Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem

the reason for his afflictions, because he looked down on Lazarus. ^A But now, today, there are many Lazaruses among us. It is better to spend gold and purchase Christ. For if it were not permitted to buy the kingdom of heaven, would not many be saying: "Would that it were possible to give money and obtain the kingdom of God!"? But now we see it being openly sold; and not for a great price, so that those who are less wealthy may have no excuse to put forward. ^B Who is so needy that he cannot give two small copper coins to Christ with great purpose of mind, like that widow who truly became rich from poverty in an instant? Let no one seek empty excuses. Let no one say: "I do not have them; I am poor." Who does not have a cup of cold water? Who lacks a good word? Who is unable to groan for one who is poor? No one lacks these things. But in truth, the mind is weak; and knowing this, that we ourselves are captives... (The rest is wanting.)

ANNO DOMINI DCXIV.

MODESTUS HIEROSOLYMITANUS PATRIARCHA.

NOTITIA.

Modestus, successor to Zacharias in the See of Jerusalem, and administrator of it while that man was a captive in the region of the Persians; whose also are those things, spoken and written during that time of captivity to comfort the remnants of the people—which I have presented in that collection of treatises by Chrysostom, Severian, Basil of Seleucia, etc., by which he so vividly deplores the miseries of that captivity—wrote certain Homilies on the Myrrh-bearing women, and on the feast of the Meeting, excerpts of which Photius gave in codex 275, from whence I myself have borrowed. Photius says he read a Eulogy on the Dormition of the holy Mother of God, yet found nothing necessary in it, and of such a kind as that which the one above has, *On the Myrrh-bearers*. There are certainly singular things of his concerning Magdalene: that she was a virgin, that after the Dormition of the holy Mary she followed John to Ephesus and there suffered martyrdom; that under Mary, the Mother of God and Virgin, she was the leader and princeps of the disciples of Christ, just as Peter was roughly the princeps of the disciples; that she had a name in common with her; that there was a double choir of disciples and disciples who followed the Lord and followed the Mother of the Lord, since the Lord presumably did not converse with women. These things the holy man held partly from Scripture, and partly from a certain tradition of his own Church; into which to inquire, and to compose those things which others have concerning Magdalene, is a task that has neither the leisure nor the scope of this work. It does not sufficiently agree between Theophanes and holy Nicephorus as to when Modestus was made bishop, and whether Zacharias, upon returning from captivity, was himself a companion and helper to Heraclius in restoring the Lord’s Cross, or whether he died before that day. Indeed, whether the city was captured while Modestus was already bishop; which opinion of holy Nicephorus seems contrary to the history and chronology of Theophanes. Concerning which matter [see] Petavius on holy Nicephorus, P. Goar on Theophanes, and he himself in the notes to him.

ANOTHER NOTICES

(LEQUIEN. Or. Christ. Vol. III, p. 258.)

^A When Zachariah, Patriarch of Jerusalem, was abducted to Persia in the year of Christ 614, around the month of June, as has been stated above, Modestus—of whom we have already seen Antiochus speak in the cited epistle—assumed the administration of this church so that it would not lack a pastor's rule. He was, without doubt, designated for this task by Zachariah himself, as his vicar during his absence, and with the consent of the provincial bishops who had fled the captivity. He had been the superior of the monastery of Saint Theodosius in Palestine (from Papebroch, Vol. II of March, to the 11th day, no. 24, p. 68, col. 2). When the care of this see of Jerusalem was committed to him, he was consequently marked with the episcopal character, although the authors do not explicitly state this, a fact that can hardly be denied by one who notes that he was sometimes called Prelate of Jerusalem while Zachariah was still alive. Endowed, therefore, with that administration, and having named George as abbot of the aforementioned monastery, he looked with great zeal not only to those things that pertained to the spiritual progress of souls and, above all, the rest of the monks, but furthermore, ^B like another Zerubbabel, he applied strenuous effort to the restoration of the buildings and temples which had been consumed by fire, even though the Jews opposed him with all their strength and the Persians were actively exercising tyrannical domination in Palestine, which seemed impossible.

We have already observed that he celebrated the obsequies of the monks who had been inhumanly slaughtered by the Saracens, as Antiochus relates, who continues thus in the same epistle (pp. 1023, 1024, and in Baronius, to the year 606, nn. 5 and 6): "We, therefore, humble and abject, by the grace of God first, and then by the very earnest and accurate diligence of the aforementioned most holy Modestus, lead this sedentary life in freer and quieter leisure." And again: "By the grace of Christ, and also by the diligent assiduity of our aforementioned, preeminently venerable Father Modestus, all the monasteries of this desert that were scattered are now being recollected." And a little later: "There remain some truly joyful reports, by whose faithful account, both yours and that of every sincerely Christian soul, one may deservedly be gladdened. These things, therefore, I announce to you readily and cheerfully: Modestus, a man of exceptional sanctity (of whom it has been said more than once), ^C not only concerns himself with providing provident care for those monasteries which were scattered throughout this vast desert, but also skillfully anticipates the needs of this city to be governed and all the surrounding region, with God cooperating with him in all things. For he expresses to us, to the life, an image of some new Bezalel, or certainly of Zerubbabel. For, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, he raises up on high, worthy of all veneration, the temples of our Savior Jesus Christ which had been burned by barbarian fire—for instance, the house of holy Calvary and the holy Resurrection—and furthermore, a house worthy of all honor for the venerable Cross, which is the Mother of Churches; but he also builds from the foundations the house of the holy Assumption: so that through these joyful beginnings we may also conceive most ample hope for the future, especially because of those who are expected to come here from outer regions to adore these holy places, so that we all may glorify God in common." Thus Antiochus.

Papebroch, however, in the preliminary tract to Vol. III of the Acts of the month of May, p. 51, n. 156, col. 1, after he related certain words of the epistle of Zachariah in captivity in Persia to the people of Jerusalem—which we have cited above from him while treating of Zachariah—adds: "Modestus, the vicar of Zachariah, follows this epistle with another, more prolix and clearly effective for moving to compunction, in an exhortation to all the faithful; and as if drafting his own testament, he admonishes the faithful of every condition, age, and sex of their duty, beginning from those sad things which ^D the remaining faithful in the holy city saw after the cross, the patriarch, and the others were abducted. He praises, first of all, Nicodemus and his wife Magdalena, who, after the enemies had exited and returned to Persia, walking around the whole city and the villages, and seeing the relics of the brothers lying unburied, gathered the scattered corpses thrown about into the cave that is before the gate, to the number of sixty-five thousand. And he orders that it be inquired from them in what form and state those blessed ones were found who at that time deserved to be killed in Jerusalem. Namely, how one had received a wound from his head down to his heart, another from his shoulders down to his belly, another had five or ten wounds in his intestines, another was cut in the middle and divided into two, others had all their intestines flowing out with their bellies pierced by the sword, others the cruel executioners had cut into many pieces like meat in a butcher's shop, etc."

