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St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch

10 - 110 Author of "One star above all stars"

Pope Telesphorus

36 - 136 Person Name: Telesphorus, Bishop of Rome Author (attributed to) of "Glory be to God on high, And on earth peace, good will toward men" in Songs of Praise and Prayer

Clement of Alexandria

170 - 215 Author of "Jesus, Our Mighty Lord" in Psalter Hymnal (Gray) Clemens, Titus Flavins (Clemens Alexandrinus), St. Clement of Alexandria, was born possibly at Athens (although on this point there is no certain information) about A.D. 170. His full name, Titus Flavins Clemens, is given by Eusebius (H. E., vi. 13) and Photius (Cod. Ill), but of his parentage there is no record. Studious, and anxious to satisfy his mind on the highest subjects, he is said to have been a Stoic and Eclectic, and a seeker after truth amongst Greek, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Jewish teachers. He himself enumerates six teachers of eminence under whom he studied the "true tradition of the blessed doctrine of the holy apostles." At Alexandria he came under the teaching of Pantsenus, and embraced Christianity, Pantsenus being at the time the master of the Catechetical School in that city. On the retirement of Pantsenus from the school for missionary work, Clement became its head, cir. 190, and retained the position to 203. His pupils were numerous, and some of them of note, including Origen, and Alexander, afterwards Bishop of Jerusalem. Driven from Alexandria by the persecution under Severus (202-203), he wandered forth, it is not known whither. The last notice wo have of him in history is in a letter of congratulation by his old pupil, Alexander, then Bp. of Cappadocia, to the Church of Antioch, on the appointment of Asclepiades to the bishopric of that city. This letter, dated 211, seems to have been conveyed to Antioch by Clement. Beyond this nothing is known, either concern¬ing his subsequent life or death, although the latter is sometimes dated A.D. 220. The works of Clement are ten in all. Of these, the only work with which we have to do is The Tutor, in three books. The first book describes the Tutor, who is the Word Himself, the children whom He trains (Christian men and women), and his method of instruction. The second book contains general instructions as to daily life in eating, drinking, furniture, sleep, &c.; and the third, after an inquiry into the nature of true beauty, goes onto condemn extravagance in dress, &c, both in men and women. Appended to this work, in the printed editions, are two poems; the first, "A Hymn of the Saviour), and the second, an address "To the Tutor". The first, beginning is attributed to Clement in those manuscripts in which it is found; but it is supposed by some to be of an earlier date: the second is generally regarded as by a later hand . The “Hymn of the Saviour," the earliest known Christian hymn, has been translated into English: The earliest translation is "Shepherd of tender youth.” This is by Dr. H. M. Dexter (q. v.). It was written in 1846, first published in The Congregationalist [of which Dexter was editor], Dec. 21, 1849, and is in extensive use in the United States. In Great Britain it is also given in several collections, including the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859; Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858; the R. T. Society's Collection, &c. There are also translations not in common use, viz.: (1) "Bridle of colts untamed," by Dr. W. L. Alexander, in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. iv. p. 343; (2) "Bridle of colts untaught," by Dr. H. Bonar, in The Sunday at Home, 1878, p. 11. (3) Another translation is by the Rev. A. W. Chatfield, in his Songs and Hymns of the Earliest Greek Christian Poets, 1876. Mr. Chatfield, following the Anth. Graeca Car. Christ., 1871, p. 37, begins with the eleventh line: "O Thou, the King of Saints, all-conquering Word." His translation extends to 40 lines. --Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Origen

