Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem (with On the Holy Images)

all preceding kingdoms: for his is the glory ^A unto the ages of ages. Amen.

OF THE HOLY IMAGES.

(Le Quien, *Works of St. John Damascene*, Patrologia, volume XCIV, page 1410.)

Magni Symeonis, from the Thaumast mountain (68), on images.

"Perhaps some contentious person among the unbelievers will raise a question, and say that we, who also venerate images in the churches, should be counted among those who supplicate lifeless idols. Far be it from us to be guilty of such a thing. For what Christians do is weighed by faith, and our truthful God works wonders. We do not dwell on certain colors, but just as it happens in the representation of a letter, by which something else is signified, so do we, beholding Him who is invisible in a painting, praise Him as if He were present. We do not believe in Him as one who is not God, but as He who truly exists as God: nor, likewise, do we believe in the saints as if they were not saints, but as those who truly are such, and who live with God; since even their spirits, on account of their holiness, in which they flourish by divine power, assist those who are worthy, as those who are in need of their help."

(68) Symeon from the Thaumast mountain wrote several epistles to Justin the Younger, seeking vengeance on the Samaritans who, having rebelled, had raged against the sacred things of the Christians and against the images of Christ and ^B the saints. We have the fifth act of the seventh synod. From another, which does not exist today, the fragment which is offered here was transcribed.

YEAR OF OUR LORD 600.

ZACHARIAS PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM.

NOTICE. (LE QUIEN, *Oriens Christianus*, volume III, page 249.)

Bollandus, volume 3, February, on the 21st day of this month, page 247, where he deals with this Zacharias, reports from the *Alexandrian Chronicle*, which ends in the year of the reign of Heraclius, that this Zacharias undertook the rule of the patriarchate of Jerusalem in the seventh year of Phocas, that is, 609 AD. For thus the author of this chronicle speaks (but it is the fifth year of Phocas). Indeed, Isaac, patriarch of Jerusalem, dies, and in his place is substituted Zacharias, presbyter and keeper of the sacred vessels of the church of Constantinople. Theophanes also, in his *Chronographia*, ascribes the beginning of Sergius of Constantinople, Zacharias of Jerusalem, and John of Alexandria, surnamed the Almsgiver, to the seventh year of Phocas. Anastasius the Librarian agrees, saying: In the seventh year of the reign of Phocas, Sergius of Constantinople, Zacharias of Jerusalem, and John of Alexandria are held to be the chief bishops.

^A Not yet had six years passed since Zacharias had been elevated to the see of Jerusalem, when Cosroes, king of the Persians, having devastated Syria, captured the city of Jerusalem, threw the Christians living there into chains, and handed them over to the Jews for a cheap price; by these they were not received as captives or slaves, but out of hatred for Christ were killed by various and countless tortures; and finally, he carried off the patriarch and the wood of the Holy Cross to Persia.

The *Chronicon Paschale*, or Alexandrian Chronicle, speaks thus of this disaster (ed. D. Du Cange, Paris, 1688, p. 385, in the year 4 of Heraclius, indiction 11, after the third consulate of Heraclius Augustus): "In this year, about the month of June, a calamity occurred to us that must be pursued with perpetual mourning. For along with many other cities of the East, Jerusalem was captured by the Persians, with many thousands of clerics, monks, nuns, and virgins slaughtered. The Lord's Sepulcher was also burned, as were the most celebrated temples of God; and, to say it in a word, everything precious was destroyed. The venerable wood of the Cross, along with countless sacred vessels, was seized by the Persians, and Patriarch Zacharias was led away a captive." And all these things happened not in a large part of the year, nor in a whole month, but within a few days.

