Oration on the translation of Chrysostom An oration of Constantine, emperor in Christ himself, the eternal king, son of Leo the most wise and ever-memorable emperor, when the sacred and holy body of the wise Chrysostom, having been brought back from exile, was laid up like some most blessed and much-loved treasure in this queen and most brilliant of cities. Bless, father. What is more delightful than the spectacle now seen, or what is more brilliant than the present day? Behold a chosen people, dedicated to God alone and to virtue, and displaying such an abundance of its own good order and decorum, that no one can pass it by without approval and wonder and praise. For what fair-flowered meadow, luxuriant with all sorts of plants and brightened on all sides with various flowers, is so able to feast the eye and not allow it to wander elsewhere, but to hold the whole vision, as it were, captive to itself because of the beauty in it, as is this sacred assembly, the holy nation, the royal priesthood? And what is the manner of the assembly, and what has thus gathered us to the same place, or is it not manifest, that for the returning father Chrysostom the people of the Lord holds a triumph and prepares the procession, and for this reason great is the joy in each soul and piercing are the trumpets of words, as the assembly is worthy of the present day, as such a gathering is fitting for this brilliant and lovely festival? Wherefore come, let us joyfully cry out with a great and lofty proclamation: Blessed is God, who has deemed us worthy to arrive at this sacred and august festival, in which is the people of God, both sacred and holy, whom the Lord chose for himself, the one beautifully inscribed upon the immaterial hands of the Lord. For it is fitting for those present to be illumined in this way and appropriately from the prophetic predictions. Who gathered you as if from a sacred summons and, as one might say, from a command? From where, having received the occasions for the assembly here, did you accomplish so zealous and eager an arrival? Who is the one that gathered this public festival and compelled so great a swarm of sacred bees to pour forth as from some beehive of this sacred house, and this in such fierce severity of winter? Who showed the roads leading here to be constricted as in the movement of an army camp by the multitude of those flocking together, and this in the gloom of winter, when both Scythian and barbarian and whatever other most warlike and pugnacious of nations knows to be at rest, being cut off by the severity of winter from unseasonable travel, when the sea also becomes desolate of sailors and of navigation, and the farmer, having set aside the plough and the implements for farming, abundantly rears and tends the plough-oxen at the manger, or is it not manifest that this divine and august festival calls together all those who love God and who love Chrysostom, as lovers of their father, with a brilliant and joyous proclamation, and that the gloom of night, by the abundant light, being very fittingly transformed into the brilliance of day, is, to speak poetically, likened and compared in this to the starry heaven? Wherefore come, sacred people, chosen portion, honored and holy nation, the most excellent inheritance of the Lord, the beautiful and thrice-desired sheep, who, hearing the voice of the teacher well and for salvation, are customarily fed unto life-giving and saving pastures, weave for me this praise and cleanse your hearing and your mind from the turmoils of the marketplace, so that we may luxuriate in the remembrance of his beautiful teachings and behold the return of the athlete, as if from the starting posts of a double course to the turning post of victory; for even if we have not dared to undertake the whole of the subject, because of its impossibility,

