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Encomium on Saint John Chrysostom

11. Of our Father among the saints John of Damascus, an encomium on

Saint John Chrysostom. 1. It was necessary, O all-golden John, for those attempting to undertake your 96.764 encomia, having been blessed with a golden tongue, to bring forth a golden-flowing word. But in addition to these things, your voice ought to have been present; for it alone would have aimed worthily at its own praise, and this even now. For to you, who lived with us on earth before your departure, forgetfulness of your achievements in your opening words was its own accuser. For in a way, their own achievements are hidden from the wise, so that being may not be swept away by seeming; but since even the lispings of children are dear to fathers, and two mites are more beloved to God than lavish achievements; for He is wont to judge these things not by power, but rather by intention; and besides, the exhortation of a God-loving man must not be pushed aside; for this man is revered and owed the greatest thanks from us; I undertake the speech; but not unrestrainedly, nor without hesitation, but shrinking with fear, and I offer to you the first fruits of your own divine and holy teachings. For there will be for me, as I unfold such a subject, if I have come near its worth, no small praise, but if I fall short of it—which it is best not to suffer, but impossible to avoid—pardon for having submitted to a just defeat, and grant me the fire-breathing grace of the Spirit. For you yourself were called the mouth of Christ, bringing forth the worthy from the unworthy, not just one or two somewhere; for perhaps even one of the many might do this; but whole houses, and peoples, and cities. 2. For beginning from yourself, and having truly made yourself a Jerusalem, a city of the living God, as a dwelling place for the divine Spirit, you traversed with your word the ends of all the earth, of the regions of the East and the West, of the North and the South, so that the divine utterance of the wondrous David could most aptly be said of you: Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. For you became a student of the very wisdom itself of Christ, the enhypostatic power of God the Father, and having traced His steps with all your strength, and having become an imitator of God as is possible for a man. For you built the form of every virtue, the Gades of nature's limits, upon the deepest foundation of humility, through which alone God was pleased to save, and man is saved. For there is no surer support than this. And that humility comes from faith is surely clear to all. For how could one submit to one who is superior, without believing that he is superior and most high? 3. And being full of words as a servant of the Word, through which you preached the divine Word, both enhypostatic of God the Father, and through the Spirit consubstantial with the Father, teaching clearly that a Monad is to be known in a Triad, which is worshipped, and a Triad is summed up into a Monad, bearing a certain paradoxical union and 96.765 division. Neither is the unity confused, nor the threeness completely divided; but the one is preserved in the other, in the union of the essence of the hypostases, both the unity and the unchangeableness of the nature. These things you taught the whole world, one tri-hypostatic divinity having wholly shared itself with us in one of its own hypostases; which is the

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Encomium in sanctum Joannem Chrysostomum

ΙΑʹ. Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ ∆αμασκηνοῦ ἐγκώμιον εἰς

