On the Divine Images 1 part 6/8

for, being continually compelled to call that name to mind and to keep that holy man upon their soul, they had the name as a refuge from every irrational passion and thought; and this came to be so widespread that everywhere—in the streets, in the marketplace, in the fields—one was surrounded on all sides by the resounding of that name.

And it was not only toward the name that you conceived so great a longing, but also toward the very figure of his body.

What therefore you did with his name, this also you did with his image.

For many engraved that holy image on the bezels of rings, and on cups, and on bowls, and on the walls of chambers, and everywhere, so that they might not only hear that holy name, but also behold everywhere the figure of his body, and have a twofold consolation for his departure.

Of the same author, on the betrayal of Judas, and on the Pascha, and on the delivering up of the mysteries, and on not bearing grudges:

For just as painters, on the panel itself, both trace the outlines and sketch the shadows and apply the truth of the colors, so also Christ did.

Of Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan, from his epistle to all Italy:

On the third night, when my body was already worn out from fasting, while I was not sleeping but in an ecstasy, there appeared to me, together with a certain person who resembled the blessed Apostle Paul, the very painting in images which clearly taught his figure.

Of Maximus the philosopher and confessor, from the records

of what was transacted between him and Theodosius the bishop:

And upon these things all arose with joy and tears and made a prostration, and prayer was offered, and each of them kissed the holy Gospels and the precious cross and the image of our God and Savior Jesus Christ and of our Lady the all-holy Mother of God who bore Him, and set their own hands upon them in confirmation of what had been spoken.

Of the most holy and most blessed Anastasius, archbishop of Theoupolis and patriarch, concerning the Sabbath, and to Symeon, bishop of Bostra:

For just as, when the king is absent, his image is venerated in his stead, but when he is present it is superfluous to leave the prototype and venerate the image;

yet not because it is not venerated, on account of the presence of the one for whose sake it is venerated, ought it therefore to be dishonored.

For just as he who behaves insolently toward the image of a king undergoes punishment as having dishonored the king himself, although the image is nothing other than wood and colors mixed and blended with wax, in the same way he who dishonors the figure of some particular person refers the insult to that very one whose figure it is.

From the Spiritual Meadow of our holy father Sophronius, archbishop of Jerusalem:

Abba Theodore the Aeliote said that there was a certain recluse on the Mount of Olives, a great ascetic;

and the demon of fornication warred against him.

One day, then, as it pressed hard upon him, the old man began to lament and to say to the demon:

“How long will you not let me be? Depart from me at last;

you have grown old together with me.” The demon appeared to him visibly, saying:

“Swear to me that you will tell no one what I am about to tell you, and I will war against you no longer.” And the old man swore to him: “By Him who dwells in the highest,

I will tell no one what you tell me.” Then the demon said to him:

“Do not venerate this image, and I will war against you no longer.” Now the image bore the figure of our Lady the holy Mary the Mother of God carrying our Lord Jesus Christ.

The recluse said to the demon:

“Let me be; I will consider it.” So on the next day he made it known to Abba Theodore the Aeliote, who then dwelt in the Lavra of Pharan; and he came and recounted everything.

And the old man said to the recluse:

“Truly, abba, you have been mocked, in that you swore to the demon; nevertheless you did well in declaring it.

It is more profitable for you to leave no brothel in this city into which you do not enter, than to refuse to venerate our Lord and God Jesus Christ together with His own Mother.” So, having strengthened and encouraged him with many words, he departed to his own place.

The demon then appeared again to the recluse and said to him:

“What is this, you wicked old man? Did you not swear to me that you would tell no one? And how is it that you declared everything to the one who came to you? I tell you, wicked old man, you shall be judged as a perjurer on the day of judgment.” The recluse answered him, saying:

“As for my having broken my oath—I broke faith against my own Master and Maker;

but you I do not heed.” (Scholion) Do you see that he called the veneration of the image the veneration of the one represented, and how great an evil it is not to venerate it, and how the demon preferred this even to fornication? Since, then, from of old many priests and kings have been granted by God to the Christians, men distinguished in wisdom and piety and word and life, and very many synods have been held of holy and God-inspired Fathers, why has no one attempted to do these things? We will not tolerate being taught a new faith.

“For out of Zion shall go forth the Law,” the Holy Spirit said prophetically, “and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem.” We will not tolerate thinking now one thing, now another, and changing with the times, and making our faith a laughingstock and plaything to those outside.

