A Marian Hymn from An Unlikely Source
The Protection of the Theotokos Hymns of petition to the Theotokos are of no recent invention in the Church: indeed, the oldest hymn to her, known in Latin as the "Sub tuum praesidium," dates back to a Coptic text in the 3rd century. Further hymns have not been infrequent in the intervening centuries, and Christians around the world pray constantly for her intercession. She is also not tardy in responding to these requests: do we not have an entire feast recalling her protection of Constantinople? The miracles wrought through her intercession, through the means of icons, springs, statutes, or merely prayers, are countless, and so she has inspired many to proclaim the greatness that the Lord has bestowed upon her, the greatness she prophesied in her canticle: "From now will all generations bless me." Her greatness has inspired saints (such as St. Romanos the Melodist and St. Bernard of Clairvaux) and those whose fate is not known for certain, such as...