1. THE TRISAGION
W
hile the cantors are si-nging the troparia and kontakia proper to
the day, the priest stands before the center of the holy table and
recites the Prayer of the Trisagion in a low voice :
0 Holy God who rest among the saints, whose praises are
sung by the seraphim with the Trisagion Hymn and are
glorified by the cherubim and adored by all the Powers of
heaven : you brought all things into being out of nothingness
and created man according to your image and likeness and
adorned him with your every gift; you give to him that asks
wisdom and understanding; you do not despise the sinner
but offer him repentance for his salvation; you allowed us,
your lowly and unworthy servants, to stand even at this
moment before the glory of your holy altar and to offer the
worship and honor due to you : accept, 0 selfsame Lord,
even from the mouths of us sinners the hymn of the Trisa-
gion, and in your goodness look down upon us. Forgive us
every offense, whether voluntary or involuntary; sanctify
our souls and bodies, and grant that we may serve you in
holiness all the days of our life, through the prayers of the
holy Mother of God and all the saints who have pleased you
throughout the ages.
When the cantors begin chanting the final troparion, the deacon
inclines his head toward the priest and, Jwlding the orar with three
fingers, says to the priest :
Bless, master, the time of the thrice-holy hymn.
As he blesses the deacon, the priest sings the doxology of the Trisagion
Prayer:
For you are holy, our God, and to you we give glory, to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and
always.
The deacon goes near the royal doors, turns toward the congregation

2. and, raising the orar with three fingers of his right hand, concludes the
above doxology by singing its final words :
And for ever and ever.
People : Amen.
And immediately after, the people also sing the Trisagion:
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have
mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have
mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have
mercy on us.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.
Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have
:mercy on us. 1
An Eastern prayer always expresses the profound humility of the
-sinner, but also hopeful trust in God's mercy. In his deep contem-
plation, the Eastern Christian realizes his own utter sinfulness and
misery, but he is even more vividly aware that God's justice is
tempered with mercy, that in God's feelings for us sinners there is
pity, tenderness, and love.
A Russian or Ukrainian peasant at prayer will fall on his knees,
1 The_Greek forms ("AYL~ 6 6eoi;, &yiot; tax,upot;, &yt0i; a6iXvo:Tot;) are in the
nominatiVe case (hence, the translation would read : " Holy is God, Holy the Mighty
One, Holy the Immortal One ") but Greek grammatical usage has the nominative
sometimes used in exclamations, and even in other expressions, where the vocative
is more common (cf. W. Goodwin, A Greek Grammar [Boston, 1892], p. 223).
The Slavonic translators, who were very much at home with the Greek, accordingly
used the vocative case (i.e., Sviatej Bozhe, not Bah, etc.). Our translation follows
the Slavonic.
On ChristmaS, Epiphany, the Vigil of Palm Sunday, Holy Saturday, Easter
Sunday, and all the days of the Easter Octave and Pentecost, the Trisagion is
replaced by : " For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on
Christ" (Gal. 3:27). Alleluia." This is repeated in the very same way in which
the Trisagion is sung.
The Trisagion is also replaced on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and
-0n the third Sunday of Lent by : " Before your cross we bow in worship, 0 Master,
and we glorify your holy resurrection." This is repeated in the same way.

3. press his forehead against the ground, and remain there, his brow
in the dust, with a kind oflife-giving humility, his face streaked with
tears of sorrow. 2
Many kernels of dogmatic truth are embedded in the Trisagion
Prayer, but two doctrines are emphasized : universal creation and
the creation of man in God's image and likeness.
To create, according to the Scholastic concept, is to produce a
thing which in no way previously existed, either in itself or in the
potentiality of a subject (ex nihilo sui et suhjecti). Aside ~ the
technical language, the Scholastics could not improve on the defi-
nition of creation contained in this prayer : " 0 Holy God. . . You
brought all things into being out of nothingness. " The phrase
" all things " includes everything finite, both visible and invisible;
the creative act is exclusively attributed to God, " who brought all
things into being"; it excludes the use of any pre-existing matter,
whereby true creation is denoted, not mere formation : " out ofnoth-
ingness. " The Fathers, of course, from the very first centuries, have
developed and defended the doctrine of universal creation, including
primitive matter itself, against such adversaries as the Neoplatonists,
the Gnostics, the Manicheans, etc. The concept of creation con-
tained in the foregoing prayer is equally opposed to any theory of
self-existent primitive matter from which all things either are made
or are evolved (evolutionism, materialism, naturalism, etc.).
" 0 Holy God. . . you. . . created man according to your image
and likeness and adorned him with your every gift. " Creating man
to his own image and likeness means that God endowed man with
prerogatives which give man a resemblance, however imperfect, to
God. This resemblance to God, in man, includes many things
supernatural and natural : the natural endowments of the soul, i.e.,
its spirituality, freedom, and immortality; the absolutely supernatural
endowment of sanctifying grace (re. first parents), including the
• Tears of repentance and of prayer were a much-appreciated charismata since
the end of the fourth century, especially in Egypt and Syria. Byzantium and the
Kievan Slavs inherited this idea from Syria and generalized it to the point where
it was considered an element necessary to any sincere prayer. Pseudo-Gennadius
even gives practical suggestions for acquiring this grace of tears : " If you have no
tears, do not despair; sigh frequently and heavily from all the heart: for tears are
the gift of God, and by and by, with sighs and prayers, you will obtain them from
God... " (50). "Having found tears, preserve them with all your strength" (51).

