Saint Daniel the Hesychast

After the usual beginning, the following are said:

KONTAKIA and OIKOI:

Kontakion 1

To the lover of prayer and of the hesychastic life, the wise guide on the path of salvation, who is the praise of hesychasts and the joy of the faithful, with love let us cry out to him: Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Oikos 1

The Creator of angels and of men called you to glorify with your angelic life in the flesh the name of the All-Holy Trinity, and you, casting aside worldly care, made your life like a most radiant ray of the Sun of Righteousness, and we, heeding your holy struggles with humility and joy, utter such things as these:

• Rejoice, honor of our ancestral Church;
• Rejoice, for from childhood you showed yourself a most great lover of prayer;
• Rejoice, for for the hesychastic life you left your parental home;
• Rejoice, for the hesychastic life was your delight;
• Rejoice, for you loved God more than your parents;
• Rejoice, for you always held them in your prayers;
• Rejoice, for you offered your youth as a most pure sacrifice to God;
• Rejoice, most pure image of humility;
• Rejoice, flowering of hesychastic virtues in your youthful body;
• Rejoice, example of self-control for the young;
• Rejoice, beautiful praise of the elders;
• Rejoice, for through your prayers you strengthen us in good deeds;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 2

Though young in age, through a pure life and unceasing prayer you acquired the wisdom of the elders, by the grace of God to whom you unceasingly sang: Alleluia!

Oikos 2

You increased the incorruptible treasure of your most pure faith with harsh struggles, desiring ever more to partake of the beauty of the angelic life in the flesh, for which with love we proclaim such things as these:

• Rejoice, ever-watchful turtle dove of the hesychast life;
• Rejoice, adornment of the community of the Lavra Monastery;
• Rejoice, for here you showed yourself an example of perfect obedience;
• Rejoice, you who skillfully wove prayer with bodily struggles;
• Rejoice, most luminous image of humility;
• Rejoice, for you illumined the night with your unceasing prayers;
• Rejoice, renowned praise of ascetic monks;
• Rejoice, flower of piety adorned by God;
• Rejoice, for living in a mortal body you were likened to the angels;
• Rejoice, revealer of the spiritual life;
• Rejoice, worker of the prayer of the heart;
• Rejoice, for through fasting and prayer you were likened to John the Baptist;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 3

As the deer longs for the pure waters of springs, so did you long, holy venerable Daniel, for the clear waters of hesychastic struggles, singing unceasingly to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 3

Knowing the blessing of the hermitic places, you hewed a cell in the rock at Putna with the help of God-fearing people, increasing your struggles with wisdom, for which we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, flower of good spiritual fragrance of the hesychastic life;
• Rejoice, for, strengthened on the rock of faith, you lived in great stillness;
• Rejoice, for the glorious Voivode Stephen visited you many times in your cell at Putna;
• Rejoice, spiritual father of this renowned voivode of Moldavia;
• Rejoice, for you guided him with deep wisdom;
• Rejoice, for you gave him the weapons of victory: fasting and prayer;
• Rejoice, for you strengthened him in love for God and country;
• Rejoice, for through your prayers he was spiritually strengthened;
• Rejoice, for you dispelled the mist of doubt from his soul;
• Rejoice, for you assured him of victory over the enemies of our Orthodox faith;
• Rejoice, for this renowned voivode listened to you in all things with humility and love;
• Rejoice, intercessor before God together with the renowned voivode Stephen for the glory of the Church and of our People;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 4

Knowing the love of the renowned voivode Stephen for the house of God, you guided him to build holy places, so that in them the faithful might ever glorify God, singing to Him: Alleluia!

Oikos 4

A secret thought inspired by God guided your steps towards other hesychastic places, and setting out from Putna by the will of God, you stopped at Voroneț, making for yourself a hermitic dwelling here, for which we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, great zealot for hesychastic struggles;
• Rejoice, for even here you were visited by the renowned voivode Stephen;
• Rejoice, for you lovingly received the multitudes of the faithful at your cell;
• Rejoice, healer of soul and body ailments;
• Rejoice, for through your prayers you drove away unclean spirits;
• Rejoice, you who cleanse the passions of our bodies;
• Rejoice, chosen lily of good fragrance of the wilderness;
• Rejoice, you who give great soul stillness to those who pray to you;
• Rejoice, you who strengthen the faithful in faith;
• Rejoice, fulfiller of perfect love in Christ;
• Rejoice, for leaving the world, you served it with your unceasing prayers;
• Rejoice, raising up of the faithful towards salvation;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 5

In you, father Daniel, the words of the Prophet who says: "The wilderness has blossomed like a lily" were fulfilled, for a multitude of the faithful ever surrounded you, singing together with you to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 5

