- A Martyrium S. Catharinæ. Aegyptiorum principatus foedus. Aegae urbs in sinu Ionico sita. Aelio Hadriano Romanis imperante, et daemonibus ac idolis sedulo serviente. Sed quomodo aliquis nos a causa et culpa liberabit? Alius quidem aliud de celebrata Creta exequatur, hic pulchritudinem, ille magnitudinem. Anastasia mulierum pulcherrima, Romae quidem inclytae germen, genere vero praeclara. Virorum virtutem amantium vita, et ipsorum conversationis narratio, omnibus pie. Arcadio Romanorum sceptra gubernante. Nuper Maximiano secundum annum agente in imperio Romano, et impietatis hyeme. Nuper quidem impietatis caligo totum mundum circumferebat. Nuper pietate effulgente, et Evangelica praedicatione omnem mundum. Nuper Nabuchodonosor rex Assyriorum Hierosolymis bello obsesso. Nuper cognitione Dei per universum mundum percurrente. Nuper Romanorum sceptra Theodosio filio Arcadii pie gubernante. Nuper pueri Zachariae. Nuper idolomaniae nube totum orbem ambiente. Nuper Trajano Romanorum imperii sceptra suscipiente, Antiochensium ecclesiae episcopus. Imperante Diocletiano et Maximiano B veri Regis inimicis. Imperante Diocletiano et Maximiano, omnis Romanorum principatus. Imperante scelestissimo et iniquo. Imperante scelestissimo Maxentio. Blasii martyr dignus tali martyrii fine. Muliebrem virtutem, quae ab ea quae virorum est nihil defecerit, omnibus exponere utile est. Decio quando et Valeriano. Diocletianus Romanorum imperator indigne sceptrum nactus. Diocletianus imperatoriam Romanis regens potestatem. Diocletiano et Maximiano impiis, et atheis Romanorum principatum regentibus. Diocletiano Romanorum sceptra gubernante, Priscoque circa Asiam. Duplicem nobis Anastasiae agnoscere, illustres quidem utramque genere secundum carnem. Factum est postquam percussit Dominus. Oportuit quidem, o sanctissima, et divina collectio, hodie. Si et justum post encomia celebrari. C Si et primi Persae Christum ex Virgine nascentem adoraverunt. Imagines et olim et statuae ob hoc omnino in vitam nostram introductae sunt. Habebat quidem illustris Nicomedia. Habebat quidem Romanorum sceptra Licinius, et regum antiquitùs. Habebat quidem Romanorum sceptra Maximianus Herculius. eos qui Christiana sentirent extinxerunt. Vigebat aliquando impietas, et reges in. Erupta contra Christianos Saboris Persarum rex. Cogitatio mihi saepenumero accidit, quapropter innumeri poetae, alii bella et simultates, et ex his calamitates composuerint. In Palaestina urbs est non minus quam quadraginta quinque stadia ab Gaza distans. Invalescebat quidem et prius jam D Arianorum dogmata...
A of the Roman Empire. When Maximian the tyrant was reigning, and over almost the entire inhabited world. B It was now the fifth year since the pious Justin had undertaken the sceptre of the Roman empire. Zeno was already directing the imperial rule for the Romans. C Already indeed keeping the commandment given by Him who fashioned us. D For this was also a thing of the greatest of old, and in the most renowned city of Rome, not only adorned by its beauty. When Constantine, the third son of the great Constantine. Virtue is a divine thing and worthy of many. A Having an ancestor Iomaus [Esau], from whom they have also obtained the surname. For Hierus, a noble father, the second fatherland of the Cappadocians, and the city Tyana. When Maximian was holding the kingship, and the things of impiety. When Maximian the tyrant had issued his impious decree over almost the whole inhabited world. To Maximian and Maximinus the emperors, a great and violent impulse. B A very great thing for the benefit of the soul. To remember those who have suffered for Christ, if anything else is useful and profitable. After the two hundred and fiftieth year of the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. After the saving presence of the Word on earth. After the ascension of our Lord and Saviour into heaven. After the presence of the Saviour Christ on earth. We know many histories and lives. C And the most beautiful of cities, Nicomedia, I say, when Maximian the impious began to rule. And the life of all those who have lived according to God is most profitable to the pious. And for the others, the rewards for Christ’s martyrs are very great and much for the diligent. And what of the good shall be in memory, if, handing down the life of Amphilochius, I have passed over in silence 127. And to recount regarding other saints, and through memory. Virtue is a most beautiful thing, and such glory as is a panegyric and super-celestial. D Beautiful indeed are the contests of the martyrs. When Commodus, after Marcus his father, was holding the Roman sceptre. When Licinius the impious was reigning, Lysias then being Duke. When Lucianus the impious, according to the eastern parts, in Bethagida of Hierapolis. Mamas, this great martyr of Christ, and famous. A Maximian the emperor, [much] concerning the error of idols. We celebrate today the victory-bearing contests of the martyr Nicetas. For the sake of the loss of good things brought upon us, by the Word of God, through disobedience. When Numerianus had received the Roman sceptre from his fathers. After the saving proclamation was announced everywhere. Xenophon the wonderful fled from this city. B Those at the time of Pentecost. Those who obtained worldly power, and of royal reins and sceptres. A new and strange life of the wonderful Xene. In what manner the healings of former diseases of the body were not small. That man is not far from the angels, as the divine David says. The Word of God, existing from eternity with the Father. Valentinian after the death of Jovian. Who does not know the Nicomedia, how indeed of its position [128]
