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In sanctum Ignatium martyrem

ENCOMIUM On the holy hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer who became archbishop of great Antioch to Rome

having been carried away, and martyred there, and from there brought again to Antioch.

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1. The lavish and ambitious of hosts prepare frequent and successive feasts, at once displaying their own abundance, and showing their friendliness towards their friends. So also the grace of the Spirit, affording to us the demonstration of its own power, and displaying great friendliness towards the friends of God, sets before us the continuous and successive tables of the martyrs.

For recently a maiden, quite young and unmarried, the blessed martyr Pelagia, feasted us with much gladness; today again this blessed and noble martyr Ignatius has taken up her feast. The persons are different, but the table is one; the contests are varied, but the crown is one; the struggles are diverse, but the prize is the same. For in the contests of the outside world, since the labors are of bodies, it is fitting that men alone are approved; but here, since the entire contest is of the soul, the stadium is opened to each nature, the theater is seated for each sex. And not only men have stripped for the contest, lest women, taking refuge in the weakness of their nature, might seem to have a plausible excuse; nor have women alone acted manly, lest the male sex be put to shame; but from both sides many are proclaimed and crowned, so that you may learn through their works that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, that neither nature, nor weakness of body, nor age, nor anything else of that kind could hinder those who run the race of piety, if a noble eagerness, and an awakened mind, and a warm and fervent fear of God be rooted in our souls. For this reason also maidens, and women, and men, and youths, and old men, and slaves, and free, and every rank, and every age, and each nature have stripped for these contests, and were in no way hindered, since they brought a noble choice to these struggles. The time now calls us, then, to the narration of the achievements of this blessed man; but my thought is disturbed and confused, not having what to say first, what second, what third; so great a multitude of praises surrounds us from every side. And we suffer the same thing, as if someone entering a meadow, and seeing a great rose-bed, and many a violet, and so many lilies, and other spring flowers varied and diverse, would be at a loss, what to see first, what second, as each of the things seen calls his gaze to itself.

For we too, having entered this spiritual meadow of the achievements of Ignatius, and beholding not spring flowers, but the very fruit of the Spirit, varied and diverse in his soul, are confused and at a loss, not having where first to rest our thought, as each of the things seen draws it away from its neighbors, and attracts the gaze of the 50.588 soul to the contemplation of its own beauty. For consider: he presided over the Church among us nobly, and with as much exactness as Christ wishes; for what He said was the greatest limit and rule of the episcopate,

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In sanctum Ignatium martyrem

ΕΓΚΩΜΙΟΝ Εἰς τὸν ἅγιον ἱερομάρτυρα Ἰγνάτιον τὸν θεοφόρον ἀρχιεπίσκοπον γενόμενον Ἀντιοχείας τῆς μεγάλης εἰς Ῥώμην

ἀπενεχθέντα, καὶ αὐτόθι μαρτυρήσαντα, κακεῖθεν αὖθις εἰς Ἀντιόχειαν κομισθέντα.

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αʹ. Οἱ πολυτελεῖς καὶ φιλότιμοι τῶν ἑστιατόρων πυκνὰς καὶ ἐπαλλήλους ποιοῦνται τὰς ἑστιάσεις, ὁμοῦ μὲν τὴν οἰκείαν περιουσίαν ἐπιδεικνύμενοι, ὁμοῦ δὲ τὴν περὶ τοὺς ἐπιτηδείους φιλοφροσύνην ἐμφαίνοντες. Οὕτω καὶ ἡ τοῦ Πνεύματος χάρις τῆς οἰκείας δυνάμεως τὴν ἀπό δειξιν ἡμῖν παρεχομένη, καὶ πολλὴν τὴν φιλοφροσύνην περὶ τοὺς τοῦ Θεοῦ φίλους ἐπιδεικνυμένη, συνεχεῖς ἡμῖν καὶ ἐπαλλήλους τὰς τῶν μαρτύρων παρατίθεται τραπέζας.

