Tarasius

ON SAINT TARASIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

IN THE YEAR OF CHRIST 806

Preliminary Commentary.

Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (Saint)

By G. H.

Section I. The time of the Patriarchate of Saint Tarasius. His written Life. His sacred veneration.

[1] Just as the holy Church of Christ, precisely when it seemed about to be overwhelmed by wicked men, tossed by the storms of various heresies, shone forth all the more brilliantly, defended and championed more vigorously by the holy Doctors, and in the splendor of its deeds and the glory of heroic virtues triumphed; so in the eighth century after the birth of Christ, when an impious and criminal war had been undertaken against the holy images, there were not lacking illustrious champions who would expose their bodies and lives for the defense of truth, Saint Tarasius was chosen to vanquish the heresy of the Iconoclasts and by shedding their blood would establish the cult of the sacred images. This sacred war, begun by others, was happily completed in his own time by Saint Tarasius, Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople. In which city the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, instigated by a Jew, having had the image of the Savior thrown down by his agents, inaugurated that wicked war around the year of Christ 726, and then, as the crime grew, issued a fatal edict against the venerable images, substituting a certain Anastasius in the place of the most holy Patriarch Germanus (whose sacred day is May 12). To the impious parent and architect of this heresy there succeeded an offspring contaminated with a still more impure crime, Constantine Copronymus, who also, having convened a conclave of impious men, caused the sacred images to be condemned. After him succeeded his son Leo, himself likewise an heir to his father's and grandfather's impiety. With the same fury of the Iconoclasts were inflamed those who afterward, under these Emperors, occupied the Patriarchal See at Constantinople: Constantine II and Nicetas, upon whose death Paul succeeded, who below in the Acts, number 6, after having abandoned the See, groans over the assent to heresy inscribed by his own hand and ink three times. Paul was ordained Patriarch in the month of February, on the second Sunday of the fasts, in the year 780, in which same year, on September 8, when the Emperor Leo died, his son Constantine ruled together with his mother Irene. By them Saint Tarasius, who had previously administered the dignity of Consul and was serving them as first secretary of their private affairs, was chosen as Patriarch, but he was unwilling to give his assent to their desire unless he had stipulated for the convening of an Ecumenical Synod, in which, with the heresy of the Iconoclasts condemned, the cult of the sacred images might be restored. Concerning the same heresy revived in the ninth century of Christ and at last vanquished, we treated on February 4 in the Life of Saint Nicholas the Studite, and more fully on February 11 in the Life of the Empress Saint Theodora.

[2] The most holy man Tarasius was therefore made Patriarch on the very day of the Nativity of Christ, the eighth day before the Kalends of January, in the fifth year of the Empire of Constantine and Irene, the eighth Indiction, the year of Christ 784 coming to its end, ordained Patriarch in the year 784, December 25 as our authorities are Theophanes (to be cited below), Cedrenus, and others. That he adorned the pontifical Chair for twenty-two years is reported in his Acts below, number 47. From that number of years ten months are lacking. For Theophanes also, in his prefixed Tables, counts twenty-one years of his See, and under the fourth year of the Emperor Nicephorus relates the following: He died on February 25 of the year 806. "In this year, in the month of February, on the 25th day, the fourteenth Indiction, Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch of Constantinople, gloriously closed his last day, and his body was carried out to the straits of the Pontus, and in the monastery which he himself had built, was buried on the Wednesday of the first week of the fasts." "And in the month of April, on the twelfth day, the great and holy Sunday of Easter, the most holy Patriarch Nicephorus was consecrated." These things stated there, which all agree admirably with the year of Christ 806, in which only the second month of the twenty-second year of his Patriarchate was flowing: and it was likewise the fourth year of the Emperor Nicephorus, who indeed, as the same Theophanes attests, stirred up his tyranny against the most pious Irene on the 31st day of October of the eleventh Indiction, which then began, in the year of Christ 802. Now in the said year 806, with the Solar Cycle III, Lunar IX, Dominical letter D, Easter was celebrated on April 12, on which day Saint Nicephorus, whom we shall treat on March 13, was consecrated as Patriarch, the successor of Tarasius, and Ash Wednesday, or as is said above, the Wednesday of the first week of fasts, fell on February 25, since, as the Acts below at number 52 state, the month of February held the fifth day together with a fivefold quaternion, or twenty days: which day has remained illustrious through his sacred veneration. Anastasius in his history writes that he died on the twelfth day before the Kalends of March, on which day we find his name inscribed in absolutely no calendars. From the cited passage of Theophanes, Cedrenus is more easily understood, with a certain punctuation that had crept into all printed editions, even the royal, being emended in the following manner: "In the fourth year, Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch of Constantinople, honorably closed his life: and was buried in the monastery which he himself had built at the Narrows, on the fourth day of the first week of the fasts. And on the great Sunday, Nicephorus the secretary was created most holy Patriarch," etc. Now the fourth day of the first week of fasts is for us Ash Wednesday; and the great Sunday is that on which the solemnity of Easter is observed. The latter pertains to Nicephorus, the fourth day to Tarasius: both had hitherto been inelegantly referred to Nicephorus alone. Zonaras records the day of death thus: "When the Patriarch Tarasius died in the first week of the fasts," in Greek "ton bion metellachotos," "the illustrious Nicephorus, the secretary, was elected Patriarch by common vote on the Sunday of Easter."