As a candle is not placed under a bushel but on a lampstand to give light to those in the house, so also you, fleeing into the wilderness, did not remain hidden, but through your teachings and your life you gave light, by the grace of God, to the community of monks at Voroneț, for which we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, good father of Voroneț;
• Rejoice, most wise teacher of Gregory, Metropolitan of Moldavia;
• Rejoice, skillful guide of those enveloped by the storm of temptations;
• Rejoice, example of patience and humility;
• Rejoice, luminous torch kindled in the lampstand of your heart, purified from sins;
• Rejoice, for you showed yourself a pillar of prayer to your community;
• Rejoice, for you always taught the virtue of right discernment;
• Rejoice, most skillful physician of hidden thoughts;
• Rejoice, for your prayers with tears became a most choice spiritual sacrifice before God;
• Rejoice, for through fasting and prayer you acquired most steadfast patience;
• Rejoice, heavenly man;
• Rejoice, earthly angel;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 6

You led an angelic life on earth, becoming a pattern and example for your disciples through prayers, long fasts and vigils; you were counted worthy to dwell in the land of the meek, holy Daniel, honored by God, adornment of hesychasts and praise of monks.

Oikos 6

Through the purification of your heart you acquired great wisdom, guiding on the path of salvation all those who came to you with love for God; therefore we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, teacher enlightened by God;
• Rejoice, most beloved spiritual father of Stephen the Great and Holy;
• Rejoice, worthy disciple of the Most-Holy Leontius;
• Rejoice, for you followed this holy hierarch in hesychastic struggles;
• Rejoice, fellow intercessor with the Holy Leontius and the blessed voivode Stephen of Moldavia;
• Rejoice, fellow converser with the angels;
• Rejoice, for in your holy prayers you showed yourself a most skillful theologian;
• Rejoice, seer of God;
• Rejoice, most pure dwelling of the Holy Spirit;
• Rejoice, for being in a corruptible body, you tasted the sweetness of paradise;
• Rejoice, for your prayers became a ladder to heaven;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 7

Being enlightened by God, you hid your holy struggles with humility, unceasingly guiding those entrusted to you towards salvation, that they might sing with love to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 7

Prayer being the tillage of the soul by which we cleanse our hearts for repentance and the grace of God, you ever held this on your lips and in your heart, for which we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, tiller of pure prayer;
• Rejoice, for praying with humility, you received abundant grace from God;
• Rejoice, for through unceasing prayer you were likened to the angels;
• Rejoice, for through prayer you ascended as on a ladder to spiritual things;
• Rejoice, for your prayers worked salvation in the souls of those who visited you with love;
• Rejoice, for through your prayers you drove away the demonic hosts;
• Rejoice, for through your prayers you strengthened the faith of those who wavered;
• Rejoice, for those at enmity were reconciled through your prayers;
• Rejoice, for those who traveled returned in peace to their homes through your prayers;
• Rejoice, for you always united prayer with the deed of almsgiving;
• Rejoice, for your prayers are well received before God;
• Rejoice, for through them the faithful are strengthened in the grace received from God;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 8

Knowing that as the body cannot live without air and food, so also the soul cannot be alive and ascend to God without unceasing prayer, you united the movement of your heart with this as with breathing, singing unceasingly to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 8

Love for God never estranged you from love for the country in which the name of God is glorified in truth; therefore we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, great lover of the house of God;
• Rejoice, for the land of the country was adorned with Holy Churches;
• Rejoice, for the glorious Stephen raised these up at your urging;
• Rejoice, for through these holy churches the ancestral faith is strengthened;
• Rejoice, for their beauty shows the beauty of the faith of the people;
• Rejoice, for you always taught that the strength of the people is given by the right faith;
• Rejoice, for the enemies of the country were conquered by the power of faith;
• Rejoice, for your hesychastic cell became a voivodal palace;
• Rejoice, for in the stillness of your cell, Voivode Stephen illumined his mind and received strength for victory through your prayers;
• Rejoice, for the door of your hesychastic cell was ever open, as was that of your fatherly heart;
• Rejoice, for dwelling in the cell in the struggle of prayer, you delighted in the joys of paradise;
• Rejoice, fulfiller of the beauty of the hesychastic places of our nature; Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 9

Your hesychastic struggles amazed the angelic hosts, for with your unceasing prayers, with self-control and purity of heart, you were likened to the angels, with whom you sang unceasingly to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 9

Though you left the world to dwell far from its disturbances, the multitude of the faithful followed you for their spiritual benefit by the grace of God, for which we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, father, for you showed boundless love to those in need;
• Rejoice, helper of the poor;
• Rejoice, physician, by the grace of God, of the sick;
• Rejoice, consolation of the afflicted;
• Rejoice, most wise guide of the young;
• Rejoice, strengthener of the elders;
• Rejoice, supporter of orphans;
• Rejoice, most wise teacher of mothers;
• Rejoice, unwavering encouragement of soldiers;
• Rejoice, guide of purity;
• Rejoice, joy of those who repent;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 10

The multitudes of the faithful, being confident that God, through you, would hear their prayers, seeing the fulfillment of their godly desires, together with you sang to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 10

Blessed was your life, being a spiritual son of the holy hierarch Leontius, then spiritual father of Metropolitan Gregory Roșca, for which we bring you such things as these:

