Homilies 1 part 8/11

And having made ready the pit and the things necessary for the burial, he came to them on the following day and said, "I have diligently sought out Phocas, and the quarry is ready;"

"and, if it please you, let him be seized"

And they said, out of great joy:

"And where is the man?" "Not far," he said, "but with you"

and make use of the command, and fulfil the purpose of your journey and your toil.

The men were stricken to the heart, and at what they heard they grew numb with dread, remembering the salt and the table, and the host who, in his poverty, had shown such generous hospitality.

But he urged them on to the daring deed of killing him, and bade them not to hesitate even for a moment, saying that the murder would not be the work of their hand, but of those who had commanded it.

And having been beheaded, he was offered up as a victim well-pleasing to God.

A pillar and a support of the churches of God we have possessed in him from that time until now, O people!

and he is the most illustrious of the martyrs, holding the first place among the best and most blessed.

For "star differs from star in glory" [1 Cor 15:41], both according to common estimation and according to the word of the Chosen Vessel [Paul];

and indeed he is, throughout the whole inhabited world, the most renowned of all among the saints.

And he draws and gathers all people together to his own dwelling-place;

and the highways are filled with those from every land hastening to the place of prayer.

That magnificent shrine, then, is a relief for the afflicted, a resource for the poor, an infirmary for the ill-treated, an Egypt for the starving.

And Phocas, though dead, feeds people more bountifully than Joseph did while he lived;

for the one exchanged grain for silver, but this one gives it freely, without price, to those in need.

And just as doves, in the wintertime, when food is hard to find, fly over the newly sown fields and settle in their furrows, so all the tribes of the poor and the wandering run to the isthmus of Sinope as to a common storehouse.

And if anywhere else, too, through small relics, the martyr has established for himself something like a colony of his mother-city, that place also is wonderful and eagerly sought by all Christians, just as this sacred place among us is a gathering-place for those keeping festival.

For "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones" [Ps 116:15];

and though the relics have been divided in many places, everywhere they preserve intact the fame of the thrice-blessed one.

In the imperial city, the summit of Italy and queen of the world, he has great attendance and honour, and a splendid shrine, adorned unto beauty.

The Romans venerate Phocas no less than they venerate Peter and Paul.

And, as the account teaches, they zealously obtained the head of the martyr, having chosen a purpose opposite to that of the impure Herodias.

For she, thirsting for righteous blood, sought a head for the sake of outrage;

but they obtained it for honour and for their own benefit.

Sailors and seafarers everywhere — not only those who cross the Euxine Sea, but those who cut across the Adriatic and are borne over the Aegean, and all who sail the western ocean and voyage in the eastern gulfs — have turned their customary shanties, by which they ease the toil of the voyage, into a new theme, through the praise of this noble one;

and the thrice-blessed one is on their lips continually, since he also furnishes them with manifest proofs of his help.

Often, indeed, he was seen by night, when a storm was expected, waking the helmsman who had dozed off at the rudder;

and at other times again hauling the ropes and tending the sail, and watching ahead from the prow for the reefs.

It became, then, a custom for sailors to have Phocas as their table-companion.

And since it is impossible to have as a companion in life one who is now without a body, learn how, by pious reasoning, they contrived a way around this impossibility.

Each day they set aside for the martyr a portion of the food, equal to the share of those who are eating.

One of the diners buys out this portion and pays the money for it, and on the following day another does, and at another time yet another;

and thus the lot for the purchase, passing round to all in turn, provides daily a buyer for the portion.

And whenever a harbour receives them and they disembark on land, the money is distributed to the hungry;

and this is the portion for Phocas: a benefaction to the poor.

Even emperors stand in awe of this most steadfast and God-loving man, and adorn God's shrine with costly treasures;

and those who come after vie with one another to surpass those who came before.

And it is not yet so wonderful, if the men who hold rule over the Roman empire — pious men, nurtured in its institutions and laws — are so reverent toward the servant of Christ, seeing that this wonder has reached even to the barbarians;

and all the fiercest Scythians, as many as inhabit the land on the far side of the Euxine Sea, dwelling by the Maeotian Lake and the river Tanaïs, and those who live by the Bosporus and extend as far as the river Phasis — all these serve as his honour-guard, the gardener's;

though differing from us in every custom and pursuit, in this one thing alone do they become of one mind with us, the savagery of their manners being tamed by the truth.

One ruler from there, indeed a king, took the crown from his head — one gleaming round about with gold and the blossoms of gems — and stripped off his war-breastplate, which held within it the substance of his wealth (for the panoply of the barbarians is boastful and luxuriously adorned) — and sent both as votive offerings to God through the martyr, consecrating thereby the very sources of his power and rank.

