The Aramaic Liturgical Singing of Fr. Seraphim Bit-Kharibi (free post)

Song in the language of Jesus

Every once in a while I come across liturgical music that is so beautiful that it gives me chills. It is like an aural icon. Such is the chant of Assyrian priest, Fr. Seraphim Bit-Kharibi. He lives in Georgia (the nation, not the US state), and he sings in Aramaic — the language which Jesus spoke. About Fr. Seraphim, Wyatt Graham has written (you can read his post by clicking here):

Father Seraphim is an Assyrian christian living in Georgia. A former martial artist and one who was part of a Ukraine security force, Father Seraphim later committed his life to Christ, taking up the robes of a monk and ministering in a small village. That village, Kenda, hosts 2,000 Assyrians who speak Aramaic, the language that many believe Jesus spoke.

What makes Father Seraphim interesting is that he chants in Aramaic.

And in so doing, he lets us hear a language that is 2500 years old. More than that, his scriptural chants allow us to hear what it might have sounded like when Jesus read and quoted the Bible.

Below is a video of Fr. Seraphim singing Psalm 51 (or Psalm 50, as it appears in the Greek and Latin Bible) in the presence of the pope.

And here you can hear Fr. Seraphim sing both Psalm 50 and three other texts, as well:

And, finally, here is a documentary about Fr. Seraphim, filmed in Hungary, but with English subtitles: