Kon­takion 1

Thy holy mar­tyrs O Lord did not see earthly glory as a trea­sure to be held, but fac­ing the tor­ments of men and the wis­dom of demons hum­bled them­selves for Thy sake, even unto death. Where­fore, O Right­eous Fa­ther, as through them Thou brought the price­less pearl to an un­bap­tized land, grant us Thy Spirit and great mercy for our souls.

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Ikos 1

As a new Herod the hand of the Box­ers fell on the in­fants of the Church, writ­ing on the door­post of each soul the mark of the Lamb in the blood of the lambs, seal­ing them for the new Passover, that all might cry aloud:

Rejoice, ye right­eous ones, tear­ing down the ban­ner of world­li­ness. Re­joice, ye aban­don­ers of the king­dom that pas­seth away. Re­joice, ye re­sis­tors of the le­gions of Hades. Re­joice, ye swords in the Hand of the Right­eous God. Re­joice, ye lanterns of the Holy Spirit. Re­joice, ye who drench the de­monic flame with the wa­ters of bap­tism. Re­joice, ye cel­e­brants of the new Passover. Re­joice, ye chil­dren of the new Is­rael. Re­joice, ye pearls of great­est price. Re­joice, ye jade di­adems in the trea­sury of God. Re­joice, ye jew­elled gates of the heav­enly Jerusalem. Re­joice, ye loyal sub­jects of the true Ce­les­tial court.

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 2

Holy Isa­iah didst fore­tell: A shoot shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and thereby the earth shall be full of the knowl­edge of the Lord. Where­fore, O Lord, do we praise Thee, for Thou hast in truth kept the full­ness of Thy word, fill­ing the earth with knowl­edge of Thee that we may cry: Alleluia.

Ikos 2

As the new Beth­le­hem in the land of Manchuria, not least among the rulers of the pre­sent world, while last in ob­tain­ing the bap­tism of re­mis­sion of sins, art first in wit­ness to the east­ern lands, for out of you came forth a flock who would lay down their lives like their Shep­herd, cry­ing:

Rejoice, O heirs of the house­hold of the blessed prince of Chan-Timur. Re­joice, O blood broth­ers of the mar­tyrs of K'ang Chi. Re­joice, O spir­i­tual de­scen­dents of Bei­jing's pris­on­ers for Christ. Re­joice, O new tribe of the New Is­rael. Re­joice, O least of all na­tions and last bap­tized. Re­joice, O great star of the east­ern sky. Re­joice, O chil­dren of the land of silken majesty robed in Majesty. Re­joice, O new Dam­as­cus road, il­lu­mi­na­tion of the silk roads. Re­joice, O light in the dark­ness which dark­ness can­not con­sume. Re­joice, O wit­nesses of the Light. Re­joice, O voices of the east­ern wilder­ness. Re­joice, O voices cry­ing, "Pre­pare ye the way of the Lord".

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 3

Our Lord Christ warned that the im­pi­ous shall cast out the faith­ful, speak­ing of these things that we should not stum­ble; call­ing the faith­ful to the knowl­edge that the in­fi­del shall think in his butch­ery he of­fers ser­vice to God. Where­fore, O Fa­ther, hear­ken to us in our strug­gle, and en­lighten us with Thy Truth as we sing to Thee: Alleluia.

Ikos 3

The prophets de­clared Thy suf­fer­ing, O Christ, and Thou camest being in­car­nate of the Theotokos, re­flect­ing the Image of God fully in the image of man, that we may grow to the full­ness of Thy Like­ness, where­fore as Thy mar­tyrs do share in Thy suf­fer­ings, they too share in Thy Like­ness that we may pro­claim:

Rejoice, ye whom human might couldst not per­suade. Re­joice, ye for whom the might of Christ was thy de­fense. Re­joice, ye who over­turned the censer of idol­a­try. Re­joice, ye who yearned for the in­cense of the Heav­enly Realm. Re­joice, ye who are trod un­der­foot by the le­gions of men. Re­joice, ye who lay down life for the sake of your Brother, Christ. Re­joice, ye who scat­ter the lots of the idols of for­tune. Re­joice, ye heirs of the Heav­enly For­tune. Re­joice, O ye mer­ci­ful and meek of soul. Re­joice, O ye right­eous and pure of heart. Re­joice, ye who are per­se­cuted for right­eous­ness' sake. Re­joice, and be ex­ceed­ingly glad, for great is your re­ward in the heav­ens.

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 4

The Lord saith unto the scorn­ful Jews: De­stroy this tem­ple and in three days I will raise it up. And so hath the Lord done unto the tem­ples of the bod­ies of His mar­tyrs as He saith, that we might cry unto Him: Alleluia.

