Dialogus de vita Joannis Chrysostomi
honor, but he who is called by God. Thus 5 also Aaron, he says, did not glorify himself to become high priest. For although there were six hundred
the flight of concord, most of us who are active and eager for it have become fugitives from the country, being unable to live safely and without trou
he met with us, he did not share in words, nor in prayer, nor in communion but disembarking from the ship and running past the doors of the church, h
to share in the suffering and to do everything, so as to stop these evils. For he put a stop to none of their lawlessness here, but even after this he
and lamentations and fountains of tears in the marketplaces and the houses and in the desolate places and the whole part of the city was filled with
you are exhorted to contribute zeal from yourselves. For thus you will gratify not only us, 16 but also the community of the churches, and you will re
had fled on account of the threat contained in the imperial decree, that If anyone is not in communion with Theophilus and Arsakius and Porphyry, let
of Bishop John of the Constantinopolitans and, as it seems, it has not been accomplished. Therefore, I wrote again through the bishops and presbyters
savagery. This also the Savior God did, illuminating them with various revelations, so that also to Paul, the deacon of Saint Emilius, a most gentle
He who speaks a lie is not of God, and again from David, Because the mouth of those who speak unjust things was stopped. For he who lies truly wro
by his own choice, he was trained in the discourses for the ministry of the divine oracles. From there, being in the eighteenth year of his physical a
of those who have believed in him will be bound. {THE DEACON} But where did they recognize the presence of the Savior? {THE BISHOP} When they cried ou
of the rich, cutting away the abscesses of the soul, teaching them humility, to be of a humble mind towards other people, obeying the apostolic word,
she gives one thousand gold pieces, having made him swear by the table of the Savior that he would buy clothes and clothe the poorer women of the Alex
with his own hands on his neck, and after inflicting blows on his jaws, with clenched fingers he bloodied his nostrils, shouting 38 with a loud voice:
by an excess of conceit. But those men, driven by great necessity because they were changing places from place to place, arrive at the camp, where Bis
of the church, Dioscorus the bishop, who had grown old in the church but to the bishop John he writes: I think you are not ignorant of the decree of
of John for unlawful offenses, he took advantage of their fickleness and persuades them to submit bills of accusation against John, promising them to
Elijah was taken up did not Elisha prophesy? Paul was beheaded did he not leave behind Timothy, Titus, Apollos and ten thousand others? After these
these of the council but if as accusers, set them up for the trial, so that I may know how I should contend, whether as against adversaries or as jud
(for he is impetuous by nature, and rash and bold and exceedingly contentious—for there is nothing that appears to him by sight, <towards> which he do
brother Acacius and Antiochus whom they put forward as canons of the orthodox, because We are of the faith of those who set them forth, and our doub
reading the oracles, and others baptizing the catechumens, as was fitting because of Easter. These very things the corruptors of minds and deceivers o
a proof of the diligence of teachers, unceasingly setting right the unconquerable quality of their resolve. Theodore said: {THE DEACON} You have spoke
near him to the west), but in the western part, where the gate of the church is, the mule-team, on which he was accustomed to sit, having ordered it t
of a hierophant, a man more silent than a fish and more idle than a frog (for there are times when even action speaks, especially when the good is don
terrifying, just as bogeymen do children? Alas! Those who are clothed in worldly powers and ecclesiastical wealth with authority, with command even of
on the one hand, that he ate alone but I did not wish you, most harmonious Theodore, to ask about the things of gluttonous infants. For being a man,
he says, urging us to imitation Do not forget hospitality, he says, for by this some have entertained angels unawares. But the host must have the
fell from blessing? was it not when he served his belly, deceived by the food? When did Saul fall from the kingdom? was it not when he ate the best of
to eat bread and to put on a garment, all that you give me, I will tithe a tenth of it to you -he did not say, I will consume it at tables. That sp
to give glory to God <in> persecutions. in the refutations of error, is there any mention of a table? But again to Titus, the bishop of Crete, let us
they were seeking luxury. It was absurd to squander the food of the sick or the poor on the intemperance of the healthy. And what sort of law is this,
from seeing evil. For many of the so-called bishops, wishing to cut off the reasonable hatred directed at them on account of their own ways and their
First, that having melted down treasures he fashioned a silver object in the name of his son second, that having taken marbles from the entrance of t
