On the Divine Images 1 part 7/8

for your good deeds, which you do toward the needy, have come up before Me, and I have come to reveal Myself to you through this deer, and to take you captive in turn, and to enclose you in the nets of My love for mankind.

For it is not right that one dear to Me through his good works should serve unclean demons and dead, deaf idols.

For this reason I have come to earth in this form, in which you now see Me, wishing to save the race of mankind.” Of Saint Leontius of Neapolis on the island of the Cyprians, against the Jews, from the fifth oration:

Come now, then; come, let us readily make our defense also for the depicting of the venerable images, that the mouths of the lawless who speak unjust things may be stopped;

for this tradition is from the Law, and not our own.

For hear God Himself saying to Moses to make images of two cherubim, carved and cast, overshadowing the mercy-seat.

And again God showed the temple to Ezekiel: it had carved faces, he says, of lions, palm trees, men, and cherubim, from its floor up to the paneling of the roof.

God, who commanded Israel to make no graven thing, nor image, nor likeness of whatever is in heaven and whatever is on earth, Himself commands Moses to make carved living figures of cherubim, and shows Ezekiel the temple full of images and carved forms of lions, palm trees, and men.

And Solomon, taking the pattern from the Law, made the temple full of bronze carvings—of oxen, palm trees, and men—and was not condemned by God.

If, then, you wish to condemn me concerning images, first condemn God who commanded these things to be made as a remembrance of Himself among us.

Of the same author, from the fifth oration:

Again they mock us concerning the precious Cross and the marking and veneration of the God-imprinted images, calling us idolaters and worshipers of wood, these utterly godless ones.

But if I am a worshiper of wood, as you say, O godless one, then I must surely be a polytheist as well.

And if a polytheist, then I should certainly swear and say:

“By the gods!”—just as you, when you beheld a single calf, said:

“These are your gods, O Israel.” But may you never be deemed worthy to hear this from Christian lips; rather, the adulterous and faithless synagogue has ever been wont to denounce the all-chaste Church of Christ as a harlot.

For the figures, images, and types of the saints are not worshiped by us as gods.

For if we worshiped the wood of the image as God, we would certainly worship all other pieces of wood as well, and we would not—as we often do when the figure has been worn smooth—burn the image in the fire.

And again, as long as the timbers of the Cross are bound together, I venerate the figure because of Christ who was crucified upon it;

but when they are separated from one another, I cast them away and burn them.

And just as one who has received a sealed command of the emperor and has kissed the seal does not thereby honor the clay, nor the paper, nor the lead, but renders his reverence and veneration to the emperor, so we children of the Christians, in venerating the figure of the Cross, do not venerate the nature of the wood, but, beholding the seal and signet and figure of Christ Himself, through it we embrace and venerate the One who was crucified upon it.

And for this reason I depict and portray Christ and the sufferings of Christ in churches, in houses, in marketplaces, in images, on cloth, in chambers, on garments, and in every place, so that, continually beholding these things, I may be reminded and not forget—as you have ever forgotten the Lord your God.

And just as you, when you venerate the book of the Law, do not venerate the nature of the skins and the ink, but the words of God contained in it, so I too venerate the image of Christ—not the nature of the wood and the colors, God forbid—but, venerating the lifeless figure of Christ, I think through it to lay hold of Christ Himself and to venerate Him.

And just as Jacob, having received from Joseph's brothers the many-colored coat stained with blood, when they had sold Joseph, certainly kissed the coat with tears and held it to his own eyes—not bewailing the garment, but through it thinking that he kissed Joseph and held him in his arms—so we children of the Christians too, when we embrace an image of Christ, or of an apostle, or of a martyr, with body and soul we think that we are embracing that very Christ Himself, or His martyr.

As, then, I have often said, the intention is what is examined in every embrace and in every act of veneration.

But if you accuse me, saying that I venerate the wood of the Cross as God, why do you not accuse Jacob who venerated upon the top of Joseph's staff? But it is plain that he did not venerate in honor of the wood, but through the wood venerated Joseph, just as we too, through the Cross, venerate Christ.

Since Abraham too bowed down to the impious men who sold him the burial place, and bent his knee to the ground, but did not venerate them as gods.

And again Jacob blessed Pharaoh, who was impious and an idolater, and bowed to Esau seven times, but not as to a god.

See how many embraces and how many acts of veneration—both scriptural and natural—I have demonstrated to you that incur no condemnation.