We will not tolerate submitting to a royal decree that attempts to overthrow the custom handed down from the Fathers;

for it does not belong to godly kings to overthrow ecclesiastical ordinances.

For things done by force and not by persuasion are the deeds of robbers.

And a witness is the synod that was held the second time at Ephesus, which to this day has received the appellation “robber-synod,” having been forced through by a royal hand, when the blessed Flavian was put to death.

These things belong to synods, not to kings, as the Lord said:

“Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Christ gave the authority to bind and to loose not to kings, but to apostles and their successors and to shepherds and teachers.

“Even if an angel,” says Paul the Apostle, “preach a gospel to you other than that which you received…”—and what follows we will pass over in silence, awaiting their conversion in forbearance.

But if we see the perversion unrepented of, then we will also add what remains:

If anyone enter a house in which a painter has portrayed on the walls in colors the history of Moses and Pharaoh, and then perhaps ask concerning those who crossed the sea as upon dry land:

“Who are these?” what will you say when asked? Will you not say:

“The sons of Israel”? “Who is the one striking the sea with a staff?” Will you not say:

“Moses”? So too, if anyone depict Christ being crucified, and be asked:

“Who is this?” he will say, “Christ God, who was made flesh for our sake.”

Yes, Master, I venerate all that is Yours and embrace it with burning longing—Your Godhead, Your power, Your goodness, Your mercy toward me, Your condescension, Your incarnation, Your flesh.

And just as I fear to touch red-hot iron—not because of the nature of the iron, but because of the fire united to it—so I venerate Your flesh, not because of the nature of the flesh, but because of the Godhead united to it hypostatically.

Who ever saw death venerated, or sufferings held sacred? Yet truly we venerate the bodily death of my God and His saving sufferings; we venerate Your image;

all that is Yours we venerate—the servants, the friends, and before these the Mother, the Mother of God.

Therefore I entreat the people of God, the holy nation, to hold fast to the ecclesiastical traditions;

for the gradual removal of the things handed down, as of stones from a building, quickly brings down the whole edifice.

And may we remain steadfast, unbending, unshaken, established upon the firm rock, which is Christ, to whom belong glory, honor, and veneration, together with the Father and the Spirit, now and ever and unto the unending ages of ages.

From the Religious History (Philotheos) of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, in the Life of Saint Symeon the Stylite:

For concerning Italy it is even superfluous to speak.

For they say that the man became so renowned in great Rome that they set up small images of him at the entrances of all the workshops, thereby procuring for themselves a kind of protection and safety.

Of Saint Basil, from the interpretation of Isaiah:

Since he (the devil) saw man to be according to the image and likeness of God, being unable to turn against God, he poured out his own wickedness against the image of God;

just as if a man in anger should stone the image, since he cannot the king, striking the wood that bears the likeness.

(Scholion) So too everyone who honors the image plainly honors the archetype.

Of the same author, from the same interpretation:

For just as he who insults a royal image is judged as having sinned against the king himself, so plainly he who insults the one made according to the image is liable to sin.

Of Saint Athanasius, from the hundred chapters written to Antiochus the magistrate, by question and answer, chapter thirty-eight:

We the faithful do not venerate the images as gods—far be it!—as the pagans do, but only displaying the disposition and the longing of our love toward the figure of the face in the image.

Hence often, when the figure has been worn away, we then burn what was once an image, like useless wood.

Just, therefore, as Jacob, when about to die, worshiped upon

the top of Joseph’s staff—not honoring the staff, but the one who held it—so we the faithful kiss the images for no other reason than as, when we often kiss our children and parents, in order to display the longing of our soul;

for just as the Jew also once worshiped the tablets of the Law and the two cherubim, of gold and carved, not honoring the nature of the stone and the gold, but the Lord who had ordained these things.

Of Chrysostom, on the third psalm, concerning David and Absalom:

Kings set up triumphal statues to generals who have conquered, and rulers raise up certain victory-monuments to charioteers and athletes, and by the inscription, as by a crown, they make the material a herald of the victory.

Others again write the praises of the victors in books and writings, wishing to show the power of their praise to be stronger than those being praised.

And writers and painters and stone-carvers and peoples and rulers and cities and lands all marvel at the victors.

But no one has ever painted images of one who fled and did not fight.

Of Saint Cyril of Alexandria, from the address to the emperor Theodosius:

The images are as it were the archetypes;

for they must be thus and not otherwise.

Of the same author, from the Thesauri (Treasures):

For the images always bear a resemblance to the archetypes.

