The Slavs Praise a Christian Victory Over Their Ancestors In August 626, the sworn enemies of the Romans, the Persians, set foot in a suburb of Constantinople called Chalcedon (modern Üsküdar). A joint Avar-Slav canoe fleet reinforced the Persians’ attempts to take over the Queen City. Emperor Herakleios was raiding the Persian heartland and destroying Zoroastrian temples. In Constantinople, Patriarch Sergios, a monophylite by faith, succeeded in raising the morale of the defenders. On August 7, the Byzantine navy defeated the Avars and the Slavs at a battle in the Bosporus. The original akathistos hymn to the Mother of God, which is chanted solemnly on the fifth Saturday of Great Lent, was written for this occasion, as was the kontakion for the Mother of God, “The Champion Leader” (Τῇ ὑπερμάχῳ στρατηγῷ, Взбра́нной Воево́дѣ). Remarkably, this kontakion is chanted after every All-Night Vigil in the largest Slavic church: that of Russia. The Champion Leader, music by Chesnkov sung by clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Source Venning, T., Harris, J. eds. A Chronology of the Byzantine Empire. London: Palgrave MacMillan. 2006. |
