And faith is by all means The manifestation of things unseen, The small things of the greatest. Contemplating the wonder of these, A And desiring and seeking; Seeking and also gazing upon The better thing through participation. I know, you shall desire more The threefold-shining light; Indeed, those things astound. Considering these miracles, you will most certainly be seized by a greater desire for the light that shines in a threefold manner, and being seized by desire you shall seek, and seeking you shall behold, having become composed of the better thing.
It is not that you live the life of a graceful nature, but that you have cast off The cares which bring gray hair to the breast. I wish to have only sufficient wealth: but the superfluous Greed for gold ever consumes the spirit of the mind. Hence, among men, you shall often find Both poverty better than riches, and death better than life. Knowing these things, guide the paths of your heart, Looking toward one single hope: wisdom. One does not bring you joy so that you may live, but so that you may cast off the cares that add gray hairs to your spirit. I desire sufficient worldly goods: but the excessive longing for gold and study consume the soul. It is often the case among mortals that poverty is better than riches, and death than life. When you have discerned this, direct the paths of your soul straightly, looking toward one end: wisdom.
ANNO DOMINI DLXXXII.
SAINT EUTYCHIUS
CONSTANTINOPOLITAN PATRIARCH.NOTITIA
(Ang. Mai, Scriptor. Vet. Collect. IX, xvi.)The fragments of Eutychius of Constantinople, contemporary of Pope Saint Gregory, which we provide, are illustrious; and because they refute various heresies, I scarcely doubt that they belong to those sermons of Eutychius which Eustratius says he wrote against all heresies in his *Life*, f. 87, among the Bollandists, April 1, day 6. Indeed, in the first Fragment he opposes the Quartodecimans, who believed that Easter should be celebrated at the time of the Jewish Passover. Again, he inveighs against the Aquarians or Hydroparatastae, namely those who used only water for the sacrifice, to no purpose; because, as Eutychius rightly says, they excluded themselves from the blood and body of the Lord. He teaches, moreover, that wine mixed with water must be offered, according to the tradition of the Lord, by which statement he strikes the schismatic Armenians, who stubbornly offer pure wine, relying on the false traditions of their ancestors, which certainly cannot be compared to that of the Lord Jesus. B In the second [Fragment] also, a depraved custom is refuted, which remains among the schismatics, whether Greeks or Armenians, concerning the veneration of the matter offered for the Eucharist, but not yet consecrated; concerning which abuse I have spoken briefly in the annotation, but Arcudius more copiously in *Concordia*, lib. III, 19 seq. But indeed, that is more significant which Eutychius cites from the primary authority of the great Athanasius from his sermon to the baptized (which title does not appear among the published sermons of Athanasius) concerning the body and blood of Christ present through the transubstantiation of the bread and wine in the eucharistic mystery. For he says as follows: "The deacon will see those bearing the bread and the chalice of wine, and preparing the table. And before the supplications and prayers take place, it is simply bread and a chalice: but when the great and wondrous prayers have been performed, then indeed the bread becomes the body, and the chalice the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." And again: "Let us come to the confection of the mysteries; here is the bread, and here is the chalice; both of which, indeed, before the prayers and supplications are finished, retain their nature simply: but yet as soon as the great prayers and the holy supplications have ascended into heaven, the Word descends into the bread and the chalice, and it is made his same body." The third Fragment of Eutychius I published in the tenth volume of the *Classicorum Auctorum*, p. 488-493, concerning the three banquets celebrated by the Lord Jesus around the time of Easter; describing the last of which, Eutychius again gives excellent testimony to the eucharistic mystery with these words: "He sacrificed himself mystically, at which time, taking bread into his hands after the supper, he gave thanks, showed, and broke it, mixing himself into the sign. Similarly, also tempering the chalice from the fruit of the vine and giving thanks, and showing it to God the Father, he said: Take, eat; take, drink; this is my body, and: this is my blood. Therefore, they all receive the whole holy body and precious blood, even if they receive only a part of the signs. For it is divided indivisibly among all, because of the commixtion."
Eutychius then explains this with the example of a seal, all the impressions of which are from one and the same immutable source. Likewise, with the example of the voice, which is one and the same and individual, whether in the person shouting, or in the air, or even in the ears of all who hear. He then concludes as follows: "Let no one, therefore, doubt that the incorruptible, immortal, holy, and life-giving body, along with the blood of the Lord, concluded in types through the operation of the sacrifice, after the mystical sacrifice and after the holy resurrection—let no one, I say, doubt that it imprints its power upon these same types just as in the aforementioned examples of things, and that it is entirely and truly present in all. For in the Body of the Lord himself, the whole fullness of the Godhead of the Word of God dwells bodily, that is, substantially. Moreover, the breaking of the venerable bread signifies death; wherefore it was also called the 'desired Pascha,' as the harbinger of salvation, of immortality, and of perfect knowledge. And just as at that time they went out from the supper with hymns to the Mount of Olives, so we, after the participation of the holy body and blood, give thanks and return to our own homes." These fragments of precious teaching, by heaven, increase our thirst and desire to uncover in time, if God grants it, more copious sources of Eutychius, namely, those many sermons which Eustratius recorded as having been written by him.
OF SAINT EUTYCHIUS PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
(Bolland. Act. Sanct. t. I, April., pag. 548.)1. A Saint Eutychius, Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople, flourished in the sixth century of Christ, being born in the year 512, as is clearly demonstrated by the remainder of his life's course and the seventy years spent in it. He was created a presbyter when he was thirty years of age, about the year of Christ 542. Having then assumed the monastic habit among the Amaseni, he lived first as a monk, then as an archimandrite, until the year 552, when the holy Patriarch Menas of Constantinople died on August 25; to whom holy Eutychius—having already traveled to Constantinople as an apocrisiarius for the metropolis of Amasea—was B succeeded as patriarch on the very day that the body of Menas, as Theophanes writes, lay still exposed in the sacred sanctuary; and in the following year, 553, he presided with the other patriarchs at the ecumenical council held in Constantinople. Since he had directed the patriarchate for 13 years with outstanding virtues, and was vigorously opposing the errors of the Emperor Justinian, he was abducted on January 22, 565, in the 13th indiction, first to two monastic houses in succession, then to the Princes' Islands, and from there he was relegated to Amasea, and Joannes Scholasticus was substituted in his place on April 13; after which, when he had died on August 31, in the 10th indiction, in the year 577, and Eutychius had lived as an exile in the Amasean monastery for twelve years and five months, renowned for many miracles, he was recalled by the Emperor Justin and Tiberius Caesar to his own Church of Constantinople. Entering there on the third of October, a Sunday, he performed the sacrifice of the Mass, and for six hours distributed the holy Eucharist. He lived thereafter for four years and six months, when he was seized by a sharp fever in the year 582, on the very day of the Feast of Pascha, on which he had offered the sacrifice of the Mass and refreshed his people with holy communion. Pascha fell on March 20, cycle of the moon 13, solar day 5, dominical letter... D with a firm mind he prayed to God until the seventh hour of the second-first Lord's day after Pascha, which fell on April 5. And when he had blessed everyone, finally about the ninth or tenth hour of the night, which was already looking toward the second day of the week and April 6, having commended his spirit into the hands of God, he departed from this life.
These things are in the *Life*: to which Theophanes consents, writing thus for the fourth and last year of Tiberius: "In this year, on the sixth day of April, in the fifteenth indiction, Patriarch Eutychius closed his final day." Moreover, he had predicted to the Emperor Tiberius, when he was visited by him during his final illness, that a swift death was at hand for him: and the event proved this to be true. For the Emperor departed from this life after four months. Thus it is read below in the *Life*. Which things are also confirmed in the *Constantinopolitan Chronicle*, generally called the *Alexandrian*, as follows: "In the fourth year of the reign while Tiberius was ill, on the 15th of August and the 15th indiction, Caesar Mauritius Tiberius was created, and crowned Augustus on August 13, having been given Constantina as his wife; on August 14 Tiberius died." At that time only four months and eight days had passed since the death of Saint Eutychius. Theophanes confirms the same.
2. But who could have indicated these things to us better than Eustratius the presbyter, the writer of the *Life* of Saint Eutychius, who lived as his familiar in his household, and having gone with him into exile and returned to Constantinople, never departed from his side, and accurately observed his years, months, days, and hours; so that it is a wonder that his years—and even the years of Tiberius—could have been ordered differently by Baronius, and the death of both placed in the year of Christ 586, when he was transferring the main part of the *Life of Saint Eutychius*, written by the presbyter Eustratius, into his own *Annals*...
A, he writes as follows: "As concerns the death of Eutychius, Eustratius the same reports that he was seized by a sharp fever on the day of Pascha after the evening office, and having thus had his vitals consumed by that fire, after seven days, namely on the following Sunday, he departed from this life." But if the sign is set by Baronius in the year 586, Pascha fell on the 17th day of April, and the following Sunday on the 24th day of April, and thus his birthday would not be assigned to the 6th of April, but to the 25th of the same month. Furthermore, the year 586 was the fourth indiction. But on the other hand, Theophanes twice indicates the fifteenth indiction for the death of both Saint Eutychius, who finished his life on April 6, and Emperor Tiberius, who died on August 14, when, he says, he had reigned for three years, ten months, and eight days. After Tiberius, Maurice reigned from August 14 of the year 582, through complete years of twenty until the year 602, having been killed on November 27, the third day of the week, in the sixth indiction, which year, month, and day of his slaughter he affirms; but he attributes to his rule only 16 years, contrary to the consensus of all writers. Simocatta, in the *History of Emperor Maurice* written in eight books, Theophanes, author of the aforementioned *Chronicle*, and others, enumerate the twenty years of his rule most accurately.
5. During the reign of Maurice, Eustratius the presbyter wrote the *Life of Eutychius*, when eighteen years had elapsed from the time that, an exile among the Amaseni, he had predicted his empire: and in the presence of that same emperor he recited it in a most solemn panegyric, as is apparent from the Epilogue, where the one whom he addresses first of all as a divine and sacred head is to be understood as none other than the emperor himself. He recited it, however, as much as we conjecture from the calculation of times and from the congruence of the affair itself, in the anniversary conclusion of the funeral rites in the year 583, since the prediction made eighteen years earlier refers most conveniently to the year 565, which was the first of his exile. That *Life* existed in Greek in the Venetian library, from whence Lipomanus received it, and from him Surius, rendered into Latin by Petro Francisco Zino. Having obtained another exemplar of it from the Vatican library, when we saw that the translator, as if stunned by the sight of so prolix an oration, had approached the making of the translation with a more sluggish and less attentive mind, and had stumbled in very many places, we deemed it necessary to prepare a new version from the Greek. We have obtained another *Life of Saint Eutychius* from the codex of the most serene Queen Christina of Sweden, which had belonged to Paulus Rhamnusius and his friends: in which were only the *Lives of the saints* whose relics are in Venice in the monastery of Saint George the Major. This *Life*, moreover, Fabianus Cretensis, a monk of the Congregation of Cassino, otherwise of Saint Justina, had translated from Greek into Latin. In this *Life*, of which we received another copy at Rome, transcribed by the hand of Ferdinand Ughelli, Eustachius B is named in place of Eutychius, and these few things are contained at the end concerning the translated body: "The most holy Eustachius was buried under the altar of the saints, where also the remains of the holy saints Andrew, Timothy, and Luke were placed." But in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred forty-six, under the illustrious Doge of the Venetians Andrea Dandulo, while Innocent IV was Supreme Pontiff at Rome, and Frederick II was emperor, his most holy body was brought to Venice, and was honorably re-entombed in the altar in the temple of Saint George, by the surname of the Major, on the twenty-second day of the month of April, where it is most devoutly venerated by the monks with long-lasting prayer of hymns and praises. So much for that. They agree on the year 1246, the pontificate of Innocent IV, and almost the rule of Frederick II, against whom Henry, landgrave of Thuringia and Hesse, had been designated emperor in the preceding year, the empire of Frederick having been abrogated by the general Council of Lyons. But there is a greater difficulty in Andrea Dandulo, who is handed down by the writers of this republic as having been created doge of the Venetians in the following century and in the year 1336. Bellinus of Padua inscribed in his *Martyrology*, according to the custom of the Roman curia, most of the saints whose relics are preserved in Venice in the said monastery of Saint George the Major, and for the mentioned 22nd day of April he has this: "Item in the monastery of Saint George the Major of the Venetians, the translation of Saint Eustachius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the year of our Lord 1246." Bellinus is followed by Maurolycus, Felicius, Molanus, Canisius, Galesinius, and Ferrarius. The Florentine manuscript preserved in the library of Senator Strozzi agrees. The same Bellinus on February 19 again refers to the memory of Saint Eustachius, patriarch of the Church of Constantinople. Again, all the authors cited before follow, from whom Canisius adds that it is treated more fully on July 15, perhaps thinking him to be Saint Eustathius, archbishop of Antioch, who is venerated on that day. We have said more on February 19 among those omitted and those rejected to other days, which can be seen there. As for the rest, we do not wish to bring forward what is contained in the cited *Life of Saint Eutychius* by Fabianus Cretensis, because it is a compendium of another *Life* composed not without various errors.
4. The Greeks celebrate the solemn office of Saint Eutychius on April 6, in the Menea printed and handwritten, such as we find in Rome, Florence, D Milan, Turin, Paris, and Dijon: so that it is clearly a marvel that it was excluded from the Sirletus Menology: for both in the metrical *Ephemeris* and in the tables of the Muscovite *Calendar* only this one is named. In the manuscript Menology of Emperor Basil this eulogy is held: "The sixth day of April, memory of our holy Father Eutychius, archbishop of Constantinople. Our holy Father Eutychius was under the empire of the great Justinian, having arisen from the region of Phrygia. He was excellently educated by Hesychius the presbyter and wonder-worker, his grandfather, and being versed in the Holy Scripture with study and assiduous meditation, he was received by the bishop of Amasea, and first initiated as a monk, then as a presbyter, he led a tranquil life in the monastery of Saint Melitius. Fifth then following...
A council gathered by Justinian, when the Bishop of Amasea at that time was detained by infirm health, Eutychius was sent in his stead, who so excelled among others in the council that Menas the patriarch said of him: "He shall be my successor." And so, after his death, he was elected patriarch. But when he later fell into the Emperor’s disfavor, he was sent into exile. After the death of Justinian, however, he recovered his see under Justin and Tiberius. But when he had performed many miracles, and checked the onset of a great mortality by his prayers, and had predicted the death of Tiberius, just as he had earlier predicted his reign, he departed from this life and was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles. The same is found in the new Anthology which Arcudius inscribed to Pope Clement VIII. Longer eulogies of his life are contained in the Menaia, in which at the end these words are read: Τελεῖται δὲ ἡ αὐτοῦ σύναξις ἐν τῇ ἁγιωτάτῃ Μεγάλῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ· "His synaxis is celebrated in the most holy Great Church." His zeal is praised in the odes for defending the orthodox faith and suppressing heresy; and because of various miracles performed by him, he is called a Wonder-Worker in the acrostic of the said Odes, in this way:
Τὸν θαματουργὸν Εὐτύχιον θαυμάσω. Mirabor Eutychium mirorum effectorem. (I shall marvel at Eutychius, the wonder-worker.)
Before the eulogy already recited, this couplet is placed, with an allusion to the name Eutychius, which signifies "fortunate" or "one enjoying good fortune":
Εὐτύχιον θανέντα τιμῶν τοῖς λόγοις, Ἐμαυτὸν εὐτυχέστατον κρίνω. Morientem Eutychium sermonibus laudans, Ipsum me judico fortunatissimum. (Honoring the dying Eutychius with words, I deem myself most fortunate.)
5. Joannes Molanus in his *Auctarium* to Usuardus for the 6th of April celebrates his memory, and in the first edition this eulogy exists: "At Constantinople, the birthday of the great and blessed Father our Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, whose life and miracles were written by Eustratius, the humble presbyter." Ferrarius also celebrates the same in his general *Catalog*; and Baronius, having related his death to the year 586, no. 7, asserts that he is not undeservedly honored by the Greeks as a saint, and his birthday celebrated on his anniversary. To these may be added Bellinus and six other martyrologies, although these celebrate him under the name of Saint Eustathius on April 12th and February 19th, as we noted above: which Ferrarius does again on May 11th with these words: "At Venice, the translation of the body of Saint Eutychius, Bishop of Constantinople." In the notes, the Calendar of the church of St. George Major is cited, in which the body is preserved, which was translated from Byzantium to Venice into the said church in the year of the Lord 1246, as the manuscript archives of the monastery of St. George possess.
OF THE GREAT AND THRICE-BLESSED EUTYCHIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, LIFE AND CONDUCT, WRITTEN BY EUSTRATIUS, THE HUMBLE PRESBYTER, HIS DISCIPLE.
(From Vatican manuscript 1660, translated by D. P., published by the Bollandists, Vol. I, April, Latin p. 550; Greek in the Appendix, p. lix.)
PROLOGUE
1. Great is the argument proposed to us, but the facility for explaining it is meager: the spirit is burning, but the tongue is cold, nor can it relate the wondrous things and the well-ordered life of the great man. The thought is ample, but the diction is narrow:728994770678280628292837330526760630737483863486333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333233333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333334333
A ...but the architect is inexperienced and unskilled. Yet the Lord, because God is omnipotent, provides A wisdom to the foolish, and suggests the word to those who evangelize with great power; and He Himself with His finger, that is, with the Holy Spirit, opens the ears of the deaf: and He who can raise up children to Abraham from stones, renders even a tongue that could scarcely, if at all, be moved to speech, eloquent. I also know that, although He is rich in all things, He so accepts two mites that He prefers them even to gold and topaz: for He promised that He would not turn away even a cup of cold water given merely in the name of a disciple. What, therefore, should deter us from undertaking this duty? Is it because we lack that abundance of oratory by which we might be able to praise the divine man according to his dignity? Not at all. For, B because we cannot measure with our eyes the entire space between heaven and earth, as the great Basil says, we do not therefore refuse to contemplate it as much as we are able. Nor, indeed, because the subject is very lofty for me and the undertaking difficult, shall we embrace idle and slothful silence, like those cowardly and inexperienced sailors who, at the mere sight of the sea, are so terrified that they dare not even approach the waves near the shore for the sake of a small experiment. Rather, relying on the help of the most blessed man, I shall endeavor to satisfy the desire of the people according to my strength: for I know they desire only that which will be found in me, a poor man, and not that which is owed to this man.
2. For it was not he alone who was acceptable to God, he who C offered precious calves and sheep for sacrifice, but he who offered fine flour, a turtledove, and a young pigeon—small and cheap gifts, yet pure—was also praised; for everyone is judged by what he has, not by what he lacks. Therefore, trusting in Him who said: "He who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened," even though I am not ignorant of my own lack of skill, I shall nevertheless explain the glorious deeds of this great man; or rather, I shall give occasion to more skilled persons to praise him who is superior to all praise, and who is himself his own greatest praise. For as the wise man says, "The tongue of the just is as refined silver, and the lips of righteous men drop graces," for a great splendor shines forth from his truthful words. Just as therefore the sun is D illuminated by its own, not another's light; so neither does the great luminary of the world and teacher, Eutychius, need the praises of others in order to be shown to have been perfect; nor is there need to place upon him a crown of glory received from elsewhere; because just as according to the prophet David: "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, wrought in variety," so that divine and sacred head is adorned with all kinds of virtues; and he himself, like some sublime torch, shines perpetually for all who are sailing on this sea of life, to whom, looking back, they are led into the most secure and tranquil port to rest.
