Panegyric

ENCOMIUM OF SAINT GREGORY, ILLUMINATOR OF THE ARMENIANS, BY SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM; EXCERPTED FROM THE D-JARRINTIR, OR ARMENIAN HOMILIARY OF THE ROYAL LIBRARY, MARKED WITH THE LETTER C. TRANSLATED FROM THE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE INTO LATIN IN THE YEAR 1735.

NOTICE OF THE TRANSLATOR.

Before we inscribe the title affixed to this Encomium in the manuscript we have used, it is worth the effort to admonish the reader that this Encomium is to be found also in two other D-jarrintirs or Armenian Homiliaries. The first of these is of huge mass, and seems to have been written more than two hundred years ago; it is marked with the letter A. The second is a truly large volume, of the format called in-folio, which seems to date from the tenth or eleventh century and is marked with the letter B. ^A Since, however, the title affixed to this Encomium in those Armenian Homiliaries teaches the place and occasion of this oration, we trust it will not be ungrateful to the reader if both titles, which I have obtained in those D-jarrintirs, are submitted to his eyes.

TITLE OF THE ENCOMIUM AS IT IS READ IN MANUSCRIPT A.

A sermon of John Chrysostom on the life and sufferings of Saint Gregory, patriarch of Greater Armenia, spoken at Kokisi, which is a city of the Armenians (while he was living there in exile), at the urging of a certain Armenian bishop and doctor who was a kinsman of Saint Gregory and was called Dioscorus; and at the request of the great assembly that had gathered in Kokisi on the feast day of the holy Illuminator of the Eastern parts.

TITLE OF THE ENCOMIUM AS IT IS READ IN MANUSCRIPT B.

An Homily of Blessed John Chrysostom spoken on the life and sufferings of the great patriarch and martyr Gregory, Illuminator of the Armenians, delivered at Kokisi, which is a city of Armenia (while he was in exile there), at the urging of a certain doctor and bishop of the Armenians who was called Dioscorus and was a kinsman of the martyr Gregory; and also at the request of the great assembly and the abundant common people, who asked the same saint that he might make a commemoration of the Illuminator of the Eastern parts on his feast day.

Receive now the title and the encomium as they are held in the Codex which seems to have been written about three hundred years ago and is denoted by the letter C.

Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, on the holy Illuminator, Great Gregory, Pontiff of our God.

Proemium.

As the flowers of manifold kind that are adorned with multicolored leaves in the advancing time of spring are diverse: so is the encomium of men diverse and abundant, those who have been endowed with divine gifts, which it does not suffice to discern only with the eyes and to heap up in the storehouse of the mind; for the mind gathers and the tongue narrates so that it may be bestowed upon a great many at once. ^B Entering, therefore, into the flowering areas of the virtues of the strenuous martyr and sufferer of torments, of the radiant sun, and of the Illuminator of Greater Armenia; and extending the eyes of the mind over the flowering beauty in which he shines: I know not if I can follow with a wisely arranged encomium those things which I am indeed able to comprehend; for though it is my desire to gather everything, I fear, nevertheless, that many things may escape me.

Now, that blessed man seems to me deservedly similar to those little bees provided with light wings. And truly, as the work of the bee is worthy of admiration, so also the virtues of Saint Gregory seize the spirits: and as no one has the power to attain to his stupendous labor either by speech or by genius, so it is granted to no one to follow the eximious gifts of this saint with an encomium.

But just as a bee, although it may be borne of its own accord to all flowers to encompass them, cannot nonetheless carry away all their nectar, because of the weakness of its powers; and therefore selects those things which shine in the midst of the flowers and are more subtle, so that it may gather them with its wings and construct from them the comb of honey: so I, too, will heap up in my mind those things which I shall be able to comprehend, and I will bring them forth in speech, so that I may refresh with a sweet odor the nostrils of those who celebrate the sacred mysteries and desire to hear the encomium of Saint Gregory.

