In saltationem Herodiadis

On the Dance of Herodias, and on the Beheading of John the Forerunner and Baptist. 1. Just as a man who loves solitude, in some wooded place shaded by trees, soothed by the sweet-sounding calls of birds and the melodious streams of waters, has a gentle disposition and pleases all men, so also we, in the preceding days, comforted by the gentle breeze of the Spirit, discoursed with you on the subject of almsgiving. But when the Gospel proclaimed the madness of Herod, the licentiousness of women, the revelry of madmen, the polluted banquet, the unlawful gift, the unholy deed, and the burial of a most holy body, I have become another man from another. For I become speechless, beloved, when I bring before my eyes the things done by Herod—if indeed one can call those things deeds, and not wounds, deeds of the one who did such things. At that time, it is said, Herod the tetrarch heard the report of Jesus and said to his servants, "This is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead, and that is why the powers are active in him." He confesses the murder of the prophet, which he cannot deny; and he knew whom he killed, that he was a prophet and a righteous man. For if he did not know, he would not have said that he had risen from the dead and that because of this the powers were active in him. O evil conscience! On the occasion of any murder, does the same man bear witness against himself? O evil conscience, living together with a polluted soul, punishing until death and after death judging inexorably.

And for what reason did he kill the prophet? Because he became a herald of the truth, and sought to undo his lawless act through rebuke; and he who ought, as a king, to be a guardian of God's commandments, himself, by the untainted disorder of pleasures, was subverting the laws. For that man is a king who issues just laws, and first practices them, and does not corrupt them. For how else could he regulate the world under his rule into good order, if he does not, by just laws as with reins, bridle the unruly race of men? Herod, being a king not of peoples, but of pleasures—or rather a slave of pleasures (for to whatever one is subject, to that one is also enslaved)—not only subverted the law of God, but also unjustly contrived murder. And whom did he murder? A righteous man, than whom no greater has arisen among those born of women, as the Lord also testified; a man who dwelt in a desert, a desert uninhabited, waterless, fruitless, impassable, treeless, grassless, without verdure. And John dwelt in the desert, not fleeing the kindred and related race of men, but fleeing the sight and hearing of the abominable evil deeds of men. This man neither sowed nor ever reaped; therefore he had no bread, no wine, no table, no bed that serves pleasures, no soft goose-down coverlets that relax and enervate the bodies of effeminate men, no lampstand, no lamp, no table, no stool, no cup, no plate. For being outside the world, he used none of the things of the world. And he dwelt not under a gold-roofed house, but under a rock that was its own roof.

For him, the ground was his table, his stool, and his bed; locusts were his meat, and wild honey his cake; the hollow of his hand served as his cup, and rock-born, crystal-clear water was his wine of gladness. Herod seized this man and bound him. For Herod, it is said, having seized John, bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. O strange affair! John wished to loose his bound soul from the chain of sin through rebuke, and that man bound the one who was loosing. But even if John was bound, he spoke out, and while imprisoned he rebuked; for he fulfilled what is written: "And I spoke before kings, and was not ashamed." For John did not fear death, but he feared not speaking the truth. Herod killed this man; and in killing him, he committed not one murder alone, but many. For he who kills a teacher and benefactor of souls does not kill one, but as many as he, while living, could have brought to life through his word. And when did he kill him? Shame to say it—shame not to the speaker, but to the one who committed the murder. For when Herod's birthday was being celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and pleased him; whence he also swore an oath to give her whatever she might ask. And she, prompted by her mother, said, "Give me the head of John on a platter." O most evil birthday, breathing the murder of a prophet, when instead he ought to have honored holy men at his own table. For thus his perverted soul would have been set right.

For with a holy man you will be made holy, and with a crooked man you will be twisted. Instead of what he should have done—manage widows, pity orphans, so that through many and varied prayers he might keep his own life unshaken—now, feasting with licentious men and shameless women, stupefied with much wine, and mocked by wanton women, he did away with John, the forerunner of the day's dawn, by murder; he shattered with murder John, who had so well borne the torch, the lamp of faith, the light of the whole world. And Herod, having shattered this lamp, darkened himself. For even if that one's earthen vessel was dissolved into the ground, yet the radiant torch of his spirit was bearing the light of faith well to those in Hades. For being a prophet, and knowing that he was about to precede his Lord into Hades, he sends some of his disciples to him, saying, "Are you the one who is coming, or do we await another?" And not being ignorant of him, he inquired. For how could he have been ignorant of the Lord, when he pointed him out, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"? For how could he have been ignorant, he who had become a spectator of the descent of the Spirit from heaven, and a hearer of the Father's voice concerning him saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"? But he inquires, how? "Are you the one who is coming, or another?" He did not say, "Are you the one who has come?" for he had come upon the earth; but, "Are you the one who is coming" (clearly, in Hades), "or do we await another?" For John said within himself, "Does he perhaps intend to empower an angel and send him into Hades to accomplish his own work?

Or will he never wish to raise all with a single voice, as he did in the case of Lazarus? For this reason, being unable to judge the plan of the Master, he asks, saying: Are you the one who is coming, or do we await another in Hades? Herod killed this man. And how did he kill him? For when the birthday feast was being held, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst. A worthy amusement for such a table. For where there is softness and luxury and drunkenness and revels, nothing is stable, but all is shaken and overturned, foreshadowing Herod's madness. Hear, you lovers of spectacles of dancers, you who with the twisting feet of effeminate youths harmonize your own eyes and dissolve your own hearts along with their loosened bodies: hear what a relish of murder the many-turned dance blossomed forth. And she, prompted by her mother, says: Give me here on a platter the head of John. O evil lioness, viper-born child; she did not seek gold, nor silver, nor precious stones, but the head of John.

And if she sought it for the sake of faith, the head of John is far more precious than any gold or silver or costly stones. But she did not seek it for the sake of faith, in order to honor him, but in order to kill the reproof and grant impunity to her mother for her sin in evil deeds. When the king heard this, he was grieved, not because of the murder of the prophet, but because of the fear of the crowd, since all regarded him as a prophet. For if he were grieved out of reverence, he would not have bound him and put him in prison from the beginning; but he was grieved because of the crowd. And then the soul of Herod was like a ship caught in the sea, tossed to and fro against each side: fearing to commit the murder because of the crowd, and prevented from not committing the murder because of the oaths and the fellow banqueters. But the wretch, weighed down by his fiery passion for his wife, using the oath as a pretext for the defense of the murder, sent and beheaded John. That it is evil to swear, remember now, you who swear readily; hear the Lord saying, Do not swear at all. For if the wretch had not sworn then, he would not have endured to commit the murder. He ought not to have done it at all; but since he swore, it would have been better for him to perjure himself; for in the choice of evils, it was better to accept the lesser. He sent and beheaded him. What hand dared, beloved, to bring the sword to the holy neck of John, whom wild beasts in the desert respected, whom lions feared, whom horned serpents and dragons and asps shuddered at, whom wild bees, because of the man's holiness, tended and fed?

For from various flowers and plants, as if in a desert gathering the dewdrops like gold, they wove together and offered him honey. An executioner's hand cut this off, not shuddering at his angel-like face, nor trembling at his face which sent forth godlike radiances. But I think that, darkened by the drunkenness of Herod, the executioner who was sent had a sword, but had no eyes. And the head of John was cut off (for he never drank wine), and the head of John was brought on a platter at the dinner, and then cried out to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." For even after death the righteous man lived, and with his head cut off, his voice lives. O the cruelty of man: on the same platter on which he ate meat, he placed a man's head. O lawless tyrant, was it not enough that before you, Herod had carried out the slaughter of the young children in Bethlehem, when the wailing of fathers and mothers, lamenting together, was sharper than the cries of mourners? When the abundant streams of tears, welling up from their innards, overcame springs? When fathers beat their breasts, and continuous gasps with pains were sent from the heart through the nostrils? When mothers mourned the grass of their infants from their own wombs, withered before its time? When even breasts flowing with milk whitened the ground, as the nursing infants were suddenly slaughtered? When the arms of fathers became empty of their own children, and mothers' breasts sought the tickling suckling from tender teeth? What beast then did not weep, seeing the innocent infants unjustly killed, possessing guileless souls?

whose souls were as innocent as their limbs were tender, since they were infants? For did not those children also convict the Herod who came before you, though they had neither a clear tongue nor teeth in their mouths with which to shape their tongue and send forth speech through their lips? Did not that great cruelty of theirs suffice? But you also, imitating his pitilessness, cut off John, not one hair of whom were you worthy. He slaughtered the children of Rachel, and you cut off John, the teacher of the Church. With which of these shall I be gracious to you? says the Lord. O city of blood, in which Herod reigned, and his homonymous descendant, alike in ways. Alas, those who seemed to be leaders of order have become leaders of disorder. Ruled by such men, the Jews, taught murder by them, were driven to Christ-killing: they burned Isaiah, killed Jeremiah, stoned Naboth, murdered Zechariah, crucified Christ. But leaving to them the mourning for their evils, let us run up to the light of initiation in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.