A 3. This man, therefore, was truly a great person and a servant of God; a holy high priest, constituted not by men, nor through men, but through Jesus Christ; he was revealed in a fitting manner as a second Job in patience, blameless, pious, and true, being far removed from all reproach. Since, however, the account of the much-tried Job has come to mind, it is worthwhile to celebrate the praises of this high priest by drawing from his history, both because of the many adversities that befell him and because of the fortitude of soul with which he endured such things. For of old, Job was a man in the land of Ausitis, rich in herds and money; but the riches of Eutychius lay in the fact that he had nothing and possessed nothing. That man sacrificed to God and the Master for his seven children, offering up calves and goats; this man, not for seven children, but for myriads or rather, one might say, for B innumerable peoples, was always offering the bloodless sacrifice, which is distributed daily without division. And since the history of Job makes mention of the dignity of his land, place, and lineage, let us then also consider the country and place of this admirable hero, and his kinship from his ancestors. We shall see that he was born and reared from his earliest infancy by Christian and orthodox parents and forefathers; let us examine the root from which the branch comes, and let us recognize the tree by its fruit, for the tree of life springs from the fruit of righteousness. From what country or place, then, and from what root did this great fruit spring—or rather, one might say, this spiritual vine, flourishing and abounding in the branches of a blameless life, and entwined with the tendrils of charity towards its own kind? It flourished, indeed, instead of leaves, with the beauty of its character; and having well nourished the sweet and ripe grape of virtue, it cultivated the wine that gladdens the hearts of men. For he also C became like the earth, receiving the seed and multiplying the fruit, in one place thirtyfold, in another sixtyfold, and in another a hundredfold. This fruit he indeed produced, to be enjoyed by those more perfect and possessing senses trained for the discernment of good and evil; it is necessary for those who are ignorant of it. . . .
CHAPTER ONE. The country, parents, education, and studies of Saint Eutychius.
D 4. This great man originated from the land of the Phrygians, and his place, that is to say the village, was Theii, which means "of God"—for thus the divine village is called, from which the saint came forth; wherefore such a glorious name would be sufficient for the village’s praise. For what could be found that is more illustrious than such a name?
A Being inhabited by God and having brought forth a divine man, or rather, one might say, having received this very name through a certain prophetic spirit on the man's account: for the man himself, being a divine person, made a worthy recompense to it, surrounding it with an impregnable wall, and raising within it a temple to the glorious forty Holy Martyrs, making it in many ways a divine refuge for the salvation of many souls, and especially for those who wish to embrace the angelic and monastic life. Since, therefore, many weeds sown by the enemy of the human race were growing up in that region—I mean the corruption of heretical pravity—the parents of this saint appeared more radiant than the stars, possessing the words of life and trampling upon all the power of B venomous beasts, having received from the Father of lights the authority to walk upon asps and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.
5. For who among those who have obtained his homeland is ignorant of the forefather and namesake of this noble man, Eutychius the Great, who also shone among the priests and received from God the grace to cast out demons and heal diseases? Those vexed by impure spirits feared even to look at him, and being unable to endure the grace shining forth from his face, they would immediately fall down, doing those things which it is customary for those delivered unto unclean spirits to do, according to some divine dispensation, unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the fearful day of judgment. C But the merciful and compassionate God, not allowing those who are tested to be tried beyond what they are able, along with the outcome of the temptation, also provided healing to the sufferers through the imposition of the holy man's hands. From such a priestly root sprouted a daughter named Synesia, truly responding to her own name, inasmuch as she became in very deed a mother of prudence. When she had been rightly reared and had reached maturity, she was joined in the Lord at the appropriate time to a man of similar character and mind, as we shall set forth a little later.
6. Having conceived, therefore, she brought forth her firstborn son, Eutychius the Great, the patriarch; for before He fashioned His servant in the D womb, God knew him, and before he came forth from the womb, He sanctified him and called him by this name, because those whom He foreknew, He also called, and those whom He called, He also sanctified. Blessed indeed is she who carried him and was mother to such a Father; she appeared no less than Anna, because this one is more than Samuel. For she made a vow to the Lord to consecrate the son she would bring forth; for she said, supplicating the Lord: "If You give me male seed, I will give him as a gift before You all the days of his life." But she did something greater [alt-version omitted]
and having received him, she gave him to God, not bound by the necessity of a vow. The mother, then, who brought forth Samuel into the light, fashioned a priest and prophet of one nation, that of Israel, for the whole world, for he was born to her by prayer. But the mother of the man now being praised, from that very world, gave birth—in a manner worthy of a saint—to a high priest and Father of Fathers; and she raised him in a way worthy of the vision. For the light that shone upon her while she was still carrying the fetus in her womb clearly signified this. For she used to tell the story herself, saying: "While I was lying on my bed one night, a great light shone upon me and the bed on which I was lying, so that I was not a little disturbed by the strangeness of the sight, and I pondered for a long time, saying: 'What could this that has appeared mean?'" It was portending, as I suppose, that the Morning Star, or rather, to speak more truly, a righteous man shining seven times brighter than the sun, was to rise from her; and, as the outcome B proved, confirming the truth of these omens, he would enlighten many who were sitting in ignorance and arouse those lying in sloth.
7. But what shall we say of her consort and the father of this great Father of Fathers? Shall we pass over the heroics and noble deeds of the man in silence, or shall we touch upon a few things about him as well? Who was as noble as Alexander (for this was the man's name), so dear and so honored by the emperor and the princes? For his honors were manifest to the eternal King and God, from the fruit that sprang from him; and in wars, he was invincible, being the right hand of the general at that time (I mean Belisarius, whom he also held in the highest esteem and honor, as one who excelled all others who had distinguished themselves in deeds of valor, he being honored with the rank of *scholarius*). Having, therefore, attained to such great glory, both from the emperor and from those in authority, he, who was also a soldier of Christ, was esteemed by none of their honors as much as by the fact of his becoming the father of such a man. Sprung, then, from such grandfathers and parents—true Christians, orthodox, and workers of miracles—the C wonderful and great Eutychius was suckled and brought up by them, remaining in their care through his early childhood.
8. It is also good not to leave the place of his upbringing unexamined, how he himself even foretold the future great and most happy city of the Augusti by his own name. For we find also that Paul, the divine apostle, made mention of his own birth and upbringing, saying that he was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. What land, therefore, D raised the great Eutychius?
A Let us see. It is called Augustopolis, where he received the holy and saving baptism, he who was to regenerate many sons through it and provide for the world above. Moreover, it is wonderful what his grandfather taught him at that time. For that excellent man used to relate that when he was being led by him to the sacred font, he learned from the same man that, because he had been baptized there, he ought always to come there, and bend his knees, and pray thus: "Grant me, O Lord, a good mind, and cause me to surpass my companions in learning my letters." And indeed this instruction came from divine inspiration, so that he might be assured after these things that he had received the holy baptism of the catholic and apostolic Church. Having been reared, therefore, by his great grandfather, and in his most holy church at Augustopolis (for he was a presbyter there and a guardian of the sacred treasures), and having grown through his first age, he was instructed by him in the tradition of letters, and more than these, in character, in the movement of his walk, his attire, and the cheerful modesty of his countenance, and, to speak simply, he became full of all things that lead to the perfection of virtue.
B C 9. Since it is fitting to act also in some things, I consider it proper not to pass over his childish games unexamined. What were they? I will say briefly. The house in which he stayed with his aforementioned grandfather is called "of the Branches" D to this day; this house obtained this name because the brothers dwelling in it were surnamed Clonades (which is to say, Branches): for there were twelve brothers of his grandfather, all of them tall, whence also the reason for the name was taken: for it is agreed that great trees have great branches. Therefore, in this house, when many boys were gathered one day, things appropriate to boys were played. What were these? That they should give and receive back and forth the names of princes and priests; and some even wrote their own names with their own hand upon the wall, with the rank that each person chose for himself. But this great man, divinely inspired, when he had written his own name there, affixed to it the title of patriarch: and to this day in that place, formed by his own hand in childish letters, these words are seen: "Eutychius, patriarch." Who would not marvel at all these things? Isaac indeed played with Ishmael, but the dignity of the patriarchate was kept silent, although he was a son of a patriarch and indeed an only son, and God had promised to Abraham that from him there would be a multitude of tribes, and that he would be the father of many nations. And Athanasius, the great bishop of the city of Alexandria, once also appeared—
A to have engaged in similar play with his contemporaries, as those who wrote about him have reported; but neither did this man write or say any such thing about himself. Only the great Eutychius, like another Samuel, seeing the future from his very swaddling clothes and moved by the divine Spirit, foretold the patriarchal dignity and grace that was to be conferred upon him by the Father of lights: “For every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,” as the divine James says.
10. When he was therefore twelve years old, and the time now called him to go forth from the home of his grandfather, so that the things divinely foreordained for him might be fulfilled, he did not hear as Abraham did, “Go out from your land and from your kindred” (for his parents and relatives were not acting against God, like Terah in Haran); B but, as Jacob was sent forth with the blessings of Isaac and Rebecca, he was sent to the queen of cities by his own parents and his aforementioned grandfather, under the pretext of studying secular learning, but having embarked upon a greater work beyond the stated task, as will be shown. For just as Jacob, having reached Mesopotamia, took for himself as wives the daughters of Laban—I mean Leah and Rachel—(which Laban truly bears the figure of the world, and his daughters signify the Church gathered from the Jews and the nations), so too did the God of all C of the whole world fittingly unite the new Jacob and great patriarch Eutychius to the Church from both parts, making him high priest, with the constitution following a little later. Having gone through all learning as one single and sole discipline, which the many and the wise men of this world admire, and having shown himself to have perceived little of it merely by hearing, and having surpassed his peers in the demonstrations and other crowns, he transferred his whole self to the true and genuinely existing philosophy, dragging nothing from that old and thorny, and still furthermore *odorous* Egyptian leaven—I mean of teaching and instruction—from the foolish philosophers; D but, as his disposition toward divine things was such, he plucked only that which was good and congruent with religion in them, according to the proverb which says, “Pluck the rose, and beware of the thorns.”
11. Having learned and been persuaded, then, that the wisdom of this world, according to the divine Apostle, is not descending from above, but is earthly, natural, devilish, not yielding spiritual fruit to those leaning upon it;—but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easily—
A persuaded, full of mercy and good fruits, which those who attain it enjoy. Having embraced this with great longing, and having folded it to himself, this great man and man of God took counsel for himself, a good counsel which shall not be taken away from him, but shall preserve him, according to Him who said, O wise one: "Good counsel shall keep thee, and understanding shall preserve thee." He carried this out immediately through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, not delaying the grace, nor saying, "I will return tomorrow and do what I have counseled," but when he said, "I will," the result immediately followed. But God was the admirable author of this counsel: "For every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." But what and of what kind was the counsel? To leave behind to the earth the things of earth, and to bury all Egyptian desire beneath the sand, and to hasten to the mountain of virtues, I mean to the angelic choir of the monks, concerning which we shall speak shortly. B
CHAPTER II. The reception of ecclesiastical degrees: monastic life.
12. After he had set such plans for himself, as we have said, and had been well built upon the rock which is Christ, and that foundation remained unshaken and immoveable; an occasion arose, brought about by God, which hindered this intention for a little while. For just as those who are traveling and conversing with one another on their journey, if they are suddenly struck by some clap of thunder, interrupt both their journey and their conversation for a short time; but when it ceases, they resume both: so it happened entirely to this admirable man. For while he was revolving the thoughts of the solitary life as much as possible, the pontifical C dignity of the Amaseans was offered, with the bishop and several others striving with the greatest zeal that he should accept the bishopric of the Lazicheni. Compelled by their will and prayers, and thinking that God willed it so, he yielded to necessity, and surrendered himself like an innocent lamb to the Metropolitan of Amasea, who was then staying in the Royal City.
13. And first he was deemed worthy of the spiritual grace of the Lector, which our Lord and God Himself sanctified; for having taken the book, He read, and having folded it, He gave it back to the minister. It is worthy to note here, too, how it was not simply, or as it happened, or in an obscure place, that he first laid aside his hair; but in a D sacred house, and that, for a cause full of reverence.
A What, then, is this place, and what is this holy spot? Hearken: Everyone knows the house of our holy and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, which is in the Urbicii, in the Strategion. In this house, this great man spent his leisure from his early youth, and in it he ceased not to send up his prayers by night and by day to God, being deemed worthy also of the partaking of the holy body and precious blood of Christ our God. With good reason, therefore, when the time called him, he had the desire to receive therein also the spiritual graces of the priesthood. Truly, O holy Church of the Mother of Christ, you were revealed as another Sion, since the Holy Spirit was sent down in you upon this divine and apostolic man; and you, O man of God, desired with desire the grace which you loved, whose beauty you had long coveted, and which you sought to receive in that same sanctuary.
14. What then happened? He who was entrusted with the shearing of his venerable head was standing ready, and they sought a place secluded from the crowd. A place worthy of the man who was himself worthy was found. And what is this place? The holy baptistery. They entered into it, and as they found nowhere to sit, by the providence of the Greater One, Eutychius was found sitting upon the B base of the venerable font; and against his own will and that of the one who was shearing him, yet by divine counsel, it so happened that all his hairs fell into the holy font. Verily, all the things that happened to this great man are worthy of admiration. For the holy font, which had already regenerated him, as if stretching out its hand, became a mother again by receiving his hair. And this, I believe, was a prefiguring of those who were to be regenerated by him and by this same holy and venerable font in this imperial city, a countless multitude of people. For just as no one can number the stars of heaven, or the sand of the sea, or the hairs of a head, so too would no man have the power to number the royal priesthood and the holy nation, who, through this holy man, were regenerated by water and the Spirit and brought to God. C Nor is that other thing which he signified—I mean the falling of his hair into the holy font—deserving of being passed over without examination. For he accepted all things that happened to him with precision, as coming from God, and he observed them with great care. Since, therefore, these things were among them, he determined with himself from that hour no longer to wash or wet his head with common water; which rule he received and kept, and kept D persevere in remaining unwashed until the end of his life; and in this he observed the divine command. "Vow and pay to the Lord your God" (Ps. LXXV, 12); and :
"It is good for a man, when he takes up the yoke from his youth" (Lam. III, 27). A
15. And these things concerning the first rank were thus fulfilled. But what followed? After a short time another Stephen was revealed. Having entered under the yoke of the diaconate, powerful in word and deed, he was able to discipline many by his own life and manner, and to instruct them how one ought to perform the divine liturgy and to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. Having then spent a short time in the rank of the diaconate according to the divine canons, so that he might benefit more people, he was led up to the seat of the presbyters, and enjoyed that honor as well. And observe, how all things proceed upon him in sequence and order; nothing was lacking in him, not age, nor any other requirement, but all was filled with divine grace. We judge, therefore, that this is the best arrangement and sequence, if anywhere, then most especially in the ranks of piety. For at thirty years of age he was ordained a presbyter, having reached a perfect measure, even according to bodily age. B It seems that Christ, who is God over all, honored this age, having been baptized at thirty years old, taking upon Himself the whole of me along with my own, so that I might receive what is His through the hypostatic union. As then he went up also to the seat of the presbyters, according to the Davidic saying: "Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders" (Ps. CVI, 32); he shines forth this position also by His own example. He was not, as the myths make of the giants, sown and brought forth at the same time, nor like those who are suddenly made leaders of the people as if formed out of clay in a single day. No, I say, he did not come suddenly to that rank, because he was not one who pursued the rank, but the rank pursued him, according to that which the Scripture says: "Your mercy, O Lord, shall pursue me" (Ps. XXII, 6). C
16. Thus, having fulfilled all things according to the divine decree and law, and having been deemed worthy of the priestly rank and standing, he was already in the hope of the see of the Lazes, but he was prevented from approaching that administration. For God, who always provides better and higher things for His servants, changed the plan. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts," says the Lord through the prophet (Isa. LV, 8), "for man looks at the face, but God looks into the heart" (I Kings XVI, 7). When, therefore, that endeavor was dissipated and the episcopacy of Lazica went to another, this most excellent man returned again to the intention and pursuit which he had desired from the beginning. D He negotiates for incorruptible riches and imitates the prudent head of a household who, bringing forth from his treasures things new and old, buys the precious pearl and increases his gains. Thus also this admirable man beautifully exchanged the charming pleasures of life and those that caress the senses, giving the temporal so that he might receive the eternal, by the example of the Apostles, who, having left all things, followed the Word...
He gives himself entirely over to the solitary life; he puts on the monastic habit, having acquired this philosophy in word, deed, and demeanor, even from his mother's womb. He almost imitates Elijah the Tishbite and John the Baptist, who, showing the way of asceticism to those willing to embrace it, were the first to inhabit the desert. But the great Eutyches did not inhabit the desert, nor Carmel; but he takes hold of the metropolis of the Amaseans, there to satisfy his desire. For there is in this city a holy monastery, long ago established by the most holy bishops Meletius, Uranius, and Seleucus, men great and God-bearing; and two of them—Meletius, I mean, and Seleucus—having governed the most holy Church of the Amaseans, fell asleep therein in holiness, and even to this day perform miracles and healings B there.
17. A paradoxical miracle, too, of the great Seleucus is reported, which God worked through him while he was still in the flesh. For when a very severe famine had gripped the country at that time, the danger was not small; and indeed, since the grain had been completely carried off from the granary—which serves as a granary even to this day—the granary keeper at that time, unable to bear the persistence of those asking out of need, went to the holy Seleucus and threw the keys of the granary at him, saying that there is no grain in the granary, and I cannot bear the importunity of the crowd. The holy man, therefore, took the keys and placed them on his own bed, and through the whole night he ceased not to entreat God, as was his custom, to show His wonderful works, so that He might feed His people. When morning came, C as the most devout clerics entered according to custom to the holy bishop, he says to the granary keeper, "Take the keys, brother, and go, and address the need of those who are asking." But he again, with oaths, insisted that there was absolutely no grain in the granary. As he persisted in his unbelief, the great man says to the clerics, "Blessed is the Lord; go with him, and know if he speaks the truth." When they had received the blessing of the holy man, and had gone off, and wished to open the door, they could scarcely get inside because of the multitude of the grain. And a written record of the grain exported is bruited even to this day, thus: "And from the prayer of the holy Seleucus, ten myriads." And such were the things concerning the great Seleucus. D As for Uranius, who adorned the throne in Idora, and was perfected there, his tomb works healings even to this day. And this is made manifest by the infirm, who lie down every day in that house wherein the holy one reposes: they enter, not according to their individual dignity, but as it happens that they arrive, and receive...
approach the tomb of the holy one, departing free from disease, walking in health, and glorifying God.
18. In this great monastery, then (which he later increased and expanded in many ways, both with buildings and with divine worship, and in addition to these, with the increase of necessary revenues), the great Eutychius took on the monastic habit. Having girded his loins in truth, and having put on the armor of the Holy Spirit, he accepted the concern—that is, the headship—of the entire monastic order under the metropolis, and from that office he was called "catholic" or general; yet, not at all puffed up by this dignity, he did not dwell on great things in his heart, nor did he lift his eyes on high. But he disdained all the splendor of this fleeting and wretched life as empty, inasmuch as he did not ignore that the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. Therefore, although he was the greatest and the first of all, he so carried himself as if he were one of many; for so the Lord commands: "Whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be the last of all and the servant of all." For he kept in mind this sentence of the Wise Man: "Have they appointed you a ruler? Be not puffed up; be among them as one of them." B Moreover, when he had spent no small space of time—namely, ten years—dwelling in the same monastery and presiding over it, and had done and taught all things, and had gained many for God through his exhortations and doctrine, observing that evangelical saying, "Whoever shall have done and taught, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven"; and that, "A good name is better than much wealth," he deserved to hear those words: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many." And thus he became illustrious, so that he who was like a burning lamp hidden under a bushel was chosen to be placed upon a lampstand to illuminate all the faithful, and to be known to all, as a city set upon a hill. How, then, did these things come to pass? It happened by divine providence that in a certain matter, which concerned all Christians, the services of this man were all the more required; which matter I judge to have been set in motion for his sake alone, because only through him did it happen that a beginning was given to a fitting correction. The matter, however, was of this kind. C D
CHAPTER III.