love of money is a source of evils. For he who took bribes against the innocent and thought to sell the distribution of the Holy Spirit for silver,
Antoninus dies, with whom Eusebius had the lawsuit. Again a decree comes from Asia, this one from the clergy of the church of the Ephesians, and this
to buy the priesthood. They say that the ravager and falsely-named patriarch of the Jews changes the rulers of the synagogue every year, or even more
of those who deposed him and concluded the trial. <CHAPTER 19> {THE DEACON.} Forgive me, father, such things surpass drunkenness and madness and sport
ambidextrous (for even his so-called left hand was better than the right hand of others) who at first, having served in letters, was found blameles
slandering their life, waiting to have help from God. To these things Theodore, being astonished, said: {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} I see the facts as contrary to the n
Or is it proper at all to cast out any disciple, much less a monk? 100 {THE DEACON} Because they provoked him or spoke ill of him. {THE BISHOP} And ou
having led them back from vice to virtue, it will be clear that their persecutor deserves not to be persecuted, but to be pitied, as one who always ab
having provoked the physician and enchanter of souls and removed his interpreter from the workshop of salvation, 105 they were handed over to the phys
imitating him who, having found the one crushed by robbers, half-dead, on the way down to Jericho, placed him on his own beast of burden, having broug
did he give? And when Optimus died in Constantinople, he closed his eyes with his own hands. In addition to these things, he also refreshed in no smal
desiring to chasten the herd of men for their various desires towards the more austere part of life, he became his own judge and lawgiver, being stren
toward the north, and each man's axe in his hand and one man in the midst of them, clothed in a full-length robe, and a sapphire belt on his loins a
in many ways Who will boast that he has a pure heart? Or who will boldly claim to be pure from sin? but yet the blessed John did not know how to us
happen to us anonymously and beneficially? sifting the reasons, not obeying him who said: Eat whatever is sold in the meat-market, asking no question
two? {THE BISHOP} Especially if it is an unprofitable and charlatan crowd such as the one who said to Jesus: Teacher, I will follow you wherever you
an intemperate old man, and an old man who loves learning above an unlearned younger man, and a poor layman above an educated lover of money, and a vi
enjoying his disease nor raging with the same desires. For this is a fitting way of life for a teacher, not to linger with the crowds, but in quiet an
having subjected his body to shameful tortures by the cruelty of judges, to the point of knocking out his teeth, as the story goes, 127 they confined
knocking, they made the two-day journey into one, arriving late in the evening and departing in the dark of dawn, so that the stomach could not even k
and that these things are done and are prolonged and are strong, and that the good are afflicted and plundered, brings me to shudder at his approachin
Why shall I not be angry? looking upon me, marvel, and lay your hand upon your jaw. For if I remember, I am troubled, and pains take hold of my flesh.
when reviled, we bless when persecuted, we endure when slandered, we entreat we have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all thi
sleepless or troubled in sleep, he suspects plots even from his own family, not trusting even himself, distrusting everyone as liars. Being such a per
each other, for which it was also fitting, having learned something, did you not decide to be quiet and remain still by yourselves even for the future
to his father and to his mother, I have not seen you, and his brothers he did not acknowledge he guarded your oracles, and kept your covenant. He d
foot-soldiers' machinations for the hindering of those who travel for the truth). How then do they dare to say: By God's economy John has been cast o
having led them back from vice to virtue, it will be clear that their persecutor deserves not to be persecuted, but to be pitied, as one who always abuses the good, and accepts the wicked. {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} It is so, as you have said. For even if they are not shown to be wise and holy (as many say), Olympias will be beyond blame based on the preceding arguments, having shown an imitation of the Savior. {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} And which testimony of their actions do you see as greater, that of the Gospel or that of Theophilus? {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Away with it, I beg you; for it is agreed by all that he cast them out from some anger and love of power, and that he reviled this woman out of superstition and enmity, that man having used the monks as a pretext. For having failed in his slavish flatteries to get anything from her except food or hospitality, he turned to reviling; for this is his habit with everyone. 