and magnitude. Not strange to the Galatians are the present things, nor alien to the confessor of the truth. Egypt did not bring forth many. It brought forth the great Timothy, indeed, the Lycaonian. The communion with our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, which Paul speaks of, [was] among men on earth in a philanthropic manner. Not so pleasant to the lover of virtue. Long ago the things of faith were in types and riddles. Long ago the apostles finished their journeyings upon the earth. Again, the divine president stands over us, and again the Word comes to hold a festival. "Those who bless you," God says to Abraham, "I will bless." To praise those who are temperate in life and lovers of virtue according to one's power is at once noble and most profitable. A Trajan governing the Roman scepter. A tyrannical thing is the affection of parents, and the bonds of nature. Many are the teachings of those who have lived well and as is pleasing to God. Great is the malice of the devil against the martyrs of Christ. Diocletian [raged] against Christ and those who were mad for Him. While Probus the impious ruled the Roman scepter, Samosata is a city of Syria; the Euphrates flows by the city. A wise thing is the hand of a painter, and marvelous at imitating the truth. To set down in writing the deeds of good men and their memory. The fatherland of the wonderful pair of wise physician-saints B is... The road leading to virtue is rough, and steep, and easy. The enemy, seeing the flock of Christ increasing daily. I think one is then speaking things that ought not to be said, of equal absurdity. The great city of Jerusalem having been captured by the King of the Persians. Trajan the impious king [showed] much foresight and zeal. The Word chose [to be with the Father] being timeless. Of those who chose the struggle under Christ, some contended simply for piety against the Greeks. As in the case of the heroes. C As a meadow, flowering with various blossoms, makes beautiful with fragrances the... The year was the six-hundredth from the beginning of Alexander of Macedon. Under Nero again ruling the Roman scepter, the wonderful Nazarius. While Marcus Antonius and Lucius Verus were holding the imperial power over the Romans. Not even to women, nor to maidens, has the stadium of martyrdom been closed. Just now, [of the words] of the great evangelist and herald of the truth. Many and great things invite one to marvel at Antioch. As if no other [work] had been studied by the man, nor did all the rest suffice, and each one individually sufficing as an occasion for praise. D [When] the rule of the Persians was dissolved unto the Persians, but to choose such a task, and thus... [Of that which] is in the mountain of Lebanon of Phoenicia, many are other cities, both southern and northerly.
[alt-version omitted]
And so much may suffice for the Lives of the saints. But that the Metaphrast wrote other things besides these Lives of the saints, beyond what Psellus hints at in his eulogy [of him]... 129... 130
there is no doubt for anyone who has been permitted at some time to unroll the manuscripts of the ancients. For there still remain [other] orations of his for the feasts of Christ, of the Theotokos, and of other saints, which I have seen myself. 1. A An oration, *On the mournful lamentation of the most holy Theotokos, when she held the body of our Lord Jesus Christ*. P. The oration is overly tender and full of divine affections, which would warm and soften even one colder than ice itself and harder than steel. 2. *On the life-bearing death and translation of the Theotokos*. P. At the time of Pentecost the Apostles of the divine doctrine... 3. An account B comprising things from the venerable birth and upbringing of our most holy Lady the Theotokos, the divine birth of Christ our God, and all that occurred until her life-bearing death, as well as accounts concerning the manifestation of her precious robe, and how this great treasure was saved for Christians. P. It clearly behooved the Virgin, just as she was to visit from God to men. It is also praised by Michael Glycas in letter 22, in the index of the Sforza Library, in the class of physical works 1. In Cod. 28, among others, the ecclesiastical orations of Symeon Metaphrastes are listed. What they were, others may say. I have not seen them.