For it is quite clear that the crown was a thank-offering for his kingship, and the breastplate for his strength in war.

As for the wonders that continually occur in connection with these things, through visions seen in dreams and the healings which the sick enjoy — how could anyone even recount them, since it is impossible to give an account that covers each individual working? Yet this much may be said to those who practise the error of polytheism: that one servant of Christ, our fellow-servant, fulfils the functions of many of the gods you suppose to exist.

And let the oracles fall silent, just as indeed they have already been silenced, overcome by the predictions made among us by the righteous one;

let the workshops of medicine stand idle, and let Asclepius no longer be worshipped;

and let the Dioscuri no longer be thought to contend on behalf of sailors,

for those who sail know who is the true helper in dangers.

...and gives obscure answers to those who inquire, so that by the ambiguity of her oracles she may prepare beforehand an excuse for her failure and falsehood. Where is the spring supposed to produce prophetic water? Is not everything nonsense and idle chatter, with which she led the wretched peoples astray into error? .. Worship God, whose faithful servants have been deemed worthy of so great a grace — not acting on their own authority, but doing good to their fellow-servants according to the gift given to them.

And these things they do after their departure from this life and the separation of the body.

Recognize, from his servants, the majesty of the Lord;

glorify the God who is truly over all, to whom worship is due, now and always, and unto the ages of ages.

Of the same [Asterius], Bishop of Amasea, Encomium on the Holy Martyrs. .. It is possible, it seems, to be greatly benefited even by the most hostile and irreconcilable enemies;

and this both the wider experience of life shows, and the things now being celebrated show.

For if the devil had not persecuted Christians and raised up war against the church, we would not have martyrs;

and if there were no martyrs, our life would have become gloomy and without festival.

For what could match these festivals? And what is so solemn and altogether beautiful as to see a whole city, with all its people, going forth from the town, and taking possession of a sacred place, to celebrate the pure mysteries of the truest piety? .. And true piety is to worship and honour God, and to honour those who for his sake bore sufferings with steadfast endurance and arrayed themselves for battle against the ultimate danger of death — of whom the foremost and those in the front rank are the very ones who today have gathered us here.

men who, through a noble death, are immortal; who, through despising this life, live forever; who exchanged their blood for the kingdom, and made the treacherous flesh a benefactor of the soul.

Thus, when a good moral resolve stands over a man like a charioteer, and yokes to itself all his impulses and movements, and attentively draws taut the reins of his reasoning — goading its idleness and restraining its immoderate impetuosity — it is not possible for the course of his life to become disorderly or perilous.

We have, then, the martyrs of Christ not only as teachers of a good way of life, but also as accusers of sin.

But how a martyr might become an accuser, listen:

If that man conquered the flame of fire by his endurance, how is it that you do not subdue fornication by self-control? If the martyr did not spare the wealth and riches he was giving up, why do you not despise a little silver for the sake of righteousness? If the martyr did not prefer his own kindred to God, but parted from wife, children, and dearest ones, how is it that you do not restrain your excessive attachment, but for the sake of persons who happen to have some tie of kinship with you, you leap over what is just and cheat the fear of God? If the martyr stripped off his very body for God's sake, how is it that you yourself do not disdain to give up a single tunic to cover one who is naked? .. These things, set one against the other, convict our perversity.

Let us, then, either revere the saints as teachers or fear them as accusers, and let us show our own life to be in accord with those whom we honour;

and let us too obey God, just as the saints obeyed his commandments and firmly hoped in his promises.

For the hope of intelligible goods is a very good teacher of courage and endurance; lying within our reasoning as a trustworthy pledge and a secure earnest, it exhorts us to look upon every danger undismayed and to bear it nobly when put to the test;

and this follows as a natural consequence.

For by nature we human beings have somehow received this lot: to grow soft and slack toward toils that bring no reward, but, on the contrary, to lay hold vigorously of those toils whose end is prizes and honours.

attending our mind to the evangelical writing, in which the Lord, exhorting his sacred contestants and lovers of God, says:

"Whoever confesses me before men, I will confess him before my Father" — for the sake of this confession they endured, with unwavering minds, sharpened iron, and mounted the pyres, and gave their bodies over to the mouths of wild beasts, and each one submitted his back to the scourges, and had his sides torn by the points of claws, and endured bonds of iron, and bore the dark lodgings of prisons;

and they were racked with hunger and parched with thirst; they presented their faces like stones to those who struck them; they heard the insults as though deaf; they were silent before those who reproached and reviled them, as though mute; they were paraded before crowds and in theatres; they were led through marketplaces and streets with their bodies utterly bare — not only the men, but even the women, which is the most grievous thing of all.

