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by mouth. Hail, you who openly proclaimed the one of the Holy Trinity who became man for our salvation. Hail, you who spat upon wealth and luxury, and fabrics of silk threads, and precious stones, and gold-soldered pearls, and all bodily adornment and beauty, and the enjoyment of earthly delights, and exchanged these for eternal and incorruptible goods, which surpass the sight of eyes, and the hearing of ears, and every sense and thought. Hail, you who nobly and manfully strengthened the tenderness of your age and the weakness of the female sex with a firm resolve. Hail, you who did not shrink from the torments of punishments, but rather courageously gave yourself over to all kinds of tortures and rackings. Hail, you who, while dwelling in the flesh, were deemed worthy to see the glory of Christ, just as on the mountain the chief among the disciples, having seen with Elijah and Moses, were fittingly called blessed. Hail, you who for Christ's sake endured the pains of scourgings, and the scrapings of iron hooks, and the rubbing of roughest hair-cloth, and flows of blood, and the flames of fire, and the cutting off of limbs, and being paraded naked, and the removal of head and life, so that you might hereafter receive the immortal body, flashing with the splendors of incorruptibility, and clothed in a robe of glory, ineffable and unutterable. 20. Men justly marveled at you for your endurance, and angels fittingly applauded 96.809 and hymned your contest, but the demons shuddered at your psalmody and resistance, and were clothed with eternal shame and reproach. How the feminine and womanly nature is beautified, and glorified, and by your struggles is emboldened and anointed for noble manliness! In you the first mother fittingly boasts and rejoices, as having acquired a daughter who in turn wrestled and overthrew the adversary dragon who had wrestled her down, reclaiming the victory and raising up brilliant trophies against him. The holy of holies Theotokos and first mother, virgin and Mother of God, who first and alone glorified the female race, and who rules over all males and females, heavenly and earthly, since she was named mother of the one who is Lord of all, having seen you in female and youthful flesh casting down and utterly trampling the one who boasts immeasurably and rages to wipe out the sea and to grasp the whole world like a bird's nest, and having been delighted by your virtues, taking you in her arms, she seated and established you near herself, and imparted to you the highest honor and boldness, and displayed and presented you at the royal throne. 21. Every eloquent and elaborate speech of praise about you, therefore, grows dizzy and, fearing to approach, shrinks back. For it would be powerless to hymn fittingly, O all-praised and worthy of praise one, the sublime excellences of your admirable virtues. For the art of rhetorical eloquence, through skillful composition of words and polished and fluent persuasiveness, to praise physical beauty and fleshly comeliness, which consists of symmetry of limbs with a good complexion. And in addition also oftentimes strength, and good condition and the dignity of mortal nobility, and a conspicuous rank, if it be so, and the distinction of one's fatherland, and abundance of wealth, flowing and slippery, and easily changing. Which things, having all come together at once to be a subject for a speech of praise, is both difficult to obtain and most laborious; but all the things which the speech distinguished and enumerated by type, like a flower of the grass that withers and perishes, and like the deceptive and phantom-like vision of pleasant dreams, appearing and passing by at the same time, are more quickly and in a short, and sometimes even in the very, time both destroyed and

