On Peter and Paul

ADAM HOMILY SUBSEQUENT

However, he who said that this homily was put together by a recent Greek did not treat the matter with sufficient accuracy. For Anastasius Sinaita, a writer of the sixth century, in *Question on Scripture* LIX, which bears the title, *Why does the Apostle say, I do not permit a woman to teach?*, ascribes a great part of this homily verbatim to Chrysostom, starting from these words: "No wild beast can be compared with a wicked and talkative woman. For what is more terrible than a lion, etc."; and he ends with these words: "He, therefore, who has a wicked wife, let him know that he is already receiving the reward of iniquity; for the Wise Man says: 'A wicked woman shall be given to a sinful man'." What you will find surprising is that the very same words, neither more nor less, are found verbatim in opusculum 49 of St. Ephrem, entitled *Against Wicked Women*, with no difference other than what the divergence of interpreters has caused. From this it may be deduced that an inept writer borrowed this addition from St. Ephrem. We reject the prior Latin interpretation, which was adorned [καταφραστικῶς], and have prepared a new one.

ON THE BEHEADING OF THE PRECURSOR AND BAPTIST JOHN, AND ON HERODIAS

^A 1. Herodias is raging again, she is rousing the crowds again, she is dancing again, she is seeking again that the head of John the Baptist be unjustly severed by Herod. Jezebel is going about again, seeking to seize Naboth's vineyard and to persecute the holy Elijah in the mountains. I believe that I am not alone in falling into a state of astonishment, but that all of you who hear the voice of the Gospel are also amazed along with me—amazed at John’s boldness, at Herod’s levity, and at the beastly madness of those godless women. For what have we heard? "For Herod, having seized John, put him in prison." Why? For the sake of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. And one might blame Herod’s levity for being led astray by wicked women. But what could one say, or how could one describe the unrestrained wickedness of those women? To me, indeed, it seems there is no beast in the world comparable to a wicked woman. But my discourse is now about a wicked woman, not about a good and chaste one. For I know many decent and good women whose lives I ought to recount, and whose character is for the edification and love of noble things. I know, indeed, that there are many good and honest women whose lives it would be worthwhile to recount for the sake of edification and the excitement of good affections. ^B Therefore, there is no beast in the world comparable to a wicked woman. What is more terrible than a lion among quadrupeds? Nothing. Or what is more savage than a serpent among reptiles? Nothing. Yet both the lion and the serpent are lesser in their wickedness. And the most wise Solomon bears witness to my speech, saying: "It is better to dwell with a lion and a dragon than with a wicked and talkative woman." And so that you may not think the prophet has spoken in irony, learn it accurately from the very facts. The lions respected Daniel in the den, but Jezebel murdered the righteous Naboth; the sea-monster kept Jonah in its belly, but Delilah, having shorn and bound Samson, delivered him to the foreigners; dragons and asps and vipers made John tremble in the desert, but Herodias severed his head at a banquet; the ravens fed Elijah on the mountain, but Jezebel, after that benefit of the Lord, pursued him for slaughter. For what was she saying? "If you are Elijah and I am Jezebel, may the gods do so to me and more also, if I do not make your soul by this time tomorrow as the soul of one of the dead." And Elijah was afraid, and went for his life, and went into the desert a journey of forty days.