From Modestus, St. Anastasius the Persian, who had recently embraced the faith of Christ, received baptism in Jerusalem, as the writer of this time relates in his Acts, which were proposed in the second Nicene Council. They exist in Baronius at the year 614, nn. 35 et seqq., taken from Metaphrastes; but [they are] those which he himself took from those older Acts brought into the second Nicene Council, and listed by Bollandus to the day 22 January. These, however, I transcribe from Baronius: "When the great city of Jerusalem had been captured by the King of the Persians, and those places which had seen the conversation of my Christ and the affixing to the cross and the resurrection had been handed over to the spears and fire of the Medes, in ways that He alone knows: and many other things were captured with the city; as the trophy of our salvation, the dissolution of death, the destruction of sin, the wood, I say, of the life-giving Cross was transported thence into Persia, etc. (this holy Cross), overturns Persia, and despoils the false religion, and leads away captive souls that will be worthy of it in a truly laudable and far most beautiful captivity: or, to speak more properly, it calls them from captivity, and restores to them their pristine liberty. For as soon as it enters Persia, it immediately [makes] all that..."

^A illuminates it with the rays of its grace, and strikes the souls of the infidels, not unlike the sun, which enters an aching eye: but it calls back the faithful, not unlike a certain light appearing in the darkness. One of these was... Anastasius, though not yet in his worship (a believer), but already in his morals and habits: who came from a village which was called Rasnuui... in Persia. His name, moreover, was... Magundat... the son of Bau, who was most excellent and most learned in the magical art. Since (Bau) presided over a common school for letters, and had many adolescents coming to him, being captivated by a love for magic, and placing all his study in this alone... he taught the (son) the magical art so diligently, that in the knowledge of it there was nothing unknown to the father that was not also known to the son. But when he was reaching the age of adolescence, and King Chosroes was gathering a new army in Persia, he himself also, with others, was entered into the number of the recruits.

Since, however, the venerable cross of the Lord was agitating and disturbing all of ^B Persia; inflicting horror and terror upon the infidels, but shining upon the faithful very sweetly and placidly: a certain fame concerning it began to pervade among all, a fame, I say, which preached somewhat bluntly and unlearnedly that the God of the Christians was present in Persia. At which this young man was suddenly inflamed in spirit: for already that fire which Christ came to cast upon the earth was touching him secretly, which did not allow his beautiful youth to rest, but he immediately went about into all parts, inquiring about it as vehemently and as diligently as he could. But when he heard from everyone that it was the cross on which Christ the Son of God, who is worshipped by the Christians, was crucified: he added fire to fire, and joined question to question, and from the response he received occasion for another interrogation; and he thirsted much more to learn how He descended from heaven, since He is God and how He was even made man, and why He was even condemned to the cross, and by whom, and whether He has returned to heaven whence He descended.

But when the mystery of the flesh assumed was announced to him by pious (men)... his ears willingly received the seeds of piety, but his soul gradually produced the ear of faith, and a desire was gradually born in him, and an emulation of His sufferings took hold: which, when they were increased and amplified in his soul, informed him and instituted him to the best manner of life, and made him a clear and distinguished witness, a martyr, I say, as the discourse following will declare. These things, after Surius, Baronius (writes), who then adds how that Anastasius, for the love of receiving baptism, having left the army of the Persians, betook himself to the Roman forces, and repaired to Hierapolis, where, living with a silversmith who was of the Persian race, but a Christian in religion, he learned the Christian mysteries more fully, and was also inflamed to undergo martyrdom from the conflicts of the martyrs which he beheld depicted on the walls of the churches; finally, that he had set out for Jerusalem. These things, I say, are thus narrated from the same Acts, at the year 621, n. 10 et seqq.: First indeed (after his flight to the Romans), when he had come to Hierapolis, he turned to a certain Christian Persian, a worker of silver-smithing, and when he had practiced the art of melting silver, his hands were indeed intent upon the work, but his mind and thought were always occupied in the love of God... and it inflamed him (yet more) for himself, and he was inflamed by it in turn more vehemently. Wherefore he asked of God... that he might obtain divine baptism, and might be entirely purged from his former filth, and from that stain of magic; that not only by will and choice, but also in soul and body, he might be purged. But since he feared danger from the Persians, and for that reason hesitated in delay... in the meantime, approaching the divine temples, he consoled his desire; truly, having seen the miracles and the conflicts of the saints described on the walls of the temples—which he visited frequently with his companion, the silversmith—he questioned him diligently about them. When, therefore, he had heard what their life (had been, what) morals, (what) virtue, and what conflicts (they had endured) for the sake of Christ... he could no longer contain what his soul was laboring with, but decided to go to Jerusalem, that he might obtain baptism there.

He came therefore into the holy city, and betook himself to a certain man also skilled in the melting of silver. To him he reveals the cause of his arrival, namely that he wished to be initiated into the true worship of God through baptism. But he leads him to Elias, the most pious presbyter of the holy Resurrection, who received him with outstretched (as it is said) hands, and reported about him to Modestus, who presided over this apostolic see (acting in the place of Zacharias the captive, in Greek ^C locum-tenens, says Papebrochius cited above), and thus he obtains the divine baptism, having become a truly beautiful fruit of the venerable cross, and being called Anastasius, having taken the denomination from his revocation and change to better things from his former infidelity and magic (which was as it were a resurrection from death to life). Together with him was also baptized a certain man of the same fatherland and region, who was also his companion in his passion for Christ, having obtained the same crowns with him at Edessa.

In the year of Christ 628, indeed, on the 22nd of January, only five weeks and two days before the death of Chosroes, by his command, this Anastasius, who having confessed the faith of Christ many times already in the previous year, had been sent to the same Chosroes at Caesarea in Palestine, with great alacrity of spirit, having endured dire torments, finally consumed his martyrdom by the severance of his neck: concerning whom Baronius is to be read at the year 627, n. 3 et seqq., where at n. 1, he conjectures that the Acts of this same Anastasius were written either by Antiochus the monk, or by Sophronius who succeeded Modestus in the Jerusalem see. Bollandus, however, tom. II of the Acta Sanctorum of the month of January, at the 22nd day, p. 422, n. 4, says that it seemed to him that the author of the Life of this martyr was some monk of the monastery into which he himself had betaken himself after baptism, and had embraced the monastic life in the year of Christ 620, and had remained there for seven years: which he infers from these words of this author, n. 13 of the same Life. "This, however, we know, that he, wondering and being stupified at the constancy of the saints, was willing to read almost nothing else, unless it fostered that ardor of holy desire."