But me, whenever you see me venerating an image of Christ, or of His all-pure Mother, or of a saint, you straightway grow indignant and blaspheme and recoil and call me an idolater—and you are not ashamed, nor

shudder or blush, when you see me every day throughout the whole world tearing down the temples of idols and raising up shrines of the martyrs.

If I worshiped idols, why do I honor the martyrs who destroyed idols? And if, as you say, I glorify the pieces of wood, how is it that I honor the saints who burned up the wooden carved figures of the demons? And if I also glorify stones, how is it that I glorify the apostles who shattered the stone idols? If I revere the images of the falsely-named gods, how is it that I glorify and praise and celebrate the feasts of the Three Children who contended in Babylon and did not worship the golden idolatrous image? But truly great is the callousness of the lawless, great their blindness.

O Jew, great is your shamelessness and your impiety;

truly, the truth is wronged by you.

“Arise, O God, plead Your cause; judge and plead our case against a nation that is not holy”—but unholy and alien, and one that provokes You continually.

If, then, as I have often said, I venerated the wood and the stone as God, I too would have said to the wood and the stone:

“You begot me.” But if I venerate the images of the saints—rather, the saints themselves—and venerate and honor the contests of the holy martyrs, how do you call these idols, O foolish one? For idols are the likenesses of the falsely-named gods, of adulterers and murderers and child-slayers and the effeminate, and not of prophets nor of apostles.

And so that I may set before you, in part, a brief and most trustworthy example concerning Christian and Hellenic likenesses, listen.

The Chaldeans in Babylon had musical instruments of every kind for the service of the demon-idols; and the sons of Israel from Jerusalem also had instruments, which they hung upon the willows;

and both were instruments—harps, lyres, and pipes—but the one set came to be for the glory of God, and the other as a counterfeit for the service of the demons.

So then understand it likewise concerning the images and idols, Hellenic and Christian: that those were fashioned for the glory and remembrance of the devil, but these for the glory of Christ and of the apostles and martyrs and His saints.

Whenever, therefore, you see a Christian venerating the Cross, know that he venerates it for the sake of Christ who was crucified, and not the nature of the wood.

Since otherwise we would venerate all the trees of the field, and just as Israel venerated the groves and the trees, saying:

“You are my god, and you begot me.” But we are not so; rather, we keep a remembrance and depiction of the sufferings of the Lord and of those who contended for His sake, in the churches and houses, doing all things for His sake, our Lord.

And once more, tell me, O Jew, what scripture permitted Moses to bow down to Jethro his father-in-law, who was an idolater, and Jacob to Pharaoh, and Abraham to the sons of Hamor, and Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar who was impious? And if those men, being righteous and prophets, did these things for the sake of worldly and temporal life, how do you accuse me for venerating the holy memorials of the saints, pictorial and historical, and their sufferings and contests, by which I am daily benefited and from which I look for eternal and everlasting life? From the Ecclesiastical History of Theodore, the fourth volume:

Under this consulship, in the month of December, on its thirty-fifth day, a fearful and extraordinary marvel came to pass, astounding to every ear of men.

For there was a certain man named Olympius, who, leading the courier-team of Euthymius the leader of the Arian sect, came to be at the bath of the palace of the Helenianae, in the warm fore-chamber; and seeing some of those bathing exalting the doctrine of the consubstantial, he spoke to them in these very words:

“What then is the Trinity? On what wall is it not inscribed?” And grasping his own private parts, he said:

“Behold, I too have a trinity!”—so that those who were found there, being stirred up, were about to lay hands on him;

but a presbyter of the Holy Apostles, in the surrounding precinct, a wonderful man who served God, said to them that he would not escape the eye of all-seeing Justice, which records with exact reckoning.

And when, out of respect for the man, they had ceased from their disturbance, Olympius arose and, after using the immersion in the hot waters as was his custom, went out to the basin of cold waters, which receives its water from a spring rising in the middle of the venerable altar of the holy house of Stephen the protomartyr—which Aurelian, who shone with princely dignities, built in olden times;

whence I suppose that the water is granted divine oversight.

Into which he descended, but quickly came up again, crying out:

“Have mercy on me, have mercy!”—and scratching his flesh, he tore it from the bones.

And all gathering about him and taking hold of him, they wrapped him in a sheet and laid him down as he was gasping out his life.

And they asked what might have happened;

“I saw a man clothed in white,” he said, “standing over me upon the water-channel, who poured three buckets of hot water over me and said to me:

‘Do not blaspheme.’” And taking him up on a litter, those who attended to him carried him over to another bath adjoining the church of the Arians.

And when they wished to unwrap the sheet from him, they pulled off with it all his flesh; and thus, being mortified, he gave up his spirit.

