Catholic Prayers | Legion of Mary | Catholic Profession of Faith
Trisagion
Holy God, Holy Strong One, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us
The trisagion is a pious and oft-repeated prayer in the Greek
liturgy; Goarius correctly observes this in his in notis ad
Euchologium, p. 109, in reference to the Mass of St. John Chrysostom.
This prayer originated in a miracle which occurred in Constantinople in
the middle of the fifth century. Emperor Theodosius, Patriarch Proclus,
and all the people were beseeching God on open ground for deliverance
from the destruction which threatened them from violent earthquakes.
They suddenly saw a boy snatched up to heaven; when he was returned to
earth, he reported that he had heard the angels singing the trisagion.
At the bidding of the Patriarch Proclus, the whole people sang it with
devotion and the terrifying earthquakes ceased, as is related by
Nicephorus, bk. 14, chap. 46, and mentioned by Pope Felix III in his
third letter to Peter the Fuller (Labbe, Collectionis, vol. 4). This
same trisagion is sung in the western church in Greek and Latin on
Friday of Holy Week, as Cardinal Bona remarks (Rerum Lyturgicar., bk.
2, chap. 10, no. 5).