1st Ode Katavasia of Christmas This hymn is chanted in every Matins (Όρθρος) service from the 21st November until Christmas Day. It is the 1st Ode of the Katavasies of Christmas, written by St Kosmas, Bishop of Maiouma. Most of the hymn is an exact duplication of the opening of the 38th Oration of St Gregory the Theologian on the Feast of Theophany, from the thrice-fold repetition of the exclamatory phrases beginning with ‘Christ’, up to the phrase which St Gregory himself borrows from Psalm 91:1, “Sing to the Lord all the earth”. Τhese words were also sung by the [...]