The Hymn of Kassiani

Frank Turner's Tales From No Man's Land

Somethin' Else

History

4.8 • 674 Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2019

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

Kassiani is one of only two women to have been written about from the Byzantine era, which is a somewhat forgotten about period in history. She is most famously known for quipping at the Emperor Theophilos at a bridal show before going on to become an abbess, poet and hymnographer, whose songs are still sung in Greek Orthodox Churches today. Despite being from a distant time, her character shines through in her work. Her quick-witted humour and somewhat rebellious one liners are what brought her to Frank's attention including the phrase "I hate silence, when it is time to speak". Frank recruits the help of self-professed ‘Byzantinist’ and Professor Liz James from the University of Sussex to tell the story behind the song The Hymn of Kassiani.

You can pre-order Frank's album No Man's Land here

This episode was produced by Hayley Clarke and the executive producer was Peggy Sutton. There was additional production from Paul Smith, Steve Ackerman, Josh Gibbs and Charlie Caplowe. Tales from No Man’s Land is produced by Frank Turner, Xtra Mile Recordings and Somethin’ Else.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Frank Turner. Welcome to Tales from No Man's Land, a podcast that accompanies my album, No Man's Land. It's about 13 women from history who you probably haven't heard of, but definitely should have. Their stories are fascinating, moving, funny,
0:22.7	and most importantly, worth celebrating and sharing.
0:26.0	I've heard that they call me the woman
0:29.4	who's fallen into many sins.
0:34.2	They made me badimmer to the burial
0:37.8	And at the graveside I began to sing
0:42.0	Welcome back to Tales from No Man's Land with me, Frank Turner
0:46.4	If this is your first time listening to this podcast
0:48.8	I would encourage you to head back to the beginning
0:50.7	And check out the other episodes we've put out
0:52.6	We've had stories about Sister Rosetta Tharp, Dora Hand, Matahari and others, and they're all worth
0:57.5	a listen.
0:58.7	Today's episode is about a woman behind the song that I wrote called The Hymn of Cassiani.
1:04.3	Cassiani was a nun for the Byzantine era, which is a somewhat overlooked period in European
1:08.8	history. Byzantium was a continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire after the fall of Rome,
1:13.8	and the capital city was Constantinople, which these days is known as Istanbul.
1:20.4	The remarkable thing about Cassiani is that she is actually one of the very few women from that era to be written about or remembered at all.
1:27.4	She's mainly
1:27.8	known as a holy woman, but she was also a poet, a composer and a hymographer, whose work is
1:32.6	still used in the Greek Orthodox Church today. She's often described as a very early
1:37.3	feminist icon, and she was also very quick-witted, which is what drew me to her story initially.
1:42.0	She wrote a lot of nomic verses, which we still have,
	...

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