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they seemed to hold fast to knowledge. Therefore, admiring your sagacity in all things, I uttered only that cry, shouting it out, which a certain woman long ago cried out to the Lord, astonished at the power of his words: Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed. And not only do I call blessed the one who bore you, honorable Father, as having been deemed worthy to become the mother of such a one; but also your mind, which conceives, and is ever pregnant with, and gives birth to the pious word; as having been revealed by grace to be a capacious womb for the super-natural Word, through the mind's appropriation to the Word Himself. And indeed according to your firm dispositions which are given forth from your heart, by which, like breasts, you nourish the Word in both practice and contemplation, [the Word] growing together with the supply of pious thoughts and ways; and, to speak paradoxically, making its own growth the deification of the nourishing mind. For what else could I have uttered to you, honorable Father, seeing you have become the begetter of such Words; through which, as from a certain mountain of the height of knowledge, concerning the divine dogmas, as if on God-inscribed tablets, through the new Mediator and great Moses over us and priest of priests, and of the divine priesthood that is preeminent over the whole inhabited world, you have proclaimed the vote that was brought forth and issued; which the holy and only-adored Trinity, as through an instrument of the aforesaid high priest, dictated, and bound the Churches more fully to concord, they having considered as nothing the innovation concerning the faith which seemed to many to have occurred in the city of Alexander.

For the given vote preserved this concept entirely, according to which our God-bearing Fathers handed down to the holy Churches to believe; saying that God the Word is one and the same both before the flesh and with the flesh; which He Himself for our sake united hypostatically to Himself, ensouled with a rational soul, assumed from the holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary; that is, deigning to become Himself the seed of his own incarnation; so that he might also truly become man; and might show through the seedless conception and the incorruptible birth nature being innovated and suffering no diminution in the innovation. For the mystery was God's voluntary emptying for goodness toward men, but not a falling away from divinity, this willing condescension through the flesh; for he remained what he was, and became what he was not; for he is immutable. And he preserved what he became, remaining what he was; for he is a lover of mankind. Through the things which he performed in a manner befitting God, showing what he became to be unalterable; (593) and through the things which he suffered in a manner befitting man, confirming what he was to be unchanging. For he performed divine things in a fleshly manner, because it was through a flesh not lacking its natural energy; and human things in a divine manner, because by will and with authority, and not by circumstance, did he accept the experience of human passions. For neither [did he perform] the divine things in a divine manner, because he was not bare God; nor the human things in a fleshly manner, because he was not a mere man. For this reason the miracles were not without suffering; and the sufferings did not exist without a miracle; but the former, if I may dare to say so, were not without passion; and the latter were manifestly wondrous; and both were paradoxical, because both divine [and human] proceeded from one and the same incarnate God the Word, who through both confirmed in reality the truth of those things from which and which he was. For that which is composed of certain things unconfusedly by a union according to a natural coming together, both preserves unchanged the natures of which it is composed, and saves undiminished their constituent powers, for the completion of a single work; whether what occurred was a passion or a miracle, according to the image of your wondrous, Father, and apt paradigm for the mystery of the divine incarnation, of the red-hot sword, whose cut we know to be caustic, and whose burning we know

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αὐτοῖς ἐδόκουν ἀντέχεσθαι γνώσεως. ∆ιό θαυμάσας σου τήν ἐν ὅλοις ἀγχίνοιαν, μόνην ἐκείνην ἀναβοήσας τήν φωνήν ἀπεφθεγξάμην, ἥν πάλαι γυνή τις πρός τόν Κύριον κέκραγε, τῶν αὐτοῦ ῥημάτων καταπλαγεῖσα τήν δύναμιν· Μακαρία ἡ κοιλία ἡ βαστάσασά σε, καί μαστοί οὕς ἐθήλασας. Οὐ μόνον δέ τήν τεκοῦσάν σε μακαρίζω, τίμιε Πάτερ, ὡς τοιούτου μητέρα γενέσθαι καταξιωθεῖσαν· ἀλλά καί τήν συλλαμβάνουσαν, καί κύουσαν ἀεί τόν εὐσεβῆ λόγον καί τίκτουσάν σου διάνοιαν· ὡς τοῦ ὑπέρ φύσιν Λόγου κατά χάριν κοιλίαν ἀποφανθεῖσαν χωρητικήν, διά τήν πρός αὐτόν τόν Λόγον τῆς γνώμης οἰκείωσιν. Καί μήν κατά τάς σάς παγίας ἕξεις τάς ἐκ τῆς σῆς καρδίας ἐκδιδομένας αἷς μαστῶν δίκην κατά τε τήν πρᾶξιν καί τήν θεωρίαν διατρέφεις τόν Λόγον, τῇ χορηγίᾳ τῶν εὐσεβῶν νοημάτων τε καί τρόπων συναυξανόμενον· καί παραδόξως εἰπεῖν, τήν οἰκείαν αὔξησιν τοῦ διατρέφοντος νοῦ ποιούμενον θέωσιν. Τί γάρ ἕτερον εἶχον φθέγξασθαι πρός σέ, τίμιε Πάτερ, τοιούτων γεννήτορα Λόγων γεγενημένον θεώμενος· δι᾿ ὧν, ὡς ἐξ ὅρους τινός τοῦ ὕψους τῆς γνώσεως τήν ἐπί τοῖς θείοις δόγμασι καθάπερ πλάκας θεοχαράκτους διά τοῦ νέου Μεσίτου καί ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν μεγάλου Μωϋσέως καί ἱερέων ἱερέως, καί τῆς καθ᾿ ὅλην τήν οἰκουμένην ἐξάρχου θείας ἱεροσύνης, κομισθεῖσάν τε καί ἐκδοθεῖσαν κατεμήνυσας ψῆφον· ἥν ἡ ἁγία καί μόνη προσκυνουμένη Τριάς, ὡς δι᾿ ὀργάνου τοῦ ῤηθέντος ὑπηγόρευσεν ἀρχιερέως, καί πρός ὁμόνοιαν πλέον ἐπέδησε τάς Ἐκκλησίας, εἰς οὐδέν θεμένας τήν δόξασαν τοῖς πολλοῖς γεγενῆσθαι κατά τήν Ἀλεξάνδρου πόλιν περί τήν πίστιν καινοτομίαν.

