Homilies 11.1–12.4

Homily 11. On the martyrdom of the all-praised martyr [Euphemia]. Recently, my friends, I had the clever Demosthenes in my hands, and those speeches of Demosthenes in which … in the discourse, and with my mind tired from concentration, I needed relaxation and a walk, so that the strain of my soul might be eased a little. Going out of my room and walking a little with some acquaintances … at leisure. And when I had obtained this too, as I was walking along one of the roofed colonnades, I saw a painting there, and the sight took hold of me completely. You would have said it was a masterpiece of Euphranor, or of one of those ancients who raised painting to greatness and made panels that were all but alive. Come now, if you like (for there is leisure now for a story), I will describe the painting to you. For we children of the Muses have colours no worse than the painters'. A certain holy woman, a pure virgin who had dedicated [the chastity] of her body to God … When a tyrant once was persecuting the godly, she very readily chose the danger of death. Her fellow citizens and fellow members of the religion for which she died, admiring the virgin as both brave and holy, [placed] her tomb near the church, [and they keep] for her the yearly feast, making a new and public festival. The hierophants of God's mysteries always honour her memory with discourse, and carefully teach the assembled people how she completed the contest of endurance. And the painter, himself a godly man, depicting by his art, as far as he could, the whole story on linen, set it up near the tomb as a sacred spectacle. The masterpiece is like this. A judge sits high on a throne, looking harshly and with hostility at the virgin (for art can be angry when it wants to, even in lifeless materials). Around are the magistrate's guards and many soldiers; some carry the writing tablets and styluses for the records; one of these, lifting his hand from the wax, looks intently at the woman on trial, his whole face turned toward her, as if bidding her to speak louder, so that he may not strain his hearing and write down what is mistaken and open to reproach. The virgin stands in a dark tunic and mantle, signifying her philosophy, and, as the painter thought, beautiful in appearance too; but, as it seems to me, adorned in soul with virtues. Two soldiers lead her to the magistrate, one pulling her forward, … her character, modesty and firmness. For she bends toward the ground, as if blushing at the gaze of the men; but she stands undaunted, feeling no cowardice before the contest … as I used to praise the other [painters] whenever I saw the drama of that Colchian woman, how, when about to bring the sword upon her children, she divides her face between pity and rage, so that one of her eyes shows anger, while the other shows the mother, sparing and shuddering. But now I have transferred my wonder from that work to this painting. And I greatly admire the artist because he blended character even more than colours, mixing modesty and courage together, passions by nature at war. As the representation goes on, some executioners in short tunics, almost naked, were already at work. One of them seized her head and bent it back, holding the virgin's face ready for the other to punish; and the other, standing by, knocked out her teeth. A hammer and a drill appear as the instruments of punishment. From here on I weep, and grief cuts off my speech. For the painter has coloured the drops of blood so vividly that you would say they were pouring from … [the prison] after these things, and again the reverent virgin sits alone in her dark garments, stretching out her hands to heaven and calling on God as helper in her troubles. As she prays, there appears above her head the sign which Christians are accustomed to venerate and to inscribe, a symbol, I think, of the passion that awaited her. Then shortly after, the painter has kindled a fierce fire in another place, giving the flame body with a red colour lit up on this side and that. He sets her in the middle of it, stretching out her hands to heaven and showing no pain in her face, but on the contrary rejoicing, because she was departing to the bodiless and blessed life. Here the painter stopped his hand, and I stop my discourse. And it is time for you also, if you wish, to finish the painting yourself, so that you may see exactly whether [I have fallen] far short in my description.

Homily 12. Encomium on the holy protomartyr Stephen. How truly holy and fine is [the succession] of gladdening [feasts] … we are summoned from prayer to prayer, and the honour of the servant follows close on the Theophany of the Lord. Whether one looks to the birth of him who was born yesterday through the flesh and always is in his Godhead, or to the martyrdom for him which his noble servant underwent today, one will find many and varied events, but one purpose: that we may be taught godliness. Yesterday, then, we learned through the yearly, customary feast that the Saviour of the world was born, that the fleshless put on flesh and the bodiless clothed himself with a body; and then that he accepted sufferings for us and was lifted up on the wood, for nothing else than our salvation. Today we see the noble contestant stoned for him, so that he may repay with blood the grace given through blood. Stephen, then, is the convener of this festival, who called us to the gladness we see, who drew the city together as one: a man who is the firstfruits of the martyrs, the teacher of labours for Christ, the foundation of the good confession. For before Stephen no one had shed blood for the Gospel. As Cain the fratricide (as the history of Moses teaches me) committed the murder of his brother (for taking up strife instead of natural affection, he was the first to inaugurate the earth with murder), so Stephen the thrice-blessed was the first to sanctify the earth with his own blood through godly contests: a man second to the apostles in time, but first in valiant deeds. Do not be indignant with me, Peter; do not be vexed, James; do not be displeased, John, if I not only compare the man with your philosophy, but wish to assign him something more. Rather, rejoice gladly; for you are fathers without envy, glad to be surpassed by your children in virtue. If there is anything fine and great from Stephen, it is wholly yours, who trained him and initiated him; for the good repute of the athletes becomes the glory of the trainer. Therefore, begging your leave a little, I will say boldly what the subject gives me to say in Stephen's defence … You are older among the disciples, holy Peter, and you proclaimed Jesus Christ before all. But while you were still preaching the word of the Gospel, going from city to city and changing country for country, [and toiling at the preaching, this man entered] … into the stadium, seized the crown of the contests, passed into heaven and was glorified while you were still going about the earth; and, what is greater, the Father and the Son themselves called him through the wonderful vision. So much for Peter, and what has been said is enough; for it is very bold to contend with fathers over the first place. Let us look at your case too, James, brother of John. You are an evangelist of Christ, his second catch after Peter. And who would not admire your faith? You were simply called, and obeyed without any delay. You left your father Zebedee along with the boat, and followed Christ as a genuine disciple. You suffered readily for godliness, I confess, for Herod the tyrant killed you with a sword; but that was after Stephen, many years later. But why do I name them one by one, when he carried off the prize of martyrdom over all the saints together, the first to be arrayed against the devil and the first to conquer, imitating David, though in a reversal of the deed?

David conquered Goliath with stones, and Stephen the devil with stones; but the one by the stones he threw, the other by those with which he was struck. And we, the people of Christ, like the army then, … seeing him as though present, admiring him as though standing before us. Every champion of godliness is fine, even if he comes second or third after those who contended before; but he is not worthy of such wonder as the first. The second is drawn to zeal by emulation of the one before him, for imitation; but the one who had no guide and became the discoverer of the good rightly [carries off] the vote for the first place. Great, then, was the man's eagerness, and therefore great is his honour too; and immortal is his memory, which neither oblivion has covered nor time dimmed, but generation after generation receives the stories. This feast we keep without fail, priests and peoples, children, men and women. And we must examine the history itself, so that, coming close to the facts, we may admire the man the more. Stephen was the first of the deacons of Christ, sanctified by grace, a vessel filled with the Spirit, daily confirming his own people and turning those who wandered back to the straight road. And since he held to his teaching more vehemently, even more than the other apostles, he grieved the enemies, and before them the first enemy, the devil. For the devil fixed his fiery, savagely glaring eyes on those more … [and stirred up] the race of the Alexandrians, ever quick to swing into rioting. You have surely heard of the men of that city, how hot and boiling they are for whatever they rush into on impulse. When he saw the crowd flowing against him, he was at a loss how to deal with the moment; yet he found a resourceful art, a well-tuned and gentle speech. For there is no medicine so good for curing anger and agitation as gentle and fitting exhortation. “Tell me,” he says, “the cause of your hatred, and why you raise your hands and are plainly about to [do violence].” When they said, “Because you are destroying the laws of our fathers and introducing foreign doctrines,” the blessed man stood in the middle, an artless and improvised orator (for he did not say what he had learned from art, but what he was inspired to say by the Spirit): “Men, brothers and fathers, listen.” A wise opening, the best beginning of a speech to a heated people. For gentle and soothing words, as though they had some share of honey or were like soft oil, calmed the inflammation of the beasts. Then he goes back in memory to Abraham, so that, beginning from ancient times and stretching out a long speech, he might in its long middle spend their anger