Early Life and the Bride-Show
Kassiani was born in Constantinople, between about 805 and 810, into a wealthy and noble family. The most famous episode of her early life is her part in a bride-show arranged for the emperor Theophilos by the Empress-Dowager Euphrosyne. By the account, Theophilos, struck by her beauty, remarked that through a woman came forth the baser things, alluding to Eve; Kassiani answered that through a woman also came forth the better things, alluding to the birth of Christ through the Virgin Mary. Disconcerted by her boldness, the emperor passed her over and chose Theodora as his bride.
Whatever the historical kernel of the story, Kassiani turned from the court to the monastic life. By the year 843 she had founded a convent in the western part of Constantinople, near the Constantinian walls, and served as its first abbess.
Confessor and Hymnographer
Kassiani lived through the final phase of the iconoclast controversy, and she stood firmly with the defenders of the holy icons during the reign of the iconoclast emperor Theophilos. For her stand she suffered persecution, including scourging, and is honored as a confessor.
She holds a unique place in the Church's worship as the only woman whose music is known to appear in the Byzantine liturgy. About fifty of her hymns survive, though the attribution of some remains uncertain. Her most celebrated work is the Hymn of Kassiani, sung on Great and Holy Wednesday, which expresses the repentance of the sinful woman who anointed the feet of Christ; the chant is demanding, requiring a wide vocal range, and in performance can last between ten and twenty minutes. A well-known legend relates that Theophilos visited her monastery in his last years and added one line to her still-unfinished hymn.
Writings and Legacy
Beyond the Holy Wednesday hymn, Kassiani composed many other liturgical pieces for the feasts of saints and for Holy Week, among them a long Canon for the Departed running to thirty-two strophes. Her surviving output makes her the earliest woman whose hymns were taken into the regular services of the Orthodox Church.
She was also a writer of secular verse: at least two hundred and sixty-one epigrams and gnomic sayings are attributed to her, marked by the influence of classical Greek and addressing ethical and social themes. She is commemorated on September 7 in the Orthodox Church and is also honored in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions.