Ταύτην γάρ ὁλοσχερῶς ἡ δοθεῖσα διεσώσατο ψῆφος τήν ἔννοιαν, καθ᾿ ἥν πιστεύειν οἱ θεοφόροι Πατέρες ἡμῶν ταῖς ἁγίαις Ἐκκλησίαις παρέδοσαν· ἕνα καί τόν αὐτόν φάμενοι Θεόν Λόγον καί πρό σαρκός, καί μετά σαρκός· ἥν αὐτός ἑαυτῷ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐψυχωμένην νοερῶς καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἥνωσεν, ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας Θεοτόκου καί Ἀειπαρθένου προσληφθεῖσαν Μαρίας· σπορά δηλαδή τῆς οἰκείας αὐτός γενέσθαι καταξιώσας σαρκώσεως· ἵνα καί ἄνθρωπος ἀληθῶς γένηται· καί δείξῃ κατά τήν ἄσπορον σύλληψιν, καί τήν ἄφθορον γέννησιν τήν φύσιν καινοτομουμένην καί μηδεμίαν τῇ καινοτομίᾳ πάσχουσαν μείωσιν. Θεοῦ γάρ δι᾿ ἀγαθότητα πρός ἀνθρώπους ὑπῆρχεν αὐθαίρετος κένωσις τό μυστήριον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ θεότητος ἔκπτωσις, ἡ διά σαρκός ἑκούσιος συγκατάβασις· μεμένηκε γάρ ὅπερ ἦν, καί γενόμενος ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν· ἄτρεπτος γάρ. Καί ὅπερ γέγονε διετήρησε, διαμείνας ὅπερ ὑπῆρχε φιλάνθρωπος γάρ. ∆ι᾿ ὧν ἐνήργει θεοπρεπῶς, δεικνύς ὅπερ γέγονεν ἀναλλοίωτον· (593) καί δι᾿ ὧν ἔπασχεν ἀνθρωποπρεπῶς, πιστούμενος ὅπερ ἦν μή τρεπόμενον. Ἐνήργει γάρ, τά μέν θεῖα σαρκικῶς, ὅτι δά σαρκός φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας οὐκ ἀμοιρούσης· τά δ᾿ ἀνθρώπινα θε«κῶς, ὅτι κατά θέλησιν ἐξουσιαστικῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατά περίστασιν τήν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων παθημάτων προσίετο πεῖραν. Οὔτε γάρ τά θεῖα θε«κῶς, ὅτι μή γυμνός ὑπῆρχε Θεός· οὔτε τά ἀνθρώπινα σαρκικῶς, ὅτι μή ψιλός ἄνθρωπος ἦν. ∆ιά τοῦτο τά θαύματα δίχα πάθους οὐκ ἦν· καί τά παθήματα χωρίς οὐχ ὑπῆρχε θαύματος· ἀλλά τά μέν, ἵν᾿ εἴπω τολμήσας, οὐκ ἀπαθῆ· τά δέ προδήλως θαυμάσια· καί ἄμφω παράδοξα, ὅτι καί θεῖα [καί ἀνθρώπινα] ὡς ἐξ ἑνός καί τοῦ αὐτοῦ προερχόμενα Θεοῦ Λόγου σεσαρκωμένου, δι᾿ ἀμφοτέρων πιστουμένου πραγματικῶς, τήν τῶν ἐξ ὧν, καί ἅπερ ὑπῆρχεν ἀλήθειαν. Τό γάρ ἔκ τινων ἀσυγχύτως ἑνώσει τῇ κατά σύνοδον φυσικήν ἀποτελούμενον, καί τάς φύσεις ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκεν ἀτρέπτους διατηρεῖ, καί τάς αὐτῶν συστατικάς ἀμειώτως διασώζει δυνάμεις, εἰς ἑνός ἔργου συμπλήρωσιν· εἴτε πάθος, εἴτε θαῦμα τό γινόμενον ἦν, κατά τήν εἰκόνα τοῦ θαυμαστοῦ σου, Πάτερ, καί τῷ μυστηρίῳ τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως προσφυοῦς παραδείγματος, τῆς ἐκπυρωθείσης μαχαίρας, ἧς τήν τομήν ἐπιστάμεθα καυστικήν, καί τήν καῦσιν οἴδαμεν