By his torments, Gregory makes Armenia, bristling with thickets and brambles, a garden of flowers and fruit-bearing trees. ^C The teaching of Saint Gregory the Illuminator. But now how shall I call this pontiff, if not the sun rising in the Eastern parts, the splendor of whose rays reaches as far as the race of the Greeks? O prodigy! If anyone wishes to plant a garden, the thorns are first cut away, and the noxious roots are pulled up, nor is that garden planted without some difficulty: but the garden of the great martyr and suffer-of-torments pontiff germinated in the midst of thorns, reached just to heaven, and sent forth angelic flowers, whose leaves shone with beautiful colors: not indeed by cutting away and casting out thorns, thistles, and other roots of noxious herbs, but by transforming them into fragrant flowers and fruit-bearing trees, he made the brambles bear fragrant fruit-bearing apples, and granted to the thistles that they might bring forth roses and beautiful flowers, and emit a fragrant odor.

I proclaim the blessed Ripsime and Gaiana: who, when they had taken the root, whence the shoots arose and were diffused far and wide, entered into Greater Armenia, of which not even the smallest corner remained deprived of the protection of their branches.

O prodigy! A man of flesh is similar to the incorporeal hosts; rather, if it is permissible to speak thus, he is mightier than the angelic spirits. ^D For of these, neither body nor

^A frame of my members possessed the readiness of mind to overcome. Therefore, I shall set forth what I am able to bring forward from those things in which His right hand was manifested.

O new marvel! Shut up by God in the air of the heavens, his sanctity was shining forth from the heights to the earth: yet this holy man was held in the deep, in the pit, and from there he sent his rays into the heights of the heavens. For when angels and archangels were proclaiming His sanctity, they were ministering to him as he lay in the pit. His body they saw in the heaven, as if he were an angel on earth: having a body, yet appearing without a body; a celestial man, a terrestrial angel, and he was the pillar of fire from heaven upon the earth; the illuminator of Armenia, the stable foundation of the Greeks (of Lesser Armenia), the apostle of Christ, the leader of men.

Happy do I call you first, O Cappadocian! For you received the imposition of hands from the shepherd of many peoples. But then you were consecrated and consecrator, shining with the same splendor of virtues.

They (the Cappadocians) were founded upon strong roots; and he himself took his root alone, and others, who were experts in the roots, received it from him. There they were gathered, fruit-bearing for the workers, that which was once uncultivated: but he alone, grasping the handle of the plow, turned over many uncultivated lands with his hand; with the singular coulter of the word of truth he opened up innumerable furrows, the fivefold seed, and brought forth much fruit: and grasping the divine seed with his palm, dropping the grains with infinite fingers, he sowed many fields. Then, in the furrows, severed by a single incision, produce grew simultaneously.

There it was autumn and spring, harvest time and the season of fruit: and when winter arrived, the unique sower, namely the Word, scattered the seed. And he brought forward various fruits that were arising, some ripe, others matured, he brought them into the threshing floor at the proper time, winnowed them, made them clean, and collected them into heaps, to be carried from there into the storehouse of light.

*Concerning the Blessed Gregory thrown into a pit full of serpents and dragons.* — But what of the fact that the Armenians accepted the seeds of the flowers of faith, which had not been able to conquer the ice of unbelief by the sower, as they cast him among the deadly venom of reptiles?

Men, who had common conversation and countenance with that saint, were entertaining the manners of serpents: on the contrary, the deadly dragons, bringing death with their tongues, were imitating the manners of men, and showing reverence.

What then? The winter season lasted a long time, and the sower, like seed that had been sown in the gripping ice, they thought had perished; but the Armenians were mistaken. The pit is opened: they hear the gathering of the voices of the whole man; and they recoil from the stench and the odor which had been reeking from the dragons and serpents; and from there a sweet fragrance is exhaled, as from a garden of delights: bones consumed by rot they were seeking with their eyes; but they behold him in his splendor, like the sun, as in a most august temple, observing him walking about: they examine the consumed members; they notice the healthy body, fed by celestial food: they behold the body of the dragon, which they were investigating with their teeth; and being tamed, the serpents themselves admire him, and those who condemn him are themselves condemned by him.

