- Aug 27, 2014
- 13,565
- 13,723
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Oriental Orthodox
- Marital Status
- Private
(REMINDER FOR VISITORS: You are in the Oriental Orthodox forum right now. This is not a debate forum. This is posted for education and edification only. Negative comments from Chalcedonians or others regarding the saint will be reported for moderation.)
Because he is not cross-communally popular (to put it lightly), HH St. Severus of Antioch (+538) tends to be a bit more difficult to find English-language resources on than other distinctly OO Syriac saints, such as St. Jacob of Serug (who has been published in the Popular Patristics series by the EO publisher SVS Press) or St. Philoxenos of Mabbug (whose ascetical homilies were recently published by Cistercian Press). When his work is found in translation, it is generally his anti-Chalcedonian polemics which are focused on, to the exclusion of his corpus of hymns. There are also the two biographies which have been very well translated by the foremost living scholar on Syriac Christianity, Dr. Sebastian Brock, together with independent scholar Brian Fitzgerald, but these -- while laudatory -- don't really substitute for exposure to the saint's prayers.
I believe this lack of familiarity with the actual prayers themselves leads to a lack of appreciation of him among many who are not from the Syriac churches, such as the Copts. Yes, we venerate him properly (there is a doxology written for him in Coptic and everything), but to the best of my knowledge we do not sing any hymns attributed to him outside of the famous "O Monogenes", which the OO have always attributed to him, not the Justinian as the EO do.
The Syriacs, of course, claim him as one of their own (I believe he is called by them "the Crown of the Syrians", from what I've found of translations of the Malankara Orthodox Syrians' liturgical commemorations), and pray several prayers attributed to him, as below. I am humbled and amazed by their beauty even in English translation.
From the students of Mor Aphrem Monastery, in Syriac with English and Arabic translation:
From the beautiful voices of Fr. Aju Philip Matthews (English) and Tenny Thomas (Syriac), Malankara Orthodox Church, together with some of Psalms and other prayers:
Doctrinal hymn, also from the Malankara Orthodox Syriacs (in English):
Because he is not cross-communally popular (to put it lightly), HH St. Severus of Antioch (+538) tends to be a bit more difficult to find English-language resources on than other distinctly OO Syriac saints, such as St. Jacob of Serug (who has been published in the Popular Patristics series by the EO publisher SVS Press) or St. Philoxenos of Mabbug (whose ascetical homilies were recently published by Cistercian Press). When his work is found in translation, it is generally his anti-Chalcedonian polemics which are focused on, to the exclusion of his corpus of hymns. There are also the two biographies which have been very well translated by the foremost living scholar on Syriac Christianity, Dr. Sebastian Brock, together with independent scholar Brian Fitzgerald, but these -- while laudatory -- don't really substitute for exposure to the saint's prayers.
I believe this lack of familiarity with the actual prayers themselves leads to a lack of appreciation of him among many who are not from the Syriac churches, such as the Copts. Yes, we venerate him properly (there is a doxology written for him in Coptic and everything), but to the best of my knowledge we do not sing any hymns attributed to him outside of the famous "O Monogenes", which the OO have always attributed to him, not the Justinian as the EO do.
The Syriacs, of course, claim him as one of their own (I believe he is called by them "the Crown of the Syrians", from what I've found of translations of the Malankara Orthodox Syrians' liturgical commemorations), and pray several prayers attributed to him, as below. I am humbled and amazed by their beauty even in English translation.
From the students of Mor Aphrem Monastery, in Syriac with English and Arabic translation:
From the beautiful voices of Fr. Aju Philip Matthews (English) and Tenny Thomas (Syriac), Malankara Orthodox Church, together with some of Psalms and other prayers:
Doctrinal hymn, also from the Malankara Orthodox Syriacs (in English):
