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April 10, 2012

Thrasyvoulos Stanitsas and the Troparion of Kassiani


Thrasyvoulos Stanitsas, born in Constantinople in 1910, was the Archon Protopsaltes of the Great Church of Christ under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He had a unique talent and ability in Byzantine Chant and his fame spread while still a Lambadarios throughout Constantinople primarily for the beauty in which he executed the complex "Σὲ ὑμνοῦμεν" (We praise you...), the Communion hymns and foremostly the "Troparion of Kassiani", which after chanting it at the Patriarchate he was called to chant it also at other churches of the City "at the modest patriarchal command". Stanitsas was Lambadarios for 20 years opposite Constantine Priggos, and thus sucked in all his art and majestry. After a lengthy illness of his predecessor C. Priggos, in 1960, Stanitsas was promoted by the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I into Archon Protopsaltes of the Great Church of Christ. Stanitsas died on the 18th August, 1987. (Read more here)

Below Thrasyvoulos Stanitsas can be heard chanting the longer version of the Troparion of Kassiani, for which he was famous, on 16 April 1957 in the Patriarchal Church of Saint George.