Trisagion Prayer

The Trisagion Prayers are a set of ancient prayers that begin each service of the Daily Cycle. They are
also commonly used to begin one's private prayers.

+Glory to Thee, our God, Glory to Thee.

O Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, the
Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come, and abide in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and
save our souls, O Good One.

+Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal: have mercy on us. (3 times)

+Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of
ages. Amen.

All-Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, cleanse us from our sins. Master, pardon our iniquities. Holy
God, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name's sake.

Lord, have mercy. (3 times)

+Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of
ages.

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Chapter X.—Concerning the Trisagium (“the Thrice Holy”).

This being so2040, we declare that the addition which the vain-minded Peter the Fuller made to the
Trisagium or “Thrice Holy” Hymn is blasphemous2041; for it introduces a fourth person into the Trinity,
giving a separate place to the Son of God, Who is the truly subsisting power of the Father, and a
separate place to Him Who was crucified as though He were different from the “Mighty One,” or as
though the Holy Trinity was considered passible, and the Father and the Holy Spirit suffered on the Cross
along with the Son. Have done with this blasphemous2042 and nonsensical interpolation! For we hold
the words “Holy God” to refer to the Father, without limiting the title of divinity to Him alone, but
acknowledging also as God the Son and the Holy Spirit: and the words

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“Holy and Mighty” we ascribe to the Son, without stripping the Father and the Holy Spirit of might: and
the words “Holy and Immortal” we attribute to the Holy Spirit, without depriving the Father and the Son
of immortality. For, indeed, we apply all the divine names simply and unconditionally to each of the
subsistences in imitation of the divine Apostle’s words. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of
Whom are all things, and we in Him: and one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things, and we by
Him20432044. And, nevertheless, we follow Gregory the Theologian2045 when he says, “But to us there
is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all
things, and one Holy Spirit, in Whom are all things:” for the words “of Whom” and “through Whom” and
“in Whom” do not divide the natures (for neither the prepositions nor the order of the names could ever
be changed), but they characterise the properties of one unconfused nature. And this becomes clear
from the fact that they are once more gathered into one, if only one reads with care these words of the
same Apostle, Of Him and through Him and in Him are all things: to Him be the glory for ever and ever.
Amen2046.

For that the “Trisagium” refers not to the Son alone2047, but to the Holy Trinity, the divine and saintly
Athanasius and Basil and Gregory, and all the band of the divinely-inspired Fathers bear witness:
because, as a matter of fact, by the threefold holiness the Holy Seraphim suggest to us the three
subsistences of the superessential Godhead. But by the one Lordship they denote the one essence and
dominion of the supremely-divine Trinity. Gregory the Theologian of a truth says2048, “Thus, then, the
Holy of Holies, which is completely veiled by the Seraphim, and is glorified with three consecrations,
meet together in one lordship and one divinity.” This was the most beautiful and sublime philosophy of
still another of our predecessors.

Ecclesiastical historians2049, then, say that once when the people of Constantinople were offering
prayers to God to avert a threatened calamity2050, during Proclus’ tenure of the office of Archbishop, it
happened that a boy was snatched up from among the people, and was taught by angelic teachers the
“Thrice Holy” Hymn, “Thou Holy God, Holy and Mighty One, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy upon
us:” and when once more he was restored to earth, he told what he had learned, and all the people sang
the Hymn, and so the threatened calamity was averted. And in the fourth holy and great Œcumenical
Council, I mean the one at Chalcedon, we are told that it was in this form that the Hymn was sung; for
the minutes of this holy assembly so record it2051. It is, therefore, a matter for laughter and ridicule
that this “Thrice Holy” Hymn, taught us by the angels, and confirmed by the averting of calamity2052,
ratified and established by so great an assembly of the holy Fathers, and sung first by the Seraphim as a
declaration of the three subsistences of the Godhead, should be mangled and forsooth emended to suit
the view of the stupid Fuller as though he were higher than the Seraphim. But oh! the arrogance! not to
say folly! But we say it thus, though demons should rend us in pieces, “Do Thou, Holy God, Holy and
Mighty One, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy upon us.”

