Jesus most gentle

This article presents the French translation of a Byzantine liturgical canon composed by the monk Theoctistos the Studite, a poet of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople. The work, structured according to the classical hymnographic form of nine odes with kathisma, kontakion and stichera, is an intense poetic meditation on repentance and divine mercy. The central idea rests on a spiritual paradox: the sinner, recognizing himself as more guilty than all biblical sinners combined — the prostitute, the prodigal son, Manasseh, the thief — finds precisely in this abyss of despair the foundation of an absolute trust in the gentleness of Christ. On the theological level, the text illustrates the Studite tradition of compunction and sheds light on the Christology of divine gentleness, articulated with Marian intercession, as a path of salvation for the penitent monk.