Kon­takion 1

O Cho­sen by the pre-eter­nal God, Queen of heaven and earth higher than all cre­ation, who hast in days past en­tered pray­ing into the Church of the Blach­er­nae we, of­fer­ing Thee with thanks­giv­ing due ven­er­a­tion, flee with faith and com­punc­tion under Thy shin­ing vest­ment for we lie in dark­ness. And Thou who hast in­vin­ci­ble power dost set us free from every af­flic­tion that we may cry to Thee:

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Ikos 1

Archangels and an­gels with John the Fore­run­ner, John the Di­vine and the choir of all the saints, were pre­sent with Thee, their Queen, in the Church of the Blach­er­nae and hear­ing Thy mov­ing sup­pli­ca­tion for all the world, they cried out with won­der as fol­lows:

Rejoice, O pre-eter­nal good will of God the Fa­ther Who has no be­gin­ning of days; re­joice, time­less and most pure who con­tained God the Son! Re­joice, Thou cho­sen dwelling-place of God the all-holy Spirit; re­joice, Thou never-ceas­ing won­der of the an­gelic hosts on high! Re­joice, Thou all-threat­en­ing ter­ror of the dark forces of hell; re­joice, Thou whom the many-eyed cheru­bim meet in the air! Re­joice, Thou to whom the six-winged seraphim as­cribe praises; re­joice, Thou whose most pre­cious veil we born on earth thank­fully ven­er­ate!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 2

Saint An­drew with Epiphan­ios hav­ing seen Thee in­side the Church pray­ing God in the air for all Chris­tians, ac­knowl­edged Thee to be the Mother of Christ our God Who as­cended into heaven and falling to the ground they joy­fully ven­er­ated Thine all-pre­cious veil, cry­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

Thou, O Theotokos Vir­gin art knowl­edge un­know­able in de­fense of Or­tho­dox peo­ple. There­fore our en­e­mies know not how strong is the prayer of the Mother of God: while we well aware of Thine all-mighty pro­tec­tion cry to Thee with ten­der feel­ing:

Rejoice, Most mer­ci­ful Com­forter of all the af­flicted and heavy laden; re­joice, never sleep­ing Guide of all those who have strayed and gone blind! Re­joice, Thou who by Thy sup­pli­ca­tion dost swiftly ap­pease the wrath of God rightly poured out on us; re­joice, Thou who by an all-pow­er­ful be­hest dost tame our evil pas­sions! Re­joice, strong waker of sleep­ing con­sciences; re­joice, easy over­comer of sin­ful prac­tices! Re­joice, Thou for whose sake hell groans and the spir­its of evil trem­ble; re­joice, Thou for whose sake the gates of par­adise are opened to all!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 3

Power from on high over­shad­ows those who run for refuge with faith and rev­er­ence to Thy pre­cious pro­tec­tion: for to Thee alone, O all holy and all pure only Mother of God is it given that every pe­ti­tion of Thine be ful­filled. There­fore the faith­ful of all ages glo­rify Thee and Thy Son, cry­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 3

O Lady, hav­ing a never-fail­ing wealth of mercy, Thou dost stretch the hand of help to all the ends of the earth: and dost give heal­ing to the sick, re­lief to the suf­fer­ing, sight to the blind, and to all every­thing that is ex­pe­di­ent for them as they cry aloud in thanks­giv­ing:

Rejoice, in­de­struc­tible fortress and bul­wark of Or­tho­dox king­doms; re­joice, prin­ci­ple adorn­ment of holy churches and al­tars! Re­joice, truest guard of holy monas­ter­ies; re­joice, vig­i­lant Helper of stout­hearted city gov­er­nors! Re­joice, un­con­quer­able Leader of Chris­t­ian cap­tains and armies; re­joice, holy mir­ror of jus­tice for judges who take no bribes! Re­joice, per­fect knowl­edge for teach­ers and those who bring up chil­dren; re­joice, Bless­ing of pious homes and fam­i­lies!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 4

O Lady, Thou dost help us held fast by a storm of many af­flic­tions: for Thou dost stand be­fore the altar of the Lord, lift­ing Thine hands and pray­ing that the Lord of glory look down on our un­wor­thy prayer and hear­ken to the pe­ti­tions of those who call upon Thy holy Name cry­ing to Thy Son: Alleluia!

