st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS. 141
CHAPTER X.
HYMNS.
UNDER the general title of it is
hymns convenient to
include all Damascene s poetical compositions, as
But the reader must
they are all on sacred subjects.
not be misled by the term. With us the word is
suggestive of metre and rhyme. But in the Eastern
Church it is
properly applied to such passages from
the bible as the Angels Song (St. Luke ii. 14), Glory
to God in the highest, etc., hence called the Angelic
Hymn ;
the Song of the Seraphim (Is. vi. 3), known
as the Tersanctus ;
and the like. 1 In the Latin
Church the term is extended to include Introits,
Graduals, and other sentences for singing. It will
thus be seen that, in speaking of St. John of Damascus
as the chief of the Greek Hymnodists,"-
we must
not form our conception of his work in that depart
ment from modern hymnology. In point of fact, the
extant pieces which have gained for him that proud
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title are but few in number ;
and of these the
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Liturgies Eastern and
See the Glossaries to Hammond s "
Western" (1878), and Littledale s "Offices . . of the Eastern
Church (1863), under the word Hymnus."
8 Littledale, p. 278. To the same effect the late Dr. Neale,
Hymns of the Eastern Church," third ed., p. 31.
3 In Lequien s original edition, under the heading "Carmina,"
in his