Of the same author, from the work “That throughout the whole writing of Moses the mystery of Christ is signified,” concerning Abraham and Melchizedek, chapter six:

It behooves me to paint the images after the archetypes.

Of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, from the second oration on the Son:

For this is the nature of an image—to be an imitation of the archetype and of that whose image it is said to be.

Of Chrysostom, from the third oration to the Colossians:

The image of the invisible is itself also invisible, since otherwise it would not be an image;

for the image, inasmuch as it is an image, must even among us be unvarying, namely in the figure and the likeness.

Of the same author, from the interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter seventeen:

Just as in the case of images the image bears the figure of the man, but not the power;

so that the reality and the figure have communion with one another.

Of Eusebius Pamphili, from the fifth book of the Demonstrations in the Gospels, on the text “God appeared to Abraham by the oak of Mamre”:

Whence even now among the ancient neighboring inhabitants, as a divine place, in honor of those who appeared there to Abraham, it is held in religious veneration; and to this day there remains the terebinth-tree, and those who were entertained as guests by Abraham are depicted in a painting reclining, two on either side, and in the middle the superior one excelling them in honor.

And this would be the Lord Himself, made known to us, our Savior, whom even those who do not know Him revere, putting their faith in the divine oracles.

This very One, then, sowing the seeds of godliness among men out of that time, putting on human form and shape, revealed Himself to the God-loving forefather Abraham, as to who He was, and delivered to him the knowledge of the Father.

From the chronography of John of Antioch, also called Malalas, concerning the woman with the issue of blood and the statue she made for the Savior Christ:

From that time also John the Baptist became manifest to men;

and Herod the tetrarch beheaded him in the palace of the region of Trachonitis, in the city of Sebaste, on the eighth day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Flaccus and Rufinus.

On account of this, Herod the king, the son of Philip, being grieved, went up from Judea.

And there came to him a certain wealthy woman, dwelling in the same city of Paneas, named Bernice, who, having been healed by Jesus, desired to set up a statue to Him.

And not daring to do this without royal permission, she submitted a petition to King Herod, requesting to set up a golden statue to the Savior Christ in her city.

“To the august Herod, tetrarch and lawgiver of both Jews and Greeks, king of Trachonitis: a petition and

supplication from Bernice, a woman of rank of the city of Paneas.

Righteousness and loving-kindness and the rest of the virtues crown your head.

Wherefore I too, knowing this, have come with good hopes, like all who shall obtain their requests;

and this is the foundation of the present preamble;

for as it proceeds, the discourse will instruct you.”

From childhood I was afflicted with suffering, with flowing streams of hemorrhage, and I spent my livelihood and wealth on physicians, yet found no cure.

But having heard of the healings of the wondrous Christ—how He raises the dead and draws them back into the light, drives demons out of mortals, and by a word heals all who waste away in sickness—I too ran to Him as to God.

And drawing near to the crowd that surrounded Him, I was afraid that He might be repelled by the defilement of my affliction and grow angry with me, and that the blow of my disease might come upon me even more; so I reasoned within myself that if I could but touch the hem of His garment, I would be made well.

And when I had touched it, and the fountain of my blood was stopped, I immediately became well.

But He, as one who knew beforehand the counsels of my heart, cried out:

“Who touched Me? Power has gone out from Me.” Then I, growing pale and trembling, thinking that the disease would return upon me yet more fiercely, fell down before Him, filled the ground with my tears, and confessed my boldness.

But He, being good, was moved with compassion for me and set His seal upon my healing, saying:

“Take courage, daughter; your faith has made you well;

go in peace.” So you too, most honorable ones, grant a worthy answer to her who entreats. And King Herod, having heard these things through her petition, was amazed at the miracle, and fearing the mystery of the healing, said:

“The healing that has come upon you, O woman, is worthy of a greater monument.

Go therefore and set up for Him whatever monument you wish, glorifying the One who healed you.” And straightway Bernice herself, who had formerly suffered the issue of blood, set up in the midst of her own city of Paneas a bronze monument to the Lord and God, made of hammer-wrought bronze mingled with gold and silver.

Which monument remains in the city of Paneas to this day, having been moved—not long ago—from where it stood, to a holy place in the midst of the city, into a house of prayer.

This record was found in that same city of Paneas in the keeping of a certain Bassus, a Christian of Jewish origin, in which was contained the history of the lives of all who had reigned over the land of Judea.

From the seventh book of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius son of Pamphilus, concerning the woman of Paneas with the issue of blood:

Since we have made mention of this city, I do not think it right to pass over an account that is also worthy to be remembered by those who come after us.