4. virtues of faith, hope, charity, justice, kindness, etc., infused into
the soul with sanctifying grace; also, the relatively supernatural or
preternatural gifts, such as infused, extraordinary knowledge,
exemption from concupiscence and from suffering, and even immor-
tality of the body. Though not enumerated, these endowments
and gifts are implicit in the prayer, for they are what makes man
most like God.
The text of the Trisagion Prayer can be traced back to the be-
ginning of the eighth century in the Armenian version of Chrysos-
tom's Liturgy; 3
hence, its origin probably goes back at least to the
seventh century.
The liturgical Trisagion (tpl<; = thrice.. ocyLOI; = holy), to be
distinguished. from the biblical Trisagion (the sanctus hymn) in the
anaphora, is found in all the Offices of the Byzantine Church. In
the other Oriental Rites, it is used frequently. In the Latin Rite,
it is confined to the preces of Prime and the Adoratio crucis on Good
Friday. ' The liturgical Trisagion was already common to the whole
East, including the Monophysite and Nestorian Churches, before
the end of the fifth century, but almost nothing is known about its
origin. The earliest evidence ofits use is found in a series ofaccla-
mations at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451). 5
Byzantine historians generally accept the tradition that the Tri-
sagion was divinely inspired. The most common interpretation is
that during a severe earthquake at Constantinople, while the patri-
arch, St. Proclus (A.D. 434-446), was leading the people in prayer,
a boy was ''lifted. up into the air" and heard the angels singing the
Trisagion. This account is based. chiefly on two sources : the Letter
to Peter the Fuller (Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch), ascribed to
•Cf. G. Aucher, La versione armena della liturgia di S. Giovanni Crisostomo,
XPYCOCTOMIKA, pp. 378-379. Inthe eighth or ninth century Codex Barberini,
gr. 336, however, this identical prayer appears in the Liturgy of St. Basil, while
another, a different prayer, appears in the Liturgy of Chrysostom. Cf. Brightman,
LEW, pp. 313-314.
• Since the famous amplification " Who was crucified for us " had not been
added to the Trisagion in the Passion ceremonies of the Latin Church, it seems
that the Trisagion was incorporated into these ceremonies at Rome prior to any
of the lengthy controversies regarding the legitimacy of this amplification. Cf.
A. Baumstark's article, " Der Orient und die Gesange der Adoratio Crucis, " in
Jb. Lw., II (1922), 1-17.
• Cf. I. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, 6, 936 C.

5. Acacius, Archbishop of Constantinople (A.O. 471-489); • and the
testimony of St. John Damascene (A.O. 749), based on different
historical sources, in his Defide orthodoxa. 7
The main trouble with this account is that there is no record of
any earthquake at Constantinople between A.O. 434 and 446, under
the patriarchate of Proclus. s
The account of the Trisagion's origin offered by Iesuiabus I,
Katholikos of the Chaldeans (A.O. 581-5¢) is substantially the same
as the Byzantine version although it differs in several details. 9
An
angel is said to have appeared to a certain pious priest of Constan-
tinople, while the city was being racked with great earthquakes
because of its wickedness. The angel told the priest to go into the
church to praise God with these words : " Holy God, Holy Mighty
One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us. " The earthquakes
ceased (temporarily at least), but no one believed the priest's vision.
On the third night, angels appeared to him again, told him not to be
afraid ofentering the ravaged city, and instructed him to do whatever
they did. With a few brave souls, he went back into the same
church, where they saw the angels standing before the altar, praising
God and saying, "Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal
One, have mercy on us. " They all began singing the hymn, and
when they had sung it three times, the earthquakes ceased com-
pletely. The great city was spared further destruction.
The Liber Heraclidis (A.O. 451-539) gives yet another and com-
• Ep. ad Petrum Fu/lonem (Mansi, op. cit., 7, 1121 D).
7 St. John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, I, III, chap. IO (PG 94, 1021 AB).
Substantially the same account about the origin of this hymn is given in the
spurious letters of Pope Felix III (A.D. 483-492), Ad Petrum Fullonem, supposedly
written at the Synod of Rome, A.D. 485, and Ad Zenonem (Mansi, op. cit., 7, 1037-
1054).
• Of the three earthquakes during the reign of Emperor Honorius II, the first
occurred in A.D. 422, according to the Chronicon Paschale (PG 92, 797 A) and
Philostorgius (fifth century), Hist. eccl., XII, 8-9 lPG 65, 617 A-C). The second,
in A.D. 447, is recorded by Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon (PL 51, 927), and in
Chronicon Paschale (PG 92, 8o5-808 [cf. also Evagrius, Hist. eccl., I, 17; PG 86,
2467-2470]). According to the Chronicon Paschale (PG 92, 809 C-812 A), the
third happened in A.D. 450.
• Iesuiabus I, Commentarius de trisagio (edit. G. Furlani, " II trattato di Yeso'yabh
d'Arzon sul Trisagion," Reflista degli studi orientali, VII [1916-1918], pp. 691-
693).