[131] Nor, content with these, did he fail to write many other things, which Christian people might sing among other ecclesiastical hymns. Among them the first will be a Troparion, the beginning of which is, "Exalt, O maiden...". 2. Other Stichera according to the alphabet of the Great Canon. 3. A Canon for Saint Mary of Egypt, 1st of April. 4. A supplicatory Canon to the most holy Theotokos sung on Great Friday. P. "Wishing, my Christ, to give life to your creature..."
He also collected from the works of the holy Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, twenty-four orations on Morals, C *Ethikoi logoi* [Moral Orations], selected by Symeon the Master and Logothete, so that this great treasure might be stored up for Christians from all the treatises of our Father among the saints, Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. In other manuscripts, it is held to be the work of Symeon the Logothete of the Dromos, who is also the Metaphrast. They are read here and there and almost everywhere in Italian manuscript libraries; they were edited in Greek at Paris in 1556 by Guillaume Morel in 8vo, and in Latin with other works of Basil at Paris by Michel Sonnius in 1603, in folio, translated by Stanislaus Florius, and finally in Greek and Latin at Frankfurt by Nicolaus Bassæus in 8vo. Another, whoever he may have been, for the title is not prefixed to the work, undertook a similar task from the works of Chrysostom, and not in vain, of which some are deposited among the Ritual books of the Greeks. 1. *Prayers before Holy Communion*. P. Other prayers in verse. P. Other prayers in verse. D Carmina after Holy Communion. In the same vein are poems in which he gives thanks. P. Others in verse on the same subject. Prayers in which there is a confession of sins, to be recited every day without any intermission, if you wish, when you are in the agony of soul, to look upon the most holy Virgin Theotokos, and to obtain much aid and solace from her. P. "Receive then, most merciful and good Lady, my miserable petition."
[132] And so that he might more and more excite the piety and religion of the souls of Christians, he compiled certain very brief chapters, filled with aphorisms not so much elegant and flowery as grave and severe, both from his own works and from the treasury of others, and they are very elegant. There are one hundred and thirty-one sententious chapters of his. Of which that is the beginning: "For the word that chides in time is better by far than the soft word." From the works of others are these which follow: Chapters of our holy and God-bearing Father Macarius the Egyptian, paraphrased from his own discourses. By the Logothete the Metaphrast [there are fifty]. Vide the study and efforts of Symeon: Gas-
A For each one of us obtains salvation through the grace and divine gift of the Spirit, yet through faith and love, and the conflict of the free will, one is able to attain the perfect measure of spiritual maturity. Other chapters of the same holy Macarius, filled with every benefit [are also included]. All god-pleasing and the soul's ministry consist in the thoughts. Strive, therefore, from the dawn.
A Steering-oar of Souls, A
Alphabet of the Lord Symeon, also Logothete of the Course.
1. From my eyelids come tears, from my heart, sorrows; From my soul I offer repentance to thee, the Creator. 2. The hedonistic deeds have now become a bridle [or: an affliction] for me, Pleasures have been turned into grievous pains. 3. The race of mortals is slippery, I know, toward sin, But I, alas! have surpassed even the brute nature. 4. Come, O benevolent souls, come, a shower of tears, Pour forth from your souls, worthy of many laments. 5. I will say something even bolder: If thy kindness, O Christ, conquers immeasurable wickedness, let it now appear upon me. 6. To live thus while sinning—how much better is it to die! Yes, and it were better altogether not to have been born. 7. I lifted the eyes of my heart toward thee, Master, Crying bitterly for mercy; my hopes have failed. 8. The memory of death is a bitter thing to men, But for me, the things after death are more grievous and consume me. 9. Having seen, behold the destruction of my soul, O Word, And stand by me with compassion, and do not pass by. 10. To punish, I know, O Master, thou hast no will at all, But thou rejoicest rather in saving me. This alone warms me. 11. A bitter lion has attacked me, the soul-destroying lion. Open thy mouth; hasten, reach out thy hand; he has seized me. 12. Thou alone art without sin. But [I have committed] so many sins alone. Thou alone art sinless, and Christ is truly alone. 13. I have loved the deeds of the night, hating the works of light; Wherefore the soul-destroying darkness awaits me. 14. Things strange to thee and paradoxical, all overcoming reason, Yet if thou savest me, the condemned, it is greater than all. 15. When I reflect upon the multitudes of my evils, What trembling seizes me because of the matching punishment! 16. Many are the mansions of thy glory, many also the punishments, [Many] the ranks and measures, Master. Woe is me! And how shall I endure them?