Saint Andrew of Crete, Two Canons Dedicated to Saint Maximus the Confessor

The present article publishes the Greek text and a Romanian translation of two canons dedicated to Saint Maximus the Confessor (580-662), composed by Saint Andrew of Crete (660-740), most likely in 715, at the beginning of the patriarchate of St. Germanus of Constantinople, in the context of the synodal restoration of the dyothelite Christology sanctioned by the Sixth Ecumenical Council. They represent the oldest hymnographic testimony concerning St. Maximus, and appear to be part of the official „canonization" of the Confessor by the Great Church and of the recognition of his key role as defender of orthodoxy. Although they are not included in the Menaion in use today, the canons were immediately employed in the Constantinopolitan services, as evidenced by their explicit mention in the eleventh-century Synaxarion of the Evergetis Monastery. In addition, they offer the earliest evidence for the use of apechemata in the Byzantine office, of breakthrough value in the research of musical and liturgical practice of the Church.