Kon­takion 1

We cry out with heart­felt emo­tion to the cho­sen Vir­gin Mary, far no­bler than all the daugh­ters of the earth, Mother of the Son of God, Who gave sal­va­tion to the world: Look at our life which is filled with every sor­row and re­mem­ber the sor­row and pain which thou didst suf­fer as one born on earth with us, and do with us ac­cord­ing to thy mer­ci­ful heart, that we may cry unto thee:

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Ikos 1

An angel an­nounced the birth of the Sav­iour of the world to the shep­herds in the Beth­le­hem and with the mul­ti­tude of the heav­enly hosts praised God, singing: "Glory to God in the high­est and on earth peace, good will among men!" But thou, O Mother of God, hav­ing nowhere to lay thy head, since there was no room in the inn, gave birth to thy first-born Son in a cave and, wrap­ping Him in swad­dling clothes, laid Him in a manger. Know­ing the pain in thy heart, we cry out to thee:

Rejoice, for thou wast warmed by the breath of thine own beloved Son; re­joice, for thou didst wrap the eter­nal Child in swad­dling clothes! Re­joice, for thou didst nour­ish with thy milk the One who sus­taineth the uni­verse; re­joice, for thou didst turn a cave into a heaven! Re­joice, for thou didst make thy throne upon the Cheru­bim; re­joice, for thou didst re­main a vir­gin both in giv­ing birth and after birth!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 2

Seeing the eter­nal Child swad­dled and lying in a manger, the shep­herds of Beth­le­hem came to wor­ship Him and to re­late that which the An­gels told them about the Child. But Mary kept all these things in her heart. And after eight days had passed Jesus was cir­cum­cised, ac­cord­ing to the law of Is­rael, as a man. Hymn­ing thy hu­mil­ity and pa­tience, O Theotokos, we sing to the Good God Eter­nal: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

Having their un­der­stand­ing based on God and keep­ing the Law of the Lord, on the for­ti­eth day when the days of pu­rifi­ca­tion were com­plete, His par­ents took Jesus to Jerusalem so that they could pre­sent Him be­fore the Lord and offer sac­ri­fice for Him ac­cord­ing to the de­cree in the Law of the Lord. But we sing out to thee, O Theotokos, thus:

Rejoice, for thou didst take the Cre­ator of the uni­verse to the Tem­ple in Jerusalem to ful­fill the Law; re­joice, for thou didst there meet the Elder Simeon with joy! Re­joice, thou only Pure and blessed one among women; re­joice, for with hu­mil­ity Thou didst carry thy cross adorned with sor­rows! Re­joice, for thou didst never dis­obey the will of God; re­joice, for thou didst re­veal thy­self as a model of pa­tience and hu­mil­ity!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 3

Thou wast strength­ened with power from on high, O Mother of God, when thou didst hear the words of the Elder Simeon, when he said to thee: "Be­hold, this Child is des­tined to be the rise and fall of many in Is­rael. This is a sign which will be spo­ken against, and a sword will pierce thy very soul so that the thoughts of many may be re­vealed". And great sor­row en­tered the heart of the Theotokos, and with grief she cried out to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 3

Has­ten­ing to de­stroy the Child, Herod or­dered the killing of all chil­dren in Beth­le­hem and its en­vi­rons, from two years of age and under ac­cord­ing to the time that he de­ter­mined from the Magi. And be­hold, ac­cord­ing to the com­mand of God, the Elder Joseph was in­formed by an angel in a dream to flee with the Holy Fam­ily to Egypt and to re­main there until the death of Herod. There­fore with com­punc­tion, we cry out to thee, O Theotokos:

Rejoice for thou didst bear the en­tire tur­moil of exile; re­joice for all the idols fell in the land of Egypt not being able to en­dure the power of thy Son! Re­joice for thou didst re­main for seven years among the dis­hon­or­able pa­gans; re­joice, for thou didst ar­rive in Nazareth with the first-born Youth and with thy be­trothed! Re­joice, for thou didst live with the Elder Joseph the car­pen­ter in poverty! Re­joice, for thou didst spend all thy time in hard labors!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften our hearts and those of evil men!