Occasion of the departure for Constantinople; election to the patriarchate.
19. Know, all who are eager and desirous of learning, that the fifth holy council was celebrated in the Royal City, in the reign of the divine Emperor Justinian, who was most eager for the Christian religion, and most diligent in assembling the most holy bishops against the Three Chapters—that is, the writings of Theodoret, against the twelve ca-
A chapters of Cyril of holy memory, and concerning the letter said to have been written by Ibas to Maris the Persian, and concerning Theodore of Mopsuestia and the Jewish trifles blasphemously uttered by him, which were accurately and justly examined and disapproved by the holy ecumenical council itself, and reasonably condemned.
Since, then, the most holy bishops were being summoned from every city, the metropolitan of the Amaseans was also among them, being obliged to travel to the Queen of Cities for the sake of this inquiry. Being unable to do so due to bodily infirmity—or rather, by the whole dispensation of God for the sake of this holy man, so that his hidden treasure might be manifested—what happens? The most holy bishop approaches him, first by means of other genuine and venerable Fathers persuading him to make for the royal city, and then by his own entreaties urging him to comply and readily allow himself to be sent to the council in his place, due to the fact that he possessed deep knowledge of the divine dogmas and the Scriptures. The holy man yielded to the entreaties; for he was as swift to obey where the gain of salvation was hoped for, as he was slow to obey if detriment or harm to his soul were proposed.
B 29. Since, however, he was initially reluctant, just as the great Moses was once upon a time in making the journey to Egypt for the sake of the liberation of the sons of Israel, this new Moses also perceives—if not a burning bush, yet in a certain manner, like the great Abraham, a glowing furnace—and he hears a voice, not one saying, "Do not draw near hither," or, "Loose your sandal from off your feet" (by which it is commanded that earthly and carnal thoughts be put aside), but words similar to these: "Abraham, Abraham, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, that in blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you, and your seed shall be as the stars of heaven." For so many and such are the children who are born to him, who are "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of water and the Spirit" and all the other spiritual graces.
21. It is worth recounting, however, what this vision was that he saw, and the voice that he heard. Again Joseph, again Daniel, this great man becomes a new one. "For I was seeing," C he says, "in a vision of the night, a finger of the Lord’s hand in the firmament of the heaven, and the mountain overhanging his own holy monastery (for it is a mountain very lofty and elevated, on which is also built the shrine of the holy martyr Thalalaeus). And I heard a voice speaking to me, and the finger of the hand showing me the summit of the mountain, saying: 'There you shall be bishop.' What, then, could one suppose that mountain signified, other than the Queen of Cities (as the outcome has shown), the D summit and pinnacle...
of the remaining mountains and cities? Concerning which the divine David also says: "Watering the mountains from his upper chambers" (Ps. CIII, 13). For whether one understands the angelic powers, or the mountains and cities themselves in a sensible way, in both respects the truth holds.
B 22. When he had seen this vision, he entreated God, who had shown it to him, to take that ministry from him, and the danger of giving an account for each individual, and rather to grant him, in the life to come, to enjoy those good things promised to the righteous, and to hear: "Be over ten cities." But God, who brings up clouds from the ends of the earth, and who called David from the flocks of sheep and anointed him as prophet and king, set apart this humble man as well, and by the occasion I have mentioned, brought him into the greatest of cities. He remained with the patriarch who was called Menas, who was a most holy and divine man. Living an angelic life and foreseeing the future, he encouraged the great Eutychius not to depart from him; and, showing him to his holy clergy, he said: "This monk shall be my successor." Indeed, Eutychius was immediately sent to the emperor, and when the matters proposed were being debated before him, he appeared most instructed in all human and divine learning. The heretics who engaged with him—accustomed to argue not for utility, but for the subversion of the simple—could in no way resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. And when some denied that those who were discovered to have been heretics after their death should be subjected to anathema, he himself proved by the testimony of the divine Scriptures that they must be punished in this way; for King Josiah, just as it had been prophesied concerning him, dug up the bones of those who had sacrificed to the calves after their death and burned them: therefore, the same course must be preserved in the case of heretics, that they be punished even after their passing.
C 23. The emperor and all who were present, having marveled, thereafter honored and regarded him highly. Thus, with Eutychius moving more freely within the palace, the riches of his learning became a greater manifestation before God and men. For the Lord of scepters, or rather the King of those who reign, loved him—He who knows all things before our birth, that those whom He foreknew and predestinated, these He also called and glorified—and He called the great Eutychius to the dignity of the pontificate, with honor and great glory. For after a few days, the holy servant of God, Menas, the patriarch of the royal city of whom we have already made mention, in a good old age and full of days spent with the grace of God, departed for the life of the angels and the holy Fathers. When the news of his death was brought to the most Christian emperor, many people in their eagerness sought, with incredible zeal, to corrupt with promises
and bribes the powerful men surrounding the emperor, if they might perhaps achieve their hoped-for goals. But God, who does and transforms all things, who tests hearts and kidneys, and who holds in His hand the heart of the king along with the ends of the earth, inclined the heart of the most serene emperor toward this worthy man. And with great speed He instructed one of the honorable referendaries A (this man was named Peter) to seek out and seize the great Eutychius, and to guard him with the proper honor; which was done.
24. But listen also to the vision he saw while being kept. For the great man said: "To me, in that night, it seemed that I saw a great, brightly-lit house, and a splendidly made bed, upon which a woman named Sophia was reclining, who, having called me, showed me her jewels. After this, I observed the sun-room adjoining the house, that it was filled with snow, and a child standing in the sun-room, named Sotericus, who was also about to fall from the sun-room. I reached him in time and lifted him out of the snow and from falling." Now what else did this signify but the beautiful works of the most holy Church, signified by those jewels? And by the child in danger in the snow, the doctrines of salutary teaching were indicated. Both certainly obtained the necessary correction through the oversight and governance C of the holy man.
When, therefore, the period of protective custody had passed, the Christ-loving emperor, trusting in the intent he had from the beginning regarding him, turned to the holy clergy and to the sacred senate. And having convinced them—insofar as he had also seen a divine vision concerning him while sleeping in the house of Saint Peter, the chief of the apostles, at Athyra (for he was keeping an imperial procession there; he said that he had seen the chief of the apostles in a dream, pointing out to him the great Eutychius, and saying, "Make this man become bishop")—with many oaths he asserted that these things were so. When they saw the insistence of the emperor, and how great a zeal, joined with a certain divine illumination, he was exhibiting, all together with one mind, in a common decision, by a common vote, with one voice, before the expected time, cried out: "Worthy, worthy." D
A 25. When, therefore, all things were proceeding according to order and the divine canons, the time arrived for the imposition of sacred hands, or rather the completion, over their Father and teacher. He is brought to the holy altar—he who was later to bring many priests and high priests to it; he is completed by his hand and prayer, and by the God-given sacred Oracles; he is anointed with the Holy Spirit, or rather, having been sanctified, he sanctifies the high priests standing by. He takes up upon his shoulder the type of the wandering sheep; he ascends the high throne; he is seated upon the chair; he imitates the chief-shepherd Christ, who is ascending into the heavens; he himself also utters the connective and conjunctive, or rather indeed the preservative, voice, saying to all the people: "Peace to all," which all in turn wished back to him. For truly the divine David cried out beforehand concerning him: "How magnified are thy works, O Lord! Thou hast made all things in wisdom." For the things done concerning this divine man are full of wisdom and fill all the faithful with joy.
26. B It is good for us to know also the number of the man's years, how this too concurred in a perfect and most full manner; for it was fitting that all things should be perfect in a perfect man. The patriarch was consecrated in the fortieth year of his age, a number which is found in the divine Scriptures as mystical and perfect. For first Isaac, the only-begotten son of Abraham by Sarah, remaining a virgin until he had reached the age of forty years, then finally took Rebecca as his wife, expressing the type of the mystery concerning Christ and the Church gathered from the Gentiles. And what of Moses, the great servant of God? Did he not, when he reached his fortieth year, visit his brethren in Egypt, and seeing an Egyptian doing wrong to a Jew, killed him and brought aid to him who was suffering the injury? And when other forty years had been completed in Midian, was he not made worthy of that divine vision C which he saw on Mount Sinai, that the bush was burning with fire and was not consumed, and he heard a voice saying to him: "Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them: come, I will send thee into Egypt"? What does this signify, except his being ordained the high priest and deliverer of the children of Israel? And how did he receive the divine Oracles, written by the finger of God on the tablets? Was it not after he had fasted for forty days and forty nights, in which he was also taught the mysteries of the New Testament? And deservedly indeed did Moses use this number, being both the law D and...
(17) S. Isidorus Pelusiota, epist. 136, to Herminus the Count, explains it thus: "That garment which the priest wears on his shoulders, woven of wool and linen, designates the skin of that sheep which the Lord sought when it was wandering, and having found it, carried it upon his own shoulders. For the bishop, who bears the type of Christ, exercises His office; and by his very habit shows to all that he is an imitator of that good and great Shepherd, who set before Himself the task of carrying the infirmities of the flock."
under the law; for the law is imperfect, but not so the ministers of grace. What, then, of the Savior and liberator of all, Christ Jesus, the fulfiller of the law? Did not He himself honor this number, when, fasting for forty days and nights and receiving every temptation and assault of the Enemy, He gave to the human nature the power to tread upon the asp and the basilisk and all the power of the Enemy? And after His resurrection, did He not again converse in various ways with His holy apostles and disciples for forty days, and, having given them a blessing, was He not taken from them and carried up into heaven, leaving peace to them, and through them to His Church, which He had acquired with His own blood? These few things out of many I have set forth, wishing to show that all things that came to pass regarding this holy man proceeded by a certain divine grace and foresight. B
CAPUT IV.
The Fifth Ecumenical Council; the heretics are opposed; Emperor Justinian is led astray by them.
27. But what happened further, when the matter of his ordination proceeded and he had put on the power from on high? The sanctification given to the Apostles through the fiery tongues rested upon him also in a similar manner, as it did upon one of the holy apostles, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, he began to speak as the Spirit gave him utterance. One might fittingly apply to this place that passage from all of Scripture: “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem men devout, from every nation under heaven.” For in truth, from every nation the most devout bishops C were gathered in the new Jerusalem, Constantinople, for the sake of the cause I have mentioned before, the Three Chapters. When, therefore, the multitude had gathered and was in confusion, they heard him speaking in a “different language” against the diverse languages of the heretics—for the language that speaks what is right is a “different” one from that which speaks in a distorted dialect—that is, those continuing in the confession of the true faith, against the tongue of those who in their pride speak iniquity against the Most High. And so, the fiery tongue of the man destroyed them in the end, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the assistance of the most holy bishops, just as that Moses, having supported the Israelite, struck down the Egyptian. For the dogmas of the heretics are considered by the true Israelites to be dark and execrable; and therefore, condemned, they are buried beneath the sand. D
28. As for what was set in motion and done and accomplished in that great Fifth Synod, you know, most learned men, that
there is no need for anything to be said by us; and those who are ignorant may learn the accuracy of what was done at that time. It is fitting to apply here also what was spoken by the holy David: A *“Let thy priests be clothed with justice, and let thy saints rejoice”*; and again what was spoken by the Apostle Paul: *“Put on the armor of the Spirit, by which you shall be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”* Having therefore put on the breastplate of justice, and shod his feet in the preparation of the Gospel of peace, taking up in all things the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, he cut away the thorns, and made the rough paths smooth; and having cast out the stones—I mean the blasphemous discourses of the heretics—from the straight path of the true faith, and having dissolved the middle wall of the partition, he restored peace to the most holy Churches of God through the instruction and confession of orthodox dogmas. B There took place also a wonderful thing, worthy of his soul, which, as I think—or rather, I know for certain—has never yet happened, nor will it happen in the future. For although many holy synods have been celebrated in different places and at different times since the Christian religion was established, no one remembers that four patriarchs ever assembled together, except in the time of this great and divine man Eutychius. For all disputes having been resolved not by violent coercion, nor by partisan bias, but by the efficacy of demonstrations and persuasion, a profound peace and great tranquility followed in the Church of God. C 29. For the four patriarchs—Vigilius of the Elder Rome, and this great Eutychius of the New Rome, Constantinople, and Apollinarius of the great city of Alexandria, and Domninus of Theopolis—being united to one another, much like a body formed from four elements, becoming of one soul and one mind, and having joined their hands together, according to the oracular saying of the Psalm which declares: *“The rivers shall clap their hands together, the mountains shall rejoice”*; and what was spoken by Zechariah: *“There shall be in that day a great tumult of the Lord among them; and every man shall take hold of the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall be joined to the hand of his neighbor; and Judah shall fight against Jerusalem, and it shall gather together the strength of all the peoples round about.”* Having thus fashioned a certain truly great and quadruple, and in a way golden, chain, they entered the temple of God, the most holy
A, even the great Church B, and performed the divine liturgy and the bloodless sacrifice, having followed once and for all the Lord and Chief Shepherd, Christ, who by one offering has perfected all, having suffered once at the end of the ages. For I am referring to the priest who, once a year entering the Holy of Holies, performed the symbolic and shadowy worship.
30. These intellectual rivers, having washed away the abrasions of the logical mountains, according to that saying, “The rivers have lifted up their waves” (for the doctrines of the heretics are a certain stain and filth to the faithful), and having cast them out “from the voices of many waters,” that is, from the testimonies of the Scriptures and the Fathers, brought gladness and joy to the holy mountains, I mean to the Churches of Christ. Who has seen, who has heard such things? Beautiful indeed and very beautiful are the four rivers issuing from Paradise, but much more praiseworthy are these four who have entered into Paradise. For Paradise is the Church of God, in which we were planted as a mountain of inheritance, as a prepared dwelling which the Lord sanctified, which his hands prepared, who reigns forever and ever. By the agreement and conjunction of these, therefore, the Lord our God, strong and mighty in battle, cast the chariots of Pharaoh and his army into the sea, drowning the chosen captains of the heresies C and the impiety of the Three Chapters; as it were with the new Moses lifting his hand, and with the rod, that is, the Cross, suffocating the children of disobedience in the water of the sea: but the children of Israel walked on dry land in its midst.
31. When, therefore, there had become one fold and one shepherd, the four shepherds, through unanimity and orthodoxy, and all good order was planted among the priests of the Lord and his people, each of the priests and high priests departed to his own city and to his own people with great joy. And for a long time then all the Churches of God had peace, journeying and being built up in the fear of the Lord, and were multiplied by the consolation of the Holy Spirit D; but only this one was left in Constantinople, in all things a new Jacob and great patriarch Eutychius, just as that man of old who once wrestled at the ford of the torrent of Jacob; yet the struggle was not against a man such as that—for that man was indeed the one who also blessed Jacob, saying, “For you have prevailed with God”—but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers, both the visible and the invisible. For he alone sustained the war for Christ our God, alone he underwent
A the anxiety of the Churches, and resisted even unto blood, fighting by night and by day against the enemies of the truth; for the grievous and Avar wolves did not cease to attack the rational flock, thinking evil and speaking perverse things, and leading captive the souls of the simpler folk.
32. Therefore, as a servant of God, he nourished the flock entrusted to him by the Chief Shepherd Christ, and made it rest upon the water of refreshment and in a place of pasture, keeping what was firm, binding up what was broken, strengthening what was weak, and bringing back what had gone astray, like a skilled shepherd, by words and reasonings, and this for no small time. He was scorched by the heat of the day and burned by the cold of the night, like the patriarch Jacob, who for Leah and Rachel served Laban, pasturing his flocks for fourteen years. But while he B endured such labors and toils for irrational sheep, the reward for which is manifest (for the things of higher contemplation—that the marriage of Jacob to the two sisters bore the figure of the Church gathered from Jews and Gentiles, which Christ, the God of all, betrothed to Himself—would require another discourse); this great man of God, Eutychius, having shepherded the rational flock of Christ for a time equal to the number of the apostles, twelve years, which the Chief Shepherd Himself committed to the prince of the apostles, Peter, saying, "If you love and cherish me, feed my sheep, and feed my lambs," preserved them, marked with the cross and varied in virtues, having gathered them into one fold, that is, into the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, serving and listening to no stranger; for the sheep that are His own always hear the voice of the true shepherd. He himself was not a hireling, nor did he enter the fold as a thief and a robber, or as a stranger and an alien; but by divine law and excellent order, with fitting discipline and grace, the Church of God was joined to him, which he also presented as a chaste virgin to the Lord.
32 bis. But the envious and wicked-loving devil, the arrogant and proud one, who said, "By my strength I shall capture the whole world as a nest, and as eggs that have been left I will gather [them], and by my hand I will remove the borders of the nations," D could not long endure this. For when he saw the field of Christ flourishing and full, and the wheat ripe and manifold and reaching up to the heavenly height; what the sower of tares and the enemy of our race did, what that wise one plotted to do evil, [and] how he cast tares into the wheat, let us see. Under the pretext presumably of piety and honor (for there is somewhere, as the Apostle says, a zeal, but not according to knowledge; [the boar] from the wood and the solitary one...
A from the forest, having approached some simple folk, set out to devastate the beautiful vineyard of the Church, and sent winds and storms against the house well-built, or rather, to speak more truly, against the rock itself; which, however, remained firm, and [scattered] those who attacked it like dust, even faster than the wind itself. But what this zeal was, or what kind of piety it appeared to be, let us explain in a few words).
33. You all know, having kept in mind the inquiry into divine dogmas held by the pious emperor Justinian, B how he devoted his care to this above all other things, day and night, as his sole and only pursuit, to debate and join in discourse with all the heretics; and how he prevailed in most cases, confounding them by persuasive, demonstrative, and scriptural testimonies. But from where—I do not know—or who was the one who introduced that truly fugitive and detestable, or rather, I should say, disease-inducing dogma, he was urged to say, under the pretext of piety, that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was incorruptible from the very moment of the union. This, having gained ground like a gangrene, almost utterly destroyed the inhabited world, had not my Phinehas, Eutychius, anticipated it and stood firm, and offered atonement, and the C devastation ceased. And what was this atonement, as far as he was concerned, and what was this plague that was healed? It was the testimonies and proofs of the holy apostles, prophets, and teachers, many of which he brought forward to refute this madness; for it is truly a disease and a corruption of sin to say that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was incorruptible before the resurrection. For who is so foolish as to dare to say that the body of the Lord was incorruptible from the moment of the union? For if this be granted, the incarnation and becoming-man of the Word of God becomes a fantasy and not a reality. For how could the incorruptible body suffer, or be circumcised, or swaddled, or fed on milk? But if we believe that that life-giving flesh underwent these things, and we confess the cross, D and the nail-piercings, and the wound of the lance, it cannot be called incorruptible, except in this sense alone: that it was never defiled by any stain of sin, nor dissolved in the sepulcher. But if we wished to pursue these matters further, we would be long-winded, and they have been zealously and keenly debated in writing by the great and God-bearing teacher, from which anyone who is ignorant of the truth can easily understand it. Let us rather see what followed, after he had proposed the testimonies of the Fathers.
34. This great man, in having testified to the emperor through many arguments that this was not the dogma of the Catholic Church, saved his own soul, as the prophet Ezekiel says, explaining the matters that were at issue; but the inventors of the evils perished in their own iniquities. For they prevailed in circumventing the emperor, and having persuaded him, they hollowed out the rock like steadily falling drops. Indeed, there is no need now to prolong the speech. Let us see, then, what happened next.
A I gladly refrain from naming the masters of this impious opinion—the insane Origen, Evagrius, and those who defend the dogmas of Didymus—lest I seem to return evil for evil and to pursue calumny with abuse, and to act contrary to the intention and manner of the holy Eutychius, who, by the blessed command of our Savior, taught both in deeds and words that evil should not be returned for evil, but rather that one should bless those who curse and pray for those who persecute, following our Savior's blessed command; and besides, what happened then is worthy of silence rather than proclamation, and of comparison rather than triumph. But even if the saint taught in this way, and we, obeying his precepts, believe that things worthy of silence should be covered in silence.
