Homily Delivered at the Martyrion or in the Church

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.

HOMILY DELIVERED IN THE MARTYRION, OR CHURCH, LOCATED AT THE OLD STONE, WHERE FEW HAD GATHERED DUE TO THE STORM: THAT ONE OUGHT TO GATHER TOGETHER FREQUENTLY, AND THAT THOSE WHO ARE IN SINS SHOULD NOT DESPAIR OF SALVATION, BUT SHOULD SHOW REPENTANCE.

^A What is this? When the whole city ought to be present today, has not even a fraction of the gathering come to meet us? Is it perhaps the mud and the rain that are to blame? Far from it! It is not the mud, but rather a slothful and despondent mind. For what excuse could those who stayed away have, when the martyrs despised even life itself, yet these men have not dared to face even the mud in order to be present? How shall I call you blessed, you who have come? How shall I lament those who stayed away—both for their absence and for the cause of their absence? For it is clear that they, being bound to worldly cares, and kindling within themselves a passion for money—which ravages everything—more fiercely, have absented themselves from this beautiful festival.

But even if they are not present, it is necessary to speak to the absent; for it is clear that they will hear these things through you who are present. How long will this frenzy for money last? How long will this furnace that is never extinguished go on and consume and inflame everything? Do you not know that this flame engenders that unquenchable fire? That this consumption breeds that venomous worm? ^B But if you look upon hell with contempt, and these words do not disturb your conscience because you consider the punishment to be in the future, let the present things persuade you. Have you not known what kind of fruit greed displayed a short while ago? Is not the evidence of such great destruction before your eyes? Is not the demonstration of it still ringing in your ears? The whole city has been filled with the remnants of that shipwreck; and wherever you go, just as when a great ship has been sunk, one man carries off a plank, another an oar, another a sail, and another having saved some part of the cargo, they carry them about; so also with the earthquake that recently occurred here, some having distributed the houses, others the fields, others the slaves, others the silver, others the gold, have created a broad spectacle of calamity, and have caused the monuments of the shaking to be scattered everywhere. And one man, having spent sleepless nights, and having endured countless labors and dangers, and having gathered so many sins from such greed, has become homeless, cityless, an exile in a foreign land, and is in want of the necessities of life; and every day he beholds the danger of death hanging over him, imagining swords and executioners and pits, living a life more grievous than ten thousand deaths; while others enjoy his possessions, and those who used to fawn upon him beforehand are now plotting against him.

Are these things, then, not sufficient to bring even the most insensitive to their senses? But after such a blow, after such a storm, after such a destruction, after such a change, and such a great one as the one that appeared before your eyes—which had not even occurred as much as thirty days ago—do you again exhibit this madness? And what excuse or apology could you have? ^C And you are not only mad, but you do not even show up to learn this very thing. For just as I am speaking to the absent as if they were present, I am overcome with much despondency, because they do not become better through fear of things to come, nor through the experience of things present; but snatching and acting greedily, like worms in some dung heap, caught and buried in the filth of these cares, they do not strive to appear even once a week, so that they might learn just this very thing—where they are. For just as those who are possessed by phrenitis cannot perceive the state they are in, and are in need of physicians to deliver them from their madness, so too those who are possessed by the grievous frenzy of money are in need of other teachers, so that they might at least learn that they are mad. For this reason, I especially ask and exhort and beseech them to come to us and to receive the medicines that come from the Word. I do not have a sharpened blade, but I have a word that is sharper than a blade; I do not have fire, nor a biting medicine, but I have words that are warmer than fire and that bring a painless healing.

2. Why then, tell me, do you shrink away, and why do you not show the same care for your soul as you show for your flesh? For when the latter is ailing, you spend money, and even if it is necessary to borrow, you pledge everything and spend it; and if doctors wish to cut or cauterize, you offer your body with great eagerness to suffer whatever they wish. ^D But when your soul is full of the springs of worms, why do you not come to hear the word that purifies its putrefaction, and this even though you have no money to pay out, nor such pain to endure? Instead, have you abandoned yourself to total ruin? And are these things worthy of an excuse? For if I were saying, "Let the greedy man, the plunderer, the fornicator, the adulterer not arrive at church," and I was driving away and pursuing all those in sins—most of all, even then there would be no apology, for it would have been necessary to arrive having been purified—but now I do not even say this; rather, even if you fornicate, even if you commit adultery, even if you plunder, even if you are greedy, arrive at church, so that...

