in Beirut for some years. He moved to the imperial capital of Constantinople around the year 500 during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I (491–518). In Constantinople he was assigned to serve at the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Kyros district (some accounts place him at the Church of the Theotokos in the Blachernae district). The diaconate involved the practical pastoral and liturgical work of the parish church, including the liturgical chanting of the Psalms and the reading of the liturgical texts during the services.
Saint Romanos had a harsh and rasping voice and was reportedly tone-deaf. The congregation cringed at hearing his voice during the liturgical chanting. The more educated clergy ridiculed him for his apparent lack of musical skill and theological education. He had a pure and simple heart filled with love for God, but his external gifts seemed inadequate for the liturgical position he had been entrusted with. He continued to serve faithfully despite the mockery, lighting lamps, preparing the censer, reading the prescribed lections, fulfilling all the practical responsibilities of his deaconal office. The deep humility he showed in continuing his service despite the public mockery was the providential preparation for the gift the Theotokos would later grant him.
The providential moment that would transform Saint Romanos’s entire life and the entire history of Eastern Christian hymnography came on Christmas Eve around the year 518. He was serving at the all-night vigil for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ in the Church of the Theotokos in the Kyros district. He was assigned to read the kathisma verses from the Psalter. He read so poorly that another reader had to take his place. Some of the lesser clergy ridiculed him for this. Humiliated, he sat down in one of the choir stalls. Overcome by weariness and deep sorrow, he fell asleep. The Most Holy Theotokos appeared to him with a scroll in her hand. She commanded him to eat the scroll. As soon as he opened his mouth and swallowed the parchment in his dream, he awoke. He immediately marveled and glorified God. He received a blessing from the Patriarch, mounted the ambo, and chanted in a wondrous voice his now-famous Kontakion of the Nativity: “Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One.”
From the moment of the Theotokos’s gift onward, Saint Romanos composed hymn after hymn for the entire Eastern Christian liturgical year. He composed kontakia for nearly every major feast and for many saints. He composed kontakia for the Nativity, Theophany, Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, the feasts of the Theotokos, and the apostles, martyrs, and confessors of the early Christian Church. The tradition records that he composed approximately one thousand kontakia in his lifetime. Of these, about eighty authentic compositions survive (with another twenty considered doubtful). His masterpiece is widely considered to be the Kontakion of the Nativity that he composed on the occasion of his vision; it was sung every year at the imperial banquet on the Feast of the Nativity until the twelfth century. He is also widely believed to have composed the incomparable Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos, perhaps his greatest masterpiece, which is still chanted today across the entire Eastern Christian world.
The cultural and theological influence of Saint Romanos’s hymnography on the entire history of Eastern Christian liturgy has been profound and enduring. The kontakia he composed, though now usually chanted only in the abbreviated form of the prelude during contemporary liturgical services (the full kontakion having been replaced by the canon as the main hymnic form of the all-night vigil), continue to shape the Eastern Christian liturgical year. His famous Kontakion of the Nativity is sung in churches across the entire Eastern Christian world every Christmas. His Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos is chanted on the Friday evenings of Great Lent and is one of the most beloved devotional services in the entire Eastern tradition. His hymn “My soul, my soul, why sleepest thou” is chanted as part of the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete on the fifth Thursday of Great Lent.
The biblical foundation of Saint Romanos’s vision of the Theotokos is the prophetic and apocalyptic tradition of the swallowed scroll. The prophet Ezekiel was given a scroll to eat that was “as honey for sweetness” in his mouth (Ezekiel 3:3). Saint John the Divine was given a little book to eat in his apocalyptic vision (Revelation 10:10). The biblical pattern is that the prophet must consume and assimilate the word of God into his being before he can speak it to the people. Saint Romanos’s swallowing of the scroll from the Theotokos placed him in this prophetic tradition. The kontakia he composed afterward were the apostolic words that the Theotokos had given him to swallow now spoken back to the people of God in liturgical form.
Saint Romanos served as deacon in the Church of the Theotokos in Constantinople until his repose. The tradition records that he died as a deacon of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia) on October 1, around the year 556 (some sources say 510). He was about seventy years old. He was buried in the Church of the Theotokos in Constantinople, where his feast has been celebrated ever since. The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates him on October 1 as the patron saint of music and the founding hymnographer of the entire Eastern liturgical tradition. The coincidence of his feast day with the feast of the Protection of the Theotokos (commemorating an apparition of the Theotokos at Blachernae in the tenth century) has led to his frequent appearance as a central figure in the iconography of that feast.
Romanos gives the Christian Church a particular gift: the early Eastern dramatization that the providence of God can use even the most humble Christian for the greatest apostolic purposes. He had a harsh and rasping voice that made the congregation cringe. He was mocked by the more educated clergy. He prayed to the Theotokos for help. She appeared to him on Christmas Eve and gave him a scroll to swallow. He awoke and chanted the first kontakion. He composed nearly a thousand kontakia for the entire Eastern liturgical year. He likely composed the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos. He reposed around 556 as a deacon of Hagia Sophia. We may not be hymnographers. But we are all called to trust that the providence of God can use even our most apparent inadequacies for the apostolic purposes the providence has prepared for us.