^A And he came under Rathmen, and requested for his soul that it might die, and said: "Lord God, let it now suffice me; take my soul from me, for I am not better than my fathers" (III Kings 19:4). Woe is me! Did Elijah the prophet fear a woman? He who carried the rain of the world upon his tongue, who brought down fire from heaven, and by his prayer raised the dead—did he fear a woman? Yes, he did fear. For no wickedness can be compared to a wicked woman. My word is attested by Wisdom, which says: ^B "There is no head above the head of a serpent, and no malice above the malice of a woman" (Ecclus. 25:22-23). O evil and most acute weapon of the devil! Through a woman, from the beginning, he pierced Adam in Paradise; through a woman he drove the most mild David to the treacherous murder of Uriah; through a woman he led the most wise Solomon to transgression; through a woman he blinded the most strong Samson when shorn; through a woman he overthrew the sons of Eli the priest; through a woman he shut up the most noble Joseph in prison; through a woman he cut off the head of John, the lamp of the world. And why do I speak of men? Through a woman he casts angels down from heaven; through a woman he slays all, dishonors all, afflicts all with contumely. For a shameless woman spares no one; she does not honor the Levite, she does not reverence the priest, she does not respect the prophet. ^C O evil, worse than every evil, a wicked woman! If she be needy, she is made rich in malice; if she have means, she has malice as her cooperator—it is a double evil, an intolerable animal, an incurable disease, a savage beast. I know well that asps are made tame by flatteries, and lions and tigers and leopards are rendered tractable; but if a wicked woman be injured, she rages; if she be coaxed, she is puffed up. If she is a prince's wife, by night and day she excites her husband to commit treacherous murder, as Herodias did Herod; if she has a poor husband, she stirs him up to quarrels and fighting; if she is a widow, she alone brings disgrace upon all. For her tongue is not reined in by the fear of the Lord; she does not look to the coming judgment, nor to God himself; she knows not how to keep the laws of friendship. A wicked woman counts it as nothing to betray her own husband to death. Certainly, his wife was handing over the righteous Job to the death of blasphemy, saying: "Speak some word against the Lord, and die" (Job 2:9). O wicked nature! ^D O abandoned mind! She did not pity the entrails of her husband, swollen with pustules like burning coals and parched, his entire flesh teeming with worms; she was not turned to commiseration, seeing him all covered therewith, infirm, struggling in his agony, and with frequent panting, with gaping mouth, enduring these things; she was not moved to mercy, seeing him who once walked in royal purple, then lying naked in the dung; she did not remember his former conduct, nor how much glory, how many good things had flourished through him. But what? "Speak a word against the Lord, and die." O the grace of a wife! O the poultice for soothing sorrows! O the law of conjugal friendship! Did she ever say anything like this to you when you were sick? Did she not cure your disease with prayers and cares? Was not that temporary chastisement enough for her, that you should cast him into eternal punishment for blasphemy? Or are you ignorant of that saying, "Every blasphemy and sin shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come" (Matt. 12:31)? Do you wish to see another equal to this malice? Look upon Delilah. For she, too, betrayed the most strong Samson, shorn and bound, to the aliens (Judg. 16)—to be sure, her own husband, the partner of the same bed, whom she cherished, whom she flattered, whom she pretended to hold dearer than herself; whom she loved yesterday, she deceived today; whom yesterday she cherished by loving, today she buried by deceiving. But was he not handsome? Who was handsomer at that time, he who carried seven locks upon his head, the image of the sevenfold grace? But was he not strong? And who was stronger than he, who alone suffocated a terrible lion in the way, and with the one jawbone of an ass laid low a thousand aliens? But was he not holy? He was holy to such a degree that when he was once thirsty from the lack of water, he obtained by prayer that water should gush forth from the very jawbone which he held, and thus he assuaged his thirst. And yet his wife betrayed such a handsome, such a strong, such a holy man to the aliens as though he were an enemy. And from whence was a woman able to overcome such a strenuous man? From the man's own goodness. For when she had stolen the secret cause of his strength by night, she subdued him, naked, with very strong bonds. Therefore Wisdom instructs you in this: "Keep yourself from your spouse, that you may not commit anything to her" (Mich. 7:5). What beast, I ask, has ever plotted such a thing against its male? What she-dragon desires to destroy her male? What hyena hands her male over to death? Do you see how aptly Wisdom said: "There is no head above the head of a serpent, and no malice above the malice of a woman" (Ecclus. 25:22-23)? In sum, let him who has a wicked wife know that he has already received the reward for his own iniquities. This is not without testimony: hear Wisdom saying: "A wicked woman shall be given to a wicked man for his evil deeds." But let these things suffice concerning a wicked woman.

Regarding the virtuous, to set forth a discourse of good things, especially because of those women who are present.

and as water from the rock commanded to spring forth; but when the holy ones abide in the world together with others, He restrains His right hand, and when He sees them struggling, He leaves them, that He may give grace through the many kind acts done to them by those desiring to reap salvation. ^A Elias went therefore to the widow, who had nothing, except a handful of flour, which provided for her and her children at the time of the midday meal. And what says he to her? Take me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going, he cried after her: You shall take me also a morsel of bread in your hand. But she confessed what she did not have; as for what she had, she acknowledged it. For what? The Lord lives, if I shall have any cakes, except as much as a handful of flour, and a little oil in the cruse. It is wonderful, that in such a lack of food she did not deny to him the remnant of her poverty that was present to her. How many now, possessing gold and silver like mire, when asked, refuse the kindnesses of friends, and, when cajoled, deny that they have any? And if they are bent by entreaties to gift, they draw up documents stronger than iron, and bind the receiving hand first with writings, taking sureties and mediators for the gold. But she, at a single word, did not deny the handful of flour. And what says the prophet to her? Hasten, and make me cakes, for me first, and lastly for yourself and your children. The word of the prophet was a temptation, a trial of the heart, a testing of will: and the heart of that blessed woman was lying as if under a yoke, and being tested. Where, pray, does it incline? Toward the affection for her own children, or toward the hospitality of the prophet? She chose rather to distress herself and her children, and to receive the prophet. She knew, indeed, that he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who gives to drink a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, shall not lose his reward. ^B But what is that which the prophet said, "Hasten"? Was he so hungry as to need haste? Not entirely, but the earnestness and cheerfulness and warmth of the kindness, not with sorrow, or out of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. Hasten and make for me first, and lastly for yourself and your children. Hasten, as Abraham in the visitation of the angels hastened to the oxen, to the calf, that he might receive the lamb; and as Sarah hastened to the cakes, that she might receive the bread hidden in the heavens. Hasten, and do as Abraham the sacrifices to God; not first for yourself, and then for me, as Cain, and Ophni, and Phinees, the sons of Heli the priest, who treated God with contumely, taking first the firstfruits of the gifts offered to God. But she did what was commanded earnestly. He, seeing the cake of bread rich, received it, spoke, and filled her house with good things. For it shall not fail, he says, the handful of flour from the jar, and the oil from the cruse, until the Lord gives rain upon the earth. Why until then? And necessarily. For it was required that the new grace having come as rain, the old law should receive its end. And the work followed the word. See how the good reaped the fruits of hospitality! For the fruits of good labors are glorious, and the root of prudence is unfailing. You have heard, O women, the deeds of wicked women, and the virtues of the good. Love the ones, but do not desire the others; and imitate the ones, but hate the others, that, having followed the path of those—I mean the good—you may be numbered in the same choir of the saints in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.

On the Precursor

The flowery meadows, varigated with golden-haired blossoms, adorned with sweetly-breathing trees, shaken by sweetly-singing birds, both charm the hearing of men and warm their sight. For the sun brilliantly shining with golden rays all around, the reflected gleams flash with fire-bright glimmers. There, the stammering of chatting birds sends forth a melodious song with pipe-like cries; there, the soft-sounding zephyrs of the winds, among the circles of the competing birds, shaking the valleys of the cliffs, sing in unison in the image of a lyre; so that the shepherds and mountain-dwellers living in huts, having the lyrical melodies of the musical birds as if in their ears, singing in imitation with multi-toned pipes, ^C might lead their lambs gently throughout every pleasant place and every grass. But there the fountain brings forth prize-winning streams, but here the honey-dropping teaching of the wisdom of God shines; there the shrillness of musical birds, here the melodies of holy psalms; there the lonely turtle-dove walking on trees, signifies the fair-colored spring with mournful melodies; here John, fed on locusts and honey, having stirred the Churches by his desert preachings—or rather his spiritual ones—sounds the heavenly Spring that has appeared to the world. For in those days, he says, comes John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness, and saying: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. In those days. In the demonstrations of Jesus of God, in the arrivals of the heavenly king, in the shininings-forth of the eternal light, In those days comes John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness. Not in the inhabited world; because the state of men was a wilderness, not yet governed by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And what was he preaching? Repent; for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. O repentance that reaps life in those very tears, and is adorned with the bridal light in the bridal garment! O repentance, accuser of the devil, advocate of those returning! And John had his garment from camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins. Let us behold, beloved, the garment of John; perhaps that garment of his may be an enigma of salvation to us. It holds the image of the nations returning from the Gentiles. He had, he says, the garment from camel's hair. Scripture frequently likens the devil to a camel, because of his being swollen and many-angled and heavy-wrathful. He who watched the observation in Esaias says: I saw a rider of an ass, and a rider of a camel. By the rider of the ass he means Christ, since having sat on an ass he entered

491 SPURIA.

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...he says, "Behold the rider of the donkey, and the rider of the camel" (Isai. 21.7). By the rider of the donkey, he means Christ, because He entered Jerusalem seated upon a donkey; but by the rider of the camel, he means him who, in the last of days, by the working of the devil, is to come into the world, the Antichrist. John, however, had his garment of camel's hair. For when he had already by the preaching of piety converted to himself the Gentiles, who were covering the devil like a fleece of hair, and when he had stripped him [the devil] naked and built up the Church, having woven together the body of the same Church through the unity of the faith, he had fashioned for himself a garment of salvation. He had also a leather girdle about his loins. The Scripture makes mention of the loins and the leather girdle, so that by the girdle made of dead skins, girding him from without, it might show that every passion of lust in him had been subdued and mortified by the pursuit of chastity. For this is the least deceitful proof of the virginity that was hidden within. "He was fed," it says, "on locusts and wild honey." Here he denotes the Jews who were recoiling from the Law and the commandments, as the Scripture says elsewhere: "Your mixed multitude was leaping like a locust; or like a locust in a hedge, in a day of hoarfrost. The sun has risen, and it leaped away; and it did not know its place anymore" (Nahum 3.17), because they had made the sweetness of the Law bitter by the transgression of the commandments. Then, it says, Jesus comes to him at the Jordan, that He might be baptized by him; but he was hindering Him, saying: "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him: "Suffer it now" (Matt. 3. 13-15); "you must be a witness of the voice which shall presently be sent forth concerning me: for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness." I must teach that unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven (John 3. 5). It is right, therefore, that I should do [it] first, and then teach, lest the Jews have an occasion to reproach me with this: "You who teach others, do you not teach yourself?" (Rom. 2. 21); for the saying of the suffering Job must be sustained: "No one is clean from filth, even if his life be but one day" (Job 14. 4). [I have] no sin of the body: I must renew the soul with the Spirit, and the body with water. "Suffer it now": I must open the womb of water and Spirit, that I may become the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8. 29). For from that womb those who had wandered, the prophet convicts while accusing the Jews, when he says: "The sinners were alienated from the womb" (Ps. 57. 4). Then He dismissed him. But when Jesus had descended into the Jordan, beloved, it was a great miracle to see: the fountain washed in the river, and the river baptized in the river. For Christ is the Fountain, as He Himself says: "They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water" (Jer. 2. 15). And the bride, which is the Church, to Him: "A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed" (Cant. 4. 12), sending forth. He is also the river, as the prophet says: "The river of God is filled with water" (Ps. 64. 10). He came into the waters, and they were sanctified, and He healed them. If any one of you, beloved, has not been initiated by baptism, let him come and see how the Father cries from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear Him" (Matt. 3. 17; Luke 9. 35). The Jordan cries out, the Spirit cleanses the air, the Father calls the Son, the Son purifies the heaven, the Spirit adorns the earth and illuminates the air. Now is fulfilled what was spoken of old by the prophet: "Day to day utters speech" (Ps. 18. 2). The Day is the Father, the Day is the Son; the Father utters the Word to the Son, just as Paul says: "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephes. 6. 17). By which word indeed He will establish us all in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power unto ages of ages. Amen.

