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In principium indictionis, in martyres

On the beginning of the indiction of the new year, and on the martyrs, and on the woman with the issue of blood.

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1. A continuous sign from the Lord Christ is the downpour of good things, and one wealth succeeds another. Behold, today also the gloriously triumphant martyrs feast us, having set forth their own struggles as a common banquet of gladness. For it was fitting, it was fitting for the martyrs, ever young in grace, also at the entrance of the year to become for the pious an occasion for welcome; it was fitting for such exultation to meet the faithful at the new year; it was fitting for us to greet with so great a blessing the prelude to the change of the season; it was fitting to receive the festival of the present day, honored by the choir of the saints; it was fitting for the circle of the year to be adorned with the crown of the martyrs; it was fitting to enjoy such a banquet at the dawning year, bringing with it also the honor of the martyrs. For they themselves, the noble soldiers of Christ, are the cause of all gladness for our race, who even after death are heralds of his power, who with the feet of endurance trampled down the deceitful serpent, and with the hands of love for God strangled the tyrant-minded lion, and manifested the truth; who hated the present life as futile, and longed for the kingdom of heaven, as sons for a mother; who through death opened the gates of immortality, and put to death the begetter of death by their own death; who in the body conquered the bodiless demons, not by the power of the body, but by the faith of the soul; for through faith they overcame all the things of the world, than which nothing is more desirable to Christians.

For possessing faith as their co-worker, they confirmed their words with deeds. For great indeed is the achievement of righteousness; and splendid is the virtue of self-control; useful likewise is the practice of love for the poor; and beautiful along with these is the discipline of continence; but the powerful advantage of faith brings victory over all things. This faith once cultivated the barren womb of Sarah for Abraham into a fertile field after the great passage of time; by this Moses also made the traversed sea to be walked upon; through this Elijah commanded heaven, and was heard; this faith drove out myriad kinds of afflictions in the time of the Savior; a leper through faith was freed from the scales of his affliction; a blind man through it received eyes which nature had not brought forth; the Canaanite woman, taking this faith as her ally, being hard-pressed concerning her offspring, snatched her daughter from the possessing demon. And hidden faith dried up flows of blood, and while in other cases the gift followed a preceding request, here a silent woman plundered the gift from one who was silent, as she supposed. O woman, at once wretched and blessed! wretched because of the former things, blessed because of the latter. For behold, he says, A woman in a flow of her blood for twelve years. If the number of days had been so many, as the time consumed was in years, it would have subdued her—and that for twelve years.

The affliction, as I think, had turned into her nature; she who, having spent her whole living on physicians, added the decrease of her money to the wasting of her body; but she could be healed by no one. O the phrase, 'She could not'; the woman had the enemy of her affliction as an antagonist; for the woman's womb was gushing, a certain ceaseless torrent of blood was carried down; nor did the length of so much time exhaust the flow in the channel of foul odor. She was still cut to the heart with pains and cares, as to how

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In principium indictionis, in martyres

Εἰς τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ἰνδικτιῶνος τοῦ νέου ἔτους, καὶ εἰς μάρτυρας, καὶ εἰς αἱμόῤῥουν.

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αʹ. Ἐπάλληλον σημεῖον παρὰ τοῦ ∆εσπότου Χριστοῦ ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐπομβρία, καὶ ἄλλος ἄλλον διαδέχεται πλοῦτον. Ἰδοὺ καὶ σήμερον ἡμᾶς ἑστιῶσιν οἱ καλλίνικοι μάρτυρες, τοὺς οἰκείους ἄθλους προτεθεικότες εἰς ἐπίκοινον εὐφροσύνης συμπόσιον. Ἔδει γὰρ, ἔδει τοὺς ἀεὶ νεάζοντας τῇ χάριτι μάρτυρας, καὶ τῇ τοῦ ἔτους εἰσόδῳ γενέσθαι τοῖς εὐσεβέσιν ἀφορμὴν δεξιώσεως· ἔδει τοιαύτην τῷ νέῳ ἐνιαυτῷ τοῖς πιστοῖς ὑπαντῆσαι τὴν ἀγαλλίασιν· ἔδει μετὰ τοσαύτης ἡμᾶς εὐλογίας ἀσπάσασθαι τῆς τοῦ χρόνου ἐναλλαγῆς τὰ προοίμια· ἔδει τὴν τῆς παρούσης ἡμέρας πανήγυριν τῷ χορῷ τῶν ἁγίων τετιμημένην ὑποδέξασθαι· ἔδει τὸν κύκλον τοῦ ἔτους τῷ τῶν μαρτύρων κοσμηθῆναι στεφάνῳ· ἔδει τοιαύτῃ χρήσασθαι ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐπιστάντος ἐνιαυτοῦ τῇ εὐωχίᾳ, ἐπαγομένους καὶ τὴν τῶν μαρτύρων τιμήν. Αὐτοὶ γάρ εἰσι πάσης εὐφροσύνης τῷ γένει παραίτιοι οἱ γενναῖοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ στρατιῶται, οἱ καὶ μετὰ θάνατον τῆς αὐτοῦ δυνάμεως κήρυκες, οἱ τὸν ἀπατεῶνα ὄφιν ποσὶ καρτερίας καταπατήσαντες, καὶ τὸν τυραννόφρονα λέοντα φιλοθεΐας χερσὶν ἀποπνίξαντες, καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν φανερώσαντες· οἱ τὴν παροῦσαν ζωὴν ὡς ματαίαν μισήσαντες, καὶ τὴν τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείαν, ὡς υἱοὶ μητέρα, ποθήσαντες· οἱ διὰ θανάτου τὰς τῆς ἀθανασίας πύλας ἀνοίξαντες, καὶ τὸν τοῦ θανάτου γεννήτορα τῷ οἰκείῳ θανάτῳ νεκρώσαντες· οἱ ἐν σώματι τοὺς ἀσωμάτους νικήσαντες δαίμονας, οὐ δυνάμει σώματος, ἀλλὰ πίστει ψυχῆς· διὰ πίστεως γὰρ τῶν τοῦ κόσμου κατηγωνίσαντο πάντων, ἧς οὐδὲν Χριστιανοῖς αἱρετώτερον.

