A II. This, to be sure, I know well that you do not ignore, as many of you as are more learned and studious here; indeed, the things that followed these, which we have deemed should be passed over in silence, as you are already well aware. But as for the things that happened subsequently, so that I may not lengthen my discourse, I will pass over most of them—as many as he suffered, having been led into deception by the evil demon. I speak of the commandment, the opinion concerning his divinity, and the observance—alas for my fall!—and transgression of the commandment itself. Then the nakedness, and the hiding, and all that followed these things, so that I may not recount them now. But the greatest and highest of God’s good deeds towards him, and yet the superlative transgression of the other—that I might speak of this: that he who had been heaped with so many benefits raised his neck against his Maker. What then did God, who fashioned him, that dust, that unformed earth which He shaped with His own hands and had filled with so many benefits? And why do I not speak of the thing that is worse? Did He overlook the deserter, the transgressor of His own divine command? Did He abandon him? Not at all. But He sought him out while he was hidden, and once found, He instructed him. But why is it necessary to speak of the things that followed, which, in truth, the savagery and cruelty of men suggested to the perpetrator—the fratricides, and the things after these? B How then? We were fashioned, we were honored, we were glorified, we were enriched with myriad good things. But what have we rendered back to the giver of these? We have provoked, we have insulted, we have grieved. But He did not overlook this. But being God, He did not disdain to be called Father by the ungrateful, and Shepherd, laying down His soul for the sheep. Moreover, He raises up those who fall, and He sympathizes with those who stumble, and He does not render the retribution worthy of our wicked deeds. *If Thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?* He cares entirely even for the smallest sheep, for its restoration; He awaits the turning back of each one. For "I am," He says...
III. What then? And what of these things? Did He cast him off or loathe him? By no means. But just as a father, having instructed us through many methods of kindness beforehand, then seeing that we were in no way able to be bent from the worse path, what does He do? He descended from the bosom of the Father. C Oh, the compassion! Being God, eternal and immortal—to speak briefly—He was incarnate of a pure Virgin, bearing the form of a servant, which is mine. Then He was crucified, was buried, and rose again, raising me with Himself, who had fallen. What is more philanthropic than these things, or more sympathetic? And a father, as regards his own son, whom he has begotten, whom he has brought forth from his own bowels, if he deviates even a little from his will and command, is not satisfied if he inflicts blows and scourges upon him; but he even disinherits him, curses him, and pursues the one he once loved, for such a trifling cause. A master likewise, if his servant, a miserable man, offends him even slightly, by penalties and bonds, by wasting him away with hunger and thirst, sells him, banishing him to the furthest possible regions. But how do our affairs stand? D We were created, we were honored, we were glorified, we were heaped with the infinite riches of good things; but what requital have we rendered to the giver of these? We have provoked Him to anger, we have treated Him with contumely, we have afflicted Him with sadness. Yet He did not overlook us. But being God, He did not disdain to be called Father by the ungrateful, and Shepherd, laying down His soul for the sheep. Moreover, He rescues those who fall, and He sympathizes with those who stumble, and He does not render the retribution worthy of our wicked deeds. If Thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? He cares in every way even for the smallest of His sheep for its restoration, He awaits the turning back of each one.
For I am, He says, the God who desireth not the death of the sinner, but that he should be converted and live. A To those under attack, He brings aid and provides assistance, sometimes by Himself, and sometimes through His saints.
