or beast, or thousands of traps; for as long as anyone walks in the light, he overcomes all things, he exceeds all things, he scorns all things. For flame is an insuperable thing, and a conflagration is unbearable to all things: for fire consumes everything. Let us therefore be hedged about by this fire, I exhort, offering glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.
MONITUM ON THE ELEVEN HOMILIES OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME BROUGHT FORTH FROM DARKNESS
A Behold for you, learned Reader, a new, ample, and altogether singular addition of Chrysostom’s homilies, which were brought not long ago from Mount Athos, as some say, or from the island of Patmos, as others say, into the Vatican Library. They were transcribed from the Greek by an amanuensis, and transmitted to me by our brethren who were then attending to the affairs of the Congregation of St. Maur in Rome, namely, by Dom Pierre Mahuet, who was then discharging the office of procurator general and is now Prior at the monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and by Dom Joseph Avril, his associate, now Prior at the monastery of Corbie—both of whom, while they were in Rome, afforded me assiduous help.
Moreover, what is altogether new and unusual, and brings much utility, is that these homilies were described by someone who seems to have stuck to the side of the holy Doctor, and who in the titles of the homilies records the places where the homilies were delivered, and often indicates the reason why he preached, and includes not a few things pertinent to history. It is most certain that they were delivered in Constantinople, and all in the years 398 and 399. Whether they are recorded here continuously and in the order in which they were delivered, is clear from many, but I would not dare to affirm for all; nevertheless, it is likely that they were all spoken in the order in which they are placed here.
I. The first was delivered in the martyry, or in the church of the Martyrs, which was situated in Ancient Petra. What place this might be, I have not yet found among writers on Constantinopolitan affairs. Chrysostom assigns it a time when, shortly after the beginning, he says the homily was delivered before thirty days had elapsed since that great earthquake which had shaken the whole city; insomuch that many of the wealthier sort, having abandoned all their goods, possessions, and homeland, had fled out of the country and beyond its borders out of fear, and others had seized their goods. It seems certain that that earthquake was one of the number of those which Claudian records as having happened at Constantinople (Claudian, lib. 2 in Eutropium, v. 24 sqq.) before the consulship of Eutropius, in the year 598. Indeed, it is certain that all these homilies were delivered either before the consulship of Eutropius, or while he was consul, but before his flight and murder, which occurred in about the month of August of the year 399.
Tillemont, who had not seen these homilies, thinks that that homily on the earthquake which Combefis had published, and which we have given, emended from the Vatican codex, in volume 2, p. 717—that homily, I say—was delivered after the earthquake which occurred in the year 398, after Chrysostom had been ordained bishop. But when that earthquake occurred, Chrysostom was detained by illness, as he himself says at the beginning of the homily; nor do we read anywhere that in the first or second year of his episcopate Chrysostom was seized by any illness or infirmity; nor does he say anything about his infirmity in this first homily which was delivered after that earthquake of the year 398. Furthermore, the people who were present or should have been present at this first sermon are most sharply rebuked for their negligence and sloth; on the contrary, in that other homily on the earthquake, the people are celebrated with the highest praises for their zeal and fervor; this people I think to be the Antiochene. For Antioch, as we have said and proved in the *Monitum* to the Homily on Lazarus and on the Earthquake (vol. 1, p. 772), was agitated by very frequent earthquakes. But Tillemont adds that in that homily there is very frequent mention of litanies, which litanies were first instituted by Chrysostom himself shortly after he was ordained bishop. But there is no mention of litanies there, but of the chanting of psalms and hymns, which Christians used to sing in times of calamity while coming to the church, long before Chrysostom was ordained bishop. This matter has already been treated in the *Life of Chrysostom*.
II. The second homily shows us a singular celebration. When the relics of the martyrs were being transferred with solemn rite from the Great Church to the martyry or church of the Apostle and Martyr Thomas, situated in Drypia and nine miles distant from the Great Church, there was a huge crowd of people; indeed the Empress Eudoxia herself, wife of Arcadius, walked on foot by night and day for such a stretch of the journey near the casket of the holy martyrs. Wherefore, when the martyry was reached, Chrysostom gave a sermon, where he described that celebration and extolled the Empress with the highest praises.