Some were consumed by fire, others were frozen through the winter cold;

in various ways they divided up among themselves, for our sake, their feats of valour, so that by falling they might conquer.

For this reason, having reverently wrapped up their pious bodies — the chosen vessels, the instruments of blessed souls, the dwellings of philosophic indwellers — we guard them throughout our whole life as treasures of great price, and we keep watch over them as our own possessions of great worth; and by the martyrs the church is walled about, as a city by valiant men-at-arms, and the festivals gathering all the people are assembled, and we enjoy the gladness of the feasts.

Those who are oppressed by human circumstances or misfortunes hasten, as to some refuge, to the resting-places of the thrice-blessed martyrs, making them ambassadors of their prayers and petitions on account of the surpassing boldness of speech they possess before God.

Thence poverty is dissolved, diseases are healed, and the threats of rulers are lulled to sleep;

and of all the storms and tempests of life, the sacred shrines of the martyrs are calm harbors.

Thus a father or mother, taking up a sick child and wrapping it in their arms, runs past clinics and physicians, and takes refuge instead in help that owes nothing to art;

and coming to one of the martyrs, through him she brings her petition to the Master, using such words as these toward the mediator:

"Having suffered for Christ's sake, intercede on behalf of this suffering and sickness.

You who have boldness of speech, lend a word on behalf of your fellow servants.

Even though you have departed our life, still you know the sufferings of humanity;

you too once called upon martyrs, before you became a martyr yourself.

Then, seeking, you received; now, having, grant to us.

For the sake of your prize, ask on our behalf for the gain that is ours.

May we be healed by your wound, as the world was healed by that of Christ."

Another, hastening to a wedding, makes prayer at the martyr-shrines the prelude to the bridal chamber;

and someone hastening to a voyage does not loose his ship's moorings before he has called upon the Master of the sea through the martyrs;

and the tribes of beggars and the swarms of the poor possess the resting-place of the martyrs as their common hearth and nourishment;

and the martyrs are sung of everywhere, on land and sea.

For they did not achieve righteousness as many have, but carried the cross with their very body;

they did not scatter money, but poured out blood;

they did not take pity on a poor man, but showed no mercy to themselves;

they did not visit the afflicted in prison, but themselves wore the chains.

For this reason they reaped glory and honor to match their endurance and affliction.

Such, then, was the case of the martyrs;

but where are their tyrants and murderers now — those who thought lofty thoughts and uttered arrogant threats, who sat upon exalted thrones and did not recognize their own Ruler? They roared beyond lions, ran beyond leopards, tore beyond bears, poured out blood like wolves, worked evil like foxes.

They lie there more loathsome than dead donkeys; oblivion has covered their life;

they have Hades for a tomb, impiety for a gravestone, and dishonor for a memorial;

they repent to no profit, they groan to no effect.

But those who were tormented by these men were succeeded by unceasing remembrance, by praise that does not grow old.

For the younger, receiving the accounts and the honors from their elders — grandfather handing them down to grandchild, or father to child, along with the veneration owed to the martyrs — make the praise immortal;

and life, in its successive generations, preserves these festivals like some inviolable inheritance — or rather, as a possession more precious even than inheritance.

For the good things of an inheritance a robber may carry off, or an enemy seize as plunder, or a turn of circumstances empty away; but no one will ever cut the feast of holy men out of the year, for as long as there are years, and time runs its course, and heaven has its sun, and earth feeds its own creatures, and the sea its own special kinds.

But to speak more truly — even when these very elements shall have ceased, though it may not seem so to some — the glory of the martyrs and the righteous will not be extinguished, nor will what pertains to them come to an end together with creation;

but then they will flourish all the more, when humanity has been transformed into incorruptible life.

It is possible even for unbelievers, who doubt concerning our future hope, to receive firm pledges of our good expectation from what is done in this present life.

For behold, the whole circuit of the inhabited world has been filled with the athletes of Christ, and every place holds the memory of the saints;

and every season grants to those who keep festival the narratives of the contenders — narratives better than the gifts and produce of the earth.

So that if someone were a zealous friend of the martyrs, and made it his concern to keep festival for the sufferings of them all, he would not let a single day of the year pass without a feast.

For the noble deeds of the valiant possess an adornment greater than the circuit of the sun.

For since the adversary of the good pressed fiercely against the mystery of the Christians, and, sprinkling all men with the dust of his own devisings, was eager to bury them and occupy them vainly with the pursuits of clay, God, having anointed a multitude of the best men with his precepts and trained them, like a wrestling-master, unto endurance and strength, set them in opposition to the shameless plotter against humankind.

But these men fought a new contest, and not the customary one;

for they did not prevail by striking or breaking their opponents, but excelled by suffering and being slain.

"And what kind of martial might will you call this, O hearer? What distinction is this — to be racked and scourged, and moreover to end one's life by fire or sword or the torment of prisons?" But learn that wars fought for piety are won by means opposite to other wars.

For some have their prowess in killing, but others carry off the victory through suffering and falling.

And the boldness of speech of the righteous accomplishes embassies on behalf of the world;

and the enemy, without realizing it, fell into results contrary to what he had intended.

For as many as he slaughtered when they bore witness, so many helpers of mankind he prepared.

And in every undertaking he is found to suffer this same fate;

from whatever source he thinks he is hindering piety, from that very source he brings about the increase of piety.

For wise God turns the plans of the foolish and senseless one to their opposite.

And we find this to be so as we follow the events of each age — the exposure of Moses, the sale of Joseph.

Immediately at the beginning he murdered the second man, Abel, in order to cut off the seed of the pious, and the opposite came about;

for from that time murderers have been fiercely hated, ever since Cain was cursed by God.

So too with Christ: Satan worked in the Jews, that they might crucify him.

The very same thing has happened also in the case of the martyrs, whom many, out of their own folly, despise, debasing their dignity.

"Is he not a man? Was his body not consumed? Is not their memory confined to a few relics, and these even buried?" This is above all what the Greeks and the Eunomians say;

let us, then, speak to both.

We do not worship the martyrs, but honor them as genuine worshipers of God —

those who, in the time of trials, reverenced God well.

We lay them in caskets fashioned with love of beauty, and we raise houses of their rest, magnificent in construction, so that we may emulate the honors due to those who have ended their lives well;

and we do not display our zeal toward them without reward, but we enjoy their patronage before God.

For since our own prayer is not sufficient to move God to compassion in a time of necessity or misfortune — for our petition is not an effectual entreaty, but a reminder of our sins — for this reason we take refuge in the fellow servants beloved by the Master, so that they, by their own righteous achievements, may heal our failings.

What accusation, then, is it, that in honoring the martyrs we ourselves also strive to please God? What charge is it to take refuge with patrons? Let us, then, also examine your own case, to see whether you, the accuser, are yourself free of the charge.

And how could you be, you who do not honor countless dead men but worship them as gods? Was it not you who, through your own folly, made goddesses of Demeter and Kore, and built temples for these two women, and honor them with sacrifices, and worship them with services of every kind? Is not the mysteries at Eleusis the very sum of your religion, to which the Attic populace and all Greece flock together, to perform an empty rite? Is there not, in that place, the dark descent, and the solemn trysts of the hierophant with the priestess, alone with alone? Are not the torches put out, and does not the vast, countless populace suppose that what the two of them do in the dark is their salvation? Is it not you who worship Dionysus of Thebes as a god — I name his native city, that you may recognize the man — a man who tilled vineyards and loved wine, a drunken reveler dragging along a populace behaving shamefully in its drunkenness, doing the very things for which dissolute young men are pilloried as licentious, getting drunk together with old Silenus and living in the company of the frolicking Satyrs, and being, in his life, a walking history of drunkenness? Is it not you who bring sacrifices to the man Heracles as to a god — a robust man, allotted a powerful and manly body — and revere him because he excelled in many exploits and overcame wild beasts? And again, do you not revere and stand in awe of Asclepius, who journeyed about a great deal with a chest and an iron box? And you could not deny that this is what you do.

For the temples that stand everywhere throughout the inhabited world — I mean the shrines of Asclepius, of Heracles, and of Dionysus — stand as towering proofs of your vanity;

and thus I shall depart innocent of the charge, for I do not worship martyrs, nor do I reckon them gods;

but you have been shown to be caught in these very charges, and this while accusing others — just like those who, on account of a bad conscience, accuse the innocent first.

For you have been shown to worship men as gods.

These are a few things out of many, said to the pagan.

But as for the Jews of the new faction, what wonder is it if you dishonor the martyrs, since you reject Christ and, in your own teachings, separate him from his likeness to the Father, and shun those places as profane in which holy bodies rest? But you who have not come to an understanding of what is happening — fear, you who are called Christians, yet, together with the Greeks, hate the martyrs.

Do you not know that Christ, the chief martyr, was the first to suffer, and left this zeal to his servants? Then after him, Stephen — the contender whose very name matches the glory he won before God;

and all the disciples and apostles who followed after them in succession.