MONITUM IN SEQUENTES DUAS ORATIONES

ENCOMIASTIC ORATION, ON THE PRINCES OF THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL, AND THEIR MOST GLORIOUS MARTYRDOM

^A It is right to celebrate this solemn memory of the apostles. For the hosts of the heavenly powers also praise with honorable voices the doctrine mixed with their labor: inasmuch as the mystery of the dispensation was made known to them by their works; as Paul exclaims: "In order that the multiform wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Ephes. 3. 10); and in the inhabited world, men, by adorning the princes of the apostles, strive with all their strength and power to offer a worthy tribute of praise, as those who have obtained salvation through them. For what is greater than Peter, what is equal to Paul? Who in deed and in word surpassed all created nature, both heavenly and earthly; and though entangled in the mire of the body, they proved themselves better than the angels themselves. What, therefore, shall we say about the teachers of each nature? For I find no worthy speech with which I might balance the praises with which they have so greatly honored our race, they who traveled around the whole earth and sea, rooted out the causes of vices, and planted the seeds of piety in the hearts of the unfaithful. Peter, the leader of the apostles; Paul, the teacher of the world, and companion of the supernal virtues: Peter, the bridle of the ungrateful Jews; Paul, the exhortation ^B of the Gentiles. Behold for me the sublime wisdom of the Lord, by which He chose Peter from among the fishermen, but Paul from among the tentmakers (Matt. 18 and 20). For the glory of the Jews was being cast down. On account of this, the Lord rightly trusts this one as a fisherman, when He said: "Go to the sea, and cast a hook; and take the fish that first comes up, and having opened its mouth, you will find a stater" (Matt. 17. 26): calling the unstable mind of the wicked Jews the sea, the hook the artful word of doctrine, the fish the Law signified; to open [its mouth] is to interpret; and that he found a stater in it signifies that he himself judges it spiritually. But He entrusted all the Gentiles to Paul as a tailor: that he might clothe with scarlet raiment both those who were naked from the Law and those who were naked from grace, the Lord's...