Πρῴην γοῦν ἡμᾶς κόρη κομιδῇ νέα καὶ ἀπειρό γαμος, ἡ μακαρία μάρτυς Πελαγία, μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς εὐφροσύνης εἱστίασε· σήμερον πάλιν τὴν ἐκείνης ἑορτὴν ὁ μακάριος οὗτος καὶ γενναῖος μάρτυς Ἰγνάτιος διεδέ ξατο. ∆ιάφορα τὰ πρόσωπα, ἀλλὰ μία ἡ τράπεζα· ἐνηλλαγμένα τὰ παλαίσματα, ἀλλ' εἷς ὁ στέφανος· ποικίλα τὰ ἀγωνίσματα, ἀλλὰ τὸ αὐτὸ βραβεῖον. Ἐπὶ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἔξωθεν ἀγώνων, ἐπειδὴ σωμάτων εἰσὶν οἱ πόνοι, εἰκότως ἄνδρες ἐγκρίνονται μόνοι· ἐνταῦθα δὲ, ἐπειδὴ τῆς ψυχῆς ὁ ἀγὼν ἅπας ἐστὶν, ἑκατέρᾳ τῇ φύσει τὸ στάδιον ἀνέῳγεν, ἑκατέρῳ τῷ γένει τὸ θέατρον κάθη ται. Καὶ οὔτε ἄνδρες ἀπεδύσαντο μόνον, ἵνα μὴ πρὸς τὴν τῆς φύσεως ἀσθένειαν αἱ γυναῖκες καταφεύγουσαι δόξωσιν ἔχειν εὐπρόσωπον ἀπολογίαν· οὔτε γυναῖκες ἠνδρίσαντο μόναι, ἵνα μὴ τὸ τῶν ἀνδρῶν καταισχύνηται γένος· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐντεῦθεν κἀκεῖθεν πολλοὶ οἱ ἀνακηρυτ τόμενοι καὶ στεφανούμενοι, ἵνα μάθῃς διὰ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν ὅτι ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ οὐκ ἄρσεν, οὐ θῆλυ, ὅτι οὔτε φύσις, οὔτε σώματος ἀσθένεια, οὔτε ἡλικία, οὔτε ἄλλο οὐδὲν τῶν τοιούτων ἐμποδίσαι δύναιτ' ἂν τοῖς τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας τρέχουσι δρόμον, ἐὰν προ θυμία γενναία, καὶ φρόνημα διεγηγερμένον, καὶ φόβος Θεοῦ θερμὸς καὶ διάπυρος ἐῤῥιζωμένος ἡμῶν ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ᾖ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ κόραι, καὶ γυναῖκες, καὶ ἄν δρες, καὶ νέοι, καὶ γέροντες, καὶ δοῦλοι, καὶ ἐλεύθεροι, καὶ πᾶσα ἀξία, καὶ ἡλικία ἅπασα, καὶ φύσις ἑκατέρα πρὸς τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἀπεδύσαντο τούτους, καὶ οὐδαμόθεν οὐ δὲν παρεβλάβησαν, ἐπεὶ προαίρεσιν γενναίαν εἰσήνεγκαν εἰς τὰ παλαίσματα ταῦτα. Ὁ μὲν οὖν καιρὸς ἡμᾶς ἤδη πρὸς τὴν διήγησιν τῶν τοῦ μακαρίου τούτου κατορθω μάτων καλεῖ· ὁ λογισμὸς δὲ ταράττεται καὶ θορυβεῖται, οὐκ ἔχων τί πρῶτον, τί δεύτερον εἰπεῖν, τί τρίτον· τοσοῦτον περιῤῥεῖ πάντοθεν ἡμᾶς ἐγκωμίων πλῆθος. Καὶ ταὐτὸν πάσχομεν, οἷον ἂν εἴ τις εἰς λειμῶνα εἰσελθὼν, καὶ πολλὴν μὲν τὴν ῥοδωνιὰν ἰδὼν, πολὺ δὲ τὸ ἴον, καὶ τὸ κρίνον τοσοῦτον, καὶ ἕτερα δὲ ἠρινὰ ἄνθη ποικίλα τε καὶ διάφορα, ἀπορήσειε, τί πρῶτον ἴδῃ, τί δεύτερον, ἑκάστου τῶν ὁρωμένων πρὸς ἑαυτὸ καλοῦντος τὰς ὄψεις.

Καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς τὸν πνευματικὸν τοῦ τον λειμῶνα τῶν Ἰγνατίου κατορθωμάτων εἰσελθόντες, καὶ οὐχὶ ἄνθη ἠρινὰ, ἀλλ' αὐτὸν τοῦ Πνεύματος τὸν καρπὸν ποικίλον τε καὶ διάφορον ἐν τῇ τούτου ψυχῇ θεώμενοι θορυβούμεθα, καὶ διαποροῦμεν, οὐκ ἔχοντες ποῦ πρῶτον τὸν λογισμὸν ἀπερείσωμεν, ἑκάστου τῶν ὁρωμένων ἀπὸ τῶν πλησίον ἀνθέλκοντος, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῆς οἰκείας εὐπρεπείας θεωρίαν ἐπισπωμένου τὴν τῆς 50.588 ψυχῆς ὄψιν. Σκοπεῖτε γάρ· προέστη τῆς παρ' ἡμῖν Ἐκκλησίας γενναίως, καὶ μετὰ τοσαύτης ἀκριβείας, μεθ' ὅσης ὁ Χριστὸς βούλεται· ἂν γὰρ μέγιστον ὄρον καὶ κανόνα τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς ἔφησεν εἶναι ἐκεῖνος,