Kassiane     804- 865

Lord, this woman who encountered her shadow
Perceives the numinous in You,
Leads the women who come with grief
And myrrh to Your grave. 

Alas! What a desperate night I’ve traveled through:
Extravagant the desire, dark and moonless
The needs of a passionate body.

Accept this spring of tears,
You who empty the seawater from the clouds.
Bend to the pain in my heart, You
Whose incarnation bent the sky and left it empty.

I will wash your feet with kisses,
Dry them with my hair, feet that Eve once heard
At dusk in Paradise then hid in fear. 

You who are limitless mercy- who will trace the results
Of a lifetime I’ve done wrong, evaluate
My weakness. I ask, remember me,
If nothing else, as one who lived.

Kassiane was a Byzantine abbess, poet and composer who wrote many hymns which are still used in the Byzantine liturgy to this day.