Kon­takion 4

A storm of sor­rows whirled about the most pure Mother when they re­turned from Jerusalem, not find­ing the young man Jesus in the car­a­van. For this rea­son they re­turned to look for Him, and after three days they found Him in the Tem­ple, sit­ting among the teach­ers lis­ten­ing to them and ask­ing them ques­tions. And His Mother asked Him, "Child, why hast Thou done this to us? Be­hold, Thy fa­ther and I suf­fered greatly look­ing for Thee". And Jesus an­swered them, "Why were ye look­ing for Me? Do ye not know about those things which My Fa­ther has en­trusted unto Me?" And Thou, O Most Pure One, kept all these say­ings in Thy heart, cry­ing out to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 4

The Mother of God heard that Jesus trav­eled through all of Galilee, teach­ing in their syn­a­gogues, preach­ing the Gospel of the King­dom and heal­ing all kinds of ill­ness and in­fir­mity among the peo­ple. And His rep­u­ta­tion spread through all of Syria and they brought Him every kind of ill­ness and the suf­fer­ing and those tor­mented by demons and the par­a­lyzed and He healed them. But thou, O Mother of God, know­ing the prophecy, sor­rowed in thy heart, know­ing that very soon the time would come when Thy Son would pre­sent Him­self as a sac­ri­fice for the sins of the world. For this rea­son we bless thee, much sor­row­ing Mother of God, cry­ing out:

Rejoice, for thou didst give thy Son to the ser­vice of the Jew­ish peo­ple; re­joice, for thou didst sor­row in thy heart, but didst sub­mit to the will of God! Re­joice, for thou didst save the world from the del­uge of sin; re­joice for thou didst crush the head of the an­cient ser­pent! Re­joice, for thou didst offer thy­self as a liv­ing sac­ri­fice to God; re­joice, O blessed one, the Lord is with Thee!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 5

Preach­ing the King­dom of God on earth, Jesus ex­posed the ar­ro­gance of the Phar­isees who imag­ined them­selves to be right­eous. So when they heard His para­bles they un­der­stood it was about them­selves that He was speak­ing and they sought to ar­rest Him, but they feared the peo­ple who con­sid­ered Him to be a prophet. See­ing all of this, the Mother of God sor­rowed for her beloved Son and feared that they would kill Him, in af­flic­tion cry­ing out: Alleluia!

Ikos 5

Some of the Jews, see­ing the res­ur­rec­tion of Lazarus, went to the Phar­isees and told them what Jesus had done. And Ca­iaphas, who was the high priest that year, said, "It will be bet­ter for us that one man die for the peo­ple, so that the whole na­tion would not per­ish". From that day on they took coun­sel about how they would kill Him. But we cry out to thee, O Most Pure One:

Rejoice, thou who gavest birth to the Sav­iour of the world; re­joice, source of our sal­va­tion! Re­joice, for thou wast cho­sen from birth to be the Mother of our Sav­iour; re­joice, Mother of God, des­tined for suf­fer­ing! Re­joice, O blessed one, who dost pre­side as Queen of Heaven; re­joice, O blessed one, thou who al­ways prays for us!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 6

Once a preacher of the Word of God, and now a trai­tor, Judas Is­car­iot, one of the twelve apos­tles, went to the high priest to be­tray his Teacher. They lis­tened to him, were ex­ceed­ingly pleased and promised to give him thirty pieces of sil­ver. But thou, O Mother of God, didst sor­row for thy beloved Son, and didst cry out in grief to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 6

Taking part in the Last Sup­per with the dis­ci­ples at which the Teacher washed their feet, thereby re­veal­ing an ex­am­ple of hu­mil­ity, Christ said to them, "One of you will be­tray Me". But we, suf­fer­ing with the Mother of God, cry out to Her:

Rejoice, Mother of God, lan­guish­ing with the tor­ture of thy heart; re­joice, Thou who didst suf­fer all in this most sor­row­ful vale! Re­joice, Thou who didst find com­fort in prayer; re­joice, joy of all who sor­row! Re­joice, Thou who dost save us from the mire of sin; re­joice, ves­sel filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit!

Rejoice, much- sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 7

Desir­ing to show His love for the human race, the Lord Jesus Christ at the Mys­ti­cal Sup­per, blessed and broke bread, and gave it to His dis­ci­ples and apos­tles, say­ing: "Take, eat, this is My Body". And tak­ing the chal­ice and giv­ing praise gave it to them say­ing: "All of you drink of this, this is My Blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many for the re­mis­sion of sins". Thank­ing the com­pas­sion­ate God for His in­ef­fa­ble mercy to us, we sing to Him: Alleluia!