Theophanes writes nearly the same in his *Chronography*, at the fifth year of Heraclius. This was the fourth (A.D. 614), but as Papebroch notes (vol. III of May, in the prefatory tract, n. 434, p. 31, col. 4A), that author recounts events one year too late in the years of Heraclius, because he divided the first year of this emperor into two, just as the same Papebroch demonstrated at length in his prefatory exegesis to vol. III of March, ch. 4. In the fifth year (it should be read fourth) of the reign of Heraclius, the Persians conquered the regions of the Jordan, Palestine, and the holy city by force of arms, and, as some assert, by the hands of the Jews, and slaughtered up to ninety thousand Christians. ^B And with Patriarch Zacharias of Jerusalem captured, and the precious and life-giving wood of the Cross taken from those places, they led away an innumerable multitude of human captives into Persia.

There exists, says the aforementioned Papebroch (ibid., n. 135), in the works of Francis Combefis (Order of Preachers), after the treatise of Saint John Chrysostom *On Educating Children*, and several other things, an epistle printed in Greek and Latin at Paris in 1656, which Zacharias, the least of all, wrote from Persia to the widowed bride, the city of the great king, bereaved of her children and having no shepherd for the Jerusalem flock—but also to all other churches in Christ, and to the remaining children who were orphans in them—recalling his own calamity and that of the other captives, and bidding them remember how he himself, when he was with them in Galilee, had said: "Truly, my children, I see in you great indifference, much sloth, injustice, ignorance, fraternal hatred, and transgression and contempt of the apostolic canons; nor do I know how our affairs will end." And that they were accustomed to reply: "God is good, and He did not create us to destroy us." Now, therefore, he exhorts them to penance, to the amendment of morals, and to mercy toward their captive brothers; or for those who do not have enough to give, to prayers, fasts, prostrations, and tears.

If, however, any temporal consolation could be found in such a great calamity, it was primarily provided by Saint John the Almsgiver, who was patriarch of Alexandria at that time, of whom the author of his Life, Leontius, writes (in Baronius, at the year of Christ 614, n. 15, col. 261): "When the Persians had ravaged all Syria, those who were able to escape their hands, both laymen who held office and private citizens, as well as clergy accompanied by bishops, fled to Alexandria. To all these, that wealthy and by no means stingy host provided daily what was necessary for use, not looking at the multitude of the needy, so as to do something that would be of a sordid and ungenerous mind, but to Him who opens His hand and fills every living creature with blessing." ^C When, however, Rasmizsus, general of Cosroes' army, had ravaged and depopulated the venerable places of the Jerusalemites, and that man of God heard this—and that all the holy things had been given to the fire—he indeed mourned, no differently than Jeremiah, for what had happened. But his compassion did not stop there; he even sent a certain pious man, Chrysippus, entrusting to him much gold, grain, and other foods and clothing, and many beasts of burden to transport them, both that he might witness the devastation and that he might refresh those who remained from the captivity sufficiently through the things that had been provided. Furthermore, he sent Theodore, bishop of Amathus, Anastasius, prefect of the great mountain of Antony, and Gregory, bishop of Rhinocolura, to receive those who had been abducted into captivity, providing a nearly innumerable amount of gold.

Papebroch adds (cited above, n. 136, from the same saint's Life, n. 33): "For the relief and rebuilding of Jerusalem, he sent one thousand coins, and a thousand sacks filled with grain, and a thousand *legumina* (that is, measures of legumes), a thousand pounds of iron, a thousand bundles of dried fish, a thousand small vessels of wine, and a thousand Egyptian workmen," adding in a letter written to Modestus: "Grant me pardon, true worker of Christ, for sending nothing worthy of the temples of Christ. For I would wish, believe me, if it were convenient, to come myself and work myself in the house of the holy Resurrection of Christ." This Modestus took care of the Jerusalem Church as vicar of Bishop Zacharias as long as he was a captive in Persia, and succeeded him after his death.

