The Kontakion for the Annunciation of the Theotokos by St. Romanus the Melodist: Translation and Commentary

The Kontakion for the Annunciation of the Theotokos by St. Romanos the Melodist is a composition that can be dated to the time when the feast of the Annunciation was being firmly established in the liturgical calendar of the Orthodox Church. It reflects a heightened interest in the person of the Most-Holy Theotokos, characteristic of the era following the Council of Ephesus and for the work of St. Romanos in particular. The text of this poem is a dialog between the Virgin and the Archangel Gabriel, which allows us also to see this Kontakion as one of the prototypes for the Canon for the Annunciation included in the modern Greek and Slavonic monthly Menaia. The present text is the first translation of this Kontakion into Russian.