Voices Found

 February 22, 2023 Kassia, Abbess, 810-865, first female composer of  liturgical song Her story: Emperor: From woman come evils Kassia: But from woman spring many blessings According to tradition, Kassia, a beautiful, intelligent young woman participated in a “brideshow” for the Byzantine Emperor Theopholis in the 9th century. It was the custom for him to give a golden apple to the maiden who pleased him most. He was entranced by Kassis’s beauty and said “”From woman come evils.” To which she replied “But from woman come many blessings.” Unable to cope with such a brilliant woman, Theopholis passed by Kassia and gave the apple to Icasia, although some historians think that Kassia may have rejected the emperor first.  However, we do know that Kassia founded a monastery in Constantinople in 843 where she ruled as Abbess. At her Abbey, she wrote poetry and hymns for the Church. Best known is “The hymn of the Repentant Woman.”  Some scholars think that the Emperor wrote ...

Photo: The Lady Chapel Singers at the Royal Foundation of St. Katharine in London  Feathers on the breath of God Just as  St. Hildegard burst  out of the  Bingen cloister, singing and  preaching along the Rhine, we,  the seekers,  burst forth from the chapel, chanting aloud.  Our voices resounded.    Honoring our St. Mark's birthplace, we became the "Lady Chapel Singers," but  soon we chanted far beyond Locust Street.  Thanks to a generous grant from the Bishop, we sang for the Episcopal Church General Convention 1997 and then throughout the Diocese of Pennsylvania.  That Philadelphia Convention directed the Standing Commission  on Liturgy and Music to prepare a  new hymnal  supplement,  Voices Found.     Soon we  sang abroad. In London we offered  Evensong for the 1998 Congress of the International Alliance of Women in Music.  We also sang for  services  at the R...