Sedalen

The sedalen (from sedeti, to sit — Slavic; Greek: kathisma) is a brief hymn sung while the congregation is seated, typically following the reading of a kathisma section of the Psalter at Orthros. The sedalen expresses the theological content of the feast or the character of the saint being commemorated in compact form. In some Slavic traditions the sedalen is sometimes called a 'sedalion' or 'sedal.' The name captures the liturgical permission to sit: unlike the exaposteilarion (sung standing), the sedalen is sung in a posture of rest.