CHANT ENCOUNTERS: KASSIA

Born in ninth-century Constantinople, Kassia the Nun was a precocious scholar, defender of icons, abbess, poet, and composer. She stands as the preeminent woman hymnographer of the Byzantine tradition. Her hymns still resound in Orthodox worship today, her voice especially echoing through Lent and Holy Week. Her most famous work, known popularly as “The Hymn of Kassianí,” is a hauntingly beautiful lament of the anonymous woman who anointed Jesus’s feet before his crucifixion. Discover Kassia’s medieval melodies as she herself sang them—before centuries of tradition shaped them into the versions Orthodox faithful know today.