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in a house and to be able to have a roof over his head; such was his state, that all despaired. For he would not, if he were not incurably sick, have sat outside the city, 62.243 being worse off than those afflicted with elephantiasis. For these men even enter houses, and congregate with one another; but he, spending the night in the open air on a dung heap, naked, was not even able to put on a cloak. For how? Perhaps pain would even have been added to his pains. For I melt clods of earth, he says, scraping them from the discharge. His flesh produced discharge and worms, and this continually. Do you see how each of us grows numb hearing these things? If these things are unbearable to hear, are they bearable to see? And if they are unbearable to see, much more so to suffer. But nevertheless the righteous man suffered, and not for two or three days, but for a long time, and he did not sin, not even with his lips. What such disease can you tell me of, that has so many pains? For was this not worse than being maimed? For I see my food as filth, he says. And not only this, but not even that which is a rest for others, the night and sleep, brought him any comfort, but was more grievous than any torture. And hear him saying: Why do you frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions? When it is morning, I say, When will it be evening? And suffering such things he did not murmur. But this was not the only terrible thing, but also the evil opinion of the many; for they now held him to be guilty of countless evils, on account of what he suffered. For his friends said this very thing to him: You have not been scourged in a way worthy of what you have sinned. Wherefore he himself also said: And the lowliest admonish me, whom I did not consider worthy of the dogs of my flocks. Is this not worse than many deaths? But being struck from all sides by so great a billow, and a harsh storm rising from all sides, of cloud, surge, thunderbolts, dizziness, whirlwinds, he himself remained unwavering, as if sitting in a calm in the midst of so great a billow, so harsh a one, and he did not murmur; and this before grace, before anything was said about resurrection, before anything about Gehenna and punishment and retribution. But we, though we hear prophets and apostles and evangelists, and see countless examples, and have learned the doctrines about the resurrection, still are vexed, although no one could say that so many things have befallen him. For if someone has lost possessions, yet not so many sons and daughters, and if he did lose them, perhaps it was for sinning; but he, suddenly, in the midst of his sacrifices, in the midst of his service to God; and if he lost so many children and possessions at once, which is impossible, yet he was not also covered with ulcers continually, and oozing discharge; and if this too, yet he did not have those who trampled on him and reproached him; which is accustomed to sting us more than all things, more than our misfortunes. For if, when we have people to comfort us in our troubles and console us and hold out good hopes to us, we are so distressed, consider what it was to have people reproaching him. If the saying, "I waited for one to grieve with me, and there was none, and for comforters, and I found none," is terrible and unbearable, how great an evil is it to find reproachers instead of comforters? Miserable comforters, he says, are you all. 4. If we constantly turned these things over, if we considered these things, nothing of the present would grieve us, looking to that athlete, to that adamantine soul, to that unbreakable and brazen mind; for as if clothed in a body of bronze or stone, he himself bore all things nobly and with endurance. Considering these things, let us do all things without murmurings and disputes. Do you do something good, and murmur? Why? For is necessity laid upon you? I know, he says, that many near you compel you to murmur (for he hinted at this, by saying, "In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation"); but this is the wonderful thing, to suffer nothing of the sort even when provoked. For indeed the stars in