Meanwhile, a certain Palestinian monk, Antiochus, celebrated for the holiness of his life and his learning—whose 130 *Homilies* exist (T. I Bibl. Patr. Graec., p. 1026)—endeavored to console the inhabitants of Jerusalem with his writings. In the epistle prefixed to the work, distinguished by the title *Epistle of the Monk Antiochus of the Laura of St. Sabas to Eustathius, superior of the monastery of Attalina in Ancyra of Galatia*, he narrates (according to Baronius, cited above, n. 26): "When the Ishmaelites had approached our monastery, one week before the holy city had been occupied, and had already looted all the sacred vessels of the church, most of the Fathers fled as soon as possible; but those remained in the monastery who were the stronger servants of Christ, wishing in no way to abandon that sacred place. But the barbarians, when they had seized them and for many days treated them inhumanely and afflicted them with torments, thinking that they would find money in this way—among whom nothing of this world was found—as soon as they understood that they had finally lost their hope and purpose, were turned into the most savage rage, and to a man

they cut the blessed ones to pieces. Being filled with incredible joy, and bright-faced and radiant in countenance, they yielded up their souls to the Lord with every act of thanksgiving, seeing that not long before they had had it as their prayer to be released and to be with Christ. Their bodies, however, having been carved up more than tragically, and having lain for not a few days cast upon the ground without the benefit of burial, we reached until that place in Arabia. And indeed the excellent abbot Nicomedes, having contemplated that miserable spectacle of the slaughtered fathers, collapsed in a faint of mind, and having been carried back from there, he was near to death. Modestus, moreover, and he most holy, when he had anticipated our coming, and had explored all the habitations of those saints beforehand, was likewise contracted by anguish of mind, washed himself in many tears, and having embraced the holy things which had until then remained—that is, the relics of the saints—he deposited them in the tombs of the fathers above. To these things he added, rendering the solemn speech according to custom, etc. He began to exhort each one of us not to emigrate anywhere, or to be deserters of that place of ours, but rather to endure with a noble heart those temptations which were imminent, mindful of that sentence of the Lord: "For the gate is narrow and the way restricted that leads to life," etc. Therefore, it seemed good to comply with his admonition, and for that reason we remained in the laura for nearly two months. He speaks then of the flight from there to another monastery, and from that to another, and of others scattered here and there; and he inserts again, treating of the monks killed by the Saracens: The number, he says, of the holy Fathers whom the tyrannical assault carried off is forty-four. The memory of these is celebrated in the month of May, on the fifteenth day of the month. The Church honors the memory of these same martyrs in the Roman Martyrology on the 16th of May, with these words: In Palestine, the passion of the holy monks killed by the Saracens in the laura of Saint Sabas. But while these were being crowned, a certain Sinaite monk fell in a terrible manner. The same Antiochus describes the matter thus (hom. 81, in Baronius, ibid., n. 30): There was, he says, a certain monk on Mount Sinai who gave so famous a specimen of his continence that he lived enclosed in a cell for many years. Finally, misled by manifold revelations of the devil and by dreams, he fell away to Judaism and to the circumcision of the flesh. When, therefore, the devil had repeatedly shown this man certain true visions, and had ensnared his darkened mind as with objectified allurements, he lastly presented to his eyes a copious crowd of apostles, martyrs, and other Christians of every kind, filled with the densest darkness and with every disgrace; in the opposite part, he presents Moses, the Prophets, and the people of the Jews—hateful to God in any case (the reference is to the Jews of the current time)—conspicuous in a very splendid light, and living their lives in joy and hilarity. When the wretch had looked upon these things, he arose immediately, and having abandoned that holy mountain, he arrived as far as Palestine and went straight up into Noara and Libyada, the asylums of the Jews. When he had related to these people the diabolical apparitions he had seen, he was laughed at, and having professed Judaism, he took a wife, and in the sight of all published dogmas against the Christians, having become a champion of Jewish superstition. I saw this man, continues Antiochus, as did most of the monks, for it is not four years since his death, by which he was miserably broken through. For having suffered a flowing of flux, and wasting away from the gnawing of worms, he expired. When I and several other monks saw him, we were seized with fear and lamented with huge grief. It was indeed a most miserable spectacle. This man had entirely turned white in monastic exercise, and had aged, worn away by labors, and at length he was joking with women, defiling and polluting himself with the taste of unclean meats—namely, Jewish ones—speaking obscene and lewd words, blaspheming Christ, and visiting the Holy Spirit with intolerable insults: and yet him, these Jews without the law called by the title of Abraham. These things Antiochus, 1, 1, Bibl. Patr. Graec. p. 1161 et seq.