Suffused with shame, they were crying out and saying: "Great is the God whom the great Gregory preaches. We judged him to be weak, by the venomous dragons, but he is our own weakness." Further, even if the dragons had failed, by hunger alone, they would have consumed the body which no mortal could snatch from there. But the wonderful God, in His saints, was saying, according to the mind of David the prophet; for He glorifies those who glorify Him, admitting ^D that they were blushing at their own wickedness, and were saying: "He whom we cast into the pit and the darkness, has shone upon us—who certainly were sons of darkness—like the sun, and leading us out of darkness, has made us sons of light." He was taught by the great Shepherd of the sheep, who was praying for mercy for his tormentors: for we were his tormentors, while he was being cast into the pit: but he, the shining illuminator, clothed us in the garment of light, and directed our feet wonderfully into the way of peace. We were his executioners: but this man is our providential shepherd: he is a merciful father, and we were sons rebellious against a father, nay, even parricides: he was surrounded by divine camps, in order to drive away the ravaging wolf from the sheepfold with a sling; but we, wandering, followed the devastating wolf, whom he had wounded, driven headlong, and destroyed forever: he was the best shepherd, we the flock deserting the battle and the fold: he was the physician; we were the sick, hurrying to kill him who was healing us as to the body, as if it were impossible for him not to be immortal as to the soul. He was preceding us, and cutting back the thorns on the way which leads to the knowledge of God; we however, blind and careless, fell into the pit of perdition, and blinded in both eyes, striking our shepherd, we cast him into the deep pit, and persisting in our blindness, we understood nothing. He was a shining lamp; but we, sitting in darkness, did not insist on the burning splendor of his footsteps: he was a servant of God; but those whom we called gods were creatures, the servants of men; and therefore this servant of God repelled the gods whom we worshipped. Our hearts were blinded, and we did not understand: for we seized him and lowered him into the deep abyss; and at the same instant we saw that the earth possessed within itself the sun, which was shining upon us. We thought the body of our providential doctor would be prey for wild beasts; but we saw it observed by serpents and dragons, like Adam freshly created, in whom, before the first transgression, neither serpents nor basilisks had any power to harm; but we, who have followed the prevarication of Adam, are despised by the beasts. We conferred power upon the dragons—the prince of our prevarication—but we saw their strength weakened, which, like doves, were peacefully cooing; and with their tongues, with which it was given to the serpent by Adam's prevarication to lie in wait for the heel, they were fawning upon the innocent disciple of Christ.

What then shall we say? Or how will the pupils of our eyes dare to be opened, to look upon and behold our merciful father, that we might deprecate from him the mercy, we who have heaped up innumerable insults upon him in our fury? Nevertheless, because in his heart there was no resentment, therefore let us run confidently to the door of the pit, and there let us say: "Come forth, servant of God, and subject to yourself your servants, who received power over you from him whom you were trampling in the abyss, while you were descending into the deep pit; and just as you were taught by your Master, do likewise with your disciples. Ascend, good master, into Armenia, among us who have appeared as a second Babylon. For, instead of a furnace, we kindled a pit, into which, in place of the burning fire, we cast venomous dragons, whose poison your virtues were extinguishing, in the manner of dew: you were walking amidst the flame of deadly serpents and basilisks: you were trampling underfoot with your feet the fire-breathing dragons, and you appeared as a living Ananias, Azarias and Misael, while you were worshipping the indivisible Trinity, in whom we did not believe. We believe now and we praise Him with the King of Babylon, Nabuchodonosor, since we have perceived the divine dew in the midst of the furnace. Come forth, servant of the Most High God; for through you we have believed and we confess the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: come forth from your pit, and glorify Him who glorified Him who glorified Himself, and endowed you with the greatest honor. Lift up your divine voice, and say: Worship the God, whom I freely proclaimed: He is the creator of all, who saved me unharmed from the pestiferous dragons. Come forth, new Daniel, and show to the King of Babylon, that is, to Armenia, you who were cast into the lake, not among two lions indeed, but, which is greater, among most ferocious beasts. For any furnace, even if it crushes the limbs, yet it can happen that one may be restored to health at some time: but venomous and pestilential dragons do not crush the body nor mutilate it, but, like some needle, by stinging, they bring invisible death. But you escaped unharmed, not having been killed by them."

