Kassia | |
|---|---|
 Icon of St. Kassia | |
| Born | 810 Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) |
| Died | 865 Kasos |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church Catholic Church Anglican Communion |
| Canonized | Pre-congregation |
| Feast | 7 September |
Kassia, Cassia or Kassiani (Greek: Κασσιανή, romanized: Kassianí, pronounced [kasia'ni]; c. 810 – before 865) was a Byzantine-Greek composer, hymnographer and poet.[1] She holds a unique place in Byzantine music as the only known woman whose music appears in the Byzantine liturgy.[2] Approximately fifty of her hymns are extant, most of which are stichera, though at least 26 have uncertain attribution.[1] The authenticity issues are due to many hymns being anonymous, and others ascribed to different authors in different manuscripts. She was an abbess of a convent in the west of Constantinople.
Additionally, many epigrams and gnomic verses are attributed to her,[3] at least 261.[4] Kassia is notable as one of at least two women in the middle Byzantine period known to have written in their own names, the other being Anna Comnena.[5] Like her predecessors Romanos the Melodist and Andrew of Crete, the earliest surviving manuscripts of her works are dated centuries after her lifetime.[6]
- ^ a b Touliatos 2001.
- ^ Mellas 2020, p. 141.
- ^ Mellas 2020, p. 142.
- ^ Mellas 2020, p. 149.
- ^ Stephenson 2010, p. 66.
- ^ Mellas 2020, pp. 24–25.