of the virtues, and feel a zeal for their labors. This brings no less pleasure to the martyrs than their own righteous deeds. And so that you may understand that they especially feel their goods are realized when they see us safely established, and that they consider that matter their highest honor, hear Paul saying: "Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord" (1 Thess. 3:8). Indeed, even Moses before him said to God: "If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book which you have written" (Exod. 32:31-32). I do not perceive celestial honor, he says, because of the calamity of these people; for the assembly of the faithful is a certain connection and structure of the body: what profit is there in the head being crowned, while the feet are being tortured?
A do they flee and blush? What pardon, I ask, will you obtain? Do you not hear a certain wise man warning and saying: "There is a shame that bringeth sin" (Eccli. 4:21)? But are you afraid that someone might rebuke you? Transfer the blame to me, who have said this; say that the teacher ordered it thus: I am prepared to argue and render an account with those who rebuke; nay, truly, no one will rebuke you or us, even if he be very shameless, but all will praise you, and will commend us for the sake of our care and zeal, not only in our own country, but also those who inhabit the neighboring cities, because there is such a power of love among us, such great ardor of brotherly affection. But why do I say men? The Lord of the angels himself will praise us. Since, therefore, you know of the reward proposed, let us not neglect the hunt, nor let us return alone tomorrow, but let each one arrive bringing his prey with him. If you come at that hour only, when each person having left his home sets out upon the road, and pass the time until the visitation of this place, there will be no difficulty thereafter; but after the passage of time yours will also have much grace, and all the others will praise and exalt you: and, which is the greatest of all, the Lord of the heavens will confer many rewards upon you for these things, and will increase this gain and praise. Turning these gains in your mind, let us all pour forth before the city and bring back our captured brothers, so that tomorrow even the theater may be rendered full for us, and the assembly may be perfect; so that because of this zeal and diligence of ours applied here, the holy martyr may receive us into the eternal Tabernacles with great confidence; which may it befall all of us to attain, through the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father, together with the holy and life-giving Spirit, be glory, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.
ADMONITION
As Fronto Ducaeus notes, in a certain manuscript Menologion of the Greeks, the feast of S. Barlaam the martyr is dated to the 16th of November, just as it is in the Roman Martyrology. Other Greek Menologia refer this feast to the nineteenth of November. But that solemnity was celebrated at a far different season in the time of Chrysostom. For in the homily on that saying of the Apostle, "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud," etc., which homily was delivered on the day following the feast of S. Barlaam [681], as Chrysostom says in the same place, the holy doctor explicitly says that winter has now passed and summer arrived: "We are delivered," he says, "from winter, and we enjoy the summer, with the zephyr softly blowing." Since these things can in no way square with the month of November, it follows from this that it was celebrated at a very different time of the year.LAUDATION OF THE HOLY MARTYR BARLAAM
A For this sacred solemnity and feast, the blessed Barlaam has convened us, not that we might praise him, but that we might emulate him; not that we might be hearers of praises, but that we might become imitators of his noble deeds (*). In secular affairs, indeed, those who are promoted to the highest magistracies would never wish to see others as sharers of the prerogative of the same honor: for envy and jealousy divide charity there; in spiritual matters, however, it is not so, but the contrary entirely happens: for then martyrs most especially feel the sense of their own honor, when they have seen their fellow-servants come to the communion of goods. Therefore, if anyone wishes to praise the martyrs, let him imitate the martyrs: if anyone wishes to celebrate the athletes of religion with declarations, let him emulate their labors; this will bring to the martyrs no less pleasure than their own right actions. And so that you may understand that they feel their own goods especially when they see us placed in safety, and that they consider that matter their greatest honor, hear Paul saying: "Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord" (1 Thess. 3:8). And indeed, Moses before him was saying to God: "If you indeed forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book which you have written" (Exod. 32:31-32): I do not feel celestial honor because of their calamity; for the assembly of the faithful is a certain connection and structure of the body: what[677] And how, one may say, is it possible to imitate the martyrs now? For it is not a time of persecution. I too know that it is not a time of persecution, but it is a time of martyrdom: it is not a time for such struggles as those, but it is a time for crowns; humans are not persecuting us, but demons are persecuting us; a tyrant is not driving us, but the devil is driving us, he who is more cruel than all tyrants. You do not see coals laid out, but you do see the flame of desire being kindled. They trampled upon those coals; you trample upon the fire of nature. They boxed against wild beasts; you rein in anger, that untamed and unruly wild beast. They stood against unbearable pains; you overcome the strange and evil thoughts that swarm in your heart. Thus will you imitate the martyrs. B For now our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness (Eph. 6. 