Truly these are all the things which perhaps it was at hand for them to say to the saint: but let us, bringing into the middle the cause of his torments, pursue the encomium.

*Gregory is tormented by various tortures; he is thrown into a pit filled with serpents and dragons.* — King Tiridates was raging because of the killing of his parent; and therefore with most bitter torments and tortures, scourges, and the compression of his body between beams, with iron combs, and with every kind of dreadful punishment which fury could beget, he was tormenting Gregory. The holy martyr, however, willingly enduring those things for the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, was addressing the executioners thus: "I am tormented with punishments and tortures by you, who, loving carnal things, possess this life, which is similar to sleep, and will vanish tomorrow, and you are being cut off from the hope of immortal life: but I suffer for an hour for Him who endured torments for me; and therefore there lies open the immortal life, and the pleasure of paradise, exhaling sweet odors: I shall enter there, and become His heir forever. Regarding those joys as a benefit, I weigh the punishments which you heap upon me, and which you think are a detriment to me. For although you crush my members and my bones with momentary pain between the beams, I shall nevertheless emerge from there a healthy shoot; and like a palm tree leaning on firm roots, bringing forth many branches far and wide, elegant in leaves, famous for flowers, which it will by no means befall to wither, I shall be exalted before my Creator, and blossoming and dense in the garden of the Lord, planted by the hand of God, I shall shine forth. Although I may be suspended cruelly by machines with my head downwards, and crushed between the beams, I trust nevertheless that it will come to pass that, after a small space of pain, I shall lift up my head even into the heavens before my Creator. Moreover, let me be thrown to the wild beasts and bears as to so many instruments of torture, by which my body may be consumed: I possess the confidence that a golden diadem and an ornamented crown will be woven for me by them, which the celestial King will fix on my head, when He gives me to sit upon the spouse's bridal chamber. What is it that this blood emanating from my body dyes for me a purple and scarlet robe of immortality, which will not wither forever?" Truly these are all the things that it behooved the martyr to answer.

What later? Tiridates, not yet satiated with his inhumanity, however much he might be holding the bound and tortured Gregory, and ^B as if those tortures had coherence with the things which were done before: "Truly," he said, "he is the son of Anac from the race of the Parthians, who killed my father Chosroes." And Tiridates orders Gregory, bound by the feet, and bound by the hands and neck, to be led away to the citadel of the province of Ararat, and there to be pushed into a deep pit. O madman! perhaps the holy Gregory was saying: "For if my father attacked your impious father with a sword, he was not only killed, and transitory

^A is your power."

The Reward Bestowed upon the Holy Illuminator by the Lord. Peroration.

ORDER OF SUBJECTS. HOMILY IV.

HOMILY V, delivered in the church of Saint Irene, concerning the zeal of those present and the sloth of those absent: that one ought to sing psalms, and that the female sex is no impediment to the course of virtue. Against the love of money; a description of the future judgment; the groans of Chrysostom over his audience. The singing of psalms. How much the mother of the Maccabees suffered. The praises of Priscilla. 485-491

HOMILY VI, delivered in the church of the Apostles, on the day of the Emperor Theodosius, against those who called themselves Cathari, after two other bishops had spoken. Two bishops preached before Chrysostom; the praises of Theodosius the Great. Against the Cathari. The confession of sins. 491-493

HOMILY VII, delivered in the church of Saint Anastasia. The praises of the Samaritan woman. What is the confirmation of the Gospel. 485-489

HOMILY VIII, delivered in the church of Paul, with the Goths reading after the Goth presbyter had preached. Barbarous nations converted to the faith translated the Scriptures into their own language. Abraham exhibited the apostolic precepts by his deeds. Why Christ was first announced by the barbarian Magi. What the star that appeared to the Magi was; why Paul circumcised Timothy. Against genethlialogy [astrology]. 499-511