you may learn not to commit these things anymore. I draw everyone—I spread the net of the Word everywhere—wishing to catch not only the healthy, ^A but also the sick. I say these things every day: Come, and receive health with me; for I too am a physician who is in need of medicines. I am a man, subject to the affections of the same nature as you, and I am in need of words that curb the unruly soul with a bridle. Neither do I lead a tranquil life, void of cares and tumult, but I am myself driven by the surges of desire and the waves of perturbations. And why should I speak of myself or another, when Paul himself, who touched the heavens, had need of much healing? And that he had such need, he himself declared to us. Neither did he lead a tranquil life, but underwent many struggles; ^B and therefore he would say, "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (I Cor. IX, 27). He chastised that which was rising up, and brought into subjection that which did not wish to accept the bridle; and therefore he admonished others, saying, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (I Cor. X, 12). But if Paul did not enjoy tranquility, but just like one sailing at sea saw many waves being stirred up on all sides, who would dare to say that he does not need correction, and healing, and constant vigils?

The Power of the Word of God

3. Do not bring before me the greedy man, the slave of his belly, and the one who has betrayed the nobility of his nature to wickedness; but bring to me this man and those who, like him, have preserved the archetype and have not marred the royal character and form: and then you will know what a man is. For this man too was a human, born of a woman's birth and nourished by milk; he dwelt on earth, he breathed the air, and all things that were common to us were common to him—common, I say, things which pertain to nature—but because the things which concern the manner of life were excellent, for this reason he shone with such great grace. And yet he was not provided with wealth, nor the splendor of race, nor the fame of his country, nor eloquence, nor the sharpness of his tongue, nor a crowd of servants, nor a train of eunuchs; he did not have a house with a gilded roof, nor silken garments, nor a table filled with delicacies, nor any other thing of those which many deem to be blessed; but extreme poverty: he did not have the necessities for life, but with a widow woman, and that Sidonian, he was begging, stretching out his hand and asking for bread; his dwelling place was a cave, his garment a skin, his table the earth, his forefathers ignoble and not known even by name, his country obscure, his life rustic. And yet, nothing of these was an impediment to his splendor and fame; but he was wealthier than all kings, and wiser than all philosophers ^B and rhetoricians, and more illustrious than those who are adorned with a diadem: and he was decorated with nobility precisely because the man who holds royal cities has a country; but he had the world as his country; nay, even the world was for him like a small city, and Paul cries out saying, "They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb. XI, 37). For he was moving about in the heavenly city, whose architect and creator is God. For this reason I have brought before you a poor and rustic man, conspicuous for piety, so that you might have no pretext. For if I had brought forward a rich and wise man, you could have said, "Poverty and ignorance prevent me from becoming such." Now, however, when there is no such pretext... ^C

^A you have no defense for your sloth. For he who then lived in the desert, who was poor and most destitute of all men, who was ignoble by birth and ancestry, and apart from all, yet lived in such a way—he shines more than the sun. Even now, and at that time, how much his glory travels, covering so vast a land, even though he existed so many ages ago! But his memory has not been extinguished; and quite rightfully so. For such a thing is virtue—immortal, shining more than the sun.

But, as I said—for it is not right that those who are carried along on the sea of praise should forget the argument—this man also shows what was truly the work of grace, not just the words spoken by Moses. For since it was not considered likely that he, being elated by such glorious deeds, would be inclined to grant pardon to others, see what God does: He permits him to be stripped of grace so that his infirmity might be shown; or rather, that we might first demonstrate how he was not inclined to grant pardon. For when he had shut the heaven and rendered the earth unfruitful, there was a famine; a famine, I say, the most grievous of all. And the water had been exhausted, the grass withered, the rivers dried up, the face of the earth was hideous, threatening death; and the famine, proceeding further, raged on, bringing about a most miserable death. Yet he did not yield, but went and sat on the peak of the mountain, delivering the Jewish people over to this grievous wasting away.

