From the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the liturgical book known as the Triodion begins to be used in the services of the Church. In many monasteries of Mount Athos, there is a venerable custom whereby the ecclesiarch (the monk entrusted with the care of the church during and outside of services), before the beginning of Vespers, places a small table before the principal icon of the Savior and lays the *Triodion* upon it. After the appointed kathisma has been read, the canonarch approaches the table, makes a full prostration, venerates the icon of the Savior, then makes another prostration and takes up the *Triodion*, carrying it to the right chanters’ stand, after which Vespers continues as usual.
At the conclusion of the service, the brotherhood exchanges the greeting: “Blessed be the Triodion.” This Athonite liturgical practice, among other things, testifies to the special love and reverence with which this book is regarded.
The Triodion is fundamentally a hymnographic collection which, in addition to the preparatory weeks, contains the services for the six weeks of Holy and Great Lent, as well as those of Holy Week, up to Vespers on Great and Holy Saturday and the first part of the Paschal Vigil. Modeled after the Menaia, it incorporates Old Testament readings from the *Paroemiary* for each day, along with synaxaria for every Sunday and other significant days of this sacred season, written by Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos. In certain editions, the Apostolic and Gospel readings for this period are also included.
The book takes its name from its most distinctive feature during Lent: the *triodes* (τριόδια), or canons composed of three odes (four on Saturdays), works of the Studite hymnographers Theodore the Studite and Joseph the Hymnographer. Similar three-ode canons once existed in the services of the Pentecostal period as well. For this reason, the entire movable liturgical cycle up to Pentecost was formerly called the *Triodion*, and the book was divided into the Lenten (or Penitential) Triodion and the Flowery (or Joyful) Triodion. In time, the latter came to be known as the Pentecostarion (Πεντηκοστάριον), especially after the triodes of that period fell out of use.
The transition from one book to the other occurs at midnight on Great and Holy Saturday, with the Paschal Matins serving as the first service of the *Pentecostarion*. Though divided into two volumes for practical reasons, this separation should not obscure the essential unity of the Lord’s Crucifixion and Resurrection, which together constitute one indivisible saving act. Just as the Crucifixion and Resurrection are one mystery, so too the three holy days—Great and Holy Friday, Great and Holy Saturday, and Pascha—form a single liturgical whole. Prior to the eleventh century, the division into two separate books was not customary; early manuscripts preserve them together in a single codex.
The *Triodion* preserves the most ancient system of reading the canon, in which only three odes were read at Matins rather than the usual nine, so that the complete nine-ode canon would be read once weekly, much like the Psalter. It also safeguards ancient hymns and venerable liturgical customs that disappeared from other periods of the ecclesiastical year. Within it, one can discern multiple historical layers of development: the ancient Jerusalem tradition, the later Constantinopolitan usage, and clear Studite contributions.
Although many church poets contributed to its formation, the hymnography of the Triodion is deeply shaped by the Gospel readings—particularly according to the early Jerusalem lectionary tradition. Its liturgical climax comes on the Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent, when the Great Penitential Canon is chanted at Matins, with one troparion for every verse of each ode, along with thirty-one stichera at Vespers. It is the longest service of the liturgical year.
The defining characteristic of the *Triodion’s* hymnographyis its profound emphasis on repentance. Hardly a single service during this multi-week period lacks the distinctive tone of compunction and contrition. From Monday to Friday during Lent, the Church guides us in fasting by directing our attention to our own shortcomings and to the work of spiritual correction. The triodes used at Matins—short poetic compositions of three odes, from which the book takes its name—form the core of this ascetical hymnography.
During the Triodion period, Saturdays are dedicated to prayer for the departed. As Lent calls us to correct our lives according to the commandments of love toward God and neighbor, the Church reminds us that prayer and almsgiving for the departed are among the essential spiritual labors entrusted to Christians. Sundays, as throughout the year, remain celebrations of Christ’s Resurrection. The hymns of the *Triodion* sung on Lenten Sundays poetically interpret the scriptural readings appointed for those days or commemorate particular events observed on them.
Thus, the liturgical rhythm of the Church during this sacred season becomes a program of theological formation and practical spiritual education, rooted in the centuries-old living experience of the Holy Fathers.
Although the hymnography of the Triodion is primarily penitential, it is suffused with Paschal joy. In one sticheron on the Monday of the First Week of Lent, the Church exhorts us:
“Let us joyfully begin the radiant fast, shining with the rays of Christ our God’s holy commandments—with the light of love, the brightness of prayer, the purity of cleansing, the courage of steadfastness—so that, illumined, we may behold the holy three-day Resurrection that grants incorruption to the world.”
The hymns of the Triodion are inseparable from the biblical readings they interpret. Inspired by Scripture, they frequently recall biblical examples. One sticheron calls us to virtuous living, echoing the Apostle Paul:
“Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation. Let us offer to God the gifts of virtue, casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light, as Paul proclaims.”
As we stand in the preparatory weeks of Great Lent, let us embrace the Triodion and its divinely inspired hymnography. This liturgical book is not merely a book of fasting—as many liturgists rightly describe it—but also a precious guide along the path through the desert of Lent that lies before us. Together with the Church’s poet, let us sing with our whole soul:
“Let us begin the season of fasting, preparing ourselves for spiritual struggles. Let us cleanse the soul; let us cleanse the body. Let us abstain not only from food but from every passion, delighting in the virtues of the Spirit, that, perfected in them through love, we may all be counted worthy to behold in spiritual joy the most precious Passion of Christ our God and His holy Resurrection.”
Reprinted with permission from:
https://kinonija.rs/