[3] Tarasius obtained as the writer of his life after death a disciple named Ignatius, and therefore one equal to him in times. How great a man he was, Suidas indicates in these words: "Ignatius the Deacon and Custodian of the vessels of the Great Church of Constantinople, His Life was written by Ignatius, Bishop of Nicaea afterward made Metropolitan of Nicaea, a Grammarian: he wrote the Lives of Tarasius and Nicephorus, the holy and blessed Patriarchs, Epitaphs, Elegies, Epistles, Iambics against Thomas the Rebel, and many other works." Concerning the dignity of the Sceuophylax or Custodian of the vessels, who yielded only to the Oeconomus and the Great Sacellarius, one should consult George the Curopalate on the offices of the Great Church, illuminated by the annotations of Gretser and Goar. Hypatius, Bishop of Nicaea in Bithynia, attended the Seventh Ecumenical Synod held at Nicaea; whether Ignatius immediately succeeded him is not clear. He himself attests below at number 56 that in the flower of his youth he had been trained by Saint Tarasius his disciple in trimeters, tetrameters, trochaics, anapaests, and heroic meters: and that he had taken down his sacred homilies with a swift pen, and having given them to the best scribes, had recorded them in a volume. And at number 48 he indicates that he was present at the death of Tarasius. And at number 1 he prefaces that he brings forth with pure and sincere truth into the light what he saw with his eyes, drew in through his ears, and knew from his own experience. This Life of Saint Tarasius written by Ignatius was inserted by Metaphrastes into his works at February 25, an eyewitness and the Latin version made by Gentianus Hervetus was published by Aloysius Lipomanus and Laurentius Surius at the same February 25 with this inscription: "Of the monk Ignatius, the detailed exposition of the life and miracles of our Holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople." But if credence is to be given to Suidas, when called from the monastic life he was then a Deacon and custodian of the vessels, or rather Metropolitan of Nicaea. We present the same Life divided in our customary manner into chapters and numbers, and illuminated with notes.

[4] He is venerated on the said February 25 in the Menologion of the Greeks published by Genebrard, and in another Horologion, as Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople. In another Menologion published by Canisius, these words are read: "Of Saint Tarasius, Archbishop of the city of Constantinople, Saint Tarasius is venerated on February 25 among the Greeks who, at the instigation of Adrian the Roman Pontiff, rendered outstanding service at the Second Synod of Nicaea in condemning the heresy of those who attacked the cult of the holy images." The Synaxarion manuscript of the Tilian Menaion, in the possession of Franciscus Combefisius, for the Acts of the Sixth Synod, chapter 1, section 6, celebrates him with this encomium: "The memory of our most holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople. He taught that the venerable images are to be adored, and through his efforts the royal Empire and the power of the Romans returned to the venerable traditions of the Apostles and the Ecumenical Councils, by right of return: and the holy Church was united with all the Patriarchates." The same things are reported in the printed Menaia; and it is added: "When, therefore, he had lived devoutly, and was in great veneration among the Emperors, and had built a monastery across the strait, and established a multitude of monks in it; and had also assisted the poor, and had splendidly administered the Church for twenty-two years and two months, he ended his life in peace, buried in his monastery which he had founded. As for his bodily appearance, he was most similar to Gregory the Theologian, except for the white hair (for he had not turned entirely white) and a less serene eye, which he had more hidden." "His feast day is celebrated in the great and most holy Church, which is surnamed the Church of Sophia." The same things are read in Maximus of Cythera in his Lives of the Saints, and in the new Anthologion of the Greeks approved by the authority of Clement VIII. That he governed the Church for only twenty-one years and two months we said above. The Menaia teach the day of death, February 25, in these prefixed verses:

"The tranquil harbor receives Tarasius, saved from the tumult and storm of the world. For on the twenty-fifth, from turbulence Tarasius took flight."

The same twenty-fifth of February is observed to be the day his nativity into heaven is recorded by the Greeks, as the aforementioned Combefisius notes. Galesinius, citing the ancient records of the Church of Constantinople and the Eulogion of the Greeks, reports the same. "In Greece, of Saint Tarasius, Bishop and Confessor." and the Latins Molanus in his Supplement to Usuard from the Menologion of the Greeks says: "On the twenty-fifth day, of the holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople." The same things are found in the German Martyrology. He is reported with a more distinguished encomium in the Roman Martyrology: "At Constantinople, Saint Tarasius, Bishop, distinguished both in learning and in piety, to whom there exists a letter of Pope Adrian the First for the defense of the sacred images." Baronius adds in his Annotations that he departed this mortal life after many labors endured for the Catholic faith, and in his Annals at the year 806, number 1, he writes that he died on February 25, illustrious for his holiness. In the Greek Menaia the memory of the same Tarasius and of Saint Caesarius is again found on March 9, as also on March 9 and May 7 as was noted on that day in the Life of Saint Caesarius, page 496, number 1. But on May 7 the name of Saint Tarasius, Bishop of Constantinople, is inscribed in the Florarium Sanctorum. In the Life of Saint Plato on December 16, Saint Theodore the Studite mentions the death of Saint Tarasius and calls him a divine man. Illustrious are the things we reported on February 21 in the Life of Saint George, Bishop of Amastris, page 273, numbers 18 and 19, which can be read there.

Section II. Various matters discussed in the Patriarchal election. The title of Universal Patriarch rejected.

[5] The things that were carried out concerning the election of Saint Tarasius as Patriarch of Constantinople, although they are explained in a fashion in the Acts below, we have nevertheless thought should be set forth somewhat more carefully from the rescripts and testimonies of the Emperors, of the Roman Pontiff, of Tarasius himself, and of others. And first, the Emperors Constantine and Irene, in their rescript inserted in the First Session addressed to the Fathers assembled in the Synod of Nicaea II Concerning the election of Saint Tarasius (the Fathers call it Sacra, venerating the Imperial Majesty), indicate the industry and effort they applied in promoting Tarasius to the Patriarchal dignity; the rescript of the Emperors and after narrating the abdication of his predecessor Paul, they add the following: "We took counsel together about what ought to be done. And we deliberated in our counsel that when a Patriarch was ordained, the things that had been spoken would soon reach their end. Therefore summoning men experienced in ecclesiastical affairs and calling upon Christ our God and taking counsel with them as to who might be worthy to be promoted to the sacerdotal Chair of this God-preserved Royal City. And when all had become of one mind and one counsel, the decree was given in favor of Tarasius, who now presides in the Pontifical dignity. Therefore, summoning him, we pronounced upon him the things that had been said and decreed, but he was by no means willing to assent, nor did he demand that consent to the things decreed be put into effect. And when we asked him for what reason he would least suffer himself to obey, at first he responded excusing himself and saying the yoke of the priesthood was above him. But we, understanding that he was making excuses by proposing that he need not obey, in no way withdrew from him, but persisted, trying to persuade him to accept the dignity of the supreme priesthood. He therefore, seeing our insistence, announced the reason for his refusal: 'Since I see,' he said, the demands of Saint Tarasius before the Emperors 'and I perceive that the Church, which was founded upon the Rock, namely Christ our God, is now torn and disrupted, and we are speaking one thing and another, and those Christians in the East who are of one faith with us speak differently; and those who dwell in the West agree with them; and I recognize that we are alienated from all of them, and daily anathematized by all. And because I demand that a universal Synod be held, while Vicars are found both from the Roman Pope and from the chief Priests of the East.' Making these things known in the presence of the Priests and our most glorious Princes and our whole Christ-loving people who were then present, we brought the man forth: and in their presence, whatever he had answered to us, he also addressed to them. But when all of them heard these things, they willingly accepted them, asking our peaceful and pious government that a universal Synod be held."

[6] What Tarasius said before the people, and especially that he accepted the yoke, or heavy burden, of that supreme priesthood unwillingly, is admirably narrated chiefly from Theophanes by Anastasius, where Tarasius proposes these things to the people: and to the people of Constantinople "Now, O men who fear God, and always have Him in your hearts, and who by the calling of Christ, that is, of our true God, are called Christians, I say, hear the account of a brief discourse from our lowliness and humility. For what have I responded to our pious and in all things orthodox Emperors, and what apology of my speech shall I answer in your sight? I am weighed down by fear to consent to this election, and I dread to run thus before the face of God, and however I look about me, I fear lest I fall under terrible damnation. For if the divine Apostle Paul, who heard the voices of God, and had heaven instructing him, and became an inspector of Paradise, and heard secret words, and carried the name of God before the nations and Kings, said: 'Lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself should be found rejected' 1 Corinthians 9:27; how can I, who have lived in the world and been numbered among laymen and served in Imperial administrations, thus without judgment and circumspection leap to the magnitude of the priesthood? A fearful attempt for my smallness and a rash endeavor. But the cause of my fear and refusal is this. I look and see the Church, which was founded upon the Rock, Christ our Lord, now torn and divided, and we speaking one thing and another, and differently those Christians who in the East are of one faith with us, and the Westerners agreeing with them: we alienated from all of them, and daily anathematized by them. A fearful penalty is anathema: it sends far from God and expels from the kingdom of heaven, leading into outer darkness. The law or boundary of the Church knows neither sect nor contention, but as it knows how to confess one God, one baptism, one faith, so also one concord in every ecclesiastical affair. For nothing is so acceptable and pleasing in the sight of God as that we be one, and that one Catholic Church be made, as we confess in the creed of our sincere faith. And we ask, brothers -- and you also, as I believe, especially that an Ecumenical Synod be assembled since I know that you have the fear of God -- from our most pious and orthodox Emperors that a universal synod be assembled, so that we too, who belong to the one God, may become one: and we who are worshippers of the Trinity may become united and of one mind and colleagues: and we who are of our head, Christ, may become one body, compact and connected: and we who are of the Holy Spirit may become not against one another but for one another: and we who belong to the truth may become those who think and say the same thing, and let there be in us no strife or dissension, so that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, may guard us. And if the champions of orthodoxy, namely our Emperors, shall deign to assent to my request, I too consent. But if not, it is impossible for me to do this, lest I be subjected to anathema and be found condemned in the day of our Lord and most just Judge, where neither Emperor, nor Priest, nor Princes, nor multitude of men will be able to deliver me. And whatever shall please you, brothers, give to my apology a response of your assertion, rendered in one word to my petition." And all willingly heard the things that were said, giving their consent that a Synod should be held... And so on the eighth day before the Kalends of January of the eighth Indiction, our holy Father Tarasius was consecrated Patriarch of Constantinople, who, having sent to Rome his synodal letters and the document of his faith, was received by Pope Adrian. So Theophanes in Anastasius. But those letters to the Roman Pontiff have perished, which we judge from the response of the same Pontiff to have been, with a few things changed toward the end, similar to other letters which exist in Session 3 of the Seventh Synod, with this inscription:

[7] "A copy of the letters which were sent to the chief Priests and Priests of Antioch, Alexandria, and the Holy City, from Tarasius, most holy and most blessed Patriarch of Constantinople." Synodal Letter to the Patriarchs of the East "With much and great providence the Lord God, governing the lives of men and extending them, and prudently directing the course of each one's life (for without Him nothing was made, because even the hairs of our head are numbered by Him), has raised me too, hitherto numbered in the order of laymen and deputed to Imperial ministries, by I know not what judgments -- He knows -- to the Pontifical Chair, by a powerful exhortation violently made upon me by the champions of truth, namely our most pious and orthodox Emperors and the most holy Bishops and Clergy, to which yielding I assented, and committed to them the fruit of obedience to be gathered.

And I ask you, most holy ones, that as fathers you support me, faint-hearted as I am, with the staff of your power, that is, with your paternal teachings: and as brothers, with your pure prayers, together with the armor of God, help us against the wiles of the ancient enemy, and guide us as we totter amid the waves that rise on every side, so that I may reach the harbor of the will of Christ our God... Now I proceed to another subject of discourse. For since a certain ancient, and, to confess more truly, Apostolic tradition has taken root in all the Churches, that those who are promoted to the Pontificate commend themselves to those who preceded them in the same order by setting forth what their faith is; it seemed good to me also, following this custom, to bow to you and clearly to pronounce my confession, as I have been taught from the trumpets of the Holy Spirit, whose sound has gone forth into all the earth and their words to the ends of the earth, and from their pupils and followers, namely our most sacred Fathers, from my very earliest beginnings. I believe in one God... Seeking also the intercessions of our most holy and inviolate Lady, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, and of the holy Angels, and of the holy and most glorious Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Confessors, and Doctors: saluting and venerating their images, and abominating every heretical contention... I also receive the holy and universal Six Synods, and their divine dogmas equally and teachings, as having been delivered to us by divine inspiration." I omit the rest, together with the response of the same Patriarchs to Saint Tarasius. Let a part of the letter of Pope Adrian suffice, in which he responds to him, which Pope Nicholas I also cites in his letter 6 to Photius. It exists in Session 2 of the Seventh Synod, also translated into Greek, with this title:

