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De sancto Theodoro

ENCOMIUM BY THE SAME ON THE GREAT MARTYR THEODORE.

You, the people of Christ, the holy flock, the royal priesthood, peoples from cities and countryside flowing together from all directions, from where did you receive the signal for the journey, that you were led to this sacred place? Who imposed on you such a pressing and timely necessity to be here? and this in the season of winter, when war is quiet, and the soldier puts away his full armor, and the sailor places the rudder over the smoke, and the farmer rests, tending to his ploughing oxen at the manger? Or is it clear that the holy martyr sounded the trumpet from the military rolls; and having moved many from different homelands, he called them to his own rest and 46.737 hearth, not preparing for military readiness, but gathering them to that sweet peace which is especially fitting for Christians?

For he, as we believe, both lulled to sleep the barbarian storm of last year, and stopped the dreadful war of the savage Scythians, brandishing against them a dreadful and terrible thing as they looked on and drew near, not a triple-crested helmet, nor a well-sharpened sword gleaming in the sun, but the evil-averting and all-powerful cross of Christ, for whose sake he also suffered and acquired this glory. And now, you servants of this pure religion and lovers of martyrs, turn your minds to me and consider what a great thing a righteous man is, and of how many rewards he is deemed worthy (of the earthly, I say, and those among us; for of the invisible things no one is able to reckon the magnificence); and having defined the fruit of piety, emulate the conviction of those so honored. Desire the prizes which Christ distributes to the athletes according to their merit. And for now, if it seems good, while the enjoyment of the good things to come is at leisure, which a good hope stores up for the just, when the judge of our lives shall appear, let us look at the present state of the saints, how most beautiful and magnificent it is. For the soul, having ascended, dwells fondly about its own inheritance, and lives incorporeally with those like it; but the body, that venerable and spotless instrument, having in no way by its own passions harmed the incorruptibility of its inhabitant, being wrapped with much honor and care, lies reverently in a holy place, as some most precious heirloom kept for the time of regeneration, having much that is incomparable to the other bodies, which were dissolved by a common and ordinary death, and these being of a like substance of nature. For other remains are both loathsome to many, and no one gladly passes by a tomb, or even happening upon one unexpectedly opened, and casting his gaze on the shapelessness of what lies within, being filled with all unpleasantness, and groaning heavily for humanity, runs past. But having come to a place like this, where our assembly is today, where there is a memorial of a righteous man and a holy relic, first he is delighted by the magnificence of what he sees, looking upon a house like a temple of God, splendidly adorned by the size of its structure, and by the beauty of its decoration, where a carpenter has shaped the wood into the likeness of living things, and a stone-cutter has smoothed the slabs to the smoothness of silver. A painter too has colored the flowers of his art, having depicted in an image the martyr's valiant deeds, the struggles, the pains, the beast-like forms of the tyrants, the insults, that flame-fed furnace, the most blessed consummation of the athlete, the likeness of the human form of Christ the judge of the contest, all of our things as in

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De sancto Theodoro

ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΕΓΚΩΜΙΟΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΕΓΑΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΑ ΘΕΟ∆ΩΡΟΝ.

Ὑμεῖς ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ λαὸς, ἡ ἁγία ποίμνη, τὸ βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα, οἱ πανταχόθεν ἀστικοί τε καὶ χωριτικοὶ συῤῥεύσαντες δῆμοι, πόθεν λαβόντες τὸ σύνθημα τῆς ὁδοῦ, πρὸς τὸν ἱερὸν τοῦτον ἐδημαγωγή θητε τόπον; Τίς ὑμῖν τῆς ἐνθάδε σπουδαίαν οὕτω καὶ ἐμπρόθεσμον ἀνάγκην ἐπέθηκεν; καὶ ταῦτα ὥρᾳ χειμῶνος, ἡνίκα καὶ πόλεμος ἠρεμεῖ, καὶ στρατιώ της τὴν πανοπλίαν ἀποσκευάζεται, καὶ πλωτὴρ ὑπὲρ καπνοῦ τίθησι τὸ πηδάλιον, καὶ γεωγρὸς ἡσυχάζει τοὺς ἀροτῆρας βοῦς θεραπεύων ἐπὶ τῆς φάτνης; Ἢ πρόδηλον, ὡς ἐσάλπισε μὲν ἐκ τῶν στρατιωτικῶν καταλόγων ὁ ἅγιος μάρτυς· κινήσας δὲ πολλοὺς ἐκ διαφόρων πατρίδων πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ἀνάπαυσιν καὶ 46.737 ἑστίαν ἐκάλεσεν, οὐκ εἰς πολεμικὴν εὐτρεπίζων πα ρασκευὴν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν γλυκεῖαν καὶ μάλιστα δὴ Χριστιανοῖς πρέπουσαν συνάγων εἰρήνην;