HOMILY IX. That one ought not to go to the circus or the theaters. And when he had created annoyance because of them, then in the meeting following that Sunday, when he had granted a certain bishop who had come from Galatia the freedom to preach, and he himself had remained silent—and in this too had offended them—he delivered this homily in the Great Church on the text, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17). The people of Constantinople are gravely rebuked; they come to the sermon in great numbers. Against the Arians and Anomoeans. 511-513

HOMILY X, delivered in the church of the Apostle, after a bishop had preached for a short time, on the text, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few" (Matt. 9:37). Old age is useful in the Church; how youth is also useful. Charity toward one's neighbor is commended: the chests and relics of the Apostles. The story of the eunuch of Candace. 515-523

HOMILY XI, delivered after another very old man had preached: on Eleazar and the seven boys. The listeners desired to hear Chrysostom himself; the feast day of the Maccabees. It is proved that the Maccabees suffered for Christ. 525-531

MONITUM [Notice] on the Homily of Severian, bishop of Gabala, on the Seals of the books. 531-532

HOMILY or Sermon on the Seals of the books, and how the Son offers to the Father, the Father to the Son, and on the incarnation of the Savior. Against the Arians. How God stands, how He sits. The three former evangelists were the figure; John was the thunder. 531-545

MONITUM on the Homily on the text, "In the beginning was the Word." 513-514

HOMILY on the text, "In the beginning was the Word," etc. (John 1:1): and that the Spirit searcheth the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10). Heretics who formerly dominated were expelled from the city; against the Anomoeans. 543-549

MONITUM on the Sermon on meekness. 549-550

SERMON on meekness. In what believers differ from unbelievers. What good things meekness brings forth. How great is the foulness of anger. The meek are imitators of God; the meekness of Christ is to be imitated; how great is the misery of wars. 549-550

[The list continues with various Eclogues and Homilies, concluding with]:

END OF THE SIXTY-THIRD VOLUME. Paris. From the press of J.-P. Migne.

ENCOMIUM OF ST. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR, BY ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

is with us. Depart, if you do not wish your words to move you to laughter.

What then? Because they believed those words, the widow departed and was silent. And what she had previously neglected, she daily cast into the pit as she was ordered, so that she might provide bread.

Hardly had a few days passed, when not once but again, and five times, the vision appeared, ^A a great and terrible angel saying, "Do not be deceived by laughter, nor consider it impossible that he has remained alive for fifteen years; for I am an angel of God sent to serve him. I was receiving the bread which you were offering, just as I was offering it to Gregory: I was giving it to him in the desert, but I held the virtue of the clear sun in myself in the abyss of the earth, in that place. The things which I announced before, you have called into doubt because of the incredulity of men; but now, believe my words: for nothing is impossible with God. Do you not know how Daniel escaped from the pit and from the hunger of the lions raging in the middle? Or how the boys remained unharmed in the burning flame, which in its height portrayed the forty-nine days of the saints' fasting?"

And do you realize how the bones, when they were under divine observance, at the command of God to Ezechiel, ^B were in the field from the four directions of the winds, and they approached one to another, not by chance, but each joint to its own joint? And then the sinews and skin were brought, and the breath was breathed into these slain ones: the army stood upon its feet, a very great one (Ezech. 37. 8. 10). This also God truly performs, whom Gregory preaches, and who is able to keep him in the pit. But you, through your words, have faith, and announce it to the people.

Gregory is drawn from the pit; the palace prefect, having arrived, and having learned the cause of the journey, ^C thought to himself, struck with admiration and terror at once, and having entered in haste, he told the satraps, and they sent at once to Artaxata. "Go," they say, "and entreat him, the very man whom we did not even consider a human being, to come, for he is a healer, whose words we did not heed: go, call him whom you call from the belly of the underworld: offer up entreaties to him, and ask that he forgive our persecutors."

All these things, and perhaps even more important things than these, they had in store to say.

He proceeds to the palace of the prefect, and when he had arrived at the city, he inquired about the cause of the journey from the citizens: ^D who, having learned of the wonderful [man] took him, and inside themselves, they thought: "In what way can this be?" they asked, "How do you seek alive him who had been consumed by rot fifteen years ago? How do you seek an unharmed body in the entrails of the dragon, when it has been consumed and turned into dust? In what way can he who could not provide salvation for himself be a source of healing for others?"