B The sleepless eye of divine justice, however, did not permit the malice to go unpunished; on the contrary, it exposed and laid bare the calumny with great scrutiny and in varied ways, so that they themselves confessed their conspiracy with their own mouths and praised the justice of the retribution. They who had plotted these things were not only from the number of those who had great influence with the emperor, but also prominent among the clergy and leaders of great Churches (if, indeed, such calumniators and wicked men are worthy of the name of priest). Justice punished them all, stopping the lips that spoke iniquity against the righteous in pride and disdain. Therefore, as has been said, out of zeal for their detestable and impious dogmas, they corrupted the emperor’s simplicity, and using the expression "incorruptible" as an occasion, they acted iniquitously, as is clear, and contrary to the divine canons and ecclesiastical institutions in everything they perpetrated against the blessed man. The Judge did not let them pass, not even in this life; but being exposed in many ways as an example, both they and all who consented with them descended into hell with sorrow.
CHAPTER V. After his double captivity, Saint Eutychius is banished to the Island of Princes, and then to Amasea.
C When the long-standing study of evil by these men had increased, and the wound had become difficult to treat—or rather, had become practically incurable—the emperor took a document which contained that blasphemous opinion, that because of its union with the divine nature the Lord's body was incorruptible, and read it to the divine and great champion Eutychius, demanding that he approve it with his own assent and judgment. But he, as was right, first using exhortations, denied that this was the teaching of the holy apostles, and he did not assent to it either in sense or in words, casting all his care upon the Lord. Although the emperor urged and exhorted him greatly, he could not be persuaded to do anything against the D Church...
and the right dogmas; but, uttering the saying of the Apostle, “I kept back nothing that was profitable, that I should not have shewed you,” A he willingly gave himself up thereafter to endure all the sufferings deemed fearful for the sake of his faith in Christ. “For I am persuaded,” he used to say, “that neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor tribulation, nor distress, nor anger, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword shall separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” B Indeed, whether he spoke these things only in words or also fulfilled them in deed, is manifest to all, since his deeds followed his words.
37. For as he did not wish to receive the error of the dogma of the Aphthartodocetae, immediately the sophists of evil, who are always ready to dare everything—those princes, I say, and priests of that year—having gathered and entered into the judgement hall, meditated upon empty and vain things against the Lord and against His Christ; and having seized the emperor, they persuaded him to remove from the throne the man who was adorned with all virtues, and to appoint another who was destined to accord with their own aim, which also came to pass. For while a gathering was being held by the holy Timothy in the Hormisdas, in the new palace, and the holy Eutychius was performing the divine liturgy, they assaulted the venerable episcopal residence, C when the commander and the servants of the commander—I mean the ministers of that wild beast—seized and dragged away those of the holy man’s servants who were bound to provide service, in order to bear witness against him, that they might show he had been driven from the episcopacy for some plausible reason. But the great man, having learned of the assault that had taken place at the episcopal residence, and that some of his people had been violently dragged away from there and handed over to prison, having completed the divine liturgy and distributed the immaculate communion, remained in the sanctuary; for it had been said to him by some who seemed to know the facts, that if he were to go outside the sacred precincts, he would even be in danger of his life; because certain armed men were positioned near the Antiochian [palace quarters], D waiting outside with the intention of killing him with the sword. Having learned these things, the blessed man stood before the altar after the dismissal, wearing also the omophorion, which he always carried with him; and with his hands outstretched, he prayed until the third hour of the night, and entreated God to keep His Church and the right dogmas undisturbed.
38. While he was praying these things, the clergy and monks who were present with him at that time encouraged him to take food; having partaken of which, he went forth again to the people: to both he gave our single response, “Go, it is finished” [Ite, missa est]; just as all other things there are more lengthy, so too are the dismissal prayers.
A Having taken [food] and rested a little, that great wild beast, Etherius, I say, stood over him with swords, clubs, and a large military guard; and, having seized the holy man, naked and possessing nothing, he carried him off to the monastery called Choracudin. After he had stayed there for one day, and had been treated poorly because of the poverty of that same monastery, his adversaries—out of compassion (for even they knew how to admire the virtue of the man)—relocated him to the monastery called that of Hosia, near Chalcedon. B And without any further inquiry as to whether he had been deposed justly or unjustly, they performed an unlawful ordination, and after eight days, having convened an assembly of bishops and officials, they summoned the holy man, whom they had already cast out and condemned before any inquiry, to defend himself, on the pretext that libels had been presented against him to the council. And it is necessary to hear what those libels contained in order to laugh clearly: namely, that he had eaten, it says, "fig-stuffed birds," and that he had prayed for many hours on his knees, and other things similar to these, even more ridiculous. He was summoned, therefore, that he might purge himself of such crimes.
C 39. But he said to those sent by the synod, the bishops and officials: "To whom have you come, and as whom do you summon me?" Constrained by the truth, they replied: "As our lord and Father." He, in turn, asked: "Who is this lord and your Father?" And they, as if struck by some invisible power, said: "We have come to our patriarch, the lord Eutychius." He, the great one, said to them again: "I am patriarch by the grace of God, and no man shall take this dignity from me. But who is he whom you have appointed in my place?" D Swelling with rage at this, they returned, confused, to those by whom they had been sent. But that same assembly, doing everything against the canons, saw to it that a second and third summons were made to the holy man, according to the prescription of the canons, as it were. To these he always replied fittingly: "If a canonical trial is granted to me, let my clergy and the patriarchal order be given to me, and I shall come and answer, and I will use my very accusers as witnesses." Having heard these responses, and doing nothing consistent with reason, they passed a sentence against the holy man worthy of themselves; which the blessed man, anticipating, subjected them all to canonical penalties until they should repent of the things done by them.
A 40. When that council had received the results of its folly, and He who had scattered the counsel of Achitophel, and had broken the axles of Pharaoh's chariots, had also dissipated their machinations, entangling them with one another. And finding no reasonable pretext against the just man, so that they might appear to have acted canonically in what they had done lawlessly (for the same men were both judges and accusers), they again transferred him from Ousia to the island called Principo. Upon the blessed man’s arrival at the island, during winter, on a Sabbath, and in the dead of night, when morning came, before any other matter, he beheld a cross painted on the wall, having the inscription: “Christ is with us, stand fast.” Being greatly cheered by this, he remained giving thanks and glorifying God, who had brought him such consolation. Having spent three weeks on that island, guarded by many soldiers in a disorderly manner, as that time demanded, it was again decreed by those same judges that he should proceed to the metropolis of Amasea B and abide in the monastery which he himself had established: which also came to pass. But as to the things that occurred there, and were done both unwritten and in writing, I refrain from speaking at greater length, lest I fall into endless discourse; for it is sufficient what the prophet Ezekiel predicted of these things, as if in the person of God: “At that time I will turn my face away from them, and they shall defile my episcopate, and shall enter into my holy places unguarded, and shall make a great defilement” (Ezek. VII, 22). But let us see what happened after these things.
41. Again, Eutychius, the faithful servant of God, is shown to be like Paul, and again the history concerning him is found to be similar to his; for it says this regarding Paul: “And when it was decided that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners to a centurion named Julius” (Acts XXVII, 1). This also happened to the holy man; for after the many rash and absurd machinations had been performed by those lawless men, it was decreed, as has been said, that he should reach the metropolis of Amasea C and abide in his own monastery. But did he chafe at this? Did he speak against it in any way? Or did that thought occur to him regarding which the Lord spoke, saying, “No prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke IV, 24)? Not at all; but he submitted to everything with a prompt mind. For he rejoiced that he had been counted worthy to suffer ignominy for the name of God; for he sought not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, because “faith without works is dead” (Jas. II, 26). He followed Him also in this with great cheerfulness, even D Christ, who gave his back to the scourges, and his cheeks to the smitings, and his face...
He turned not away from the shame of spitting, by whose stripes we were all healed; who also said, “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more his household” (Matt. x, 25). This, too, the servant of God fulfilled; for he chose to endure all grievous things rather than betray the faith, so that by this example many might be strengthened, remaining stable and immovable in the right confession of the faith; which also came to pass. For all the patriarchs, and many of the bishops, especially those of the East, refused to subscribe to the document which the emperor had composed concerning the incorruptible [body of Christ]; but they stood firm, contending synodally and in writing, and most of all the most holy patriarch of Theopolis, Anastasius, who endured the same hardships—shall I say hardships, or crowns?—as did the great Eutychius. B 42. Since, therefore, he was judged without a trial to be sent into exile, and everything was prepared for the deportation, we too decided to endure persecution and exile with him for Christ’s sake. He, however, perceiving this, kissed everyone with a holy kiss; with his mouth, those who were present on the island, as Paul did the Ephesians on the shore, but in spirit, the whole Church committed to his care; he commended it to the Lord, from whom he had also received it. Being then handed over to those who were to lead us away, we were transferred to the same monastery. To those who had sent us, it seemed to be an exile, but he himself accepted the exile imposed by them as a salvation, and as an occasion for many good things. But the events that took place then upon the road—no less full of distress and bitterness than of miracles and healings—I willingly pass over, in order to avoid the length of the account. C Yet the public road itself shows these things and even greater ones, whenever it celebrates the festival of the return which the great and valiant man made along it. 43. The great combatant Eutychius therefore descends into Amasea, just as formerly once Abraham and his grandson Jacob did into Egypt, both being patriarchs, on account of the famine. For the descent of our Savior Jesus Christ Himself into that same Egypt—since it is a more excellent matter—we pass over with honor, because of the light cloud and the fall of the man-made idols. But not even that [earlier] descent was without a miracle. For at the presence of God made flesh and become man, what wonder is it if He works miracles? I admit it; but neither was that former descent of the great patriarchs without a miracle, as the vision divinely granted to Pharaoh for the sake of Abraham and Sarah makes clear—for which he let them go with honor—as well as the manifestation of Joseph, and the journey of Jacob and his sons to him. D But perhaps they indeed enjoyed such fruits...
of miracles, but was the great patriarch Eutychius A devoid of their wonder-working? By no means; but God, the Artificer and Creator, granted this to him also. Let us see what these things are, and let us mention a few out of many, which we ourselves saw and heard, and which our hands have handled, and which we testify to having seen. For He who said, “He who believes in me, the works that I do, he also will do, and greater than these will he do,” and, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Be moved, and be cast into the sea,’ and it will be so,” He himself gave his servant the grace of healings, to cure diseases and to cast out B demons.
CHAPTER VI. Various miracles performed by Saint Eutychius of Amasea.
44. To perform cures, it is necessary that there be faith on the part of those being cured and power on the part of those who cure; for if one of these is lacking, the other will be of no benefit, but conversely, when both happen together, each one works. For the evangelist, speaking of the Lord, says: “He could not,” he says, “do many signs there, because of their unbelief.” Hence, even those who approached this holy man with faith received the more grace, since all things are possible to him who believes; and he himself was girded with the power-giving grace granted to him by the Father of lights. I will begin, therefore, from the cures: you who delight in such narratives, attend. But from where, or from what grace, must the beginning be taken? There are indeed other more excellent miracles, yet I think it best to begin from this.
45. In the city of Amasea there was a couple, joined in lawful matrimony, who, though they frequently applied themselves to the procreation of children, were frustrated in their efforts; for the infants, almost before they issued from the womb, would perish prematurely, bringing inconsolable grief to their parents, because they endured the pains of labor but were deprived of the joy. What, then, do they do? They take useful counsel; they flee to God, who can restore the dead to life through his servants. They imitate the widow of Zarephath, whose son Elijah raised; they imitate the Shunammite, who ran to Elisha when her son lay dead in the upper chamber. They too flee to the blessed man, and beseech him to grant them his prayer, D
that he might obtain for them that infants should be born to them alive. He, having prayed for them, anointed them with holy oil, both that which comes from the precious cross, and that which is wont to flow from the image of the holy, pure Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, our Lady, in Sozopolis A, saying: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." For he was accustomed to do this for all the sick who came to him, even as the divine James commanded, saying: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
46. When, therefore, he had finished his prayer and remained silent for a little while, as if inspired by some divine grace, he says, "You shall give the name of Peter to the infant who is to be born, and he shall live." For the woman was pregnant. I, however, who was present, responded and asked regarding what was said: "But if she brings forth a female, what name should they give her?" He answered and said, "No, they shall name him Peter, and he shall be saved." Rejoicing, therefore, at what was said, and carrying the child—though not yet born—in their arms as it were, they returned to their house. When the time was fulfilled, she brought forth a son, just as the servant of God had predicted and foreseen. B The parents, therefore, took care to have him baptized, and they named him Peter. Having come, after this, together with him to the holy man, they embraced his feet, and confessed how great things God had done for them, and how he had had mercy upon them. Having laid his hands upon the boy, the holy man blessed him. And when he who had been brought into the light by foreknowledge and prayer had grown up, another son was also born to them. So, coming again, they brought both sons to the holy man, and praising God, they asked by what name the last should be called. Looking at both, he pleasantly employed that saying of Solomon: "A brother helped by a brother is like an impregnable city." C But to their parents he said, "You shall call this one John, because the Lord God heard your prayers in the church of St. John." The boys grew up, and this became known throughout that whole city, and all praised God. But let us see another wonderful thing done by the holy man with the help of God.
47. A certain presbyter, belonging to the most holy Great Church, having a son who was deaf and dumb, about fourteen years of age, brought him to the holy man, imploring and beseeching that he might obtain help from God for him. Therefore, when he had poured out prayers for him, all his senses
he anointed with the holy oil, and called the child by name for the third time, Nouneches; for this was his name. On the first day, he answered indistinctly; but when he had remained there for three days and was being anointed with the holy oil, the bond of the child’s tongue was loosed, and he was hearing and speaking continually, and praising God. The father wished to leave the child in the monastery, but the servant of God did not see fit for this to happen. The elder, therefore, having received him back in health, with great joy returned to his own home. Let us hear another marvelous miracle.
48. Certain people of the same city had a child, and the father was enrolled among the clergy of the same most holy Church of God. Cyril was the man’s name. This child, having reached five years and more, was speechless, and for the most part, even without nourishment, almost sharing neither in life nor in death. When they had brought him to the holy man, he offered his customary prayers and imparted to him the immaculate communion; having blessed some common bread as well, he gave it to him and sent them away. From that day on, the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke, ate, and drank, having become healthy through the grace of God. Let us see another similar to this one, but indeed even more wonderful.
49. There is a small town called Zela D, which is adjacent to the metropolis of Amaseia. A Some people coming from there brought a four-year-old child to the holy man, saying that he took nothing else but a little nourishment from his mother’s breast. He was such that he was almost fleshless and bodiless; he had neither color nor any mass of flesh, but was like an ear of corn withered by the wind, which, not yet hardened, shows in itself a faint appearance of grains and awns. Thus also that infant appeared, so that for those who wished, it was possible to count and enumerate all his thin ribs and joints, and even the tension of his nerves and bones. B What then? As the great man of God saw him so wasted away—and even more so, his parents pining away with great sorrow—he prayed earnestly to God, who brings that which was not into being, and anointed the whole body of the child with the precious oil, and imparted to him the immaculate communion. He also blessed some common bread and gave it to the parents, commanding them to soak it in undiluted wine C and offer it to the child. When they had done this, they obtained their hope. For on the next day we saw that he had been brought, and we saw a great difference and rejuvenation of flesh in him; for he had received and taken moderate nourishment. On the third day, we saw him as a different person; for he was holding bread in his hand, and was eating it in our presence, moving his eyes—which formerly had been hidden and could scarcely be seen—and looking at each one of those present. The parents also related that from the hour the great man prayed for him, he had refused to touch his mother’s breasts, but had been nourished by the offered bread. Joyfully, therefore, they returned with their healthy son to their small town. If anyone here asks why the boy did not immediately receive complete health, let him know that the judgments of God are many
A deep. For we find that, by some dispensation, not even our Lord and God himself healed every one of the infirm immediately. For to one, having anointed his eyes with clay, he said, "Go to Siloam, and wash," and having washed, he saw. To another, having laid his hands upon him, he asked if he saw anything, and he answered saying, "I see men like trees walking." It is therefore evident that he granted healing to some little by little, for a reason known to himself, knowing what is beneficial for each person. But enough of this; let us see what other thing has happened.
50. A child of a certain craftsman of Amasea, having been seized by a sudden B illness, reached the very gates of death. His father took him in his arms and came to the monastery, that he might present him to the holy man, so that he might obtain salvation from God. The blessed man was occupied with other business; for there were some there in conversation being instructed by him, and he did not have time at that hour to receive the boy. When, therefore, a sufficient time had passed, the father of the boy wished to depart, saying, "The boy is already dying; why should I trouble the holy man?" But considering that God is able to raise even the dead, I detained the man for a little while, and we saw the boy, in truth, almost entirely wasted away in the greater part of his body. Therefore, when I saw the urgency, I brought the danger happening to the child to the attention of the great man. He, without any delay, came C to the house of prayer and, having prayed, laid his hands upon the boy, and having also anointed him with holy oil, he let him depart to his home. On the following day, the father of the boy came, giving thanks to God with tears for the salvation of his child. When asked how the boy was, he said that by the grace of God and the prayers of the holy man, he had entirely recovered. "For," he said, "he played and stayed awake rejoicing all night." Not long after, we also saw the boy, and we glorified God who restores life even to the dead. Enough has been said about this; let us pass on to another miracle.
51. A certain peasant woman, having a son of about seven years of age, was coming into the city with him for some private reasons; D but by the encounter of an evil demon, the boy’s feet were suddenly struck, and he was completely unable to stand. The mother carried the boy and brought him to the holy man, lamenting and weeping over the affliction that had befallen the child. He, having prayed earnestly, anointed the feet of the child with holy oil. When the prayer was completed, the mother, wishing to know if the lad were able to stand on his own feet, set him down, holding him up. Having been stood up, although he was tremulous at first and was about to fall, as he gradually gained confidence (for those standing by encouraged him with kind words), he remained completely steady and unshaken. When, therefore, his soles and ankles were immediately strengthened, the boy stood, and [he departed, dancing and praising God. We also who had seen the miracle, how he had entered the temple on another's feet and departed on his own, glorified God, who...]
had granted such grace to His servant even in our own times. Let us hear also of another miracle, more to be venerated, since the sickness was more pitiable and strange. A
52. Attached to the city of Amasea is a convent of women, called Flavia’s. Some of these women brought to the best of men a young girl of about five years, saying that she would not admit the holy communion at all; but whenever she was to receive it, she was seized with great fear and trembling, crying out, overcome with distress, and turned away from the holy drink. And since it was the Lord’s day, and the distribution of the holy body and blood of Christ was taking place, we, not putting faith in what was said—before the holy man applied the customary prayers over the girl—ordered that she come forward and communicate. But when she had begun to approach the sacred mysteries, we discovered that what was said was true; for what she had received into her mouth with great difficulty, she cast out with vomit and a wild cry; and one of those standing by, B reaching out his hand, took it and cast it into the fire. We, therefore, grieving and terrified at what had happened, sent the girl home, urging them to return on the following day. When they returned, the holy man applied the customary prayers to the girl, and anointed all her senses with the blessed oil; but when he reached her mouth, she let out a strange cry and vomited a great deal of filth—or rather, the unclean spirit that was afflicting her went out of her. After this, at the command of the holy man, they led her to receive the immaculate communion, and by the grace of God she received both the holy body and the precious blood without any fear or trembling. The healed girl, giving a great sigh C after communicating, said, “Behold, hereafter I shall eat colothim”—for the children of that region are accustomed to call the oblation, that is, the bread not yet sanctified, *colothim*. And all men therefore glorified Him who works wonderful, glorious, and extraordinary things, of which there is no number, even through His servants; for “God is wonderful in His saints, the God of Israel.” [Ps. LXVII, 36.]