Οὗτος γὰρ, ὡς πιστεύομεν, καὶ τοῦ παρελθόντος ἐνιαυτοῦ τὴν βαρβαρικὴν ζάλην ἐκοίμισε, καὶ τὸν φρικώδη τῶν ἀγρίων Σκυθῶν ἔστησε πόλεμον, δεινὸν αὐτοῖς ἐπισεί σας καὶ φοβερὸν ἤδη βλεπομένοις καὶ πλησιάσασιν, οὐ κράνος τρίλοφον, οὐδὲ ξίφος εὖ τεθηγμένον, καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον ἀποστίλβον, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἀλεξίκακον καὶ παντοδύναμον σταυρὸν τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὑπὲρ οὗ καὶ αὐ τὸς παθὼν, τὴν δόξαν ταύτην ἐκτήσατο. Καί μοι λοιπὸν τὸν νοῦν ἐπιστήσαντες διασκέψασθε, οἱ τῆς κα θαρᾶς ταύτης θρησκείας ὑπηρέται καὶ φιλομάρτυρες, ἡλίκον χρῆμα δίκαιος, καὶ ὅσων ἀξιοῦται τῶν ἀμοι βῶν (τῶν ἐγκοσμίων τε, λέγω, καὶ τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν· τῶν γὰρ ἀοράτων οὐδεὶς ἱκανὸς λογίσασθαι τὴν με γαλοπρέπειαν)· καὶ διορίσαντες τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας καρπὸν, ζηλώσατε τῶν οὕτω προτιμωμένων τὴν γνώ μην. Ἐπιθυμήσατε δὲ τῶν γερῶν ἃ Χριστὸς πρὸς ἀξίαν διανέμει τοῖς ἀθληταῖς. Καὶ τέως, εἰ δοκεῖ, τῆς ἀπολαύσεως τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν σχολαζούσης, ἣν ἐλπὶς ἀγαθὴ ταμιεύεται τοῖς δικαίοις, ἡνίκα ἂν ὁ τῶν ἡμετέρων βίων δικαστὴς ἐπιφοιτήσῃ, τὴν παρ οῦσαν ἴδωμεν τῶν ἁγίων κατάστασιν, ὅπως καλλίστη ἐστὶ καὶ μεγαλοπρεπής. Ψυχὴ μὲν γὰρ ἀνελθοῦσα περὶ τὸν ἴδιον κλῆρον ἐμφιλοχωρεῖ, καὶ ἀσωμάτως τοῖς ὁμοίοις συνδιαιτᾶται· σῶμα δὲ τὸ σεμνὸν καὶ ἀκηλίδωτον ἐκείνης ὄργανον, οὐδαμοῦ τοῖς ἰδίοις πά θεσι βλάψαν τῆς ἐνοικησάσης τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν, μετὰ πολλῆς τιμῆς καὶ θεραπείας περισταλὲν, σεμνῶς ἐν ἱερῷ τόπῳ κατάκειται, ὥσπερ τι κειμήλιον πολυτί μητον τῷ καιρῷ τῆς παλιγγενεσίας τηρούμενον, πολὺ τὸ ἀσύγκριτον ἔχον πρὸς τὰ ἄλλα τῶν σωμάτων, ἃ κοινῷ καὶ τῷ τυχόντι διελύθη θανάτῳ, καὶ ταῦτα ἐν ὁμοίᾳ ὕλῃ τῆς φύσεως. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἄλλα τῶν λειψά νων, καὶ βδελυκτὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἐστι, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἡδέως παρέρχεται τάφον, ἢ καὶ ἀνεῳγότι τυχὼν ἐκ τοῦ πα ραδόξου, ἐπιβαλὼν δὲ τὴν ὄψιν τῇ ἀμορφίᾳ τῶν ἐγ κειμένων, πάσης ἀηδίας πληρωθεὶς, καὶ βαρέα κατα στενάξας τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος παρατρέχει. Ἐλθὼν δὲ εἴς τι χωρίον ὅμοιον τούτῳ, ἔνθα σήμερον ὁ ἡμέτερος σύλλογος, ὅπου μνήμη δικαίου καὶ ἅγιον λείψανον· πρῶτον μὲν τῇ μεγαλοπρεπείᾳ τῶν ὁρωμένων ψυχ αγωγεῖται, οἶκον βλέπων ὡς Θεοῦ ναὸν, ἐξησκημένον λαμπρῶς τῷ μεγέθει τῆς οἰκοδομῆς, καὶ τῷ τῆς ἐπικοσμήσεως κάλλει, ἔνθα καὶ τέκτων εἰς ζώων φαντασίαν τὸ ξύλον ἐμόρφωσε, καὶ λιθοξόος εἰς ἀργύρου λειότητα τὰς πλάκας ἀπέξεσεν. Ἐπέχρωσε δὲ καὶ ζωγράφος τὰ ἄνθη τῆς τέχνης ἐν εἰκόνι διαγρα ψάμενος, τὰς ἀριστείας τοῦ μάρτυρος, τὰς ἐνστά σεις, τὰς ἀλγηδόνας, τὰς θηριώδεις τῶν τυράννων μορφὰς, τὰς ἐπηρείας, τὴν φλογοτρόφον ἐκείνην κά μινον, τὴν μακαριωτάτην τελείωσιν τοῦ ἀθλητοῦ, τοῦ ἀγωνοθέτου Χριστοῦ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης μορφῆς τὸ ἐκτύπωμα, πάντα ἡμῶν ὡς ἐν