But the ^B merciful God, and His unspeakable goodness, could not endure this severity. Yet because he himself, of his own accord, did not wish to pray to put an end to the disaster, and because God did not wish to do this without him, see what happens: He consults him first, and then sends the rain. Do you see God’s goodness and love for mankind in this, and the honor shown to the holy man? For He did not release the reins of the rain before He had spoken with him and told him what was about to happen, and sent him as a herald of the coming prosperity. For since through him the grim events had taken place, He also wished him to be the messenger of the good things. Bringing him down from the mountain, He sent him to announce everywhere on that earth the presence of the rain and the end of the famine. Yet even when the rain had been brought down, and in a short moment of time abundance had returned, having brought the priests of Baal, the four hundred and eighty of them, he slaughtered them and left streams of blood.

4. What, then, has this to do with our present subject? Do not be troubled, beloved; for I shall move on to the conclusion of these matters. For since he had brought down that torch, and had carried off the victory, and had set up a splendid trophy, and had executed the slaughter of the priests, he went away rejoicing and thinking great things of what had occurred. The wife of Ahab sent to him—a cheap and contemptible harlot—saying: "May the gods do so to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one ^C of these priests tomorrow" (3 Reg. 19. 2). And he was afraid, and fled for forty days’ journey. What then? Was that soul of his—higher than the heavens, the man who looked down on the whole world, who had disregarded such a famine and risen up against such a tyrannical king, who had shut and opened the heaven, who had now brought down rain and now fire, who had trampled on the requirements of nature, the dauntless one, the one who was confident everywhere—was this man suddenly, after so many achievements, after such great boldness, unable to endure the threat of a single whoring girl spoken in words, but instead becomes a fugitive and a man without a city, and flees to the desert and retreats for a forty days’ journey?

What, then, is the reason? God stripped him of grace, and the weakness of nature was shown. He showed the prophet, He showed also the man, so that they might learn that what had happened then was also a work of grace. He did these things to make him sympathetic to the many, being the one who would cut off and prevent the arrogance that is born from achievements. For that he thought and imagined great things about himself, and rose up against all others, I will provide him as his own witness. For when God came to him and asked the reason for his staying there, saying: "What do you have here, Elijah (3 Reg. 19. 13)?" and, "What do you have here?" He was asking, not wishing to learn, but wishing to reveal to us the secrets of his mind; just as Christ, when He questioned the Canaanite woman, did not do it to learn, but to teach us the treasure of faith reposed in her. He asks him, therefore, why he had arrived after such a journey, and having left cities and peoples, welcomes the desert—not so that He himself might learn (for how could He who knows all things?), but so that He might teach us through the answer of that man the secrets of his mind, and that it was reasonable that He left him to be shaken by fear and to fall into cowardice. He left him, He did not push him; He permitted him, He did not work it. He only stripped him, and he was put to the test. Therefore, when He said, "What do you have here, Elijah?" let us hear what he says: "Your altars they have torn down, and your prophets they have ^D killed; and I alone have been left, and they seek my life" (5 Reg. 19. 14). Do you see that he surmised that all had perished, and that he alone had been left, and that after him there was no one else? This was enough to lead him little by little into arrogance. For this reason, God, removing this deluded thinking of his, says: "I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal" (Ibid. v. 18). Since, therefore, even when he brought the drought, he persisted in increasing the punishment, and after these things he imagined great things about himself, as if he were the only one of such stature on earth, He permits him to perceive his own weakness, teaching him of the multitude of those who were saved, by both of these things subduing his mind and persuading him to be moderate everywhere, to be sympathetic, and to temper zeal with love for mankind.