Cosroes, as it has been said, transferred the wood of the holy cross, which is kept at Jerusalem, into Persia. But that was a thing clearly worthy of admiration, says Baronius cited above, n. 32, that the impious man should have so reverenced the trophy of our salvation that he did not dare to remove the seals with which it was covered from the very casket, nor to open it with a key, so as even to inspect it; but, struck with fear, just as it was being kept in the hallowed place of the temple, he wished to have it transferred to Persia in the same manner, just as it was eventually brought back to Jerusalem intact: which Modestus, the patriarch of Jerusalem, testified, as likewise the entire clergy of the Church of Jerusalem. Suidas hands down all these things in *Heraclius*. Moreover, Baronius observes the same at the year 622, n. 1, that from the time the holy Cross was captured by the Persians and carried off into Persia, it conveyed by its own power—or rather by the virtue of Him who suffered upon it—many and signal victories to the Romans; and on the contrary, it depressed the Persians, who were highly elated by the trophies of many years, and punished their king Cosroes with a horrible death. Likewise at the year 627, n. 25, that it was given to the emperor Heraclius by the virtue of the cross that he triumphed far more illustriously than any Roman emperor before him over the victor Cosroes—who was believed to be impossible to defeat—namely, through victories repeated over seven years, because of which there were individual triumphs to be awarded to him for each individual year.

There exists in the *Chron. Alexandr.* page 398, at the 18th year of the emperor Heraclius, of Christ 628, a letter of this emperor sent to Constantinople concerning the slaughter of Cosroes and the peace entered into with Siroes his son, which was read on the 15th of May, on which the feast of Pentecost had fallen. In that year Easter had occurred on the 27th of March, and accordingly Pentecost on the 15th of May. Pagius also reports it, vol. II, crit. Annal. Baron, at the year 627, number 12 and following. It begins thus: In the eighteenth year of the empire of Heraclius, after the consulate, 17 etc., on the 15th day of the month of May, on the Lord's day, on the very feast of Pentecost, were read from the ambo in the most holy Great Church the letters sent from the East by Heraclius our most pious emperor, which announced the case of Cosroes and the inauguration of Siroes as king of the Persians, conceived in these words. "Exult to God, all the earth, etc. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth exult, and all things that are in them." And all Christians, praising and blessing, let us give thanks to the one God, etc. "For the proud and rebellious enemy of God, Cosroes, has fallen. He has fallen, and has been cast down to the underworld, and his memory has been blotted out from the earth."

^A For on the 24th of February of the past month, by the first indiction, a sedition having been stirred up against him by his own first-born son, Syroes, as we explained to you in another decree (that is to say, in our epistle), all the princes of the Persians and the entire army, and the forces brought together from various regions, having crossed over from the detestable Cosroes to the parts of Syroes, with Curdanaspa, the leader of the Persian army, having crossed over first, this same Cosroes, hateful to God, while he was meditating flight, was captured and bound, and cast into a new fortress, which he had constructed himself for the storing and keeping of the wealth he had collected. But on the 25th of the same month of February, Syroes having been crowned and inaugurated as King of the Persians, and on the 28th of the same month, Cosroes, hateful to God, having already spent the fourth day in chains, tortured by every agony, Syroes removed that ungrateful man, that rebel against God, that proud and blasphemous Cosroes by the most bitter mode of death, so that he might know that Jesus, born of Mary and crucified by the Jews—as he had himself written and whom he had assailed with insults—is the omnipotent God, and that He rewards men according to what had been written to him by us.

