[TRANSLATION START] frenum! O quiet, destruction of insolence and enemy of impudence! O quiet, prison of the diseases of the soul! O quiet, helper of every virtue, producer of voluntary poverty, you field bearing good fruits! O quiet, wall and protection of those who wish to fight for the kingdom of heaven! Yes, brother, possess this better portion which Mary chose. She was indeed an example of quiet, sitting at the feet of the Lord and clinging to Him alone. Therefore the Lord also praised her, saying: *Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her* (Luc. 10, 42). You see, brother, what quiet is; since our Lord God praises the one who possesses it. Possess this, brother, and you shall take delight in the Lord, sitting at His feet and clinging to Him alone, that you may say with confidence: *My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me* (Psal. 62, 9). Therefore, *as with marrow and fatness* may my soul be filled. Yes, my brother, possess this thing sweeter than honey. For a morsel with the salt of quiet and freedom from care is better than the provision of luxurious dishes in temptations and troubles. Hear the Lord God saying: *Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest* (Matth. 11, 28). For the Lord wants to give you rest from cares, from anger, from temptation, and from the affliction of this age; He wants you to be free from care regarding the brick-making of Egypt; He wishes to lead you into the desert—that is, into quiet—that He may illuminate your paths with the pillar of cloud, that He may feed you with manna, I mean the bread of quiet and freedom from care; so that you may inherit the good land, I mean the Jerusalem above. Yes, beloved, love this, possess this, that you may be delighted in the way of the testimonies of God, as over all riches. Yes, brother, possess quiet with the fear of God, and the God of peace shall be with you, to whom glory is due for ever. Amen. B POSSESS quiet, brother, with the fear of God: and the God of peace shall be with you, to whom glory is due for ever. Amen. Therefore, I ask you, brothers beloved by the Lord, that you strive daily to keep the memory of these things: namely, of hope, of faith, of charity, of humility, and that you be always signed in the prayers of God, and in the meditations of the divine Scriptures, and in quiet. For if these things are present and abound in you, they do not render you idle or fruitless in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For a Christian who does not possess these is blind, short-sighted, having forgotten his past sins; and it happens to him as in the true proverb: *The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire* (2 Petr. 2, 22). Therefore, because those who have escaped the pollutions of the world—as it is written—and have renounced them in the holy laver, and have come into the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, are then again entangled in the same, the last state has become worse for them than the first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back again. Therefore, beloved, faithful servants and chosen soldiers of God, Christians, let us take up the armor of the aforementioned in our hearts, and without delay let us make mention of them each day, so that we may be able to fight the good fight and to trample down all the power of the enemy, that we might be delivered from the wrath coming upon the children of disobedience, and find mercy and grace on the terrible day before the just Judge, who renders to everyone according to his works: to whom glory is due, with the almighty Father and the all-holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
NOTICE TO THE ENCOMIUM OF SAINT GREGORY, ILLUMINATOR OF THE ARMENIANS, WHICH CIRCULATES IN ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS UNDER THE NAME OF SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM.
We bring forward here a thing entirely new, which can aptly conclude this vast series of works of Chrysostom; namely, the encomium of Saint Gregory, Illuminator of the Armenians, which is held in the Royal Armenian manuscript library and was translated into Latin by A. Abbate de Villefroy, a man of remarkable knowledge of Oriental languages, and presented to me. C
As it is reported, this discourse was delivered at Cocusus, which was a city of Lesser Armenia, and which in the published editions and in the manuscripts of the works of Saint John Chrysostom is called Kουκουρός, Cocusus. In the Vatican Codex, however, it is read as Κεκουκὸς, and in the Itinerary of Antoninus it is most frequently written as Cocusus. It is therefore Cocusus, through the favor or benevolence, as it were, of a certain other Armenian named Dioscorus—who in the title is said to be a kinsman of Saint Gregory the Illuminator—who, being the bishop of Cocusus, wished to cede his own episcopal see to him, since he could not easily resist the man. But after the incursion of the Isaurians was repulsed, and having been forced to flee the city of Lesser Armenia by the Arabs, Otreius, the bishop of the city, was received with such great kindness that from then on he was numbered among his most intimate friends. From this, he was always thereafter in the company, friendship, and familiarity of the Armenians.
At the request of this same bishop Dioscorus, however—who, as it is said in the title, was a kinsman of Saint Gregory the Illuminator—he delivered this encomium, which he also delivered to the people on the feast day of the same saint. So far, all is consistent. But a question might arise as to whether it is truly by Chrysostom. The prologue certainly has nothing alien to Chrysostom: but in the progress of the work, some things occur that are more consistent with Chrysostom in their style and disagreement, so that no one should dare to ascribe it to such a great doctor: for example, the speaking pit and trench, serpents and dragons, and similar portents, which, however, are found in the Life of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, of which I have seen two manuscript codices, one in the Royal Library, the other in the Coislinian. It might perhaps be said that Chrysostom had the discourse in praise of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, but that it was so changed by the Armenians that now the style of Chrysostom almost nowhere appears in it.
It is not, I think, being ungrateful to the reader that I have brought forward this little work, both because it records a certain matter of Armenia, little known in the current course of the history, and because in the learned notes of the most erudite interpreter not a few things worthy of knowledge occur.