^A great interpreter of the Church, the necessary counselor of Christians, the treasure of the powers above, the apostle honored by the Master. Paul, the great herald of the truth, the boast of the world, the man in the heavens and the angel upon earth, the glory of the Church, the eagle flying in the heights, the lyre of the Spirit, the swallow and the cicada, the Master’s instrument, the watchful servant of Christ. Paul and Peter, the yoked oxen of the Church, who traveled a fine trade for the world; who took up the cross instead of a yoke, and for a driver the Savior, and for reins the testaments of the Scriptures, and for a goad the grace of the Holy Spirit. Paul and Peter, who brighten the Church day by day, the Master’s treasuries, the inns of the world, the vessels of the Spirit, the interpreters of the holy Trinity, the teachers of the economy of the divine Word. Peter, my spiritual love; Paul, the vessel of election, my walking-stick. Peter, the temple of God; Paul, the mouth of Christ, the lyre of the Spirit, the three-cubit man who touched the heavens; who is circumscribed in place but circumscribes the whole world for the Master; who from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum filled up the Gospel of Christ; the swift runner, the eagle soaring into heaven, filled with divine grace, ^B who was testified to by the Lord to bear His name before all the world; who passed through the three-storied heaven and entered paradise and ascended as far as the Master’s incomprehensible throne, and heard ineffable mysteries, which it is not permitted for a man to utter. And what shall we say to Peter? The sweet sight of the Church, the splendor of the world, the chaste dove, the instructor of the apostles, the fervent apostle, the one boiling with the Spirit, the angel and man, filled with grace, the solid rock of the faith, the aged wisdom of the Church, he who by reason of his purity was called "son of a dove" by the Master's mouth, who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven from the Lord Himself. You plundered the ranks of the angels. And why say much? The Lord Himself praises you, saying: "You are the light of the world": more affluent than kings, more powerful than the rich, stronger than soldiers, wiser than the wise and the philosophers, more eloquent than orators, having nothing, and possessing all things (2 Cor. 6:10). You are the patience of the martyrs, the orthodoxy of the patriarchs, the exercise of the monks, the crown-bearers of the virgins, the peacemakers of the married, the bridles of the rapacious rich, the disciplinarians of the profligate, the shelter of kings, the walls of the Christians, the adversaries of the barbarians, you who placed a muzzle on the heretics, who mortified the irrational passions of the bodies, who drove off the legions of the demons, who tore down the altars of the Greeks, you who inherited the things above and the things below; having received the keys of the things above, and having the authority to loose and bind sins of the things below. O the miracle of the unlearned! O the wisdom of the illiterate! Peter, who in his shadow binds paralytics and looses death; Paul, who in his garments drives away diseases and puts demons to flight; you who hold the Mother of the Lord in your midst, and are greater than a righteous spirit; Paul, the restless swallow of the Church; Peter, who unceasingly, like a nightingale, harps to the world; the pillars of the Church, the great luminaries of the world, greater than each other, and superior to the whole of creation together. Rejoice, Peter, the rock of the faith; rejoice, Paul, the boast of the Church; rejoice, Peter, the foundation of orthodoxy; rejoice, Paul, the concern of the churches; rejoice, Peter, the ornament of the world; rejoice, Paul, the entrance to paradise; ^C rejoice, Peter, the guide to the kingdom of heaven; rejoice, Paul, the calm harbor for those in the storm; rejoice, Peter, the one deemed worthy of many praises by the Lord; rejoice, Paul, who are a steward of many charisms; rejoice, Peter, who are fervent and boiling with the Holy Spirit; rejoice, Paul, the vigorous runner; you who have illuminated the entire world with the holy preaching, who endured ten thousand terrible things for the sake of the Church, being shut up in prisons, loathed by Jews, dragged by barbarians, tortured by kings, who were not permitted to breathe easily, and did not endure to cease from teaching; who could not move a limb of your body because of the weight of the chains, and yet through letters loosed the whole world bound in sin. You routed the phalanxes of the demons; by you the grace of the Holy Spirit has been spread out into the world; you suppressed the mist of error; you cast down the insolence of the demons; you destroyed the altars of the Greeks; you turned every false-named worship into ash; you gathered the tares from the wheat and cast them away; and your daily teaching showed the fruit of the Church to be pure.