Ikos 7

The Lord re­vealed a new sign of His mercy to His dis­ci­ples when He promised to send them the Com­forter, the Spirit of Truth, Who would de­scend from the Fa­ther and would wit­ness con­cern­ing Him. But to thee, O Mother of God, sanc­ti­fied again on the day of Pen­te­cost by the Holy Spirit, we cry:

Rejoice, man­sion of the Holy Spirit; re­joice, bril­liantly-il­lu­mi­nated bridal cham­ber! Re­joice, spa­cious dwelling place of God the Word; re­joice, thou who didst open for us the gates of par­adise by Thy giv­ing of birth! Re­joice, thou who didst re­veal the sign of di­vine mercy Him­self to us!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 8

It is at once very strange and sor­row­ful for us to hear how Judas Is­car­iot be­trayed his Teacher and Lord with a kiss. Then the crowd and the com­man­der and the ser­vants of the Jews ar­rested Jesus, and bound Him, and led Him first to the chief priest Ana­nias, and then to the high priest Ca­iaphas. But thou, O Mother of God, ex­pect­ing the death sen­tence for thy beloved Son, cried out to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 8

All of the Jews led Jesus from Ca­iaphas to the Prae­to­rium to Pi­late, say­ing that He was a crim­i­nal. But Pi­late, after ques­tion­ing Him, told them that he could not find any fault at all in Him. But we cry out to thee with com­punc­tion, O Mother of God, who saw the slan­der of Thy Son:

Rejoice, thou whose heart was bro­ken by woe; re­joice, for thou didst shed tears for thy Son! Re­joice, thou who didst see thy beloved Child given over to trial; re­joice, for thou didst suf­fer every­thing with­out com­plaint like a true hand­maiden of the Lord! Re­joice, de­spite thy weep­ing and lamen­ta­tion; re­joice, O Queen of Heaven and earth, who dost ac­cept the prayers of thy ser­vants!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 9

All gen­er­a­tions bless thee, who art more hon­or­able than the Cheru­bim and be­yond com­pare more glo­ri­ous than the Seraphim, our Lady and the Mother of our Re­deemer, for thy birth-giv­ing has brought joy to the whole world. But thou didst suf­fer the final great sor­row when thou saw thy beloved Son in­sulted, whipped, and sen­tenced to death. For this rea­son we pre­sent our heart­felt hymn to thee, O Most Pure One, singing to God Almighty: Alleluia!

Ikos 9

Loqua­cious or­a­tors are not able to de­scribe all of the suf­fer­ing which Thou en­dured, our Sav­iour, such as when the sol­diers placed a crown woven out of thorns on Thy head and dressed Thee in a pur­ple robe, say­ing, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and slapped Thee across the face. But we, Mother of God, rec­og­niz­ing thy suf­fer­ing, cry out to thee:

Rejoice, thou who didst be­hold thy Son slain for our sake; Re­joice, see­ing Him dressed in pur­ple and wear­ing a crown of thorns! Re­joice, see­ing Him tor­tured, whom thou didst nour­ish with thy milk; re­joice, thou who didst suf­fer His Pas­sion to­gether with Him! Re­joice, thou who didst watch all His dis­ci­ples for­sake Him; re­joice, thou who didst see Him con­demned by the judge­ment of the un­right­eous!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 10

Wanting to save Jesus, Pi­late said to the Jews, "We have a cus­tom to re­lease a pris­oner on the feast of Passover. Do you want me to give you the King of the Jews?" All of them shouted, say­ing, "Not Him, but Barab­bas!" We praise the great mercy of the Heav­enly Fa­ther, Who so loved the world, that He gave His only-be­got­ten Son to death on the Cross in order to re­deem us from eter­nal death, as we cry out to Him: Alleluia!

