Oration VIII. Funeral Oration on his Sister Gorgonia.

 1.  In praising my sister, I shall pay honour to one of my own family yet my praise will not be false, because it is given to a relation, but, becaus

 2.  Yet it would be most unreasonable of all, if, while we refuse to regard it as a righteous thing to defraud, insult, accuse, or treat unjustly in a

 3.  Having now made a sufficient defence on these points, and shown how necessary it is for me to be the speaker, come, let me proceed with my eulogy,

 4.  Who is there who knows not the Abraham and Sarah of these our latter days, Gregory and Nonna his wife?  For it is not well to omit the incitement

 5.  This good shepherd was the result of his wife’s prayers and guidance, and it was from her that he learned his ideal of a good shepherd’s life.  He

 6.  From them Gorgonia derived both her existence and her reputation they sowed in her the seeds of piety, they were the source of her fair life, and

 7.  This is what I know upon these points:  and therefore it is that I both am aware and assert that her soul was more noble than those of the East, a

 8.  In modesty she so greatly excelled, and so far surpassed, those of her own day, to say nothing of those of old time who have been illustrious for

 9.  The divine Solomon, in his instructive wisdom, I mean his Proverbs, praises the woman who looks to her household and loves her husband, contrastin

 10.  Here, if you will, is another point of her excellence:  one of which neither she nor any truly modest and decorous woman thinks anything:  but wh

 11.  Enough of such topics.  Of her prudence and piety no adequate account can be given, nor many examples found besides those of her natural and spir

 12.  Who opened her house to those who live according to God with a more graceful and bountiful welcome?  And, which is greater than this, who bade th

 13.  But amid these tokens of incredible magnanimity, she did not surrender her body to luxury, and unrestrained pleasures of the appetite, that ragin

 14.  O untended body, and squalid garments, whose only flower is virtue!  O soul, clinging to the body, when reduced almost to an immaterial state thr

 15.  Oh! how am I to count up all her traits, or pass over most of them without injury to those who know them not?  Here however it is right to subjoi

 16.  O remarkable and wonderful disaster!  O injury more noble than security!  O prophecy, “He hath smitten, and He will bind us up, and revive us, an

 17.  She was sick in body, and dangerously ill of an extraordinary and malignant disease, her whole frame was incessantly fevered, her blood at one ti

 18.  What then did this great soul, worthy offspring of the greatest, and what was the medicine for her disorder, for we have now come to the great se

 19.  Such was her life.  Most of its details I have left untold, lest my speech should grow to undue proportions, and lest I should seem to be too gre

 20.  She had recently obtained the blessing of cleansing and perfection, which we have all received from God as a common gift and foundation of our ne

 21.  And now when she had all things to her mind, and nothing was lacking of her desires, and the appointed time drew nigh, being thus prepared for de

 22.  Yet what was I on the point of omitting?  But perhaps thou, who art her spiritual father, wouldst not have allowed me, and hast carefully conceal

 23.  Better, I know well, and far more precious than eye can see, is thy present lot, the song of them that keep holy-day, the throng of angels, the h

14.  O untended body, and squalid garments, whose only flower is virtue!  O soul, clinging to the body, when reduced almost to an immaterial state through lack of food; or rather, when the body had been mortified by force, even before dissolution, that the soul might attain to freedom, and escape the entanglements of the senses!  O nights of vigil, and psalmody, and standing which lasts from one day to another!  O David, whose strains never seem tedious to faithful souls!  O tender limbs, flung upon the earth and, contrary to nature, growing hard!  O fountains of tears, sowing in affliction that they might reap in joy.10    Ps. cxxvi. 5.  O cry in the night, piercing the clouds and reaching unto Him that dwelleth in the heavens!  O fervour of spirit, waxing bold in prayerful longings against the dogs of night, and frosts and rain, and thunders, and hail, and darkness!  O nature of woman overcoming that of man in the common struggle for salvation, and demonstrating that the distinction between male and female is one of body not of soul!  O Baptismal purity, O soul, in the pure chamber of thy body, the bride of Christ!  O bitter eating!  O Eve mother of our race and of our sin!  O subtle serpent, and death, overcome by her self-discipline!  O self-emptying of Christ, and form of a servant, and sufferings, honoured by her mortification!

ΙΔʹ. Ὢ πιναροῦ σώματος καὶ ἐνδύματος, ἀρετῇ μόνον ἀνθοῦντος! Ὢ ψυχῆς διακρατούσης τὸ σῶμα, καὶ δίχα τροφῆς σχεδὸν, ὥσπερ ἄϋλον! μᾶλλον δὲ σώματος βιασαμένου νεκρωθῆναι καὶ πρὸ τῆς διαζεύξεως, ἵν' ἐλευθερίαν λάβῃ ψυχὴ, καὶ μὴ παραποδίζηται ταῖς αἰσθήσεσιν! Ὢ νυκτῶν ἀΰπνων, καὶ ψαλμῳδίας, καὶ στάσεως ἐξ ἡμέρας εἰς ἡμέραν ἀποληγούσης! Ὢ Δαβὶδ, ταῖς πισταῖς μόνον ψυχαῖς οὐ μακρὰ μελῳδήσας! Ὢ μελῶν ἁπαλότητος ἐπὶ γῆς ἐῤῥιμμένων, καὶ παρὰ τὴν φύσιν τραχυνομένων! Ὢ πηγαὶ δακρύων σπειρομένων ἐκ θλίψεως, ἵν' ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει θερίσαιεν! Ὢ βοῆς νυκτερινῆς νεφέλας διερχομένης, καὶ φθανούσης πρὸς τὸν οὐράνιον! Ὢ θερμότητος πνεύματος, κυνῶν κατατολμώσης νυκτερινῶν δι' ἐπιθυμίαν εὐχῆς, καὶ κρυμῶν, καὶ ὑετῶν, καὶ βροντῶν, καὶ χαλάζης, καὶ ἀωρίας! Ὢ γυναικεία φύσις τὴν ἀνδρείαν νικήσασα διὰ τὸν κοινὸν ἀγῶνα τῆς σωτηρίας, καὶ σώματος διαφορὰν οὐ ψυχῆς τὸ θῆλυ καὶ τὸ ἄῤῥεν ἐλέγξασα! Ὢ τῆς μετὰ λουτρὸν ἁγνείας, καὶ τῆς νύμφης Χριστοῦ ψυχῆς ἐν καθαρῷ νυμφῶνι τῷ σώματι! Ὢ πικρὰ γεῦσις, καὶ Εὔα μῆτερ καὶ γένους καὶ ἁμαρτίας, καὶ ὄφι πλάνε καὶ θάνατε, τῇ ἐκείνης ἐγκρατείᾳ νενικημένα! Ὢ Χριστοῦ κένωσις, καὶ δούλου μορφὴ, καὶ παθήματα, τῇ ἐκείνης νεκρώσει τετιμημένα!