1

 2

 3

 4

 5

 6

 7

 8

 9

 10

 11

 12

 13

 14

 15

 16

 17

 18

 19

 20

 21

 22

 23

 24

 25

 26

 27

 28

 29

 30

 31

 32

 33

 34

 35

 36

 37

 38

 39

 40

 41

 42

 43

 44

 45

 46

 47

 48

 49

 50

 51

 52

 53

 54

 55

 56

18

mincing in her garments, dragging her tunics—which the prophet rebuked—, behaving affectedly in her gait, and through her voice and through her eyes and through her dress mixing a poisonous cup for those who look licentiously and digging deeper pits for those passing by and setting snares from this, how will you then call this one a virgin, but will you not count her among the women who commit fornication? For those women are not as great a lure as these become, spreading out from every side the wings of pleasure. For these things we bless you, for these things we admire you, because, having been freed from all these things, you have also demonstrated mortification in this respect, not beautifying yourself, but being courageous, not adorning yourself, but arming yourself. 8.10 But since we have so far shown the lion from its claw, and this in part; for I have not gone over this entire accomplishment of yours; for as I said before, I fear to enter into the infinite seas of your other achievements; and besides, we did not set out now to speak an encomium for your holy soul, but to prepare a medicine of consolation; come, let us take up again what was said before. And what did we say before? Having been released from considering what this person has sinned and what that person has done wrong, think continuously of your struggles of fortitude, of patience, of fasting, of prayers, of the holy vigils, of continence, of almsgiving, of hospitality, of the various and difficult and frequent temptations. Consider how from your earliest years until the present day you have not ceased feeding the hungry Christ, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, gathering in the stranger, visiting the sick, going to the imprisoned. Consider the sea of your love, which you opened up so much as to arrive at the very ends of the inhabited world with great force. For not only was your house opened to everyone who came, but also everywhere on land and sea many enjoyed this generosity through your hospitality. Gathering all these things together, then, delight and rejoice in the hope of these crowns and prizes. But if you also desire to see these lawless and bloodthirsty men, who have done things much worse than these, paying the penalty, you will see this also then. For Lazarus also saw the rich man being tormented in the flames. For although a place was appointed for them because of the difference of their life and the chasm separated them and the one was in the bosom of Abraham, but the other in the unbearable furnaces, but nevertheless Lazarus both saw him and heard his voice and answered. These things will also be for you then. For if one who overlooks a single person receives such punishments, and again for one who causes one to stumble it is better for a millstone to be hung about his neck and for him to be drowned in the sea, those who have caused so great an inhabited world to stumble and overturned so many Churches and filled everything with tumults and confusion and surpassed the cruelty and inhumanity of robbers and barbarians and thus were driven to such a frenzy by the devil who commands them and the demons who work with them, so as to make this awesome dogma, full of holiness and worthy of Him who gave it, ridiculous to both Jews and Greeks, those who have drowned countless souls and have wrought countless shipwrecks everywhere in the inhabited world, those who have kindled so great a fire and have torn the body of Christ and scattered its members in many places; "For you," he says, "are the body of Christ and members in part." But rather why do I strive to set forth their madness, which cannot be explained in words? How great a punishment, then, do you think these destroyers and bloodthirsty men will undergo then? For if those who did not feed the hungry Christ are condemned with the devil to the unquenchable fire, those who have also delivered over to famine monks and virgins