IV. He Himself has, in truth, also wrought this great miracle now being celebrated by us, through His most brilliant and triumphant martyr, Theodore—a miracle most wondrous and sublime, as the discourse as it proceeds will make plain. On account of this, I have made manifest to all the greatness of His goodness through the mighty works of our God already commemorated. Time, in its passing, wished to cast these into the depths of oblivion, but it was unable to bring its intent to completion; for faithful and pious men urged us to this task, they who hold the records preserved in writing, which possess authority and firmness through time itself. B Indeed, by affirming to us precisely that they were themselves eyewitnesses of the miracle, they exhorted us to make manifest to all this most magnificent work of God, which is unknown to many. But now, I pray you, since I have begun the account, attend with faithful ears and receive the discourse, so that you may see (if you do not, by paying attention to the weakness of the speech, be carried too far away from the wonder of the miracle itself) the surpassing goodness of our God, His forgiveness of wrongs, His love for mankind, His long-suffering, and His fatherly compassion toward us—how He does not overlook us; how, even when we are often attacked in ignorance by the author of evil, the devil, and his initiates, C He does not allow us to fall into a chasm of destruction, especially if the ambush happens to bring danger to the soul. But He is always strengthening our weakness, and renders us unharmed and untouched, and superior to all the machinations and dangers of the adversary.
V. The series of the miracle is as follows, O beloved assembly and faithful hearers. I trust that you are not ignorant of how many and what kind of snares and guiles have been stirred up, like certain storms, by Satan—who always pines at our state—and by his most wicked ministers, against our unbreakable and divine faith, at different times and occasions. D Yet God, for the sake of our humility, stretching forth His almighty right hand for our aid, did not give us up, to speak with the Prophet, to be prey for their teeth. Among these—to pass over those old and former ones in silence for the present—one was also the madness and fury of Julian the Apostate against our divine faith: Julian, I say, who spoke blasphemy against God in the heights and raised a God-fighting hand against our pious faith. Of this man I know that, even if not by sight, you have certainly learned by hearing, as if you had been present, the cruel and empty youthful deeds and ambushes against the Christians.
He indeed cared not at all for subjugating nations to his empire, for raising trophies over barbarians, or for devastating the towns of his enemies; for he considered such exploits to be trifling and useless. But to destroy the Christians and to remove their faith from the midst; to despise God—o the calamity! o the madness!—who established this entire universe by His nod, and who, alas, had even granted him his own generation and life; to hold idols in high esteem and everywhere to cast down the very exaltation of glory: this, I say, was his great work, for which he was most anxious, and for which he cared more than for all other things. A
VI. Since matters stood thus, the fury of that heresy also spread more and more. For impiety, like a certain flame that has seized upon suitable material, raising itself on high, strove to destroy with one impulse even the things that were set around it. Having seized upon his soul as suitable for it, impiety, I say, was kindled and excited, threatening most vehemently to consume with flames both the possessions of the Christians and the Christians themselves. And when these things had been determined for them, and anger the more, and fury in the highest degree, began to boil and be stirred up; what need is there to recount what kind and how great were the torments devised against the Christians by that impious man, born for this task? What dissections of wombs, dissections of entrails, cruel beatings with rods, flayings of skin, gouging of eyes, knocking out of teeth, breaking of shins, many-varied and artful burnings by fire, hearths, cauldrons, spits, and frying pans, and how many other instruments of death were then applied to the Christians? B This most wicked madman, therefore, since he could by no means set limits to his impiety—for the martyrs who were scourged were established for Christ through patience; while others, not yet subjected to torments, looked upon themselves as a most beautiful example and despised these pains—since it was neither possible nor useful to scourge each one individually and deliver them to death (for it was necessary that, if all were removed from the midst, he would have no empire and no one to rule over)— C
VII. Since things were in such a state, and the true and sincere Christian faith was not being removed from the midst, but his heart was burning within with wickedness, he enters upon a council, cruel and indeed inhuman. I beg and beseech you that you may faithfully lend your ears to me as I narrate what must now be the most pleasant part of this matter. Casting his eyes here and there, he found, as he thought, the time and the method to bring his impiety to its end, without tearing anyone with scourges or handing them over to death, yet by betraying all the inhabitants of the city to the depraved worship of idols. God, however, rendered the impious council of the man in vain. D
VIII. For when the most pure and divine days of holy Lent had approached, in which every age takes thought of their past sins and of those already
committed, wherein even falling is easy, as at that time they are more fiercely attacked by the enemy, and recovery is difficult to achieve, just as the first week had begun: then he summoned the prefect, who was of one mind with him in impiety and like unto him, and said:
B IX. Since, O prefect, having used many and varied machines, we have been unable to extinguish the religion of the Christians (and I confess that this matter is of no small concern to me), there now has come into my mind, by the will of the gods, a plan which is both excellent and irrefutable. For since the Christians decree that this week is the first of their fasts, and take care with all zeal that it be kept entirely undefiled, more than all the other days of the fast, I command that whatever items fit for food and drink have been set out in the marketplace be withdrawn, and that nothing else be offered in the market except what I shall provide for you, tainted with the blood of sacrifices. For it is necessary that, this having been done, either all who purchase it will eat and obey us, as having tasted of the sacrifices of the gods, or they will perish from hunger upon realizing the plan, having no other source from which to provide for their need.
X. When the prefect heard these things from that most godless mouth, it is said that he replied: Now I know that truly the heart of the king is in the hand of the gods; and the action followed upon the word. And the goods that had been set out in the market were taken home; but the emperor's tainted goods were set out in the marketplace. C What, then, did God, our Creator, do? Did He overlook or disregard it? By no means. But along with this terrible and most cruel snare and plan, He devised salvation.
D XI. For He made the impious trickery of that age manifest to the pontiff and chief shepherd of the Christians, for he sent the great martyr Theodore, truly a gift of God given for the preservation of our faith, as if in a dream. And the martyr of Christ stood by the patriarch, appearing in reality, not as a dream, and addressed the chief shepherd in these words, so that I may recall his holy sayings: Arise, gather the flock of Christ, and instruct all diligently, that they buy nothing whatever of what is offered in the market to eat or to drink. For the most impious Julian has defiled everything with the blood of idol sacrifices. But the pontiff replied to the holy man: And how, my lord, is it possible for this to come to pass? For while it may perhaps be possible for those who are wealthy, having laid up beforehand what is necessary for their needs, for the poor, who have not enough food even for a single day, what consolation will there be for the lack of necessities? And the martyr said: Supplying them with Kolba, ease their need. And the pontiff said: What are these? For I am ignorant of a name of this kind, replied to the holy one.
And the martyr (O his constant and fervent aid!) replied: Boiled wheat, he says, distribute to them for food. For this in the native dialect of the Euchaita we are accustomed to call A Kolbia. Having done this, therefore, preserve the flock of Christ unharmed and undefiled. And who are you, lord, the pontiff said to the martyr, who so mercifully and kindly take care of our salvation? I am, the holy one said, the martyr of Christ Theodore, who has been sent by Him for your salvation.
B XII. What has ever happened more miraculous than this? The prophet Jonah was ordered to announce to the Ninevites only the destruction of their city. But the martyr of Christ, Theodore, announced a destruction of souls that was about to happen. And he indeed declared only that the city would be destroyed; but the martyr has clearly shown to us both the cause and the remedy for avoiding the destruction of so many souls, lest they perish together with idolatry. By as much, therefore, as the soul excels the body, by so much is this sign more miraculous than that; and by as much as a destruction that subverts souls is more pitiable than a destruction that subverts a town, by so much do I consider that he who rescues them from the former is, by his benign aid, more merciful and sublime than he who merely foretells the latter. Unless, perhaps, we have spoken something less than worthy, when comparing the martyr with the prophet. For both have been servants of one and the same Christ God, and from Him it was granted to both to do what they did. But let our discourse proceed with what has already begun to be stated.
C XIII. When, therefore, the pontiff understood these things, full of stupor and joy, he arose and immediately gathered together the people of Christ, and accurately explained to all the signs of the martyr’s guardianship and assistance. And doing as he had been commanded, he preserved the flock of Christ unharmed. And so, the week passing by, when Julian perceived that the snares of his attempt were useless and vain, and that he was manifestly and completely overcome, he ordered those things that were contaminated to be removed from the market, and the usual goods to be set out for sale. And when the Sabbath arrived, as the Christians learned that the contrivances of the raging man had been dissolved, they assigned a eulogy in thanksgiving for the glorious victory to the martyr Theodore, and celebrated a festive and most splendid feast for him; D and also by boiling wheat and distributing it to the poor, they made the miracle of their safety manifest to all. Wherefore, in each and every year from that time down to the present day, they have handed it down to the faithful to observe the memory of the most famous miracle of the martyr Theodore piously and religiously. This is what with us is now celebrated and kept as a feast: namely, this most fervent benefit of the martyr’s aid bestowed upon us, and the destruction of the most impious snares of that wicked man.
XIV. But who, in truth, can as is fitting [recount] the goodness...
of our God, who with one stroke snatched the men of that time from the throat of the devil by the most illustrious protection of his venerable martyr Theodore, and who even now, every day, covers and preserves us, even though through the negligence of our home life we are delivered to the devil, and snatches us from his snares? Knowing this, therefore, let us also contribute something to God, the giver of such things. And what else but alms should we offer to Him? For there is nothing at all in which God is known to take such delight, if it be accumulated, as in this; especially when the very time strongly encourages us to do so. For it is the season of fasting, and of a holy fast, in which the purification of soul and body is wont to come to those who truly observe it, along with the reward of more abundant mercy. Furthermore, through it we are brought to the remembrance B of the immaculate sufferings of Christ.
XV. Let us therefore purify ourselves, not from foods and drinks only, but also from every other muddy contamination—by which I mean perjury, detraction, lying, enmity, intemperance, and that first and last of all evils, avarice. For the putting away of these is a bright purification, a true and blameless fast. But before these, and with these, and after these, let us perform almsgiving; which truly leads one not to the third heaven, but to the very Maker of the heavens himself; almsgiving, which, like a chariot of fire, receives those who are to be brought up from the earth and carries them above the heaven. With this, our fast will become bright and acceptable to God, and our prayer will be directed C as incense.
XVI. And do not say to me "four-day fasts" or even "six-day fasts." These are indeed fine and acceptable. But as our body is useless and ineffective without breath, so without almsgiving our fasting will be in vain. And how is this so? I will clearly demonstrate it to you from the Scriptures themselves. For He says: "Let not alms and faith fail thee" (Prov. III, 3); and again: "Mercy and truth shall go before" (cf. Psal. LXXXVIII, 15); and elsewhere: "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (Matt. IX, 13; XII, 7); and: "He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord" (Prov. XIX, 17). Nevertheless, so that I may keep the greater part for the present, I will reveal to you the surpassing worth of almsgiving by an example, or rather, by D the very nature of the thing.
XVII. For if you come tomorrow, pale in face and bowed down unto the earth, bearing the evident marks of your fasting; but a swarm of the poor stands before you, consumed by famine and thirst, frozen with cold, and bending you toward pity with ten thousand suppliant cries; and they depart nonetheless empty and void, having received no solace for their lack from you: to what, then, shall your fasting be reckoned? Will it not be merely a wasting away of the body, which brings no benefit to the one practicing it? But someone (whoever it may be) will answer me...
thus: "For I know your cold evasions and vain excuses: A multitude of children surrounds me, I have the care of a wife, of menservants and maidservants. If only I could be sufficient to provide what is necessary for them, much less for sluggish and idle men, who, not wishing to attend to works, deliberately fashion poverty for themselves." And in addition to these things, you also bring in the common proverb, saying, "The first reward is for one's own people."
XVIII. Why, O man, do you make excuses for sins? Considering that God established you as a parent of children and a master of a household, when you ought to give thanks and fulfill His commandments through mercy toward fellow human beings who are in need, do you, on the contrary, take the blessing as an occasion for hardness of heart? B And not only this, but do you also heap insults upon those to whom you have not yet given anything? What are we doing, O men? Let us revere, if nothing else, our very nature. For we have all, both poor and rich, received a similar nature and soul, and we have all been fashioned by one Fashioner; and the dignity of our adoption and regeneration is one, although, I know not how, the unstable course of life distributes dissimilar means of living to men. But what is greater is that we shall be judged by one Judge. Since we know these things, therefore, as long as the market remains open, let us purchase the provisions for salvation through alms, and let us hasten to have the poor as advocates, and not as accusers, at that tribunal. Let us look to the Lord, who rules over all and surpasses all, how, being daily provoked to anger and affected by insults by us, He does not, however, hate, nor does He turn away; but when asked by us, He immediately grants what is useful to us. C
XIX. And God is indeed in such a way, and He is God, even when besought by ungrateful servants. But we, when a fellow human being—who never provoked us, but rather called us his masters and lords, and whatever other such things there are, so that he might draw us to mercy—beseeches us, we despise him, and we close our ears to him, like an adder against incantations. How are these things worthy of kindness and compassion? Are they not rather worthy of the most severe punishment? God is good, inasmuch as He has abundantly spread forth, equally to all, to rich and poor alike, even this air which we breathe, and the flowings of waters, and the light of this sun, desiring that it be exposed to all without envy. Yet, no poor person has freely partaken of this air or enjoyed this light to even the slightest degree. But even before they emerged from the womb, the wretched men were exposed to rapine; or else they have purchased even the very act of breathing for themselves, with the rich portioning out this air among themselves in acres and measures, just as they have the earth and the sea.
A XX. O what hardness! O what cruelty! That the poor are even alive is a thing we find almost offensive. Let us not, by any means, my friends and brothers, commit this error; let us not, through our lack of compassion, make a beggar into a Lazarus, lest he perhaps show us up from that place, just as he did the rich man. Let us not turn away from his whole hand, which has long been held out to us for mercy, lest we perhaps find ourselves desiring from that same place even the very tip of his finger, and find ourselves unable to obtain it. Let us not labor under such malice as to be unwilling to take the poor as sharers in even our superfluous goods, that we might not hear the words: *You have received your good things in your lifetime.* Everything will depart, everything passes away, but almsgiving remains forever. We brought nothing into this life. God has graciously given us everything. Let us, in turn, be gracious to those in need. Even though all things belong to God, He nonetheless repays us for our reward just as if they were our own.
B XXI. And if any of our friends or the great men of this world had commanded us to show contempt—not merely for money, but for our own lives—for the sake of his love, with what alacrity would we not have set out to fulfill his command, and how we would have eagerly desired to achieve it in deed, if it were possible, cannot even be told! Yet, when the God of all things Himself, and none other, cries out openly in the Gospels: *Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me*, do we treat it with contempt and look past it? Let us come to our senses; let us see how light and good this command is. By means of your superfluous, useless, and idly hoarded possessions, He cries out, "Purchase the kingdom of heaven," and we are unwilling. Oh, how we shall wail when we desire to do so, but are in no way whatever able! C
C XXII. "But as for me," the poorer man pleads, "I abound in nothing, not even through thrift, so as not to be in need of necessities." What are you saying? Are you unable to offer even a cup of cold water to one who asks? Not even a kind word? And how could such words be defensible? And in return for these things (O what a miracle and what bowels of mercy!), if they are given to the poor out of a good and ungrudging will, our God has promised to give His own kingdom in exchange. Knowing these things, then, let us join almsgiving to fasting, so that our soul may be lifted up from the earth to the heavens as if on wings. And with fasting delivering us from the passions of the soul, and almsgiving procuring for us eternal life, let us, lacking in nothing, enter in together with Christ the bridegroom.