[8] "To our beloved Brother Tarasius the Patriarch, Adrian, Bishop, servant of the servants of God. With pastoral care... we have considered it fitting to address your beloved holiness with sacred concord Adrian the Pope in his response and to make the matter subtly clear. In the synodal letters of the confession of your faith, which were directed to our Apostolic See through Leo, your reverend Priest, we found at the beginning of the first page that Your Reverence had been elevated from the lay order and from Imperial administration to the summit of the sacred grade. And our soul was greatly astonished at these things. And had we not found that your sincere and orthodox faith, as expressed in the aforesaid synodal letters of the sacred Creed, was in accord with the rite of the holy six universal Synods he accepts his election and regarding the venerable images was sound, on account of his zeal we would in no way have dared to give heed to synodal letters of this kind. But as much as our heart was saddened by the inappropriate ancient separation from us, so much did our soul, finding the confession and right faith of yours, rejoice. We found moreover that in the aforesaid synodal letter of your holiness, after the fullness of faith and the confession of the sacred Creed, a wonder most worthy of praise and veneration concerning the sacred and venerable images was contained." And with many things interposed he adds: "Furthermore, after the confession of your faith, it was made known to us that your venerable holiness had demanded from the orthodox and zealous champions of the truth, namely our most pious Emperors, he commends the restoration of the sacred images who were made for the glory of God, that a universal Synod be held, and they had promised in the presence of all their Christian people, piously assenting to your supplication and decreeing that a Synod be held in the royal city. We, moreover, as was contained in their sacred command, have sent with great desire and the greatest joy our beloved and approved and prudent Priests for the matter of the sacred images, that they be established in those regions according to the ancient custom. But let your holiness eagerly suggest to the same most pious and triumphant Emperors that first of all that pseudo-synod, which was made without the Apostolic See, in a disorderly and illogical fashion against the tradition of the venerable Fathers and against the divine images, be anathematized in the presence of our Legates." He then concludes thus: "We ask that our beloved ones, namely Peter, Archpriest of our holy Roman Church, and Peter, monk and Priest and Abbot, who have been sent by us to the court of the most tranquil and pious Emperors, and his own Legates to the Synod be judged and held by you as worthy, for the love of Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and for our sake, of every kind reception and kindness; so that in this too we may be able to render great thanks. May Almighty God deign to preserve your love, if it shall steadfastly remain; and may He make the fruit entrusted to you abound beyond the measure of abundance, and make it pass over into everlasting joys. May God keep you safe, most beloved Brother."

[9] So writes Pope Adrian according to what is found in Synod VII, translated into Latin by Anastasius, and let them wonder at the greater reliability than what was read in another previously published edition, where the title is thus: "To our beloved Brother Tarasius, Universal Patriarch": where the word "universal" was appended by some Greek copyist. Thus the title of Universal Patriarch was attributed to him by certain Bishops subscribing to the Second Session of the Seventh Synod; the name of Universal Patriarch given to Saint Tarasius by some as Anastasius states in his preface before this Synod to Pope John VIII. "In this matter indeed," he says, "in which the Greeks frequently and improperly call their own Patriarch 'Universal,' let your Apostolate grant pardon to the flattery of those who not without blame strive to please their Prelates." "But when, stationed at Constantinople, I frequently reproved the Greeks concerning this word and censured them for pride and arrogance, they maintained that they did not call the Patriarch 'Ecumenical' -- which many have interpreted as 'Universal' -- in what sense it may be excused because he holds the chief authority of the whole world, but because he presides over a certain part of the world which is inhabited by Christians. For what the Greeks call 'Oikoumene,' by the Latins is called not only 'the world' (from whose universality 'Universal' is derived), but also 'habitation' or 'habitable place.'" So Anastasius. But since Pope Adrian in his letter to the Emperor Constantine and his mother Irene complains that the title of Universal Patriarch was wrongly attributed by them to Saint Tarasius, we rightly infer that he did not at that time confer such a title of honor on Tarasius. That letter exists in Session Two of the same Seventh Synod, in whose latter part he writes: "We have been astonished that in your Imperial commands directed on behalf of the Patriarch of the royal city, namely Tarasius, we found him there written as Universal; disapproved by Pope Adrian but whether this was written through incompetence, or schism, or the heresy of the wicked, we do not know. But henceforth we advise your most clement and Imperial power that he be by no means described as Universal in the course of their writings: because this appears to be against the decrees of the traditions of the holy Fathers. For in the second order, if not through the authority of our holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (as is evident in all things) he can never have the name -- which indeed, if 'Universal' is written above the holy Roman Church placed over him, which is the head of all the Churches of God, it is certain that he calls himself a rebel and heretic against the holy Synods. Because, if he is 'Universal,' he is recognized to hold the primacy even over the See of our Church, which appears ridiculous to all faithful Christians, because in the whole world the principality and power was given by the Redeemer Himself to the blessed Apostle Peter, and through the same Apostle (whose office, even if unworthy, we hold) the holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church holds until now and forever the principality and authority of power: inasmuch as, which we do not believe, if anyone shall have called him Universal or given his assent, let him know that he is alienated from the orthodox faith and a rebel against our holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Tarasius himself, Patriarch of the royal city, sent us his synodal letters, fulfilling the ancient custom, which we received and examined more clearly, and rejoicing at the confession of so right a faith, and of the dogmas of the holy six Synods, and of the venerable images. Yet again we were greatly troubled and distressed that, from the lay order and deputed to Imperial services, he suddenly attained the summit of the Patriarchate, and has been made Patriarch in an uncanonical fashion contrary to the censure of the holy Canons... And were it not for his faithful cooperation in the restoration of the holy images, we could in no way have given our assent to his consecration." Subscribed: "Given on the seventh day before the Kalends of November, the ninth Indiction," namely in the year 785.

