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→Hymn of Kassiani text
The '''Hymn of Kassiani''', also known as the ''Hymn of the Fallen Woman'', is a work classified as a [[Penitential Hymns|Penitential Hymn]] that is based on the Gospel reading for Holy Wednesday morning ([[Mary MagdaleneGospel of Matthew|Matthew]] <ref> 26:6-16), which speaks of a sinful woman who anoints Jesus' feet with costly ointment (distinguished from a similar incident with a different woman, St. [[Mary Magdalene is first introduced by the the Evangelist Luke in the Gospel according to Luke 7:36-50.</ref>]]). This hymn is chanted only once a year and considered a musical high-point of the [[Holy Week]], at the [[Matins]] and chantedPresanctified Liturgy of [[Holy Week|Holy Wednesday]], in the Plagal Fourth Plagal Tone <ref>A major scale with a frequently flatted seventh degree.</ref>, for the morning office of Holy Wednesday.
==TextHistory==''O LordOne story, related by Saint [[Theodora (9th century empress)|Theodora]] in The Great Synaxaristes of the woman who had fallen into many sinsOrthodox Church holds that Abbess Kassiani spent the afternoon in the garden composing this hymn. As she finished writing that verse which says, perceiving Thy divinity"I shall kiss Thine immaculate feet, took upon herself and wipe them again with the duty tresses of a myrrh-bearer; with lamentation my head," she bringeth Thee myrrh oils before Thine entombmentwas informed that Emperor Theophilos had arrived at the convent. "Woe unto meShe did not wish to see him," she saidand in her haste to conceal herself, "for night is become for me a frenzy of licentiousness, a gloomy left behind the scroll and moonless love of sinpen. Receive Theophilos, having entered the fountains of my tearsgarden, found her half-completed poem, O Thou Who dost gather into clouds and added the water of phrase, "those feet at whose sound Eve hid herself for fear when she heard Thee walking in Paradise in the seaafternoon." After he departed, Kassiani came out from hiding. Incline unto When she took up her composition, she beheld the sighings of my heart, O Thou Who didst bow phrase written in his handwriting. She retained it and went on to complete the heavens by Thine ineffable kenosis (self-emptying)poem.''