Mantras
Christianity Mantras
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Origin 400 to 500 CE
The thrice-holy, sung near the start of the Byzantine liturgy and repeated three times, and one of the few liturgical texts that caused a schism: the addition of who was crucified for us, made in fifth-century Antioch, was read as attributing suffering to the Godhead and became a marker between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian churches. It echoes the seraphic cry of Isaiah 6 without quoting it. It also opens the standard Orthodox set of introductory prayers, where it is said before almost every service. Held here as both hymn and repeated formula.
Facts
Practice
Who Performs ItAll adherents of the tradition 1 FrequencyAs the occasion requires 2 Solitary or CommunalPerformed by a gathered group 1 Origins
Origin Period Use
What It Is Used For What It Is Used ForAcclamation: a congregational response or assent 1 Form
How It Is Recited or SungSung three times by choir and people, each time with the sign of the cross 1 Type of Mantra Attributions
TraditionChristianity (Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic) 1 Learn More
The Thrice-Holy
The Trisagion, the thrice-holy, is the hymn "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us," sung near the beginning of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy and used widely in Eastern Christian worship. Threefold in its address, it is distinct from the Sanctus of the eucharistic prayer, though both take up the theme of holiness, and the Eastern tradition surrounds it with an account of its origin in a revelation given during an earthquake at Constantinople, when a child was said to have been caught up and taught the angelic hymn.
A single disputed addition to it, the phrase "who was crucified for us", became a point of sharp controversy in the fifth and sixth centuries, bound up with debates over how the divine and human were united in Christ. Sung repeatedly and with reverence, the Trisagion is one of the fixed and beloved hymns of the Orthodox liturgy and is also used in the Western church, notably in the Good Friday reproaches.
A Legendary Origin and a Confused Cousin
Byzantine tradition traces the Trisagion's revelation to a specific legendary event, an earthquake that struck Constantinople under Theodosius II in the fifth century, during which a child was reportedly caught up into the sky and returned reciting these words as what he had heard the angels sing, after which the assembled people added eleison hemas, have mercy on us, and the earthquake ceased. Byzantine chronicles record this account as the traditional origin of the formula's introduction into the liturgy of the capital, though the legend functions to authorize an already spreading practice as much as to document how it actually began.
The Trisagion is frequently confused with the Sanctus, the holy, holy, holy sung within the eucharistic prayer in both Eastern and Western liturgies and drawn directly from the seraphim's threefold acclamation in Isaiah 6:3, but the two are textually distinct formulas serving different liturgical moments: the Sanctus repeats holy three times before naming God as Lord of hosts, following Isaiah's wording closely, while the Trisagion instead names three separate attributes, holy God, holy mighty one, holy immortal one, each occurring once rather than one word repeated three times, and is sung earlier in the Divine Liturgy, at the entrance, rather than within the eucharistic prayer itself. Both ultimately echo Isaiah's vision, but Eastern liturgical scholarship treats them as two separate compositions inspired by a common biblical source rather than as one text existing in two versions.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Also Functions As
The same formula also functions as a hymn, and the hymn account is given there.
Attested In
Echoes the seraphic cry of Isaiah 6:3 without quoting it.
Belongs to Tradition
Derived from the tradition recorded on the mantra, Christianity (Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic).
Element Of
Sung three times at the entrance and addressed to the Trinity, which is the reading these churches defended against the addition made further east.
Held Differently
The thrice-holy is read here as addressed to Christ, and carries the clause who was crucified for us that the Byzantine rite rejects.
The Latin rite sings the thrice-holy once a year, in the reproaches of Good Friday and alternately in Greek and Latin, where the Byzantine rite sings it at every liturgy.
Originates in Language
Part Of
Sung near the start of the Byzantine liturgy and repeated three times.
Sources
1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005from the mantra's own catalogue recordView the Source 2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Hymns, Byzantine, and on the theopaschite additionView the Source The Orthodox Church
Timothy Ware (Kallistos Ware), Penguin Books, 1993Ware, The Orthodox ChurchView the Source Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes
John Meyendorff, Fordham University Press, 1979Meyendorff, Byzantine TheologyView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.