53. A certain young man, skilled in the art of mosaic, was working in the house of Chrysaphius, of pious memory, in this same city of Amasea. As he was removing an old mosaic from the wall, which depicted the story of Venus—for that man, who has been mentioned, wished to make the house an oratory of the archangel, D because it was situated on high, and from the lower
A part he wished to make a great house of prayer for the holy, immaculate Lady, our Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary—which also came to pass. When the same worker in mosaic was digging out the image of the unclean Venus, the demon that was clinging to her seized his hand in such a way that it became inflamed and swollen, and, being afflicted with a serious cancer, it was said by those who saw it that it must necessarily be amputated. Having recognized this danger, the young man received good counsel and fled to the holy man, that through him he might obtain help from God. He, having prayed over him, anointed his right hand with holy oil—for this was the hand that had been struck—and he did this for three days, and his hand was restored whole as the other through the help of God. And in the house where the one who was healed had received his injury, in that same place, in gratitude and as a reminder of the miracle that had occurred, he set up the icon of the holy man; and by the hand through which he had obtained salvation, he wrote of his healer after God. Another thing similar to this also happened.
54. A certain workman brought to the blessed man a child who was being troubled by an unclean spirit. So when he was standing by the great man as he was performing the prayer, because the child was small, one of those standing by said to the workman: "Lift up the child, man, so that he may receive the sanctification." Which he did. And the prayer having been completed, both departed. But on the following day the workman came, weeping and lamenting, not bearing the pains of his own hand. And when it was asked of him, "Why are you weeping? What is the matter with you?" he said, "Ever since I lifted the child, I cannot bear the pains of my hand. For the demon, having left the child, clung to me; and that one was healed, but I am in danger." Hearing these things, the blessed man smiled slightly and laughed at the demon for having done such things; and having prayed for the man, he set him free, commanding him to do nothing else but to devote himself only to prayer. But he, having made little of the command given to him, and fearing the swelling and the burning of his hand, threw himself into the hands of doctors, so that that which is written might be fulfilled: *He that sinneth before him that made him, shall fall into the hands of the physician*; for he was about to lose his hand. Therefore, having spent his livelihood on physicians and wandering through warm baths—and having received no help, but rather having become worse—he came again to the physician who requires no money D, who received the grace freely and freely provided it to those who need it. He, without delay or rebuke, earnestly entreated the merciful God that he might be healed, which also happened. For having waited upon the prayer, he was released from both the pains and the inflammation, and he attended to his usual tasks, practicing his own trade and glorifying God. Since we have chanced upon the mention of those who have been vexed by unclean spirits and delivered, we speak of a certain apostate...
the memory of the unclean has occurred, many having already been healed; I shall provide an explanation concerning one at the present time, because it provides no small benefit to those who are negligent and wish to set aside the monastic habit.
B 55. A certain young man fell under the power of a most wicked and harsh demon; and as often as he was harassed by him, no one had the strength to restrain him, but he overcame everyone and crushed them all. As the man was in this condition, they brought him to the holy man, who through God's cooperation had obtained the grace to drive out such unclean spirits. He took the fearsome weapon against the demons, the precious cross, and the oil from it, and applied it to the forehead of the demonized man. Receiving the sign of the cross as if it were a red-hot nail, he began to cry out, to foam, to go mad, and to gnash his teeth, so that it appeared that he was possessed not by one demon, but by many. For I say it in truth, that even though many monks were holding him, he overpowered them all and crushed them. After the demon had tormented him for many hours, he finally became still as if dead, so that we thought he was completely delivered from the demon; but when he returned the next day, he was in a worse state. Since, therefore, the demon continued for a long time to afflict the man, the servant of God marveled, and reasoned with himself, saying: “For what reason does the demon not depart from him?” And he said to me, “Ask the sufferer who he is, and from where the meeting with the harsh demon befell him.” When the man’s mind had settled, I asked him in detail about his situation and his way of life from early childhood. And he recounted, saying: “As a child, I entered the monastery of Saint John at Acropolis (for the place of the monastery near Amaseia is so named), and having been a monk in it for no short time, I became weary of the discipline, and left the monastery, having despised the monastic habit, and along with the habit, I changed my life; for I knew a woman and committed many other sins. And now, as you see me, I am in this state, held and afflicted miserably by an unclean spirit. You, if you can, help my weakness.”
56. C When we, and the great man himself, had learned these things (or rather, we learned them through him; for if he had not known it himself, he would not have permitted us to ask the sufferer about his situation; but he ordained the whole matter so that he might make us more attentive with that example, and bring to their senses those who are negligent and attempt to set aside the solitary and angelic life), he taught them the word said to Job, saying: “Seeing my plague, fear” (Job VI, 21); and: “Let not thy foot be moved, and he that keepeth thee shall not slumber” (Ps. CXX, 3); and: “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luc. IX, 62). Using these and many similar words for the benefit and strengthening of those who heard, and having had pity on the vexed man D because of the things he had said, sighing deeply and praying continuously, he [sought] those Davidic...
A words pronounced in the person of that miserable man: "I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Thus, indeed, the holy man, reciting the psalm up to this verse; yet it is not inappropriate that we should add the following verse as well, for after he said: "And Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin," the verse that follows is placed next: "For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto Thee," not just anyone, but who? "In a time when Thou mayest be found"; and this is the "time that is found," in which he who asks makes petitions pleasing to God. "For ask," He says, "and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." When, therefore, the confession was made by the sufferer, the great man of God again performed his customary prayer over him, bidding him enter into the monastery in which he had been, and to resume the habit which he had cast off and treated with contumely. When he had done this with diligence, he was no longer vexed by the demon, but remained in the monastery with a sober mind and the appropriate demeanor, glorifying God, so that those residing there said: "Today salvation has come to this world," for "this our brother was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." And that saying was fulfilled also in the present case: "The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And he who had been healed also heard from him: "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more." And these things were, as he thought, sufficient.
57. A certain other man, laboring under a disease which was consuming his whole body, took refuge with the holy man, beseeching him to obtain mercy for him from God. He, looking upon the man almost consumed by the miserable disease, was not B moved to a small degree. Therefore, having offered up prayer, he anointed his eyes and hands with holy oil, and commanding him not to taste any wine at all, he dismissed him. The man obeyed willingly, knowing that the things which cannot be accomplished by men are easy for God, and like the Syrian Naaman, he returned to his home. And when the space of a year had passed, the same man returned again, giving thanks to God and praising Him, because the disease did not spread further, but was restrained and subsided.
58. Another man came to the holy man, saying that he was from Polyandus of the Comans, and that for a whole year now he had not seen the light, and this for the following reason. On account of a dispute he had with someone, being compelled to swear in court, he perjured himself, as if the crime of perjury were nothing at all; but God, providing for his salvation, blinded him. C When he was affected by that punishment, and could not see the light, being led by the hand, he came to the man of God, and confessing the sin of perjury, he indicated the blindness of his eyes that had followed; rightly judging that God had granted to His priests, through the holy apostles, the greatest power, to whom He said: "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Therefore, when the admirable man [undertook] the office of loosing (for of his own D
A sins everyone is bound by chains), he prayed to the almighty God that there might be granted to him both the forgiveness of the daring act of perjury, and the restoration of his sight. Having therefore offered up the prayer over him, he anointed his eyes with the holy oil for three days, and set him free; and he who had come guided by the hands and eyes of others, departed to his own city, praising God.
B 59. Of these we have commemorated a few out of many, whom we also knew face to face, upon whom the healings were performed. But a great multitude of men and women and children fled to him every day, having diverse and varied diseases, both manifest and hidden, and all would obtain the mercy of the Lord. For women used to bring nursing infants, crying out because of the lack of nourishment, and lamenting that the flow of their milk had dried up. And it was a pitiable sight to behold, with various sighing and weeping. What then? The great man of God was moved, seeing the children lamenting with their mothers—some mourning because of hunger, and the women, in a way, pining away with great sensation at their childlessness. Was it not then necessary that he, who was so compassionate toward all, so tender-hearted, so merciful, should suffer more than they in his soul? Assuredly so; whence he also obtained [the granting of] his requests. For he would say while praying, like that great Moses: "Lord, if you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book which You have written." C Thus, by always beseeching God, he persuaded Him to send down His mercy upon those who were in need of His mercy.
60. Therefore, it is well for us to pass over many who fell into this suffering and were healed, and to make mention of one woman who, having been healed and having returned to the monastery, confessed the grace of God, saying: "When my milk had dried up, I approached the holy man with my child; and after I had received from him the prayer and the holy oil, D as I passed out through the gate of the monastery, my breasts immediately and at once gushed forth [milk], and for many days it flowed unceasingly, so that even other children were nourished from them. And all who had known me before now glorify God, because formerly I was begging for another's milk, going from house to house in order to feed my infant, but now I do not cease to do the same, and at the same time to return it to those from whom I had received, explaining to all the cause and recounting the great works of God." For such are the graces of God, that where affliction abounded, grace has superabounded. Does this seem to anyone a small thing? I do not think anyone of sound mind would judge it so; but rather that it is equal to the miracle that occurred to the barren woman. For just as she had a nature formed for the bearing of children, yet could not give birth, so the breasts of this woman ought by nature to have had a flow of milk, but it had dried up, so that by...
A the works of God might be made manifest, performed through His own servant. For I speak the truth in Christ, that many women suffering from this affliction, and others from different hidden, various, and difficult-to-cure diseases, came and besought the help of God. Regarding the cures of this sort, even if more could be said, let these suffice.
CHAPTER VII.
The holy Eutychius preserves an unfailing supply of grain during a famine; he predicts an empire to certain men; he bids farewell to the people of Amasea.
61. Let us now see another grace granted to this holy man by God, which, as I think, does not differ much from that which the prophet Elijah manifested in Sarepta. For although the Thesbite, after he had brought a famine upon the people according to the word of his mouth, was kindly received in hospitality by the widow, who neglected both her own son and herself; he recompensed this kindness, so that the flour in the jar did not fail, nor the oil in the cruse. But this man, as if a second Elijah, did not bring about the famine himself, but sustained many who were suffering by his prayers, on such an occasion as I now endeavor to set forth. All men know of the inroad of the impious Persians into our republic, when the new Nebuchadnezzar, Chosroes, came B to Sebaste and Melitene. When, therefore, things had been brought into great straits and danger, almost all the neighbors from Nicopolis, Neocaesarea, Comana, Zela, and other neighboring cities fled to Amasea as to a most fortified city, trusting not so much in the protection of the city as in the prayers of the holy man; for all, both the natives and the arriving sojourners (most of whom were Iberians), and indeed the rest of the guests, had placed their hopes after God in him; and they were preserved, hanging upon his words and listening to his utterances. Justly, therefore, in such a tumult, an innumerable multitude of men ran to the city; but when they had tarried there for a long time, a great scarcity of provisions followed. And so, as all fled to his holy monastery as to a most safe harbor, so that they might nourish their souls along with their bodies, a great expense was incurred daily; and in the meantime the famine increased day by day, both on account of our own armies C and the enemies of God and the republic; whence we were all in great sadness, because as bread was supplied to the multitude, the bins of the monastery in which the flour was stored were so emptied, that not even a week’s worth of food remained in them.
62. When, therefore, the very pious monks who were fulfilling the service of the cellar saw the decrease of the flour and the increasing number of those demanding it, they approached the great man, using that passage of Scripture:
A "Come over into Macedonia and help us," for the flour in the vessels has already failed, and every hope of our being saved is taken away. But he, without doubting or delaying for a moment, trusting in the rich mercies of God, went into the place where the flour bins were standing, already almost empty of flour, and, having offered a prayer, instructed the deacons, saying: "As much as you provide to those in need, the Lord our God will restore twofold. For I believe that, just as the flour in the jar did not fail of old, so now it will not fail; and even if you have poured from this into that—that is, from the full into the empty—yet its dregs will not be exhausted, but all shall eat and be filled, and shall praise the Lord our God." With great joy and eagerness, therefore, the most pious monks B fulfilled the orders given to them, providing the distribution of bread to all who came without lack. And doing this for a long time, they fed a great hungry crowd. From this the miracle became even more widely known, because, although no additional flour was added to the supply already laid up for the year, and so much was consumed daily, not only did it not run out, but even after new flour had been brought in, the old flour sufficed for a long time—or rather, it sufficed always, according to what is written: "And you shall eat the old of the old, and shall cast out the old from before the new," for the gifts of God are without regret.
63. And as for the wonders wrought by the holy man—since they were many and great—it is enough to have recounted these few, leaving the rest to those who may wish to search and write more loftily concerning him. But it is right C not to overlook, without examination, the miracle that happened to the man himself. What, pray, was this? I refer to his return, that is, the restoration to his own see, which he had never entirely abandoned. For since he had remained for the space of twelve years (46) and more in the monastery founded by himself, and had wrought by the help of God the wondrous things mentioned thus far, and many others, the sum of the miracles performed by him was the grace that God showed concerning him. For not a messenger, not an angel, but God Himself, who spoke to Job through the storm and clouds, who is slow to wrath and swift to mercy, who does not utterly leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous learn wickedness, at the end of the struggles D proclaims his athlete, speaking with a bright proclamation: "Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you must answer me. Do you think I have spoken with you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?" This is the medicine for the wounds, this is the crown of the struggle, this is the...
pledge of the future reward, for He who causes pain, restores once again. A
64. Let no one think that he passed his whole time in his monastery without temptations and grievous afflictions: for there was no lack of visible and invisible enemies who cast him into the furnace of temptations, and ignited the flame of disturbances, and added increments to his pains, so that he could say that verse of the Psalm: "They added to the pain of my wounds." And they so vexed the holy monastery that we were weary even of living, had not the angel of the Lord descended and dispersed the flame of the fire, and made the middle of the furnace as a wind of dew blowing. Since, therefore, it was necessary that gold tested in the furnace should be brought forth, that it might appear more splendid (for such are the saints who pass through temptations, in whose person David spoke, saying: "We went through fire and water, and you brought us out into a place of refreshment"), God, who dissolves temptations, also brought out the excellent fighter into a place of refreshment, saying: "I will not fail you, nor forsake you"; just as the Apostle also says: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will make with the temptation an issue." And let us hear in a few words what and of what kind his issue, or rather, his deliverance, was. B
65. When he who had assumed the throne of this man of many struggles and great man had departed from this life (to which place, He knows who for certain hidden reasons allowed such things to happen), the pious people, demanding their own shepherd and teacher, began to cry out to the emperors Justin and Tiberius, and above all to the true Emperor and King of all emperors and kings, our God, that there should be restored to them the guardian of the faith, the proclaimer of the Trinity, and the defender of the true religion, who became all things to all men that he might win the many. C But they, whom blessed rest now holds, since they felt the same, and welcoming the divine zeal and the warmth of the love of the most faithful people, which they themselves also had long felt toward the holy man, granted what was asked, and what they themselves had always desired, both for many other reasons and especially because he had predicted that they would be future emperors. Regarding them, although we ought for that reason to be restrained from proceeding, yet since this time demands it, a few things must be said: lest the peril of him who buried the talent D
A take root against us. I shall recount, therefore, those things which were spoken regarding them by prophecy.
66. About three years before the reign of Justin, it was revealed to the great high priest who foresees future events, that he was to be emperor. He, without delay, desiring to strengthen him in the fear of God and to make him more careful in ordering his life according to God, on a day when a procession was taking place at the Jucundianae, took Justin aside into a private place—the man of God, Eutychius, where there was an opening (for this sign was assumed, just as formerly a heap of stones was a testimony)—and says to him: "Listen, lord Curopalates, although I am humble, nevertheless I am a slave and priest of God, to whom He himself has signified that you are to be emperor after your uncle. B Therefore, see that you are not distracted hither and thither by occupations; but pay attention to yourself, and apply yourself, that you may be worthy to perform the will of God." Having heard these words, Justin gave thanks to God, and replied to the great man in this manner: "May God make me worthy to obey His will, and to be guided and directed by your judgment." And these things were done in this way. But when the great man was on the island called Prince’s [Prinkipo], he narrated to us on one day, saying: "In a vision of the night, someone gave me a sword containing the images of Justin and his wife Sophia, who were smiling at me; what, then, am I to say that this signifies?" One of those standing by answered and said: "You have seen the decision, or the end, of the matter which is now being constructed." C But he said: "It is not so; but they themselves shall reign, and they shall avenge me; for I saw them wearing the imperial attire." And that they did reign is manifest; and that they also avenged him—for we all know that he pursued many of those who had acted against him, upon his exile. But regarding these things, such were both foretold and then accomplished. But let us see what also he foretold regarding Tiberius, of pious memory.
67. First, that he had placed Tiberius himself, being then a notary, with Justin before his reign. Subsequently, when Tiberius was staying at Sirmium because of the Avaric war, the admirable man wrote to him, an occasion for writing having arisen. The occasion was this: a certain tribune of the soldiers staying at Amasea, desiring to gain favor with Tiberius, having received a letter of recommendation from the holy man, D eagerly set out for him at Sirmium. The purpose of the letter seen was this; but it also contained in it the prophecy of the reign; for after the prologue it contained these words: "Now indeed in a portion of the governing of the commonwealth"
God has entrusted to you the rudders, but He will also provide the perfect fulfillment." But at that time none of us knew what the utterance meant; yet when he became Caesar, it was known once again; for having received that letter, he kept it, as we learned later. And thus much has been sufficiently said concerning the prophecy of the two emperors; but let us now learn what he also predicted concerning the present very Christ-loving Maurice.
