www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Akathist with a Sermon

I was recently reading the reflections of Bishop +Benjamin Fedchenkov. Bishop Benjamin was a spiritual child of Elder Isidore of New Gethsemane Hermitage, as was St. Pavel Florensky.

Before the Revolution Bishop Benjamin introduced the practice of having regular Akathists with congregational singing and a sermon - it was his own idea, inspired by a conversation with Eldore Isidore. His sermons would be focused on the particular saint, or particular virtues extolled in the Akathist.

With love he reflects on those days and talks about the "simple people" who came to those services (they were after dinner so the working people who could not attend the morning liturgies could attend, and these were almost always the working people).

He also reflects on the moving catechetical impact it had, from the simple combination of congregational singing of the Akathists or Canons, along with the "catechetical moments" the texts and services themselves gave him to preach, and the fellowship that followed.
FDD

What makes an Akathist different from any other hymn? What does "Akathist" mean?

Christ is Risen!

Akathist literally means "while standing" in Greek. It has a connection with the original form of the Kontakion, which was written as an acrostic of the Greek alphabet and contained the proeimeion and the same number of oikoi as letters of the Greek alphabet.

The first known Akathist was to the Theotokos and is attributed to St. Romanos the Melodist. The Akathist by tradition was first used publically in Constantinople in 626 in thanksgiving for victory over an attack of the Persians.

Later the kontakion was shortened to the version you see used in Byzantine services, but the Akathist to the Theotokos remains in this original form as a "proto-kontakion". It probably remained in this form because it was also a very popular paraliturgical service which could be sung inside or outside of a church and was used in all kinds of natural disasters, wars, pestilence, etc. and was also used in Great Lent.

In Greek practice the Akathist to the Theotokos is still sung along with the Canon to the Theotokos of Joseph on Fridays of Great Lent at Compline, broken into portions each of the first four weeks and sung in its entirety on the fifth Friday. In Slavic practice the Akathist to the Theotokos is sung on Akathistos Saturday (fifth Saturday of Great Lent) alone.

Besides these "official" days when it is prescribed to be sung, it is often sung after Liturgy or separately at other times as an intercessory prayer.

Akathists to Christ, His Passion, Resurrection, the Holy Cross, to various saints, and for specific feast days have followed the original in terms of general structure, but some variations exist, such as the number of "Rejoices" (chaires). In current usage, the Akathist repeats the last Ikos (13) three times, and then Ikos 1 is repeated followed by Kontakion 1, often with one or more concluding prayers at the end.

In the Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian traditions, there are hundreds of different Akathists in existence.
FDD