Ikos 4

The Lord God heard Joshua, son of Nun, pray­ing and He com­manded the sun to stand still until he de­feat the enemy. The Lord Jesus now hears Thy sup­pli­ca­tion, O cho­sen dwelling of the Holy Spirit. There­fore we sin­ners, putting our trust in Thy pro­tec­tion, make bold to say to Thee, Mother of God:

Rejoice, Thou who art lit by the Sun of the mind and who dost en­lighten us with the light that never sets; re­joice, Thou who hast il­lu­mined the whole earth by the bright­ness of Thy most pure soul! Re­joice, Thou who hast made glad the whole heav­ens by the pu­rity of Thy body; re­joice, Pro­tec­tor and Provider of the holy monas­ter­ies of Christ! Re­joice, Thou who art the strength and un­der­stand­ing of the pas­tors of the Church; re­joice, Guide of God-fear­ing monks and nuns! Re­joice, un­trou­bled rest of the pious aged; re­joice, se­cret glad­ness of pure vir­gins and wid­ows!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 5

When Moses who saw God lifted his arms while the bat­tle with Amalek raged, Is­rael over­came and when he let his hands fall, Amalek was vic­to­ri­ous and strength­ened by those who hold up his arms, Is­rael de­feated the enemy: and Thou, O Mother of God, hav­ing raised Thine hands in sup­pli­ca­tion, even though no man hold them up, dost al­ways con­quer the en­e­mies of Christ and art an in­vin­ci­ble shield for us who cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 5

The as­sem­blies of saints when they had seen Thee in the air in­side the church of the Blach­er­nae stretch­ing Thy hands in prayer to Thy Son and God, sang Thee a song in thanks­giv­ing with the archangels and an­gels: while we, our hands for­ti­fied by Thee made stronger than the arms of Moses, cry aloud with com­punc­tion:

Rejoice, Thou whose love and mercy to­wards us alone hold up Thine hands for us; re­joice, Thou be­fore Whom our en­e­mies, vis­i­ble and in­vis­i­ble, can­not stand! Re­joice, Thou who dri­vest away the dark hordes of our pas­sions and lusts; re­joice, Thou who hold­est in Thine hand with­out being con­sumed, the di­vine fire of Christ and who with it dost set us in our cold­ness aflame! Re­joice, Thou who crownest with a fair crown of chastity those who fight against the flesh; re­joice, Thou per­pet­ual Con­verser with those who strive in fast­ing and silent prayer! Re­joice, Thou speedy Com­forter of those who fall from de­spair and sad­ness; re­joice, Thou who dost by grace pro­vide us with hu­mil­ity and pa­tience!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 6

Saint Roman the Melo­dion, ap­peared as an un­fail­ing pro­claimer of Thy grace and mercy when he had re­ceived from Thee in a dream a paper roll to swal­low: for thereby made wise, he began to sing with skill in Thine ho­n­our and to write praises for the saints, call­ing out with faith: Alleluia!

Ikos 6

O Vir­gin, Maid of God, who hast shone forth the Dawn from the true Sun of right­eous­ness, en­light­en­ing all with the wis­dom of Thy God and Son and who lead­est all to knowl­edge of the truth those who cry to Thee:

Rejoice, Thou who hast given birth to Christ in the flesh, Power of God and wis­dom of God; re­joice, Thou who hast con­founded the fool­ish wis­dom of this world, and who hast guided those blinded by it on the way of truth! Re­joice, Pre­server of our holy faith and teacher of Or­tho­dox dogma; re­joice, Up­rooter of im­pi­ous here­sies and cor­rupt­ing di­vi­sions! Re­joice, Thou who well know­est se­cret and un­fore­seen dif­fi­cul­ties and dost tell those whom it is proper about them; re­joice, thou who puttest to shame false seers and vain di­vin­ing! Re­joice, Thou who in the hour of per­plex­ity dost put a good thought in our hearts; re­joice, Thou who dost turn us from per­ilous pur­poses and sense­less de­sires!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 7