[10] How far Saint Tarasius was from all pride and ambition for titles, his modest subscription at the Synod, always after the Vicars of Pope Adrian, even though they were not Bishops, sufficiently teaches. The modesty of Saint Tarasius in titles. There, at Session Four, he subscribed thus: "Tarasius, by the mercy of God Bishop of Constantinople the New Rome, confirming that the truth is thus, willingly admitting all things which are set forth above, have subscribed to these." Again at Session Seven: "Tarasius, by the mercy of God Bishop of Constantinople the New Rome, following the paternal dogmas and defining the tradition of the Catholic Church, have subscribed." In his Letters, however, to the Emperors, to Pope Adrian, and to others, he calls himself "unworthy Bishop." Those letters are found at the end of the same Synod of Nicaea.

[11] There exists an illustrious testimony about Saint Tarasius in the Prologue to the ascetic Institutions of Saint Dorotheus the Archimandrite, written by an orthodox and devout writer, perhaps a Studite monk, in these words: "Those holy men Marcus, the estimation of his doctrine Isaiah, Barsanuphius, Dorotheus, and Hesychius... having been proven by the examination of the most holy Patriarch Tarasius, who was then long since exercising the supreme priesthood, and also by the testimony of other trustworthy men, both native and Eastern, I embrace them from paternal tradition." The rest of this testimony we published above in the Life of Saint Dositheus, February 23, page 381, number 1.

LIFE

by Ignatius the Bishop, rendered from Greek into Latin by Gentianus Hervetus.

Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (Saint)

By Ignatius the Bishop.

PROLOGUE.

[1] About to swim through the vast magnitude of the sea of a renowned Father, who excels in an inaccessible life, I fear lest I stir up the adverse blasts of winds from a rustic tongue and the great waves of obscurity, and procure for myself the peril and tempest of a soul's shipwreck. For such is the rashness of ignorance, which pours forth speech as chaff, useful for nothing that is opportune, and brings harm to what ought to be done and is useful, and falls into the shipwreck of much speaking, which cannot possibly altogether escape sin, as is the admonition of Solomon and of God. Proverbs 10:19 This restrains my talent and terrifies my thought, and reins in my discourse, and retards me as I hasten to gaze upon the depth of the man's divine gifts. But since the deep silence of a long time covering his deeds was going to bring harm to many ears that are held by the desire of hearing the best and most excellent things that were done by him in his life, as being full of profit for the soul; the author's familiar acquaintance with Saint Tarasius come, bidding farewell to all hesitation, I shall now endeavor, if God grants it, to bring forth into the light with pure and sincere truth some few things about him, which I was deemed worthy to see with my eyes, and which I received through my ears, and which I knew from my own experience, and which I know remain in my humble and needy memory. For even if I cannot speak worthily, I shall not on that account abandon the whole: but because I do not wish to hide the talent, like that wicked and lazy servant, therefore what is pleasing to God I shall offer with a ready and eager spirit to the best of my ability, even if I cannot pay the debt with interest; in this at least, that I shall exercise and look after the principal, so that nothing be taken from it, I shall be in some part acceptable. Matthew 25:25

CHAPTER I

The integrity of the parents of Saint Tarasius. His pious education, his Consular dignity.

[2] This therefore sacrosanct and great Tarasius, who from infancy to old age beautifully expressed the meekness and humility of Christ in imitation, into whose sea of virtues, as I said before, I plunged myself to swim -- who he was, and from where, and from what country and parents he was born, it would be difficult to say, even for those who from knowledge are able to speak amply and magnificently, and not only for me, whose speech is clearly humble and lowly, to trace back from on high the greatness of so illustrious a lineage, and to review the stock derived from his ancestors, who never meditated on boasting in praises of that kind, nor on setting his heart upon flowing riches, in accordance with the divine Psalmist. Psalm 62:10 But this one thing we can say: the parents of Saint Tarasius were of Patrician rank that with every authority and the greatest eminence among those who held the empire at that time, George his father and his mother ^a Encratia, who had received a name fitting to her character, obtained the first place on account of their supreme justice, derived from the line of the Patricians, and called ^b Patricians. His father, when he had ascended to the height of the judicial tribunal and dispensed justice to all equally with integrity and incorruptness, was seen to be far more just than Solon and Lycurgus, those ancient legislators: who also once pronounced a right sentence in accordance with the laws, when those who seemed to hold the Empire at that time neither knew what was just nor wished to execute it. The difficulty of administering justice was in this: his father most upright in administering justice certain poor women had been accused of a most grave crime. What that accusation was I shall now tell.

[3] They had been accused of killing suckling infants, entering through openings of houses or even with doors shut, and killing the infants without warning. They were also dragged into court by those who believed in fables and were unwilling to follow the teaching of Christ our God, which is in no way deceived by phantasms and illusions. For among ^c the Greeks there is in the fables ^d a certain woman named ^e Gello, who, it is said, when she had cut short her life by a premature death, approached newborn infants through certain specters and killed them. Seduced and deceived by the wicked spirit of this fable, those who related these things as probable also attempted to transfer this execrable crime to the poor women, he frees poor women from a grave calumny and to ascribe to them, as if they had been changed into spirits, the cause of those who died before their time. O stupor! O blindness of the eyes of the heart! If a body compacted and compressed in length, depth, and breadth proceeds dissolved into a spirit and is permitted to do these things, then Christ (who is the truth itself, saying, "A spirit has not flesh and bones") John 14:6 has been reckoned a phantom by those who assert these things. Moreover, Christ also, who took true flesh and truly affirmed to His disciples that a spirit has not flesh and bones, will be circumscribed by nothing that stands in the way of His being a phantom. Luke 24:39 Judging thus, therefore, and deciding without hesitation, George absolved the women from the charges. But he who then held power (for he was very much a defender of phantasm), when he perceived that George had so judged, ordered him to be brought before him. Having been clearly instructed by George about the true outcome of the sentence he had pronounced, he indeed struck him with the greatest ignominy; but he approved, even against his will, the sentence pronounced by George, inasmuch as he preserved the poor women absolved from the charges. And here let this part of the constancy and justice of George be set down.

