Orthodox · 6th century
Venerable Romanos the Melodist - “Sweet Singer”
Commemorated: October 14 (October 1, Old Style)
Life
Romanos was born at Emesa (Homs) in Syria, served as a deacon in Beirut and came to Constantinople under Emperor Anastasius I (491–518), where he served at the church of the Mother of God in the Kyros quarter. He died c. 556.
His Life tells that on Christmas Eve the clergy, mocking his poor voice, pushed him into the ambo; that night the Mother of God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a scroll to swallow, and in the morning he sang “Today the Virgin gives birth to Him who is above all being”. Tradition credits him with a thousand kontakia; some sixty genuine ones survive, and they are among the masterpieces of Byzantine poetry.
Places
- Place of birth: Homs
- Place of death: Constantinople
Retold briefly in our own words from: the Lives of the Saints by St Dimitry of Rostov (1902–1916).
The commemorations of the day: Ponomar (ponomar.net), CC BY-SA 3.0.
Places and years: Wikidata (CC0), each saint matched by hand.