D XXIII. These things have been said abundantly for those who are compassionate, but to the hard-hearted, they will not seem to amount to even a single syllable. Let us, however, along with these others, honor the martyr with fitting praises, and carrying the ever-fresh fountain of the miracle within ourselves, let us faithfully shout to the glorious victor martyr: O martyr...
martyrdom, O truly divine gift! O most invincible guardian and defender of the faithful! Do not forget our poverty and dejection: but always interceding for us, do not grow weary, O most wonderful one. Nor overlook our soul, daily assailed by the spiritual Julian of souls—who was then and is now the author of all evils—with wars, O most illustrious one. For we have believed that you live even after death, just as the Lord says: He who believes in me, he says, even if he dies, shall live. But you, not simply believing, but even undergoing death for Him, O most praiseworthy martyr, live in God a life that knows neither old age nor end. As one, therefore, living in Christ, and standing nearer to Him, make Him propitious to your servants through your prayers, so that through you we may be delivered from these calamities, and may become partakers of those goods, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. D
INDEX OF GREEK WORDS FOUND IN THE BOOKS OF DIDYMUS ON THE TRINITY.
The numbers are indicated between brackets, placed in the Greek text.A Goodness, 72 b. good-like, 57 b. angels incorporeal, 59 a. angels heavenly bodies, 59 a. angelic, 62 b. herds, 146 a. ingeneracy, 31 a. to lead with age (?), 148 b. ageless according to the intelligible, 51 b. the saints, 98 b, 106 b, 108 b, 115 a, 263 b. to speak of the holy trinity, 92 a. holy ones, 202 a. the mindless, 89 b. begetter of offspring, 125 a. near to God, 61 a. full of anguish, 141 b. in competitive virtues, 210 a. inexhaustible, 57 b. unacceptable divine words, 89 a. uncreatedly, 158 b. successorless, 40 b. indiscernibly, 121 b. inadvertently, 90 b. unstable, 124 a. unstably, 150 b. bad indifference of life, 216 a. ever-moving, 97 b. ever-remembered, 155 b. ever-living, 79 b. ever-virgin, 56 b. to strike the air, 99 a. immortal divine, 80 a et 127 a. having denied God, 35 a. atheism, 12 b. unlawful, 82 b. negatively (in logic), 207 a. of the athlete Paul, 146 a. in sudden circumstances, 174 a. eternal, 104 b. modesty, 92 b. to fight against heresies, 176 a. heresy-fighters, 134, 187 b. the Holy Spirit blowing auspiciously on them, 62 b. towards the basest; but the base, 172 b. by causes you led, 99 a. to be accused, 211 a. whirlwind, 70 a. angels, 59 b. angels, 187 a. eternity, 106 b. eternity, 68 b. eternally in a divine manner, 125 b. the unlovely, 114 b. inextricable, 205 a. innumerable, 202 b. the pureness of the consubstantiality, 171 a. indiscriminate love, 68 a. to mutilate, 97 a. is invalidated, the sophism, 5 b. infallible, 122 b. avenging demons, 148 a. ineffable, 90 a. before cockcrow, 195 b. silently, 70 a. nature that wards off evil, 104 a. truth instead of truth, 75 b. in truth, 82 a. true, 72 a, 177 b, 197 a. incoherently, 104 a. but indeed, 157 b. but therefore, 159 b. foreign, 123 b. of strange sounds, 150 b. strange life, 118 b. another of the Father, 97 b. at one time and another, 140 b. otherwise, 125 a. having washed off salty ears, 19 a. unshakable house, 78 b. catchable by all, 148 a. unrestrainable, 73 b. pure, 121 b. unharmed, 121 b. to hear, 82 b. to be heard, 82 b. hearing, 85 a. profligate words, 77 b. succession, 35 a, 189 a, et 192 a. by hearing, 68 a. utmost goodness, 175 b. unguessingly, 114 b. together the sun and together the light, 8 b. to make invincible, 179 b. immortal, 6 b. immense, 55 a, et 51 a. immense, 15 b, 77 a. better, 97 b, et 85 a. change: bad conduct, 165 a. unaltered, 130 b. without delay, 59 b.