Oratio de translatione Chrysostomi Κωνσταντίνου ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Χριστῷ, τῷ αἰωνίῳ βασιλεῖ, βασιλέως, υἱοῦ Λέοντος τοῦ σοφωτάτου καὶ ἀειμνήστου βασιλέως, λόγος, ἡνίκα τὸ τοῦ σοφοῦ Χρυσοστόμου ἱερὸν καὶ ἅγιον σκῆνος ἐκ τῆς ὑπερορίας ἀνακομισθὲν ὥσπερ τις πολύολβος καὶ πολυέραστος ἐναπετέθη θησαυρὸς τῇ βασιλίδι ταύτῃ καὶ ὑπερλάμπρῳ τῶν πόλεων. Εὐλόγησον πάτερ. Τὶ τερπνότερον τοῦ νῦν ὁρωμένου θεάματος ἢ τί λαμπρότερον τῆς παρούσης ἡμέρας; Ἰδοὺ λαὸς ἔκκριτος, θεῷ μόνῳ καὶ ἀρετῇ ἀνακείμενος καὶ τοσαύτην τῆς οἰκείας εὐταξίας καὶ κοσμιότητος τὴν περιουσίαν ἐπιδεικνύμενος, ὡς μή τινα χωρὶς ἀποδοχῆς καὶ θαύματος καὶ ἐπαίνου τοῦτον παραδραμεῖν. Ποῖος γὰρ λειμὼν εὐανθὴς παντοίοις κομῶν φυτοῖς καὶ ἄνθεσί τε ποικίλοις πάντοθεν καταγλαϊζόμενος οὕτω δύναται τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἑστιᾶσαι καὶ μὴ ἀλλαχοῦ πλανᾶσθαι παραχωρῆσαι, ἀλλ' ἐφ' ἑαυτὸν ὅλην τὴν ὅρασιν οἱονεὶ δέσμιον κρατῆσαι διὰ τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ κάλλος, ὡς τοῦτο τὸ ἱερὸν σύνταγμα, τὸ ἅγιον ἔθνος, τὸ βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα; Καὶ τίς ὁ τρόπος τῆς συνελεύσεως καὶ τίς ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ οὕτως συνήγαγεν ἢ πρόδηλον, ὡς ἐπανιόντι τῷ Χρυσοστόμῳ πατρὶ ὁ λαὸς Κυρίου θρίαμβον συγκροτεῖ καὶ προευτρεπίζεται τὴν πομπὴν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πολὺ τὸ χαῖρον ἐν τῇ ἑκάστου ψυχῇ καὶ διαπρύσιαι τῶν λόγων αἱ σάλπιγγες ὡς ἄξιον τῆς παρούσης ἡμέρας τὸ σύνταγμα, ὡς πρέπον τῇ λαμπρᾷ ταύτῃ καὶ ἐρασμίῳ πανηγύρει τὸ τοιοῦτον συνάθροισμα; ∆ιὸ δεῦτε χαρμονικῶς μεγάλῳ καὶ ὑψηλῷ τῷ κηρύγματι κράζωμεν· εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεός, ὁ καταξιώσας ἡμᾶς εἰς τήνδε τὴν ἱερὰν καὶ σεβάσμιον καταντῆσαι πανήγυριν, ἐν ᾗ ὁ λαὸς θεοῦ ἱερός τε καὶ ἅγιος, ὃν ἑαυτῷ Κύριος ἐξελέξατο, ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀΰλων Κυρίου χειρῶν καλῶς ἐζωγραφημένος. Ἄξιον γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν προφητικῶν προρρήσεων πρὸς τοὺς παρόντας οὑτωσί πως καὶ προσφυῶς ἐλλαμπρύνεσθαι. Τίς ὑμᾶς ὡς ἐξ ἱερᾶς προθεσμίας καὶ ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι ἐξ ἐπιτάγματος ἤθροισε; Πόθεν λαβόντες τὰς ἀφορμὰς τῆς συνελεύσεως τῆς ἐνθάδε σπουδαίαν οὕτω καὶ πρόθυμον τὴν ἄφιξιν ἀπειργάσασθε; Τίς ὁ τὴν πάνδημον ταύτην συναθροίσας πανήγυριν καὶ ὥσπερ ἔκ τινος σίμβλου τοῦ ἱεροῦ τούτου οἴκου ἐκχυθῆναι τὸν τοσοῦτον ἐσμὸν τῶν ἱερῶν μελισσῶν κατηνάγκασε καὶ ταῦτα ἐν οὕτω σφοδρᾷ τοῦ χειμῶνος δριμύτητι; Τίς ὥσπερ ἐν στρατοπέδου κινήματι στενοχωρουμένας ἔδειξεν ἐκ τῆς τῶν συρρεόντων πληθύος τὰς ἐνταῦθα φερούσας ὁδοὺς καὶ ταῦτα ἐν κατηφείᾳ χειμερινῇ, ἡνίκα καὶ Σκύθης καὶ βάρβαρος καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα πολεμικώτατα καὶ μάχιμα τῶν ἐθνῶν ἠρεμεῖν οἶδε διὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ χειμῶνος δριμύτητα τῆς ἀκαίρου πορείας ἀνακοπτό 307 μενα, ὅτε καὶ θάλασσα πλωτήρων ἔρημος καὶ ναυτιλίας καθίσταται καὶ γεωργὸς ἄροτρον καὶ τὰ πρὸς γεωργίαν ἀφεὶς ἐπιτήδεια τοὺς ἀροτῆρας βοῦς δαψιλῶς ἐπὶ φάτνης ἐκτρέφει καὶ θεραπεύει, ἢ πρόδηλον ὅτι λαμπρῷ καὶ περιχαρεῖ τῷ κηρύγματι πάντας τοὺς φιλοθέους καὶ φιλοχρυσοστόμους ὡς φιλοπάτορας ἡ θεία αὕτη καὶ σεβάσμιος συγκαλεῖται πανήγυρις καὶ δαψιλεῖ τῷ φωτὶ τὸ τῆς νυκτὸς ζοφῶδες πρὸς τὴν ἡμερινὴν λαμπρότητα προσφόρως πάνυ μεταλλαττόμενον καὶ ἐν τούτῳ ποιητικῶς εἰπεῖν τῷ ἀστερόεντι οὐρανῷ ἐξομοιοῦται καὶ ἀπεικάζεται; ∆ιὸ δεῦτε λαὸς ἱερός, μερὶς ἐκλεκτή, τίμιον ἔθνος καὶ ἅγιον, σχοίνισμα Κυρίου τὸ κράτιστον, τὰ καλὰ καὶ τριπόθητα πρόβατα, ἃ τῆς τοῦ διδασκάλου φωνῆς καλῶς καὶ σωτηρίως ἀκούοντα ἐπὶ νομὰς ζωηφόρους καὶ σωτηριώδεις συνήθως ἐκτρέφεσθε, τὴν εὐφημίαν μοι ἐνυφαίνοντες τῶν ἀγοραίων ταραχῶν καὶ ἀκοὴν ἀνακαθάρατε καὶ διάνοιαν, ἵνα τῇ τῶν ἐκείνου καλῶν διδαχῶν ἀναμνήσει κατατρυφήσωμεν καὶ τὴν ὥσπερ ἐκ μαστῶν διαύλων πρὸς τὴν τῆς νίκης νύσσαν ἐπάνοδον τοῦ ἀθλητοῦ κατοπτεύσωμεν· εἰ γὰρ καὶ μὴ πρὸς τὸ πᾶν τῆς ὑποθέσεως ἀποδύσασθαι διὰ τὸ ἀνέφικτον τεθαρρήκαμεν,