Metrophanes of Smyrna

Metrophanes of Smyrna.

+ circ. A.D. 910.

He was Bishop of that See towards the close of the ninth century, and is principally famous for his Canons in honour of the Blessed Trinity,—eight in number, one to each Tone. They are sung at Matins on Sundays: and if the writer has not always been able to fuse his learning and orthodoxy into poetry, nor yet to escape the tautology of his brother bards, these compositions are stately and striking. Metrophanes was a vigorous supporter of S. Ignatius; and the partisan of Rome in her contest with Photius.

It would be impossible, without wearying the reader, to translate the whole of one of the Triadic Canons; but a Cento from one of them may not be unacceptable.