Romanos the Melodist as a teacher of the people in the struggle against heresies

Abstract

The article raises an issue of the didactic role of the Greek ecclesiastical hymns – the kontakia – in the context of the struggle of the Church in the sixth century against heresies. In the kontakia of Romanos the Melodist, who was the most prominent author of the hymns of that genre and probably a creator of the genre, we find numerous echoes of the struggles against heresies from the past centuries and from the lifetime of the poet. St. Romanos, when he writes his sung homilies, aims at the defence of the faithful assembled in the church against heretical views and at the instructing them what is the teaching of the Church. The hymnographer tries to present the difficult theological issues using the language understandable for the common Christians and make the hymn more attractive and memorable. The article shows on the examples the heresies against that Romanos the Melodist struggled and the measures he used.

Keywords

• Romanos the Melodist
• kontakion
• Byzantine hymnography
• homily
• heresy