103 CHAPTER ΙΖʹ {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Listen then, best of deacons, for I see you are useful to the community; for your earnestness in youth is a pledge that you will be honorable in old age. These men, having been subject to God from their tenderest years and from Christian parents, did not endure, not even when very young, to be enslaved to vanity, nor to associate with the crowds, but having occupied the uninhabited southern region lying somewhere far from the civilized world, they set up huts, enough to escape the burden of the sun's brilliance and the dew from the air. Living in these, they spent their time in prayers and readings, pressing out the fruits of their hands in bodily labors only so much as to suffice for simple food, considering it better to herd with gazelles and ostriches and buffaloes than to feast with men who do not know God. Of these, the eldest, having passed some ninety years, associated with the blessed Antony, and was called Hierax, still now upholding his proper name; and the other, Ammonius, with two ascetic brothers and one bishop, who also wore collars and were exiled under Valens (as all Alexandria acknowledges), was sixty years old; being such in knowledge that nothing escaped them of the things in the Scriptures that are puzzling to many. Of these, two fell asleep, dying in Constantinople; Ammonius indeed, as those around Aurelius and Sisinnius related, prophesied concerning his departure, that when a great persecution and schism came upon the churches, the guilty parties would meet a most shameful end and thus 104 the churches would be united; which indeed has partly happened and will happen (for from this, the bodies of some, both bishops and laity, the disease, having taken hold, divided with various sufferings, burning the inward parts with a mild fever, and digging out the entire surface with the fingernails with an unbearable itching, and continuous pains of the colon. Of one, dropsical, livid swellings around the feet; of another, rheums about the four limbs, hot and cold, made the fingers that had wickedly signed shudder, and inflammation of the lower abdomen and, through some member, a putrefaction extending a foul odor for a long time, producing worms. And in addition to these, orthopnea and dyspnea and convulsions of all the limbs; and nocturnal phantasms transformed into rabid dogs and sword-bearing barbarians, echoing a foreign and billowing voice, rendering sleep sleepless. Another, having fallen from a horse and fractured his right leg at the thigh-bone, immediately gave up his life; another, having lost his voice, was preserved on his bed for a period of eight months, not even being able to bring his hands to his own mouth. Another, while living, had his legs sawn off little by little up to the knees for three years, with erysipelas supposedly producing the causes; another, his tongue having swollen—as they say—with a violent fever, so that it lay as a barrier in his mouth, pressing against the teeth, the tongue not fitting in the place defined for it by nature, writing on a tablet, made his confession. And one could see a divinely sent wrath commanding with various punishments. For the
κακίας πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐπαναγαγόντες, δῆλος ἔσται ὁ τούτων διώκτης ἄξιος οὐ διωχθῆναι, ἀλλὰ ἐλεηθῆναι, ὡς τοὺς μὲν καλοὺς ἀεὶ
λυμαινόμενος, τοὺς δὲ κακοὺς ἀποδεχόμενος. {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Οὕτως ἔχει, ὡς εἴρηκας. κἂν γὰρ μὴ ἀποδειχθῶσιν ἐκεῖνοι σοφοί τε καὶ
ἅγιοι (ὥς φασιν οἱ πολλοί), ἐκτὸς μέμψεως ἔσται ἡ Ὀλυμπιὰς ἐκ τῶν προλαβόντων συλλογισμῶν, τὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος μίμημα ἐπιδειξαμένη.
{Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Καὶ ποίαν μείζω ὁρᾷς μαρτυρίαν τῶν πράξεων, <τὴν> τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου ἢ τὴν Θεοφίλου; {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Ἄπαγε, παρακαλῶ· ὡμολόγηται
γὰρ παρὰ πᾶσι κἀκείνους αὐτὸν ἀπό τινος ὀργῆς καὶ φιλαρχίας ἐῤῥῖφθαι, καὶ ταύτην ἀπὸ δεισιδαιμονίας καὶ ἔχθρας λελοιδορηκέναι,
προ φασισαμένου ἐκείνου τοὺς μονάζοντας. ἀστοχήσας γὰρ ἐπὶ ταῖς δουλοπρεπέσι κολακείαις τοῦ μηδὲν παρ' αὐτῆς εἰληφέναι πλὴν
βρωμάτων ἢ ξενίων, εἰς λοιδορίαν ἐτράπη· τοῦτο γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸ ἔθος ἐπὶ πάντων. 103 <ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ ΙΖʹ> {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Ἄκουε τοίνυν,
διακόνων ἄριστε, ὁρῶ γάρ σε χρήσιμον τῷ κοινῷ· τὸ γὰρ σπουδαῖόν σου ἐν τῷ νέῳ ἐχέγγυον τοῦ ἔντιμον ἐν γήρᾳ ἔσεσθαι. οἱ ἄνδρες
οὗτοι ἐξ ἁπαλῶν ὀνύχων καὶ Χριστιανῶν γονέων Θεῷ ὑποταγέντες, οὐκ ἠνέσχοντο, οὐδὲ κομιδῇ νέοι, τῇ ματαιότητι δουλεῦσαι, οὐδὲ
τοῖς ὄχλοις συν αναστραφῆναι, ἀλλὰ καταλαβόντες τὴν ἐκ μεσημβρίας ἀοίκητον πόῤῥω που κειμένην τῆς οἰκουμένης, συνεστήσαντο
καλύβας, ὅσον διαφυγεῖν τὴν ἐπάχθειαν τῆς ἡλιακῆς λαμπάδος καὶ τὴν δρόσον τὴν ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος. ἐν αἷς διάγοντες, εὐχαῖς καὶ ἀνα
γνώσμασι τὸν ἑαυτῶν κατηνάλωσαν χρόνον, τοσοῦτον θλιβέντες τοὺς καρποὺς τῶν χειρῶν ἐν ἔργοις σωματικοῖς, ὅσον εἰς τροφὴν εὐτελῆ
ἐπαρκέσαι, ἄμεινον ἡγησάμενοι συναγελάζεσθαι δορκάσι καὶ στρουθοῖς καὶ βουβάλοις ἢ συνευωχεῖσθαι τοῖς Θεὸν ἀγνο οῦσιν ἀνθρώποις.
