Encomium in sanctos martyres

Encomium on the Martyrs The assembly of the martyrs has gathered us together, but desire for and grace of Christ have brought us together; for by love for our Lord Jesus Christ we hasten to the honor of the martyrs; so that he who honors the martyrs loves Christ. For if he who receives you receives me, he who honors the martyrs honors the one witnessed to by them. The martyrs are remembered and Christ is glorified; for the honor of Christ is the memory of the martyrs. It is not possible to pass over the memory of the martyrs when they are remembered without encomia. For the memory of the righteous is with encomia. The martyrs are praised, not so that they themselves may receive the praise, but so that we through the praises may receive zeal. For this reason the saints are praised, so that the zeal of the encomia may lead the contestants of piety to self-control. For an encomium of a righteous man is nothing other than the joy of the hearers, according to what is said in Scripture: When the righteous are praised, the peoples rejoice. The impious die and the pious die. The name of death is common, but the difference is great and the distance is great. For the death of a righteous man is honorable to the Lord, according to: The death of his holy ones is honorable before the Lord. Do you see the death of the righteous honored by God? See also the death of the impious reviled by all, as David testifies saying: The death of sinners is evil. Before God the death of the righteous and the martyrs is honorable, not because of the dissolution of the bodies, but because of the completion of the contests. Both the righteous and the unjust experienced the same death;

Both these and those were afflicted, but the former as a training ground for righteousness, the latter as a refutation of sin. For this reason, Scripture calls the sufferings of the righteous "afflictions" and those of the sinners "scourges," saying concerning the righteous: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and from all of them the Lord will deliver them," and concerning the impious: "Many are the scourges of the sinner." And the afflictions are many, and the scourges are many; but the former have that physician for whose sake they endure the afflictions, while the scourges of the impious have no consolation, unless repentance snatches them from punishment. The death of martyrs is an honor of immortal glory. The death of martyrs has exposed the tyranny of death. For after our Savior had paraded his victory over death, the great bodyguards and soldiers followed in the footsteps of the great king and, similarly to the master, obtained victory over death, trampling death by death and extinguishing the flame of death with blood.

I bless the ribs of the martyrs. All are blessed, but a member in which virtue is made an instrument has a certain greater blessing. And the whole righteous man is blessed: "Blessed is the man who fears the Lord." But in that whole, the members that serve the virtues receive a distinct power, as when the Saviour says to the apostles: "Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear." Since the eyes of the righteous became instruments of virtue, having fittingly attended to the Saviour's economy and having observed the temple from without and, with the eye of the soul, having seen the God dwelling in the temple. Therefore, "Blessed are your eyes, because they see," meaning "Because they perceive." For if the blessing comes from seeing the Saviour, why are the Jews not blessed? They saw him with their physical eyes, but because they saw the body, yet did not perceive the God in the body, they are excluded from the blessing. Thus, the apostles' eyes are blessed because they see. In Scripture, "to see" means to be illuminated by the noetic eye of the soul and to see the depths of truth. For this reason, in ancient times they called the prophets "seers," not because other men were blind, but because these truly saw the depths of truth. For this reason, Saul, the king, when he was about to cross over to the kingdom, having gone out in search of his father's donkeys, asked one of those going before the city, "Is the seer here?" meaning "Is the prophet here?" And elsewhere, another, prophesying against the prophet Amos, said:

The one who sees, go and depart to the land of Judah, and there live, and there prophesy." Therefore, only those who know God see correctly; but God is seen not with the eyes of the flesh, but with a pure heart, according to: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Thus the Savior blesses in the body the instruments of virtue: eyes that see well and ears that hear with discernment. Blessed are the ears, not of those who hear well, but of those who receive with understanding; for one must, after hearing, understand, and after understanding, obey, according to what is written: "Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear," which means: "Obey, understand." Therefore, all the limbs of the martyrs are blessed: both the eyes of the body and of the soul, which have beheld God well—the eyes of the body because from the creation they recognized the creator, and those of the mind because by the purity of the heart they contemplated God. Their ears also became blessed, having received the divine words; for just as a reservoir is inclined toward a flowing pipe, so the hearing of the righteous person is inclined toward the streams of the divine law, according to what is said: "I will incline my ear to a parable." Why do I incline? Because every vessel receiving water receives it in an inclined position; thus every ear, inclining itself toward obedience, receives the streams of the divine word.

I bless also their ribs, which, scraped, received the invincible rib of piety and did not wipe off piety. And not idly, brothers, were the tortures everywhere applied to the ribs of the righteous, since sin came from a rib. By sin I mean not the woman from the rib, but the sin that entered through her; for the creation does not have the nature of sin, but the evil of sin entered through abstinence. Nevertheless, since the rib became the cause of sin, the martyrs scraped away the members from which sin flowed. Hence also the Savior on the cross received the lance against his rib, and from there blood and water came out for the purification of souls and the sanctification of bodies. So among men, this is often blessed, as was also blessed the blessed Mary when someone said: "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you suckled." Blessed are the feet of the martyrs, which did not depart from the truth, which enabled the martyrs to say: "Set my steps in your paths," and again: "My foot stood in uprightness." And just as the members of the righteous are praised individually, so also the members of the impious are stigmatized and lamented individually, as when David says: "Let not a foot of pride come to me, nor a hand of a sinner shake me." He showed the whole from the part: "Let not a foot of pride come to me"—what is that? Instead of "Let not a path of sin rub against me." And "a hand of a sinner shake me"? The deeds of the sinner, he says, since in the hand is the active, and in the foot the mobile, he says.

Let neither an act of sin approach me, nor let me come to an advance in sin. Hence the blessed Moses is commanded by God to take the blood from the paschal lamb and anoint the tip of the right ear of the priest, the tip of the right hand, and the tip of the right foot, the divine word all but teaching us that these three members must be fitted for virtue: the ear, because hearing has become a vessel of the divine word; the hand, because after hearing comes action; the foot, because after action comes the advance of action. Take today also from the sacrifice of the martyrs the precious blood and anoint your hearing with it, that you may learn to hear the Gospels well. The hearing of the heretics also needs this anointing, in order to understand the Gospel sayings and not to slander the holy things; for if the ears of those who know wrongly do not receive this seal, they cannot understand. But let us come to the very source of purification, the source of wisdom that purifies us and waters us; for the divine source of the Gospel does two things: it both gives drink and purifies. It gives drink to thirsty souls, and it purifies filthy minds. Are you filthy with sin? Approach the source and be purified. Do you thirst for the word of piety? Approach Christ and be given drink; for it is his voice that says, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." And again it is his promise: "Now you are pure because of the word I have spoken to you.

And again the same Savior says, promising a great reward to those who achieve piety: "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness," and "Blessed are you, when they revile you and persecute you and speak every evil word against you, lying for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in the heavens." Now "great" and "small" are not measured by the name, but by the worth of the speaker. I mean something like this: What is great to me is not great to the rich man; what is great to the private citizen is small to the ruler. The wealth of rulers is nothing compared to royal treasuries, or, to speak in detail, a farmer's wealth is nothing compared to a citizen's household, a citizen's wealth is nothing compared to a ruler's wealth, a ruler's wealth is nothing compared to royal treasuries. Let us see, then, who promised the great reward: if a prophet, as a man, considered it great; if an apostle, as a man, considered the small great. But who says it is great? The one who has the eternal treasuries, the one who has the wealth that surpasses every mind.

I find two things in Scripture capable of educating us toward piety: the same reward is promised to those who are reviled for piety and to those who despise glory. It is possible to receive a reward without persecution, as one who has despised honor and glory can be similar to one who has despised persecutions and afflictions. And how, listen: the reward is great. For I see it said once in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament; and having searched, I find the great reward named nowhere else except once in the Gospel and once in the Old Testament. The New Testament, then, says a reward is stored up for those who are persecuted: "Blessed are you," it says, "when they revile you and persecute you and speak every evil word against you, lying for my sake. Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in the heavens." A great reward for martyrs who are afflicted, who pour out their blood, who practice asceticism for piety, who endure fasting, who bear affliction and every toil for piety.

The great reward which he promised to those who are oppressed for piety, he also promises to Abraham, who tramples upon human glory. For when, with his own household, he put to flight the kings of the Assyrians, when he overcame the kings by faith and took from them the captivity of Sodom and Gomorrah and of the Pentapolis—for these cities still existed at that time—and when the five kings were defeated, the great victor, who became greater than those who had conquered, he who by faith overcame the adversaries, takes away all the captivity, the women, the children who had been taken captive from Sodom, and having taken everything, he returns. The defeated kings, the Sodomites and Gomorrites, go out to meet the victor, and as to a victor and one who has granted them salvation and rescued their women and children from captivity, they say to him: "Take as a reward for your labors on our behalf the horse," meaning the entire cavalry force. "All our horses," they say, "and the gold and the silver, take; only give us the women and the children." Then the blessed Abraham, refusing the glory from men and not wishing to receive from men the wages of his own labors, says: "I will stretch out my hands to the most high God, who made the heaven and the earth, if I take from a rag to a shoe-lace, so that no one may say, 'I enriched Abraham'; I have the one who enriches me, and I have no need of a poor man's wealth." What then? As soon as he rejected the honor from men, immediately, after one syllable, the Scripture says: "And God said to Abraham.

Do not fear, Abraham; your reward will be very great. Rejoice and exult, for your reward is great in the heavens. I speak the word once in the Old and once in the New; but David, thinking the same things, says elsewhere: In guarding them, the recompense is great, that is, the reward is great. See of how great a reward the martyrs are deemed worthy, and of how great a reward you also are deemed worthy, preferring the things of God to human things. I will not take from the hem to the shoe-strap. What is a shoe-strap? What is called among us, to use the common word, a thong. And why is it called a shoe-strap? Because the craftsman, often working the leather into a circular shape, then cuts it. We interpret a word of common craft; but Paul also did the work, but then he worked dead hides. After this, by the power of the spirit, he cut down the thoughts of demons, and throwing away the knife of his craft, he took up the sword of the spirit, cutting down all the thoughts of the impious, as one may hear him saying: For our weapons are not fleshly, but powerful with God, destroying reasonings and every arrogance raised against the knowledge of God.

Taking this sword, the apostles are about to judge from the twelve thrones. For they must both judge and have a sword. The judge does not wear the sword in vain. The sword of judges is forged iron; the sword of the apostles is the word of wisdom. Through the saints God will judge the world; he then entrusts the righteous with judging the inhabited world. For the twelve will judge the twelve tribes of Israel; and Paul will judge the inhabited world, the herald of the inhabited world; and not only Paul will judge, but also those who think as he does. Listen to him saying: Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged among you, you are unworthy of the least judgments. The righteous are judges of the inhabited world, the saints are judges of the world. Nor did the Old Testament omit this, but as in a record it introduces the future coming of the Savior, saying of the righteous: The exaltations of God are in their throat, and double-edged swords are in their hands to exact vengeance among the nations, to bring reproof among the peoples, to bind their kings in fetters and their nobles in iron handcuffs, to execute upon them a written judgment. What judgment? The one written: You will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, to execute upon them a written judgment. And see the distinction. The righteous will then judge the world, the holy prophets and apostles who cultivated the inhabited world with the divine word. And what does it say? Double-edged swords, meaning divine words. For the righteous will judge by the word.

For the Word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And there are two-edged swords in their hands to exact vengeance among the nations, and to administer reproof among the peoples. Vengeance among nations is one thing, and reproof among peoples is another. Pay attention, I beg you: He calls "nations" those who have remained in Hellenism and have not received the glory of Christ; from them vengeance is exacted, as the Savior says: "But my enemies, who did not wish me to reign over them, lead them and slaughter them before me." To exact vengeance among the nations who have completely disbelieved, and to administer reproof among the peoples. He calls "peoples" those who did not wish to come to knowledge; these he does not avenge as enemies, but reproves as a master examining sins. To bind their kings in fetters and their nobles in iron handcuffs—those of the unbelieving nations, not of those who have passed their lives in piety; for those who reign with piety reign both in the present and in the future. For if you wish, he says, both kings and tyrants, to reign forever, honor wisdom, so that you may reign forever.

To bind their kings in fetters. Consider, brother, the persecutors bound by sin; consider those who received authority, those who judged to judge, those who tortured to torture; consider the tyrant who once sat on the tribunal standing before the martyr, and the martyr showing his own side and saying: Did you not lacerate this? Did you not cut off this neck of mine? What charge have you to bring? For what sacrilege, for what injustice did you judge thus? Having received from God the authority to judge, you poured out your wrath against the servants of God. In fetters and in iron handcuffs, he says, so that both feet and hands are bound because of the phrase "in fetters and handcuffs." Fetters are those that secure the feet; handcuffs, those that secure the hands. Since, then, the Savior pronounced such a sentence: Bind his hands and feet, he says, and cast him into the outer darkness. According to this, the prophet also says: To bind their kings in fetters and their nobles in iron handcuffs and to execute upon them a written judgment.

And when these things happen, what will be? "This is glory," he says, "for his saints." "It is enough," he says, "for the saints for glory to judge those who judged, to bind those who bound, to consign to the eternal tribunal those who subjected holy souls to an unjust tribunal." Just as the martyrs will say such things, displaying the marks they suffered for Christ. Therefore Paul says: "From now on, let no one cause me trouble; for I bear the marks of Christ on my body." For just as the saints can take pride in those victorious wounds, so also the impious, when they see the great reversal—the captives in glory, the judged judging, the tortured consigning the wicked rulers and powerful impious men to eternal punishment—are struck in their souls, taking thought of what they dared, and they say, not what is fabled today, but what divine scripture says: "Then the righteous man will stand before the face of those who oppressed him, and seeing him they will say to themselves: 'Is this not the one we once, in our folly, held up to ridicule? We considered his life madness and his death dishonorable. How is it that now he is counted among the sons of God and his lot is among the saints?'

When that glory appears, consider how great is the joy of the righteous and the torment of the unjust. For do not suppose that their torment then consists so much in pain as in shame. For shame itself suffices in place of every punishment; and for the righteous, this joy of the kingdom suffices in place of the kingdom itself. Then Paul will stand forth, then Isaiah will come; and just as, brothers, when we announce to those who have never yet seen a great city: "Come, and you will see a great city, public baths distinguished in beauty and size." When, then, that person is finally deemed worthy to come to the place, he begins to exult in the spectacle he had been promised and to say: "Did I not speak truly? Did I not show you?" And just as one experienced with the city will host the stranger and show him the unfamiliar things and say: "This is the place about which I spoke to you. This is the place about which I taught you," so also then the righteous stand beside those who have been brought into the kingdom.

Then Isaiah begins to say: Did I speak falsely when I said that then they will rejoice and have praise above their heads? There groaning has fled, grief has fled. And again the same Isaiah will say to the others: Come, and I will show you the one whom you worshipped, whom you loved without knowing and reverenced with faith. Come, I will show you, using the voices of the prophets. Behold our God, in whom we exulted and on whom we set our hope. Then those who have seen say: Lord, from eternity we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen, except you. And David begins to say: I too will show you, as a king, where he sits who is from me and my master. See where he sits, concerning whom I truly said: The Lord said to my lord, Sit at my right hand. And Paul will stand forth saying: Allow me also; I will show that my words are true. See the Savior above every beginning and authority and lordship and every name that is named. Then those who are being guided as strangers say: Who is this chorus of shining ones? These, he says, are the prophets; and these who gleam, the apostles; these who flash with their wounds, the martyrs; these who flourish, the ascetics; these who harvest the paradise, the fasters; and to speak concisely, all these and this multitude, this living chorus that has entered into eternal life, is the one who labored for piety, as David says: And he labored for eternity and will live to the end. Thus are the servants of God guided as strangers when they enter into that kingdom.

Again, those who have gone before await those departing from here, when a righteous soul leaves here escorted by the hands of holy angels; and they present themselves in the royal city—for the only ruling city is the upper Jerusalem—and they stand as in a harbor; and those who have gone before, seeing them, say: These ships, whence have they come? What have they brought? What cargo have they traded? This the righteous who have gone before say, as in a harbor in the kingdom, observing those entering from this life of many groans and many waves, bringing their ships undamaged, as, for example, to present it in a figure: then those before Job would ask: What cargo has the ship brought? It is full, it is said, of endurance. The ship of David entered; those by the harbor ask: What does the ship carry? They hear from the divine power that it carries a cargo of gentleness. Joseph, what did he come bearing? A cargo of temperance. What did Daniel come bearing? A cargo of wisdom. Different gifts, then, they have traded. One traded in faith. Or rather, all without faith traded in nothing; but one in temperance; one in endurance, one in the sufferings of martyrdom; another in the gain of asceticism, another of fasting, another of vigil, another of almsgiving and love of the poor. For you know that a trader, if he does not find a way to buy cheap and sell dear, does not trade; but even if he often sees that the merchandise suffices him for sustenance, yet if it does not bring profit, he says: This does not support me. So also you, when you trade in righteousness, if you know that you are weak to sell, say: This does not save me.

I will consider what profit is better for me to bring, and I will pursue that. I will show you how virtue is bought here cheaply and sold dearly. What is easier than cold water? See how inexpensive virtue is. You can purchase the kingdom of heaven with a cup of cold water and a piece of bread. May we all attain it, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom are glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.