Anatolius

Anatolius was a Greek hymn writer whose precise biographical details remain unrecorded. Early hymnologists, including John Mason Neale, identified him with the fifth-century Patriarch of Constantinople who succeeded Flavian in 449 and assisted at the Council of Chalcedon. However, because his verses commemorate martyrs who died in the sixth and early seventh centuries, this identification is chronologically impossible. Historical evidence, including a preserved letter, indicates he was likely a pupil of Theodore of the Studium (759–826). More than a hundred short hymns attributed to him are preserved in the Menaea and Octoechus, where they are sometimes designated as anatolika stichera. His compositions represent a distinct period prior to the fully developed age of the Canons. Notable English translations of his work by John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale include "Fierce was the wild billow" (Zopheras trikymias) and "The day is past and over" (Tenhemeran dielthon).