τὸν ἅγιον Ἰωάννην Χρυσόστομον. αʹ. Ἔδει μὲν, ὦ Ἰωάννη πάγχρυσε, τοὺς τῶν σῶν 96.764 ἐγκωμίων πειρωμένους ἐφάπτεσθαι, γλώσσης χρυσέης εὐμοιρηκότας, λόγον προφέρειν χρυσόῤῥοον. Ἐπὶ δὲ τούτοις τὴν σὴν ἔδει παρεῖναι φωνήν· μόνη γὰρ ἂν ἑαυτῆς ἀξίως τῆς εὐφημίας καταστοχάσαιτο, καὶ ταῦτά γε νῦν. Σοὶ γὰρ τῷ ἐπὶ γῆς πρὸ ἐκδημίας συμβιοτεύσαντι, λήθη τῶν κατορθουμένων ἐν πρωτολογίαις ἑαυτῆς ὑπῆρχε κατήγορος. Ἀποκρύπτεται γάρ πως τοῖς σοφοῖς τὰ σφῶν κατορθωμάτων, ὡς ἂν μὴ παραῤῥυῇ τὸ εἶναι τῷ οἴεσθαι· ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ πατράσι φίλα καὶ τὰ τῶν παίδων ψελλίσματα, καὶ δύο λεπτὰ Θεῷ τῶν κατορθωμάτων τῶν ἁβρῶν προσφιλέστερα· οὐ δυνάμει γὰρ, προαιρέσει δὲ μᾶλλον κρίνειν ταῦτα πέφυκε· πρὸς δὲ καὶ φιλοθέου ἀνδρὸς προτροπὴν οὐκ ἀπωστέον· αἰδοῖος γὰρ οὗτος καὶ χάριτας ὅτι πλείστας πρὸς ἡμῶν ὀφειλόμενος· τῶν μὲν λόγων ἐφάπτομαι· ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀνέδην, οὐδὲ συστολῆς ἄτερ, ἀλλὰ τῷ δέει μὲν συστελλόμενος, καί σοι τῶν σῶν θείων τε καὶ ἱερῶν διδαγμάτων προφέρω τὰ ἀκροθίνια. Ἔσται γάρ μοι τοιαύτην ὑπόθεσιν ἀνελίττοντι, ἐγγὺς μὲν ἀξίας ἐληλυθότι, οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν ἔπαινος, ἀπολειφθέντι δὲ ταύτης, ὃ μὴ παθεῖν ἄριστον, ἀλλ' ἀμήχανον, συγγνώμη ἥττῃ δικαίᾳ καθυποκύψαντι, καί μοι δίδου τὴν πυρίπνοον χάριν τοῦ Πνεύματος. Χριστοῦ γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐχρημάτισας στόμα, ἐξάγων ἐξ ἀναξίου ἄξιον οὐχ ἕνα που ἢ δύο· τοῦτο γὰρ ἄν τις τυχὸν καὶ τῶν πολλῶν δράσειεν· ἀλλ' οἴκους ὅλους, καὶ δήμους, καὶ ἄστεα. βʹ. Ἀρξάμενος γὰρ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ σαυτὸν ὄντως Ἱερουσαλὴμ κατασκευάσας πόλιν Θεοῦ ζῶντος εἰς κατοικητήριον θείου Πνεύματος, πανταχόσε γῆς, Ἑώας τε καὶ Ἑσπερίου λήξεως, Ἄρκτου τε καὶ Μεσημβρίας ἐπῆλθες τῷ λόγῳ τὰ πέρατα, ὡς καὶ ἐπὶ σοὶ εὐστοχώτατα λεχθῆναι τοῦ θεσπεσίου ∆αβὶδ τὸ θεῖον προαναφώνημα· Εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν, καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν. Φοιτητὴς γὰρ γέγονας τῆς ὄντως αὐτοσοφίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς ἐνυποστάτου δυνάμεως, καὶ τοῦτον ἰχνηλατήσας ὅσῃ δύναμις, καὶ μιμητὴς Θεοῦ γενόμενος ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατόν. Σὺ πέρατα γὰρ τὰ τῆς φύσεως Γάδειρα πάσης ἀρετῆς ἰδέαν ἐπὶ τῷ βαθυτάτῳ θεμελίῳ τῆς ταπεινώσεως ᾠκοδόμησας, δι' ἧς μόνης καὶ Θεὸς σώζειν εὐδόκησε, καὶ ἄνθρωπος σώζεται. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ταύτης ἀσφαλέστερον ἔρεισμα. Ἡ δὲ ταπείνωσις ὡς ἐκ πίστεως παντί που δῆλον. Πῶς γὰρ ἄν τις καθυποβαίη τῷ κρείττονι, μὴ πιστεύσας ὅτι κρείττων καὶ ὕψιστος; γʹ. Λόγων δὲ πλήρης ὡς Λόγου θεραπευτὴς ἐγεγόνεις, δι' ὧν τὸν θεῖον Λόγον, καὶ ἐνυπόστατον τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς, διὰ Πνεύματος τῷ Πατρὶ ἐκήρυξας ὁμοούσιον, μονάδα σαφῶς εἰδέναι ἐν Τριά· προσκυνουμένην, καὶ Τριάδα εἰς μονάδα ἀνακεφαλαιουμένην, παράδοξόν τινα φέρουσαν τὴν ἕνωσίν τε 96.765 καὶ διαίρεσιν. Οὔτε τὸ ἑνιαῖον συγκεχυμένον, οὔτε τὸ τρισσὸν δι' ἄμπαξ διαιρούμενον· ἐν θατέρῳ δὲ συντηρούμενον θάτερον, ἐν τῇ ἑνώσει μὲν τῆς οὐσίας τῶν ὑποστάσεων τὸ ἑνιαῖόν τε καὶ τῆς φύσεως ἀπαράλλακτον. Ταῦτα πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐδίδαξας, μίαν θεότητα τρισυπόστατον ἐν μιᾷ τῶν αὐτῆς ὑποστάσεων ὁλικῶς ἡμῖν κοινωνήσασαν· ἡ δέ ἐστιν ὁ