68. Eighteen years before his reign, while the saint was living in the monastery, through the shift of changing circumstances, it happened that all those who were administering the province of Pontus—I mean the quaestors and the procurators of the public treasury, and moreover those to whom the charge of the Moderatian legion had been entrusted—were all hailing from the city of Arabissus, from which certain ones among them were also kinsmen and relatives of the now most faithful emperor. B All of these, therefore, as was fitting, came to the blessed one, being about to reap great benefit from him. And as is wont to happen in conversations, some were praising this province, others another region. While such matters were being bandied about, the great man of God, courteously indeed, yet in such a way that it appeared he was not speaking at all scornfully, brought up the conversation about Arabissus itself and set forth its praises. And to us and to others originating from there, he seemed to be saying such things for the sake of politeness and social rapport: but the end showed the outcome of the words. What, then, and of what nature were the things the holy man prophesied concerning it? As often as he made mention of the city of Arabissus, he spoke thus graciously, while all of us and the officials originating from there were listening: "Great is your city, therefore it is said concerning it: 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?'" And he did not say, "I say," so as not to C show himself exalted, but humble: "For everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
69. And these things indeed were foretold in Amasea. But when it pleased God that he should be restored to his own throne, two years before the death of the emperor Tiberius, who is in pious memory, it happened that Tiberius himself fell into illness; and the servant of God visited him, and he recovered; for through a vision he had understood that he was not then to die; and when many were inquiring concerning a successor, if anything D should befall him according to the lot of humanity, the great man said:
"The king does not die." And so, although the names of various rulers were mentioned, the blessed one answered nothing. But when the name of the now most pious Maurice was mentioned, he became collected in himself and revealed the things that had already been foreknown and foretold to him, saying thus: "Truly, you have no other," confirming the truth of the matter with an oath. At that time, we were reminded also of the things that had been said in Amasea. Let no one have any doubt concerning these matters; for we have recorded the persons, the times, the places, and the reasonable pretexts for this reason, that no one might think that we have invented these things to favor the man. He who can receive it, let him receive it; and he who does not wish to believe, let him not believe; for what is it to me to judge those who are on the outside? But let us return to where we began to relate the recovery of the holy man. B
70. When the emperors Justin and Tiberius heard the acclamations of the Christ-loving people, they immediately and with great speed and joy sent their most noble scribones to the holy man, that they might bring him to the queen of cities, even if he were unwilling and resistant. They arrived and delivered to him the imperial letter. Having taken this in his hands and looking up to heaven and becoming tearful, he gave thanks to God and said: "Behold, O Lord, I will not restrain my lips, for you understood my thoughts from afar; my path and my measuring-line you investigated, and you foresaw all my ways; your knowledge has become wonderful out of me, it is confirmed, and I cannot attain to it. 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?' And who shall dissipate the things which the Almighty has decreed? Shall the clay say to him who fashioned it, 'Why did you make me so?' I heard your report, O Lord, and I feared; I considered your works, and I was astounded, for you are terrible, and who shall stand against you?" Having used these and many other such words of thanksgiving, and having celebrated the divine liturgy in the holy monastery, sitting on the throne (for the Lord's day had arrived, after which we also splendidly celebrated the memory of the life-giving Cross on the fourteenth day of the month of September), he blessed the monastery and those dwelling in it, and even the whole city; and committing them all together to God, he began his journey, with the archbishop accompanying him as far as the royal city. C
71. And it was possible to see a truly strange sight, and one worthy of that divine soul; opposites were mixed together, sorrow and joy, tears and gladness, as some were lamenting his separation from them in the body, while others were celebrating his return; and the eyes of both parties D were [following him, and the archbishop of the same city also accompanied him.]
diverse tears, partly full of sorrow, partly full of joy; or rather, that they were bursting forth from every eye on account of an overwhelming jubilation. For tears, as everyone knows, often arise even from a great joy that precedes them, which do not afflict the heart unless they proceed from a twisting of the bowels and labor of the soul. For where sin does not precede in what is permitted, neither do pains follow. The prince of the apostles had sinned, and for that reason he is said to have wept bitterly. But if sins are absent, the flowing tears are to be called not so much tears as streams of joy. For we see both happening in a vine; which, when it is pruned and dug around, "weeps" as if in pain; but on the contrary, when it flourishes and has clusters hanging on every side, it grants tears of joy and hilarity to those who tend it. In this way, therefore, did the servant of God fill all the inhabitants of the city with gladness and joy; and when he had commended them to the Lord, only with difficulty could he at last be torn away from them to set out on his journey.
CHAPTER VIII.
Return to Constantinople to the patriarchate: illustrious gifts of body and soul.
B Who will be able to explain these things that happened then in a manner worthy of their splendor? What tongue will suffice to declare the constant and varied meetings—some differing from others in brilliance—and the auspicious acclamations of all, with one clear voice saying: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" and "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace"? For they knew, as many as cried out in this way, that it had been said by the Lord: "He who receives you, receives me; and he who receives a just man in the name of a just man shall receive the reward of a just man." C Moreover, they were bringing the infirm along the road, so that even the shadow of the man of great endurance might touch some of them, and these, in proportion to their faith, received help from God. For when the holy man was departing from Euchaita, a certain woman, coming forward with her ailing son, was pushed by the crowd and fell beneath the pack animals, so that all despaired of the life of both herself and her son as if they were already dead; yet she remained unharmed, and the disease by which the boy was held departed from him. And thus we completed our whole journey.
D 73. But when we had reached the metropolis of the Nicomedians, we seemed to ourselves to have come into another world and to a different people, compared to what we had already passed through; and, if I may so speak, as if awakened from sleep, we pondered whether the things that were happening were true, as
the history of the Prince of the Apostles narrates, that after the angel touched Peter’s side, he said to him, "Gird yourself, and put on your sandals, and follow me." Passing the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate, which opened to them of its own accord; and when these things happened, Peter thought he was seeing a vision. A Something of the kind happened also to the great Eutychius. For when we were approaching Nicomedia, we truly knew that the Lord had sent His angel, and had delivered the zealous imitator of Peter from the hand of all those who had laid snares for him. For not only the faithful and Christ-loving people, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, made the fitting exclamations and sent up thanksgivings to God, but even the unbelieving crowd of Hebrews, foreign to our flock, almost imitating those children, were crying out, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," and, "May the faith of the Christians increase."
B 74. With such honor, then, the struggler returns to the Queen of cities from his noble exile, as of old the much-tried and great Athanasius returned to the city of Alexander; for the divine Gregory writes thus concerning him: "A colt was carrying him (and do not blame me for my thoughtlessness), a colt, I say, just as that colt carried my Jesus—whether it was the people from the nations, whom, doing good, he releases from the bonds of ignorance and mounts, or whatever else the account may wish to signify." And branches received him, and the strewing of robes of many colors and varieties [being cast down and being thrown under, here only the high and precious being dishonored, and possessing no equal—this too was an image of Christ’s coming;] and those crying out and dancing—except that it was not only a crowd of children that was praising him, but every tongue, C in harmony yet competing to surpass one another. For I pass over the diverse applauses and the burning of incense, so that the whole city was seen to be smoking and flashing with light, and the public banquets and private homes, and as much as the cities signal as festive, that very thing was bestowed upon him to excess and beyond what was expected. In the same way, therefore, now also the admirable and great Eutychius reaches his own city with such a celebration D that, since this had already happened many times to many people over the whole course of time, even for those wishing to congratulate him on account of the excess of joy, it was truly a great thing.
A For although there have been many honorable receptions of crowds in times past, not only for princes but also for priests and the more illustrious palatines, let it not be said that any was more populous or more brilliant than this; rather, this one alone stands above and excels them all. And one might reasonably apply here the words spoken by the great-voiced Isaiah: "And they shall bring your brethren for an offering unto the Lord," which is to say, the faithful Levites and priests, "in litters drawn by mules, with canopies, into the holy city, Jerusalem." B Was it not so? Or rather, the faithful people led their own father, shepherd, and teacher into the holy city, the new Jerusalem and queen of cities, even more than that. Who could describe as is fitting the wonderful things that took place then by land and sea? How the sea, as it were, became dry land and imitated the neighboring earth, providing its back for the merchant ships and ferries, allowing people to walk across without hindrance, so that there was no one who could distinguish the water from the ground because of the multitude of the people; but the whole earth was one lip and one voice, divine and heavenly, all together glorifying their Lord and Creator God.
75. These things are a record for those who know, and a lesson for those who do not. What then? Shall we pass over the rest? By no means. But what is this? It was done by divine counsel, that from where the beginning of his departure was, from there the beginning of his return should also have its start. For when the feast of Saint Timothy was being celebrated in the palace of Hormisdas, as we have already said, the pious man was taken from there while performing the divine sacrifice, and endured what he endured; but when he had finished his course, like the sun, "he rejoiced as a giant to run his course, from the end of heaven, and his course reached to the end of it." C For he was restored to the same palace of Hormisdas as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, and there was no one who hid himself from his heat, nor who did not enjoy it. For all the faithful became partakers of his holiness and grace through sight or touch, many also through greeting him and through sweet conversation; others were gladdened by hearing him, because the report of this event was spread abroad throughout the whole earth a little later.
76. Having then passed the night in the same house, and having put on his omophorion in the morning, which he always took with him, he arrived with his pious clergy at the most august house of our holy and immaculate Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, which is honored at Blachernae. D For there resided the pious Justin and Tiberius, who received the holy man with a cheerful countenance and great honor, and having spoken words appropriate to such a time, they let him go, because it was the Lord's day and he wished to perform the divine sacrifice. Who would not opportunely use here those words of the Psalm,
A “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge”? For if anyone compares the day and night of the storm and of the temptation, or rather the persecution, with the day and night of his restoration and of his profound peace and tranquility, he will find great wisdom and knowledge in both seasons and events. How, in the time of the temptation, it was a Sabbath and winter—for the temptation, or rather the expulsion of the man, occurred on the twenty-second of January—and how, on the other hand, the restoration occurred on a Sunday, the third of October, on which day also those who had plotted the conspiracy against him were cut off, namely Etherius and Addaeus. For Addaeus was the eparch of the city, and Etherius was the curator of the palaces of Antiochus B; and just as both had brought about the wickedness—that is, the expulsion of the holy man and the irregular ordination—so both shared in the reward for what they had done. On that day, therefore, the most excellent man recovered his throne and his Church, while they were deprived of life many years before the restoration of the holy man. And one might not unfittingly recall that prophetic word: “And it shall be in the place where it was said, ‘Ye are not my people’”—as it appeared to some at that time—“there they shall be called sons of the living God.” For in the Palace of Hormisdas, as has been said, the restoration took place... For those who were calculating the stages did not understand the word, “Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all C manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake: rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for your reward is great in the heavens.”
77. I think it also necessary to narrate a few things concerning the omophorion, how it was not taken from him for such an enterprise, but remained with him. For some of the clergy suggested to Etherius that he take it from the holy man; but he, disregarding those who prompted him, did nothing of what they said. When, therefore, Etherius was under indignation, he would confess to those who came to visit him, saying: “What I did to the lord Eutychius has all fallen back upon me in full measure; through his men I attacked him, through my men I have been attacked; I seized his garments, and all my goods have been seized. Only one thing I did not take from him, D and this has also been left to me; for when the clergy urged me to take the omophorion...
A from him, I did not do so; and behold in what a situation I am, and the removal of my belt—that is, my dignities—has not come to pass." He related these things while weeping, yet he did not find a time for repentance, even though he sought it with tears. And enough has been said regarding these matters; but let us return to the things proposed.
78. After the holy man had met with the emperors, as has been said, and had been with difficulty torn away from them, seeing the people who were devoted to Christ and their own shepherd constantly giving thanks to God, he prayed to the common Lord that He would deign to be their rewarder. And so, with the entire crowd of the faithful, he entered the Church, and that as if into the Kingdom of God, not without labor: for a great multitude was pressing in, occupying the divine temple. He then ascended the ambo, just as Moses once did the mountain of Sinai; and there, having lifted his hands to God, he seemed to the people to be offering the prayers and supplications of the people to the heavenly God and Father, and to be drawing down His mercy upon his people; for on account of the multitude it could not be done otherwise, nor was he able otherwise to enter within the sanctuary. And the thunders and the swelling sound of the trumpets—that is, the readings of B the divine oracles, which were appropriate and were pronounced more clearly and vehemently—were performed with fear and great compunction. Finally, a divine darkness covered the holy altar: upon which, when he had offered the unbloody sacrifice, he distributed its communion to the faithful people, from the third hour until the ninth, because C all wished to receive it from his hands.
79. For as often as he gave communion, all ran to him as in the beginning, without satiety: because whoever was accustomed to think rightly could not be satisfied in his gaze: but the more one clung to him, the more vehemently one was drawn, with the same affection toward him as iron is naturally drawn by a secret power toward a magnet stone: for so did the wonderful man lovingly draw to himself all who looked upon him. For he was graceful in his entire habit, and D decorated with the beauty of soul and body; sublime in deed, humble in mind, venerable in virtue, benign and affable in meeting, meek, merciful; sweet in speech, but sweeter in character; angelic in aspect, but more so in soul.
80. For I am not able to recount worthily all the spiritual and bodily qualities of the man, the position, the proper conformation of the members of his whole body, from which the inner man is for the most part characterized; the cheerfulness and grace of his face, about which Solomon also says: "A glad heart (in God, of course) makes a cheerful countenance 80;" and eyes that are joyous and pupils well guarded, for such look upon right things and consent to just things; white teeth, because the food of the just is pure and heavenly; [fiery] lips, from which pure and
A ardent words and graces distilled; contracted and straight ears, suitable for receiving every divine voice; a neck, built like the tower of David, and accommodated for bearing the spiritual yoke of Christ and divine charity and the care of the churches; the snow-white hair of the sacred head, and the beard similar to Aaron's, by which the splendor and perfection of life were signified; furthermore, the fragrance of the body, like the ointment that descends upon the collar of the priestly garment; the moderation of his age, which showed it to be perfect according to Christ; broad hands, signs of most ample liberality; fingers suitable and apt for writing down divine discourses and sound dogmas; feet that were altogether straight and firm, not declining to the right or to the left, but walking the trodden and royal way B which the ox and the ass, that is, the Christian people gathered from Jews and Gentiles, tread.
81. Who could appropriately describe his orderly gait and the nimble motion of his whole body? For such is the movement of the feet of the meek and beautiful, of those who bring good tidings of peace, of those who bring good tidings of good things, from which the godlike stillness of their own soul is indicated. How shall I praise the pallor that blossomed on his face, like the rind of a pomegranate or the color of any other pale fruit C conjoined with a sweet odor? Such truly is the life of those who are in truth temperate and hardened, who contain the sweetness of various and excellent fruits in their own spiritual storehouses, and who both burn and give off fragrance, according to that which is said: "To some the odor of death unto death, to others the odor of life unto life," becoming so according to each person's choice. Who would not admire the firm and intense and indivisible word of his teaching, which he did not cease to perform by night and by day? As the divine Gregory says concerning the great Basil, he knew both how to reprove gently and to praise in a disciplined manner, and to harm neither with excess, but to use paternal correction and magisterial D praise; neither dissolute in leniency, nor austere in serious matters; but to the former he applied discretion, to the latter prudence, both of which were in him, if you attend to the figure of his diction, yet sufficient for instruction; and they had a minimum of
A cutting—that is, the rod hitting moderately.
82. What shall I paint for you, describing the man? Paul anticipated me in writing—this, indeed, in those places where he praises the great high priest who has passed through the heavens. For my discourse will dare to go even to these lengths, since it knows that those who live according to Christ are "Christs," he who was all sweetness, all desire, who while still on earth was snatched up in spirit and had forsaken the earth, and was always outside the flesh and the world, leading a life superior to these visible things, receiving those divine forms which are not mingled with these lower and mutable things: who was always a mirror of the Godhead, unspotted, adding light to light, clear even to a weaker gaze: who conversed with the angels, and with the archangels praised the Lord, and served as priest with God, and created the higher world B through the holy baptism and all the other spiritual gifts. Who will recount these and similar things about the divine man according to their dignity? What orator, what writer of sacred narratives will pursue these things as is fitting? Would that divine Gregory were here, that he might also now praise the great Basil; for the virtues of this holy man are many and great, and reach to the measure of Basil the Great, because the Lord has said that it is sufficient for the disciple that he become as his master. Blessed, indeed, is he who shall worthily explain them; but not I, who have neither the faculty of speech nor the knowledge, nor am I capable of narrating the acts of the divine man, as it is right that they should be written. Yet, fearing lest I be found similar to the servant who received the talent and buried it, and that I might fall into the same danger as he, I have provided the subject matter and material to those who will be able to describe the deeds done by the Saint. C
CHAPTER IX. Miracles performed at Constantinople: doctrine defended.
83. But we are still lingering at the foot of the mountain, as the proverb says. It is necessary, however, to set forth what the most excellent man accomplished after his return, again using the words which the praised Gregory wrote about the great Athanasius. Did he perhaps live as it was fitting for those who are to preside over such a great people, but did not teach as he lived? Or did he not struggle as he taught? Or was he in less danger than others who underwent conflict for the sake of some doctrine, or did he derive less praise from the struggle itself? Or, finally, did any later event obscure the splendor of those things which were done at his entering? In no wise; all things were in harmony with one another, as in a single lyre and one and the same symphony: the life, the doctrine, the struggles, the dangers, the things that followed his return, and the things that happened after his return; for at the same moment he reaches the Church, [he does not suffer Christ.
...to those who, through immoderate anger, are blinded and push away or strike whatever first comes to hand, even if it were deserving of sparing. But he, A considering this an especially suitable time for his own approval, since the one suffering injustice is always more moderate, while the one in power is more unrestrained in retaliation, handles the matters of those who harmed him so gently and mildly that even to them, if one may say so, the return of the man was not disagreeable. But let others admire and praise these things, those who have leisure to admire the small things done by him—and when I say "small," I compare him with himself, and his works with his own works; for, by reason of his surpassing glory, nothing, however illustrious, could add to the glory of that glorious man, since, as we have heard, even his smallest and most trivial deeds would be enough to bring no small illumination to another. B Let us see, then, what God wrought through him after the return of the new Athanasius. Was there perhaps any diminution of spiritual gifts, or did they wane because of the confusion of affairs that had occurred? By no means; although some might perhaps surmise this. On the contrary, there were even additions to these, as the Lord says, "And you will do greater things than these," [Joann. XIV, 12]—it is good for us to know a few things out of many, for the sake of the proportion of the discourse.
84. All you who remember the return of the holy man, you are certainly not unaware of the great and long-lasting mortality that prevailed for C a long time before his arrival, which swept away every age indiscriminately, had not the elect of God arrived and stood firm, as Phinehas once did, and made atonement, and the destruction ceased. But what was this atonement? It was the litany made by him and the Christ-loving people for this cause, from the most holy Great Church to the house of the holy and immaculate Lady, our Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, which is honored at Blachernae. For when requests were sent up to him who was incarnate of her and the Holy Spirit, Christ our God, he spared the people, holding back the angel who held the sword, who was striking and not sparing the city. D In this, too, the wonderful man imitated the prophet David, who, because of the mortality brought on by the numbering of the people, said to God: "I, the shepherd, have sinned, I have done this; but these, what have they done?" [II Reg. XXIV, 17] After David prayed these things and was heard, he saw the angel standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite; and having entreated him—or rather, the common Master—he persuaded him not to stretch out his hand toward the city of Jerusalem, wherefore he also set up an altar in that very threshing floor, having exchanged it, and the oxen...
A having offered A sacrifice to God, he put an end to the wrath and the death. Does then the great and gentle Eutychius not act in this way, having offered the rational and bloodless sacrifice to God? For he could not have brought down his hands, which he had stretched out, in any other way than by having seized and held back from above the salvation of the people. From that very day, therefore, until the perfection of the holy man, Christ our God, besought by him, rendered the destroyer powerless. This, then, was the one and first work of his return, to intercede for the common salvation for all. But let us see also what other thing the almighty God has done through him.
85. A certain younger man among the nobles, residing with Calopodius the primicerius B of the Augusta, or rather brought up by him, having received an injury to one of his eyes from some adverse occurrence for a considerable time, was finally in such danger that he expected to lose it, and no physician was able to assist him; on the contrary, the more they treated it, the more grievously the boy’s eye was harmed. Since, then, the affliction was in this state, he flees for refuge to the all-virtuous physician, who was able to heal the affliction by prayer alone; which is exactly what happened. For having performed the customary prayer over him, he anointed the diseased eye with holy oil, and by the grace of God it was restored to health, just as the other. Let us see, then, also another wondrous miracle.
86. A wife had lived with Cyril C the Cinarius for many years; she, having fallen into the affliction of dropsy, was in extreme danger, and having spent much on physicians, and having been benefited in no way, she despaired of her own salvation. Her husband, taking her, carried her from place to place in the suburbs, hoping for some relief from the goodness of the air. It happened, however, at that time that the saint was staying in the Pyleaticum. When the Christ-loving man knew this (for he was known to the great man), without any hesitation he brought his wife to the saint, imploring him to offer a prayer for her so that she might be delivered from her disease. And having seen her, we were D all astonished at the mass and burden of her abdomen. But he, having prayed for her and anointed her with the holy oil, dismissed her. After a few days, when the holy man was again staying in the Pyleaticum, the man brought his wife back, giving thanks to God, and showing everyone the woman who had been delivered from that burden and that distress; for the mass of her abdomen had so disappeared, and she stood so healthy, that it seemed she had never been ill. Many, therefore, recognizing the miracle that had taken place, glorified God; for the woman, in whom this sign of healing had occurred, was more than forty years old.
87. But that I may not seem to some to speak of things that are incredible, I think it sufficient not to proceed further about such things; for we must not go beyond the Pillars of Hercules, as the divine Gregory says. And Gregory of Nyssa also speaks, teaching that one should not make a written account beyond the measure of the gifts of grace, regarding his own sister...