12). Desire is a fire of nature, an inextinguishable and perpetual fire. It is a rabid and mad dog, and though you drive it away ten thousand times, it leaps up ten thousand times and does not depart. The flame of coals is terrible, but this one, that of desire, is more dreadful. We never have a truce in this war; we never have a respite in the present life, but the struggle is continuous, so that the crown may also be glorious. For this reason Paul always arms us, because it is always a time of war, because the enemy is always watching. Do you wish to learn that desire burns no less than fire? Hear Solomon saying: *Will any man walk upon coals of fire, and his feet not be burned? So is he that goeth in to the wife of his neighbor, and everyone that toucheth her shall not be innocent* (Prov. 6. 28, 29). Do you see that the nature of desire competes with the nature of fire? For as it is impossible for one who touches fire not to receive a conflagration, so the contemplation of beautiful faces more sharply than fire takes hold of the soul that looks intemperately. And as it is some highly flammable material, so the brightness of bodies is exposed to the eyes of the lewd. Therefore, one must not provide the fire of desire with fuel from outward viewing, but must hem it in on all sides and quench it with godly thoughts, reining in the conflagration as it rushes forward, and not allowing it to overturn the strength of our mind. And every pleasure, at the time when the passions prevail, is accustomed to burn the mind more violently than fire, unless one contends nobly with patience and faith against each of the passions; as the blessed and noble athlete of Christ, Barlaam, did on his own hand, carrying a whole fire in his right hand, and not yielding to the pain, but remaining more unfeeling than statues; or rather, he did suffer and endure pain, for it was a body that was subject to it, and not iron; yet while smarting and suffering, he displayed the philosophy of the bodiless powers in a mortal body.
C 2. But I shall narrate his martyrdom from the beginning, so that the history may be clearer; and do you observe for me the devil’s malice. Of the saints, some he led to frying pans, others he cast into cauldrons D of fire boiling more fiercely; and some he tore at their sides, others he drowned in the sea, others he handed over to wild beasts, others he brought into a furnace, and of some he dislocated the limbs, and of others he stripped the hides while they were still alive, and for others he placed coals under their bloodied bodies, and the sparks leapt upon the wounds, gnawing the sores more sharply than any wild beast; for others he devised other more cruel punishments. Since, therefore, he saw that all these had been mocked at, and that those who suffered these things had mastered them with much abundance, and had become a very great cause of confidence for those coming after them to the same struggles, what does he do? He devises a new mode of plotting, so that by the unpracticed and strange nature of the punishment he might break down the resolve of the martyr. For that which has been heard and pondered, even if it be unbearable, becomes contemptible when practiced in expectation; but that which is unpracticed, even if it be light, is the most unbearable of all. Let the struggle, then, be new; let the machine be strange, so that the novelty and the paradox might disturb the athlete and easily trip him up. What, then, does he do? He leads the saint out of the prison bound. And indeed, this too was a part of his malice, not to bring the machines to bear immediately from the outset, nor to bring on the terrible punishments, but to skirmish from what is lesser. Why ever so? So that if the combatants were defeated, their defeat might be shameful, because they did not even stand against the small things; but if they were to prevail and overcome, with their strength having already been exhausted in the lesser things, they might become easily manageable for the greater ones. For this reason he brought forward the lesser things first, so that whether he captured them or did not capture them, he might not fail. For if I capture them, he says, I have mocked them; but if I do not capture them, I have made them weaker for what is to come. He leads him, therefore, out of the prison; and he went out like a noble athlete who has exercised for a long time in the wrestling school—for the prison was a wrestling school to the martyr, and there, by conversing with God in private, he learned all the struggles from Him; for where such bonds are, there Christ also is present.
He went out, therefore, having become stronger by the longer stay in the prison; and when he had brought him out into the midst, the devil, through those who served his lawlessness, did not bind him to a stake, did not surround him with executioners; for he saw him desiring these things, and having long since practiced them; but he brings a strange and new machine, and one never before expected, to the tower, a machine easily able to cause a falling down; for this is his concern in all things, to trip up rather than to cause pain to the saints. What, then, is the machine? Ordering [them] to stretch out his hand, palm upward, above the altar, they placed coals and incense upon his hand, so that if he felt the pain and jerked his hand away, they might reckon the action as a sacrifice and a transgression for him. You have seen how malicious the devil is? But look how He who catches the wise in their own craftiness made his machines of no effect.
his astuteness A (Job 5:13), made worthless the plots of that man, and turned the diligence of his treachery and the malice of his shrewdness into an augmentation and a heap of more abundant glory for the martyr. For when the adversary has departed, having been defeated in countless maliciously perpetrated deeds, then the athlete of piety shines more brightly: and that is what happened here too. For the blessed Barlaam remained holding his hand neither inclined nor turned back, as though he possessed a hand forged from iron; although even if the hand had been turned, not even in that would the crime have been the martyr’s.
