Romanos the Melodist
Byzantine hymnographer and traditional author of the Akathist to the Theotokos.
Romanos the Melodist was a 6th-century Byzantine hymnographer of Syrian origin who served as a deacon at the Church of the Theotokos in the Kyrou district of Constantinople. He composed an estimated thousand kontakia, long poetic hymns used in the Byzantine liturgical office. About sixty of his kontakia survive in full and are still in use in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos is traditionally attributed to him, though modern scholars are uncertain; the hymn was already in widespread liturgical use by 626 AD, when it was sung in Constantinople in thanksgiving for the city's deliverance from a combined Persian and Avar siege. Romanos is honored as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions and is regarded as the foremost hymnographer of the Byzantine Church.
This is the traditional attribution; modern scholarship is divided. See the prayer page for details.