LITVINS' TREASURES - Middle Ages

its music was written in the 13th century, the first verses - in the 12th – 14th centuries in the Old Belarusan Liturgical language. The song’s first description dates back to Gruenwald – at the beginning of the battle, the whole army of GDL and Poland started singing Holy Mother and then plunged into the battle (Chronicle of Jan Dlugosz). Since the 15th century, this song was called Homeland Song and already considered very old. Since the 16th century, Holy Mother is the GDL National Anthem, the GDL Army would sing it before every battle, it was played during all state and martial celebrations, in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and honouring the Belarusan Saints. On the CD, there is a reconstruction of the oldest variant of Holy Mother (the last verses and their melody were written in Poland much later). The fact that the song’s text is in the form of a verse proves that Holy Mother is a hymn, not a prayer. The song is based on the melody of a song composition that is close to folklore. The fullest text and melody were written in 1407.