3

striving to conquer by a different kind of cruelty. For those [beasts] come to this feast by the necessity of nature, and when they are sated, they depart, and even if they see countless bodies, they touch none of them; but this one [the persecutor] went to this meal even by the wickedness of his will, and having been sated with their very flesh, he weaves another scheme against them, delivering the saints to a most long and most difficult death; for he ordered them to work in the mines continually. O, the folly! Having received such clear proof of their courage and of their endurance, he expected to overcome them by this. And so the saints dwelt with wild beasts, they who were fellow-dwellers with the angels, and citizens of the heavens, and who were henceforth enrolled in the Jerusalem above, and the wilderness was henceforth holier than any city. For in the cities these lawless and tyrannical commands were dared each day; but the wilderness had exemption from the inhuman service; and the courts were full of unholy deeds and lawless commands; but the desolate places had citizens more law-abiding than all other people, those who from men had become angels, and the wilderness rivaled heaven, at least in the virtue of the citizens who dwelled there. And by nature the punishment was most difficult, but by the zeal of the contestants it became easy and light and manageable. Then they thought they saw the light multiplied, and they thought they had already received that light which was spoken by the prophet, that The moon shall be as the sun, and the sun sevenfold.

For there is not, there is not a soul more cheerful than one deemed worthy to suffer for Christ any of the things that 50.697 seem to us terrible and unbearable. Already they thought they were translated to heaven and dancing with angels. For what more did they need of heaven and of angels, when Jesus the Master of angels was with them in the wilderness? For if, where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in their midst, much more was He then in the midst of those who were gathered, not just in His name, but continually punished for the sake of His name. For you know, you know clearly, that there is no other punishment more severe than this, and that those condemned by this sentence would have chosen to endure ten thousand other deaths rather than to endure the pain that came from it. They were delivered to the mines, where it was necessary to dig up copper, though they themselves were often more precious than metallic gold and of immaterial gold, not dug up by the hands of convicts, but found by the zeal of faithful men; they who were full of ten thousand treasures worked the mines. What is more bitter and more painful than that life? They saw also fulfilled in themselves the accounts of those great men, which Paul relates concerning the saints, saying: They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy [wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth. These things also happened in our generation]. Knowing these things, therefore, we too, beloved, that both now and of old, since men have existed, all who are friends to God have been allotted a harsh and toilsome life, full of 50.698 ten thousand terrors, let us not pursue the soft and dissolute life, full of ease, but the toilsome, the painful one, which has afflictions and hardships. For just as it is not possible for the athlete to win the crowns through sleep and indolence and luxury, nor the soldier the trophies, nor the pilot the harbor, nor the farmer the filled threshing-floor; so neither is it possible for the faithful one who has spent his life in indolence to attain the promised goods.

How then is it not absurd that in all the affairs of life, labors are set before pleasure, and dangers before safety, and this while the expectation from those labors remains trivial and small; but when heaven is set before us,

3

ἄλλης ὠμότητος ἐκνικῆσαι φιλονεικῶν. Ἐκεῖνα γὰρ ἀνάγκῃ φύσεως πρὸς τὴν θοίνην ἔρχεται ταύτην, καὶ κορεσθέντα ἄπεισι, κἂν μυρία ἴδῃ σώματα, οὐδενὸς ἐκείνων ἐφάπτεται· οὗτος δὲ καὶ πονηρίᾳ προαιρέσεως ἐπὶ τὴν βορὰν ᾔει ταύτην, καὶ τῶν σαρκῶν αὐτῶν ἐμπλησθεὶς, ἑτέραν πλέκει κατ' αὐτῶν μηχανὴν, μακροτάτῳ καὶ χαλεπωτάτῳ θανάτῳ τοὺς ἁγίους παραδούς· προσέταξε γὰρ ἐν τοῖς μετάλλοις αὐτοὺς ἐργάζεσθαι διηνεκῶς. Ὢ τῆς ἀπονοίας! πεῖραν οὕτω σαφῆ λαβὼν τῆς ἀνδρείας αὐτῶν, καὶ τῆς ὑπομονῆς, ταύτῃ προσεδόκησε περιέσεσθαι. Καὶ δὴ θηρίοις συνῴκουν οἱ ἅγιοι, οἱ τῶν ἀγγέλων σύνοικοι, καὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν πολῖται, καὶ εἰς τὴν ἄνω λοιπὸν γραφέντες Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ἦν πάσης πόλεως λοιπὸν ἡ ἔρημος ἁγιωτέρα. Ἐν μὲν γὰρ ταῖς πόλεσι τὰ παράνομα ταῦτα καὶ τυραννικὰ ἐτολμᾶτο καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἐπιτάγματα· ἡ δὲ ἔρημος ἀτέλειαν εἶχε τῆς ἀπανθρώπου λειτουργίας· καὶ τὰ μὲν δικαστήρια ἀνοσίας πράξεως ἔγεμε καὶ ἀθέσμων ἐπιταγμάτων· αἱ δὲ ἐρημίαι τοὺς πάντων ἀνθρώπων εὐνομωτέρους εἶχον πολίτας, τοὺς ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀγγέλους γεγενημένους, καὶ πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἡ ἔρημος ἡμιλλᾶτο, τό γε ἐκ τῆς ἀρετῆς τῶν οἰκούντων πολιτῶν. Καὶ φύσει μὲν ἦν ἡ τιμωρία χαλεπωτάτη, τῇ δὲ προθυμίᾳ τῶν ἀγωνιζομένων ἐγένετο ῥᾳδία καὶ κούφη καὶ εὔπορος. Πολλαπλάσιον τότε ἐνόμιζον ὁρᾷν τὸ φῶς, καὶ τὸ εἰρημένον παρὰ τῷ προφήτῃ, ὅτι Ἡ σελήνη ἔσται ὡς ὁ ἥλιος, ὁ δὲ ἥλιος ἑπταπλασίων, τοῦτο ἀπειληφέναι τὸ φῶς ἤδη ἐνόμιζον.

Οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστι ψυχῆς εὐθυμότερον καταξιουμένης ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ παθεῖν τι τῶν 50.697 δεινῶν καὶ ἀφορήτων εἶναι δοκούντων ἡμῖν. Ἤδη πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν μεθεστάναι καὶ μετ' ἀγγέλων χορεύειν ἐνόμιζον. Τί γὰρ μᾶλλον αὐτοῖς οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἀγγέλων ἔδει, τοῦ τῶν ἀγγέλων ∆εσπότου μετ' αὐτῶν ὄντος Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς ἐρήμου; Εἰ γὰρ, ὅπου εἰσὶ δύο ἢ τρεῖς συνηγμένοι εἰς τὸ αὐτοῦ ὄνομα, ἐκεῖ ἐστιν ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐν μέσῳ ἐκείνων ἦν τότε συνειλεγμένων, οὐχ ὡς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος κολαζομένων διηνεκῶς. Ἴστε γὰρ, ἴστε σαφῶς, ὅτι τῆς τιμωρίας ταύτης οὐκ ἔστιν ἑτέρα χαλεπωτέρα, καὶ ὅτι μυρίους θανάτους ἄλλους ἂν εἵλοντο ὑπομεῖναι οἱ ταύτῃ τῇ ψήφῳ καταδικαζόμενοι, ἢ τῆς ὀδύνης ἀνέχεσθαι τῆς ἐκεῖθεν γενομένης. Παρεδόθησαν μετάλλοις, ἔνθα χαλκὸν ἀνορύττειν ἔδει, πολλάκις αὐτοὶ μετάλλου χρυσίου ὄντες τιμιώτεροι καὶ ἀΰλου χρυσίου, οὐ καταδίκων ἀνορυττομένου χερσὶν, ἀλλὰ πιστῶν ἀνδρῶν προθυμίᾳ εὑρεθέντος· εἰργάζοντο μέταλλα οἱ μυρίων γέμοντες θησαυρῶν. Τί τῆς ζωῆς ἐκείνης πικρότερον καὶ ὀδυνηρότερον; Ἑώρων καὶ εἰς ἑαυτοὺς ἐκβαίνοντα τὰ περὶ τῶν μεγάλων ἐκείνων ἀνδρῶν διηγήματα, ἃ περὶ τῶν ἁγίων διέξεισι λέγων ὁ Παῦλος· Περιῆλθον ἐν μηλωταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοις δέρμασιν, ὑστερούμενοι, θλιβόμενοι, κακουχούμενοι, ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄξιος ὁ κόσμος [ἐν ἐρημίαις πλανώμενοι καὶ ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις καὶ ταῖς ὀπαῖς τῆς γῆς. Ταῦτα καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γενεᾶς ἐγένετο τῆς ἡμετέρας]. Ταῦτ' οὖν εἰδότες καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἀγαπητοὶ, ὅτι καὶ νῦν καὶ πάλαι, ἐξ οὗ γεγόνασιν ἄνθρωποι, ἅπαντες οἱ τῷ Θεῷ φίλοι τῷ στυγνῷ καὶ ἐπιμόχθῳ καὶ μυ 50.698 ρίων γέμοντι δεινῶν ἐκληρώθησαν βίῳ, μὴ τὸν ὑγρὸν καὶ διαλελυμένον καὶ τὸν ἀνέσεως γέμοντα διώκωμεν βίον, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἐπίμοχθον, τὸν ἐπίπονον, τὸν θλίψεις ἔχοντα καὶ ταλαιπωρίας. Ὥσπερ γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι τὸν ἀγωνιζόμενον δι' ὕπνου καὶ ῥᾳθυμίας καὶ τρυφῆς τῶν στεφάνων ἐπιτυχεῖν, οὐδὲ τὸν στρατιώτην τῶν τροπαίων, οὐδὲ τὸν κυβερνήτην τοῦ λιμένος, οὐδὲ τὸν γηπόνον τῆς ἅλω πεπληρωμένης· οὕτως οὐδὲ τὸν πιστὸν διὰ ῥᾳθυμίας τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον διαγαγόντα τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων τυχεῖν ἀγαθῶν.

Πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἄτοπον ἐν μὲν τοῖς βιωτικοῖς ἅπασι τοὺς πόνους προκεῖσθαι πρὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς, καὶ τοὺς κινδύνους πρὸς τῆς ἀσφαλείας, καὶ ταῦτα εὐτελοῦς καὶ μικρᾶς τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν πόνων ἐκείνων προσδοκίας μενούσης· ὅταν δὲ οὐρανὸς προκείμενος ᾖ,