7. When therefore the faithful mother of a faithful son departed desired to have his body deposited in the basilica of a Martyr, forasmuch as she believed that his soul would be aided by the merits of the Martyr, the very believing of this was a sort of supplication, and this profited, if aught profited. And in that she recurs in her thoughts to this same sepulchre, and in her prayers more and more commends her son, the spirit of the departed is aided, not by the place of its dead body, but by that which springs from memory of the place, the living affection of the mother. For at once the thought, who is commended and to whom, doth touch, and that with no unprofitable emotion, the religious mind of her who prays. For also in prayer to God,21    Orantes men do with the members of their bodies that which becometh suppliants, when they bend their knees, when they stretch forth their hands, or even prostrate themselves on the ground, and whatever else they visibly do, albeit their invisible will and heart’s intention be known unto God, and He needs not these tokens that any man’s mind should be opened unto Him: only hereby one more excites himself to pray and groan more humbly and more fervently. And I know not how it is, that, while these motions of the body cannot be made but by a motion of the mind preceding, yet by the same being outwardly in visible sort made, that inward invisible one which made them is increased: and thereby the heart’s affection which preceded that they might be made, groweth because they are made. But still if any be in that way held, or even bound, that he is not able to do these things with his limbs, it does not follow that the inner man does not pray, and before the eyes of God in its most secret chamber, where it hath compunction, cast itself on the ground. So likewise, while it makes very much difference, where a person deposits the body of his dead, while he supplicates for his spirit unto God, because both the affection preceding chose a spot which was holy, and after the body is there deposited the recalling to mind of that holy spot renews and increases the affection which had preceded; yet, though he may not be able in that place which his religious mind did choose to lay in the ground him whom he loves, in no wise ought he to cease from necessary supplications in commending of the same. For wheresoever the flesh of the departed may lie or not lie, the spirit requires rest and must get it: for the spirit in its departing from thence took with it the consciousness without which it could make no odds how one exists, whether in a good estate or a bad: and it does not look for aiding of its life from that flesh to which it did itself afford the life which it withdrew in its departing, and is to render back in its returning; since not flesh to spirit, but spirit unto flesh procureth merit even of very resurrection, whether it be unto punishment or unto glory that it is to come to life again.

CAPUT V.

7. Locus per occasionem quantum 0597 prosit. Cum ergo fidelis mater fidelis filii defuncti corpus desideravit in basilica martyris poni, si quidem credidit ejus animam meritis martyris adjuvari; hoc quod ita credidit, supplicatio quaedam fuit; et haec profuit, si quid profuit. Et quod ad idem sepulcrum recurrit animo, et filium precibus magis magisque commendat; adjuvat defuncti spiritum, non mortui corporis locus, sed ex loci memoria vivus matris affectus. Simul enim et quis et cui commendatus sit, non utique infructuose religiosam mentem precantis attingit. Nam et orantes de membris sui corporis faciunt quod supplicantibus congruit, cum genua figunt, cum extendunt manus, vel etiam prosternuntur solo, et si quid aliud visibiliter faciunt; quamvis eorum invisibilis voluntas et cordis intentio Deo nota sit, nec ille indigeat his indiciis, ut humanus ei pandatur animus: sed hinc magis se ipsum excitat homo ad orandum gemendumque humilius atque ferventius. Et nescio quomodo, cum hi motus corporis fieri nisi motu animi praecedente non possint, eisdem rursus exterius visibiliter factis, ille interior invisibilis qui eos fecit augetur: ac per hoc cordis affectus, qui ut fierent ista praecessit, quia facta sunt crescit. Verumtamen si eo modo quisque teneatur, vel etiam ligetur, ut haec de suis membris facere nequeat, non ideo non orat interior homo, et ante oculos Dei in secretissimo cubili, ubi compungitur, sternitur. Ita etiam cum plurimum intersit ubi ponat corpus mortui sui, qui pro spiritu ejus Deo supplicat, quia et praecedens affectus locum elegit sanctum, et illic corpore posito recordatus locus sanctus eum qui praecesserat renovat et auget affectum: tamen etiamsi non possit, ubi religiosus animus elegit, humare quem diligit, nullo modo debet a supplicationibus necessariis in ejus commendatione cessare. Ubicumque enim jaceat vel non jaceat defuncti caro, spiritui requies acquirenda est: qui cum inde exiret, secum abstulit sensum, quo interesse possit quomodo quisque sit, sive in bonis, sive in malis: nec ab ea carne exspectat adjuvari vitam suam, cui praebebat ipse vitam, quam detraxit excedens, et redditurus est rediens; quoniam non caro spiritui, sed spiritus carni etiam ipsius resurrectionis meritum comparat, utrum ad poenam, an ad gloriam reviviscat.