[4] Saint Tarasius was piously trained by his mother. His mother, moreover, distinguished in piety, and seeing that which she herself was called prospering in her son, rendered her son venerable and a true temple of continence. And teaching him to have no association with those of his own age who were wicked, she counseled him to enter into friendship with those who love the beauty of virtue, and to be joined to them by the bond of spiritual charity. He is promoted to the consular dignity. Wherefore, having entered through every kind of virtue, he was reverenced by all, so that he was even honored with the consular dignity, and was chosen as the first secretary of the Emperor's private affairs, he is made the Emperor's first Secretary and shone like the morning star in the imperial court: inasmuch as he had abundantly embraced the divine disciplines and had gathered from secular learning what is most excellent. Psalm 1:3 Meditating upon the former for the ascent of virtue, and planted beside the streams of the waters of divine knowledge so as to bring forth rational fruits in their season; but sealing up in his mind, for attentiveness and caution, the usefulness of the latter, by which he could correct what is crooked and barbarous, and impose upon his tongue the law of speaking accurately. Having thus obtained praise through both, and having dedicated his whole self to God through piety and a pure conscience, he arrived at the state of spiritual perfection, and while performing worldly duties in worldly garb, he removed himself from worldly ambition, and adapting his soul to the spirit, he became a sacred vessel by the choice of the better part, even before the priesthood, and was foretold as the shepherd of the rational flock, though he was himself still being pastured: and it was hoped that he would undertake the entire governance of all, like a bright lamp already lit, illuminating the whole world with the fire of his virtues, and dispelling every heretical darkness, and procuring the light of right faith.

CHAPTER II

Saint Tarasius designated for the Patriarchate of Constantinople by his predecessor Paul.

[5] Nor did the people's hope deceive them, inasmuch as they soon received what they desired. For ^a Paul, whom ^b Salamis in Cyprus, his birthplace, had received, Paul, unequal to the heresy of the Iconoclasts governing the helm of the priesthood ^c holily and with integrity, when the nefarious heresy that accuses Christians was still in force -- of those, I say, who abolish the image of the incarnation of Christ our true God, and of His Mother who truly and properly bore God, and of the incorporeal powers as they appeared -- and already all ^d the holy opponents of the heresy had departed from this brief and perishable life, and had been translated to the discrimination which takes place there of the things done in their lives, and had vomited forth even after their departure the venom of the serpentine doctrine from the Church -- Paul bore it heavily and was distressed in his soul, since he had no one to bring him help and extend a hand for the correction of the right faith, because all adhered to the heresy and confessed and assented to it. He therefore took a counsel worthy of his prudence. For when he had fallen into an illness that was to bring him death and lead him to the long-lasting release that exists there, he secretly he withdraws into a monastery ^e removed himself from the See: and having come to the monastery of ^f Florus, he enrolled himself in the number of monks, having changed his garb. After it became known where the Pontiff had gone, and this had already reached the ears of those who held power at that time he satisfies the Emperors about his abdicated Patriarchate (for Irene and her son Constantine then admirably held the chief parts of power), they, because the event was new and unusual, not a little disturbed in mind, resolved to come to the said monastery. After they had recognized that the Pontiff had assumed the habit of humility, filled with anger and fear they asked him, who had given himself over to such boldness, what had been the cause of the Pontiff's flight and tonsure, reckoning that he would surely provoke the grave indignation of the Emperor. But Paul, with a mild and placid speech (for such he was, if any man ever was), soothing the imperial anger, persuaded them to cease being wrathful: and revealed the cause which had brought him to this, speaking in this manner:

[6] "Me, O Emperors, both illness and the unforeseen approach of death have compelled to do this, but much more did the deformity of the Church drive me to it, for she labors under heresy, and from the long-lasting evil opinion she receives so much pain that an incurable welt has adhered to her: and ^g already three times the assent to the heresy has been inscribed by hand and ink. For it was not permitted me to escape the nets of the evil opinion: but it happened that I was entangled in it both by tongue and hand. Which also distresses me the more, in that it devours the senses of my soul. I see all parts of the world, which hang in your hand as in a balance, preserving the immovable scale of faith, and remaining in right doctrine and exulting, to be far in disagreement with our Church, and to be repelling us as alien sheep from the flock of Christ. And therefore I refuse to be the pastor of a heretical assembly, and have resolved rather to inhabit a tomb than to be subject to the anathemas of the sacred ^h quaternion of the Apostolic Sees. But since God has delivered the power of the scepter into your hands, and you bear the Imperial care of the most Christian flock that is under the sun, do not despise the sadness of your mother the Church, but strive that she may again receive her former beauty. Do not suffer the abominable heresy even now, like a boar from the forest, as the saying goes, to devastate and destroy the vineyard of your imperial and faithful cultivation, and to be shamefully invaded by evil opinion, rough and untrodden by those passing along the way. You have a most learned cultivator, who has nourished the cluster of true confession, and pressed it out in the divine wine-presses of the one and only Church, and when he has filled the bowl of wisdom, has prepared for the most faithful people the cup of right judgment." "And whom do you mean by this?" the Emperors said to him. "My speech means Tarasius, he urges that Saint Tarasius be substituted for himself who is the first secretary of the private affairs of your divine empire. Him I know, and whoever thinks rightly knows, that he will opportunely undertake the Church, and with the rod of reason will drive away the trifles of heresies: but with the staff of teaching and pastoral office will lead in and lead out to the folds and enclosures of truth the most divine flock." When he had thus sown his speech in the Imperial ears and had made it fruitful, as one that had already borne fruit a hundredfold, oppressed by the gravity of his illness, he hastened confidently through death to the dissolution of his tabernacle, having obtained, as I shall say in Apostolic fashion, the building from God through incorruption. ⁱ

CHAPTER III

The election and Patriarchal consecration of Saint Tarasius.

[7] And thus indeed Paul conducted himself: but the Emperors, having their minds occupied with the election of a Pastor and stimulated by the speech of Paul, openly fixed their eyes upon Tarasius: and wisely chose him, God willing, by common consent to preside over the widowed flock. He is chosen as Patriarch by the Emperor and the Clergy. Whatever was best and most excellent from the sacred senate assented to them -- a truly divine assembly -- inasmuch as they knew altogether that the man excelled in all things and was worthy to be entrusted with the pastoral dignity. But whatever was promiscuous and common, and smelled of the heretical lamp, holding the Father's holiness suspect even before he had received the sacred vestment on that account, as being a most vehement and sharp axe for reproving, did not wish to assent to the common votes, not wishing to repent of its ancient opinion: and preferred to be wrapped in the filth of the mire of heresy rather than to be watered by the life-giving stream of the pure and untroubled fountain of the doctrine of Tarasius. But what was just prevailed: and the decree which was made for the sake of piety was admitted. The Emperors therefore ordered that Tarasius be summoned immediately into their presence, so that what seemed fitting to God and to the Ecclesiastical laws might be confirmed in his person. He was indeed present with a pious and honorable appearance, and surrounded with the graces which he had from God: with whom, engaging in honorable and excellent discourse and taking counsel as if already with a Father about what was afterward to be determined, they used words of this kind.

[8] "We do not think your prudence is unaware that in past times the vertigo of heretical darkness invaded the Church, which covered it no more tolerably than a new Egyptian plague -- I mean palpable darkness -- and to this day creeps like a cancer through the flock: and through nearly the whole world has stirred up a tempest in the soul. But since God by His ineffable nod has brought it forth, and by a just judgment has removed from the empire and from life its leaders who had resolved unjustly to persecute the just, and has kindled our power as a lamp shining before, so that we may drive away the darkness of evil opinion and make the sun of knowledge to rise; behold, we summon you as a defender and champion and helper in this contest, with the hope of vanquishing the heresy through him inasmuch as we know that you can beautifully arm yourself for defending the right opinion, and with an army drawn up from the divinely inspired Scriptures, fight for it and distinguish yourself splendidly. Do not therefore turn your back on account of the things piously proposed by us, who with worldly resources and forces strive to procure the advantage of peace: but even with feet and hands lend your aid, and move every stone, as the proverb says, so that what is sought may be found and what is desired may be apprehended. It is time, therefore, that the splendid and much-desired tunic of the Church be woven together, which the plague of heresy has torn. Now the distinguished and salutary day draws near, in which Christ, causing the roaring of the error of images to cease, has nodded with His abundant mercies that His venerable image, insofar as pertains to His humanity, be raised up. Passing therefore to the fold of the Priesthood, when you have fought against the heresy, sing the song of victory against the enemies: go forth, about to receive from God the reward and the crown."

[9] Tarasius, however, stunned by the Emperor's address and struck as if by some heavenly sound, answered to the following effect regarding what had been said: "The tempest indeed, which violently assaulted the faith and the whole commonwealth, and shook the Church to its foundations with dangerous waves, he reluctantly admits the Patriarchate and brought shipwreck of soul upon many, there is no ear that has not received it, even if few have escaped the force of the storm. But to calm this whirlwind, and to pacify this storm of a nocturnal battle with the moon not shining, is greater than any forces can accomplish. For who will overturn the custom that has so wickedly prevailed and taken on the force of nature, and has almost compelled the world by oath against the divine power, and make it learn what is better, unless God shall look upon and defend your divine power? The Church, which was long ago stripped by the tyranny of impiety of the beauty of its ancient adornment, and endured being long clothed in ragged garments because of the rotten and feeble dogmas of heresy, let her now be adorned by God for you with pious varieties. Through you, therefore, let the commandments of the Apostles be renewed, he first requires the exact observance of synodal decrees through which the splendor of the true faith has shone. Let the pure decrees of the sacred Synods breathe again, which are preserved by the Evangelical traditions and do not suffer that they could ever in any way be stolen. Let the vestibules of the paternal dogmas be opened, and let the flocks of Christ's sheep pass through them, and as if from the divine paradise let them confess the doctrine of right confession. For through a Caiaphas-like council the abortive offspring of heresy was produced. Through an Ecumenical Synod let the children of the Church be born, and let them receive increase to the measure of the age of Christ. For if this shall have been done, and she shall have been adorned with the ancient and original dignity of her garment, and the pious daystar of true opinion's dogmas shall have illuminated her through your zeal, she will have all the faithful agreeing in the same opinion and pouring forth their souls, so that she, firmly founded, may be preserved upon the solid rock of faith."

[10] When he had declared these mysteries, profitable for the soul, before the Emperor, the Emperor asked him to let the common assembly of the people also hear him discoursing on these matters. For the military crowd bore this as the chief point of right faith, since they did not think that the venerable images should be admitted and adored. Incited therefore by the counsel of the Church to do this, when he was in the famous palace of the Magnaura, with the whole city and the priestly multitude streaming together, he excused himself, demonstrating with strong reasons what the profession and dignity of the priesthood is, and to what height and magnitude it elevates the one who wishes to proceed to it; he first delivers a discourse to the people about it and that he was not fit to undertake it, as one who had long been entangled in the dignities of the world and had been very much involved in the turbulences and anxieties of this life, and had not yet tasted this mystical state. For the one who hastens to this calling and this grade, to spring quickly to it with unwashed hands, as it were, and to touch what cannot be touched,

is not safe: but that one who has been reared in the ordinances that lead to this, and directed by the Evangelical and Apostolic life-giving doctrines, as is fitting, to discern the straight way and the crooked -- so that he may pastorally lead the former toward better things, but decline and avoid the latter, in accordance with the divine admonition, as things that carry one far from God and His ordinances. One who is supported by these must be brought to this great dignity. As for me, as God knows, the Emperors have compelled me unwillingly to undertake this ministry, since this had never come to my mind, nor had I ever thought of this governance. As one therefore elected, I share my conscience with the people and flock of God, that if you wish to bind me to this most great office, and have determined that I should submit to its yoke, you also yourselves incline to the tradition of the Ecumenical faith, and do not be reluctant to follow the Fathers who have entered upon this way, and do not refuse to consent to the six holy Ecumenical Synods and to the things that were piously decreed by them. For they transmit to the heavenly inheritance those who obey them, and become the authors of a great and immortal reward.