B Learn, all of you, with precision, so that you may know that even if the right hand had been turned, he would not have been judged defeated on that account: why so? Because, just as we judge concerning those whose sides are being flayed, or those who are being tortured by any other means, so too must judgment be rendered here. For if they have yielded and sacrificed, the blame for their weakness is transferred to them, because they sacrificed since they could not bear their pains; but if, while persevering in their torments, they suffered pain from the things they were undergoing but did not betray their religion, no crime is imputed to them by any person because of these pains: nay rather, we praise and laud them all the more for the fact that, though affected by pains, they endured and did not deny. And so, in this case too, if the blessed Barlaam had promised that he would sacrifice, not being able to bear being burned, he would have been defeated; but if, the hand being turned even without him yielding, that is no longer a crime of the martyr’s disposition—for this would not have happened out of an infirmity of will, but out of the nature of the sinews deprived of their proper tension, whereby the hand of the holy man, even against his will, had been bent by the fire. For as we do not count it a crime for those whose sides are being flayed that their flesh is cut—nay, to bring a closer example, just as no one would accuse those who labor under a fever or a spasm because their hands are bent—for this is not a fault due to their cowardice, but because the moisture is being consumed by the heat of the disease, and the structure of the sinews is contracting against nature: so, too, no one could have accused this holy man if his hand had been turned. For if a fever is accustomed by its own nature to contract and distort the limbs even against the will of the sick person, much more would the burning coals placed upon his right hand have been able to bring that about, even though the martyr did not yield; yet they did not bring it about, so that you might know in abundance that it was the grace of God that was present and strengthening the athlete, and correcting the defect of nature; nor in this did it suffer anything worthy of its own condition and infirmity, but that hand remained unmoved, as though it were fashioned from adamant. Who then, seeing this, would not have been struck with awe? Who would not have shuddered? The angels were watching from above, the archangels were contemplating: it was a splendid spectacle, which even clearly surpassed human nature. For who would not have wished to see a man struggling, and not suffering the things that are of men? Who had become the same altar, and victim, and priest? And for this reason, C a double incense was rising, the one indeed of burned incense, the other truly of liquefied flesh: and this latter smoke was sweeter than the former, and this fragrance itself more excellent than that. And the same happened that also occurred in the case of the bush (Exod. 3, init.): for just as that bush was burning and was not consumed, so also here his right hand was indeed burning, but his soul was not set on fire; his body was being destroyed, but his faith was not consumed; his flesh was failing, but the alacrity of his soul did not fail. And the coals, when they had pierced the palm of his hand, were falling down, but the fortitude of his soul did not fall; but his hand was indeed consumed and flowed away, for it was flesh, not adamant; but his soul was seeking another hand again, so that it might show its endurance in that one also. And just as a noble soldier making an attack against enemies, when he has cut down the phalanx of those opposing him, and has broken his sword by the frequency of his continuous blows, then turns and seeks another, because he has not yet had his fill of the slaughter of enemies: so indeed the soul of the blessed Barlaam, when it had consumed his hand by cutting down the phalanxes of demons, was seeking another right hand, so that in it also it might show its alacrity of spirit. For do not tell me that he offered only one hand; but rather think of this, that he who surrendered his hand had surrendered his head also, and had offered his sides, and had exposed them to fire, to beasts, to the sea, to precipices, to the cross, to the wheel, and to all the tortures that have ever been heard of in speech, and had suffered all things, if not in experience, at least in the intention of his spirit. For martyrs do not offer themselves for certain and defined punishments, but they gird themselves for uncertain tortures: for the disposition of tyrants is not in their power, nor do they prescribe for them a bound and a measure; but to whatever evils their inhuman and beastly spirit has desired to afflict them, those men go forth to suffer all those things; unless perhaps, in the meantime, the failing body has left the tyrants’ insatiable cupidity in the midst. The flesh was therefore wasting away, but the intention of his spirit was becoming more alacritous, which, by its splendor, was surpassing the coals themselves and was shining forth much more; for a spiritual fire was ignited within, much hotter than this fire, and for this reason he felt the external flame not at all, because the fervent and burning fire of the charity of Christ was inflaming him within.