Ikos 4

Together in an un­bap­tized land, you built a tem­ple to God with holy hands, but when faced with the flames of the demon's host, you chose Life in the tem­ple not made with hands, putting to death the things of the body, putting on life ac­cord­ing to the Spirit that we may say:

Rejoice, O lambs of the east­ern Zion. Re­joice, obla­tions of Christ's shrine in the east. Re­joice, ye who preached the Word in a new tongue. Re­joice, ye whose holy books hal­lowed the pa­gans' fire. Re­joice, ye who raised a Tem­ple to Christ as new chil­dren of Solomon. Re­joice, ye sanc­ti­fiers of the pagan tem­ple shrine. Re­joice, thrice-blessed chil­dren of the holy fire. Re­joice, con­fes­sors who walk in the flame of death with the Flame of Life. Re­joice, ye who re­pent in burn­ing sack­cloth and ashes. Re­joice, ye who are min­gled with the ashes of Christ's holy tem­ple. Re­joice, O sac­ri­fices who scorned sac­ri­fice to the new Baal. Re­joice, O car­ri­ers of the Holy Flame.

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 5

The priests of Baal doth con­spire against the Lord's anointed, rev­el­ing in the strength of their throng, but doused in the wa­ters of the Re­deem­ing God, the wood of the sac­ri­fice dost burst forth with holy flame, scat­ter­ing the wicked hosts that we might praise the Lord our God, and sing unto Him: Alleluia.

Ikos 5

Teacher and shep­herd, our holy fa­ther Mitro­phan, alone amongst his peo­ple as a priest of the Lord, called by the enemy to ex­ceed the fire of their hate with the fire of faith, O thou who hal­low­est thy name Tsz Chung, unto thee do we cry:

Rejoice, ye of poor tal­ent and lit­tle virtue whom God hath made great. Re­joice, ye dis­ci­ple of Nicholas the En­light­ener. Re­joice, ye wit­ness of Christ's crown­ing of thy na­tive land. Re­joice, ye wit­ness of the crown­ing in glory of thy wife and sons. Re­joice, O pil­lar of faith amidst the blows of the faith­less. Re­joice, O last-stand­ing pil­lar of Christ's tem­ple in Harbin. Re­joice, O hal­lowed mar­tyr of Christ who fell be­neath the date tree. Re­joice, O hal­lowed mar­tyr hung faith­fully on the Tree of Life. Re­joice, O lonely priest of God who sat be­neath the broom tree, yet with­out de­spair. Re­joice, O Mitro­phan, arise and eat the Bread of Life. Re­joice, O wind, storm, and fire that touch­est not God's holy one. Re­joice, O still small voice of the Spirit of God.

Rejoice, O star of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 6

In the abase­ment of them­selves with fast­ing, sack­cloth, and ashes, the race of Ninevites didst turn back the wrath of God; and like unto them didst the kins­men of Es­ther re­pent, trust­ing not in their own right­eous­ness, but rather in the mer­cies of God to­wards those who ho­n­our Him, there­fore let us sing to Him: Alleluia.

Ikos 6

Esther be­held the plot­ting of the un­right­eous Haman, and al­though his wicked schemes were set to de­stroy the sons of Is­rael, the chil­dren of the Lord hum­bled them­selves be­fore Him, grant­ing them de­liv­er­ance from cer­tain death. Where­fore do we praise Ta­tiana, the Es­ther of the east, who by hu­mil­ity of mar­tyr­dom stole Life from the hand of death, that her soul might be saved and that we might cry:

Rejoice, O Li, who by meek­ness were ex­halted. Re­joice, O Ta­tiana, name-bearer of her sis­ter mar­tyr in Christ. Re­joice, O east­ern Es­ther, loyal friend of thy peo­ple. Re­joice, O Ta­tiana, loyal wife of Mitro­phan, and true daugh­ter of Christ. Re­joice, Pre­cious mother of the flock at Harbin. Re­joice, Pre­cious name in the prayers of the Mother of God. Re­joice, Lov­ingkind­ness writ­ten in the red of thy blood. Re­joice, Chris­t­ian wit­ness writ­ten in the stripes of thy pain. Re­joice, Blos­som of strength, boast of wom­an­hood. Re­joice, One in flesh with thy hus­band, one in wit­ness with thy cross. Re­joice, O mother-mar­tyr of thy peo­ple. Re­joice, O daugh­ter of Christ our God.

Rejoice, O star of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 7

Right­eous Gideon won­dered at the word of the Lord, trust­ing with Is­rael in his own hand; but less­en­ing their strength with the judge­ment of the water, the Lord made greater His vic­tory in judge­ment over Mid­ian. Let us now as the ser­vants of God place all our hopes, in the Strength be­yond strength and cry: Alleluia.

