Agia Kassiani, the great poetess of Byzantium

The woman was recognized, for the first time, in Christianity and emerged as a human person equal to the man. The emergence of a myriad of holy women, who deservedly competed with the male saints in sanctity and merit, is an amazing proof. One of them was Saint Kassiani, the eloquent nun, the famous poet and hymn writer of Byzantium. Her name occurs as Kassiani or Kas(s)ia, or Ikasia, or Ikasia. He was born around 805 – 810 in Constantinople to a family of prominent feudal lords. Her father was a prominent member of the imperial court and held the title of Candidate. Her parents made sure to provide her with brilliant studies. Her high education, her rare beauty and her physical and mental gifts, highlighted her as one of the most charismatic girls of Byzantium and a sought-after bride for the noble youth of Vasilevousa. The biographers of Symeon the Translator, George the Amartolos and Leo the Grammaticus, mention that she was a prospective bride of the emperor Theophilos (829-842). According to the chronicle, the mother of Theophilos Euphrosyne organized a bride selection ceremony for the emperor in the palace, in which the beautiful and cultured noblewoman Kassiani also took part. This event is placed between the years 821 – 830. According to the ritual, prospective brides would pass in front of the emperor and the emperor would examine their outward appearance and spiritual cultivation. When he finished, he gave a golden apple to the candidate of his choice. When it was Kassianis's turn to pass in front of Theophilos, he was dazzled by her physical beauty and wanted to test her spiritual cultivation and morals. He addressed the following to her: "Thus through women evils have come" that is: "from a woman have come calamities to mankind", meaning Eve's disobedience. Then Cassiani answered him bluntly: "But through a woman also comes the curse", that is, "however, blessings for humanity also come from another woman", meaning the role of the Theotokos in the salvation of the human race. This dialogue and Kassiana's rare spontaneity obviously hurt Theophilos' ego and arrogance. But what bothered him more was its looming potential. That is why he rejected her and chose as his wife the modest noblewoman Theodora from Paphlagonia. Many scholars consider this fact to be non-existent, arguing that it was created by the supporters of the Holy Icons, in order to diminish the iconoclast Theophilus and exalt Theodora, who definitively restored the Holy Icons in 843 and ended the hundred-year iconoclasm controversy. After some time Cassiani chose the solitary life. In 843 she founded her own convent on the outskirts, west of Constantinople, outside the western walls, where she became abbess. Some researchers argue that her decision to become a nun was a result of her wounded ego at not being chosen as the emperor's wife. But this cannot be true. It was impossible for that wonderful daughter to arrange her life with such base passions. A letter from Saint Theodoros Studitos comes to confirm that her choice to become a nun was conscious and free from cheap selfish motives. In fact, it is known that the Monastery of Kassiani had spiritual ties with the famous Monastery of Studi and Saint Theodoros knew it well. After all, Kassiani decided to be a monk defending the Lady Theotokos, with her spontaneous and wise response to the emperor. There she engaged in her spiritual perfection. With prayer, fasting, vigil and her struggle against her passions she rose to higher spiritual levels. At the same time as her spiritual struggle, she cultivated her great love for ecclesiastical poetry, so that she emerged as one of the greatest poetic and hymnographic personalities of the Church and world literature. Unfortunately our information is almost non-existent about her later life and only from her poems we get some information. She is said to have traveled towards the end of her life as far as Rome and Crete and Kasos, where she peacefully slept in 890. Our Church, appreciating her holy life and her priceless contribution to her hymnography, ranked her among the saints and designated her memory to be celebrated on September 7. Several hymns of our Church are attributed to Saint Kassiani. We single out the tetraode of the famous Holy Saturday canon. 21 Idiom verses are also attributed to her, on Despotic, Theotokos and Saints' feasts. He also composed a series of 789 miraculous epigrams, labeled "Gnomai", in Byzantine 12-syllable rhythm. In these, human passions are described and stigmatized, such as avarice, lying, fraud, etc. and human virtues and skills are excelled, such as love, friendship, intelligence, prudence, etc. But St. Kassiani is known mainly for her wonderful trope of the same name, "Lord, the woman walking in many sins." The exquisite doxastic of the epistles of the Holy Wednesday verse, which is sung on the evening of Holy Tuesday. In it he speaks, in the first person singular, of the sinful woman, who, after repenting, anointed Christ's feet with expensive myrrh, washed them with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. This is a rare genius poetic composition, a true masterpiece of speech, high theology and wisdom, which ranks among the greatest poems of all time. Because the holy poetess uses the first person singular in the hymn, some uneducated people have characterized her as a sinner and therefore she is misunderstood, having no relation to the truth. 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