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But she is more blessed, if she remains so; this is much better than that. Why? For many reasons. For if it is better not to marry at all than to marry, much more is this better than that. But some, he says, could not bear widowhood, but fell into misfortunes; for they did not know what widowhood is. Widowhood is not this, not to have relations in a second marriage, just as virginity is not this, to be unmarried; but what? Just as there it is seemliness and devotion, so here it is to be alone, to persevere in prayers, to be freed from luxury and wantonness; For she who lives in pleasure, he says, is dead while she lives. If, while remaining a widow, you are going to have the same pride, and the same display, and the same attire, which you had when your husband was alive, it is better to marry; for the intercourse is not an evil, but the worldliness. But you do not do what is not evil, but what is not indifferent, but is a matter of accusation, this you endure. For this reason they have turned aside after Satan, because they did not know how to be a widow properly. Do you wish to learn what a widow is, and what is the dignity of a widow? Hear Paul saying: If she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. For when, after your husband has died, you are clothed with a great mass of wealth, naturally you cannot bear widowhood. Transfer this wealth, therefore, to heaven, and the burden of widowhood will be bearable for you. What then, if I have children, she says, as heirs of their 62.642 father's inheritance? Teach them also to despise money; transfer your own possessions, having allotted to them as much as is sufficient; teach them also to be superior to money. What then, she says, if a multitude of slaves abounds? if there is a swarm of affairs, gold, silver? how shall I be sufficient for this guardianship, needing a man's protection? These things are a pretext and an excuse; and this is clear from many things. For if you do not desire money, nor wish to make your possessions greater, your burden is light; for to acquire is a much more burdensome thing than to guard. If then you cut off the one thing, acquiring more, he says, and from your possessions provide for those in need, God will defend his own hand; and if you truly say these things while presiding over the inheritance of orphans, and not possess it through avarice under this pretext, He who searches hearts knows how to establish their wealth in safety, He himself who commanded to bring up children. For it is not possible, it is not possible for a house rooted in almsgiving to suffer anything terrible; but even if it suffers for a time, it will end in good. This will be more than a shield and spear for the whole house. Hear what the devil says about Job: Have you not put a hedge around him within and without? Why? hear Job himself saying: I was an eye to the blind, he says, a foot to the lame, a father to orphans. Just as one who does not separate himself from the misfortunes of others, will never suffer any evils even in his own affairs, when he learns by fellow-suffering; so he who is unwilling to bear the grief that comes from sympathy, will know all these things in his own affairs. And just as in the body the hand, when the foot is decaying, if it does not sympathize and clean the wound and apply medicine and wash away the discharge, will suffer this in its own evils, and the one that was unwilling to minister to another while being outside the suffering, will itself be liable to the suffering; for the evil, creeping from there, will come upon it also, and the matter for it will no longer be about ministering, but about healing and deliverance; so indeed also here, he who is unwilling to suffer with others, will himself feel pain. You have hedged him about, he says, within and without, and I do not dare to attack. But he suffered terrible things, you say. But those terrible things became the cause of many good things; his substance was doubled, his reward greater, his righteousness more abundant, the crowns brilliant, the prizes bright, and both his spiritual and his worldly things were increased. Did he lose children? but he received, not the same ones, but others in place of them, and those ones