Upon the death of Zacharias in the year of Christ 631 or 633, Modestus was substituted, who had administered this Church with such praise for about fourteen years, while Zacharias the patriarch was held captive in Persia; the dignity of which, having obtained it in full, it is reported that he occupied for a short time. For Papebrochius in the Preliminary Tractate to tom. III of May, often cited, page 31, ^D n. 138, col. 2, observes from Nicephorus, with whom the Rulaean parchment agrees, that one year of rule (certainly from the...

death of Zacharias, to whom, having returned from Persia, he had restored the administration delegated to himself, or perhaps under him, by his own consent, had begun to exercise it) be assigned; truly two years by the author of the tables inserted in Theophanes: but unless his predecessor Zacharias, he says, lived more than 22 years after his ordination, nor do these suffice; since it is certain that his successor Sophronius, on the fourth day of the month of May, in the sixth indiction, that is in the year 633, was present at the Alexandrian synod, still a private monk, and there began his struggles against the nascent monothelitism, then went with the letters of Cyrus, Patriarch of Alexandria, to Sergius, Archbishop of the city; so that it would be a lot if he could have returned to Palestine before autumn. Considering this ^A, Papebroch continues, and how from the time when Jerusalem was captured under Chosroes, Modestus had performed the duties of patriarch, perhaps one might wish to opine that the first author of this catalogue, who terminates at Sophronius without defining any years for him, wished to ascribe to the same, as to a true patriarch, the entire time during which Modestus administered the patriarchate, with the years noted in Greek as κ', that is, 21; which others, not understanding, and seeing it as too much (since indeed after Zacharias that Modestus lived for a quite short time), with κ' omitted, retained α', easily finding 21 years if they had wished to count them from the end of May (or the beginning of June) of the year 614 (when the Jerusalemite city was captured by the Persians) to the month of December of the year 634. But there will be no need to recur to this, if we wish to leave 24 years to Zacharias. For then, from March of the year 633, up to December of the following year, it can be said that Modestus sat. I say, up to December, because in such month on the 16th day the Greeks celebrate him with an annual commemoration in the Menaia. Thus Papebroch is cited. Eutychius of Alexandria writes that Modestus sat for nine months, and after his death the Jerusalemite chair remained for six years without a patriarch. Indeed this six-year vacancy does not seem true: for from the year 634, in which Zacharias descended, up to 634, in which Sophronius was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem, six years do not certainly occur, under the duration of which even the patriarchate of Modestus of one year or two flowed. But that some vacancy occurred, from the death of Modestus up to the inauguration of Sophronius, is suggested by certain words of the Roman Pontiff Martin I, to be referred to below, which are read in his epistles to John, Bishop of Philadelphia, and to Pantaleon; namely, that some men before the patriarchate of Sophronius, and also after his decease, had not been appropriately elected as bishops, or presbyters, etc. Beyond the epistle of Modestus about which I spoke above, Pagi notes in vol. II of the Critical Annals of Baronius on the year 633, n. 6, page 801, col. 1, that two more of his orations survive: one, on the ointment-bearing women; the other, on the meeting, which are recited by Photius in the Bibliotheca, codex 273. Another oration is also said to exist, under the name of the same Modestus, in the Coislinian codex 274, part 11, page 289, on the Dormition of the Mother of God, the Virgin.

MODESTUS, ARCHBISHOP OF JERUSALEM, ON THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN.

(PHOTIUS, Biblioth., cod. 275.)

We find that Scripture employs the number seven both regarding virtue and Regarding vice. With good reason, therefore, the Savior chose Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons, so that through her He might expel the prince of vice from human nature. For it says that the histories teach that this Magdalene was a virgin throughout her life. And a testimony of her is carried, in which it is said that because of her extreme virginity and purity, she was like a limpid glass...

...to have appeared to the torturers. After the falling-asleep of our most holy Lady the Theotokos, she departed for Ephesus to the beloved disciple; there the ointment-bearing Mary completed her apostolic course through martyrdom, not wishing to be separated until her very last breath from the blessed John the evangelist and virgin. Just as, he says, the prince [or first-fruits] of the apostles was called Peter because of the unshakable faith which he had in the rock, Christ, so too she, having become the leader of the disciples because of her purity and the love with which she embraced Christ, was named by Him with the same name as that of the Mother of God. Just as a chorus of disciples followed the Lord, so did a chorus of disciples follow the Lady and Mother of the Lord. For the disciples, he says, sometimes marveled that ^B He was speaking with a woman; from this it is clear that the Lord did not have such association with women. But when the Mother of the Lord was completing her evangelical course together with her Son and Creator, they, too, following her, ministered to the common Lord and the disciples from their own means in necessary matters.

ON THE MEETING (ΥΠΑΠΑΝΤΗ)

Anna, having observed the Sabbath with her husband for seven years, and having persevered in prayers and fastings, reached eighty-four years, having overcome the flesh composed of the four elements, and having purified her mind for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and having adorned herself with the general—commonly called cardinal—virtues; having passed beyond her eightieth year, she found in the temple the Savior of the future age carried in arms. With good reason, as the cause of the ^C sinless pleasure, the law commanded the daughters of Eve to bring for their purification a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons; the law thereby signifying that he who approaches God ought to be free from all sin both in soul and body, and to possess innocence.

Christ fulfills the law; He is not a debtor to the law. "He is set for the fall and resurrection of many,"—the fall of sin, the resurrection of righteousness—and for a sign contradicted by the Christ-killing Jews, who said: "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross, ^D and we will believe you." And, [as Simeon said to Mary], "a sword shall pierce your own soul..."

...of the cross, and we will believe you. And: "A sword shall pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." For you are a mother who in truth suffers the mother’s pain for the Son and God, who suffered for us in the flesh.

*Matt. xxvii, 40. *Luke ii, 35.

*Mich. Ang. Giacomellus to the reader.*

Saint Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who flourished at the beginning of the seventh century, records three homilies, and excerpts of them are given by Photius in Cod. 275. He brings forth the first, "On the Myrrh-bearing Women"; the second, "On the Meeting [of the Lord]"; and the third, which now comes to light for the first time, a "Laudation on the Dormition of the Blessed Mary." Petrus Philippus Strozza, a canon of the Liberian Basilica—a man most distinguished not so much by the clarity of his lineage as by his most upright and pious character and his outstanding knowledge of ecclesiastical matters—saw to it that this be copied from the Sangermanensis Codex, and was my advisor in translating it from Greek into Latin. At the urging of a certain pious and most learned man, joined to me by the closest friendship, I added a few notes; I have contributed little else thereto, save for certain passages from ancient writers [placed] alongside this composition of Modestus, to nourish piety and devotion toward the Mother of God. And although the style of this writer is very far removed from that genre of expression followed by the Fathers in the fourth and fifth centuries, when true and genuine eloquence flourished in the Church, nevertheless, I do not believe this homily should be held of little value, for the very reason that it contains the tradition of the principal dogmas of the Christian faith most eloquently expressed.