Ikos 7

As a new-born Theodore, fresh from the wa­ters of bap­tism as a gift of God, stand­ing be­fore thine em­peror, called by thy rank to sac­ri­fice, thou dis­dained the in­cense and in­stead washed clean thy land with the bap­tism of thy blood. Unto thee O sol­dier of Christ do we cry:

Rejoice, O brother of George, Demetrius, and Theodore. Re­joice, O sol­dier in the army of the right­eous. Re­joice, O de­fender of the maiden Mother of God. Re­joice, O vic­tor of mar­tyr­dom. Re­joice, O van­quisher of the wicked ser­pent of Death. Re­joice, O hus­band­man of the phoenix of Eter­nal Life. Re­joice, O son of the proud and holy fa­ther. Re­joice, O child of the Joy­ful and All-Holy Spirit. Re­joice, O cham­pion of the Eter­nal Son. Re­joice, O pride of the land of the east­ern sun. Re­joice, O Isa­iah, who hath borne grief and sor­rows. Re­joice, O thou who by Christ's stripes hath been healed.

Rejoice, O star of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 8

Declar­ing with courage her will­ing­ness to suf­fer all the abase­ment of her Sav­iour Christ, holy Maria was wounded thus on hand and foot, bear­ing the marks of Christ on her very body. So as she found true birth in bap­tism in the place named for the Mother of God, in a like fash­ion was she born unto Life by the prayers of the Theotokos, cry­ing: Alleluia.

Ikos 8

As the blessed Maria hur­ried to enter the house of her Lord, the very tem­ple named for the Mother of her God, her heart leaped within her, and filled with the Spirit, she de­clared Christ with a loud cry, that we all might de­clare:

Rejoice, thou name­sake of the Mother of God. Re­joice, thou whose heart leapt at the sound of the Name of thy Lord. Re­joice, thou chrysan­the­mum of the new Eden. Re­joice, thou lotus blos­som that blos­somed unto Life. Re­joice, thou who camest early to de­clare the Risen Lord. Re­joice, thou who will share His empty tomb at the Last Day. Re­joice, thou who seeketh Life in death. Re­joice, thou who de­clar­est the Truth to those who would not be­lieve. Re­joice, thou who at once de­nied the idols of thy peo­ple. Re­joice, thou who thrice de­nied lib­erty from Eter­nal Lib­erty. Re­joice, thou newly free­born of an en­slaved land. Re­joice, thou Maria of the east­ern Egypt.

Rejoice, O star of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 9

The Lord be­stowed His Strength to Is­rael through the child David, and called Is­rael to hu­mil­ity through the mouth of the shep­herd of Tekoa. As it was as a babe that Our Lord van­quished the le­gions of Death, let us re­call with awe the mys­tery of the Lord's might­i­ness in Harbin, for here too doth the Lord man­i­fest His strength in weak­ness, where­fore let us be in­structed by the life of John as we sing: Alleluia.

Ikos 9

The Lord called the Twelve to­gether and de­clared: He who de­sirest to be first must be last of all. Then tak­ing in His arms a faith­ful child, He called those as­sem­bled to re­ceive one as this, for he who re­ceiveth such re­ceives not sim­ply the Son, but the Fa­ther in Heaven Who sent Him. Where­fore we re­call John, a child like unto this, who wast re­ceived unto the Lord with manly strength, that we who ho­n­our him should cry:

Rejoice, O child of God, the least of all. Re­joice, O in­no­cent one, first in God's sight. Re­joice, O meek one, re­viled by demons as a demon. Re­joice, O small one, glo­ri­fied by God as a cham­pion of Christ. Re­joice, O lamb, dis­hon­oured by a thou­sand cuts. Re­joice, O lion, ho­n­oured by thou­sands in the heav­enly throng. Re­joice, O thirst­ing one, de­nied re­fresh­ment by thy neigh­bours. Re­joice, O lit­tle one, re­freshed by the Water spring­ing up unto sal­va­tion. Re­joice, O young one, youngest of the mar­tyrs of Harbin. Re­joice, O faith­ful one, who by grace fee­lest not pain. Re­joice, O bold one, holy con­fes­sor of Christ. Re­joice, O vic­to­ri­ous one, van­quisher of a thou­sand demons.

Rejoice, O star of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 10

By God's grace Sarah begot many na­tions by Abra­ham, and Eliz­a­beth and Zachariah bore the Fore­run­ner of Christ. Let us also praise the Lord for right­eous Ia and holy Paul, who begot eter­nal life by their mar­tyr­dom and prayers and let us sing: Alleluia.

