The Church Fathers · c. 535–536
Only-Begotten Son
Ho Monogenes
Attributed to Justinian I · c. 482 – 565
What it is
A short hymn, sung at every Byzantine liturgy since, compressing the whole Chalcedonian settlement into one sentence: the immortal Word became flesh of the Theotokos, was crucified, and trampled down death by death, being one of the Holy Trinity.
Why it lasted
Doctrine made unarguable by being sung. Its closing phrase is the Theopaschite formula the Scythian monks had fought for, slipped into the liturgy where no council could dislodge it.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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