Kassia
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Kassia (also Kassiane, Kassiani, Casia; 810 - bef.867) was a Greek-Byzantine poet, composer, and hymnographer. She is one of the first ancient composers whose scores are both extant and able to be interpreted by modern scholars and musicians. Approximately fifty of her hymns are extant and 23 are included in Orthodox Church liturgical books.
In addition, some 261 of her non-liturgical verses survive. Many are epigrams or aphorisms called "gnomic verse". An example:
I hate the rich man moaning as if he were poor.
She was born in 810 in Constantinople into an aristocratic family. Tradition suggests that she was a participant in the "bride show" (the means by which Byzantine princes/emperors sometimes chose a bride, by giving a golden apple to his choice). But seems she was not thrilled, and responded to Theophilos' suggestion that "a flood of terrible things came through women" by saying that they were also the source of better things. He chose another bride, Theodora.
About 843 she founded a convent in the west of Constantinople near the walls of Constantine and became its first abbess. It had a close relationship with the nearby monastery of Stoudios, which was to play a central role in re-editing the Byzantine liturgical books in the 9th century and the 10th century, so were important in ensuring the survival of her work.
Kassia is also the Polish form of the name Katherine. It means "pure".
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Diane Touliatos. "Kassia", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed February 12, 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access). Anna M. Silvas, "Kassia the Nun," in Lynda Garland (ed) Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience 800-1200, Ashgate, 2006.
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