Apolytikion

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The Apolytikion (Greek: Ἀπολυτίκιον) or Dismissal Hymn is a troparion (a short hymn of one stanza) said or sung at Orthodox Christian worship services. The apolytikion summarizes the feast being celebrated that day. It is chanted at Vespers, Matins and the Divine Liturgy; and it is read at each of the Little Hours. The name derives from the fact that it is chanted for the first time before the dismissal (Greek: apolysis) of the first service of the liturgical day, Vespers, the liturgical day beginning at sunset in the Orthodox Church.

Although the term apolytikion is used in the Greek language, there is no equivalent word in Church Slavonic where variously are used such terms as "отпустительный тропарь" (dismissal troparion), "тропарь праздника" (troparion of the feast), "тропарь святого" (troparion of the saint), and so on.[1]

  1. ^ Тѵпико́нъ сіесть уста́въ (Title here transliterated into Russian; actually in Church Slavonic) (The Typicon which is the Order), Chapter 49 (PDF), Москва (Moscow, Russian Empire): Сѵнодальная тѵпографія (The Synodal Printing House), 1907