For the woman with the issue of blood—who, as we have learned from the sacred Gospels, found from our Savior release from her affliction—was said to have come from this place; and her house was pointed out in the city, and wonderful memorials of the benefaction the Savior had bestowed on her still remained.

For there stood upon a high stone, by the gates of her house, a bronze figure of a woman, bent upon her knee with her hands stretched out before her, like one entreating; and opposite it another figure of the same material, of a man standing upright, decently clad in a double cloak and stretching out his hand toward her; and at his feet, upon this same monument, there grew a strange kind of plant, rising as high as the hem of the bronze double cloak, which served as an antidote to all manner of diseases.

And they said that this statue bore the likeness of the Lord Jesus; and it remained even to our own day, so that we saw it with our own eyes when we visited the city.

And it is no wonder that those of old among the Gentiles, who had been benefited by our Savior, made such things, when we have also examined images of the apostles themselves, of Peter and Paul, and of the Savior Himself, preserved in painted colors; for it was natural that the ancients, without scruple, should honor in this way, as it was a custom among the Gentiles,

they being accustomed to honor in this manner those whom they esteemed.

From the same author, from the ninth book of the same History, concerning the Emperor Constantine:

Having become very fully aware of the help that came from God, he straightway commanded that a trophy of the Saviour's Passion be set up under the hand of his own image; and indeed, with himself holding the saving sign in his right hand, he ordered them to set it up in the most frequented of the public places at Rome, and to inscribe this very legend in order, in these very words, in the Roman tongue:

“By this saving sign, the true proof of valor, I have delivered and freed your city from the tyrant; and moreover I have liberated the Senate and People of Rome and restored them to their ancient renown and splendor.” From the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates, book one, chapter eighteen, concerning the same emperor:

After this the Emperor Constantine, becoming yet more zealous concerning Christianity, turned away from the Hellenic religions; he put an end to the gladiatorial combats, and set up his own images in the temples.

Of Stephen of Bostra, against the Jews, chapter:

But we made the images of the saints for a memorial of the saints—such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Zechariah, and the rest of the prophets and the holy martyrs who were slain for His sake—so that everyone who beholds their images may remember them and glorify Him who glorified them.

And concerning images we are confident, that every work done in the name of God is good and holy.

But as for idols and pagan statues—away with them!

for both they and those who make them are evil and monstrous.

For an image of a holy prophet is one thing, and the statue or graven figure of Kronos and Aphrodite, of the Sun and the Moon, is quite another.

And since man too was made according to the image of God, he is venerated.

But the serpent, since it is an image of the devil, is unclean and to be cast away.

But if you reject things made by hands, tell me, O Jew:

What is there on earth not made by hands, that is venerated? Was the ark of God not made by hands? The altar, the mercy-seat, the cherubim, the golden jar holding the manna, the table, the inner tabernacle, and all the things which were called the Holy of Holies by God—were not the cherubim made by hands, images of angels? What do you say? If you call these idols, what do you say of Moses who worshiped before them, and of Israel? Now veneration is a token of honor.

Just as we sinners also worship: we glorify God with divine adoration and worthy worship, and we tremble before Him as our Maker and Provider; but the angels and servants of God we honor with the honor due to God, as creatures of God and His servants;

for an image is the name and likeness of him who is depicted in it.

Wherefore by writings and by engravings we ever call to remembrance the sufferings of the Lord and of the holy prophets written of in the Law and the Gospels.

Of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, from the oration against Julian the Apostate:

Whose images, still set up in public, bear the tokens of the blow he suffered for this.

Of Chrysostom, from his commentary on the righteous Job:

“In all these things that befell him, he did not charge God with folly.” Just as with images, whenever we depict someone in a historical painting, we write, “So-and-so dedicated this,” so here too: the one who wrote the book, having painted the image of his soul, subscribes below, as it were in a small panel, saying:

“In all these things that befell him, Job did not sin.” From the Life of Saint Constantine, book four:

And how greatly his soul was established in the power of divine faith, one may learn from this also, by considering how upon the gold coins he had his own image engraved as if looking upward, with eyes raised

in the manner of one praying to God.

His images, then, were throughout the whole Roman land; and in the imperial palaces themselves, in various cities, he had himself depicted standing upright in the images set up high above the entrance gates, gazing up into heaven, with both hands stretched out in the attitude of one praying.

Thus, then, he depicted himself in the painted images as one praying.