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στόματι. Χαῖρε, ἡ τὸν ἕνα τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐνανθρωπήσαντα σωτηρίαν, ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ κηρύξασα. Χαῖρε, ἡ πλοῦτον καὶ τρυφὴν, καὶ σηρῶν νημάτων ὑφάσματα, καὶ λίθων πολυτιμήτων, καὶ μαργαρίτων χρυσοκολλήτων, καὶ πᾶσαν σωματικὴν εὐκοσμίαν καὶ ὡραιότητα, καὶ τῶν ἐπιγείων τερπνοτήτων ἀπόλαυσιν διαπτύσασα, καὶ τούτων ἀνταλλαξαμένη αἰώνια ἀγαθὰ καὶ ἀκήρατα, τὰ ὀμμάτων ὅρασιν, καὶ ὤτων ἀκοὴν, καὶ πᾶσαν αἴσθησίν τε καὶ νόησιν ὑπεραίροντα. Χαῖρε, ἡ τὸ τῆς ἡλικίας τρυφερὸν, καὶ τὸ τοῦ θήλεως ἀσθενὲς γεννικῶς καὶ ἀνδρικῶς στερεώσασα συντόνῳ φρονήματι. Χαῖρε, ἡ πρὸς τοὺς τῶν κολάσεων αἰκισμοὺς μὴ δειλανδρήσασα, θαρσαλέως δὲ μᾶλλον ἑαυτὴν ἐπιδοῦσα παντοίοις βασανιστηρίων εἴδεσι καὶ στρεβλώσεσι. Χαῖρε, ἡ ἐν σαρκὶ διατρίβουσα, Χριστοῦ τὴν δόξαν ἰδεῖν ἠξιωμένη, ὡς ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῶν μαθητῶν οἱ πρόκριτοι, σὺν Ἠλίᾳ καὶ Μωσῇ τεθεαμένοι, προσηκόντως ἐμακαρίσθησαν. Χαῖρε, ἡ τῶν μαστίγων τὰς ἀλγηδόνας, καὶ σιδήρων καταξέσεις, καὶ τραχυτάτων τριχίνων ὑφασμάτων ἐκτρίψεις, καὶ αἱμάτων ῥοὰς, καὶ πυρὸς φλογισμοὺς, καὶ μελῶν ἐκτομὰς, καὶ γυμνὴν ἐκπόμπευσιν, καὶ κεφαλῆς καὶ ζωῆς ὑφαίρεσιν διὰ Χριστὸν ὑπομείνασα, ἵνα τὸ σῶμα λοιπὸν λάβῃς ἀθάνατον, ἀφθαρσίας μαρμαρυγὰς ἀπαστράπτον, καὶ δόξης ἠμφιεσμένον στολὴν ἄφραστον καὶ ἀνεκλάλητον. κʹ. Σὲ δικαίως τῆς καρτερίας ἐθαύμασαν ἄνθρωποι, ἄγγελοι δὲ εἰκότως τὴν ἄθλησιν ἐκρότησάν τε 96.809 καὶ ὕμνησαν, οἱ δὲ δαίμονες, τὴν σὴν ὑμνῳδίαν τε καὶ ἔνστασιν ἔφριξαν, καὶ αἰσχύνην, καὶ ὄνειδος αἰώνιον ἠμφιάσαντο. Ὡς τὸ θηλυκὸν καὶ γυναικεῖον φύλον ἐγκαλλωπίζεται, καὶ σεμνύνεται, καὶ πρὸς εὐανδρίαν τοῖς σοῖς ἄθλοις θαρσοποιεῖται, καὶ ἐπαλείφεται! Ἐν σοὶ προσφόρως ἡ προμήτωρ ἐγκαυχᾶται, καὶ γέγηθεν, ὡς θυγάτριον κτησαμένη, τὸν ἐκείνην καταπαλαίσαντα ἀντίπαλον δράκοντα αὖθις ἀναπαλαῖσαν, καὶ ἀνατρέψαν, καὶ τὴν νίκην ἀνακαλεσάμενον, καὶ λαμπρὰ κατ' αὐτοῦ ἀράμενον τρόπαια. Σὲ ἡ τῶν ἁγίων ἁγία Θεοτόκος καὶ προμήτωρ, παρθένος καὶ Θεομήτωρ, ἡ τὸ θῆλυ μὲν γένος πρώτη καὶ μόνη δοξάσασα, πάντων δὲ ἀῤῥένων καὶ θηλύων, οὐρανίων τε καὶ ἐπιγείων ἀνάσσουσα, ὡς τοῦ πάντων δεσπόζοντος μήτηρ χρηματίσασα, ἐν γυναικείῳ καὶ μειρακίῳ σαρκίῳ, τὸν εἰς τὰ ἄμετρα καυχώμενον, καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν ἐξαλείφειν, καὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην ὡς νοσσιὰν περιδράττεσθαι φρυαττόμενον, καταβαλοῦσαν ἰδοῦσα, καὶ κατακράτος καταπατήσασαν. Καὶ ταῖς ἀρεταῖς τερφθεῖσα, ὠλέναις προλαβοῦσα, πλησίον ἐκάθισε καὶ καθίδρυσεν, καὶ τῆς ἀνωτάτω τιμῆς καὶ παῤῥησίας μετέδωκεν, καὶ τῷ βασιλικῷ θρόνῳ ἐνεφάνισεν καὶ παρέστησεν. καʹ. Ἅπας οὖν ἐπὶ σοὶ λόγος ἐγκωμιαστικὸς κατευγλωττισμένος καὶ περιττὸς ἰλιγγιᾷ, καὶ δεδοικὼς προσιέναι, συστέλλεται. Ὑμνεῖν γὰρ προσφυῶς ἀδρανὴς, πανύμνητε, καὶ ἀξιέπαινε, ἂν εἴη τῶν ἀξιαγάστων σου ἀρετῶν τὰ ὑπερφυῆ προτερήματα. Τέχνη μὲν γὰρ ῥητορικῆς εὐγλωττίας, δι' εὐστρόφου ῥημάτων συνθήκης, καὶ κεκομψευμένης καὶ τροχαλῆς πειθανότητος κάλλος σωματικὸν ἐπαινεῖν, καὶ σαρκικὴν ὡραιότητα, ἥτις ἐκ μελῶν συμμετρίας μετ' εὐχροίας συνέστησεν. Πρὸς δὲ καὶ ῥώμην πολλάκις, εὐπάθειάν τε καὶ θνητῆς εὐγενείας σεμνότητα, περιφανές τε, εἰ τύχοι, ἀξίωμα, καὶ τὸ τῆς πατρίδος ἐπίσημον, καὶ πλούτου δαψιλείαν ῥέουσάν τε καὶ ὀλισθαίνουσαν, καὶ εὐχερῶς μεταπίπτουσαν. Ἅπερ ἅμα συνδεδραμηκότα τῷ λόγῳ ὑποκεῖσθαι πρὸς εὐφημίαν, δυσπόριστόν τε καὶ ἐργωδέστατον· πλὴν ἅπαντα ὅσα κατ' εἶδος ὁ λόγος διεστείλατο, καὶ κατέλεξεν, ὡς ἄνθος χόρτου μαραινόμενον καὶ φθειρόμενον, καὶ ὡς χρηστῶν ὀνείρων ἀπατηλὴ καὶ φασματώδης ὄψις, ἅμα φαινομένη καὶ παρατρέχουσα, θᾶττον καὶ ἐν βραχεῖ ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ τῷ χρόνῳ καταλυόμενά τε καὶ