The all-see­ing, long-suf­fer­ing Lord, wish­ing to man­i­fest the un­search­able deep of His mer­cies and love for mankind, chose Thee alone to be His Mother, and made Thee into an in­vin­ci­ble de­fense for His peo­ple: that even though one of them ap­pear wor­thy of con­dem­na­tion by the right­eous judge­ment of God, yet all the more shall he be pre­served for re­pen­tance by Thy mighty pro­tec­tion, cry­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 7

O Lord, Thou hast shown in Thine all-pure Mother, how won­der­ful are Thy works when Her most mar­vel­lous veil was re­vealed in Her hand shin­ing brighter than the rays of the sun and with it She pro­tected the peo­ple in the Church of Blach­er­nae: for hear­ing of such a sign of Her de­fense, held by fear and joy, all say:

Rejoice, thou veil not made by hand of man that is spread over the whole world like a cloud; re­joice, Thou who dost hold in Thine hands the ban­ner of Thy Son, the pre-eter­nal Bishop! Re­joice, Thou who hast thereby made man­i­fest a new mercy and new grace in the Or­tho­dox Church; re­joice, pil­lar of cloud who pro­tects all of us in the world from temp­ta­tions and scan­dals! Re­joice, pil­lar of fire amidst the dark­ness, show­ing us all the path of sal­va­tion; re­joice, vis­i­ble strength of man­i­fest strivers for god­li­ness! Re­joice, se­cret Giver of un­der­stand­ing to the se­cret ser­vants of God in this world; re­joice, Thou who also leavest not with­out Thy grace and pro­tec­tion me who am stripped of all good works!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 8

Angels sang Thy praises when Thou didst ap­pear in won­drous wise from heaven in the Church of the Blach­er­nae and apos­tles gave Thee glory. The choir of holy Bish­ops and monks and the band of holy women ex­tolled Thee, the Fore­run­ner with John the Di­vine ven­er­ated Thee, and the peo­ple pre­sent in the Church cried aloud with joy: Alleluia!

Ikos 8

The Lord Who reigns over all things above and below, when He had seen Thee, His Mother, stand­ing in the Church and pray­ing with ten­der feel­ing to Him, said: Ask, O my Mother, be­cause I shall never turn from Thee but will ful­fil all Thy pe­ti­tions and teach all to sing to Thee in thanks­giv­ing:

Rejoice, Ark of the law in which is kept the sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion of all mankind; re­joice, all-holy Jar in which the bread of eter­nal life is pre­served for those who hunger for right­eous­ness! Re­joice, all-golden Ves­sel in which the flesh and blood of the di­vine Lamb are pre­pared for us; re­joice, Thou who dost re­ceive in Thine all-pow­er­ful arms those for­saken by the physi­cians! Re­joice, Thou who dost raise from their bed of sick­ness those crip­pled in body but not in spirit and faith; re­joice, Thou who givest a new and bet­ter un­der­stand­ing to those who are per­ish­ing from in­fir­mity of mind! Re­joice, Thou who dost wisely trip us up on the stub­born path of sin and pas­sion; re­joice, Thou who dost turn to mercy the cru­elty of our un­re­pen­tant hearts!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 9

The whole as­sem­bly of an­gels of­fers Thee praises, Thou true Mother of God and De­fender of all who run to Thee, know­ing how with Thine un­fail­ing pro­tec­tion Thou dost. Re­joice the right­eous, pro­tect and de­liver the poor, and pray for all the faith­ful cry­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 9

The wordy or­a­tors, be­come as dumb fish, are at a loss as to how to praise as is due, the great feast of Thine all-pre­cious pro­tec­tion: for all the things said by them about Thee suf­fice not to num­ber Thy mer­cies alone. And we, see­ing Thy good works with­out num­ber, cry with glad­ness:

Rejoice, Thou who dost guard us from the deadly plague in which all per­ish; re­joice, Thou who dost pre­serve cities and vil­lages from sud­den earth­quakes! Re­joice, Thou who dost lead us out with Thy strong arm from flood and drown­ing; re­joice, Thou who by the dew of Thy prayers dost de­liver us from the kin­dling of fire! Re­joice, Thou who dost pro­vide against hunger of soul and body by the Bread of life; re­joice, Thou who dost lead away from our heads the blows of light­ning and thun­der! Re­joice, Thou who dost save us from the at­tacks of strangers and se­cret mur­der­ers; re­joice, Thou who dost guard us with peace and love against fam­ily quar­rels and the en­mi­ties of those of our own blood!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 10