2. What thanks, therefore, shall we render to you who have labored so much for us? I remember you, Peter, and I am struck with wonder; I recall you, Paul, and, beside myself, I am overcome with tears. For I do not know what I should say or what I should speak, contemplating your afflictions. How many prisons did you sanctify? How many dungeons did you enlighten? How many cities did you fill with your teachings? How many chains did you brighten? How many torments did you endure? How many places did you sanctify with your footsteps? How many insults did you overlook? How did you carry Christ? How did you brighten the churches with your preaching? Blessed is the instrument of your tongue; your limbs happen to be befouled with blood for the sake of the Church; you imitated Christ unceasingly in all things. "For into all the earth has gone your sound, and your words into the ends of the world" (Ps. XVIII, 5). Christ will preserve infrangible the Church wedded by you. No one before you, nor after you, appeared as such. For who, holding the teaching office, has dared to say anything without your tradition? You rendered all teachers, you produced all theologians, you illuminated all who were in darkness. Your patience overcame our blindness; you who prayed to be anathema yourselves, that you might win the world (Rom. IX, 3). What, therefore, shall we render to you for all the goods that you have rendered to us? Today are the memorials of your contest; today is the festival of your testimony concerning Christ; today all of us, rejoicing, honor your holy relics. Rejoice, Peter, who enjoyed the wood of the cross, and because of the likeness to the Teacher, were unwilling to be crucified in an upright posture, as was our Master; but rather head-downwards, as one making his journey on earth toward heaven. O blessed nails, which pierced those holy limbs of yours, which to me are desirable, and are better than heavenly glory. O you who with boldness handed over your soul into the hands of the Master, who served the Lord without distraction, and the Church wedded to Him with all eagerness, the lover of the Master and well-serving to the Lord, the one boiling with the Spirit, the faithful apostle of the Master of all. ^D And Paul, the thrice-blessed, was beheaded with a sword, the inexpressible man. What sword pierced that throat of his, the Master’s instrument, which was admired by heaven and is still shuddered at by earth? What place received your blood, seen as milky upon the tunic of the one who beheaded you? Which prepared his barbarian soul to become sweeter than honey, faithful along with his companions. Would that that sword might be for me instead of a crown. He served the Lord with all eagerness for thirty-five years; and having finished the course for the sake of piety, he rested at the age of about sixty-eight. We answer back...

own. He served the Lord with all eagerness for thirty-five years; and having finished the course for the sake of piety, he rested at the age of about sixty-eight. We answer back by returning to you your blessed voices. Rejoice in the Lord always (Philip. 4:4): pray without ceasing for us (1 Thess. 5:17): fulfill your promises. For you cry out, blessed Peter, saying: I will strive to make a memorial of you after my departure (2 Peter 1:15). ^A Therefore, where the blessed Peter, the apostle of Christ, is from Bethsaida of Galilee, where our Lord Jesus Christ wrought most of His miracles—whence also Philip came—and the blessed Paul is from the Cilician city of Tarsus: both fell asleep in the great ancient city of Rome, on the twenty-ninth day of the month of June, having been taken from the midst under the most wicked Emperor Nero, and having departed unto the Lord and Master of all, having performed most glorious deeds. ^B Therefore, let us apply all zeal, dearly beloved, praying to the King of all, Christ our God, that He may render us worthy for the sake of His love for the human race; that we might be able to persistently remain in their traditions and doctrines, so that we may obtain mercy before His tribunal: through whom, and with whom, to God and the Father be glory, together with the most holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

SERMON ON THE HOLY TWELVE APOSTLES

Rightly today, at the coming of the Holy Spirit, this net of the fishermen has been filled, while we ourselves, endowed with reason, throw ourselves into it. For the Word, instructing the illiterate by words, and strengthening the slow-of-tongue with tongues of fire, transformed their craft into something more divine, ^C when it said: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). He said: Come after me, and all things were immediately changed for the better. Twelve athletes had been chosen, and not one of them remained uncrowned. For one grace contended and ran together with all of them, which rendered the victory of each one more illustrious. One unfortunate man, Judas, tore himself away from such an anchor, betraying the sheep to the wolves with a kiss, and selling the Lord for thirty pieces of silver: but the blood of Him who was sold redeemed the world. But, O that blessed and glorious society of yours, O apostles, in which you became all things to all for the sake of grace; it was not with a reed, but with the word of men that you have wisely caught the flocks. ^D For you are the immovable columns of the orthodox faith, the rock of the Church, the scepter of the kingdom, and the vigilant protectors of this flock in particular, gratuitous physicians of human infirmity, and sympathetic guarantors of our repentance toward God. For like certain animate anvils, while you were being struck, you fashioned those who were striking you into intelligence.

