(Gk.: ‘thrice holy’).
An Ordinary chant of the Eastern Christian liturgies. It is found prominently at Lauds (with the Gloria in excelsis), and at Mass (see Divine liturgy (byzantine)) before the readings, where it performs a function roughly similar to the Roman introit. The text reads: Hagios ho Theos, hagios ischyros, hagios athanatos, eleēson hēmas (‘Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us’). The three invocations of God as ‘holy’ of the Trisagion should not be confused with those of the ordinary triple Sanctus used in the Canon of the Eucharist in both East and West.
The Trisagion was first mentioned at the time of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and appears to have been introduced into the liturgy not much later. According to legend, it was originally revealed by angelic voices at 5th-century Constantinople: an earthquake threatening the city subsided as the populace took up the new chant. Greek and Slavic melodies of the Trisagion (though very few) survive from the 12th century and later; they all seem to be amplifications of modal recitatives in the plagal G mode or in the E mode.
In high Byzantine usage, two further texts appeared as substitutes for the Trisagion on special occasions: Hosoi eis Christon ebaptisthēte (‘Ye who are baptized in Christ’; after Galatians iii.27) – the Trisagion for feasts of the Saviour; and Ton stauron sou proskynoumen (‘Thy cross do we adore’). The Slavic tradition of the asmatikon (see Liturgy and liturgical books, §IV) transmits an ancient melody for each of these, that for Hosoi eis Christon being in the plagal D mode, and that for Ton stauron sou in the plagal E mode. The common function of all three is reflected in the fact that the doxologies accompanying them in the asmatikon tradition have essentially the same music, though in different transpositions.
Each of the three eastern chants found its way into various western liturgies. The usual Hagios ho Theos was an Ordinary chant in the Gallican liturgy described by Pseudo-Germanus of Paris; various settings of it were prescribed for major feasts in the Mozarabic liturgy; and probably as a result of Gallican influence, a chant for the Trisagion survives in the Gregorian Veneration of the Cross in the Good Friday liturgy, where it is sung alternately in Greek and Latin with the Improperia, or Reproaches of the Saviour. Hosoi eis Christon has a musical as well as textual translation in the chant Omnes qui in Christo found as an offertory or communion for the Easter Vigil and its octave at Ravenna, Benevento and Rome. Ton stauron sou, translated as Crucem tuam adoramus, appears as an antiphon for feasts of the cross, particularly the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday, in the repertories of Benevento, Rome and Milan.
J.M. Hanssens: Institutiones liturgicae de ritibus orientalibus, iii (Rome, 1932), 95–156
J. Quasten: ‘Oriental Influence in the Gallican Liturgy’, Traditio, i (1943), 55–78
L. Brou: ‘Etudes sur la liturgie mozarabe: le Trisagion de la messe d’après les sources manuscrites’, Ephemerides liturgicae, lxi (1947), 309–84
E. Wellesz: Eastern Elements in Western Chant, MMB, Subsidia, ii (1947)
J. Raasted: Intonation Formulas and Modal Signatures in Byzantine Musical Manuscripts, MMB, Subsidia, vii (1966), 66ff
J. Mateos: ‘Evolution historique de la liturgie de Saint Jean Chrysostome, II: Le chant du trisagion et la session à l’abside’, Proche-Orient chrétien, xvii (1967), 141–76
C.S. Tzogas: ‘O Trisagios hymnos’, Charistērion eis ton kath. Panag. K. Chrēstou (Thessaloniki, 1967), 275–88
K. Levy: ‘The Italian Neophytes’ Chants’, JAMS, xxiii (1970), 181–227
I. Borsai: ‘Le tropaire byzantin “O Monogenés” dans la pratique du chant copte’, SM, xiv (1972), 329–54
K. Levy: ‘The Trisagion in Byzantium and the West’, IMSCR XI: Copenhagen 1972, 761–5
O. Strunk: ‘Die Gesänge der byzantinisch-griechischen Liturgie’, Geschichte der katholischen Kirchenmusik, i, ed. K.G. Fellerer (Kassel, 1972), 128–47
D. Conomos: Byzantine Trisagia and Cheroubika in the 14th and 15th Centuries (Thessaloniki, 1974)
KENNETH LEVY/JAMES W. McKINNON