Wish­ing to save mankind from the error of the enemy, the Lord Who loves mankind gave us on earth Thee His Mother to be our help, pro­tec­tion and de­fense, for Thee to be the Com­forter of those that sor­row, the Joy of the af­flicted, the De­fender of the in­jured, and to raise all from the depth of sin, singing: Alleluia!

Ikos 10

"O King of heaven", spoke the all-pure Queen in prayer as She stood with the an­gels, "do Thou ac­cept every man pray­ing to Thee and call­ing upon my name for help, that he go not away from my face empty and un­heard". Hear­ing this most good sup­pli­ca­tion, the as­sem­blies of the saints cried in thanks­giv­ing:

Rejoice, Thou who crownest with blessed fruits the hus­band­men pure in hand and heart; re­joice, Suc­cour and right­eous Re­warder for all those who hon­estly trade! Re­joice, Re­prover be­fore all na­tions of those who keep not their oaths and whose gains are un­just; re­joice, un­ex­pected Helper of those in dis­tress in their trav­els by land and water! Re­joice, Thou who mak­est glad with the fruits of faith and the spirit child­less cou­ples; re­joice, un­seen Tutor of moth­er­less or­phans! Re­joice, strong De­fender of those in cap­tiv­ity and exile; re­joice, ever-watch­ful Guardian of those sit­ting in bonds and prison!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 11

Hear­ing a most mov­ing song and at­tend­ing to Thy prayer for us, we beg Thee, O Vir­gin Theotokos, look not away from the voices of Thy ser­vants for we run to Thee in as­saults and af­flic­tion and in our dis­tress we pour out our tears be­fore Thee, cry­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 11

Seeing Thee in the air in­side the Blach­er­nae Church burn­ing in prayer as a can­dle aflame with light, I gave voice to­gether with a mul­ti­tude of peo­ple there pre­sent: how can this be that the Mother of my Lord has come to me? And Saint An­drew with Epiphan­ios prayed warmly to Thee, cry­ing:

Rejoice, abun­dant Giver of all spir­i­tual and bod­ily gifts; re­joice, true Ad­vo­cate of sin­ners who have started to re­pent! Re­joice, per­pet­ual Cham­pion of those fight­ing with enemy pas­sions and in­tents; re­joice, in­vis­i­ble Tamer of cruel and bes­tial mas­ters! Re­joice, se­cret Rest and Con­so­la­tion of hum­ble and suf­fer­ing ser­vants; re­joice, most longed-for Ful­filler of blessed mar­riages! Re­joice, swift and pain­less re­lief of moth­ers in child­birth; re­joice, our only Help in the hour of death!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 12

Ask Thy Son to give us di­vine grace; stretch to­wards us a help­ing hand; ward off from us every enemy and ad­ver­sary and give our lives peace that we parish not griev­ously with­out re­pen­tance, but ac­cept us, O our Pro­tec­tor, in the eter­nal man­sions, that, re­joic­ing we may cry to Thee: Alleluia!

Ikos 12

Sin­g­ing the praises of Thy mighty pro­tec­tion, we praise Thee for Thou art to us all our firm Ad­vo­cate and we ven­er­ate Thee who dost pray for us: for we be­lieve and we trust that Thou wilt beg of Thy Son and God eter­nal and tem­po­ral good things for all who cry thus to Thee with love:

Rejoice, strong De­fense of the whole in­hab­ited earth; re­joice, sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion of all the earthly and heav­enly el­e­ments! Re­joice, Thou Bless­ing of all the sea­sons of the year; re­joice, Thou Con­queror of all as­saults and temp­ta­tions that come from the world, the flesh and the devil! Re­joice, un­hoped for Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion of those who are at dag­gers drawn; re­joice, Amend­ment with­out their knowl­edge of un­re­pen­tant sin­ners! Re­joice, Thou who dost not turn away those de­spised and for­saken by all; re­joice, Thou who dost pluck from the pit of de­struc­tion those that in­deed de­spair!

