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To Thee, Our Leader in Battle
This hymn was written in thanksgiving for the deliverance of Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire, from attack by Arabs in 826, and was sung thereafter whenever the city was again besieged. It is therefore a thanksgiving for past deliverance, but also a plea for present help.
To Our Leader in Battle.
TO thee, our leader in battle and defender, O Theotokos,* we thy servants,* delivered from calamity, offer hymns of victory and thanksgiving. Since thou art invincible in power, set us free from every peril, that we might cry to thee: Hail, Bride without bridegroom.*
Translated by Isabel Hapgood
* A Greek word meaning ‘she who gave birth to God’, sometimes translated Birthgiver of God or (less precisely) Mother of God. It emphasises the reality of the Incarnation: if Jesus was merely a very holy man, then we cannot call Mary Theotokos. The word was officially blessed by the Council of Ephesus in 431.
* Thus in the Russian; in the Greek, ‘I thy city.’ For the background events to this hymn, see Our Lady’s Mantle.
* A reference to the fact that Mary bore God’s Son as her own child, and in that sense was his bride, but she had no earthly husband: she was betrothed to Joseph, but never married to him.