St. Romanos is one of the three main hymn-writers ("hymnographers") of the Byzantine Church, alongside St. John of Damascus (676-749) and his foster-brother, St. Cosmas of Maiuma (8th c.). Romanos was probably born in Emesa, Syria, possibly with a Jewish background; he served as a deacon at the Church of the Resurrection in Beirut, Lebanon, before moving to Constantinople in the early 500s, during the reign of Patriarch Anastasios I (r. 491-518). There, he served at the Church of the Theotokos in Kyrou, where he was later buried. Per legend, on Christmas Eve, he had a dream in which the Virgin gave him a scroll to swallow; when he awoke for the Vigil of the Nativity, he mounted the pulpit and extemporaneously proclaimed his Kontakion on the Nativity. He wrote many such hymns (some sources claim over a thousand, though only eighty-five surviving ones are attributed to him, and only fifty-nine are considered authentic), and they were so beloved that he was canonized, with his feast celebrated on October 1.
He is the first major writer of the kontakion (plural kontakia), a style of long hymn, sometimes described as a sermon in verse. It consists of a number of stanzas arranged in patterns based on stress, rather than vowel length (as is typical of Greek and Latin poetry), with a shorter introductory stanza. Each stanza ends with the same, or almost the same, refrain. Frequently, the kontakion tells a story or includes a dialogue. In the past, these long hymns were recited at liturgies; in time, though, only the introductory stanza remained, and it was given the name kontakion, under which it now serves as one of the two basic proper hymns of the Byzantine Liturgy, alongside the troparion. It is thought that the original kontakion form probably derived from the many Syriac styles of metrical homilies, famously practiced by St. Jacob of Serug (451-521). The most famous of St. Romanos' authentic kontakia is the first one on the Nativity; however, far more well-known is the Akathist, a hymn that is based on the kontakion style and usually attributed to Romanos.
The following is an excerpt from one of St. Romanos' two kontakia on the Parable of the Ten Virgins; this parable is one of the main reference points for the Matins services of Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday ("Bridegroom Matins"). After some introductory material on the parable in general, St. Romanos paints the scene and recounts the coming of the Bridegroom and the acceptance of the five wise and prudent virgins. Then the five foolish virgins come and plead for entrance, which is denied them; the excerpt below consists of their plea and the opening stanza of Christ's response. Christ's speech to them takes of most of the rest of the kontakion, as he emphasizes the various virtues that they should have practiced in life when they had time to do so, and explaining how rich His mercy is for those who do make an effort for virtue, however little they can give: "Not grave is God's command: for He does not ask / the one who can't to give, but seeks intent" (29.1-2). The foolish virgins, though, delayed their virtue-seeking too long; after death, there is no chance to go back and do what was left undone. This is the strict warning St. Romanos gives us here.
Footnotes: [1]This term, ἀκτημοσύνη, is often translated as "landlessness," that is, not owning property; one of its roots, though, is the work κτῆμα, meaning "possession." More literally, then, the term could be translated "possessionlessness." "Non-acquistion" has some of the same connotation.
[2]In the Greek tradition "the bodiless ones" is a term for the angels. The monastic and virginal lives were considered to be emulating the life of the angels.
Introduction Source: C.A. Trypanis, "Introduction," in Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica: Cantica Genuina, ed. Paul Maas and C.A. Trypanis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), xi-xxxi.
Source: Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica: Cantica Genuina, ed. Paul Maas and C.A. Trypanis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), 401-403.