OF OUR HOLY FATHER MODESTUS, ARCHBISHOP OF JERUSALEM, ENCOMIUM ON THE DORMITION OF OUR ALL-HOLY LADY THEOTOKOS AND EVER-VIRGIN MARY.

ENCOMIUM OF OUR HOLY FATHER MODESTUS, ARCHBISHOP OF JERUSALEM, ON THE DORMITION OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY, THE THEOTOKOS AND EVER-VIRGIN MARY.

^A The knowledge of the most holy and venerable feasts of the Mother of God is ineffable. For the mystery is most glorious, and incomprehensible to all heavenly powers and to mortals alike; and the word of manifold wisdom hesitates, perplexed, to praise the miracle according to its dignity, since it surpasses all the knowledge of the intellectual and rational creation. For indeed, as if coming from God...

she who is properly and truly the Mother of God ^A has been sanctified, more glorious than the Cherubim and Seraphim. And because of such a height, which is raised above all the heavenly powers, and an incomprehensible glory of spectacles and contemplations of the divine and ineffable mystery, those who in Christ our God were appointed by the grace of the Holy Spirit as masters of the Church, and were strengthened by Him, flew up with great praise of themselves; even as they dwelled on earth in the fiery chariot of the virtues, they were deemed worthy, for the sake of Him who came forth from her—Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Coloss. ii, 5)—to declare the sacred discourses, which they set forth in the individual venerable feasts of the Mother of God, ^B and [which they have] never ceased to hand down, for the glory of our Lord God, to the pious peoples, the most beautiful spiritual ornament, and [for] the edification of the orthodox Churches. But concerning her venerable dormition, I do not know if anything has been produced by them, nor have their successors set forth anything at all concerning it. Therefore, since there is a great openness on the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, whoever is desirous of learning, or rather who is a lover of Christian discipline and a diligent and benevolent listener to divine things, desires to learn something secret concerning her. But so great is their ^C necessity. But Christians, because of the certain hope of the resurrection, have preferred to call death by the right [name of] dormition or sleep, as St. Paul goes before, saying that those who sleep in death, as in 1 Cor. xv, 6, "of whom the greater part remain until now, but some have fallen asleep," which passage referring to those that sleep, D. Basil of Seleucia, in his sermon 52, page 174, says: "For when the cross was planted, sleep was death; for sleep is the companion of the cross." And in his sermon on the Cemetery, Vol. II, page 342, after he says that even Christ calls death by the manner of death, and [at another time] by the way of hell, he adds: "Since Christ came and died for the sake of life, death is no longer called death, but sleep and dormition; after Christ came, and for the sake of the world the dead, death from then on is not called death, but sleep and dormition." ^D St. Basil, homily on Grace, Vol. II, page 31, says: "You have been taught concerning those who sleep in Christ: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in infirmity, it is raised in power; it is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body." And I find that the passage brought forward by Basil of Seleucia is the same, in that he notes that indeed by certain names they have chosen to call death sleep, for he says, "he preferred that it should be death rather than sleep." Even as Baluzius in his epistles 66, Cyprian, and Rigaltius in the letters of the same [Cyprian]. But at times they were accustomed to add nothing, as in Sophocles' Electra, 511.

^A such God-pleasing yearning and zeal, and considered the divine purpose, which is worthy of all acceptance most readily; and, being gripped by the most reverent longing and confidence toward the Theotokos who bore our life and salvation, and encouraged, I, the wretched one, thought it possible according to my power to set down a moderate text about her, befitting the theology of the thief who was crucified at the right hand of the Savior Christ, and asking through his all-holy Mother to find at his hands the great mercy; beginning from here thus, to the glory of his Father and of the Spirit.

II. ^B Alas, O Christ-loving brothers, she who bore the life of all has today departed to that Life, who was begotten before the ages from the Father, and who is God, and the Word of God, whom she bore in the flesh, and nourished with milk from her own breasts; she who created all things from non-being into being, and who quickens all things, inherited her, and as a mother, came into the enjoyment of her, above the heavenly and earthly holy orders. And he caused her to spring forth into the world from God as a universal fountain, being indeed the light of mortals; for it is written: ^C “The life was, and the life was the light of men.” Toward this light came the true and subsistent Light, and the “effulgence of the glory of God and the Father,” who shone forth from her, being incarnate by the Holy Spirit, “enlightening every man coming into the world.” And when Christ our God, the co-eternal with his Father and the Spirit, chose and elected by his good pleasure to take her to himself, that she, his all-blessed Mother, who is after him the most excellent of all, might be glorified with him in glory, angels and archangels ran together rejoicing, rushing through the air into the interior of the world, being sent from God from heaven for the ministry of her all-venerable dormition. Moreover, all the heavenly holy Powers exult ^D likewise, having learned the mystery, and they praise and glorify beyond measure the One who created them, [having been called upon by her] and by the all-good Savior Christ who was born from her.

(7) Regarding this (God the Son of God) we believe that, always existing with the Father, he fulfilled the paternal will for the creation of all things; for he himself spoke, and they were generated; he commanded, and they were created. Now, he who commands, commands someone; whom do we believe to be any other than the only-begotten Son of God, God, to whom he also said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” In summary, according to the Gospel: “All things were made through him, and without him not one thing was made.” And according to the Apostle: “In him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, whether visible or invisible, whether Thrones or Powers; all things were created through him and for him.” He exists and is active in such a way, as indeed both Word and God, through whom the Father made all things, not as through an instrument, nor as through a non-subsistent knowledge; having begotten with the Father the Son as a living energy, and subsistent, working all things in all things; the Son not only seeing, nor only being present, but also working toward the creation of the universe, as it is written: “I was with him, fitting together,” etc.

