The Great Canon

The longest and most penitential kanon in the Byzantine hymnographic tradition — 250 troparia in nine odes, each ode opening with an irmos and continuing with troparia of confession and repentance addressed to the soul and to God. The text retraces the entire Scriptural narrative, holding up paradigm after paradigm of sin and repentance from Genesis to the Gospels, and laments the soul's own complicity in each. The Great Canon is read during Great Compline of the first four evenings of Great Lent (Mon-Thu of Clean Week) and chanted in full at Matins on the Thursday of the Fifth Week ('Standing of Mary').