Saturday of the Akathist

According to the Synaxarion, the observance originated in the year 626, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius, when Constantinople was besieged for some months by the Persians and the Avars. Tradition holds that the city was saved through the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, and the observance commemorates this deliverance.

The 626 siege was a coordinated assault by Sassanid Persia and the Avar Khaganate against Byzantine Constantinople in June and July of that year. The attackers are said to have deployed some 80,000 troops against far fewer defenders. Byzantine control of the Bosphorus prevented Persian reinforcements from crossing to support their Avar allies, weakening the siege. The defense was directed by Patriarch Sergius alongside the patrician Bonus; despite continuous bombardment, morale within the walls remained high, attributed to the patriarch's religious fervor and his processions along the walls carrying an icon believed to be that of the Virgin Mary.

Tradition relates that when the city was delivered, the faithful gathered at the Church of Blachernae for an all-night thanksgiving vigil, at which the entire crowd chanted the hymn while standing. From this practice the office takes its name: 'Akathist' means 'not sitting' in Greek, the standing posture expressing reverence and thanksgiving toward the Theotokos. Later deliverances of the city, under Leo III the Isaurian and Constantine Pogonatus, were similarly commemorated. Following the successful defense of 626, a new proemium (introduction) for the hymn is traditionally said to have been composed by an unknown author, possibly Patriarch Sergius or George of Pisidia.

The authorship of the Akathist Hymn itself remains uncertain. It has traditionally been attributed to Romanos the Melodist, the foremost composer of kontakia of his era, but recent scholarship largely disputes this attribution, though significant dissent among scholars remains. Other proposed authors include Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople and George of Pisidia. The hymn's dating is likewise debated: before the turn of the twenty-first century it was usually assigned to the sixth or seventh century, but more recent scholarship has argued for a fifth-century origin. The hymn passed into the moveable liturgical cycle during the fourteenth century, its full chanting fixed to the fifth Saturday of Great Lent.

The observance celebrates the Theotokos as the Mother of God, the intercessor and defender of the Church. Its historical setting — the deliverance of Constantinople — expresses the conviction that the Church is guarded through the Virgin's intercession, and the day gathers the faithful in thanksgiving for that protection.

The Akathist Hymn honors Mary above all for her role in the Incarnation. Its elaborate invocations praise her participation in the mystery of God's coming in the flesh, using poetic language that emphasizes paradox and divine mystery. Through its verses the hymn also progresses through the events surrounding Christ's coming — the Annunciation, the Visitation, Joseph's doubts, the Nativity, the visit of the Magi, the flight into Egypt, and the Presentation in the Temple.

The standing posture that gives the office its name is itself part of its meaning: to remain standing throughout the hymn is an act of reverence and thanksgiving, a bodily confession of gratitude for the Theotokos's defense of her people.

The Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos comprises twenty-four oikoi (stanzas) that form an alphabetical acrostic in Greek, each stanza beginning with a successive letter of the alphabet. The stanzas are arranged as thirteen kontakia with their corresponding oikoi, prefaced by a prooimion (introduction). Alternating longer and shorter stanzas carry a series of poetic salutations, the chairetismoi, each beginning with the greeting 'Rejoice,' and a recurring refrain honoring the Virgin as the unwedded Bride.

On the Saturday of the Akathist the complete hymn is integrated into the Matins service, whereas on the preceding four Fridays of Lent only successive portions are chanted at the 'Salutations to the Theotokos.' The hymn is traditionally set in the Plagal of the Fourth tone. In monasteries following the Athonite tradition, the complete Akathist is customarily chanted nightly at Compline, extending its liturgical use beyond the annual Saturday observance.

The observance falls within Great Lent and does not lift the season's fast. During the chanting of the Akathist, standing is customarily observed by all present — the posture from which the office takes its name — as an expression of reverence and thanksgiving toward the Theotokos.

The complete Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos (the 'Salutations') is chanted on this Saturday; it is also chanted in four successive stanzas on the first four Fridays of Great Lent.

In monasteries of the Athonite tradition, the complete Akathist is chanted nightly at Compline.