In sanctum Romanum

Encomium on the holy martyr Romanus I.1. Again a memory of martyrs, and again a feast, and a spiritual festival. They labored, and we rejoice; they wrestled, and we exult; their crown, and the glory is common—rather, the glory of the whole Church. And how could this be, one might say? Because the martyrs are our parts and members. If one member suffers, all the members suffer together; if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. The head is crowned, and the rest of the body exults; one Olympic victor arises, and the entire populace rejoices and receives him with great acclaim. If in the Olympic contests those who contributed nothing to those struggles reap such pleasure, much more would this be the case with the athletes of piety. We are the feet, the martyrs the head; but the head cannot say to the feet, "I have no need of you." The members are glorious, but the preeminence of glory does not produce alienation from the connection with the remaining members; for they become glorious especially when they do not reject their connection with us. Indeed, even the eye, being more brilliant than the whole rest of the body, preserves its own glory precisely when it is not separated from the rest of the body. And what am I saying about martyrs? For if their Master was not ashamed to become our head, much more are they not ashamed to be our members; for they have love deeply rooted, and love is accustomed to unite and bind together things that are separate, and it does not quibble about rank.

Just as they sympathize with our sins, so we rejoice with their achievements. Thus also Paul commanded us to act, saying, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep." But weeping with those who weep is easy, while rejoicing with those who rejoice is not at all easy; for we more readily sympathize with those in misfortune than we take pleasure with those who are successful. In the former case, the very nature of the calamity is enough to bend even a stone to compassion; in the latter case, in the case of prosperity, envy and malice do not allow one who is not very philosophical to become a sharer in the pleasure. For just as love brings together and unites what is divided, so malice divides what is united. Therefore I exhort you, let us practice rejoicing with those who are successful, so that we may cleanse our soul of both envy and malice; for nothing so drives away this grievous and hard-to-cure disease as taking pleasure with those who live in virtue. Listen, then, to how Paul is extreme in both of these: "Who is weak," he says, "and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not inflamed?" He did not say, "and I am not grieved," but "and I am not inflamed," wishing to indicate to us by the term "inflammation" the intensity of the pain.

And again, writing to others, he says, "You have reigned without us; and would that you had reigned, so that we might have reigned with you." And again, "Now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord." See how precious to him was the good repute of his brethren, since he did not consider himself to live if they were not being saved. A man snatched up to the third heaven, carried into paradise, sharing in ineffable mysteries, and enjoying such boldness before God, did not take great account of those blessings unless he saw his brethren also being saved with him. For he knows, he knows clearly, that nothing is greater or equal to love, not even martyrdom itself, which is the crown of all goods. And how, listen. For love even without martyrdom makes disciples of Christ, but martyrdom without love could not accomplish this. Whence is this clear? From the words of Christ himself; for he said to his disciples, "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Behold, love without martyrdom makes disciples. And that martyrdom without love not only does not make disciples, but also does not benefit the one who endures it, listen to Paul saying, "If I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, I am not benefited at all." 2. For this reason especially I love this saint who has gathered us together today, the blessed Romanus, because along with martyrdom he displayed great love, on account of which his holy tongue was cut out.

And indeed it is worth examining why the devil did not subject him to tortures, punishments, and penalties, but cut out his tongue. For he did not do this idly, but with great malice; for the beast is crafty, and contrives and sets everything in motion against our salvation. Let us then examine why he resorted to the cutting out of the tongue, bringing the argument a little further back. For in this way we shall learn both the benevolence of God, the endurance of the martyr, and the malice of the devil. And having learned the benevolence of God, we shall give thanks to the Master; having known the endurance of the martyr, we shall imitate our fellow servant; having understood the malice of the devil, we shall turn away from the enemy. For God has given us knowledge of his devices so that, hating him more intensely, we may more easily overcome him. That it is possible to know his thoughts, hear what Paul says about the one who had committed fornication. For writing to the Corinthians he speaks thus: "Confirm your love for him, so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his thoughts." What then is the reason for which he cut out the tongue? Bear with me as I relate it from a little further back. A severe war was once kindled against the Churches, not because barbarians had overrun the cities, nor because of some foreigners, but because of those who seemed to preside over our inhabited world, and who treated their subjects more harshly and cruelly than all barbarians, enemies, and tyrants.

For the danger then was not for freedom, nor for fatherland, nor for wealth, nor for present life, but for the kingdom of heaven, for the goods laid up, for immortal life, for confession of Christ. And a novel kind of captivity was devised; for they were not expelling them from the city here, but they attempted to deprive them of the free Jerusalem above, and compelled each soul to sacrifice upon the altars, to abjure their own Master, to submit to the tyranny of demons, and to serve the demons, the destroyers and enemies of our salvation—which was more grievous and more unbearable than countless deaths and all of Gehenna to souls that love Christ. Then, when many were being submerged, and the storm was rising, and many were shipwrecked, this blessed Romanus came forward into their midst and did not immediately consider how to expose himself to dangers, but first gathered together those who were afraid, those who had collapsed, those who had betrayed their own salvation; he encouraged them, he prepared them to fight back, raising up those who had fallen, and securing those who stood with prayers, and exhortations, and counsels, philosophizing much about the future and about present affairs, showing the transience of these things, the permanence of those, setting against the labors the prizes, against the tortures the crowns, against the pains the rewards, teaching what the present life is, and what the future life is, and how great the distance between each, and that it is necessary to die in any case; for even if

let us not dissolve our life in this manner, for by the law of nature we shall inevitably depart from these bodies at least a little later. By urging these things and those like them, he raised up the slackened hands, steadied the weakened knees, brought back the fugitives, drove out cowardice, banished anguish, instilled courage, turned the timid into the eager, transformed gazelles and deer into lions breathing great strength, and rallied the army of Christ, transferring the shame that was ours onto the heads of the enemy. So when the devil saw this sudden transformation, and that those who yesterday and the day before feared and trembled before him now laughed at him and dared to defy him, stripping for dangers and leaping at tortures, and recognized the cause, he abandoned all others and thereafter breathed wholly against that one, directing all his power and fury against this blessed head. And what does he do? Observe his cunning. He did not bring him to tortures, he did not cut off his head; for past time had taught him that all these things were in vain and useless. For they not only did not check the zeal of the believers, but even increased it, making it greater and more fervent. "I spread coals beneath them," he says, "but they ran as if on roses; I kindled fire, but they threw themselves into it as into springs of cold water; I scraped their sides and cut deep furrows, drawing streams of blood, but they adorned themselves as if bathed in gold all around.

I hurled them from the cliffs and plunged them into the sea, but they were not like men descending into the deep; rather, as if ascending into heaven itself, they were disposed, leaping and rejoicing, and as if in a sacred procession dancing, and in a verdant meadow playing, so each seized the punishments, not as punishments, but as taking spring flowers, and being crowned, and by the excess of their own zeal they anticipated my punishments. What then must be done, he says? Shall I cut off this man's head? But what he prays for comes to pass, and the disciples receive greater encouragement through deeds; for he exhorted that the death of martyrs is not death, but life without end, and that especially for this one must endure all, and that one must despise death. If then I cut off the head, and he bears the event nobly, he will teach them more clearly through deeds that one must despise death thus, and he will raise their spirits even more, and by dying he will inspire them with greater zeal. For this reason he cut off the tongue, so that, deprived of the voice which the martyr's disciples enjoyed, and fallen from his counsel, and bereft of his exhortation, they might become more cowardly, and return to their former anguish, having no one to anoint, nor to rouse and arm them.

3. And observe the malice. Herod cut off the head of John; this man cut off not the head, but only the tongue. Why? Because of great malice and perversity. "If I cut off the head," he says, "and he dies, he will depart without seeing the destruction of his own brothers; but I want to set him up as a witness of the falls and the calamity of his own soldiers, so that he may be choked by grief, seeing them falling, yet unable to stretch out a hand, and lacking the ability to counsel them as before, since his voice has been cut out along with his tongue." But the one who catches the wise in their own cunning turned this sophism back upon his own head, and not only did he not deprive them of counsel, but he caused them to enjoy even more exhortation and to partake of more spiritual teaching. For when this prevailed, the physician is summoned for the cutting, and an executioner becomes instead of a physician, not correcting the diseased member, but destroying the healthy one; and having removed the tongue, he was not able to remove the voice along with it; but while the tongue of flesh was cut out, the tongue of grace flew to the mouth of the blessed one; and nature let go its own member, the iron compelling it, but grace did not allow the voice to fall out along with it; whence the disciples thereafter enjoyed more spiritual teaching, hearing not with a human voice as before, but with a divine and spiritual one, greater than our nature.