183 - 252 Quoted by of "He Who Is Near to Me" in Songs of Light

Saint Athenogenes

202 - 302 Person Name: St. Athenogenes Author of "Light serene of holy glory" The Holy and Glorious Hieromartyr Athenogenes of Heracleopolis and his disciples suffered for their faith in the Lord. Their memory is commemorated on July 16. Hieromartyr Athenogenes and his Ten Disciples suffered for Christ during the persecution of Christians in the city of Sebastea in Cappadocia. The governor Philomachos arranged a large festival in honor of the pagan gods and called upon the citizens of Sebastea to offer sacrifices to the idols. Most of the inhabitants of Sebastea were Christians, and refused to participate in the impious celebration. Soldiers were ordered to kill those who resisted, and so many Christians received a martyr’s crown. Bishop Athenogenes was arrested when he came to Sebastea to inform the judge that those who had been jailed were innocent. While in prison, Athenogenes encouraged his spiritual children, preparing them for their impending struggle. Led forth to trial, all the holy martyrs confessed themselves Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to idols. After undergoing fierce tortures, the disciples of the holy bishop were beheaded. After the execution of the disciples, the executioners were ordered to torture the bishop. Strengthened by the Lord, the saint endured the tortures with patience and dignity. He requested only that he be executed in the monastery. Taken to his own monastery, the saint gave thanks to God, and he rejoiced in the sufferings that he had been accounted worthy to endure for Him. He prayed that the Lord would forgive the sins of all those who would remember both him and his disciples. The Lord granted the saint to hear His Voice before death, announcing the promise given to the penitent thief: “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” The hieromartyr willingly bent his neck beneath the sword, thus entering eternal life. http://orthodoxwiki.org/Athenogenes (excerpts)

Saint Cyprian

205 - 258 Person Name: Cyprian of Carthage Author of "Many Are the Lightbeams" in Gather Comprehensive

St. Cyprian

205 - 258 of in See Cyprian, Saint, Bishop of Carthage, 205-ca. 258

Hilary of Poitiers

267 - 367 Author of "Rejoice! The Year upon Its Way" Hilary, Hilarius Pictaviensis, Saint, Bishop, and, according to St. Augustine, "the Illustrious Doctor of all the Churches," was born of heathen parents of an illustrious family and great wealth, at Poictiers early in the fourth century. He received, as a heathen, an excellent classical education, so that St. Jerome says of him that he "was brought up in the pompous school of Gaul, yet had culled the flowers of Grecian science, and became the Rhone of Latin eloquence." Early in life he married, and had a daughter named Abra, Afra, or Apra. About 350 he renounced, in company with his wife and daughter, the Pagan religion of his family, and became a devout and devoted Christian. After his baptism he so gained the respect and love of his fellow Christians, that in 353, upon a vacancy occurring in the see of his native town, he was, although married and a layman, elected to fill it, and received ordination as Deacon and Priest, and consecration as Bishop, "by accumulation," no uncommon occurrence in those days. From that time he was virtually, though not formally, separated from his wife, and lived a very ascetic life. Soon after his consecration he received a visit from St. Martin of Tours (who became thenceforward his devoted disciple), and distinguished himself by his unsparing opposition to the Arian heresy, which had gained many powerful adherents in Gaul at that time, obtaining for himself thereby the title in after years of "Malleus Arianorum," the hammer of the Arians. In 356 he was sent by the Emperor Constantius to Phrygia in exile, in consequence of a report made against his moral character by the Arian Council held at Beziers in Languedoc, over which the Arian leader, Saturninus, Bishop of Aries, presided, whose excommunication for heresy Hilary had some time before secured. His exile lasted until 362, when he returned to Poictiers by the Emperor's direction, though without his sentence of banishment being formally annulled. In spite of his consequent want of permission to do so, he left Poictiers towards the end of the same year, and spent two years in Italy, whence he was again sent back to Gaul in 364 by the new Emperor Valentinian, in consequence of his denouncing Auxentius, the Bishop of Milan, where Hilary was at that time resident, as having been insincere in his acceptance of the creed of Nicaea. Hilary lived for some three years after his final return to Poictiers, and died Jan. 13, 368, though his Saint's Day (which gives his name to the Hilary term in our Law Courts) is celebrated on the following day, in order, probably, not to trench upon the octave of the Epiphany. St. Hilary's writings, of which a large number are still extant though many have been lost, travel over a vast field of exegetical, dogmatic, and controversial theology. His principal work in importance and elaboration is his “Libri xii. de Trinitate," directed against the Arian heresy, while in his “Commentarium in Matthaeum " we have the earliest commentary on that gospel. The best edition of his works is that of Constant, originally published by the Benedictines, at Paris, in 1693, and reprinted, with some additions, at Verona, in 2 vols., by Scipio Maffei, in 1730. St. Hilary was a sacred poet as well as a theologian, though most of his writings of this character perished, probably, in his Liber Hymnorum, which is one of his books that has not come down to us. It seems to have consisted of hymns upon Apostles and Martyrs, and is highly spoken of by Isidore of Seville in his De Officio Ecclesiastico. All that we have remaining are some lines of considerable beauty on our Lord's childhood (Dom Pitra's Spicilegium Solesmense, Paris, 1862), which are attributed, probably with justice, to him, and about 8 hymns, the attribution of.which to him is more or less certainly correct; Daniel gives 7, 4 of which:— “Lucis Largitor splendide"; "Deus Pater ingenite"; "In matutinis surgimus"; and "Jam meta noctis transiit"; are morning hymns; one, "Jesus refulsit omnium," for the Epiphany; one, “Jesu quadragenariae," for Lent; and one,"Beata nobis gaudia," for Whitsuntide. Thomasius gives another as Hilary's, "Hymnum dicat turba fratrum”. Written as these hymns were in the first infancy of Latin hymnody, and before the metres of the old heathen Latin poets had been wholly banished from the Christian service of song, or the rhyming metres, which afterwards became so general and so effective, had been introduced into such compositions, they can scarcely be expected to take very high rank. At the same time they are not without a certain rugged grandeur, well befitting the liturgical purposes they were intended to serve. Containing as they also do the first germs of Latin rhymes, they have great interest for all students of hymnody, as thus inaugurating that treatment of sacred subjects in a form which was to culminate presently in the beautiful Church poetry of the 12th century. [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==================== Hilary, St., pp. 522, i., and 1570, ii. Isidore of Seville and Jerome both speak of Hilary as a hymn writer, but it is by no means certain that any of his genuine hymns have survived. Mr. E. W. Watson, in his St. Hilary of Poitiers, Select Works, 1899 (Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. ix.), discusses the subject in his Introduction, pp. xlvi.-xlviii., and concludes that none are genuine. He thinks that the recently discovered Liber Hymnorum (see p. 1570, ii.) may have been compiled in Hilary's time, but that he cannot be accepted as the author of any of the surviving hymns in that collection. Canon A. J. Mason in the Journal of Theological Studies, vol. v., April, 1904, pp. 413-432, thinks that the recently discovered hymns are genuine, collects many parallel passages from the undoubted works of Hilary, and is indeed inclined to attribute also the "Lucis largitor splendide " and the "Hymnum dicat" (see pp. 522, ii.; 642, i., ii.) to St. Hilary. A later article by the Rev. A. S. Walpole (vol. vi., p. 599, July, 1905), while accepting the newly discovered hymns, and the "Hymnum dicat," adds various reasons against accepting the other hymns attributed to Hilary by Daniel (see p. 522, ii.). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