Πίστιν γὰρ κεκτημένοι συμπράκτορα τοὺς λόγους ἔργοις ἐβεβαίωσαν. Μέγα μὲν γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς τὸ τῆς δικαιοσύνης κατόρθωμα· λαμπρὰ δὲ καὶ τῆς σωφροσύνης ἡ ἀρετή· χρήσιμος ὁμοίως καὶ τῆς φιλοπτωχίας ἡ ἐπιμέλεια· καλὴ μετὰ τούτων καὶ τῆς ἐγκρατείας ἡ ἄσκησις· φέρει δὲ τὴν κατὰ πάντων νίκην τὸ δυνατὸν τῆς πίστεως πλεονέκτημα. Αὕτη ποτὲ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ τὴν χερσεύουσαν τῆς Σάῤῥας γαστέρα μετὰ τὴν πολλὴν τοῦ χρόνου δαπάνην πρὸς γόνιμον ἐγεώργησεν ἄρουραν· ταύτῃ καὶ Μωϋσῆς πεζεύεσθαι πλεομένην ἐποίησε θάλασσαν· διὰ ταύτης Ἠλίας προσέταττεν οὐρανῷ, καὶ ἠκούετο· αὕτη μυρία τῶν παθῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἀπεδίωξε γένη· λεπρὸς διὰ πίστεως τῶν τοῦ πάθους ἀπηλλάγη φολίδων· τυφλὸς δι' ἐκείνης ὀφθαλμοὺς, οὓς ἡ φύσις οὐκ ἤνεγκεν, ἀπέλαβε· ταύτην συμμαχοῦσαν ἡ Χαναναία λαβοῦσα, βιασθεῖσα περὶ γονὴν ἀφήρπασε τὴν θυγατέρα τοῦ κατέχοντος δαίμονος. Ἐξήρανε καὶ λανθάνουσα πίστις αἱμάτων ῥοὰς, καὶ ἐπ' ἄλλων μὲν προλαμβανούσης αἰτήσεως ἠκολούθει τὸ δῶρον, ἐνταῦθα δὲ σιγῶσα παρὰ σιγῶντος, ὡς ἐνόμιζεν, ἀπεσύλα τὸ χάρισμα. Ὢ γυναικὸς ἀθλίας καὶ μακαρίας ὁμοῦ! ἀθλίας διὰ τὰ πρῴην, μακαρίας διὰ τὰ δεύτερα· Ἰδοὺ γὰρ, φησὶ, Γυνὴ ἐν ῥύσει αἵματος αὐτῆς δώδεκα ἔτη. Τοσοῦτος ἡμερῶν εἰ ἦν ἀριθμὸς, ὁπόσος ἐτῶν ἠνάλωτο χρόνος, κατεδάμασεν αὐτὴν ἂν, οὐχὶ δὲ ἔτη δώδεκα.

Εἰς φύσιν, ὡς οἶμαι, τὸ πάθος μετέπεσεν· ἥτις ἰατροῖς προσαναλώσασα τὸν βίον ὅλον, τῷ τοῦ σώματος μαρασμῷ καὶ τὴν τῶν χρημάτων προσέθηκε μείωσιν· ὑπ' οὐδενὸς δὲ ἴσχυσε θεραπευθῆναι. Ὢ τὸ, Οὐκ ἴσχυσεν· ἀνταγωνιστὴν εἶχεν ἡ γυνὴ τὸν τοῦ πάθους πολέμιον· ἐπήγαζεν ἄρα τῆς γυναικὸς ἡ γαστὴρ, κρουνός τις αἱμάτων ἀνελλιπὴς κατεφέρετο· οὐδὲ τοσούτου χρόνου τὸ μῆκος τῷ τῆς δυσωδίας ὀχετῷ τὴν φορὰν ἐδαπάνα. Ὀδύναις ἔτι καὶ φροντίσιν ἐκόπτετο τὴν διάνοιαν, πῶς