^A And, as it is written, she revealed herself more glorious than heaven, the heaven of his divinity, and through her [the world] received earthly rational luminaries, shining with the glory of his divine grace, above the sun and the moon and the stars; for he said to them: “You are the light of the world.” ^B And he chose her from every rational and intellectual creature to become his all-holy Mother, and he graced her above all things. The Cherubim do not dare to look upon him, nor can they bear to gaze at him, and they worship him with his all-holy Father and the Spirit, ceaselessly crying out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth.” And through her he freed the creation from slavery, and brought about the greatest universal joy, and said to the powers above: “Rejoice with me.” For through her the drachma, born of the earth, was found, and the good Shepherd put on the sheep’s skin and saved the rational sheep that had wandered, having lifted it upon his shoulders, the Lord of Hosts rejoicing—he who from her became flesh, immutably, and sanctified her to be a God-receiving field, ^C in which God and Father according to his good pleasure became the husbandman, and the all-holy Spirit the planter, from whom Christ his only-begotten Son was brought forth as the true vine, for the joy of the heavenly holy Powers and the salvation of earthly mortals, saying in the Gospels: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” To this vine the Mother of God traveled; which she brought forth, the true vine—the heaven, the temple, and the throne of the divinity, how the uncreated and incomprehensible nature of the Word... into which the Cherubim do not dare to look, etc. For the heavens declare the glory of God; angels minister with fear; archangels worship with trembling; the Cherubim, not bearing the glory, tremble; the Seraphim, flying around, do not dare to approach; but with trembling they cry out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabaoth.” The clouds of the resurrection became a trembling vehicle for his ascent; the sun, not bearing the insult, shuddered; Hades vomited forth the dead from its belly; the gatekeepers of Hades were struck with fear at his sight; the mountain that received the ascent smoked; the bush, not bearing the vision, burned; the Jordan, seized with horror, turned backward; the sea, in fear of the rod, was divided, having been tamed for the sake of the Master's type; the rod of Aaron, because of the image which it bore, blossomed against nature; the fire in Babylon reverenced the number of the Trinity. Reckon then the paradoxes, and marvel at the victory of the Virgin; that he whom all creation praises with fear and trembling, she alone, the Virgin, in an ineffable manner received into her bridal chamber. ^D O field, in which the Husbandman of nature brought forth the stalk without seed! Hail, O untilled field of beautiful fruit; hail, O untilled field of the heavenly bread! Hail, O full of grace, the untilled field of beautiful fruit, O field which, though unplowed, brings forth most beautiful fruits.

^A delights as if in delicacies, and is refreshed by Him eternally, He who from her most pure loins was incarnate and emerged into the communion of men, and confirmed their hearts in the orthodox faith; and having produced for us an olive tree, as if a field cultivated by God, she brought forth Christ, the fountain of mercy, who with His mercy fills all things, ^B bearing mercy for us, as a field cultivated by God, [filling] all things with His mercy.

Thence, for the sake of gathering the clusters of incorruption and immortality, rejoicing in her new birth in the kingdom of the heavens. Furthermore, also delighting in the life-giving heavenly bread of life, being made alive by Him unto the ages, He who made provision from her most pure loins and proceeded forth for the participation of mortals, strengthening hearts in His orthodox faith; He, Christ, the fountain of mercy, who overflows with all His mercy.

^B III. For she has been taken up, taken up to the Lord of glory, that most shining cloud which carried Him, and which flashed forth His perfect divinity in a body, raining down from Him upon those under heaven those most excellent gifts. And there has been completed the supermundane course of the intelligible moon, according to the prophet, from whom was taken the Sun, being one of the triple-sunned ^C consubstantial Trinity, as the paternal manifestation says. "And she stood in the order" of her virginity, the truly Theotokos, who showed forth His brightness for the knowledge of God of this whole [world]. But in the house of God and the Father, she has been received with exultation and ineffable joy, she, the God-fashioned house of His Son, who dwelt in her uncircumscribedly, and was incarnate from her by the Holy Spirit, and became an infant, remaining for nine months, He who was God inseparable from His Father and the Spirit; and having become a dwelling place for the consubstantial Trinity, a dwelling better than all others, the indissoluble dwelling, she who heard from the archangel Gabriel: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the ^D Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that which is born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of God," in order to be glorified above the heavenly and earthly holy orders. From those things here she was transplanted, as if from glory to glory, the mortal-born, fire-bearing bush of the divinity, into the land of the living, to shine together in the light of the person of Christ, God, whom entirely and truly she carried in her womb.

^A She was carried, and by Him preserved unburnt, the only Mother-Virgin blessed among women. But also, as the ever-flourishing rod of Jesse, she sprouted forth in the flesh the divine germ of the Father, whose infinity and incomprehensibility in magnitude, in the sweetness and communion of his fruits, delights the holy Powers of heaven and the choir of the Saints, so that with boldness they may behold his loveliness before all else. For the Lord of hosts designated as his own chosen field from all the earth her, from whom he sprouted forth like a seedless ear of grain; his grain is insatiable ^B and inexhaustible, always nourishing all things without ever being diminished, and contained in the bosom of the Father. She entered into the heavenly bridal chamber, she who was made the most glorious Bride of the hypostatic union of the two natures of Christ the true heavenly Bridegroom, whose wondrous beauty all the holy Powers of heaven desire. And she was translated to that place which is above, to the Jerusalem which is the intelligible bridal chamber, from which the King of the ages went forth, having accomplished the descent towards us. In military form he turned the enemy to flight with his forces. But also, when Christ God reached man’s estate, he betrothed to himself his own orthodox ^C Church, for which he shed his precious blood and yielded up his soul, according to that which the great light of the world in divine matters, Paul, says: « This mystery is great; but I speak of Christ and the Church » (Ephes. v, 32). She was, moreover, in the kingdom of heaven superior to the Cherubim and Seraphim, truly made the Mother of the Lord of them all.

IV. When the God-bearing, rational ship had well completed the course of life, she steered into her tranquil harbor, at once also unto the pilot of the world: who through her saved and brought to life the human race from the flood of impiety and sin. He who in Sinai gave the Law, and our God who brought the law from Sion, from thence sent that He might take unto Himself His own ark of sanctification; concerning which her progenitor David sang saying: « Arise, O Lord, to thy resting place; thou and the ark of thy sanctification » (Ps. cxxxii, 8). Nor indeed was she, like as Moses...

^A ark of old, borne by oxen, but guided and escorted by a heavenly host of holy angels; not made by hands, overlaid with gold, but God-built, endowed with reason, and flashing on every side with the radiance of the all-holy and life-giving Spirit who descended upon her. She did not bear a jar of manna and the tablets of the covenant, but the Giver of manna and of the promised eternal goods, the Lord of the New and Old Testament, who was born of her as an infant and delivered those who believe in him from the curse of the law. She did not bear the rod of Aaron, nor had she the Cherubim of glory above her, but she was incomparably more glorious than those, the Rod of Jesse according to the prophetic manifestation, overshadowed by the divine and all-powerful might of the most high Father. Nor was she led before the Hebrew people like that one, but followed God, who appeared on earth in the flesh from her, and was called blessed by angels and men to the glory of him who magnified her above the heavenly ^B and earthly orders, crying out with a divine mouth and saying: « My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour » (Luc. 1, 46), and the rest.