And this became known throughout almost the whole imperial city.

And some spread it abroad concerning the man who had suffered, that some years before he had been re-baptized from the religion that glorifies the consubstantial into the worship of Arius.

And when what had occurred came also to the ears of the emperors—Anastasius was reigning—he ordered the marvel to be depicted in an image and fastened up above the water-channel.

And a certain John, a deacon and advocate of the aforesaid venerable house of Stephen the first of the martyrs, a man who, if anyone, showed forth zeal for the doctrine of the consubstantial on every occasion, also recorded it in an image—but not simply;

for he recorded the names of those who were bathing there and beheld it, and where each one dwelt, and moreover of those who served at the waters as well.

And the image bears witness up to the present, fixed in the portico of the four-columned hall of the oft-mentioned house of prayer.

And since a marvel followed upon the marvel, belonging to the same subject, it is not right to pass it over—which, even if it has gone beyond the present occasion, I will not hesitate to tell.

For the partisans of Arius, beholding the triumph prevailing, begged the man who had been entrusted with the charge of the palace of the Helenianae—as overseer also of the management of the bath—to take down and conceal the image.

Who, having found a clever pretext—the moisture coming from the waters—took down the image as though it had been damaged, and concealed it, he said, for the sake of repair.

But the emperor, making his customary circuit-visits to each imperial site, came there too and sought out the image;

and thus it was once more fixed to the wall.

But hard on his heels, a God-decreed wrath laid hold of Eutychianus (for this was the name of the steward), and made his right eye dissolve; and most grievously shaking his other limbs as well, it brought him to draw near to the venerable house of prayer where a portion of the holy relics of the divine Pantaleon and Marinus is believed to repose—the place being called Homonoia ('Concord') because the hundred and fifty bishops who there assembled under Theodosius the Great fashioned this title, having drawn up a certain common and agreed teaching both of the consubstantiality of the divine Trinity and having clearly proclaimed the assumption from the Virgin in the incarnation of the Lord.

And when he had persevered there about seven days and profited nothing, but even his testicles had been eaten away, in the middle of one of the nights the subdeacon to whose lot it fell to keep the all-night vigil saw in a dream a certain king standing by, who, pointing with his hand

at the sick man, said:

“How did you receive this man? And who brought him here? This is the one who conspired together with those who blasphemed against Me.

This is the one who concealed the image of the marvel.” And the cleric, rising up, recounted what he had seen, saying that it was among the impossible things for this man to be healed of his scourge.

And on that same night Eutychianus, as though drawn into sleep from his pains, saw a certain young eunuch clothed in a splendid bordered robe, saying to him:

“What ails you?” And when he said, “I am dying, wasting away and finding no healing,” he heard him say that no one was able to help him;

“for the king is terribly angry against you.” This man entreated and said:

“Whom shall I appeal to, or what shall I do?” And he said:

“If you wish to be released, go quickly to the bath of the Helenianae and rest near the image of the burned Arian.” And immediately, waking up, he called one of those who attended him;

for three days had already passed during which he had been gripped by loss of speech.

And he said to them, and gave orders, that they should carry him off according to what had been commanded.

And reaching the place and being set before the image, he breathed his last;

for the one who had appeared spoke truly when he proclaimed the separation of the soul from the body to be a liberation and a release.

Of Saint Anastasius of the holy Mount Sinai:

Four miles from Damascus there is a hamlet called Karsatas;

in which hamlet there is a church of Saint Theodore.

Into this church Saracens entered and settled, working all manner of filth and uncleanness with women, children, and beasts.

Now on one of the days, when many of them were sitting and conversing, one of them shot an arrow at the image of Saint Theodore and struck it on its right shoulder, and immediately blood came forth and ran down to the bottom of the image, while all beheld the sign that had occurred, and the arrow fixed in the shoulder of the saint, and the blood running down.

And yet, beholding such a marvelous sign that had occurred, they did not come to their senses;

the one who shot the arrow did not repent, not one of them was troubled in himself, they did not depart from the church, they did not cease defiling it.

And indeed they paid the uttermost penalty.

For there being twenty-four households of those dwelling in the church, within a few days all of them were wiped out by a bitter death, none of these dying in that same hamlet except those very ones who dwelt in the church, in those same days.

This image, then, which was pierced by the arrow, still survives, bearing both the wound of the arrow and the mark of the blood.

And many are still living of those who beheld it and were present at the time when this marvel occurred.

And I too, as one who beheld his image, and having beheld what I beheld, have written it down.