Ikos 10

Be a wall and a for­ti­fi­ca­tion unto us, O Lady, who are over­bur­dened by sor­rows and suf­fer­ing. For thou thy­self didst suf­fer hear­ing the Jews shout­ing, "Cru­cify, cru­cify Him!" Now hear us cry­ing out unto thee:

Rejoice, Mother of mercy, who wipest away every tear from those who suf­fer cru­elly; re­joice, thou who grantest us tears of heart­felt com­punc­tion! Re­joice, thou who savest lost sin­ners; re­joice, Pro­tec­tion of Chris­tians that can­not be put to shame! Re­joice, thou who savest us from our pas­sions; re­joice, thou who grantest com­fort to bro­ken hearts!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 11

We offer a hymn of heart­felt sor­row to the Sav­iour of the world for His vol­un­tary Pas­sion and car­ry­ing His Cross to Gol­go­tha to be cru­ci­fied. Stand­ing at Jesus' Cross are His Mother, Mary Cleopas, and Mary Mag­da­lene. But Jesus, see­ing His Mother and His dis­ci­ple whom He loved stand­ing there, said to His dis­ci­ple, "Be­hold thy mother!" And from that time the dis­ci­ple took her into his fam­ily. But thou, O Mother of God, see­ing Thy Son and Lord on the Cross was dev­as­tated, and cried out to God on high: Alleluia!

Ikos 11

"O my Son and Pre-eter­nal God, Fash­ioner of all cre­ation! O Lord, how canst Thou en­dure the suf­fer­ing on the Cross?" the pure Vir­gin cried, say­ing: "By Thy awe­some birth, O my Son , I have been ex­alted above all moth­ers, but woe is me! Now when I see Thee, my womb burns within me". But we shed tears re­mem­ber­ing thee, and cry out to thee:

Rejoice, thou who was de­prived of joy and mer­ri­ment; re­joice, thou who didst see the vol­un­tary pas­sion of thy Son on the Cross! Re­joice, thou who didst see thy beloved Son sore wounded; re­joice, ewe lamb, see­ing thy Son as a lamb being led to slaugh­ter! Re­joice, thou who didst see the De­liv­erer of the wounds of soul and body cov­ered with wounds; re­joice, thou who didst see thy Son rise from the dead!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 12

O All mer­ci­ful Sav­iour, grant us mercy, breath­ing out Thy Spirit on the Cross and tear­ing up the hand­writ­ing of our sins. "Be­hold, my good Light, my God, is ex­tin­guished on the Cross!" the Vir­gin in great an­guish ex­claimed. "O Joseph, has­ten to Pi­late, ap­proach him and ask him to take thy Teacher down from the Cross". "See­ing Thy wounded Body, naked and with­out glory, on the Cross, O my Child, a sword has pierced my soul ac­cord­ing to the prophecy of the Elder Simeon", said the Mother of God, singing: Alleluia!

Ikos 12

Hymn­ing Thy mer­ci­ful­ness, O Lover of mankind, we bow down to Thy gen­er­ous mercy, O Mas­ter. The Most Pure one said, "Wish­ing to save Thy crea­ture, thou hast given Thy­self over to death". But by Thy res­ur­rec­tion, O Sav­iour, have mercy on all of us, while we ad­dress Thy most pure Mother:

Rejoice, thou who didst see the most good Lord dead and with­out breath; re­joice, thou who didst kiss the body of thy beloved Son! Re­joice, thou who didst see thy Light as a naked and wounded corpse; re­joice, thou who didst place the Light of the world in the tomb! Re­joice, thou who didst wrap His body in a new shroud; re­joice, thou who be­held His Res­ur­rec­tion from the dead!

Rejoice, much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, turn our sor­rows into joy and soften the hearts of evil men!

Kon­takion 13

O All-hymned Mother, crushed by thy sor­row at the Cross of thy Son and God, ac­cept our tears and ex­pres­sions of sor­row and save from every sor­row, af­flic­tion, and eter­nal death, all those who hope in thine in­ef­fa­ble kind­heart­ed­ness and cry out to God: Alleluia!

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

Prayer to the Theotokos Soft­ener of Evil Hearts

O much-sor­row­ing Mother of God, more highly ex­alted than all other maid­ens, ac­cord­ing to thy pu­rity and the mul­ti­tude of thy suf­fer­ing en­dured by thee on earth: Hear­ken to our sighs and soften the hearts of evil men, and pro­tect us under the shel­ter of thy mercy. For we know no other refuge and ar­dent in­ter­ces­sor apart from thee, but as thou hast great bold­ness be­fore the One who was born of thee, help and save us by thy prayers, that with­out of­fence we may at­tain the Heav­enly King­dom where, with all the saints, we will sing the thrice-holy hymn to One God Almighty in the Trin­ity, al­ways now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Akathist to the Theotokos, the Soft­ener of Evil Hearts in Eng­lish
Other hymns in Eng­lish