E'. Therefore, she truly rested, that she might shine forth in the splendors of the Sun of righteousness, as his spiritual dawn, so named by Him who rose from her and illuminated all things. Through her, that splendor which surpasses even the rays of the sun itself, was poured out upon us in mercy and compassion, re-kindling the souls of the faithful toward the imitation, as far as possible, of his divine kindness and goodness. For Christ ^C our God, having clothed himself from this Ever-Virgin with a soul-endowed and intelligent flesh (30) from the Holy Spirit, having summoned her, clothed her with incorruptibility throughout her whole being, and glorified her altogether beyond expectation, that she might become an heir, as his all-holy Mother; according to what the Psalmist sings: « The queen stood on thy right hand in vesture of gold, wrought about with divers colors » (Ps. xliv, 10).

A vessel (31)

^D [alt-version omitted]

the Theotokos, having attained her precious pearl (32), was adorned with the beauty of his supercelestial splendor, he who is « the gold and the silver » (Agge. ii, 9), and through whom « kings reign » (Prov. viii, 15); he who flashed forth from heaven within her and was embodied from her virginal loins. Being in the great sea of life, and having gone forth, she gave herself as a ransom, having presented him on behalf of the liberation of the world from slavery; and having straightway dared, in a most extraordinary manner, the temporal journey of life, she arrived at the true joy of all, she who ineffably bore within our nature him who is by nature God, born of God before the ages, but in the last of the times appearing through her upon earth, and filling the heavenly and earthly realms with his divine exultation, and having utterly driven away the sorrow of Eve.

VI. But today the « corner-stone » (Ps. cxvii, 22), foretold of old by the inspired Prophet, has performed the wondrous translation of his own mountain, which raises itself in the heights of glory above every creature; from which — « cut out without hands » (Dan. ii, 45) — Christ, the God, has restored the whole world, having built up in it the Churches of his orthodox faith, so that those who piously flee to him through this same mountain may be delivered from all impious heresy, according to what the holy writing says: « Whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame » (Rom. x, 11). For there was brought ^C the « sealed fountain » (Cant. iv, 12) of the Lord, the Ever-Virgin, full of divine charisms, to meet him, through whom the paradise of the orthodox Church has been watered and established by the second Adam born of her; and he has drunk as from waters of a fount from her virginal founts, that is, her breasts, and has quickened the first-formed Adam who had been put to death. Today the rational tabernacle, in which God and Lord of heaven and earth was received in a wonderful manner in the flesh, has been composed by him, and

is established as a body ^A consubstantial with him, to be in him in incorruptibility eternally, as a strong protection, and for the salvation and guardianship of all us Christians.

VII. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, who even after birth remained a Virgin, and did not experience corruption in the tomb with that life-giving body, while being guarded by the almighty Savior Christ who came forth from her. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom the spirits and souls of the perfected righteous were counted worthy of eternal consolation from God by Christ. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom we have been mystically recreated, and have become a temple of God. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom the universal, twofold healing has come forth, healing ^B both bodily and spiritually for the most comprehensive well-being of the inhabited world. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom our race has been glorified and blessed in Christ the God, as his indivisible body, and is praised and worshipped by those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, as it is written. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom we have received the forgiveness of our transgressions, and have been redeemed from the tyranny of the evil one. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom all things have been renewed, and the earthly have been united with the heavenly, and they praise and cry out ^C together with them: «Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men.» O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom the surpassing and unutterable philanthropy of the tri-hypostatic Godhead has been shown to us, working wonders among the holy Powers of the heavens, and rousing us to confession and incessant praise of her ineffable mercy and supreme goodness. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, regarding whom the prophets and righteous cried out ^D...

desiring to reach that most longed-for day, when the Savior went forth from her to deliver them from the inextricable bonds of Hades. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom the same Being is God on earth and man in heaven, having become this immutably and indivisibly through mercy and the economy. For she who once heard, "You are earth, and to earth you shall return," having clothed Christ the God with flesh from her, now sits at the right hand of the Father above the Cherubim and Seraphim, and Thrones, and Powers, and Dominations, and Principalities, and Archangels, and Angels. O most ^B blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom "we have put on Christ," and have been deemed worthy to become children of God. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, through whom, when the "true Vine" had gone forth, the most glorious apostles sprouted from her like branches, spreading to the ends of the earth and filling the whole world with the laudable fruit of their piety and miracles. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God; through whom, when Christ had shone forth with divine and most splendid light, the holy martyrs were kindled from Him like luminaries in the world, being conformed to His sufferings, who even unto blood confessed her the Mother of God, and received from Him the crowns of righteousness. O most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God, for whose sake angels and archangels descend from the height of the heavens, and divine apostles come from the ends of the earth, as God alone knows, who guided them in a mysterious way and gathered them to the most sacred festival of the dormition of the Mother of God, his mother, thus fulfilling what had been commanded of old by Him through Moses: "Honor your parents." For nature is a lover of honor, and our Lord is all-good.

VIII. O wonder! The holy angels sent by God to His all-holy and glorified Mother—she who is superior to them and to all the heavenly Powers, who "found grace" with Him—were not sent from the height of the heavens to her who by Him was made larger and higher than the heavens, to announce a divine and incomprehensible conception, as once the archangel Gabriel was, ^D but to invite her into the kingdom of the heavens to Him who was conceived within her; not to make manifest her incomprehensible birth to all the world, beneath the heavens, to the shepherds, as one subject to the law fulfilling the law, which He himself commanded—for He himself ordained it for parents to receive their due from their children; "Honor," He says, "your father," etc.—but to provide a witness to the Legislator. Oh, upright Legislator, who, though not subject to the law, fulfills the law He himself enacted! For He himself enacted the law so that children might render the due office to their parents: "Honor," He says, "your father."

^A They did not come simply for the sake of a happy message to the shepherds, but in order to take them up with eternal glory and introduce them into the ineffable joy of the Lord who was born from her. For they knew, as it is written through the Church, "the multiform wisdom of their Lord," ^B and thus they reasonably longed in a godly manner 47 to see His most glorious mother, who was found to be—more than all others—most desired and venerable to God Himself, who by nature is the Desirable and Beloved One of all; she who for the salvation of the world was chosen from ancient generations 48 according to His foreknowledge to become the Theotokos, the Ever-Virgin. Her, whom her forefather, David the prophet, foreseeing with prophetic eyes in the Psalms, said: "Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, and the King will desire your beauty, for He is your Lord, and you shall worship Him." ^B They longed, too, to see and marvel at her glorified and super-resplendent divine beauty, through which the only-begotten Son of God, Christ our God, adorned the human nature with the grace and beauty of His own divinity, having deified it in Himself. They longed to see her grace-filled form, from which, having fashioned Himself by the Holy Spirit, He became in truth mortal-formed, while remaining what He was, "existing in the form of God." ^C They longed to see her, the sanctified 49 essential hypostasis, superior to the powers above, and to glorify the One who sanctified her, the super-essential and subsistent Word of the Father, who was incarnate from her by His Holy Spirit. And perhaps they were struck with wonder, 50 considering how one born of mortals became the mother of the Creator of mortals, or who this was, and how great she was by the God-bearing properties of her person—she who contained the Uncontainable, ^D she who carried the fire 51 of the divinity.

unburned; she who gave birth to the Creator of all, and that fire, which foreshadowed the presence of the divine fire from heaven, watered the bush and did not consume it. What, then, could you say about the truth—not in a flame of fire, but in the likeness of rain descending? In your arms, the Creator of all is about to be carried, He himself in the arms of a Mother, and upon the wings of the winds, Mary Theotokos, through whom the twelve-fold beauty of the apostles was chosen. You who bridged the earth and the heaven with your holy name, a Bridge of the whole world leading to the super-mundane heaven.