A III. The following day, the Emperor came to the same martyry or church with his bodyguard and a company of armed men, and having set aside his diadem, he followed the relics with due reverence: his men also, having laid down their arms, performed the same rites; and without waiting for a sermon, the Emperor withdrew with his party. Then Chrysostom preached and proved in many ways that after the sin of Adam, men were to come to a more excellent state if they ordered their life rightly; he says, however, that the future resurrection was obscurely foretold in those ancient times.
IV. The fourth homily was held in the temple of St. Anastasia: the auditors were few; nevertheless, Chrysostom delivered a long and elegant oration on the patience and virtue of Job (a).
V. The fifth homily was held in the temple of St. Irene. In it, Chrysostom complains of those who were absent and offers gratitude to those present; he discusses the singing of the psalms and proves that the female sex is not an impediment to the exercise of virtue.
VI. The sixth homily was held in the church of the Holy Apostles on the day of the Emperor Theodosius, against those who called themselves Cathari or "Pure." Chrysostom delivered this homily after two other bishops had preached. First, he praises both bishops, of whom one, he says, was younger but displayed the gravity of an old man, while the other, an old man, displayed the vigor of the younger. Then, he extols Theodosius the Great with praises, whose day was then being celebrated; that is, the day of his death, as is probable, which occurred on the seventeenth day of January. Hence, it is argued that this homily was spoken in the month of January of the year 399. Theodosius, however, had died in the year 395. He celebrates this emperor for his piety and for the victories which, with God’s help, he B gained over the tyrants Maximus and Eugenius. He recounts those victories without mentioning the names of the tyrants, just as they are narrated by other historians of the era.
But this homily is mutilated in its middle for the most part, so that very many things which were said against the Cathari or Novatians have fallen out and perished. The Novatians at that time were in great number at Constantinople; they had a bishop peculiar to their own sect and called themselves *katharous*, or "pure," for which cause Chrysostom lashes out at them most fiercely, as you may see at the end of the homily.
After that homily against the Cathari, there follows in the Vatican Codex a homily whose title is: *Against those who betake themselves to the spectacles of the hippodrome and the theaters*. Its beginning is: *Is this to be borne? Is this to be tolerated? For I wish you yourselves to be judges against yourselves.* Which we published in volume VI, p. 272, taken from the Coislinian Codex: and therefore we omit it here.
But because many things are contained in the title of the following ninth homily, and in that ninth homily itself, which refer to that homily, certain things concerning the occasion of this homily and certain other matters must necessarily be related here. In the year 399, after Chrysostom had already completed one year in the episcopate, having been ordained on the 26th of February in the year 398; on a Wednesday of Holy Week, which in the year 399 fell on the sixth of April, such a great rain fell that there was fear that the fields would be devastated and all the harvests would perish. Hence, prayers, supplications, and litanies, or processions, were led by the bishop, with the whole people flocking to the church of the Apostles. After these things, when the rain ceased, though the fear had not yet been removed, the whole C company crossed the Bosphorus by ship to the church of Sts. Peter and Paul, situated on the opposite shore of the sea, with the bishop. Having escaped this danger, most of the Constantinopolitans, only one day having intervened, namely, Maundy Thursday, when horseback games were being conducted on Good Friday, went to this spectacle, paying no mind to that holy day, while Chrysostom was groaning and remaining at home; nay, on the following day, namely Holy Saturday, they betook themselves to theatrical games, where there were lascivious spectacles, which Chrysostom depicts one by one and strikingly in that sermon, where he inveighs most gravely against such transgressors, and eventually pronounces upon them the sentence of excommunication, but only by way of threat, as I think, and as I have said at greater length in that place.
Regarding the day on which this sermon was spoken, some difficulty seemed to present itself to me. He says in the sermon: *Three days ago, a great rain.* Now that rain fell on Wednesday of the great week; on Thursday nothing is recorded to have happened; on Friday, in the Passion week, they went to the circus games; on Saturday to the theatrical spectacles; so that it seems this homily was spoken entirely on the Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection. But something of doubt then began to trouble me: why, if it were the day of Pascha, does he not make a word of mention of Pascha? But now no difficulty remains, since in the title of the following ninth homily, and in the homily itself, it is said that that day on which he so gravely attacked those spectators of the circus and theatrical games was a Sunday, and therefore the day of the Lord's Resurrection: which Chrysostom did not commemorate for that reason, because he was gravely incensed against those spectators and was thinking of nothing else (b).
