"O Champion General, I your City now inscribe to you..."

The Theotokos appearing and delivering Constantinople from the siege (source)

  

Deceased have been quickened through your power, * for pregnant were you with life hypostasized. * They who once were speechless now * speak with newfound eloquence. * Diseases are exterminated, lepers purified. * The legions of * the aerial spirits, * O Virgin, are defeated, for you are man’s salvation.

-from the Canon of the Akathist, by St. Joseph the Hymnographer

 

Tone Eight (Pl. IV). Original Melody.

O Champion General, I your City now inscribe to you

 Triumphant anthems as the tokens of my gratitude,

Being rescued from the terrors, O Theotokos.

Inasmuch as you have power unassailable,

From all kinds of perils free me so that unto you

I may cry aloud: Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.

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The wondrous Icon of the Theotokos and Christ "Of the Akathist", treasured to this day by Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos. This was the icon carried by Patriarch Sergios in procession and prayer along the walls of Constantinople when she was being sieged by a seemingly invincible foreign army. The Theotokos later appeared and wondrously defended the Christians, and may she ever hearken to our prayers to defend us from our enemies, visible and invisible! (source)

  

Most-holy Theotokos save us!