For our final Woman of the Week before Pascha, we thought we'd delve into history and celebrate the nun Kassiani. Her name is synonymous with one of the best known hymns sung during Holy Week. She was acknowledged even in her own day as one of the great hymnographers. She was also known as an important critic of iconoclasts, and an outspoken one: "I hate silence when it is time to speak.” You can learn more about her life and works here.
Here is one translation of her deeply affecting Holy Week hymn about the woman who wiped Jesus's feet with her hair:
"O Lord God, the woman who had fallen into many sins,
Having perceived Your divinity
Received the rank of myrrh-bearer,
Offering You spices before Your burial
Wailing and crying: "Woe is me!
For the love of adultery and sin has given me a dark and lightless night;
accept the fountains of my tears,
O You Who draws the waters of the sea by the clouds.
Incline Yourself to the sigh of my heart,
O You Who did bend the heavens by Your inapprehensible condescension.
I will kiss Your pure feet and I will wipe them with my tresses.
I will kiss Your feet Whose tread, when it fell on the ears of Eve in Paradise,
dismayed her so that she did hide herself because of fear.
Who then shall examine the multitude of my sin and the depth of Your judgment?
Therefore, O my Savior and the Deliverer of my soul,
Turn not away from Your handmaiden, O You of boundless mercy."
St. Kassiani, pray to God for us!
Blessed Resurrection to you and yours!