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ἐν οἰκίᾳ καὶ ὑπωρόφιον εἶναι δύνασθαι· τοιαύτη ἦν, ὡς πάντας ἀπαγορεύειν. Οὐ γὰρ ἂν, εἰ μὴ ἀνίατα ἐνόσησεν, ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἐκάθητο, 62.243 τῶν ἐλέφαντι κατεχομένων χείρων ὤν. Οὗτοι μὲν γὰρ καὶ εἰς οἰκίας εἰσίασι, καὶ συναγελάζονται ἀλλήλοις· ἐκεῖνος δὲ αἴθριος διανυκτερεύων ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας γυμνὸς, οὐδὲ ἱμάτιον περιβαλέσθαι ἠδύνατο. Πῶς γάρ; ἴσως ἂν καὶ προσετέθη ἄλγος ταῖς ἀλγηδόσι. Τήκω γὰρ βώλακας γῆς, φησὶν, ἀπὸ ἰχῶρος ξέων. Ἰχῶρας αὐτῷ αἱ σάρκες καὶ σκώληκας ἔτικτον, καὶ τοῦτο διηνεκῶς. Ὁρᾷς πῶς ἕκαστος ἡμῶν ναρκᾷ ταῦτα ἀκούων; Εἰ δὲ ἀκοῦσαι οὐκ ἀνεκτὰ ταῦτα, ἰδεῖν ἀνεκτά; Εἰ δὲ ἰδεῖν οὐκ ἀνεκτὰ, πολλῷ μᾶλλον παθεῖν. Ἀλλ' ὅμως ἔπαθεν ὁ δίκαιος, καὶ οὐκ ἐπὶ δύο ἡμέρας ἢ τρεῖς, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ χρόνῳ πολλῷ, καὶ οὐχ ἥμαρτεν, οὐδὲ ἐν τοῖς χείλεσιν αὐτοῦ. Ποίαν ἔχεις μοι τοιαύτην νόσον εἰπεῖν, ὀδύνας ἔχουσαν πολλάς; πηρώσεως γὰρ οὐ χεῖρον τοῦτο ἦν; Βρόμον γὰρ ὁρῶ, φησὶ, τὰ σῖτά μου. Καὶ οὐδὲ τοῦτο μόνον, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ὃ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνάπαυσίς ἐστιν ἡ νὺξ καὶ ὁ ὕπνος, τοῦτο ἐκείνῳ παραμυθίαν τινὰ ἔφερεν, ἀλλὰ χαλεπωτέρα ἦν πάσης βασάνου. Καὶ ἄκουε αὐτοῦ λέγοντος· Ἵνα τί με φοβεῖς ἐνυπνίοις, καὶ ἐν ὁράμασί με καταπλήσσεις; Ἐὰν γένηται πρωῒ, λέγω, Πότε ἑσπέρα; Καὶ τοιαῦτα πάσχων οὐκ ἐγόγγυσεν. Οὐ τοῦτο δὲ μόνον ἦν τὸ δεινὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ παρὰ τῶν πολλῶν πονηρὰ δόξα· ὡς γὰρ μυρίων ἔνοχον κακῶν εἶχον λοιπὸν, ἀφ' ὧν ἔπασχε. Τοῦτο γοῦν καὶ οἱ φίλοι αὐτῷ ἔλεγον· Οὐκ ἄξια ὧν ἡμάρτηκας μεμαστίγωσαι. ∆ιὸ καὶ αὐτὸς ἔλεγε· Καὶ νουθετοῦσί με ἐλάχιστοι, οὓς οὐκ ἀξίους ἡγησάμην κυνῶν τῶν ἐμῶν νομάδων. Πόσων τοῦτο θανάτων οὐ χεῖρον; Ἀλλὰ τοσούτῳ κλύδωνι πάντοθεν βαλλόμενος, καὶ πάντοθεν αἰρομένου τοῦ χειμῶνος χαλεποῦ, συννεφείας, ζάλης, σκηπτῶν, ἰλίγγων, στροβίλων, ἔμενεν αὐτὸς ἀκλινὴς, καθάπερ ἐν γαλήνῃ καθήμενος τῷ κλύδωνι τῷ τοσούτῳ, τῷ οὕτω χαλεπῷ, καὶ οὐκ ἐγόγγυσε· καὶ ταῦτα πρὸ τῆς χάριτος, πρὶν ἢ περὶ ἀναστάσεώς τι λεχθῆναι, πρὶν ἢ περὶ γεέννης καὶ κολάσεως καὶ τιμωρίας. Ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ προφητῶν καὶ ἀποστόλων καὶ εὐαγγελιστῶν ἀκούοντες, καὶ μυρία ὁρῶντες παραδείγματα, καὶ τοὺς περὶ ἀναστάσεως μαθόντες λόγους, ἀσχάλλομεν ἔτι, καίτοι οὐδεὶς ἂν ἔχοι λέγειν ἑαυτῷ τοσαῦτα συμπεπτωκότα. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ χρήματά τις ἀπώλεσεν, ἀλλ' οὐ παῖδας καὶ θυγατέρας τοσαύτας, καὶ εἰ ἀπώλεσεν, ἴσως ἁμαρτών· ἐκεῖνος δὲ ἐξαίφνης ἐν μέσαις ταῖς θυσίαις, ἐν μέσῃ τῇ θεραπείᾳ τῇ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν· καὶ εἰ παῖδας καὶ χρήματα ὁμοῦ τοσαῦτα, ὅπερ ἀδύνατον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ ἥλκωτο διαπαντὸς, καὶ ἰχῶρας ἔξεεν· εἰ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ τοὺς ἐπεμβαίνοντας εἶχε καὶ ὀνειδίζοντας· ὅπερ μάλιστα πάντων δάκνειν ἡμᾶς εἴωθεν, ἢ αἱ συμφοραί. Εἰ γὰρ τοὺς παρακαλοῦντας ἔχοντες ἐν τοῖς κακοῖς καὶ παραμυθουμένους καὶ ἐλπίδας ἡμῖν ὑποτείνοντας χρηστὰς, οὕτως ἀλύομεν, ἐννόησον τί ἦν ὀνειδίζοντας ἔχειν. Εἰ τὸ, Ὑπέμεινα συλλυπούμενον, καὶ οὐχ ὑπῆρξε, καὶ παρακαλοῦντας, καὶ οὐχ εὗρον, δεινὸν καὶ ἀφόρητον, τὸ ἀντὶ τῶν παρακαλούντων ὀνειδίζοντας εὑρεῖν πόσον κακόν; Παρακλήτορες, φησὶ, κακῶν πάντες. δʹ. Εἰ ταῦτα διαπαντὸς ἐστρέφομεν, εἰ ταῦτα ἐλογιζόμεθα, οὐκ ἂν ἡμᾶς ἐλύπησέ τι τῶν παρόντων, εἰς ἐκεῖνον ὁρῶντας τὸν ἀθλητὴν, εἰς τὴν ἀδαμαντίνην ψυχὴν, εἰς τὴν ἀῤῥαγῆ καὶ χάλκεον διάνοιαν· ὥσπερ γὰρ χαλκοῦν ἢ λίθινον περικείμενος σῶμα, αὐτὸς ἅπαντα ἔφερε γενναίως καὶ καρτερικῶς. Ταῦτα ἐννοοῦντες, πάντα ποιῶμεν χωρὶς γογγυσμῶν καὶ διαλογισμῶν. Ποιεῖς τι ἀγαθὸν, καὶ γογγύζεις; διὰ τί; ἀνάγκη γάρ σοι ἐπίκειται; Οἶδα, φησὶν, ὅτι πολλοὶ πλησίον ἀναγκάζουσιν ὑμᾶς γογγύζειν (τοῦτο γὰρ ᾐνίξατο, εἰπὼν τὸ, Ἐν μέσῳ γενεᾶς σκολιᾶς καὶ διεστραμμένης)· ἀλλὰ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ θαυμαστὸν, τὸ καὶ παρακνιζόμενον μηδὲν πάσχειν τοιοῦτον. Καὶ γὰρ οἱ ἀστέρες ἐν