In another decree given by us to you, from our camp at Canzaca, which contained the acts from the 17th of October up to the 15th of March, we signified how God and our Lady, the Mother of God, had aided us and our troops, beloved of Christ, and how, in our very presence, Cosroes, hateful to God and destined to be dug up from the grave (or "dragged from the dunghill," as Pagius has it), had taken flight from Dastagerchosat to Ctesiphon, had lost his palaces along with the provinces of the Persian realm, and how finally by this means Syroes had been able to stir up a sedition against him. ^B But after this decree of ours was written and sent on the 15th day of the present month of March, while we were busying ourselves to investigate what had afterwards happened between Cosroes and Syroes, having sent to various places—namely to Siarsura, to the small Zabas, to Chalcas, and to Jesdem—by both roads, both from our most fortunate camp and from the Saracens subject to our pious empire, so that we might know for certain the movements that were occurring there, as we have mentioned, our sentinels brought to us in the camp at Canzaca one Persian and one Armenian, from whom a letter was presented to us, written to us by a certain secretary of the Persians whose name is Cosdae and Axiamaranan, by which he signified that he had been sent by Syroes, who had been proclaimed King of the Persians, along with other princes, and with letters of Syroes himself to us; and when he had arrived at Arman, it seemed best to him to send these two men to us, so that they might in turn lead himself and his associates safely and soundly to be sent by us. ^C But when we perceived that he feared for himself, from the fact that on the journey he had seen many Persian corpses, to the number of about three thousand, of those killed by our most fortunate troops towards Narban, and that he feared to approach us without guides, on the 25th of the same month of March we sent to them the most glorious Master of Soldiers, Elias, by surname Barsoca, and the most magnificent Theodotus, the Drungary, with a chosen youth and twenty saddle-horses equipped with saddles, so that they might meet them and lead them to us, etc.

But when we had received those two men sent by Syroes, King of the Persians, we sent one of them, the Persian, together with others, to Barismanes, the prefect of the Carzacians, who was forty miles away and had shut himself up in a fortified castle, with a letter given to him in which it was commanded that he should prepare seven horses for the envoys, so that they could travel expeditiously and without any impediment to King Syroes. But Barismanes and those who were then with him celebrated us and Syroes, King of the Persians, for many hours with joyful acclamations and praises. For by that Persian envoy they had been made certain that the rebel against God, Cosroes, had perished and that Syroes had been proclaimed king. ^D Thereupon, the same Barismanes wrote back to us that he had prepared the horses, just as we had commanded, and that when he should receive another of our decrees, in which the arrival of the envoys was signified to him, he would come to us as soon as possible, and having brought the horses with all haste, would perform all his duties and services. When, therefore, we had tarried in these same camps placed at Canzaca until the 3rd day of the month of April, which fell on a Sunday, there arrived Phaiacus, the king's secretary, who was also called Rharna, about the second hour, and we received him at this very same hour, having accepted from him letters from Cabata Syroes, the most clement King of the Persians, which contained his inauguration and signified that he wished to have peace with us and with every man. It therefore seemed good to us to append to this current decree of ours to you a copy of the letters of the most clement Cabata Syroes, and what we subsequently wrote back to them.

We remained in the same place near the camps of Canzaca until the 7th of April, that is, 27 days. On the 8th of the same month, we dismissed the same Phaiacus, the secretary, called Rharna, having received him honorably, as much as possible, as well as those who were with him, etc. And thus we trust that our Lord Jesus Christ, the good and omnipotent God, and our Lady, the Mother of God, will see to all our affairs according to their clemency. Furthermore, on the 8th day of the same month, under God's auspices, we moved our camp, intending to journey into Armenia. But do you fare well, and pour out continuous and indefatigable prayers to God, so that, as we greatly desire, He may grant us to revisit you as soon as possible. Subjoined to this epistle of Heraclius in the same *Chronicon Alexandrinum* (page 402) is a part of the epistle of Syroes to Heraclius. The title is: "Copy of a memorandum from Cabata, who is also called Syroes, the most clement King of the Persians, sent to Heraclius, our most pious and God-preserved Emperor." "From Cabata Sadasadasac, to Heraclius, the most clement and God-preserved Emperor of the Romans, our brother, we bestow much gratitude. To the most clement Emperor of the Romans and our brother: We, by the providence of God, having been endowed without any toil with the distinguished diadem, have attained the throne of our fathers and ancestors. But since we acknowledge that we have been deemed worthy of such things by God himself, so that we have received so illustrious a throne and dominion, if there were anything that might contribute to the utility and solace of the human race, as much as in us lay, and as was fitting, we have immediately commanded it to be done liberally and beneficially. Since, therefore, God has raised us up to this highest dignity and empire, it was immediately determined in our mind that as many men as were being held...