From the Life of Saint Symeon the Wonderworker, an account by Arcadius, archbishop of Cyprus, the one hundred and thirty-second miracle:

Now it came to pass in those days that a certain market-man of the city of Antioch was held in grievous constraint by an evil demon and was straitened for a long time, so that he was being choked by it, his breathing-passages being squeezed shut.

This man went up to the saint and, obtaining healing through his intercessions and becoming as one who had suffered no harm, returned to his own house; and in thanksgiving he set up for him an image in a public and conspicuous place of the city, above the doors of his workshop.

And some of the unbelievers, seeing it thus honorably glorified with lamps and curtains, and being filled with envy, stirred up others like themselves, disorderly men, so that a crowd gathered and cried out tumultuously:

“Take from life the one who has done this, and let the image be cast down!” But it came to pass, by the dispensation of God,

that the man was not found at that time in his house;

for they were eager to do away with him, with some crying one thing and some another.

For their wickedness was great and exceedingly grievous before God, and their envy beyond measure, under whose impulse they had come together for this purpose, thinking they had found an opportunity to rise up in sedition and to insult the saint, as one who had often refuted the false belief and error of the Hellenizers among them.

Since, then, they could not bear so great a madness, they charged one of the soldiers to go up by the steps and cast down the image.

But when that man had gone up and stretched out his hands to do what was commanded, immediately he was hurled down from above, falling to the ground; and there was a great uproar among the crowd.

And being inflamed, they set about bringing up another; and when he too had stretched out his hands to pull it down, in like manner he was hurled to the ground.

And when this had happened, all being afraid began to put the seal of the Cross upon themselves.

But those unbelievers, raging the more, set about bringing up a third for this purpose; and as he too stretched out his hands to cast down the image, in like manner he himself was hurled to the ground.

Then great fear came upon all the faithful standing round, who, being astounded at the callousness and audacity of those unbelieving and unholy men, venerated the image with prayer and departed.

Of Saint John Chrysostom, from the oration “To Recognize that You Pass Through the Midst of Snares”:

Let us not, then, beloved, be grieved, nor cast down at the present affliction, but let us marvel at the resourcefulness of God's wisdom;

for by the very means through which the devil expected to bring down our city, by these very means God has raised it up and set it upright.

For the devil breathed into certain lawless men, and they insulted the statues of the emperors, that he might wipe out the very ground of the city.

But since the rash deeds were committed, and certain defiled and utterly defiled men, trampling on the laws, threw down the statues and hung over all the danger of the worst extremities, and now we are in dread for life itself, having provoked the emperor, no longer does the loss of property gnaw at us, but I hear them saying other things instead of all those:

“Let the emperor take our substance; we will gladly give up the marketplaces and the houses;

let someone only promise to keep our naked body safe for us.” Just as here, then, before the fear of death came upon us, the loss of property gnawed at us; but when the lawless deeds were dared, the pain of the loss, being driven out by it, departed... Of the same author:

Do you not know that, even if someone does not commit robbery, yet if he is seen in the robbers' den, he is given the same penalty as they? And why do I speak of the affair of the robbers? You all surely know and remember that certain defiled men and sorcerers among us threw down the statues; but as many as were simply present and appeared at what was being done, being seized and arraigned to court together with those men, paid the uttermost penalty.

Of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, from the Religious History, concerning Macedonius the Asianite:

And at another time, when the city was thrown into frenzy by some evil demon, on the pretext, forsooth, of driving away a plague, they laid hands in their madness, senselessly, upon the imperial monuments... From the Ecclesiastical History of Theodore the Reader of Constantinople, concerning a certain heretic, Palladius:

And Palladius, bishop of Antioch, acting to gain favor with the emperor, loathed those who followed the holy doctrines of Chalcedon, and took down the images of the holy fathers.

From the Life of Saint Constantine, the third book, chapter four:

His own heart's desires, then, were being accomplished; but the workings of envious malice were grievously troubling the churches throughout Alexandria, and the schisms of the Thebans and Egyptians were causing them, along with other no small evils, those very men

clashing in each city, bishops against bishops and peoples rising up against peoples, all but coming to blows, hacking one another to pieces, so that one could see men, in a derangement of mind, impiously attempting even to insult the images of the emperors in their folly.

From the Ecclesiastical History, concerning those who held the views of Dioscorus:

For he had come to such a pitch of audacity that he even removed the names of the blessed shepherds who had been there from the sacred diptychs, and took down their images and burned them tyrannically.