τούτων ὁ μὲν γεραιότατος ἀμφὶ τὰ ἐνενήκοντα παριππάσας ἔτη, συνανεστράφη τῷ μακαρίῳ Ἀντωνίῳ, Ἱέραξ καλούμενος, τὸ κύριον ὄνομα
εἰσέτι καὶ νῦν ἐνισχύων· ὁ δ' ἕτερος, Ἀμμώνιος, σὺν δυσὶν ἀδελφοῖς ἀσκηταῖς καὶ ἑνὶ ἐπι σκόπῳ, οἳ καὶ κλοιοφορήσαντες ἐπὶ
Οὐάλεντος ἐξωρίσθησαν (ὡς πᾶσα ἐπιγινώσκει ἡ Ἀλεξάνδρεια), ἑξηκοντούτης· τοιοῦτοι ὄντες ἐν γνώσει, ὡς μηδὲν αὐτοὺς διαφεύγειν
τῶν ἐν ταῖς Γραφαῖς τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀπορουμένων. ὧν οἱ μὲν δύο ἐκοιμήθησαν τελευ τήσαντες ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει· Ἀμμώνιος μέν,
ὡς οἱ περὶ Αὐρήλιον καὶ Σισίννιον διηγήσαντο, προφητεύσας περὶ τὴν ἔξοδον, ὡς μεγάλου διωγμοῦ ἐπιγενομένου καὶ σχίσματος ταῖς
ἐκκλησίαις, αἴσχιστον τέλος ἀπενεγκεῖν τοὺς αἰτίους καὶ οὕτως 104 ἑνωθῆναι τὰς ἐκκλησίας· ὃ δὴ καὶ ἐκ μέρους γεγένηται καὶ
γενήσεται (ἐντεῦθεν γάρ τινων τὰ σώματα, ἐπισκόπων τε καὶ λαϊκῶν, ἡ νόσος παραλαβοῦσα ποικίλοις πάθεσιν ἐμερίζετο, πυρετῷ
μὲν μαλακῷ τὰ σπλάγχνα διακαίουσα, κνησμῷ δ' ἀφο ρήτῳ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν ὅλην τοῖς ὄνυξιν ἐξορύττουσα, κόλου τε συνεχεῖς ἀλγηδόνες.
τινὸς περί τε τοὺς πόδας ὑδρωπιῶντος οἰδήματα πελιδνά· ἑτέρου δὲ ῥεύματα περὶ τὰ τέσσαρα ἄρθρα θερμὸν ψυχρὸν τοὺς κακῶς ὑπογράψαντας
δακτύλους ἔφρισσεν, τοῦ τε ἤτρου φλεγμονὴ καὶ διὰ μορίου τινὸς σηπεδὼν δυσωδίαν εἰς μακρὸν παρατείνουσα, σκώληκας γεννῶσα.
ὀρθόπνοιά τε πρὸς τούτοις καὶ δύσπνοια καὶ πάντων τῶν μελῶν διατάσεις· φαντασίαι τε νυκτεριναὶ εἰς κύνας λυττῶντας καὶ ξιφήρεις
βαρβάρους, ἀλλόγλωσσον καὶ κυματώδη φωνὴν ἐξηχοῦντας, μετεσχηματίζοντο, ἄϋπνον τὸν ὕπνον ἀποτελοῦσαι. ἕτερος δὲ ἐξ ἵππου πεσὼν
καὶ καυληδὸν τὸ δεξιὸν κατεάξας σκέλος παραυ τίκα τὸ ζῆν ἀπέῤῥηξεν· ἄλλος ἀποκλεισθεὶς τὴν φωνὴν ὀκτα μηνιαίῳ χρόνῳ ἐπὶ κλίνης
ἐταριχεύετο, μηδὲ τῷ ἰδίῳ στόματι τὰς χεῖρας προσάγειν δεδυνημένος. ἕτερος ζῶν τὰ σκέλη ἕως γονάτων κατ' ὀλίγον ἐπρίζετο ἐπὶ
τριετίαν, ἐρυσιπέλου δῆθεν τὰς ἀφορμὰς γεννῶντος· ἄλλος τὴν γλῶσσαν οἰδήσας-ὥς φασι-μετὰ λάβρου πυρετοῦ, ὡς διάφραγμα κεῖσθαι
τῷ στόματι ἀντερείδων τοῖς ὀδοῦσι, μὴ χωρούσης τῆς γλώσσης ἐν τῷ ὡρισ μένῳ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως τόπῳ, ἐν πυξίῳ γράψας ἐξομολόγησιν
ἐποιεῖτο. καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν θεήλατον ὀργὴν διαφόροις τιμωρίαις στρατηγοῦσαν. οἱ γὰρ