5. But if you wish to see these same things in the New Testament as well, I shall attempt to bring into the middle the leaders and towers and bulwarks, and the heads of those in the New Testament. Just as Moses and Elijah, so are Paul and Peter shown in the New Testament. For just as each of these—the one fearing an Egyptian, the other the threat of a single harlot—fled, so also Peter, the foundation, the base, the pillar, after countless commandments, after such great miracles, after such great philosophy, feared not the threat of a queen, not of a man, but of a porter girl. And it was much worse than the former. For the others, when afraid, merely fled; but this one even fell into a most grievous downfall, which all know. For since he was stripped of grace, his weakness was also shown, being left bereft of God’s care. But God allowed him to fall, since He was about to make him the ruler of the entire world, so that by remembering his own stumbling, he might be sympathetic to those who are tripped up afterward. And that these things said are not conjecture, hear Christ Himself saying: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And when you at some time have turned again, strengthen your brothers" (Luc. 22. 31, 32). "Give me this recompense," He says, "for the help given to you; for if you had not enjoyed My providence, you would not have sufficed of yourself to endure that attack. Thinking on your own [sufferings], therefore, be sympathetic also to others." For the word "strengthen" is this—hinting at [the need to] strengthen those who are being shaken, by condescending, by stretching out a hand, by showing much love for mankind. And Paul, being bolder than any lion, the dauntless soul, suffered this same thing. And see how he shows himself constantly in need of the medicines of humility. For writing to the Corinthians he says: "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about our affliction that happened to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength; but we ourselves within ourselves had the sentence of death."

brothers, about our affliction that happened to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength; but we ourselves within ourselves had the sentence of death.” ^A And he adds: “so that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a danger.” “We despaired,” he says, “and did not expect that we should live, but we thought that we should die; for this is what it means: ‘We ourselves within ourselves had the sentence of death.’ The events themselves answered us, telling us that we would surely perish.” Why did God allow us to come into so many and so great dangers? “So that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead”; that is, that we might not be high-minded, that we might not be puffed up because of our good works. Which he declares still more clearly, writing again in this way. For after he had said that he had been caught up into heaven and had entered into paradise, and had heard those unspeakable words, he added: ^B “And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me.” Here he indicates those who were vexing him, who were causing him trouble, and were casting him into prison; for he calls each one of them Satan. “It was permitted,” he says, “for me to endure temptations, so that my arrogance might be repressed, and that I might learn to act with modesty.” ^C And therefore, when I had asked God, I did not obtain that which I sought; but I remained continually exposed to treachery, having my tribulations as a remedy for humility. And the life which he had led earlier, even before his conversion, was sufficient to bring him back to a sound mind. For he who had sat at the feet of Gamaliel, who lived accurately according to the law of his fathers, who was a zealot for his ancestral traditions, who pored over the prophets every day, who had been educated in the law: this man did not admit Christ, who had arrived and was working miracles, who was saying such things and putting forward and interpreting the words of Scripture; but even ^D after He had been crucified and had risen, he persecuted Him, and with a thousand hands he pelted His disciple with stones, and waged war against the Churches, and was more ferocious than any wolf. And until the light shone from above, and the voice reached him drawing him toward the truth, he could not know what he ought to do. And therefore he himself frequently in his epistles bows his head and dwells upon these things, blushing with shame for the things which he had done earlier. And writing to Timothy he said: “I give thanks to Him who strengthened me, Christ, because He accounted me faithful, putting me into his ministry, who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and insolent; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:12-13). And again: “Therefore I obtained mercy, that in me first God might show all patience, for the information of those who are about to believe in Him unto eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16). And writing to the Corinthians he said: “I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church” (1 Cor. 15:9).

6. That the prefects of the Churches ought to be prone to granting pardon.

All these things happened, and God left them stripped of His grace, so that after they had learned their own infirmity, and how a man can do nothing without help from above, when they ascended to the judicial throne, and were constituted as prefects and rulers, they might show much humanity and condescension, and be prone to granting pardon to their subjects. ^A And therefore writing to the Galatians he said: “Brothers, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). Knowing these things, therefore, let us draw in the perverse and contumacious, and let us be prone to granting pardon to those who sin, and let us show much kindness together with the divine laws, so that we ourselves may obtain much pardon for our sins, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Homily 2

When the Empress had come in the middle of the night to the great church, and had thence taken the relics of the martyrs, and had followed them through the middle of the forum as far as Drypia, although the martyrium was nine miles distant from the city, the homily was spoken in the martyrium, she herself being present with the whole city and the magistrates.

1. What shall I say? What shall I speak? I exult and am mad, but with a madness that is better than wisdom itself; dancing and leading dances, I am carried aloft, drunk already, from this spiritual pleasure. What shall I say? What shall I speak?