in bonds, were to be dismissed. But even if there was anything that brought profit to human condition and the utility of this life, and which it was permitted for us to establish, this we not only commanded, but it has been accomplished. Moreover, it has been deliberated upon and decided by us that you, the Roman Emperor, our brother, along with the Roman Republic and the other peoples and leaders who dwell all around our empire, should henceforth cultivate peace and friendship. But as to [your] brotherhood, Roman Emperor, declaring yourself gladdened that we have obtained the same throne... The rest, says Charles Du Cange, is missing due to the age of the manuscript codex.

Cosroes therefore perished, by the just judgment of God, at the hand of Syroes, his eldest son, on the 28th of February, in the year of Christ 628. For when he had fallen ill with a dysentery at Seleucia, he took pains to ensure that Medarses, his other son, whom he had fathered by his beloved wife Syra, should succeed him. When Syroes learned of this, he conspired with the nobles of the realm so that his father might be removed from the world, also using Roman help for this purpose. Cosroes indeed tried to flee, but he was captured, bound tightly, and sent into the house of darkness, which he himself had recently built to store his wealth. For Syroes said, as Theophanes reports (pp. 271–272), as does Baronius (ad ann. 627, no. 17): "Let him eat the gold which he collected in vain, for which he killed many by famine and destroyed the world." He furthermore sent satraps to load him with insults and spit upon him; he also killed before his very eyes the child he wished to crown, Mardazanes, or Medarzen, and removed his other sons from his sight. He permitted all who were his enemies to afflict him with every kind of injury and to burden him with beatings. Finally, after five days of this, he ordered Syroes himself to be pierced with arrows, by which punishment he ended his life. Thus, having seized the kingdom, Syroes, not unmindful of the peace he had entered into with Heraclius, granted freedom to all Roman captives, among whom was Zacharias the Patriarch, fourteen years after he had been led into Persia; and he restored the most sacred wood of the Cross. In the following year, which was the nineteenth of Heraclius, 629 of Christ, departing from Constantinople, as Theophanes relates (p. 273), and Baronius (ad ann. 628, no. 1), he set out at the very beginning of spring for Jerusalem, bringing back the precious and life-giving wood of the Cross to offer thanks. When he had reached Tiberias, the Christians accused a certain Hebrew named Benjamin, as if he were doing them ill; for he was very wealthy and had received the Emperor and his army. Moved against him, the Emperor said, "Why are you troublesome to the Christians and the Christian faith which I worship?" and, having warned him to believe, he had him return as a Christian and wished him to be baptized in the house of Eustachius the Neapolitan, which is now called Samaria (or rather Sichem); for the Emperor had been hosted by him. Then, upon entering Jerusalem, with Zacharias the Pontiff already restored, the Emperor replaced the life-giving wood of the venerable Cross in its proper place and offered many thanks to God: furthermore, he having expelled the Jews from the Holy City, strictly forbade them to approach even up to the third milestone. On this occasion, it is worth recalling what is read in the Roman Breviary on September 14, consecrated to the memory of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: namely, that when Heraclius, adorned in gold and jewels, was carrying back the wood of the Cross, he was forced to stop under the gate through which the path to Mount Calvary lay; and, being warned by Zacharias on that account that he should lay aside such attire and assume a more humble one, the Emperor obeyed and completed the rest of the journey without any difficulty. Suidas reports that Modestus was the Patriarch of Jerusalem when Heraclius replaced the holy Cross in its original place, as if Zacharias had already passed away, but Theophanes, who was earlier than him, is rather to be believed. However, Zacharias did not long survive. Nicephorus’s Catalog attributes twenty-two years of rule to him, which are correctly calculated from the year 609 to 631, so that he died in that year, 631. Papebrochius adds, in his Preliminary Tract to Vol. III of the *Acta Sanctorum* for May (p. 31, no. 137, col. 2), that his life could potentially extend until the year 633, if his successor Modestus held the see for only one year or two incomplete years. But these 22, or as some Latin translations of Nicephorus's Catalog have it, 24 years of Zacharias's episcopate are entirely incorrectly referred in those places to the time that preceded his captivity. Zacharias is honored in the Menæa of the Greeks on February 21.