A NOTE THE TRANSLATION OF THE TRISAGION

The hymn “Holy God, holy Strong, holy Immortal, have mercy on us” has
formed a regular part of the Byzantine Liturgy since the fifth century. It also
occurs, in Greek, in the Coptic eucharistic rite and in the Roman rite as part of
the Improperia for Good Friday, in both Latin and Greek. The translation
“Holy God, holy and strong, holy and immortal, have mercy on us”, is found
in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, which, however, states that “at
Jerusalem, Constantinople, and in the West. the Trisagion was taken to be addressed
to the Trinity”. In the non-Chalcedonian Churches the hymn is understood
as being addressed to Christ, with the addition of “crucified for us”
in the final phrase1. The account of the controversy this caused in Constantinople
in the early sixth century is described in one of Gibbon’s finest diatribes.2
The translation with the addition of “and” is neither Trinitarian nor
Christological, but “Patrological”, since in Christian English the word “God”,
unless qualified, normally denotes the Father. This may, of course, in the
words of Gibbon, “be justified by the rules of theology”, but is not in accordance
with tradition in either East or West for one and a half millennia. The
first English translator to add “and” seems to have been John Mason Neale in
1859 and this addition has been accepted by the Church of England and the
Russian Orthodox diocese of Sourozh.3
How should the Trisagion be translated? In the first place the Greek
nominatives are in effect vocative. This is quite standard in late Greek4, and
the Slavonic renders these correctly by vocatives. This was understood by the
earliest English translators, both Anglicans, Dr John Covel, in 1722, and Dr
John King, in 1772, whose versions are respectively, “Holy God, Holy, (Thou
that art) Strong, Holy, (Thou that art) Immortal, have mercy upon us”, and “O
Holy God, O Holy Mighty, O Holy Immortal, have mercy upon us”.
Next we should look for the possible sources of the text. John Covel
and Edward Gibbon both recount the pious legend, found in St John of Damascus,
of the boy who was snatched up into heaven and given the Trisagion
by the Angels when St Proclus was Archbishop of Constantinople. St John
tells the story twice, in the De Fide Orthodoxa and in his letter on the Trisagion
to Archimandrite Jordanes. In both texts he also gives his view on the sources
of the words of the hymn. In the De Fide Orthodoxa he naturally associates the
triple “Holy” with the vision of Isaias, following St Athanasios and St Basil
the Great; in the letter he finds the source of the epithets “Strong” and “Immortal”
in Psalm 41(42):1-3, “My soul longs for you, O God. My soul has
thirsted for God, the strong, the living”. This is not what the Hebrew has.
This reads, “My soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the
1 The present Coptic liturgy varies this addition in accordance with the season, adding at
Easter, for example, “risen from the dead”.
2 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 47.
3 It is also found in the translation of St John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa, in the Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers, first published in 1889.
4 See the discussion in Moulton’s Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. 3, page 34s.

living God”. Nor is it the reading of modern critical editions of the LXX,
which have “My soul longs for you, O God. My soul has thirsted for the living
God”. It is however the reading of Lucian’s edition and of the fifth century
codex Alexandrinus and it is the official text not only of the Eastern Orthodox
Churches but also of the Latin Church, being found in the Vulgate, and hence,
in English, in the Reims-Douai version. The critical edition of Rahlfs, somewhat
misleadingly, says that this corresponds to the Hebrew. The explanation
is that in a number of places, in particular in Job, the LXX translates the Hebrew
el, “God”, as opposed to elohim, also “God”, by “the Strong [One]”. This
is not so odd as it might seem, since etymologically the word el in Hebrew is
connected with the idea of “strength”. We find “strong” as an epithet of God
in Deut. 10:17, 2 Reigns [2 Samuel] 22:32, 22:48, Neh. 1:5, 9:31.32, 2 Macc. 1:24,
Psalm 7:12, Sir 15:18, Jer. 27:4, 39:18, Dan. 9:4. As a title of God the word is
used in 2 Reigns [2 Samuel] 22:31, 22:33, and in Job 22:13, 33:29, 34:21, 36:22,
36:26, 37:5, 37:10. In all these passages the LXX translates “God” [Hebr. “El”]
by “Strong”.
St John explains the verses of the psalm as follows, “In saying ‘My soul
longs for you, O God’ he [David] signified the one Godhead. Then by saying
‘My soul has thirsted for God, the strong, the living’ he demonstrated the triplicity
of the hypostases’”.
This explanation is taken up by St Nicholas Cabasilas in his commentary
on the divine Liturgy, who adds that it was Church which combined the
triple “Holy” of Isaias with Psalm 41 and added “have mercy on us”. St
Nicholas may allude to the legend of the boy when he writes, “this hymn was
transmitted to us from the Angels”, but he does not lay any stress on it.
In Orthodox tradition the Trisagion, then, is explicitly Trinitarian:
“God” refers to the Father, “Strong” to the Son and “Immortal” to the holy
Spirit. In his letter to Jordanes St John develops this Trinitarian understanding
of the hymn, “’Holy God’, the Father, ‘Holy Strong’, the Son, incarnate, crucified
in the flesh and risen, ‘Holy Immortal’, the holy Spirit”.
This is also made clear in a number of liturgical texts, for example the
Vespers Doxastikon for Pentecost by the Emperor Leo,
Come, you peoples, let us worship the Godhead in three persons,
the Son in the Father, with the Holy Spirit; for the Father
timelessly begot the Son, co-eternal and co-reigning, and the
Holy Spirit was in the Father, glorified with the Son; one
power, one essence, one Godhead, whom we all worship as we
say: Holy God, who created all things through the Son, with
the co-operation of the Holy Spirit. Holy Strong, through
whom we have come to know the Father, and through whom
the Holy Spirit came into the world. Holy Immortal, the Advocate
Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son.
Holy Trinity, glory to you.
Finally, “strong” conveys the force of the Greek ischyros better than
“mighty”, which is better kept for krataios, so echoing the frequent translation
“Almighty” for Pantokrator.