A such that, as all these things had been accomplished, to those who have understood with precision the things concerning her, it is believed to be true, even if it be beyond faith; but to those more addicted to the flesh, it is considered to be outside the bounds of probability. Yet these men are ignorant that the distribution of gifts happens according to the measure of faith, so that to the small in faith, small gifts are granted, but great ones to those who possess in themselves the breadth of faith. As, therefore, the more unbelieving might not be harmed by disbelieving in the gifts of God, for this reason I have subsequently declined to record the higher miracles, deeming it sufficient to outline the history concerning her with the things already mentioned. B Likewise, therefore, let it also be said and written regarding the great Eutychius.
88. As then the servant of God had finished his course and kept the faith, he thereafter awaited the crown of righteousness reserved for him, having lived after his return—that is, the restoration to the high throne—four years and six months (so that all the years of his life reached seventy), and having published the discourses written by him in quietude through the cooperation of the Holy Spirit against every heresy, and having explained them more broadly and clearly to all the faithful and fosterlings of the orthodox and apostolic Church, and having fulfilled in his own deeds what was written in them, he taught not to cling to the clay and the brick-making, to this temporal life and to things that do not abide; C for such is the work of brick-making, always being filled and moved. For I leave the manifold change of the moon, representing the volatility of this life, to others who wish to discuss it. Having therefore done many other noble deeds, so that his life and manner were a canon of the episcopacy, and his dogmas a rule of orthodoxy, he at last longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ, even though he judged that remaining in the flesh was more necessary for the salvation of the many. Yet it was fitting that he also be shown to be a human being, and undergo the disjunction of the soul from the body, concerning which he philosophized daily as he suffered, speaking in harmony with and following his own holy Fathers, Basil and the Gregories. D One of whom said, "Despise the flesh, for it passes away; care for the soul, a thing immortal"; and the other, "Would that I might cast off this heavy tunic, that I might receive a lighter one."
89. Having been occupied in these things and always meditating on them, the intimate companion of the great Fathers—he who breathed the words and dogmas of Basil, and the Gregories, and the great Dionysius, and indeed more yet of the other holy Fathers, prophets, and apostles, no less than he breathed this very air—was nonetheless suspected by those of imperfect mind of thinking and
A believing amiss concerning the doctrine of the resurrection, because they neither knew what he spoke of, nor what they themselves were asserting. And what is to be wondered at if childlike minds spoke such things regarding him? For if our Lord and God, in casting out demons by the finger of God, was heard to be casting them out by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons; and if the divine Apostle, preaching Jesus and his resurrection on the Areopagus, was heard asking, "What would this babbler wish to say?"; and if Basil, the foundation of virtues and defender of the Holy Spirit, was suspected by those of imperfect intellect of not confessing the Holy Spirit to be God—then it is nothing strange if even about the great and God-bearing man Eutychius, that venerable and holy head, that pillar and beacon B of the Church, who was in all things like the venerable Fathers, the like was suspected by those accustomed to babble, and who were incapable of grasping the doctrine of the resurrection. For God forbid that he should ever have thought anything contrary to the orthodox dogmas of the holy and apostolic Church, or in any of his words.
40. The usages of the holy Fathers regarding this subject are manifold, and especially that of the divine Gregory, which says: "If anyone says that Christ has now laid aside the flesh, and that His divinity is stripped of that which He assumed, and such is his state and such will be His coming, may he not see the glory of His presence." How then could he who inserted this opinion into his own discourses, have held a view contrary to it? For he did not speak one thing while keeping a different opinion; God forbid! If a crooked heart never clave to him, much less a double-minded one. He had learned what the union of soul and body is, as far as is possible for man; and that as the soul has used the body for its service, so it shall together with it enjoy immortal goods; and that if the body has been afflicted and brought into servitude, it shall with the soul escape C everlasting torments: thus both together are either condemned or crowned. "For we must all," it is written, "appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive according as he has done in his body, whether it be good or evil" 84; because both work together in this life, and therefore both shall appear together before the judgment seat of Christ. That tribunal will indeed be just, and there will be no respect of persons there, nor will the judgment be carried out only in part: but as the Ecclesiastes says: "All things that are done, God shall bring into judgment for every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" 85. And this judgment will be just for this reason, that after the resurrection neither the body shall be found without the soul, nor the soul without the body with which it always lived; but both soul D and body shall be adorned with the beauty of immortality.
84 II Cor. v, 10. 85 Eccl. xii, 14.
Chapter X. Illness, death, burial of Saint Eutychius.
A 91. Thinking and teaching these things and what is even higher than these, he longed to depart from the body and to journey to the Lord, repeatedly using those words of David: «As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God,» and, «When shall I come and appear before God?» He also foresaw the calamities about to befall this great city, by reason of our sins and our evil practices, and he besought the merciful God night and day, first that no evil should befall the city, but that He should avert the threat expected to come upon it. But if thou wilt not hear me, he said to God, take me out of this life, that I may not see its destruction. Whence he also obtained what he had requested; for the Lord doeth the will of them that fear Him; He heareth their supplication and saveth them. While he was thus praying and beseeching, he was heard immediately, according to the prophetic saying, «Whilst thou art yet speaking, I will say, Behold, here am I.»
B 92. The time was at hand, the fullness of the time, or rather the goodness of the years, the feast of feasts, and the festival of festivals, the beginning of the universal resurrection, the resurrection of Christ our God, according to which we, both those in heaven and those on earth, sing a more triumphant hymn. Regarding this, the divine David also says: «This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar,» (that is, unto the angelic Virtues); for as the rending of the veil declares, the heavenly things were revealed to those on earth, and every rational creature began to praise its Creator with one and the same voice, according to that word: «Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.» Having therefore celebrated this holy feast brilliantly, he who had spoken of it always, like no other person, and having censed the most holy Great Church of God, and having performed the holy baptisms, he kissed all C the bishops and priests and his own clergy, and furthermore the emperor and the senate and all the people of the Lord, commending himself to all in spirit. Although it was unknown to many what was taking place, and they suspected that it was all done according to the custom of the feast, he alone knew what he was doing.
93. How now can I say these things without tears? For I, the miserable one, had the honor—more than was my custom—of kissing his angelic face on that very day; and having done this twice and thrice, I could not be sated. Being asked by him, «Why do you do this so often?» I said to him, «I have this day only,» and because of this I prophesied against myself (which would that it had not happened!), saying that I am alone—
A—orphaned, and have lost the precious pearl; alone I have hidden the treasure in the field; alone I have wandered like a sheep having no shepherd; alone I walk, mourning and sorrowful, the whole day. Yet shortly, all those who have been partakers of his gifts shall, I think, join their voices with mine, saying: The light of our eyes is extinguished; the light of our souls is snatched away; the support of our life is taken; the seal of concord is dissolved; the bond of charity is removed; the support of the weak is broken. Because of you, Father, even night shone like day, being illuminated by your radiant life; but now even the day shall be turned into darkness. Yet we must not give way to lamentations, especially before the time, lest we hear from him: «Weep not over me.»
94. When the good shepherd had completed the entire order of the divine office, and had distributed the most holy Body of our Lord Jesus Christ to all the faithful people, returning to the holy episcopal residence, he took a moderate refreshment with his accustomed companions most cheerfully. But after the meal and a short period of rest, when the time for the lamps approached, and he ought to have been present for the evening service, a certain contraction seized his entire body; for which reason some of his most religious clerics besought him that he might rest. But he could not be induced by any prayers not to attend the evening office. Strengthened, therefore, by the Holy Spirit, he betook himself to the venerable Church of God, where the people were awaiting him; for all desired to behold him—as they always did, but then most especially when he appeared vested in the apostolic stole. In which, having fulfilled the manifold evening prayers and kissed the holy altar, he commended the flock of the faithful to God. Then, as if from the visible altar to the invisible, progressing from strength to strength, with closed senses and far removed from the B people, he performed his prayers. Returning then to the episcopal residence, he lay down upon his bed, and about midnight he was seized by a violent fever; and so he remained for seven days, doing and performing nothing else but praying and unceasingly signing himself with the sign of the cross.
95. But since the intensity of the disease—or rather, I should say, of his departure—reached the ears of the most religious Emperor Tiberius, he was greatly troubled at this event; and, laying aside all political cares, he showed himself solely concerned about him, sending also the foremost of the physicians—by whom many and various diseases had been cured—to tend him. And these indeed received more benefit from his teaching than they brought to him, inasmuch as he suffered no medicine to be applied to his own body, saying: «He has set a decree, and it shall not pass away; I have another physician, and as it may seem best to Him, He heals me.» Having heard these things, the Emperor, with great desire and faith, visited the blessed man, first
A to receive a blessing from him, and then to be persuaded by him as to who ought to become the shepherd and leader of the people after him. But he blessed the Emperor, yet kept silent about the other matter—not as one ignorant, but for certain reasons which he himself knew through God who had revealed it to him. Having, therefore, spoken with the Emperor about what was appropriate and necessary for the time, he blessed him with great joy and a cheerful countenance, and sent him away. And as I heard from certain of the Emperor’s chamberlains, he told the Emperor that his own departure also was shortly to take place, which indeed came to pass: for after four months, Tiberius, the Christ-loving emperor, departed from this life.
B 16. Remaining then in his infirmity throughout the whole week, he who was simple in his manner but manifold in his governance, sage in word but yet wiser in his understanding—the great patriarch Eutychius, I say—with a firm mind prayed to God for all, until the seventh hour of the Sunday of the *secundo-prima* (it was necessary for the week to fulfill its own due for the time of rest). Having blessed all, as once upon a time Jacob did to his sons, he himself, the new Jacob, stretched out his feet, and about the ninth or tenth hour, he commended his spirit into the hands of God, having brought his life to a close in a good old age. And to the angels leading him, he did not appear unsightly, but was received by the heavenly and upper choir with great boldness. How, then, did we come to know this further? From the two miracles that occurred at that time. For when the soul was sundered from the body, the whole people in the church with one accord cried out the great «Lord, have mercy.» And when the hebdomadary had at that time finished the lucernary prayer, and had said, «Have mercy on us, O God, according to Thy great mercy; we beseech Thee, O Lord, hear and have mercy,» the faithful people, urged on by the celebrant, with a loud cry sent forth the holy soul of the shepherd and doctor to God, the governing God having so ordered it. Who would not marvel at this? And how, again, at the other miracle: that the eyes or the rest of the body of the one who had finished his course required no one to set them in order? C Just as happens in sleep according to nature, his eyelids were gracefully closed in their natural state, his lips were shut, and his hands were beautifully joined upon his chest. The entire posture of the body, having automatically adjusted itself into a seemly position, stood in no need of the hand of those arranging it. D It is therefore worthy of wonder how divine
A soul modeled its own body. But let us see what followed thereafter.
97. Again, Basil was shown to be a second [Basil], for thus the great Gregory records concerning him: When the city perceived its loss, it lamented its orphanhood, mourned its own abandonment, reproached its departure as a tyranny, and desired to lay hold of his soul, as one that could be restrained either by hands or by prayers. When, therefore, all things customary for the funeral had been completed, the saint was brought forth, lifted by the hands of the holy, while each person was eager to touch either the hem of his garment or at least the sacred bier. For what was purer or holier than that body? The streets and porticos were full of those desiring to approach those who were carrying him, or to enjoy the sight of him alone, as if some benefit were coming even from that; all the windows of the houses, and all the rooftops and high peaks [were full]. Those who were leading the way and those who were following, those who were near and those who were coming up, pressed against one another; it was an innumerable multitude of people of every age and sex, and with them as many as were of any rank of dignity before the Emperor, especially the Prefect of the city, who surpassed all in honoring the funeral of the holy man: even the Emperor would have been present, had he not thought it his duty to ensure that no tumult arose among the people; but there were present all the ranks of soldiers and priests, and an infinite assembly of monks. The chanting of the Psalms vied with the lamentations; our philosophy C yielded to the disturbances, as those of our ranks contended with those outside, and those outside with ours, as to who could receive more consolation through mourning. And that which is wonderful and almost incredible is that, out of so many thousands of people, not one fell into any danger, even though many were weighed down by the very pressure of those standing upon them for the sake of seeing the holy body (78). But to conclude in the manner of an epitaph in a few words: God honored his entrance, and honored his departure even more gloriously, stirring up many tears, but leaving greater in the minds of all who contemplated the glory surrounding him.
98. Meanwhile, the body, having survived those who would seize it, was brought into the church of the holy Apostles, and according to the institution of the holy Fathers, the patriarch was added to the patriarchs, the preacher to the preachers, the martyr to the martyrs, and [one who] had walked in the footsteps of the apostles to the apostles; his body also rests, buried alongside the bodies of these same holy apostles Andrew, Luke, and Timothy, lengthwise before the holy altar, at its foundation—the resting place he had made for himself. For this holy man had chosen this place himself while alive, so that even after his passing his body would not retreat any further from the holy altar. For since his soul was to stand before the altar in heaven, and there, with the holy angels and apostles, to pray for the whole people...
it was right that the body also, which had been its yoke-fellow and companion, and had been joined with it in the course of this life, should never be separated from the immaculate altar on earth; so that it, too, might in a certain way, along with the priest praying and offering the gifts to the Lord God, intercede with the priest for his people and city—for the bodies of the saints A have power equal to their holy souls. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," and, "I will protect this city," said the Lord, "for my sake, and for my servant David’s sake." We have, therefore, a powerful intercession in the saints, since through faith they conquered kingdoms, and obtained the promises, and after the release and departure of this life, they possess even greater power.
99. Come then, also you, O praisers of the great Basil, and assist me in my labor, for I am weary in speech through humility of word, desiring to pass over the greater part, yet drawn from one thing to another; and as in a body that is equally beautiful in all its parts, whatever comes to view seems more beautiful and draws the discourse to itself, so it is here. Come therefore, and divide among yourselves his good deeds, you who are his praisers and witnesses, and engage in a noble contest with one another—men and women together, young men and virgins, elders with the younger, priests and people, B the solitary and those who live in the world, those of simplicity and those of exactness, those who are of contemplation and those of action. Let one praise his diligence in fastings and prayers, as though he were bodiless and immaterial; another his persistence in vigils and psalmody; another his harsh and incredible severity of life, or his humility of mind; another his oblivion of injuries, in which he particularly excelled, according to the apostolic command which says: "Let not the sun go down upon your anger."
100. Let every choir of theirs, therefore, stand around me, as many as belong to the chancel and as many as are below, as many of ours and as many of those from without, and join with me in the eulogy, recounting and searching out the virtues of this new Basil, one by one. You who sit in judgment, praise the lawgiver; you who govern the city, the citizen; you who are of the people, the man of the people; you who delight in learning, the master; C you who delight in solitude, its lover; you who in crowds, the judge; you who in simplicity, the guide; you who fare well, the moderator; you who in adversity, the comforter; virgins, the virgin; husbands and wives, the chaste; old age, the staff; youth, the teacher; poverty, the provider; abundance, the steward. It seems to me that widows will also praise their protector, orphans their father, the needy the diligent friend of the poor, D strangers the lover of strangers, and brothers the lover of the brethren; those who are sick—
hospitality, for guests; brotherhood, for a lover of the brethren; for the sick, a physician of every malady and medicine; for the healthy, a guardian of their well-being; and in short, that all should load with praises him who became all things to all men, that he might gain all or the majority. I, indeed, having thus mingled the virtues of both Fathers in my praises, have set out this meager feast of discourse with eagerness for the guests and the fastidious, such as it is—just as one might serve herbs with cakes, as if it were a delicious dish, yet not without some claim to praise; for I have presumed to do what was honorable. But as for you, who have paid your due with such zeal to the great Eutychius, I would counsel you nothing else than to consider that you look upon him, and in turn are regarded by him in the Spirit, and are being perfected; for such is the A crown of his virtuous deeds, such is the treasure of the virtues of this God-bearing man.
EPILOGUS
101. It remains that you who have listened to me kindly, and above all you, O divine and holy head, grant pardon for my poverty, considering that Mosaic mandate concerning the eating of the lamb: "On the tenth day of the month let everyone take a lamb according to their houses and families; but if the number be less than what suffices for the eating of the lamb, he shall take his neighbor who is joined to his house." If therefore the law commanded that a gathering of many be made for the eating of one lamb, what would it not have commanded to be done for the praise of a shepherd, and such a shepherd at that? Therefore, fulfilling the law, although I am not capable of writing down your deeds, holy Father, I have called together for your praise, not my poor neighbors like me, but your equals and peers—men of excellence, surely—not that they might see a lamb being eaten, but that they might together praise a shepherd who is a companion on the journey. It is indeed just that those who are passing along the road and are C scantily provided with provisions—that is, lacking in eloquence and learning, and in the elegance of a well-ordered and sonorous composition—should go to the living water and drink from the very rim and well of the fountain; for it is not fitting to approach another’s—I mean learning and instruction. Therefore, those things from your noble deeds that I was able to grasp in speaking, holy Father, I have readily set before those who are thirsty; but those things that surpassed my powers and could not be grasped by my speech, I have left to the wise and to their divine words, who are, as it is written, "The words of the wise are as goads and as nails firmly fixed." "Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man, and he will make haste to receive." And the divine Apostle also commands you: "That your abundance may supply their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality," and: "I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh." And again: "What was wanting to me, the brethren who came from Macedonia have supplied." And you, therefore, O perfect men, who are the supporters of this holy and divine Father
have come and filled what was lacking to me. And you, therefore, as many as are perfect lovers of the father, and are genuine sons and praisers of that perfect and God-bearing man and teacher, accept my A intention; and as for the rest, for the sake of praise, or rather, to speak more truly, fulfill the whole, so that that which is written may be fulfilled: "A brother helped by a brother is like a strong city, and fortified like a kingdom set up with a bar." B
102. Do you, O thrice-blessed and holy Father, look down upon us from above, and guide the course of our life toward that which is most profitable. And if we should depart hence, receive us there according to your promises into the bosoms of Abraham and the tabernacles of the just, so that even there we may be taught by you, more purely and perfectly, those things concerning the holy, consubstantial, and co-eternal Trinity, of which we have now received only a moderate glimpse through you, and through those who were taught and instructed by you. And ceasing not to entreat this, do not cease to pray for us, your suppliants, and for this your flock, this most faithful and Christ-loving people, so that we may attain the eternal goods in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father be glory and adoration, together with the holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANGELO MAI'S MONITUM ON THE SERMON OF PATRIARCH EUTYCHIUS
(Biblioth. Nov. t. IV, p. 54.)Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, famous in the middle of the sixth century, I have found in a Vatican codex—if not entirely complete, then certainly surviving in a good part of it—a sermon on Pasch and the most holy Eucharist. For from the life of this same Eutychius, written most affectionately by his familiar, the presbyter Eustathius, and from the same Vatican codex edited in Latin by the Bollandists on the 6th of April, it was sufficiently established that he composed sermons against whatever heresies there were, and published them before his death; of which one, and indeed not of the lowest kind, is this one of ours, since it dwells on the subject to which Eutychius was, above others, attached.
For as regards the most holy Eucharist, the biographer teaches us how piously this patriarch celebrated the solemnities of the Mass in public, and how often, and that he would distribute the Eucharist to such a great multitude of people that he sometimes persevered in this most holy act for six hours. Moreover, he observed the commemoration of Pasch—that is, the Resurrection of the Lord—so zealously that, even when seized by his final illness, he wished to perform the liturgy; and he obtained from God that, retaining his life through the whole octave of Pasch, as that solemnity finally ended on earth, he himself would migrate to the eternal, heavenly one.
