This second homiletic material for “the Saturday of the Akathistos” is the encomium of the Theotokos. The recording includes the entire oration. However, it is only the first section which is properly appointed for Akathist Saturday (5th Saturday of Lent). The following citation from Vlad Bedros provides additional details:
“For reasons that remain… undecided, the Slavonic version of Pseudo-Germanos’ homily of the Annunciation, titled “Encomium for the Most-Holy Theotokos, by Leontios, Presbyter of Constantinople,” contains only the prefatory section of the original Greek text, a rhetoric exhortation addressed to the audience. … This abridged text is indeed suited to be included as a lecture for the office of the Akathistos, as it constitutes a glorification of the Theotokos. The prefatory exhortation to the congregation is divided into two sections, each relying on the rhetorical device of anaphora (the rhythmic reiteration of a word). The opening gravitates around the repetition of “today” (σήμερον / днес), while the second part is constructed on the repetition of the angelic salutation “hail”, emulating therefore the poetic formula of the oikoi from the Akathistos Hymn. … This plethora of liturgical epithets of the Theotokos interprets various Old Testament passages typologically as foreshadowing the incarnation. It also encompasses the metaphor of the holy table containing celestial nourishment, showcasing the Theotokos as provider of the Eucharist.
“The second part, structured as two conversations of the Theotokos, one with the Archangel Gabriel, and one with Joseph, thus enhancing the biblical narrative of the Annunciation as thematic core for the homily.45 Dialogic homilies formed indeed a special tradition within Byzantine rhetoric production. 46 However, the Slavonic versions preserved in Moldavian and Wallachian sources, presumably depending on a Studite model, do not include this performative part. This represented, obviously, a conscient choice made by the literati responsible for the translation; however, the hypothesis that an abridged Greek version of this homily already existed, and has been translated as such in Old Church Slavonic, is likewise in need of verification. The omission of dialogues could in fact have been an outcome of the selection of this sermon as lecture for the office of the Akathistos, given that “the Saturday of the Akathistos” has been gradually shifting away from the connection with the Annunciation, celebrating instead the Theotokos as sacred warden of Constantinople. The reluctance of the monastic milieu in respect to the theatrical dimension of dialogues might also have been the reason for which the sermon was purged of its vast dialogic sections.”
Vlad Bedros, “THE SATURDAY OF THE AKATHISTOS” REFLECTED IN MOLDAVIAN ZBORNIKI AND MARIAN IMAGERY FROM THE EARLY FIFTEENTH TO MID-SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Read from Wider than Heaven: Eighth-century Homilies on the Mother of God. trans. Mary B. Cunningham. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. Crestwood, New York. 2008.