§. 4. Let us not only hear these things, beloved, but let us also imitate them. For what I was saying from the beginning, I say now also: let the martyr be celebrated not only at this hour in which we are dwelling here, but let each one departing home also take the holy man with him, and let him introduce him into his own house, or rather into his own heart, through the remembrance of the things that have been said. Receive him, as has been said before, and station him in your heart having his hand outstretched; receive the victor crowned, and never permit him to depart from your mind. For this reason we have also brought you to the very tombs of the holy martyrs, so that the sight itself might in a way incite you to virtue, and that you might gird yourselves for the same zeal. For the fame of some most excellent warrior excites indeed a soldier; but the intuition and the aspect [of the spoils] much more vehemently, and especially if one has entered the very tent of the bravest warrior and seen the bloodstained sword, the head of the enemy lying,
A for it is fresh from the hands of him who erected the trophy, with spears and shields and bows and all other full armor lying everywhere. For this reason we too have gathered here. For the tomb is the military tent of the martyrs; and if you open the eyes of faith, you will see the breastplate of righteousness lying here, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the greaves of the Gospel, the sword of the Spirit, and the very head of the devil cast down upon the ground. For whenever you see a man possessed by a demon lying supine by the martyr’s tomb, and frequently tearing himself, you behold nothing other than the head of the Wicked One severed. For that these weapons lie here for the soldiers of Christ even now—and just as kings bury their bravest warriors with their arms, so did Christ act, and He buried them with their arms—is so that even before the resurrection He might show all the glory and the power of the saints. B Learn, therefore, their spiritual full armor, and having gained the greatest benefits, you shall depart from here. You, too, have a great war against the devil, beloved, a great, and mighty, and perpetual one. Learn, therefore, the wrestling-tricks, that you may imitate the victories; mock wealth, and money, and all the other pageantry of this life; do not consider those who are rich blessed, but consider those who are martyrs blessed; do not those in luxury, but those in frying-pans; not those at a sumptuous table, but those in a boiling cauldron; not those in daily baths, but those in grievous furnaces; not those who smell of perfumes, but those who emit smoke and the savor of roasting flesh. This fragrance is better and more profitable than that; for that one leads those who use it to punishment, but this one leads those above to prizes and crowns. And that you may learn that luxury is a wicked thing, as is the anointing with perfumes, and drunkenness, and wine having no measure, and a costly table, hear what the prophet says: C *Woe to those who sleep on ivory beds, and live in luxury on their couches; who eat lambs from the flocks, and calves from the herds; who drink filtered wine, and anoint themselves with the first perfumes* (Amos 6: 4-6). And if these things were forbidden under the Old Testament, how much more under grace, where philosophy is greater? D These things are said by me both to men and to women; for the stadium is common; the camp of Christ is not divided because of nature, but the assembly is one; women are also able to put on the breastplate, and to hold up the shield, and to let fly a dart, both in the time of martyrdom, and in other such times that require great boldness. And just as an excellent archer, letting fly the arrow accurately from the string, disturbs the whole rank of the enemies, so also the holy martyrs, and indeed all those who are contestants of the truth, who contend against the stratagems of the devil, let fly their words accurately from the string, as it were, of the tongue; and these, like arrows flying through the air, falling into the invisible phalanxes of the demons, disturb their entire order; which is just what happened in the case of this blessed Barlaam; for from bare words, as if from flying arrows, he confounded the devil’s camp. C Let us also imitate this accuracy. Do you not see those who descend from the theaters becoming softer? The reason is that they pay attention with eagerness to what happens there—for they store up in their souls the images of the eye-twisting, the hand-waving, the feet-circling, and all the idols that appear in the distortion of the twisting body, and so depart. How, then, is it not absurd that those men should display such foresight for the ruin of their own souls, and keep an inward memory of what happens there, while we, who are about to be made equal to the angels from the imitation of that which is here, do not contribute the same eagerness as they do concerning the keeping of what has been said? Do not, I beseech and entreat you, do not let us be so negligent of our own salvation, but let us all store up the martyrs in our own minds, with the frying-pans, with the caldrons, with the other punishments; and just as painters wipe clean the icon that has often become dimmer through smoke and soot and long time; so do you also, beloved, do the same for the memory of the holy martyrs; whenever worldly cares entering in make your mind dim, wipe it clean through the memory of the martyrs. For if you have this memory in your soul, you will not admire wealth, you will not weep for poverty, you will not praise glory and power, nor will you deem anything at all of human things—neither the bright things great, nor the sorrowful things unbearable; but having become above all those things, you will have a constant instruction of virtue from the contemplation of this image. For he who sees a soldier exercising himself day by day in wars and battles will never desire luxury, will not admire the soft and dissipated life, but the hard, and taut, and contest-filled one. For what communion is there between drunkenness and battle? between stuffing one's belly and acting like a man? between perfumes and armor? between war and revelry? You are a soldier of Christ, beloved; arm yourself, do not adorn yourself; you are a noble athlete; act like a man, do not beautify yourself. Thus let us imitate these saints, thus let us honor the victors, the crown-bearers, the friends of God, and having walked the same path as them, we shall attain the same crowns as them; which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.