THE EPISTLE OF ZACHARIAS, PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM.

To the widowed bride, the city of the Great King bereaved of children; to the shepherdless flock of Jerusalem; and to all other Churches in Christ, and to the orphan children left behind in them, the humble, desolate, captive shepherd, Zacharias the least. Grace to you, children, and kindness, and mercy from God our Father, who is lover of souls and—

indeed worthy to speak now, and to begin our epistle to you with thanksgiving.

^A May the name of the Lord be blessed, for He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor has He repaid us according to our iniquities. Yet—woe is me—because I have been made to dwell far from Sion, and to live among the tents of Cedar; longing as David did, I too, chanting by night and day, carry this verse on my lips and roll it in my mouth: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem (or the remnant of the people that is in you), let my right hand be forgotten."

Let it be known to you, brothers, that we too have sat by the rivers of Babylon, and there we wept, as we remembered Sion, Golgotha, the life-giving tomb, and Bethlehem that is never to be forgotten. Behold, brothers, we have lifted up our eyes to the mountains of Sion, from whence our help shall come. Listen, you who have been redeemed by the Lord, whom He redeemed from the hand of the enemies, and whom He saved from tribulations; listen to my voice, the voice of the captive ^B Zacharias. Do not grow haughty because Christ has delivered you from the servitude of enemies. See to it that you are not left behind as bastards and not as sons. For He says: "If you are without discipline, then you are bastards and not sons."

See, fear, and hedge yourselves about; lest, living here in luxury and ease like the rich man in the case of Lazarus, and suffering nothing painful, you should there receive eternal torments. See to it, lest you who revel here in wine and debauchery, should there long for a drop of water. Give heed diligently, lest, having been freed here from servitude, you be made exiles there from the vision of God. Do not be high-minded, brothers; for the Lord did not liberate you because you were righteous, but as slothful and reprobate, granting you time to ^C do penance. Yet because the outcome of the future is uncertain, since He deals patiently with you today, He also hands you over to tomorrow. For indeed you are worthy of no pardon at all, since, seeing your companions and brothers in torments, you do not strive to amend yourselves. Do you not see how in the courts of law, when the case of one man is being examined, all those who are present and watching, and perhaps even those who are listening, tremble and are afraid, and abstain from evil? ^D Do not be surprised that some of the saints have been taken captive, and some of the wicked have been redeemed. Let us hear the Lord saying: "Do you think that those whose blood Pilate mingled with the sacrifices were greater sinners than all others? I tell you, no; but if you do not repent, you likewise shall perish." And again: "Those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, do you think they were greater sinners than all those who dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but if you do not repent, you likewise shall perish."

Listen, and fear, and do not forget us who are prisoners. We are one body, both of us; let us hear the Apostle saying: "If one member suffers, all the members—"

^A suffer together. And again: "Who is weak, and I am not weak?" Know our affliction from your own, brothers; for you are of the same nature. Do not forget us, brothers, that we also may not say: "I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to the sons of Zion."