18

κατακλωμένην ἐν τοῖς ἱματίοις, σύρουσαν τοὺς χιτῶνας-ὅπερ ὁ προφήτης ἐνεκάλεσε-, διαθρυπτομένην ἐν τῇ βαδίσει, καὶ διὰ φωνῆς καὶ διὰ ὀμμάτων καὶ διὰ στολῆς τὸ δηλητήριον κεραννῦσαν ποτήριον τοῖς ἀκολάστως ὁρῶσι καὶ τὰ βάραθρα ἐπιπλεῖον ἀνασκάπτουσαν τοῖς παριοῦσι καὶ παγίδας τιθεῖσαν ἐντεῦθεν, πῶς ταύτην λοιπὸν προσερεῖς παρθένον, ἀλλ' οὐ μετὰ τῶν πορνευομένων αὐτὴν ἀριθμήσεις γυναικῶν; Οὐ γὰρ τοσοῦτον ἐκεῖναι δέλεαρ ὅσον αὗται γίνονται, πανταχόθεν ἀναπεταννῦσαι τῆς ἡδονῆς τὰ πτερά. ∆ιὰ ταῦτά σε μακαρίζομεν, διὰ ταῦτά σε θαυμάζομεν, ὅτι πάντων ἀπαλλαγεῖσα τούτων καὶ ἐν τούτῳ τὴν νέκρωσιν ἐπεδείξω τῷ μέρει, οὐχ ὡραϊζομένη, ἀλλὰ νεανιευομένη, οὐ καλλωπιζομένη, ἀλλ' ὁπλιζομένη. 8.10 Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄνυχος τὸν λέοντα τέως ἐδείξαμεν καὶ τοῦτο ἐν μέρει· οὐδὲ γὰρ τοῦτο ὅλον ἐπῆλθόν σου κατόρθωμα· καθάπερ γὰρ ἔφθην εἰπών, εἰς τὰ ἄπειρα τῶν ἄλλων σου κατορθωμάτων δέδοικα εἰσελθεῖν πελάγη· ἄλλως δὲ οὐδὲ ἐγκώμιον προεθέμεθα νῦν εἰπεῖν τῆς ἁγίας σου ψυχῆς, ἀλλὰ παραμυθίας κατασκευάσαι φάρμακον· φέρε πάλιν ἀναλάβωμεν τὰ ἔμπροσθεν εἰρημένα. Τί δὲ ἔμπροσθεν εἰρήκαμεν; Ἀπαλλαγεῖσα τοῦ λογίζεσθαι τί ὁ δεῖνα ἥμαρτε καὶ τί ὁ δεῖνα ἐπλημμέλησεν, ἐννόει σου τοὺς ἄθλους διηνεκῶς τῆς καρτερίας, τῆς ὑπομονῆς, τῆς νηστείας, τῶν εὐχῶν, τῶν παννυχίδων τῶν ἱερῶν, τῆς ἐγκρατείας, τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης, τῆς φιλοξενίας, τῶν ποικίλων καὶ χαλεπῶν καὶ πυκνῶν πειρασμῶν. Ἀναλόγισαι πῶς ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας ἕως τῆς παρούσης ἡμέρας οὐκ ἐπαύσω πεινῶντα τρέφουσα τὸν Χριστόν, διψῶντα ποτίζουσα, γυμνὸν ἐνδύουσα, ξένον συνάγουσα, ἀρρωστοῦντα ἐπισκοποῦσα, πρὸς δεδεμένον ἀπιοῦσα. Ἐννόησόν σου τῆς ἀγάπης τὸ πέλαγος, ὃ τοσοῦτον ἀνέῳξας ὡς πρὸς αὐτὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ πέρατα μετὰ πολλῆς ἀφικέσθαι τῆς ῥύμης. Οὐ γὰρ ἡ οἰκία σου παντὶ ἐλθόντι ἀνέῳκτο μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πανταχοῦ γῆς καὶ θαλάσσης πολλοὶ ταύτης ἀπήλαυσαν τῆς φιλοτιμίας διὰ τῆς φιλοξενίας. Ταῦτα δὴ πάντα συνάγουσα, τρύφα καὶ εὐφραίνου τῇ ἐλπίδι τῶν στεφάνων τούτων καὶ τῶν βραβείων. Εἰ δὲ καὶ τοὺς παρανόμους τούτους καὶ αἱμοβόρους καὶ πολλῶ τούτων χαλεπώτερα ἐργασαμένους ἐπιθυμεῖς δίκην διδόντας ἰδεῖν, ὄψει καὶ τοῦτο τότε. Ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ Λάζαρος τὸν πλούσιον εἶδεν ἀποτηγανιζόμενον. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ὁ τόπος αὐτοῖς διώριστο διὰ τὴν τοῦ βίου διαφορὰν καὶ τὸ χάος αὐτοὺς διεῖργεν καὶ ὁ μὲν ἦν ἐν τοῖς κόλποις τοῦ Ἀβραάμ, ὁ δὲ ἐν ταῖς καμίνοις ταῖς ἀφορήτοις, ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ εἶδεν αὐτὸν ὁ Λάζαρος καὶ φωνῆς ἤκουσε καὶ ἀπεκρίνατο. Ταῦτα καὶ ἐπὶ σοῦ ἔσται τότε. Εἰ γὰρ ἕνα παριδὼν ἄνθρωπον τοιαύτας δίδωσι τιμωρίας, καὶ τῷ σκανδαλίσαντι πάλιν ἕνα λυσιτελὲς μύλην ἐκκρεμασθῆναι κατὰ τοῦ τραχήλου καὶ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν καταποντισθῆναι, οἱ τοσαύτην οἰκουμένην σκανδαλίσαντες καὶ τοσαύτας ἀνατρέψαντες Ἐκκλησίας καὶ πάντα θορύβων καὶ ταραχῆς ἐμπλήσαντες καὶ λῃστῶν καὶ βαρβάρων νικήσαντες ὠμότητα καὶ ἀπανθρωπίαν καὶ οὕτω κατὰ κράτος ἐκβακχευθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ στρατηγοῦντος αὐτοῖς διαβόλου καὶ τῶν συνεργούντων αὐτοῖς δαιμόνων, ὡς τὸ φρικτὸν τοῦτο δόγμα καὶ ἁγιωσύνης γέμον καὶ τοῦ δεδωκότος ἄξιον καταγέλαστον καὶ Ἰουδαίοις καὶ Ἕλλησι ποιῆσαι, οἱ μυρίας καταδύσαντες ψυχὰς καὶ μυρία ναυάγια πανταχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐργασάμενοι, οἱ τοσαύτην ἀνάψαντες πυρὰν καὶ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ σχίσαντες καὶ τὰ μέλη αὐτοῦ πολλαχοῦ διασπείραντες· «Ὑμεῖς γάρ, φησίν, ἐστὲ σῶμα Χριστοῦ καὶ μέλη ἐκ μέρους.» Μᾶλλον δὲ τί φιλονεικῶ παραστῆσαι τὴν μανίαν αὐτῶν, ἑρμηνευθῆναι λόγῳ μὴ δυναμένην; Πόσην τοίνυν οἴει ὑποστήσεσθαι τιμωρίαν τότε τοὺς λυμεῶνας τούτους καὶ αἱμοβόρους; Εἰ γὰρ οἱ μὴ θρέψαντες πεινῶντα τὸν Χριστὸν μετὰ τοῦ διαβόλου καταδικάζονται τῷ πυρὶ τῷ ἀσβέστῳ, οἱ καὶ λιμῷ παραδόντες μοναχῶν καὶ παρθένων