St. Ephraem, Syrus

303 - 373 Author of "Strengthen for Service, Lord, the Hands" Ephraem Syrus. About A.D. 307 there was born at Nisibis, in northern Mesopotamia, Ephraem or Ephraim Syrus, the most celebrated father of the Syrian church, and famous not only as a theologian, but also as a poet and hymn-writer. Historians differ as to the details of his life; but it is known that having first been a pupil of James, bishop of Nisibis, he finished his education at Edessa, where for the rest of his days he chiefly resided. He visited Basil at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and by him he was ordained to the office of deacon. He died at Edessa in June, 373. Ephraim was a most voluminous writer of commentaries, expository sermons, hymns, and metrical homilies. Metrical Homilies, first mentioned in connection with him, are a peculiar kind of composition, to which we know of nothing in other literature exactly similar. The tracts in verse explanatory of the Christian religion, circulated by missionaries in some parts of India, and which the people like to read aloud in a kind of chant, seem most nearly to resemble them. The Homilies are in metre, i.e. in lines containing a fixed number of syllables, e.g. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 12, as the case may be, and are divided into strophes, but differ from hymns proper in their greater length and more decidedly didactic character. We might have supposed them to be poems intended to be simply read, but from notes found on manuscripts giving directions as to the singing, it appears as though, at least in some cases, they were actually sung or chanted in connection with religious services. In neither the hymns nor the homilies is any regard paid to accent or quantity, and only occasionally does there seem to have been an attempt at rhyme or assonance. The main characteristics of Syriac poetry are (1) a certain elevation of style, (2) division of the verses into strophep, and (3) the use of lines or verses with a fixed number of syllables The poetical compositions of Ephraim, so far as printed, are as follows, beginning with his works edited by J. S. Assemani and P. Benedict at Rome, in 1732-46. (1) Eleven metrical expositions, in heptasyllabic and pentasyllabic metre, of portions of Scripture treating of the Creation, the Temptation of Eve, the Mission of Jonah, and the Repentance of the Ninevites. The last-named is the most striking and the longest, extending to between 500 and 600 strophes of four lines each. Of the use made of it by the Nestorian Christians of the present day we shall speak in the second part of this article. (2) Thirteen discourses on Christ's Nativity. These are of various lengths and metres. The last is tetra-syllabic, in strophes of 10 lines, every tenth line being a doxology. The life of Christ is supposed by the author to have extended to thirty years, and to every one of these years is assigned an act of praise from some created beings, beginning with the cherubim in the first year, and ending with the dead who have lived again, the living who have repented, and heaven and earth, which through Christ have been reconciled, in the thirtieth. Dr. Burgess says that this is "a very beautiful production, tastefully conceived, and carried out in a masterly manner." (3) Next come 56 homilies in various metres against "False Doctrines," especially those of Bardesanes, Marcion, and the Manichaeans. Elsewhere we are told that it was Ephraim's desire to counteract the influence of these heretical songs, as well as to provide a substitute for profane games and noisy dances, which prompted him to compose hymns and train choirs, " in the midst of whom he stood, a spiritual harper, and arranged for them different kinds of songs, and taught them the variation of chants, until the whole city was gathered to him and the party of the adversary was put to shame." (4) Then follow 87 homilies against Rationalists or Free Thinkers, in which occur many curious and highly artificial arrangements of metres. These are succeeded by a collection of seven homilies, forming a separate work, entitled "The Pearl, concerning Faith." This poem is tetra-syllabic, in strophes of 10 lines each, and highly fanciful in conception, though not without pas¬sages of beauty. A pearl is treated as suggestive of truths connected with Christ and His Church. (5) Four other controversial homilies follow, after which come the pieces which may be more properly called Hymns. Of these perhaps the most interesting are 85 relating to "Death," apparently intended to be used in funeral services (6) This collection of Funeral Hymns is followed by four short pieces on the "Freedom of the Will," the strophes of which have an alphabetical arrangement, like the Hebrew of the 119th Psalm. The succeeding 16 homilies have the general title "Exhortations to Penitence," but among them are found morning and evening hymns, and a hymn for the Lord's day. (7) Next come twelve homilies on the "Paradise of Eden," and finally, in the Roman edition of Ephraim's works, 18 discourses on various subjects in pentasyllabic and hexasyllabic metres. But in 1866, Bichll pub. "Carmina Nisibena," 21 in number, the subject of most of them being the struggle between the Persian monarch, Sapor, and the Romans. The rest are on the "Overthrow of Satan," the "Resurrection of the Body," and kindred topics. In 1882 and 1886 Lamy published 2 vols., entitled S. Ephraemi Syri Hymni et Sermones, containing hitherto unpublished metrical homilies and hymns, on the Epiphany, the Nativity, the Blessed Virgin, the Passover, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, &c. --Julian, John A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907

Ephrem the Syrian

306 - 373 Person Name: St. Ephraim the Syrian, d. 373 Author of "Receive, O Lord, in heaven above" in The English Hymnal St. Ephraim the Syrian

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