WEBSITES

▼

Pages

▼

January 30, 2015

Three Hierarchs Resource Page

.
Holy Three Hierarchs (Feast Day - January 30)
 
Verses 
 
It is right to venerate together the three morning stars,
Who in life poured forth a thrice-radiant light.
It is fitting for all to offer a common hymn
To those who have poured out grace shared by all.
One swallow does not make the spring,
But three nightingales are the springtime of souls.
 
The Trinity shines upon the noetic creation,
And this triad likewise upon the visible one.
Those of old destroyed reverence for God,
Foolishly drawn to the sun and the moon;
For marveling at their beauty and swiftness,
They offered to them, as to gods, misguided worship.
But through these three luminaries again
We have been raised up to reverence for God.
For by the beauty of their lives and the persuasiveness of their words
They persuade all to worship the one Creator.
 
The visible creation is composed 
Of fire, air, water, are the nature of the earth. 
And those who constitute the great cosmos likewise, 
Bearing faith towards God as if another creation, 
Carry the pattern of the elemental Trinity. 
For they have no concern for any earthly things, 
And they possess no earthly mind in their words.
 
For the watchful mind breathes forth fire in speech,
Urging all to run upward toward the heights.
To those who have grown faint from passions, again
The words of Basil are a kind of breath.
Imitating the flow of the waters,
He alone whose heart and mouth are golden
Refreshes those who have been melted by passions.
Thus they lift the whole nature of mortals
From the earth upward by their words.
 
On the thirtieth a golden, three-sunned radiance shone forth.