The distribution of the Apostles.—Petrus from here instructs Rome: Paul thence announces the Gospel to the world: Andrew corrects the wise men of Greece: Simon teaches God to the barbarians: Thomas whitens the Ethiopians with baptism: Judea honors the chair of James: Alexandria embraces the throne of Mark by the Nile: Luke and Matthew compose the Gospels: John, however, handling the divine mysteries, even after death looks after Ephesus as if alive: Bartholomew instructs the Lycaonians in temperance: Philip protects Hierapolis with miracles. All everywhere do not cease to confer benefits upon all; they left immortal dust in their sepulchers, now indeed honored by the faithful, and not long hence to sit as exalted judges of the world. When the lame had clung to this one, he departed with straight feet: the paralytic falling upon that one was ordered to carry his bed: another was calling the dead, and had them immediately obeying him: the mere shadow of another repelled diseases: demons shuddered at the invocation of another, and their handkerchiefs distilled healing. For they were the disciples of Him, the hem of whose garment, seized by a furtive touch, dried up the red sea of blood for her who was suffering from the flow of blood. But now I turn the sermon to the princes of the apostles. Behold, mindful of that prophetic voice: How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity (Ps. 132:1)! Let Peter, therefore, lead with prayer, in that he was indeed the first conducted into the vineyard of the Lord: Peter, the first-born sheep of the good Shepherd's flock, who ascended from the pool into heaven, dismissed the sailors, and was deemed worthy to converse with the angels: who left the ship, and assumed the governance of the Church: who was called the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, and received the power of binding and loosing on earth: quick to the call, and unambiguous in faith, and in all things the fervent co-worker of the Master: who said: You are Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), and went in even to the atrium of Caiaphas, together with the bound Redeemer: who even by denying was worthy of pardon, and as a penitent is to be admired. For he is not to be reprehended so much for the fact that he denied, as he is to be proclaimed blessed because he repented. For to us even the straying brother was useful, because he quickly washed away his offense with the flood of weeping, and fluctuating for a moment, he was found to be the everlasting foundation of the faithful. For if you consider, O beloved, the opportune fear of that time, you will certainly not find Peter liable to great reproach. For when the sun was fleeing, the sky was being hidden, the earth was shaking, rocks were being rent, as if they were unable to bear such an insult to the Creator: then Peter lapsed, then the Coryphaeus denied, and found a herald of the day devoid of reason, immediately refuting the aforesaid denial. Before the cock crows, you will deny me thrice (Matt. 26:34). But when he had denied first, he was the first to run to the sepulcher, the first to see the Giver of life resurrected from the dead: taught this by Mary, which the angel sitting upon the stone had not dared to tell him.

Moreover, let Paul come forward into the midst after him, the most wise orator of the whole world: who from a wolf was made a lamb, from thorns a grape, from weeds wheat, from an enemy a friend, remaining a Hebrew from the Hebrews: who among them was Saul breathing threats and slaughter, but among us is called the apostle of Jesus Christ, from a blasphemer a theologian, from a persecutor a preacher of the gospel, from a pirate a captain, from a traitor a soldier: who obtained a tomb in Rome together with Peter: neither of whom, however, despised this Shechem: who in the reckoning of Benjamin, were Joseph's brother, and in the reckoning of Thecla, were the father and teacher of children: who before Damascus were blind, and in every city the eye of preaching; called from heaven, and caught up into heaven: who, before he departed hence, contemplated paradise, and while still contending received the crown of victory, and affirms it is owed to him. For what does he say? Which the Lord will render to me in that day (2 Tim. 4:8). He was a perfected man, a gentle persecutor, and while he suffered persecutions, sweet: who became a Roman and a Pharisee, and all things to all for the sake of the faith. For Christ, who said to Peter: It is necessary for you to suffer (Acts 9:16): also said of Paul, how many things he ought to suffer for His name: so that the one being affixed to the cross, and the other truly being beheaded, with one faith propagated, and one course also finished, they might be the true witnesses of His resurrection.