6. pletely different version. 10 The only common point is its attribution
to divine revelation (at least indirectly) and its date, some time before
A.D. 448-449. According to this narrative, the hymn originated as
a refutation of the Monophysite doctrine : that in Christ there is
only one nature, the divine, and therefore that God himself suffered
and died in the Passion of Christ. The Monophysites directly
opposed any formula of praise in which God was extolled as
" mighty" (tcrxupoi; = incapable of suffering?) and " immortal "
(&6&.voc't'oi;) even in Christ's Passion and death. 11
The original meaning of the Trisagion definitely insists on God's
" immortality, " an attribute not found in Sacred Scripture, nor in
any of the ancient formulae of prayer. The fact that the Council
of Chalcedon used the very same words confirms the idea of a refu-
tation of Monophysitism. It seems, then, that the Trisagion was
originally a purely Christological hymn, which explains its use in
the Latin Church to honor Christ's Passion and death. In later
controversies, the Byzantines addressed it to the Blessed Trinity, in
order to avert any suspicion of heresy. 19
Whatever its origin and the reasons for its use, the Trisagion
appears to have been incorporated into the Byzantine Liturgy at
10 Cf. F. Nau, Nestorius, Le livre d'Heraclide de Damas, pp. 318-323.
11 There is nothing contradictory to the above account in the explanation of the
Trisagion's origin and meaning by a certain Jewish convert to Christianity, given
in lobius Monachus, De Verba incamato commentarius, 1, VI, chap. 25 (contained
in Nestorius, Bibliotheca cod. 222 [PG 103, 772]); a similar explanation, but
without reference to supernatural revelation, is given of the hymn by the great
Byzantine liturgist of the fourteenth century, Nicolas Cabasilas, Liturgiae expositio,
chap. 20 (PG 150, 412-414).
11 The Byzantine Church has managed to preserve the Trisagion in its original
form without the interpolation " Immortal One, Who was crucified for us" by the
Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch, Peter the Fuller (A.D. 468-470), who thus
succeeded in making it a proclamation of Monophysite doctrine. The Syrian
and Coptic Monophysites adopted the interpolation in their Liturgy. The Emperor
Anastasius I (A.D. 491-518) tried to incorporate it into the hymn at Constantinople,
and seditions resulted. See Marcellinus Comes (fl. c. A.D. 550), Chronicum for
the year 512 (PL 51, 937 C-938 B); also Evagrius Scholasticus (sixth century),
Hist. eccl., l, III, chap. 44 (PG 86, 2697 B). The Trisagion with the said insertion,
ifaddressed to the Blessed Trinity, would mean that not only God the Son but also
the Father (heresy of Patripassianism) and the Holy Spirit suffered death on the
cross; or it would deny the distinction between the three Persons in the Trinity
(heresy of Sabellianism). If, however, the hymn with the insertion were directed
only to the Incarnate Word, it would be dogmatically acceptable. Cf. M. Jugie,
Monophysisme, IV, Le theopaschitisme, DTC, X, 2237-2241.

7. Constantinople some time between A.D. 430 and 450. Th!-s we have
on the contemporary testimony of a predecessor of Patriarch Pro-
clus, the banished and heretical Nestorius. 18
Its use in the Byzantine
Eucharistic Liturgy was without doubt already an established custom
during the time of Marcellinus Comes (fl. A.D. 550). 14 Its position
in the Liturgy was certainly fixed by the eighth century. 15