And all ran together, angels from above, humans from below, each one eager to see a mouth without a tongue and to hear it speaking thus. For it was truly a marvelous and paradoxical thing, a mouth speaking without a tongue, bringing much shame to the devil, much glory to the martyr, and great consolation and a basis for endurance to the disciples. For it is the custom of God, from above and from the beginning, to turn whatever the devil devises against us back upon his own head, and to use it for our salvation. Consider: he cast man out of paradise, and God opened heaven to him; he drove him from his rule on earth, and God gave him the kingdom of heaven, and established our nature on the royal throne. Thus he always gives greater goods than those the devil attempts to deprive us of. He does this, on the one hand, making the devil more hesitant in his plots against us, and on the other, teaching us never to fear his machinations; which indeed happened here in the case of the martyr. For the voice he expected to deprive him of, God granted him a much greater and more solemn one. For it was not the same to speak with a tongue and to speak without a tongue; the former was natural and common to all, the latter was beyond nature and became unique to him alone. And yet, even if the martyr had remained speechless after the cutting out of his tongue, even so his struggles would have been fulfilled and his crown perfected; for the cutting of the tongue was a very great defeat and a clear proof.

For if you did not fear the tongue, you foul and utterly foul wretch, why did you cut it off? Why did you not leave the subject of the contests, but closed the stadium? Just as if someone about to wrestle, after receiving unspeakable blows and no longer able to resist, should order the hands of his opponent to be cut off and then strike him, no further proof would be needed to award the victory to the one whose hands were cut off; so too in the case of the martyr, the cutting off of the tongue has become a clearer proof than all of the victory over the devil. For even if the tongue was mortal, yet because it gave immortal wounds to the devil, for that reason he breathed his all against it, bringing greater shame upon himself and making the martyr’s crown more brilliant. For just as it is marvelous to see a tree without a root and a river without a spring, so too a voice without a tongue. 4. Where now are those who disbelieve in the resurrection of bodies? Behold, the voice both died and rose again, and both happened in a single moment of time. Yet this is far greater than the resurrection of bodies; for there the nature of bodies underlies, and only the composition is dissolved; here the very foundation of the voice was removed, yet it became more splendid again. Indeed, if you remove the reeds of a flute, the instrument lies useless; but not so the spiritual flute, for even when deprived of the tongue it was not only not voiceless, but it emitted a melody more harmonious and more mystical, and with greater astonishment.

And again with a cithara, if someone merely snatches away the plectrum, the craftsman becomes idle, the art useless, the instrument vain. But here nothing of the sort occurs; on the contrary, everything is opposite. For the mouth was the cithara, the tongue the plectrum, the soul the craftsman, and the confession the art. Yet when the plectrum—I mean the tongue—was removed, neither the craftsman, nor the art, nor the instrument became useless, but all displayed their proper power. Who accomplished this? Who displayed these wondrous and paradoxical things? God, who alone works wonders, concerning whom David says, "Lord, our Lord, how wondrous is your name in all the earth, for your magnificence has been raised above the heavens; from the mouths of infants and sucklings you have fashioned praise." Then indeed from the mouths of infants and sucklings, now from the mouths of the tongueless. Then nature was unripe; now the mouth is desolate. Then the root was tender in the children, but the fruit was perfected. Here, however, even the root itself was destroyed, yet the generation of fruit was not hindered, for the fruit of the tongue is speech. The later events are more wondrous than the earlier. For, lest these things be disbelieved, those earlier events preceded so that we might not be disturbed by these, our minds having been trained by those. For this reason these things have occurred, so that those invisible and ancient events might be believed on account of the visible and recent ones. Thus once Aaron's rod sprouted, just as the martyr's mouth has now sprouted. But why did Aaron's rod sprout then? Because the priest was being dishonored. And why has the martyr's mouth sprouted now?

Since the great high priest Jesus Christ was being blasphemed. See how great is the kinship and superiority of the miracle. For just as that rod, not united with a root, nor drawing moisture from the earth, but deprived of supply from there and having lost its fruit-bearing power, suddenly showed fruit; so also here the voice, deprived of its root and not having the power from the instrument, suddenly sprouted in a dry and barren mouth. In this is the kinship, in the other the superiority; for the distance between each fruit is great. For one was sensible, the other spiritual, and it opened the heavens themselves for the one who produced this voice at that time. For all these things, let us rejoice together with the martyr, let us glorify the God who works these wonders, let us imitate the endurance of our fellow servant, let us give thanks to the Master for the grace, let us take from what has been said sufficient consolation in trials, and, marveling at both the power of the God who made us and his care, let us contribute everything from ourselves, and what comes from him will surely follow. And whether men, or demons, or the devil himself fights against us, there will be nothing more for those who war against us; only if we show our own zeal and contribute all that must be contributed from us. For thus we will draw the support from God here, and in the future life we will enjoy much glory and salvation.

May it be that we all attain this, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, honor, and power, unto the ages of ages. Amen.