Romana: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Romanos the Melodist is the sweet singer of the Orthodox Church. He was born in the fifth century in the Syrian city of Emesa, served as a deacon in Beirut, and came to Constantinople, where he served at the church of Hagia Sophia and spent his nights alone in prayer, often at the Blachernae church. He loved the Mother of God and longed to glorify her, but he had little gift for reading or song. On the eve of the Nativity he read so poorly that another reader had to take his place, and the clergy mocked him, which grieved him deeply. As he prayed before her icon, the Mother of God appeared to him and gave him a scroll to eat. At the vigil that night he went up and sang, in a beautiful voice, his first kontakion, the hymn for the Nativity that begins “Today the Virgin gives birth,” which the Church still sings at Christmas. His hymns were called kontakia after that scroll. He is said to have written nearly a thousand, of which about eighty survive, and he died a deacon around 556. His feast is kept on 1 October (14 October on the Old Calendar). Church singers and choirs look to him as their patron, and the faithful ask his prayers to praise God worthily.

What the faithful pray for

• church singers, readers and choirs
• the grace to glorify God worthily in worship
• those who feel unworthy or mocked for their weakness
• a deeper love for the Mother of God