From the same History, concerning the heretic who succeeded to the throne of Constantinople after Macedonius:

This unholy man, going to the assemblies, ordering the venerable houses to be inspected, if anywhere he found Macedonius not depicted in an image, unless he took that image down, he would not perform the liturgy.

From the same History, concerning Julian and Timothy (also called Aelurus, 'the Cat'):

This Julian, some of those who delight in disturbances know to have been set up against Timothy the bishop by the aforesaid Macedonius, and for what cause he was being set up.

Through those who served him, having quickly brought him forward, with civic magistrates also present in the episcopal residence, he tried to compel them to subject the acts of the Council of Chalcedon to anathema.

But the old man, entreating before the images of the departed priests Flavian and Anatolius, the archbishops who had been depicted in Constantinople, through whom the Council of Chalcedon had gained its authority, cried aloud:

“Unless you are willing to refrain from anathematizing the acts of the said holy Council, you must wipe out the images of the bishops and the sacred diptychs!”... Of Chrysostom, from the homily on Saint Flavian of Antioch:

And the crowd showed itself to be what it is;

for, using unreason as their general for impulse, they rushed against the imperial images and monuments, and casting them down, dragged them through the marketplace.

For madness made the wits rave, and wrath blinded their sober reasonings.

From the same oration, from the address of the patriarch Flavian to Theodosius the Great, the emperor:

We do not hide the sin, of which creation itself is the accuser.

We do not deny the madness with which we raged against your images—or rather, against ourselves—but we await your loving-kindness as those condemned.

And again of the same author, from the homily on Saint Flavian:

“Do not destroy so many images for the sake of one bronze image.”

“Do not shatter so many divine works of formation for the sake of one bronze-wrought formation that can easily be re-cast.”

Of the same Chrysostom, from the homily “That the Lawgiver of the Old and the New is One,” and on the vestment of the priest:

I too have loved the wax-poured painting, full of piety;

for I saw an angel in an image driving off bands of barbarians, and the tribes of the barbarians trodden down, and David speaking truly:

“O Lord, in Your city You will bring their image to nothing.” Of Saint Basil, on the encomium of the holy Forty Martyrs:

Come now, then; bringing them into our midst through this remembrance, let us make the benefit from them common to those present, displaying to all, as in a painting, the heroic deeds of these men; since even the valorous deeds of wars are signified both by writers of speeches and by painters—the one adorning them with words, the others engraving them on tablets—and both have roused many to bravery.

For what the word of history sets forth through hearing, this painting, though silent, shows through imitation.

Of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, from his poems:

Either do not teach, or teach by your manner of life; do not draw with one hand and push away with the other. Doing what is needful, you will have less need to speak.

The painter teaches the more by his depictions.

If, he says, you do not teach by your manner of life, do not teach by word, lest those whom you draw by word, you should drive away through not having an upright manner of life;

for in doing what one ought, this complete action is also a word

of teaching, just as the painter teaches the more by his figures.

Nor shall Polemon be passed over by me in silence;

for indeed the wonder is among the things most talked of.

Formerly this man was not among the temperate, and was exceedingly base, a servant of pleasures.

But when he was gripped by love of the noble, having found a counselor—I cannot say who, whether some wise man or his own self—all at once he was seen to be so far above the passions that I will set down one of his wonders.

A certain incontinent youth invited a courtesan; and when she came near, they say, to the gateway, over which Polemon was leaning out in a picture, she, seeing this,

departed at once, overcome by the sight, ashamed before the painted man as though he were alive.

Of Chrysostom, from the epistle to Timothy, chapter eight:

But be an example of the believers, in all things presenting yourself as a pattern of good works—that is, by the archetype of your life, be yourself set forth as an image.

From the address of the holy Sixth Council:

Again Nestorius, and again Celestine and Cyril; for the one divided and tore Christ asunder, while the others, taking up the cause of the Master, cast down the dismemberer.

Ephesus bears witness to these things, and the panels of what was done there, by an unwritten voice, silently proclaim the matters.

Of the most ancient Clement, presbyter of Alexandria, from the seventh book of the Stromateis:

Therefore he not only praises noble things, but himself strives to be noble, passing over from being a good and faithful servant, through love, into a friend, on account of the perfection of his disposition, which he purely acquired from true instruction and much joint discipline.

So that he may attain to the summit of knowledge, striving in character and adorned, restrained in deportment, possessing all those advantages that belong to the one who is truly a knower, looking to the noble images—reckoning the many patriarchs who attained righteousness before him, the very many prophets, the angels beyond all our numbering, and the Lord over all, who taught and showed it to be possible to acquire the life of those chief ones.

Of Saint Theodore, bishop of Pentapolis: