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Of Our Father among the Saints Athanasius, a Discourse on the Census of the Holy Mary and on Joseph. Just as the workmen who have obtained the task of mining gold-bearing earth, when they find a vein producing nuggets of what is sought, there they tarry, there they dig alongside, as by a guide to profit; and they do not go backward, not changing place beforehand, until they reach the lair of the object before them. In like manner, we, the overseers of ecclesiastical labor, having the Evangelist Luke in hand, for the understanding of the lordly treasure of the birth from the Virgin, will not cease from investigation until we have genuinely gathered up the wealth before us. For this reason, we will trace the Evangelist in order, so that we may leave nothing of profit behind. For even if the words in the prologue are small, yet the initiations into joy are great. And let no one be listless at the discourse, having received the readings as small in hearing. For as compared to the power of the born Lord, the readings are small and exceedingly small: swaddling clothes, and a manger, and an unsuitable place. And these things are small, but the matters before us are mystical: an ineffable womb, an incomprehensible bosom, a holy breast, a milk flowing from a strange source, a nipple alien to natural nourishment, the Mother of the Lord becoming enrolled, the betrothed Joseph embracing a communion of name and not of reality. You heard just now the Evangelist Luke saying: "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world be registered.

This census was the first, when Cyrenius was governing Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was pregnant. Do you see how small the words are, and how great the mysteries? The Lord was being carried in the womb, and the first census was being legislated, He who has all creation enrolled, and said to his disciples: "Rejoice and be glad, for your names are written in the heavens." In the small Roman codices he allowed his own mother to become enrolled. Who would not speak? Who would not marvel at the Lord's condescension? Above free, and below enrolled; above Son, and below servant; above king, and below hired hand; above rich, and below needy; above worshipped, and below taxed; above divine throne, and below rustic cave; above the paternal and incomprehensible bosom, and below a small stable for beasts, and a manger. Who would not marvel at great things above, and small swaddling clothes below? The one who looses was bound; the one who nourishes was nourished; the incomprehensible one appeared as a child; the one who releases springs borrowed a breast; the one who bears all was ineffably borne; the one who is nowhere absent was in part, without circumscription, circumscribed. O the paradoxical things! Elizabeth gave birth in a bright little house, and the Virgin gave birth in the small cave; John on a bed, and the Lord in a manger.

The Lord's birth from a Virgin was not without purpose; his being wrapped in swaddling clothes was not without purpose; his sucking the breast was not without purpose; his being laid in a manger was not without purpose; his being summoned for the census of Augustus was not without purpose; everything is for a reason, and for a purpose, and full of hidden meaning. He is born from a Virgin, so that he might correct the first-formed Adam, who was molded from the earth of a virgin soil. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that he might loosen the chains of our sins, releasing bonds by bonds, according to the saying: "For each person is bound by the chains of his own sins." He sucked the breast, so that he might cause the milk of grace to flow, which gushed forth from his own side; for milk is nothing other than blood turned white. He was laid in a manger, so that he might correct the irrationality of humanity, and become food for two animals; what two animals? The Gentile and the Jewish people, concerning whom it is written: "You will be known between two animals." He submitted to the census under Augustus Caesar, so that he might correct the universal disorder. For this census has become a pledge of universal good order. And that what is said is true, hear briefly. Before the Lord's incarnation, great tyranny held the human race; the region of the earth was governed irrationally; they mocked the royal dignity; a multitude of many men were appointed as kings; if someone had a hundred men under him, he immediately usurped the form of kingship. Such was the rivalry of the nations; loving local rule, and not passing from place to place, except in some way they armed themselves against one another.

While this confusion was prolonged, the Lord alone deigned to inhabit the virginal palace on earth, and immediately he put an end to polyarchy and planted monarchy, having allotted the Roman rule to govern all, in imitation of the heavenly order. For just as in heaven the one kingdom of God prevails, and all the angels are subject to his will, while the demons, like barbarians, have rebelled, so also on earth, even if many nations are unruly, nevertheless the one kingdom of the Romans prevails. For this order, therefore, the king who was being carried in the womb ordered the first census to be convened under Augustus; whence he also permitted himself to be enrolled in the Roman rule for the confirmation of the decreed laws. For a king's law prevails when the king who legislates first fulfills the law. For he who legislates and does not fulfill is a destroyer or a lawgiver. For the aforementioned order, the census under Augustus was the first, so that the service of the law might be transferred and the Jewish people be abolished, so that it might no longer be possible for the disorderly Jews, using autonomy, to kill the innocent, but that they might follow the laws under the yoke of necessity. Necessary, therefore, was the aforementioned census under Augustus; this census humbled the Jewish people and exalted the Christian race, the Jews no longer daring, through fear of the Roman rule, to employ their former madness.

Therefore, after this census, although they seized the Lord and hastened to deliver him to death, they did not dare to act according to their own will, as they had done with the prophets, whom they tore apart indiscriminately. Instead, they brought him to Pilate, the Roman governor, presenting a petition, demanding justice for the things said, and contriving to obtain consent. Therefore Pilate, the Roman governor, when he saw the Jews clamoring like dogs for the execution of the Lord, and knowing that they had handed him over out of envy, questioned the Jews, saying: "As you all clearly know, I find nothing worthy of death in this man, O Jews. Why are you eager to defile the Roman authority, seizing the just man with intemperance, and wishing to make the blameless one liable? I find nothing worthy of death in this man. Rather, let Barabbas be put to death, and let Christ be released; for that one is a murderer and a rebel, but this one is a benefactor and a life-giver, since even this accusation against him

You have greeted. And thus, with the Jews not consenting, but declaring Pilate an enemy of Caesar, who said to Pilate’s face, as he pleaded for Christ: “You are not a friend of Caesar,” since you wish to keep alive the one who calls himself king. And thus Pilate did not permit the Jews to do anything whatsoever according to their own judgment. For if he had permitted the Jews, the Jews would have killed the Lord by stoning, or would have sawed him in two with a wooden saw. Had this been done, we would have been deprived of the cross, since the wood of the cross is a Roman tribunal. Therefore Pilate also asked the Jews: “What do you wish me to do with Jesus, called Christ?” And they, trusting in Roman discipline, shouted: “Take him, take him, crucify him;” and immediately Pilate assented, for he had the nod from above. For this reason, then, the first census under Augustus Caesar was legislated; for if this census had not been previously legislated, the Lord’s body would not have been given over to a proper burial; for the children of the Jews, in their excessive madness, would have either consigned the Lord’s body to fire or cast it into the sea. For if they brought down their friend Jeremiah into a pit of mire, what would they have done to the Lord’s body, had they not had the Roman law striking them? Therefore, with the Jews not being permitted by Pilate to receive the Lord’s body, Joseph of Arimathea, being a friend of Pilate, approached and asked him for the Lord’s body, offering something incomparable. Necessary, then, was the census under Augustus Caesar.

For even if the betrothed of the Virgin, as you have just heard, became sullen, yet the whole world received the beginning of good order. What is this: "The betrothed of the Virgin became sullen"? Listen briefly. When Joseph, the betrothed of the Virgin, as you have just heard, was on his way to Bethlehem because of the census of Augustus, together with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was pregnant, Joseph was ignorant of what was being mystically wrought in the Virgin; he had not yet received an oracle from an angel. But the Virgin possessed certainty, both in word and in her condition; for as the growth of her belly increased, so the Virgin passed her life more carefree, at once keeping her virginity undefiled and bringing forth her child without travail, not so much wearied as lightened. In addition to this, Joseph, being anxious, when he saw that she was with child, ignorant of the treasure within, became sullen, and on the way he argued with the Virgin, saying: "What has come over you, Mary? Are you not the one who was raised as a reverend Virgin in the sacred precincts? Are you not Mary, who deigned not to look upon the face of a man? Are you not Mary, who was persuaded to be betrothed to me contrary to your intention? Are you not Mary, who prayed to keep the unfading rose of virginity? Are you not Mary, who loved Susanna and hated the Egyptian woman? Are you not Mary, who recalled the violated Tamar and abhorred the disorderly Amnon? Where is the chamber of your chastity? Where is the unsullied bridal chamber of your purity? Where is your modest face? I am ashamed, and you are bold?

That I am silent about your sin, do you press on to come closer? Do you not see the bulk of your belly? The infant within is stirring, and you, as if untouched by trials, are cheerful? Go away, Mary; return to your house; seek out the secret husband; be inscribed to him. I do not accept another’s disgrace; you will find no defense against the punishment. And the Virgin to Joseph: Why are you vexed, my betrothed? Why do you condemn me as disorderly? Why do you look upon the bulk of my womb with insulting eyes? Why do you force me to blush? I have become the glory of women; I have stripped them of their former shame; I have recalled Eve; I have displaced the fiery sword; and you prepare to cover me? No one will be able to exact justice from me, for I bear a common Master. If I testify about myself, I will be found as some vainglorious person. Wait a little, O Joseph, and shepherds will persuade you; magi will assure you; a star will shame you; angels will pierce you. Now you doubt, but not long after you will glorify, when you hear the heavenly host crying in unison: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men.” Then you will kneel, and you will not seek further. Do you not see the crossing of the road, Joseph, and that no man travels with us? Do you not see the sun putting on a brighter garment? Do you not see all creation leaping? Do you not see the mountains jumping? Do you not see the hills rejoicing? Do you not see the springs of waters overflowing? Do you not see the Jordan running outside its banks?

From the signs, infer the proof, and do not, because I am pregnant, hesitate, Joseph. I borrowed, I was not defiled; I used my womb, I did not defile my virginity. Do not disbelieve what lies before you, O Joseph. When I give birth, then who I am will be known; now I am reproached, then I will be blessed; now you drive me away as a cause, then you will call me to be near as a holy one. Do not, because you think you are guarding, become proud; for I guard you: for the one who deigned to make my womb his tent, he is the guardian of the whole of nature. Let us go, then, and be enrolled, so that both the military legislation and the imperial decree may be fulfilled. At this, Joseph, becoming reverent, thereafter walked a twofold path: with his feet tracing the earth, with his thoughts leaping above the clouds. For what else could Joseph do but keep his mind occupied above, since every good gift is given from above. Therefore Joseph accompanied the Virgin, becoming both a helper and a watcher of what was to come; not that the Virgin needed a helper, but rather the one being carried in the Virgin; for he himself was and is the helper of all, and to him cried the one crying: "My help is from the Lord who made the heaven and the earth." But because it was necessary, as a matter of the economy, for Joseph to be a helper, so that the Virgin might be reputed as married, so that the devil might be hidden from what was being prepared, that he might not learn what had happened: how God deigned to consort with men. What then does the evangelist Luke?

It is good, then, to see also Joseph being fully assured, and the little room where the Virgin gave birth receiving the type of the Church: where the manger is the altar, Joseph the priest on duty, the shepherds the deacons, the angels the priests, the Lord the high priest, the Virgin the throne, her breasts the chalices, the incarnation the veil, the cherubim the fans, the Holy Spirit the paten, the Father the paten cover. That the place where the Virgin gave birth to the Lord imprinted the type of the Church, you heard just now from the evangelist Luke saying: “And it came to pass, while they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to give birth to her firstborn son; and she swaddled him, and laid him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” O the paradoxical things! Behold, how small the words, and how great the mysteries! “It came to pass, while they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to give birth.” O the paradoxical things, the creator of time waited for a fixed time! The ordainer of times awaited a term of months, so that no one might think it a fantasy or illusion. “It came to pass, while they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to give birth to her firstborn son; and she swaddled him, and laid him in the

the manger.” See the mystical parturition of the Virgin: she gave birth, she swaddled. With worldly women, one gives birth and another swaddles; but with the Virgin it is not so: she gave birth, and she swaddled; and she is a mother without labor and a midwife without instruction, she did not permit anyone to touch the immaculate birth with unclean hands; she herself through herself tended him who was from her, before her and above her: “And she swaddled him, and laid him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” You see, O friend, how the humble lodging, where the Virgin gave birth, prefigured the type of the Church, she who conceived once and gave birth a second time not, and did not endure the appearance of reproach; even if some, raving, because they heard the evangelist Luke saying, “And she gave birth to her firstborn son,” have dogmatized a second conception of the Virgin, transforming incorruption into corruption, asserting in their own doctrines: He would not be called firstborn if a second did not follow. Not only do the adversaries put forward Luke as a witness of their own folly, but also the evangelist Matthew, indicating the same things and exhorting even more clearly; whence the godless make manifest his words in their own writings, saying what Joseph received in a vision and is recorded, with the evangelist Matthew saying: “And an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying: Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife; for what is born in her is from the Holy Spirit.

And rising, it is said, Joseph took Mary his wife, and they went to Egypt; and he did not know her until she gave birth to her firstborn son. Likewise, the opponents also press these words, dogmatizing from a second time that the glorious Virgin conceived. But away with such absurdity! The virginal and glorious treasure remained entirely unsullied; the second heaven was not defiled; the God-receiving vessel of the Most High was not rendered useless. The Lord was called firstborn from the Virgin; and rightly so, not because he summoned some second kindred, but because he was firstborn, that is, incomparable. For when the blessed Paul spoke of the Lord’s beginningless generation from the Father, who is firstborn of all creation, he did not thereby record a natural brother of the Lord; nor again did the same Paul, when he called the same Lord firstborn from the dead, thereby introduce a peer of the Lord, similarly trampling Hades. Therefore, listen intelligently and believe piously. The Lord is firstborn from the dead, and from the Father, and from the Virgin, so that through all these the uniqueness of the dignity of his sonship may be known. The Lord’s birth is incomparable; for where the Mother is a Virgin, how is birth interpreted? Likewise, when the evangelist Matthew says of Joseph, “He did not know her until she gave birth to her firstborn son,” he truly did not know her until she gave birth to her firstborn son. As long as the Virgin was pregnant, Joseph did not know her; he did not know what was in her.

He did not know what was being contrived; he did not know what was being prepared. For she only gave birth, and then he recognized. Then Joseph knew what the power of the Virgin was, and what she was deemed worthy to become. Then he knew that she gave suck, and did not suffer phlebotomy. Then he knew that she was delivered of a child, and did not experience the things of women in childbed. Then he knew that the unhewn rock offered a female breast to the spiritual rock. Then Joseph knew that Isaiah had written about her: "Behold, the virgin will conceive." Therefore, because of the incomparable, Jesus is the firstborn. But if the word must be verified, the same Lord is both Only-begotten from the Father; for he alone was born without beginning from the one alone. The same Lord is both Only-begotten and firstborn: Only-begotten from the Father, Only-begotten from the mother, because of the principle of the economy. For he has many brothers, not by nature, but by grace, both in the Virgin and in the Father. Likewise, in the resurrection also the Lord has brothers. And who are these? Before all, the holy apostles, to whom the Lord said: "I go to my Father and your Father;" to whom the Lord said: "But you, praying, say: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,'" in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory and the power now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.