What then? They fasten long and strong ropes and let them down into the pit. The palace prefect cries out with a great voice, "Lord, serve [God], and free us from the hands of the gods whom we worship: come out, son of the abyss, come out, sun, who provide us with more light than the sun that revolves above us!" He provides light to corporal eyes; he provides light to the eyes of our souls, and leads us into the right path, which is the unfailing and inaccessible light. Thus the satrap was saying.

And as soon as the ropes had fastened around him and they drew him out, he appeared, covered in sunlight, since his body, while appearing black as soot, was dark; and when they realized it was this very body, which had suffered such torments, and which was like a corpse, and was suffering and glowing. Then they clothed him in the robes offered to him.

Then the people were astonished, whom it was right and fitting to acclaim with wisdom: "Then the just man will stand with great confidence before those who afflicted him, and who despised his labors. Seeing him, they will be troubled, and will tremble at the wonderful salvation of him (Wisd. 5. 1. 2). What did pride profit us? Or what did boasting bring?" These things were able to be said at that hand.

But let us continue our encomium with this style, for the things which happened afterwards.

The king, and all who had been driven to fury with him, went out to meet him naked and deformed, and stood waiting from afar. ^A And when they looked upon him coming from afar, they began to rage, and to shout and say: "Come, angel dwelling in a body, and by the help of light, expel the demons who harass us: come, vanquisher of them, who rule over us, and who proud, torments our hearts, which [the demons] used to torment: come, you who drive away the darkness of our minds with the visible body: come, you who are clothed in leather and material, and who track down and pursue our incorporeal and material enemies, and those who pursue us: come, and with your fervent heat dry up the torrent of our impiety."

"Divine fire of your doctrine, move toward us, who are immersed in this solid swamp, and restore us to the heat. Come, divine river, ^B water our fields, which are sterile, so that the seed which has dried up, which does not fall from you, may sprout and turn green. You who act, cut down with the divine sickle those who are the sons of folly, or the scourge, which is your tongue; winnow them, and gather them into a divine heap, and those whom you have also gathered into the divine storehouse. Come, you who have been poured out from heaven, and burn up with the scorching doctrine the thorns of thistles, which have choked the works of my hands. Arise, minister of God, from the deep pit, whose light of doctrine you scatters from the abyss upward: arise, and stir up the cold that breathes faintly in the Stygian. Now it is granted to you to work the earth with the divine plow, which before we did not allow, ^C especially since you are a bright sun in darkness, as if in a prison, mercilessly cast down."

The reward rendered to the holy Illuminator by the Lord. Prayer. — Now that the praises of the blessed are finished according to his merits, I do not have it in my power to pursue an encomium, although it might be most desired. I shall say therefore as briefly as possible what he surely obtained afterwards.

The Creator thus pleaded with his faithful servant: "Well done, good and faithful servant, why are you anxious about the projection of your seed into the lands? You have planted, Paul provided the increase. Come, enter into the joy of the Lord. Do not fear, Moses—that which the people did not believe in you—because I loved you more than the body. Come, ^D rest from your labors, you new Daniel: enter the bridal chamber, which I promised to you. Come, take your seat among the apostles, another apostle, who announce the word of truth to the proud nation: you will be placed among the ranks of the angels, whose life you emulated. Come, and with the patriarchs, you [who are] a prince, plant as a holy palm in the house of the Lord, and you will rejoice with them, who have suffered torments: you will flourish in the courts of God. Come, you will be crowned with the martyrs, you who were always crucified with me; therefore I will send you to the angelic ranks, that I may receive you. And because you bore the cross always and came after me, I lead you into paradise, into which the thief entered through his cross. Blessed are you, O holy father of the Church. Once an angel in a body, now incorporeal among the incorporeal. Blessed, O best overseer, you who have led through the King's path those whom you have brought to the sheepfold, and have added to his chambers. Blessed are you, who— [Text incomplete.]