Become in heart as one bound with those who are bound; as mourning with those who are bereaved of children; as sympathizing with those who are scourged; as companions in flight with those who are persecuted; and, in a word, as fellow-captives with those who are captive. See that, in fleeing from labors, you do not lose your crowns. For our affairs are not of such a kind as to last only as long as the present age flies past. The time of reward has not yet come. The time will come—as it is even now—when those who have lived in luxury will be condemned with the rich man, but those who have endured tribulations will dance with Lazarus, repenting and saying that they were not deemed worthy to suffer other tribulations for Christ, so that they might have been deemed worthy of greater honors and rewards. See, and pay attention to Him who says: "We went through fire and through water, and You brought us out into a place of refreshment." And again: "Many are the tribulations of the righteous; for as gold in the furnace He proved them, and as a holocaust of sacrifice He accepted them."

Do not boast, children, do not boast that you have escaped the tribulations of this life; but rather groan and be anxious about what you are to answer to the Lord at the hour of departure; what labors, what virtues you will show Him. Let each of you depart from his former deeds. See that, having seized upon ^B license through the removal of your leader, you do not again commit worse things. The Lord has granted us a remedy for the preparation of our health. Do you not see how many rivers of unjustly shed blood the present threat has staunched? How many public tumults it has quelled? How many diabolical loves it has extinguished? How many long-standing hatreds it has dissolved? For those who live in captivity, even against their will, put aside many sins. Therefore, you who live a gentler life, be much more sober, keep watch, cease from doing evil, and seek the divine favor. Remember Him who says: "Pray for one another, that you may be saved." Remember the manner in which constant prayer was made to God by the Church for Peter. If, therefore, prayer was made for that chief of the apostles, who had the power to bind and to loose, how much more should you never cease praying for us until the Lord is appeased? For if you are unmindful of us, you are also bound to pay the penalty for this.

See in what state you are today, and in what state your brothers are. See, look, and be pricked at heart. You are in houses of prayer, we are in prisons; you are in luxury, we are in the mines; you are in joy, they are in mourning; you are in baths, they are in the deserts; you are in exultation, they are in need. For you the services of servants toil, they provide them. Do not, therefore, let those whose affairs are so

^A circumstanced as they are, be neglected by you. Hear the Lord saying: "In what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again." And again, remember how I spoke to you when I was still with you in Galilee, saying: "Truly, children, I see much carelessness in you, much sloth, injustice, ignorance, fraternal hatred, transgression, and contempt of the apostolic canons, and I do not know where our affairs will end." To these things you replied in return, saying that God is a lover of mankind and did not create us to destroy us, but to save us by grace. And since I said that the Word of God declares through David that He will destroy all sinners, and will render to each according to his works, you again made excuses for your sins, until the wrath of the Lord came, and then, as if from sleep, we were thus awakened, and we knew that we were deceiving ourselves, having sown foolish hopes for ourselves. We were all chastened, but we are not all equally afflicted. But let us all strive. Put away drunkenness; cease from acts of fornication, cease from insults; cease from hoarding treasures, ^B when you now see blood being sold. Shake off sloth; devote yourselves to the churches, devote yourselves to prayers. Afflict yourselves a little for the sake of those who are greatly afflicted. All of you, run together to provide for your brethren. Those who have, do so through their money. Do you not fear God, O man? Does not your own conscience scourge you, that you see Christ being dragged and slaughtered by the impious, and you hide your money? And when you are able to save a soul, which not even the whole world is worth, you do not save it, but become a murderer? For when anyone is able to save a brother and does not save him readily, from his hand the Lord will henceforth require his blood. Compassion should not be shown only through money; for wealth does not belong to everyone. Therefore, let each one assist according to the means he has: through prayer, through fasting, through sleeping on the ground, through tears, through teaching. ^C For our circumstances, brothers, are in great straits today. Behold how every age and every rank is being scourged. Therefore, all we who are captives—all of you whom the Lord has redeemed—we beseech you, have pity. Priests, have compassion on the aged; have mercy on children and infants, take pity on widows, and reach out a hand; and let all of you strive to assist as best you can. Zion, all your children greet you, saying, "Greet the holy places on our behalf, brothers." All my fellow servants and fellow captives greet you. May the grace, the calling, and the resurrection through the holy resurrection be with us and with you. Amen. ^D