• Rejoice, good spiritual fruit of the Holy Leontius;
• Rejoice, faithful follower of his spiritual struggles;
• Rejoice, you who struggled together with him in hesychastic places;
• Rejoice, for you were one soul with him all your life;
• Rejoice, for even after his death you remained inseparable from him in prayer;
• Rejoice, for you brought forth for the Church the hierarch Gregory;
• Rejoice, for you guided him on the path of humility and wisdom according to God;
• Rejoice, you who were called to the hierarchical service;
• Rejoice, for you fled from this, considering yourself utterly unworthy;
• Rejoice, for by this you became an example of humility; Rejoice, for through your harsh struggles you wholly sacrificed yourself to God; Rejoice, for through your prayers and teachings, like a fatherly hierarch, you guided on the path of salvation all those who came to you;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 11

Your icon painted alongside that of the hierarch Gregory, your spiritual son, shows the love and honor with which the great hierarch of Moldavia surrounded you, as also you showed care for him, guiding him on the path of salvation and teaching him to sing ever to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 11

Your icon painted in the choir of saints soon after your falling asleep shows your holy life known by all the right-believing people, for which we bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, spiritual father of the faithful of Bukovina;
• Rejoice, steadfast protector of Bukovina together with the Holy Great Martyr John the New from Suceava;
• Rejoice, for from your holy icon you look upon us and bless all of us who enter the holy church;
• Rejoice, for even after your falling asleep in the Lord, the multitudes of the faithful ran to your grave;
• Rejoice, for you imparted much consolation and strengthening in the right faith, by the grace of God, from your grave;
• Rejoice, for from your grave we ever feel the warmth of your love for God;
• Rejoice, for your fatherly love is witnessed by the stone of your grave placed by your most beloved spiritual son, Stephen the Great and Holy;
• Rejoice, for the stone slab of your grave pours forth a mystical warmth;
• Rejoice, for your grave was ever guarded by the light of a lampstand;
• Rejoice, for the choir of monks whom you shepherded ever honored you as a father and saint;
• Rejoice, for even now you guide us with your humble image;
• Rejoice, honor and adornment of the faithful;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 12

Through your icon which guards above the door of the Voroneț Monastery, you bless us with fatherly love, guiding us to sing together with you to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 12

Knowing you as the everlasting protector of Bukovina, we all, from our ancestors, holy venerable father Daniel, bring you such praises as these:

• Rejoice, for your fatherly image has been painted in the souls of the faithful with the indelible colors of Christian love;
• Rejoice, for having this image in their soul, the faithful of Bukovina in times of distress were consoled and strengthened by it;
• Rejoice, for the memory of your hesychastic struggles is preserved and honored by our right-believing people;
• Rejoice, image of the true monastic life;
• Rejoice, you who united according to God love for country and the ancestral faith;
• Rejoice, for the faithful ever desired to kiss your holy relics;
• Rejoice, for these, being in the grave, showed themselves a source of many healings to those who honor you with faith;
• Rejoice, for at Putna and Voroneț the faithful ever directed themselves with faith and love, because you lived as a hesychast there;
• Rejoice, for today the whole people honors you together with the Holy Leontius and the blessed Stephen the Great and Holy;
• Rejoice, for the enshrinement of your holy relics in a reliquary we celebrate with inexpressible joy each year;
• Rejoice, for this was done by the will of God for the spiritual benefit of right-believing Christians;
• Rejoice, great praise of Bukovina;
• Rejoice, trumpet which proclaims the imperishable beauty of our ancestral faith;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

Kontakion 13

O, most venerable holy father Daniel, praise of the Church of Bukovina, our spiritual father, of all those who with right faith honor God, deliver our country from all danger, the monasteries and churches with their holy adornments, and make us worthy to sing to God, together with you: Alleluia! (this kontakion is said three times)

Then again is said the First Oikos

The Creator of angels and of men called you to glorify with your angelic life in the flesh the name of the All-Holy Trinity, and you, casting aside worldly care, made your life like a most radiant ray of the Sun of Righteousness, and we, heeding your holy struggles with humility and joy, utter such things as these:

• Rejoice, honor of our ancestral Church;
• Rejoice, for from childhood you showed yourself a most great lover of prayer;
• Rejoice, for for the hesychastic life you left your parental home;
• Rejoice, for the hesychastic life was your delight;
• Rejoice, for you loved God more than your parents;
• Rejoice, for you always held them in your prayers;
• Rejoice, for you offered your youth as a most pure sacrifice to God;
• Rejoice, most pure image of humility;
• Rejoice, flowering of hesychastic virtues in your youthful body;
• Rejoice, example of self-control for the young;
• Rejoice, beautiful praise of the elders;
• Rejoice, for through your prayers you strengthen us in good deeds;
• Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!

And the First Kontakion To the lover of prayer and of the hesychastic life, the wise guide on the path of salvation, who is the praise of hesychasts and the joy of the faithful, with love let us cry out to him: Rejoice, holy venerable father Daniel, ever a prayerful intercessor before God!