Of the same author, from the third book:

Thus, then, the emperor's mother came to her end—worthy of the greatest honor both for her own God-loving deeds and for the extraordinary and marvelous offshoot born of her; for, beyond all else, he is to be counted blessed even for his piety toward her who bore him, having so made her God-fearing, who was not so before, that it seemed to him she had been a disciple of the common Savior from the first; and having so honored her with the imperial dignity that among all nations, even among the military legions themselves, she was proclaimed Augusta and empress, and her image too was stamped upon the gold coins.

Of the same author, from the fourth oration, chapter sixty-nine:

And those who dwelt in the imperial city, together with the very Senate and People of Rome, when they learned of the emperor's death, bound by tidings dreadful and beyond every calamity, made unrestrained mourning.

The baths were closed, and the markets, the public spectacles, and all that men are wont to do for the ease and enjoyment of life when in good cheer.

Those who once lived in luxury now went forth downcast, and all together extolled the blessed one, the God-beloved, the one truly worthy of the kingdom.

And they did not voice these things in cries alone, but proceeding to deeds, they honored him with dedications of images, even as one living and dead; for in painted colors they portrayed the form of heaven, and they handed him down in the painting as resting in an ethereal abode above the vault of the heavens.

In likeness to Him, then, the thrice-blessed one became manifold, instead of one, through the succession of his sons, so that he was honored, by the setting up of images, among all nations together with his sons.

Of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, and of Polychronius, from the commentary on Ezekiel:

And just as the Romans, when they paint the imperial images, set the bodyguards round about and represent the nations as subjugated, in the same manner here also:

since the prophet, through the vision, depicts God as borne upon a throne, he shows forth the images of all things on earth, and renders to the figure what is fitting, teaching the lordship over all things that belongs to God.

“And you, son of man, take for yourself a brick and set it before your face, and portray on it the whole of Jerusalem; and lay siege against it, and build siege-works against it, and cast up a mound against it, and set camps against it, and place battering-rams round about.” Interpretation:

If it has seemed fearful to you to speak openly against the multitude and to foretell the destruction of the city, the razing of the temple, and the dreadful things that will result from these, declare this in another way, so as both to bring those people to their senses and to display your own forbearance.

“And taking,” He says, “a brick, portray the city.” And let the name of the city be inscribed, so that it may be recognized as being Jerusalem.

And having made the city, set round about the painted figure a palisade, so that there may be the multitude of an encampment.

And let the forces advance in battle array;

for this is what “camps” means, that is, military companies standing ready, not only fenced about with arms, but also bringing forward the engines with which they will tear down these walls;

for these walls signify the battering-stations.

And most wondrously He signifies only the encirclement of the city by the multitude, so that, having struck them with fear before the dreadful events, He might turn them away from their lawlessness.

From the martyrdom of Saint Eustathius, also called Placidas:

When he had gone out one day, as was his custom, to the mountains to hunt with his troop and all his retinue, a herd of deer feeding was seen by him.

And having divided up his troop as was customary, he set about the pursuit of them.

And while the whole troop was occupied with the capture of the deer, the largest and most beautiful of the entire herd, having separated itself from the herd, rushed off into the thicket, into the densest places of the woodland and the difficult terrain.

Placidas, beholding it and desiring to capture it, left all the others behind and pursued it with a few soldiers.

But when his companions grew weary, he alone persevered in the pursuit.

By the providence of God, neither did his horse grow weary nor did he himself shrink back from the difficulty of the terrain; and pursuing for a long while, he found himself far from his troop.

And that deer, having reached the crest of a very high rock, stood upon it;

and the commander, coming near, with no one accompanying him, stood looking about on every side and pondering by what means he might catch the deer.

But the all-wise and compassionate God, who devises all manner of ways for the salvation of men, hunts this man down in turn amid the hunt—not as He did Cornelius through Peter, but as He did Paul the persecutor, through His own appearing.

And while Placidas stood for a long time gazing intently at the deer, marveling at its size and at a loss as to its capture, the Lord shows him a portent of this kind—not unlikely, nor exceeding the greatness of His power, but just as in the case of Balaam He put speech into the donkey and rebuked his thinking, so here too He shows him, upon the antlers of the deer, the figure of the holy Cross shining brighter than the radiance of the sun, and in the midst of the antlers the image of the God-bearing body, which for our salvation He deigned to assume;

and putting a human voice into the deer, He called Placidas, saying:

“O Placidas, why do you persecute Me? Behold, for your sake I have come, and in this animal I have appeared to you.

I am Jesus the Christ, whom you worship in ignorance;