unnoticed as it slackened. And having worked out that long speech, he shows that Moses too prophesied the Christ, so that through the credibility of the lawgiver he might cleverly, as if by stealth, bring in the word of faith. He said knowledgeably everything that would contribute to the benefit of his hearers. But when he saw that their wickedness would not yield and their mind would not soften, then at last, filled with boldness, renouncing the life here and abandoning all the art of flattery, [he called them stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and] ears, fighting the Spirit, and some such things. And from then on many dogs surrounded him, as they had his Master, and fat bulls, as the psalm says, encircled the righteous man. He stood alone, surrounded on every side by the people of murderers. No one was near him at that hour, no friend, no member of his household, no relative; and it brings some comfort to those in danger to see some of their acquaintances present close by. But the lofty president of the great contest, seeing that the man needed someone to stand by him (for though he was very noble, he surely felt what men feel), suddenly appears to him; and as Stephen gazed into heaven, he showed him also the Son standing at his right hand in the form he took when he became man. O love for mankind! O goodness! He appeared to the athlete for whose sake he was contending; and the God of all all but sent forth such a voice to him: “Suffer nothing ignoble, Stephen. You have no human ally; none of your friends stands by you in the time of terrors; but I [am here] with … rest, the [gates] of paradise are open … the temporary, and hasten to the eternal and endless life. While still in the flesh you [see] God, a thing greater than every worldly nature … apostles, that the Father has a genuine Son … you are able to bear. And the Son too stands by me at the right, so that by the relation of place you may know his honour. It offended many then, whether [he was] God … in the height with me, bearing the heavenly and supercelestial form of man, as confirmation of the dispensation that has been accomplished. For his sake leave the body, despising it as an earthly bond, as a rotten house, as a potter's vessel easily broken.”

“Run up free to your inheritance; for the crown of valour is ready for you. Move from the earth to heaven. [Leave] the body to the bloody-minded, as food for dogs. Despise the raging people, and come to the choir of angels.” With this purpose God appeared to the steadfast man, so that he might feel nothing cowardly, nor let his great eagerness slacken through the greatness of his fear. That is why he did not send him an angel as helper, as he did to the apostles in prison, nor any ministering power and fellow servant; he showed himself. For this was the firstfruits of martyrdom, and the first work had to be brought to perfection, so that the martyrs built upon it afterwards might receive a strong foundation for their zeal, and not become imitators of cowardice. So it is in ordinary wars too. One soldier, the champion who gives the signal for battle: if he conquers and plays the man, he strengthens all his own side and strikes terror into the enemy; but if he shows some weakness, at once he breaks the spirit of his countrymen, fills their souls with cowardice, and becomes the signal for flight. For these reasons God appeared from heaven. And he who was thought worthy of the great vision, such as no one else saw, did not keep silent about what he saw, but at once [cried out: “Behold, I see the heavens opened], and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” For he thought that by declaring the vision he would at once draw the unbelievers to agree. But they made the saying an occasion for more anger and madness, stopped their ears against the word as blasphemous, and set to the murder at once. Dragging the Christ-bearing man outside the city, as he bore his endurance as the Lord bore the cross, they cure evil with evil, defend murder with murder, and add stones to the cross. They set the thrice-blessed man on a piece of level ground, that tall body, the lofty trophy of martyrs; and surrounding him in a circle, the people of blood and anger, imitating what in war is called the … , pelted with stones the minister of the cornerstone; every Hebrew hand had a share in the murder; and the martyr was the target of those throwing, standing in the middle like a mark … When his body, broken on every side and bathed in blood, was at last sinking toward its deadly fall, and was shaken and threatening to collapse, like a tall plane tree worked on by many woodcutters, he did not fall unseemly, as most do. He was not stretched out face down, nor brought down on his side, nor laid back on his back; but setting his knees in the seemly posture of one who prays, he died, hastening by prayer his soul's separation from the flesh, and crying out to the Lord whom he saw: “Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit.” For he hastened as to a change of home: as from a foreign land to his homeland, as from a deserted and parched country to a brilliant city. And to his petition he added the prayer for those who were stoning him. For they were benefiting him against their will: by stoning they saved him, by murdering him they made [him] …, and by separating him from the clay they sent him on to the kingdom. Let us consider, then, the words of the prayer and the aim to which they point: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” He does not pray, as some suppose by bad reasoning, that his enemies' sin should go unpunished and unaccounted for. That would plainly be to resist God's ordinance, and to amend the judgment and legislation of the Righteous One, which allotted to murderers what they deserve. What, then, does he say? “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; that is: give them the fear that brings compunction; lead them to regret what they have dared; do not allow them to die in circumcision; draw them through repentance to the knowledge of you.