Ikos 10

Ana­nias and Sap­phira tes­ti­fied their love for Mam­mon, where­fore they tasted the sin­gu­lar sting of death; but Christ was the tes­ti­mony of holy Paul and right­eous Ia, for he didst die with the Lord's name on his lips, and she didst suf­fer mar­tyr­dom a sec­ond time. So holy Peter de­clares to them, "How dost the Spirit of the Lord test you?"; and we the faith­ful do sing in solemn reply:

Rejoice, O blessed Paul, faith­ful mar­tyr of Christ. Re­joice, twice-blessed Ia, faith­ful teacher of the flock. Re­joice, goodly ser­vant, ever-faith­ful unto death. Re­joice, noble sharer in the Pas­sion of the Lord. Re­joice, holy Paul, boast of all the Seraphim. Re­joice, right­eous Ia, bright com­pan­ion of the Cheru­bim. Re­joice, hum­ble ser­vant, ar­che­type of piety. Re­joice, noble teacher, in­struc­tor in the ways of pu­rity. Re­joice, friend of Stephen, O lamb led unto slaugh­ter. Re­joice, friend of Cather­ine, out­wit­ter of philoso­phers. Re­joice, holy ser­vant of the house of sa­cred mar­tyrs. Re­joice, holy bride, ex­em­plar of stead­fast­ness.

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 11

Thrice-holy is the cry of the mul­ti­tude, the heav­enly host around the Heav­enly Throne, let us in hope there­fore join the an­gels' song, and chant the thrice-holy: Alleluia.

Ikos 11

The right­eous Mac­cabees with­stood with godly strength the threats of the pagan le­gions, and fore­saw the Holy Cross as a bal­ance test­ing the right­eous, weigh­ing the right­eous­ness of God with the boasts of the world, of­fer­ing the choice to all be­tween life and Eter­nal Life. Where­fore do we sing to the mar­tyrs of the east, who wisely chose the eter­nal prize:

Rejoice, O Kui-Kin, new Clement of Asia. Re­joice, O Hai Chuan, bap­tized in blood Matthew. Re­joice, Holy Sergius, blessed son of Tsz Chung. Re­joice, Holy ser­vant of the priest­hood of Christ. Re­joice, Holy Anna, friend of moth­ers and wid­ows. Re­joice, Holy chil­dren, in­her­i­tors of a heav­enly birthright. Re­joice, Holy name­less one, known only unto God. Re­joice, ye un­buried, buried with Christ that ye may rise. Re­joice, ye de­filed of pa­gans, washed clean in the Blood of the Lamb. Re­joice, ye suf­fer­ing wit­nesses of num­ber­less suf­fer­ings. Re­joice, ye blessed, who es­cap­ing death held firm in faith. Re­joice, O ye mar­tyrs of Christ in the east.

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 12

The holy Apos­tle saw a great won­der: for it was in a vi­sion, as if in a dream. Be­hold, here stands a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth are pass­ing away. Where­fore, the Lord saith He shall make all things new. Let us there­fore cry unto Him: Alleluia.

Ikos 12

The Lord fore­saw the tribu­la­tion of the mar­tyrs, whom He said would be hated by all na­tions for His own sake, and ex­horted that those who en­dured to the end that they would be saved. Where­fore let us preach unto all na­tions the gospel of the king­dom at the end of the age, that we the faith­ful might shout with joy with God's holy elect:

Rejoice, O dawn of the final days. Re­joice, O first fruits of the great age of mar­tyrs. Re­joice, O wit­nesses of Christ against idol­a­try. Re­joice, O con­fes­sors of the God-man in the age of god­less­ness. Re­joice, O cit­i­zens of the King­dom to come. Re­joice, O strangers in a strange land. Re­joice, O con­fes­sors of Christ cru­ci­fied. Re­joice, O de­clar­ers of fool­ish­ness to the Greeks. Re­joice, O ad­vo­cates who are stum­bling blocks to Jews. Re­joice, O out­wit­ters of the philoso­phers of the east. Re­joice, O right­eous com­pany of saints. Re­joice, O blessed host of new mar­tyrs of China.

Rejoice, O stars of the Ori­ent.

Kon­takion 13

The Lord saith: A lit­tle while and you will weep and mourn, yet the im­pi­ous world shall re­joice. You the faith­ful will all be sor­row­ful, yet your sor­row shall be turned to re­joic­ing. Where­fore, O Right­eous Fa­ther, let us re­joice in Thee as we cry: Alleluia.

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

Akathist to the Holy Chi­nese Mar­tyrs of the Boxer Re­bel­lion in Eng­lish
Other hymns in Eng­lish