(a) Montfaucon, led by I know not what reasons, suspects this homily was held after the month of September of the year 398. (b) Matthew, who understands the place of the homily otherwise, contends that the homily against the theaters was held on the Saturday before Easter.
A VII. The seventh homily was delivered in the church of Saint Anastasia, where, as he says, the number of the audience was small; yet he does not complain about this, but brings forward the example of the Samaritan woman: whom Christ addressed for a long time, though she was but one, because she was on fire with a desire to hear. Afterwards, he explains more fully what Paul means when he says, "Of the confirmation of the Gospel," and with these words he concludes his discourse. This homily seems to have been spoken in the week of Easter: for he who collected these homilies at the time, as is gathered from the titles of the addresses, recorded them in the order in which they were spoken.
VIII. The eighth homily exhibits a matter entirely unusual and unheard of to us. At that time the greater part of the Goths, who were either in Constantinople or in the surrounding areas, followed Arianism. Yet there were not a few Catholics of the same nation. But when they had gathered in the church of Saint Paul, Chrysostom ordered some Goths to read certain passages of the Scriptures, which had been translated into the Gothic language, in Gothic, and B afterwards for a Gothic presbyter to preach in Gothic. Why he ordered it so, he explains sufficiently in the sermon which he himself delivered immediately after the Gothic presbyter in the same church; namely, to put to shame the Greek philosophers and those who followed their religion, and the Jews as well: because while they rejected the light of truth, barbarian nations throughout the whole world were embracing the light of the Gospel, which is brighter than the sun. He also adds that he who was the first to be called in the Old Testament, namely Abraham, was a barbarian living in the midst of barbarians; and that those who first announced the birth of Christ were also barbarians, namely the Magi, who came from the East.
This discourse was delivered in the church of St. Paul within the week following the feast of Easter and through the octave, as is clear from the title of the following homily, prefixed by him who was present at these addresses; and it is also confirmed from those things which are said at the beginning of the following homily. For when he had most severely stung them and caused them distress in that homily which he had delivered on the Sunday of the Resurrection of Christ, because on the day of Holy Friday and on Holy Saturday they had betaken themselves to the circus and theatrical games, and indeed had brought against them a sentence of excommunication, at least a threatening one: they nevertheless afterwards, having seriously pondered the matter with themselves, seeing not without cause that they had been sharply attacked, and desiring to hear more about these things, betook themselves in great numbers to the Great Church, so that they might attend the sermon. But it happened that on that day, namely the Sunday after Easter, a certain bishop from Galatia was present, a man venerable both for his old age and for other gifts of his mind, to whom Chrysostom yielded his turn to preach: which the hearers took very ill; for they were held by the greatest desire to hear Chrysostom again, even, as he himself says, by one who was cutting them with his words.
C IX. Wherefore, on the following Sunday, as is to be believed, namely the second after Easter, he held this sermon in the Great Church, where he immediately congratulates the audience because, although they had been so severely received in that sermon on the Sunday of the Resurrection, they appear again so fervently and in such great numbers. Then he excuses himself that on the previous Sunday he had yielded the place of preaching to the senior bishop of Galatia; and again he speaks against the circus games, even if he speaks more mildly and moderately, for he touches upon a matter which is altogether lamentable, which had happened the day before in the hippodrome, and which ought to have turned others away from such games. For a certain man, who was to be married the next day, while he was competing with other charioteers, was intercepted, and by a miserable accident had his head severed, and remained there with his limbs hacked off. Then he explains that saying of the Gospel, "My Father works until now, and I work," and proves that the Son is equal to the Father.
X. The tenth homily was delivered in the church of the Apostle D(a), after a certain old bishop had preached before Chrysostom: and what is to be observed, he calls that old man a youth, even though according to common opinion he had already passed his 52nd year (b).
XI. The eleventh and last homily also was spoken by Chrysostom (on the day of the feast of the Maccabees), after a certain old man had preached. We often see this same thing, namely that two and sometimes three homilies are delivered continuously in the same church and to the same listening people. In this one, however, Chrysostom treats of Eleazar and the Maccabees, whom he proves to have suffered for Christ.