Rejoice, our Joy, pro­tect us from every ill by Thy pre­cious Veil!

Kon­takion 13

O all-praised Mother, Most pure Lady, Vir­gin, Theotokos, to Thee do I lift up the eyes of my soul and body, to Thee do I stretch forth my hands grown fee­ble and I cry from the depth of my heart: look down on the faith and hu­mil­ity of my soul; shel­ter me with Thy almighty pro­tec­tion, that I be saved from all as­sault and dis­tress, and in the hour of my death, be by me, O Thou all-blessed, and de­liver me from the tor­ment pre­pared for me be­cause of my sins, that, ven­er­at­ing Thee, I may ever cry: Alleluia!

Се́й конда́къ глаго́лется три́жды. Та́же Икосъ 1-й и Конда́къ 1-й

First Prayer

O all-holy Vir­gin, Mother of the Lord of the hosts on high, Thou Queen of heaven and earth and almighty De­fender of our coun­try, ac­cept from us Thine un­wor­thy ser­vants this song of praise and thanks­giv­ing and bring our prayer up to the throne of Thy God and Son, that He be mer­ci­ful to­wards our un­right­eous­ness, and ex­tend His grace to those who ho­n­our Thy name and ven­er­ate with faith and love Thy won­der-work­ing ikon. For we are not wor­thy to be for­given by Him hadst Thou, O Lady, not made Him mer­ci­ful to­wards us, for all things from Him are pos­si­ble to Thee. There­fore we run to Thee as Thou art our swift and un­doubted Pro­tec­tor. Hear us who pray to Thee: over­shadow us with Thine almighty veil and ask from Thy God and Son zeal and vig­i­lance for our shep­herds, wis­dom and strength for the souls of those who gov­ern our cities, right­eous­ness and im­par­tial­ity for our judges, un­der­stand­ing and hu­mil­ity for our lead­ers, love and con­cord for the mar­ried, obe­di­ence for our chil­dren, pa­tience for those who have been of­fended, the fear of God for those that of­fend, stout­heart­ed­ness for the af­flicted, re­straint for those that re­joice, and for all of us the spirit of un­der­stand­ing and god­li­ness, the spirit of mercy and meek­ness, the spirit of chastity and truth. Yea, O all-holy Lady, be mer­ci­ful to­wards Thy fee­ble peo­ple: gather to­gether the dis­persed, guide on the right way those that have gone astray, up­hold old age, make the young pure, bring up the chil­dren and look down upon all of us with the care of Thy mer­ci­ful pro­tec­tion. Raise us from the depth of sin and en­lighten the eyes of our hearts to see sal­va­tion. Be mer­ci­ful to us both here and yon­der, dur­ing our wan­der­ing in the land of this earth and at the Last Judge­ment of Thy Son: and make our fa­thers and broth­ers who have de­parted this life live the eter­nal life with the an­gels and all the saints. For Thou, O Lady, art the glory of those in heaven and the trust of those on earth. After God, Thou art the hope and De­fender of all who flee to Thee with faith. We then pray to Thee and to Thee as our almighty Helper, do we com­mend our­selves and one an­other, now and for ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Sec­ond Prayer

O my most blessed Queen, my all-holy hope, Re­ceiver of or­phans and De­fender of the strangers, Helper of those in poverty, Pro­tec­tor of the sick, be­hold my dis­tress, be­hold my af­flic­tion. On all sides am I held by temp­ta­tion, and there is none to de­fend me. Help me then as I am weak, feed me as I am a pil­grim, guide me as I have strayed, heal and save me as I lie with­out hope. For I have no other help, nor ad­vo­cate nor com­forter, save Thee, O Mother of all the af­flicted and heavy laden. Look down then on me, a sin­ner lying in sick­ness, and pro­tect me with Thine all-holy Veil, that I be de­liv­ered from all the ills sur­round­ing me and may ever praise Thy Name that all men sing. Amen.

Akathist to the Pro­tec­tion (Cov­er­ing) of the Theotokos in Eng­lish
Other hymns in Eng­lish