Venerable Romanus the Melodist 10/14/2013
He was from the city of Emesa in Syria. He became deacon of the Church of Beirut, and afterwards of the cathedral church of Constantinople, during the reign of the Patriarch Euthymius (490 - 504). He was illiterate and also had not been blessed with a well-modulated voice, for which some of the clergy made fun of him. Saint Romanus in tears implored the Holy Mother of God, and She appeared to him in a dream, holding in her hand a scroll, which She gave him to eat. The next day, on the Nativity of our Lord, Romanus went up into the ambo and he began to intone in an angelic voice:" Today the Virgin" All were delighted by the content of the chant and by the voice of the chanter. Since he received the poetic gift from the Holy Mother of God, Romanus had sung more than one thousand kontakia. As the deacon of the grand church, he fell asleep in the Lord in 510 at Constantinople and joined the angelic choir.
