By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Eugenia was noble not only by birth, but noble in character as well. This innate nobility of hers is emphasized first of all, among other things, by her Hymnographer, Saint Theophanes, who, however, connects it with her longing and love for Christ, so that her nobility might remain firm and whole. “Having fled the transient glory of the world, you longed for Christ, preserving the nobility of your soul unblemished, O divinely-minded martyr, all-praised Eugenia.” And again: not only did this nobility remain firm, but it advanced to its exalted state: “Having heard the divine hymnody, O Bride of Christ, you were given wings toward lofty nobility.”
With simple and clear words, the Hymnographer expresses in these troparia one of the greatest truths: faith in and love for Christ, turning toward Him, leads a person to true nobility — that is, to live with spiritual health. Conversely, when a person turns passionately toward the world, seeking worldly glory, the soul is wounded, its beauty is lost, and the person becomes distorted. The reason for this, of course, is that relationship with God — the true God in Christ — constitutes the proper, natural state of the human being. Man was created by God to live with God and to be directed toward Him. “For from him and through him and for him are all things,” as the Apostle Paul also notes. Thus the noble Saint Eugenia is presented first of all as a type of the true and natural human person.
The preservation of her nobility through her fervent longing for Christ naturally passed through trials. It is not possible for a person of God to walk according to God’s will without undergoing demonic assaults. If the Lord Himself accepted the impact of temptations, how much more so every human being, especially the believer. One of the Saint’s temptations, of course, is that mentioned in the Synaxarion involving the unfortunate Melanthia. The Holy Hymnographer indeed regards Melanthia as an instrument of the devil; he, as the ancient serpent, was hiding behind her evil actions. “Seeing your path set straight toward salvation, O victorious athlete, the soul-destroying serpent stirs up manifold temptations against you, seeking to weaken your resolve; but you, O pure and divinely-minded one, trampled him underfoot.” The devil, then, does his “work”: to become an obstacle in our journey toward God. Yet we too can trample him underfoot, like the Saint, if we remain steadfast in God’s will. In this steadfastness we ultimately see the devil’s weakness.
Saint Theophanes naturally insists greatly on the beauty and loveliness of the Saint’s life, as he notes her strict spiritual asceticism, which was crowned by her glorious martyrdom: “With seemly and beautiful ways you adorned your life, first with ascetic struggle withering the passions of the flesh, and afterward shining forth gloriously, O Eugenia, in your contest.” He also refers to the beginning of her conversion to God, when, moved by the grace of God, she abandoned worldly things in order to devote herself entirely to Him. It is striking that he notes this conversion — beyond her study of the God-inspired Epistles of the Apostle Paul, which captivated her — was connected with the hymnody of our Church and its theological content. “Having heard the divine hymnody, O Bride of Christ, you were given wings toward lofty nobility; for the theology of the songs of the Spirit shone like light in your heart, driving away all godlessness.”
This troparion of Saint Theophanes is truly a hymn in praise of hymnody itself. On the one hand, it emphasizes that the hymns of the Church contain Her entire theology, inspired by the Holy Spirit; on the other hand, hymnody itself, as a musical mode of expression, becomes an instrument of ascent toward God and of compunction of heart. How great, then, is the responsibility of the chanters of our Church, who have the calling and the gift to convey the faith of the Church in a sung manner. They truly become instruments of God to lift up human souls, to create compunction through the proper rendering of the hymns and through their prayerful disposition. May all our chanters have this awareness and understanding.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.