Theological images and ideas of the liturgical texts to reverend confessors

Over the centuries-old history of the Orthodox Church, a significant corpus of hymnographic works has been compiled. Since the first centuries of Christianity, songwriters sought to perpetuate the memory of saints who served God faithfully and became examples for many generations of Christians. From early times, the authors of liturgical sequences, on the one hand, sought to give their texts a high poetic quality, for which they resorted to various symbolic images, artistic turns, techniques and rules of rhythm. And, on the other hand, they tried to endow them with a doctrinal character, revealing the meanings of dogmatic truths, biblical prophecies and allegories, showing the fulfillment of divine commandments by the saints. A special place in the ranks of holiness of the Orthodox Church is occupied by reverend confessors, who combined sincere monastic work, purity of life and fidelity to Christ, despite all suffering and persecution that the saints had to face. In view of this, the liturgical sequences dedicated to them are of particular interest, since they include a variety of topics and theological ideas. In this article, by the example of individual hymnographic texts, the most important ideas, images and techniques used by the authors of services to venerable confessors will be identified.