Kassia

Kassia

Source: Wikipedia

Born in either 805 or 810 in Constantinople, Saint Kassia was an author of Byzantine chants or hymns of the Eastern Orthodox Church, as distinguished from the plainchant of the Western Orthodox Church in Rome which development along with responsorial singing remains something obscure. The plainchant of the Western Church probably began its development following the sacking of Rome in 410. It matured into the Gregorian chant with the blessings of Pope Gregory I (c 540 – 12 March 604). By Kassia's time, Charlemagne of France had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor on December 25 of 800. During her lifetime the Byzantine Church pursued a second period of iconoclasm from 813 to 847 in which art depicting holy figures like Christ, Mary, the saints, et al alike the one above, was deemed heretical and destroyed where found. The Church had pursued its first cleansing of icons from 730 to 787. Such, in part, the Eastern Orthodox to which Kassia was devout, respect for God not to be adulterated by idols of human imagination which must necessarily fail to represent such.

Kassia had been daughter to wealthy parents with proximity to royalty, such that she was among the contestants at the bride show during which soon-to-be Emperor Theophilos chose his bride circa 830. The bride show was an event known to occur in ancient Greece by which a potential husband strolled between two lines of females with a golden apple to award to his choice of wife. It was later practiced in tsarist Russia as well.

It was also customary for women to be submissively quiet. It's said that as Theophilos approached Kassia he remarked upon the evil of women in reference to Eve: "Through a woman came forth the baser things" (verbatim by tradition). Kassia might have become an Empress had she kept silent, but she replied instead as to the good of women in reference to the Virgin Mary: "And through a woman came forth the better things". Not pleased, Theophilos passed her up, the less argumentative Theodora to gain the apple.

With that romance nipped before bud, Kassia disappeared from history into a convent until slightly prior to Theophilos' death in 842. Tradition finds him attempting to visit Kassia at the Orthodox monastery that she had joined. Not wishing to confront him, Kassia fled, but left her composition for 'The Fallen Woman' open on her desk. Upon his departure and her return she found that he had added verse 8 to her work, which she retained: "Thy feet, whereof when Eve in Paradise heard the sound, she hid herself for fear". The next year in 843 Kassia founded her own monastery at Constantinople and became its abbess. As for her compositions,  23 occupy the liturgy of the Orthodox Church. Among her best-known were and remain 'The Fallen Woman' and 'Augustus, the Monarch'. 'The Fallen Woman' is a troparion or, hymn of one stanza. 'Augustus the Monarch' is a sticheron or, hymn of the Byzantine Rite, referring to Augustus (Octavian), Emperor of Rome 27 BC to 14 AD. The Choir of St. Paul's below leaves a commentary on our own times as well.

'Troparion of Kassia' ('The Fallen Woman' or 'Hymn of Kassiani')   Circa 830-42 or later

Soprano: Jessica Suchy-Pilalis

'Troparion of Kassia' ('The Fallen Woman' or 'Hymn of Kassiani')   Circa 830-42 or later

Choir of St. Symeon the New Theologian Orthodox Church (OCA) in Birmingham AL

'Augustus the Monarch'   Sticheron Form   Date unknown

Choir of St. Paul's in Burlingame CA sometime 2020>

Kassia also left behind a large block of secular writings such as philosophical aphorisms. Eventually leaving Constantinople, Kassia traveled in Italy a bit before settling on the Greek island of Kasos before dying prior to 866. She was sainted by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 867.