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

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 secret?  Despairing of all other aid, she betook herself to the Physician of all, and awaiting the silent hours of night, during a slight intermission of the disease, she approached the altar with faith, and, calling upon Him Who is honoured thereon, with a mighty cry, and every kind of invocation, calling to mind all His former works of power, and well she knew those both of ancient and of later days, at last she ventured on an act of pious and splendid effrontery:  she imitated the woman whose fountain of blood was dried up by the hem of Christ’s garment.15    S. Matt. ix. 20.  What did she do?  Resting her head with another cry upon the altar, and with a wealth of tears, as she who once bedewed the feet of Christ,16    S. Luke vii. 38. and declaring that she would not loose her hold until she was made whole, she then applied her medicine to her whole body, viz., such a portion of the antitypes17    Antitypes, i.e. the reserved Sacrament. of the Precious Body and Blood as she treasured in her hand, mingling therewith her tears, and, O the wonder, she went away feeling at once that she was saved, and with the lightness of health in body, soul, and mind, having received, as the reward of her hope, that which she hoped for, and having gained bodily by means of spiritual strength.  Great though these things be, they are not untrue.  Believe them all of you, whether sick or sound, that ye may either keep or regain your health.  And that my story is no mere boastfulness is plain from the silence in which she kept, while alive, what I have revealed.  Nor should I now have published it, be well assured, had I not feared that so great a marvel would have been utterly hidden from the faithful and unbelieving of these and later days.

ΙΗʹ. Τί οὖν ἡ μεγάλη καὶ τῶν μεγίστων ἀξία ψυχὴ, καὶ τίς ἡ ἰατρεία τοῦ πάθους; Ἐνταῦθα γὰρ ἤδη καὶ τὸ ἀπόῤῥητον. Πάντων ἀπογνοῦσα τῶν ἄλλων, ἐπὶ τὸν πάντων ἰατρὸν καταφεύγει, καὶ νυκτὸς ἀωρίαν τηρήσασα, μικρὸν ἐνδούσης αὐτῇ τῆς νόσου, τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ προσπίπτει μετὰ τῆς πίστεως, καὶ τὸν ἐπ' αὐτῷ τιμώμενον ἀνακαλουμένη μεγάλῃ τῇ βοῇ, καὶ πάσαις ταῖς κλήσεσι, καὶ πασῶν αὐτὸν τῶν πώποτε δυνάμεων ὑπομνήσασα (σοφὴ γὰρ ἐκείνη καὶ τὰ παλαιὰ καὶ τὰ νέα), τέλος εὐσεβῆ τινα καὶ καλὴν ἀναισχυντίαν ἀναισχυντεῖ: μιμεῖται τὴν τοῖς κρασπέδοις Χριστοῦ ξηράνασαν πηγὴν αἵματος. Καὶ τί ποιεῖ; τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἑαυτῆς προσθεῖσα μετὰ τῆς ἴσης βοῆς, καὶ δάκρυσι τοῦτο πλουσίοις, ὥσπερ τις πάλαι τοὺς πόδας Χριστοῦ καταβρέχουσα, καὶ μὴ πρότερον ἀνήσειν ἢ τῆς ὑγιείας τυχεῖν ἀπειλοῦσα: εἶτα τῷ παρ' ἑαυτῆς φαρμάκῳ τούτῳ τὸ σῶμα πᾶν ἐπαλείφουσα, καὶ εἴ πού τι τῶν ἀντιτύπων τοῦ τιμίου σώματος ἢ τοῦ αἵματος ἡ χεὶρ ἐθησαύρισεν, τοῦτο καταμιγνῦσα τοῖς δάκρυσιν, (ὢ τοῦ θαύματος!) ἀπῆλθεν εὐθὺς αἰσθομένη τῆς σωτηρίας, κούφη καὶ σῶμα, καὶ ψυχὴν, καὶ διάνοιαν, μισθὸν ἐλπίδος λαβοῦσα τὸ ἐλπιζόμενον, καὶ τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς εὐρωστίᾳ κομισαμένη τὴν τοῦ σώματος. Ταῦτα μεγάλα μὲν, οὐ ψευδῆ δέ. Τούτοις πιστεύετε ἅπαντες, καὶ νοσοῦντες, καὶ ὑγιαίνοντες: ἵν' οἱ μὲν ἔχητε τὴν ὑγίειαν, οἱ δὲ ἀπολάβητε. Καὶ ὅτι μὴ κόμπος τὸ διήγημα, δῆλον ἐξ ὧν ζώσης κατασιγήσας, νῦν ἐξεκάλυψα: καὶ οὐδ' ἂν νῦν ἐδημοσίευσα, εὖ ἴστε, εἰ μή τις ἔσχε με φόβος θαῦμα τοσοῦτον κατακρύψαι καὶ πιστοῖς καὶ ἀπίστοις, καὶ τοῖς νῦν καὶ τοῖς ὕστερον.