IX. Regarding the divine apostles

Nay rather, she was also foreseen and prophetically announced in that most august entry, or in that light-bearing gate which was placed in Sion and looked toward the East; which was the most divine [type].

^D

^A in which no falsehood approached, but the only all-truthful, life-giving way traversed; and in it our Lord and God took us up to His own Father, saying in the Gospels: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To whom, having arrived, they greeted the all-hymned Mother of God in an archangelic manner; and as those about to escort her to the Lord—who had previously accompanied her to the heavens—they sang with joy-bestowing tidings, as was fitting, hymns conceived by divine grace, saying in this manner:

^B X. Hail, greatly desired by God, living temple of the incomprehensible Highest, in whom the uncreated and subsisting Wisdom of God the Father dwelt, and Christ God built the temple of His own body, He who found His own rest in thee for the salvation of the world, and was pleased to assume thee into His eternal and most glorious rest. Hail, all-holy Theotokos, because the King of glory, Lord Jesus, having chosen thee to be His intellectual kingdom upon earth, and having through thee bestowed upon us His heavenly kingdom, commanded that thou shouldst be in it, in the incorruptibility of the body, a joint-sharer with Him, and to surpass all in glory ^C to the glory of His Father and of the Spirit. Hail, O divine help of those who always worship piously, from whom Christ took our nature, "and raised up a horn of salvation for us," to announce to us the word of His truth among all nations. For God truly saves from every affliction those who confess thee to be the Theotokos, He who brought thee to Himself that thou might be for us a cause of intercession. Hail, daughter of Joachim and Mother of God, who created all things; thou who wert called by Him to the seat of beatitude, which surpasses the beatitude of all the orders of the saints, who are proclaimed blessed both in heaven and on earth. Hail, fount of remedies; who pourest forth Christ, who heals every disease; who, like a river by the grace of His life-giving and all-holy Spirit, ^D [washes away our sins]. Hail, Mary, indissoluble temple, or rather holy [temple], just as the prophet David cries, saying: "Holy is thy temple, marvelous in justice." [alt-version omitted] Thou who possessest the pavement of the blessed of heaven, freed from all mortal mixture, clothed in the mantle of incorruption, and having ever been regarded as God, devoid of old age. If anyone thinks that Mary is not the Theotokos, he is separated from the Divinity, as Nazianzen says in his first epistle to Cledonius.

^A sending forth streams springing up into eternal life; who summoned you, that He might nourish you with the "water of His refreshment." Hail, most glorious Mother of the eternal light, of Him who is by nature and essence the true God, and who shone forth from you in our substance upon earth, and "signed upon us the light of His countenance." By whom, having been called with glory by divine grace, you are "before Him in the light of the living." Hail, refuge of mortals unto God, who took us from you and became our refuge and power; who works great healings and miracles in the world through us, for the progress and increase of the chosen Christian people; who called you, O blessed Theotokos, into eternal remembrance of His ineffable mercy and love, which has come to us through you. Hail, ^B divinely prepared treasure of the heavenly kingdom, in which the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," was attended by the grace of the feast of the gathered heavenly holy angels and earthly mortals, destined to be carried as something most precious into the supernal "Church of the firstborn." Hail, most holy Mother of our Savior God, who through you was with us, and we in Him, and who made you worthy, both on earth by all who venerate you and most especially in heaven by the holy angels, to be hymned and adored as the most august Mother of their Lord. Hail, most holy Mother ever-virgin, who brought forth from yourself ^C Christ the Son of God, incarnate by the Holy Spirit, perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity; that is, in two natures, and wills, and operations, willing and working as God, willing and working as man, having the power in both as one and the same without confusion and without division; and being present with Him with confidence, entreat Him that He may always keep His Church thus piously minded. Hail, venerable and immaculate Mother of God: for He who from the height of the heavens dwelt in your womb, without leaving heaven, as if in an earthly homeland, Christ God, He Himself made you worthy, who from this temporal earthly homeland to a more excellent ^D

heavenly homeland—which He also bestowed upon the saints through you because they yearned for it—to depart.

Hail, most divine and God-founded propitiatory, through whom the propitiation of the whole world, the Savior Christ God, came forth. For from you, all-holy Theotokos, having clothed Himself with the veil of His flesh from the Holy Spirit, there came forth a "priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek," as it is written; He who settled it with Himself to take you up, that being entreated by you, He might always bestow propitiation upon the world. ^B Hail, Mary, intellectual and most radiant paradise, for you brought forth as fruit from the Holy Spirit, the fruit of life and immortality which sprang from God the Father, Christ our God. By participating in Him through right faith in Him, we have been made alive, and He who dwelt in you within an incorruptible body in paradise, through you opened to us the entrance to Him.

Hail, Lady of mortals, all-holy Theotokos, from whom the God who is above all, and our most good Master, having partaken of our human nature in all things except sin, came forth into the world, having also counted us worthy to become "partakers of His divine nature," and who graced you to be His intellectual city, and called you, "The Lord of hosts into His city." Hail, universal and most radiant harbor, you who were manifested by God as the true Theotokos. For in the sea of this life, humanity, being tempest-tossed, has been saved in you, and through you has regained graces and eternal good things from Him who magnified you in the present time and glorified you unto the age of ages. ^C

XI. And the aforementioned holy angels sent from God, standing by the Mother of God, as being intellectual and invisible, having beheld the super-glorious divine grace and power that was with her, were struck with stupor and ecstasy at the divine and incomprehensible mystery concerning her. And they indeed were rejoicing and exulting that they were about to receive her as the Mother of their Master; but the Apostles, because they were being bereft of the Mother of God in the body, were troubled no less in spirit than on that sacred night when, being initiated into the symbols of the salvation of the whole world, they heard from the Savior Christ that, "Sorrow has filled your hearts."

