Romanos the Melodist
Romanos | |
|---|---|
Icon of Romanus the Melodist (1649) | |
| The Melodist | |
| Born | Late 5th-century Emesa (modern-day Homs, Syria) |
| Died | After 555 Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) |
| Venerated in | |
| Feast | 1 October (14 October N.S.) |
| Attributes | Young man vested as a deacon, standing on a raised platform in the middle of a church, holding a scroll with his Kontakion of the Nativity written on it. He is surrounded by the Patriarch, the Emperor, and members of the congregation. His icon is often a combined with that of The Protection of the Mother of God, which falls on the same day. Sometimes he is depicted as a deacon holding a censer in his right hand and a small model of a church in his left. |
| Patronage | Music |
Romanos the Melodist (Greek: Ῥωμανὸς ὁ Μελωδός; late 5th-century – after 555) was a Byzantine hymnographer and composer, who is a central early figure in the history of Byzantine music. Called "the Pindar of rhythmic poetry", he flourished during the sixth century, though the earliest manuscripts of his works are dated centuries after this. He was the foremost Kontakion composer of his time.