And consider, by a single act of insolence, how many you dishonor:

John the Baptist, James called the brother of the Lord, Peter, Paul, Thomas—these I name as the foremost leaders of the martyrs, and then the boundless multitude of those who died for life,

opening his mouth in boldness, rejoicing in the sight of the angels, in the glory of God, counting himself blessed for the scourges, the bonds, the rackings, the profitable death, because it became for him the procurer of unending life.

But when you hear of these, I know what you think and say:

"If I live according to virtue, I shall be no worse nor less honored than those now admired."

These words are, above all, the words of a boastful man who justifies himself after the manner of the vainglorious Pharisee, and are strangers to all humility.

It is quite evident that he who has not first been humbled does not ascend to the height:

for this is a decree of the Master.

But even granting that someone should concede to you that you will become such a one, tell me, do you not wish to revere those who cut the road of piety for you, the guides to what is good, the teachers of virtue, those who trained you in endurance and contempt of death? Learn gratitude from the apprentices of this present life: though they become like their teachers and lack nothing of the craft, nevertheless they love the very breasts of those who taught them, revere them, speak well of them, yield to them the first place, and attend upon them as fathers.

The saints, even after death, can accomplish much, and having departed this life they still benefit mankind:

and a witness to what I say is Elisha, who long ago departed this life and fell asleep, yet received the grace of God as immortal and inseparable, abiding beside his dust and his lifeless bones.

For you know, diligent student of the Scriptures, that a certain dead man, being carried to burial by his kinsfolk, when robbers or enemies suddenly fell upon them—such as tends to happen amid the crush and the tumult—was thrown into the tomb of the thrice-blessed prophet, and was suddenly restored to life and returned to the living.

What then shall we say to this event? Did the righteous man have any perception of what was happening? Did he send up a prayer for the dead man, as he did for the child of the Shunammite woman? But the truth of the matter allows us to think nothing of the sort.

For the righteous man had lain there for many years already, his body having dissolved into its kindred dust and its own kind of ash.

It is quite evident that God, ever glorifying his own people even after death, works wonders past belief around their tombs and resting-places, so that the living—both now and in later generations—having a pledge of good hope in the honors paid to the departed, might eagerly accomplish the life of the noblest conduct.

Likewise also Elijah, this prophet's guide, after the fiery horses and the chariot of fire, living now another life, having departed from among men to the place allotted to him, left behind his sheepskin mantle as a sufficient symbol of his own power.

And yet of what worth was that mantle? For it was nothing other than dead skin, worthless from age.

Yet even the Jordan gave way before it, and the water was cut in two and stood divided, just as of old at the crossing of Joshua, who was a type of the one to come.

The Tishbite was present even while absent, and the garment of the philosopher welcomed his disciple with a right hand, God's love for mankind granting the river a safe crossing, and honoring the garments of the saints as though they were living beings.

And in order that it might be shown clearly that the wonder at the river did not happen because of the one who struck the water, but because of the honor due to him who had departed and been taken up, when Elisha struck the water, the water flowed as usual, having undergone nothing new.

But when he had failed, he cried out:

"Where indeed is the God of Elijah?" And having cried out a second time and struck the water, immediately the river, its stream divided, showed the bare dry ground, and the prophet crossed on foot and arrived at the far side.

It remains to set down in writing this further narrative also, from the rest of the history, for the instruction of our life.

Joseph, again, was stolen away, as one might say, from Pharaoh's very eyes in waking reality—not in a dream—as Israel journeyed on; and his body accompanied the people everywhere, and was carried with great care as a kind of good and evil-averting safeguard for the six hundred thousand.

And they held as much reverence for their forefather's coffin as for the holy ark which bore the law of God.

Therefore David also, somewhere entreating God to be merciful and gracious toward the people, and beseeching him with countless supplications, that having stayed the continuous, successive stroke of calamities he might again in his good providence govern Jerusalem as before, speaks thus:

"Thou who shepherdest Israel, give heed; thou who leadest Joseph like a flock."

For he moves God to compassion by the names of those beloved and dear to him, and very skillfully handles his supplication, as it were concealing and covering the sins of the impious multitude beneath the names of the holy fathers.

This same sense is also dictated to us by the account preserved concerning Sodom.

For Abraham, interceding on behalf of the Sodomites, when God, being ill-disposed toward them, brought the punishment upon them with prior warning, sought that, through the sparing shown for the sake of the righteous, the whole populace might be saved.

For beginning from fifty, he ended at ten, and God at once assented to the supplication, as though on some balance and scales weighing the worth of ten righteous men against the myriads of sinners.