Theoctistus of the Studium

Hymns of the Eastern Church, by J.M. Neale, [1884], at sacred-texts.com

p. 229

Theoctistus of the Studium.

+ circ. A.D. 890.

He is said to have been the friend of S. Joseph; but is only known-to us by the "Suppliant Canon to Jesus," to be found at the end of the Paracletice. The following is a Cento formed from it.

Ἰησοῦ γλυκύτατε.

Jesu, Name all names above,
  Jesu, best and dearest,
Jesu, Fount of perfect love,
  Holiest, tenderest, nearest;
Jesu, source of grace completest,
Jesu purest, Jesu sweetest,
  Jesu, Well of power Divine,
  Make me, keep me, seal me Thine!

p. 230

Jesu, open me the gate
  That of old he enter’d,
Who, in that most lost estate,
  Wholly on Thee ventur’d;
Thou, Whose Wounds are ever pleading,
And Thy Passion interceding,
  From my misery let me rise
  To a Home in Paradise!

Thou didst call the Prodigal:
  Thou didst pardon Mary:
Thou Whose words can never fall,
  Love can never vary:
Lord, to heal my lost condition,
Give—for Thou canst give—contrition;
  Thou canst pardon all mine ill
  If Thou wilt: O say, "I will!"

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Woe, that I have turned aside
  After fleshly pleasure!
Woe, that I have never tried
  For the Heavenly Treasure!
Treasure, safe in Home supernal;
Incorruptible, eternal!
  Treasure no less price hath won
  Than the Passion of The Son!

Jesu, crown’d with Thorns for me,
  Scourged for my transgression,
Witnessing, through agony,
  That Thy good confession!
Jesu, clad in purple raiment,
For my evils making payment;
  Let not all Thy woe and pain,
  Let not Calvary, be in vain!

p. 232

When I reach Death's bitter sea
  And its waves roll higher,
Help the more forsaking me
  As the storm draws nigher:
Jesu, leave me not to languish,
Helpless, hopeless, full of anguish!
  Tell me,—"Verily I say,
  Thou shalt be with Me to-day!"