Nectarius, Archbishop of Constantinople

ANNO DOMINI 398.

NECTARIUS ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE

NOTITIA

(Galland., *Veterum Patrum Biblioth.*, t. XIV, Append., p. vi.)

Nectarius, a Cilician by race, a native of Tarsus, a layman by profession, and a senator and praetor by rank, was a Constantinopolitan. When in the year 381 the Constantinopolitan see became vacant through the abdication of [Gregory] Nazianzen, Nectarius, about to return to his homeland, approached Diodorus of Tarsus, who was then in Constantinople among the 150 Fathers for the appointment of a bishop, to see if he had any letters he wished to send to his own people, that he might transmit them. Diodorus, either observing with divine inspiration the man’s venerable white hair and excellent character, or, as Socrates says, because the place was stirred up, seized him from the people, and he accepted their demand for a candidate for the high priesthood in such a way that he successfully worked for his appointment to the Constantinopolitan see. At that time, Nectarius was not yet baptized. Therefore, having been immediately washed in the divine font and duly initiated into the sacred mysteries, he was appointed bishop: a dignity which this excellent man held until the year 398. Bibliographers commonly attribute to him a certain homily, *On the Praise of St. the Martyr Theodore and on Almsgiving and Fasting*, in which he teaches why the feast of the holy martyr Theodore is celebrated on the first Saturday of Lent. Whether or not that homily which we are discussing pertains to Nectarius, Cave seems to doubt. But from the testimony of so many manuscripts in which that homily is found, it is clear that this doubt is without serious foundation.

And indeed, not far from the beginning of his narrative, he says: 1st, that the miracle of St. Theodore, *nyn teloumenon* (now being celebrated), had happened recently; 2nd, that he was stirred to recount that miracle by faithful and pious men who were keeping the records consigned to writing, having certainty at that very time, and who provided assured faith that they had been eyewitnesses of the prodigy. From which words it sufficiently appears that that event was not extremely recent, especially since the cause for celebrating that feast on the first Saturday of Lent was unknown to the common people—so much so that the *nyn teloumenon* must be understood either as signifying that it was the most recent miracle that had been seen at Constantinople, or rather, the reading of the codex is faulty, and for *par' hemon nyn*, one ought to read *par' hemin*, "among us."

Indeed, the miracle itself occurred during the raging of Julian the Apostate’s persecution, namely, in the year of Christ 362, about twenty years before Nectarius had obtained the episcopal see. If, therefore, Nectarius himself appears to have been ignorant of the matter, which he learned from longer-lived men, this may perhaps have been the case either because the affairs of Christians were still penetrating with difficulty among the Gentiles, or because he was living then in Tarsus or elsewhere when the miracle happened. That illustrious patriarch could have delivered his oration somewhat later, say in the year 396 or 397, and thus more or less 35 years had passed since the event. Therefore, it is no wonder if the common people were ignorant of the origin of the feast.

Besides the erudition of the fact itself, this homily contains excellent testimony regarding the invocation and intercession of the saints, and arguments for the recommendation of the true fast that are by no means common. It appears in Latin, translated by Perionius, among the Works of Chrysostom, and likewise in Surius and Lipomannus: it is also read in various manuscript libraries in Greek; it nowhere appears in print, as far as I know. I have therefore thought it should be added to our *analecta*.

NECTARIUS ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE: NARRATIVE on the reason why on the first Saturday of the holy fasts we celebrate the memory of the holy great martyr Theodore, AND ON FASTING AND ALMSGIVING.

ENARRATION OF NECTARIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, on why we celebrate the memory of the holy Great Martyr Theodore on the first Saturday of the holy fasts, AND ON FASTING AND ALMSGIVING.

^A I. "How great is the abundance of thy goodness, O Lord!" It is right for us today to say this melodiously with David. And how should it not be great and worthy of all admiration? He brought us into being when we were not; yet He brought us forth not in the same manner as He had previously created things—I mean the heaven and those things which are in it, the earth and sea, and whatever is in these. For the work and the artifice, the matter and the constitution of these, was a word. For He spoke, or rather He thought, and that thought became nature and generation for all things, motion and order, and all those things which follow upon visible objects, and it was, and remains, and will be until His second coming to us. Moreover, He established even the highest powers by word alone, or rather by a nod. O the miracle! Being God, pre-existent to the ages and without beginning, He—and this is all the more staggering—molded us according to His own image and likeness, while He was Lord. ^B Then His goodness did not stop there, but He honored us with a divine breath, bestowing upon us in addition an intellectual and rational soul, and made man a citizen of paradise. And [He made him a citizen of] paradise, I say, the beauty of which can neither be described nor comprehended by the mind, subjecting and granting to him all things whatsoever He had created, just as a father who loves children and is affectionate, heaped upon him every gift, [making him] heir and lord of all.