^A Then, as the Mother of God, who is celebrated with every kind of canticle, was being encircled visibly and invisibly by the two choirs, following the command given from God concerning her, as it is said, according to His promise, the all-good Christ, God, did not disdain to be in their midst and to appear to His Mother in a way known to Him alone. And the blessed one, being held fast always by the divine longing of the Mother of God, looking toward Him, departed from her holy body, "commending into His hands" her all-blessed and all-holy soul.

XII. Alas! She has fallen asleep, she has fallen asleep, she who gave birth to the life and resurrection of the world; by whose grace every intellectual and rational nature participates in that eternal life—the Lord, namely, who despoiled Hades, destroyed death and "the devil," and "at the command" will raise up all who have ever died and fallen asleep in Him; and who says in the Gospel, "I am the resurrection and the life." His most holy Mother followed Him, saying as if prophetically: "My heart was not troubled, following after You, and I did not desire ^B the day of man." Today she has fallen asleep, she who lulled to rest in her arms Him who is the delight of the Cherubim and Seraphim, and of all the celestial Powers, and the rest for them and for the world; in whom, as the consubstantial Son of God, the holy and life-giving Spirit proceeding from the Father also rests—the One who is truly rest, and who says in the Gospels: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And she, who brought forth the Light of all, was closing her holy eyes; she who, like a golden lampstand, carried Him in the world without contact, as a torch—the Creator of the lights, "who planted the ear, and formed the eye," who called all from the ends of the earth into His marvelous light. But her most glorious body, ^C in which Life was conceived, from which unbegotten immortality out of the Holy Spirit proceeded into our mortal and corruptible human nature, and incorruptibility, requires funeral rites by most sacred hands—her body, I say, which [clothed] the Lord, who is "clothed with light as with a garment," and who was born from her, and which, from age to age, as pertains to the flesh, clothed Him in garments.

XIII. ^D Then indeed the holy body of the Mother of God was carried forth upon a sacred bier, from which was composed[his]

simple Jesus, and most divine God He has truly proved to be. O priest-bearing bed, ^A bearing the truly immaculate one, through whom came forth He who sanctifies all things. O priest-bearing bed, bearing another not made by hands, in whom God, "having bowed the heavens," chose that His rest should be. O priest-bearing bed, bearing the greater-than-all, all-holy container of the uncontainable God. O priest-bearing bed, bearing the workshop of universal salvation, ordained by God. O priest-bearing bed, bearing the palace of the heavenly King, built by Him for the substantial and uncircumscribed indwelling of His incarnation. O priest-bearing bed, bearing the wonderful chariot, upon which God, "who sits upon the Cherubim," moved, passed into the land, perfectly clothed in the purple of our nature; "He who has reigned over the nations," of whom it was also prophetically spoken: "Why are Your garments red, as from a trodden winepress?" O priest-bearing bed, bearing the purest and chosen spiritual metal, from which the Lord, having fashioned it, renewed for Himself His own creation. O priest-bearing bed, bearing the entirely blessed tabernacle from Abraham and David, from which the most high and incorporeal God took His ensouled and intellectual body, which had not pre-existed, but had its existence in it. O priest-bearing bed, bearing the intellectual incense, which filled ^B the entire world with the "good fragrance of Christ God." O priest-bearing bed, bearing the sanctified vessel entirely filled with the ointment of the most divine Deity. O priest-bearing bed, bearing...

[Regarding the notes for columns 3309-3310:] (76) Epiphanius, *Advers. haeres.*, lib. III, haer. 88, p. 1057: "But believing perfectly in the incarnation, that He is perfect God, the same being perfect man, without sin, having taken the same body from Mary, and having taken a soul, and mind, and everything that is man, without sin; not being two, but one Lord, one God, one King, one High Priest, God and man, man and God; not two, but one, united not into confusion, nor into non-existence, but into a great dispensation of grace." (77) Pseudo-Hieronymus in *Psal. XVII*, v. 12: "Christ in Mary as a bridegroom in the bride-chamber, and the body of Mary as a tabernacle." S. Ephraem, *Precat. ad Dei Matrem*, tom. III, p. 524: "Vessel of the divinity of the only-begotten immortal Son." S. Chrysostomus in *Annunt. B. Mar.* in *Auctar. Combefis.* p. 609: "Hail, ensouled temple of God; hail, equal dwelling of heaven and earth." And again S. Ephraem, *ubi supra*, p. 554: "Tabernacle of the divinity, container of all holiness and grace." (78) S. Chrysostomus, *ibidem*: "God's palace in *Annunt. B. Mar.* in *Auctar. Combefis.* p. 602: 'Gabriel was sent to the ensouled palace of the King of angels.'" (79) Damascenus, *homil. 1*, in *Nativ. B. Mariae*, p. 845 E: "From whom the King of glory, putting on the purple of the flesh [was born]." And *homil. 2*, likewise in *Nativit.*, p. 556 A: "He calls the Virgin Mary herself royal purple, from whom Christ assumed His own flesh. Hail, royal purple, which wove the scarlet for Him with your virginal blood, who says in the *Canticles*: 'Locks of your head,' etc." Item, Pseudo-Epiphanius *de Laud. B. M.*, tom. II, p. 296 B: "Royal purple of heaven and earth, clothing the King, referring to the universal purple garment of the body." (80) Christ the Lord assumed His flesh from the Virgin Mary, whom he therefore calls the tabernacle of Abraham and David, since He was of their lineage. (81) Against the blasphemy of certain Apollinarians, who affirmed that Christ brought His flesh from heaven, and who, as Saint Epiphanius relates in *haeresi 77, lib. II, Advers. haeres.* p. 998, thought that the Body itself was not more recent than the divinity of the Word, but had always been co-eternal with it.

^A the most holy body of the most glorious Mother of God, carried by the holy angels and divine apostles and celebrated with hymns to the praise and glory of the Son of our God, which they laid in the host-providing monument, in the place which is called Gethsemane. Those eyewitnesses themselves, who were ministers of the Word, and the holy men who were with them, who made that resolution in this matter, that through her they should render the best and just Judge, who proceeded from her, Christ our God, propitious towards us; who is to come from heaven with glory and lightning, and will be there, where it has been prophetically announced, that through the holy angels, together with the divine apostles themselves, He shall judge the living and the dead. ^B

XIV. But what is the comprehension of the intellect...

XIV. But what grasp of understanding or power of speech will be able to attain and worthily praise all those most holy and incomprehensible things which were done for her glory and celebrated with praises by them, and the secret mysteries divinely revealed to them, and the diverse gifts distributed, and the innumerable remedies with which she, as it were, initiated them into sacred things? Therefore, as the most glorious Mother of Christ our Saviour and God, who is the bestower of life and immortality, she is vivified by Him, a consort with Him in incorruptibility for all ages, He who raised her from the sepulchre and took her up to Himself, as He alone knows; to whom be glory and empire with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. ^C