The same biographer also defends Eutychius regarding that controversy which he had with our great Gregory [Moral. in Job xiv. 9] (a), who was dwelling in Constantinople at that time. Certainly, Eutychius never doubted the resurrection of the flesh; nay, he asserted it in his own writings. Yet in this he sometimes diverged, wandering from the path of truth, when he judged that it would be impalpable in the resurrection. But finally, convicted by Gregory, and nearing death before the eyes of those present, he said, “I confess that we shall all rise in this flesh,” while holding the skin of his own hand. And so his memory is most religiously honored by the Greeks; nor does Baronius dissent, who, at the year 586, n. 7, affirms that “not without merit is he honored by the Greeks as a saint, and his nativity celebrated on its anniversary day.”
I found the remains of this sermon, dispersed into four segments with other writings of the Fathers interspersed, in the catena of Nicetas on Luke. Since, as they offered themselves to me at various times and in various books, I had once edited them in Greek, I have now decided to connect them; especially because I have happily recognized that, now with the extraneous matters that Nicetas had interspersed removed, they agree beautifully among themselves and restore an almost continuous series; which...
A I remember that I previously called attention to this [in Spicil. Rom. X, pref.]. Assuredly, this writing should not have been neglected by me, neither for the sake of its author nor for the sake of its subject matter. For Eutychius is called by the chronicler Ephraem, whom we have edited (v. 9792), in an elegant iambic: "Amicus litterarum, virtutis auctor" (Friend of letters, author of virtue), which his biographer confirms when he says that Eutychius published those sermons which his life had always expressed in action. The same Eutychius attended the Fifth Ecumenical Council, and therein spoke gravely for the orthodox faith, and subscribed to the condemnation of the Three Chapters and other heresies, at which time our Pope Vigilius was also staying in Constantinople. Then he also gave an example of episcopal fortitude when he invincibly resisted the Emperor Justinian, who had lapsed into the heresy of the Incorrupticolae, and for that reason he suffered the loss of his see and long-term exile. Regarding the sermon itself, to say nothing of the wise doctrine concerning the Pascha, it attests and proclaims the corporal presence of Christ in the Eucharist, even citing a noble passage of Athanasius.
SERMON OF EUTYCHIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, ON THE PASCHA AND THE SACROSANCT EUCHARISTIA
1. We find that three suppers were celebrated by the Lord around the time of the Pascha in different places: one in Gethsemane, in which there was also a purification on the day of the Sabbath, as the first day—that is, Sunday—was already beginning: for which reason we also keep vigils at that time. Another supper was at Bethany, which fell on the second day of the week as it began, the first having already been completed. Furthermore, it is certain that this was not the Pascha; for which B reason Matthew adds: "Now on the first *day* of Azymes the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the pasch?" He perhaps calls that the first of the Azymes, which is the Lord’s Day, as the first day of the week in which the Azymes were performed, which John calls the Pascha, placing it six days before the Pascha: "Six days before the Pascha," he says, "Jesus came to Bethany." For the sixth day before the fourteenth is the first, whose supper had the second day beginning, and the election of the true Lamb. For what do those words—namely, that his hour had come, that he should pass out of this world—signify, if not that the Lord had already been chosen according to his human nature, in which he was able to accept the passion? And they show that the being chosen pertains to another life, according to the words: "I have chosen you, therefore you are not of the world." Wherefore the day from which this was done is also called Pascha and "burial," according to his own utterance. In order, therefore, that the law might be fulfilled which commanded that on the tenth day of the first month a sheep should be chosen, and kept until the fourteenth, he himself, as both priest and victim, is chosen by himself, and is kept until the fifth day: then, mystically, it is immolated on the fourteenth day. C
A 2. In this first supper celebrated at Bethany, the choice of the victim was made, and from then on its preservation: then the disciples say: “Where do you want us to prepare?” And dipping the morsel, he offers it to the traitor, into whom Satan entered from that moment, which is the desire to betray the Lord. And he went out immediately to do this, even though the Lord had providently predicted this while at this supper: “One of you will betray me.” And that after two days the Pascha becomes mystical and desirable, not that legal one; for the disciples already knew that one well, and the prediction would have been superfluous. For after the third and fourth days, having passed over the intervening ones, the Lord says: “After two days,” that is, after the third and fourth. And these things occurred at the supper in Bethany, in which the testament of the Lord also took place. B After this, John having passed over the things done in the third supper, that one, I say, celebrated in Zion and mystical, he comes to the place of the betrayal. This is, I say, that mystical one, of which the Lord says in Luke: “With desire I have desired to eat this Pascha with you before I suffer.” Therefore, before the passion he ate the Pascha, the mystical one, that is: for the Pascha without the passion would not have been so called. Mystically, therefore, he immolated himself, when with his own hands, after he had supped, taking the bread, giving thanks, he showed and broke it, mixing himself into the antitype. Similarly, also tempering the fruit of the vine and giving thanks, and showing it to God the Father, he said: “Take, eat; take, drink; this is my body, and this is my blood.” C Therefore, everyone receives the whole holy body and the precious blood of the Lord, even if he should receive only a part of these species: for it is divided indivisibly among all, because he himself is mixed within. Just as one seal imparts all its ectypes and forms to those who receive them, and yet the one seal remains after the distribution, neither diminished nor changed toward the participants, even if they are many in number. Or even as a single voice sent forth by someone, and poured into the air, nonetheless remains whole in the one emitting it: and although it is in the air, the whole of it flies to the ears of all, with no one receiving more or less, but it is whole and indivisible and entire among all, even if there happen to be countless people listening; though it is a body; for a voice is nothing else but struck air. D 3. Therefore, let no one have any doubt that the incorruptible after the mystical liturgy, and the holy resurrection, and the immortal, and holy, and life-giving body and blood of the Lord, placed in the antitypes through the sacred liturgies, expresses its own powers less than the examples aforementioned, but that it is found whole in all. For in the very same Lord's...
A body dwells all the fullness of the divinity of the Word substantially, that is, essentially. The breaking of the venerable bread signifies His death; therefore it was called the desirable Pascha, inasmuch as it provides us with salvation, immortality, and perfect knowledge of God. And just as then, after the meal, they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives, so also do we, after partaking of the holy body and blood, give thanks, and each of us returns to his own house. For this reason, after the participation in the holy things, on the Great Thursday, it is not commendable for those who have not tasted [food] for the three preceding days to taste wine and oil, because He said: "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom," that is, in the holy resurrection. Whence it is also stated in the canons not to break this [fast] and thus ruin the past days. This, therefore, is the third supper, namely, the one performed in Sion. Wherefore, after the mystical Pascha performed by the Lord in the city of Sion, with the fourteenth day already beginning, that which is done by the Jews on the following day, which is called Preparation [Parasceve], once the fourteenth day has been completed, is no longer Pascha. For the legal ordinances have received their end, B and hence are rejected.
IV. Nor does the offering of the sheaf, which they used to perform on the sixteenth day—offering it for the salvation of the whole human race—have any place now; from which sixteenth day the numbering of the weeks used to begin, advancing toward Pentecost. For, this sixteenth day beginning, which is also called the Lord's Day [Sunday], and which was the first of the following week, our Lord rising from the dead offered Himself in place of the sheaf to God and the Father for the salvation of the whole human race. No longer C therefore is there an offering of a sheaf, after the Lord offered Himself in place of the sheaf to God and the Father; nor is there a numbering of weeks and a legal Pentecost, but rather another, which reveals perfect knowledge through the coming of the Spirit, which we celebrate solemnly as the full presence of the Holy Spirit. Nor does the solemnity of trumpets and tabernacles remain, which was a type of the resurrection, after the true resurrection of our Lord appeared to us. Nor do men any longer celebrate the typical feast at three times of the year; for the whole of life today has become one continuous feast. And to speak briefly, all the significations of the law have been fulfilled, because the fullness of the law is Christ; whence also the Church of Christ celebrates His holy resurrection, which occurred at the beginning of the sixteenth day. Nor does it celebrate D the feast with the Jews any longer, observing the fourteenth of the moon. But just as, rising from the dead and offering Himself to the Father for us, He put an end to the type of the sheaf; so, in place of the lamb, the fourteenth [day] beginning, having sacrificed Himself mystically and...
A appearing inserted into the antitypes. Therefore the mystical event is the beginning and the earnest of the pragmatic [event]; but the pragmatic [event] obtains the completion, according to that saying: "I shall not eat of it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of My Father," which in reality happened through His holy resurrection; for such is the kingdom of God: because He who has once died can no longer die.
5. That it is so, see: we also die mystically in holy baptism; but after this, in martyrdom, or even without martyrdom, [we die] pragmatically. And our mystical death is not alienated from the pragmatic, even if it is brought to completion in the pragmatic. For we obtain another, beyond the first, life of a mystical kind in [the baptismal state], a certain beginning of the resurrection, and remission of sins, and adoption as sons, and sanctification, so that we become joint-heirs of Christ. Therefore, the pragmatic realities are not excluded from the mystical; rather, they are B perfected in them. Therefore, the Church also makes a commemoration of the fourteenth day on the Great Thursday, just as then the mystical Pascha was performed by the Lord, when He sacrificed Himself at the beginning of the fourteenth day. And so, whether the fourteenth day falls on the first day of the week of Pascha, which is also the Lord's Day, or on the second, or on the third, or on the fourth (for this is what is sought), on the Thursday the Church celebrates the feast of the mystical Pascha, on which day the Lord also sacrificed Himself mystically at that time. But it celebrates the perfect and consummate realization of the mystical feast at the holy resurrection, which took place at the beginning of the sixteenth day, which then also arrived as the Lord’s Day.
6. Wherefore the Fathers in Nicaea, C because some in the Church were not doing this, decreed that all should celebrate simultaneously the sixteenth day, which also reached and coincided with the Lord’s Day in that saving resurrection, as possessing the perfect and pragmatic end, according to the word of the Lord. And this they wrote to the Church of the Alexandrians, saying: "We bring you good tidings also concerning the harmony of the most holy Pascha, that by your prayers this part also has been rightly settled; so that all our brothers of the East, who formerly were celebrating Pascha with the Jews, will henceforth, in harmony with the Romans and you and all of us who from the beginning have observed Pascha, celebrate it with us." But after this peremptory decree has gone forth, some are still not ashamed to celebrate an imperfect solemnity. D Just as those who offer only water on the holy table, instead of that which is mixed with the produce of the vine, according to the tradition of the Lord, they err, separating themselves from the Lord's blood and body; for the one is completed by the other. Therefore, he who does not have the one does not even have that which he thinks he has. Such people are shown to be alien to the holy Church of Christ. But we also celebrate the feast of the fourteenth day on the Thursday of the
A Great Week, as it has been handed down by the Lord, even if it might fall on the earlier days. We celebrate the holy resurrection, which occurred on the sixteenth day while the Savior was dwelling on earth, on a Sunday after the vernal equinox; and we offer the water, yet in such a way that it is not without the fruit of the vine, but mixing it therewith according to the tradition of the Lord.
7. For the drinking signifies the salutary teaching which the Savior drinks with us, always partaking of our human nature after the resurrection, which is called by Him the kingdom of heaven. That which is now being added to someone’s knowledge is new. And both he who teaches and he who is taught rejoice in the salvation of those who hear and learn, which also seems correct to Gregory the Theologian. However, this cup, which He commanded them to distribute among themselves, was of the supper, not of the communion B mysteries. Immediately, then, going further, Luke says that He Himself distributed both the bread and the cup to the apostles. But if He also gave thanks over the cup of the supper, it is no wonder; for we, too, give thanks both over ordinary food and over the mystical. Yet the act of giving thanks is distinct from blessing; for the custom of giving thanks when taking food has flowed to us from a certain place in the Gospel. For the Lord blessed the five loaves, and so gave them to the crowds through the ministry of the disciples. And again, after the supper, it is said that "when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."
8. Therefore, they act foolishly who [take] that of the oblation
Of the Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople, concerning those who say that it is necessary to perform the Rite of Holy Oil on a corpse even after death.
I do not know what folly and wickedness some priests in many D places fall into; as I have learned from those who know, they say that because many have died, they perform the rite of holy oil for them and anoint the dead body. O corrupted knowledge, and eyes that do not see at all! For this, the first holy and ecumenical council legislated for the living who are sick in soul and body, having taken the occasion from the saying of the Apostle: he says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him." Do you see the word? Understand the manner, and do not perform the act foolishly. Similarly, our Father, I mean Arsenius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the fairest of cities, legislated that this rite be performed by seven priests, even if they be bishops or metropolitans; wherefore the aforementioned himself has set the prayers to be equal. And look at the meaning of the prayers that have been made, understand, you who do not know. And again, in addition to these, I say: for our own Lord says: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I also." And again, our Lord and God Himself in the holy Gospel according to Luke speaks concerning him who fell among robbers and was wounded, pouring on oil and wine. And these things are legislated for the living, not for the dead. But you who have dared to do this, I do not know of what...
[bread], and the chalice recently tempered, towards the holy altar. As the liturgical order is about to proceed, having handed down to the people a psalmic hymn to sing, one appropriate for what is A taking place, as they suppose, they claim to be bringing in the King of Glory, and they even call the things that are being brought in by this name, although they are not yet consecrated through the pontifical invocation and the sanctification shining forth in them—unless, perhaps, there is some other meaning to their hymnody that I do not know. And yet, the great Athanasius, in his discourse to the newly baptized, says such things as these: B "You will see the Levites carrying breads and a cup of wine, and placing them upon the table; and as long as prayers and supplications have not yet been performed, it is nothing but bread and a cup. But when the great and marvelous prayers have been completed, then the bread becomes the body, and the cup, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." And again: "Let us come to the perfection of the mysteries. This bread and this cup, as long as prayers and supplications have not yet occurred, have nothing beyond their own nature; but when the great prayers and holy supplications have been offered, the Word descends into the bread and the cup, and his body is fashioned."
...[one who] is unhealthy in his judgment. Therefore I say, let no one dare to do this, and he shall be judged as a transgressor of what has been spoken. But if you tell me that this is a work of charity performed for the dead, if you do this—may it not be! For as for charity and the commemorations of Christians, which are always performed by us, the souls receive the spiritual fruit before God; but as for you, in sealing the dead body and saying, "Dwell by your Spirit upon your servant, that he may walk in your ordinances for the remaining time," and again, "Raise him up from the bed of pain and from the bed of affliction"—when you proclaim these things, you do not know the intent of the matter. Therefore, let us bring the discourse to a close, and let us make mention of the saying of Solomon: that "to him who has understanding, a single word is sufficient for an upright and most prudent hearing." C But as for the Lord, let us come...
[The next portion of the text, appearing in the Latin column and as a fragment in the Greek column:]
...The bread again is for the time being common; but when the mystery has performed its work upon it, it is called and becomes the body of Christ.
EPISTLE TO POPE VIGILIUS
(Mansi, Concil. IX, p. 186.)
To the most holy and most blessed lord, brother, and fellow-priest, Vigilius, Eutychius.
Knowing of how many good things the peace of God is the cause, guarding the hearts and minds of the faithful, and gathering them to think one and the same thing in the confession of the right faith, and towards the accomplishment of divine commands, and pro-
A rendering God gracious to those who are in agreement concerning the right path. For this reason, being eager to preserve unity toward the Catholic See of your Beatitude, we make it manifest that we have always kept and do keep the faith delivered from the beginning by the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ to the holy apostles, and preached by them in all the world, and explained by the holy Fathers, and especially by those who were gathered in the holy four synods, whom we embrace and accept in all matters and in all things; that is, the three hundred and eighteen holy Fathers who were gathered at Nicaea, and who set forth the holy symbol, or mathema, of faith, and who anathematized the madness of Arius, and those who thought or think like him. We also accept the hundred and fifty holy Fathers who were gathered at Constantinople, B who explained the same holy mathema and clarified the things concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and who condemned the heresy of Macedonius the opponent of the Spirit, and the impious Apollinarius, together with those who thought or think the same things as them. We also accept the two hundred holy Fathers who were gathered in the first synod at Ephesus, who in all things followed the same holy symbol or mathema, and condemned the impious Nestorius and his abominable dogmas, and those who at any time thought or think like him. In addition to these, we accept the six hundred and thirty holy Fathers who were gathered at Chalcedon, who also themselves in all things agreed with the aforementioned three holy synods, and followed the aforementioned symbol or mathema set forth by the holy Fathers C and explained by the hundred and fifty holy Fathers; and they anathematized those who presume to teach, or to set forth, or to deliver to the holy Churches of God anything other than the aforementioned symbol. They also condemned and anathematized both Eutyches and Nestorius, and their impious dogmas, and those who thought or think things similar to them. Since these things are so, we make it certain that we have kept and do keep everything that was judged and defined by the aforementioned holy four synods; because although the aforementioned holy four synods took place at different times, yet they kept and preached one and the same confession of faith. We accept and embrace also the letters of the D prelates of the Roman apostolic See, as well of others as of Leo of holy memory, written concerning the right faith and concerning the holy four councils or one of them. Since, therefore, we have kept and do keep all the aforementioned, and if in these we are in agreement with one another, it is necessary to hold a conference concerning the three chapters, from which a question has arisen for some. And therefore we entreat, with your Beatitude presiding over us, with the holy Gospels set forth under tranquility and priestly gentleness, by a common discussion the same chapters in
in these things we agree, it is necessary A that the matter of the three chapters, concerning which questioning has arisen, be examined and put to rest. And for this reason, we request that with Your Blessedness presiding over us, and with the holy Gospels set before us, the same chapters be set forth in the midst and examined and compared together with calm and priestly gentleness, and that an end be put to the questioning that is pleasing to God and in agreement with what has been defined by the four holy councils; since it tends to the increase of peace and to the concord of the Churches that, all dissension being taken from the midst, those things defined by the four holy councils be preserved unshaken, the reverence of the holy councils being kept in all things. To these things we have also set our hand. And the subscription. Strengthened in the Lord, pray for us, most holy and most blessed brother. B
I, Eutychius, by the mercy of God bishop of Constantinople of New Rome, have subscribed to all the things written above.
The same petition was also sent by the most holy Apollinaris, archbishop of the great city of Alexandria, and by Domninus, the most holy archbishop of Theopolis, and by the most God-beloved bishops under them, who were also present in this royal city, to the most holy Vigilius.
ANNO DOMINI DXCIII.
EVAGRIUS SCHOLASTICUS.
NOTITIA.
(FABRIC. Biblioth. Græc. edit. Harles. VII, 432.)Evagrius, of Epiphaneia (a), a Syrian, a scholasticus (b), and he himself, like Socrates and Sozomen, an advocate of causes in the forum (c), lived at Antioch and was illustrious under Gregory, bishop of Antioch (d).
(a) Evagrius, III, 34: Epiphaneia, which he has as a fellow-citizen, or the Orontes. Evagrius the Epiphanian, son of Epiphanius. C ... scholasticus, from the Prefects, of the city of Epiphaneia on the Orontes in Coele-Syria, Ecclesiastical history in six volumes. As I was marrying a virgin bride on the day of the new moon of the month Hyperberetaios, and the city was celebrating a public festival concerning the procession and the bridal chamber. D ... the procession.
(b) Photius cod. 29: Read the Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus, from the Prefects, of the city of Epiphaneia in Coele-Syria, in six volumes.
(c) That he lived in Antioch, Valesius rightly observes from several places in Evagrius; but that learned men gather that this writer was of the primary citizens of Antioch from the fact that he reports, lib. vi, cap. 8, that the whole city kept his wedding day as a holiday and wished him well, this I indeed find in Valesius's version, but I think the Greek has a different meaning. For Evagrius says that he celebrated his nuptials with his virgin spouse on the day of the new moon, when the whole city was having a holiday, certainly not because of Evagrius's nuptials, but on account of the solemn time of the new moon. Therefore, it ought not to be understood of the bridal chamber nor of the nuptial procession, but of the banquets and the procession with which it was the custom to celebrate the new moon.
(d) Evagr. lib. vi, cap. 7 and last, where he testifies that on account of the reports written in the name of Gregory, bishop of Antioch, he was advanced to double dignity by the emperors.