… kindle the flame of the Spirit in their hearts. For if they are improved in this way, it is plain that then you will not hold the sin against them; but washed by the bath of grace, by your blood and by mine, they will become free of the charges. These things happened, and the drama was completed. Armies of angels rejoiced, admiring the contest, and with a great escort led Stephen up to his own lot; but the devil turned away empty-handed and sorely perplexed; or, to say something more bodily about the spirit of the air, imitating a prophetic word, his face like the scorching of a pot; for he had achieved the opposite of what he expected, and by the very means through which he thought to diminish the Christians he had increased the list of the martyrs. And what of the holy Paul? For he too was one [of them]. Even if he did not stone Stephen himself, he guarded the clothes of those who did, and served as the executioner of the people. But I shall soon see you, who are now so vigorous and breathing savage rage, led by the hand like a weak old woman, when you are about to be brought to Ananias, having tasted the truth. And I shall laugh with great pleasure when I hear you recounting your afflictions for the Gospel and saying, among the other dangers, “Once I was stoned.” For you had to make amends through stones for the stones, and to cancel the charge of sin by suffering the same. It is worth while, too, not to leave Stephen's vision unexamined. For the God of all, always providing for what is to come, prepares beforehand the cure for human sins that are going to arise, as a safeguard; and this is what he did here. For if the theophanies were performed only for the benefit of the contestant, it would have been enough for a voice to come from heaven, as at the baptism earlier, or at the transfiguration later, or as with this same Paul when [he travelled] the road to Damascus. But now, for other reasons, and because … was going to spring up … of God and bring into life the heretical confusion of the hypostases, for this reason God, as it were cutting off the future beforehand and safeguarding the souls of those who would come after, shows himself to Stephen in his own proper and complete glory, and shows the Son too as a complete person, and stands him at his right hand, so that by distinguishing the persons he may make the hypostases plain. And perhaps someone will say: “You have philosophized in this way about the Father and the Son; but where is the Holy Spirit? For if this was for the sake of security in the faith, the Holy Spirit ought to have been present too, so that a practical initiation might have been given to men through the vision.” To the one who raises this objection against us we must say: “Most wise man, whoever examines the readings must have both a straight mind and a strong memory, so that he can take in all that is written together. If you seek the presence of the Spirit, go a little above the stones and the bloodshed, and you will find the Spirit spoken of before the vision, present with Stephen and preparing the athlete beforehand. For right at the beginning of the narrative it announced to us these words: ‘Stephen, full of grace and … great … among the people. And some of the synagogue called that of the Freedmen, and of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of those from Ci[licia arose] … and they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.’ See, then: the passage has clearly set before us the person of the Spirit too. And if this is written first, and the Father and the Son last, the change of order does no harm to the faith. For Scripture is accustomed to do this: sometimes it names the Son alone, sometimes the Spirit with the Son; at other times it begins from the Father and ends with the Spirit; and conversely, beginning from the Spirit, it moves through the Son to the Father. One can see this characteristic usage observed especially in the great Paul, without any scruple.” Our debt to Stephen has now been paid: if one looks at the greatness of the subject, not sufficiently; if at the power of the speaker, sufficiently; for to our God be glory, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.