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Μακαριωτέρα δέ ἐστιν, ἐὰν οὕτω μείνῃ· πολλῷ τοῦτο βέλτιον ἐκείνου. ∆ιὰ τί; ∆ιὰ πολλά. Εἰ γὰρ τοῦ γαμῆσαι τὸ μηδ' ὅλως γαμῆσαι βέλτιον, πολλῷ μᾶλλον τοῦτο ἐκείνου βέλτιον. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἤνεγκάν τινες, φησὶ, τὴν χηρείαν, ἀλλὰ συμφοραῖς περιέπεσον· οὐ γὰρ ἔγνωσαν τί ἐστι χηρεία. Οὐ τοῦτό ἐστι χηρεία, τὸ μὴ δευτέροις ὁμιλῆσαι γάμοις, ὥσπερ οὖν οὐδὲ παρθενία τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ ἀπειρόγαμον εἶναι· ἀλλὰ τί; Ὥσπερ ἐκεῖ τὸ εὔσχημον καὶ εὐπρόσεδρον, οὕτως ἐνταῦθα τὸ μεμονῶσθαι, τὸ προσκαρτερεῖν ταῖς δεήσεσι, τὸ τρυφῆς ἀπηλλάχθαι καὶ σπατάλης· Ἡ γὰρ σπαταλῶσα, φησὶ, ζῶσα τέθνηκεν. Εἰ μέλλοις χήρα μένουσα τὸν αὐτὸν κόμπον ἔχειν, καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν φαντασίαν, καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν περιβολὴν, ἣν ζῶντος εἶχες τοῦ ἀνδρὸς, βέλτιον γαμῆσαι· οὐ γὰρ ἡ μίξις κακὸν, ἀλλ' ἡ πολυπραγμοσύνη. Σὺ δὲ τὸ μὲν οὐκ ὂν κακὸν οὐ πράττεις, τὸ δὲ οὐκ ἀδιάφορον, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ ἔγκλημα ὂν, τοῦτο ὑπομένεις. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἐξετράπησαν ὀπίσω τοῦ Σατανᾶ, ἐπειδὴ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν χηρεῦσαι καλῶς. Βούλει μαθεῖν τί ἐστι χήρα, καὶ τί τὸ τῆς χήρας ἀξίωμα; ἄκουε Παύλου λέγοντος· Εἰ ἐτεκνοτρόφησεν, εἰ ἐξενοδόχησεν, εἰ ἁγίων πόδας ἔνιψεν, εἰ θλιβομένοις ἐπήρκεσεν, εἰ παντὶ ἔργῳ ἀγαθῷ ἐπηκολούθησεν. Ὅταν γὰρ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τελευτήσαντος ᾖς πλούτου περιβεβλημένη πολὺν ὄγκον, εἰκότως οὐ φέρεις τὴν χηρείαν. Μετάθες τοίνυν τὸν πλοῦτον τοῦτον εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ ἔσται σοι φορητὸν τῆς χηρείας τὸ φορτίον. Τί οὖν, ἂν παῖδας ἔχω τοῦ 62.642 πατρῴου κλήρου διαδόχους, φησί; Παίδευε κἀκείνους χρημάτων καταφρονεῖν· τὰ σαυτῆς μετάθες, ἐκείνοις ἀπονείμασα τοσοῦτον ὅσον ἀρκεῖ· παίδευε κἀκείνους εἶναι χρημάτων κρείττους. Τί οὖν, ἂν περιῤῥέῃ, φησὶν, ἀνδραπόδων πλῆθος; ἐὰν πραγμάτων ἐσμὸς, χρυσίον, ἀργύριον; πῶς ἱκανὴ πρὸς ταύτην ἔσομαι τὴν φυλακὴν, δεομένη ἀνδρὸς προστασίας; Σκῆψις ταῦτα καὶ πρόφασις· καὶ τοῦτο δῆλον πολλαχόθεν. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἐφίεσαι χρημάτων, μηδὲ πλείω τὰ ὄντα ποιῆσαι θέλεις, κοῦφόν σοι τὸ φορτίον· φορτικώτερον τοῦ φυλάξαι πολλῷ πλέον ἐστὶ τὸ περιβαλέσθαι. Ἂν τοίνυν τὸ ἓν ἐκκόψῃς, τὸ περιβαλέσθαι, φησὶ, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἐνόντων τοῖς δεομένοις χορηγῇς, ὁ Θεὸς ὑπερασπιεῖ τὴν χεῖρα τὴν αὐτοῦ· κἂν ὄντως τῆς τῶν ὀρφανῶν κληρονομίας προεστῶσα ταῦτα λέγῃς, οὐχὶ δὲ προφάσει ταύτης κέκτησαι φιλαργυρίᾳ, οἶδεν ὁ τὰς καρδίας ἐμβατεύων ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ τὸν ἐκείνων καταστῆσαι πλοῦτον, αὐτὸς ὁ ἐπιτάξας τεκνοτροφεῖν. Οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν οἰκίαν ὑπὸ ἐλεημοσύνης ἐῤῥιζωμένην παθεῖν τι δεινόν· ἀλλὰ κἂν πάθῃ πρὸς καιρὸν, εἰς ἀγαθὸν τελευτήσει. Τοῦτο μᾶλλον ἀσπίδος καὶ δόρατος ἔσται πάσῃ τῇ οἰκίᾳ. Ἄκουε τί φησιν ὁ διάβολος περὶ τοῦ Ἰώβ· Οὐ σὺ περιέφραξας αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔσω καὶ τὰ ἔξω; ∆ιὰ τί; ἄκουε αὐτοῦ Ἰὼβ λέγοντος· Ὀφθαλμὸς ἤμην τυφλῶν, φησὶ, ποῦς χωλῶν, πατὴρ ὀρφανῶν. Ὥσπερ ὁ μὴ ἀποσχίζων ἑαυτὸν τῶν ἀλλοτρίων συμφορῶν, οὐδέποτε οὐδὲ ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις πείσεταί τι κακοῖς, ὅταν ἐν τῷ συναλγεῖν μανθάνῃ· οὕτως ὁ μὴ βουλόμενος τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς συμπαθείας φέρειν λύπην, ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ταῦτα εἴσεται πάντα. Καὶ καθάπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος ἡ χεὶρ, τοῦ ποδὸς σηπομένου, ἂν μὴ συμπαθῇ καὶ τραῦμα καθάρῃ καὶ φάρμακον ἐπιθῇ καὶ ἀποπλύνῃ ἰχῶρα, ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῆς τοῦτο πείσεται κακοῖς, καὶ ἡ μὴ βουληθεῖσα διακονῆσαι ἑτέρῳ ἐκτὸς οὖσα τοῦ πάθους, αὐτὴ ἔνοχος ἔσται τῷ πάθει· ἐκεῖθεν γὰρ ἕρπον τὸ κακὸν ἥξει καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτην, καὶ οὐκέτι περὶ διακονίας ὁ λόγος αὐτῆς ἔσται, ἀλλὰ περὶ ἰατρείας καὶ ἀπαλλαγῆς· οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐνταῦθα, ὁ μὴ βουλόμενος ἑτέροις συμπάσχειν, αὐτὸς ἀλγήσει. Περιέφραξας αὐτοῦ, φησὶ, τὰ ἔσω καὶ τὰ ἔξω, καὶ οὐ τολμῶ ἐπελθεῖν. Ἀλλ' ἔπαθε, φησὶ, δεινά. Ἀλλὰ τὰ δεινὰ ἐκεῖνα πολλῶν ἐγένετο ἀγαθῶν αἰτία· διπλασίων ἡ οὐσία, μείζων ὁ μισθὸς, πλείων ἡ δικαιοσύνη, λαμπροὶ οἱ στέφανοι, φαιδρὰ τὰ βραβεῖα, καὶ τὰ πνευματικὰ καὶ τὰ βιωτικὰ ηὐξήθη. Ἀπώλεσε παῖδας; ἀλλ' ἔλαβεν, οὐ τοὺς αὐτοὺς, ἀλλ' ἑτέρους ἀντ' ἐκείνων, καὶ ἐκείνους