[11] The people therefore received his admonitions as the voices of an Angel, when they promised obedience, he is consecrated Bishop and having promised that they would follow like sheep the one leading them pastorally, they affirmed that they would obey in all things as seemed right to God and to him. Then, by the inspiration of the sovereign and divine Spirit, with the counsel of the Emperor also concurring, the dignity of worldly clay having been exchanged, and his hair shorn after the manner of a Cleric, and another honorable and venerable garment having been assumed, by divine and spiritual invocations, like Aaron and Phinehas, he received the anointing of the honor of the priesthood, and ascended to the height of the pastoral Chair, adding light to light, and increasing virtue with virtues, and multiplying the most sacred talent with advancements surpassing measure.

CHAPTER IV

The exercise of virtues by Saint Tarasius toward himself, the Clergy, the poor, and monks.

[12] For he had so prepared continence for himself, as a son of self-restraint and one who had long since abundantly practiced it, He restrains gluttony from the fact that he was content with little, that his diet was entirely free from ^asuperfluous things and did not indulge to the point of satiety. He so moderated the reins of his life, and so repressed the tumults of the passions of the soul, the appetite for pleasure that he was set before all as a most divine example, who could never be persuaded to be moved to the appetite for pleasure. Moreover, since he had made wakefulness his domestic companion for the meditation of the divine Scriptures, drowsiness he dismissed sleep as a servant that loosens the limbs and is useless: and when necessity required, he again commanded it to be present. For who ever saw him reclining in bed, or wrapped in soft coverlets? Who ever received and prepared the tunic and belt upon his couch, that he might be more elegant and refined? Who ever drew the shoes from his feet and, having tied a sponge, as is the custom, smoothed and polished them? But he was, as they say, his own bath attendant, and served himself for the needs of the body: and every comfort of the body in this also imitating Christ his Master with divine zeal, who said: "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," giving an example of humility to His disciples. Matt. 20:28

[13] He had, moreover, a practice of prayer which bore his mind sublimely upward to the heavens, he prays unceasingly and rendered it familiar to God alone, and joined it to incorporeal beings, and expelled every temptation, in accordance with the Lord's saying. For there was no time in which one did not find him alone, bending the knee and rising, and lifting his hands to the heavens, and receiving illumination from above from God. Humility, moreover, since it had been familiar to him from childhood, he so embraced a lover of humility, he corrects luxury of dress in the Clergy that not only was it conspicuous in him, and from it he obtained praise, but it also passed to others who were formed by his example. For from many of those who had been enrolled in the number of the Clergy, who girded their loins with golden belts and were adorned with various and costly silken garments, he took away the gold; and he made them gird their loins with belts woven from goat hair. And for those who had garments of purple woven from the same threads for their whole body, he devised tunics removed from excessive refinement and luxury, as being an honorable vestment and befitting those who had resolved to serve God and profess humility. From which what happened? That whatever harm arose from that practice was removed; and frugality was honored as a most precious treasure. chastity is nourished by temperance Chastity, moreover, and temperance, which dwells together with it, since they procure sanctification, he called sisters: through which, exterminating the foul and adulterous thought that invades the flesh, and ravaging the passions of dishonor, he was crowned by God with the victorious crown of impassibility.

[14] merciful toward the poor Compassion, moreover, and most generous mercy toward the poor, he bestowed so cheerfully, as that one said, that he surpassed all who supplied the poor, and became a new Joseph, giving grain to the needy. For cutting the delicacies of his own table into morsels, he prepared a daily banquet for receiving those who were hungry. Moreover, witnesses of this abound to the present day: the designated shelters established for the sake of those who were received as guests and of our poor Brothers. Furthermore, he piously assigned to others a permanent distribution of money, noting the name of each one in his notebooks. But the daily distribution, which he placed with his own hand into the hands of the poor, what mathematician -- a Diophantus -- could have measured, or what multiplying arithmetician -- a ^bNicomachus -- could have numbered, which was more abundant than sand and refreshed the bellies of the needy? During the fast, moreover, which precedes the Passion of Christ, especially in the time of Lent he himself devised the giving of a great largesse in various places and dining halls to those who were pressed by great want, continuing until the light-bearing feast of feasts of Christ, the Resurrection. And I would need leisure and a long time to set forth in order the couches of the invited guests and proselytes, and following the ordered sequence of the lame and the blind and the maimed, and to give to posterity an example of a munificent and generous institution.

[15] Moreover, the winter season, which was most bitter, and bound the inner parts of the earth with snow and frost and ice, in extreme cold he bestows garments on the naked and laid upon those who were in it, like a collar, the chilling and most grievous affliction -- how did he drive it away from those who were shivering and clothed in torn rags and covered only their private parts, employing the devices of warming relief? For purchasing tunics, cloaks, and moreover coverings made from the thickest woolen threads and warps, and heavy with dense fleece, at great expense of gold, and distributing them to those who were miserably afflicted in the open air, he warded off the grievous affliction of the cold. On the previously mentioned saving day of the venerable Resurrection of Christ, after the completed mystery of the divine assembly and communion, still clad in his sacred vestments, he would come to the now-ruined site of the ancient basilica, which was called ^cEstia. For there he prepared a most great banquet for the needy, on Easter Day he ministers to the poor by which they might be received. Having made them recline, he himself began to minister, pouring wine from the bowl and distributing drink to them. Then, when he had performed this duty, he went to his patriarchal house, not nourishing himself on the marrow of certain young deer, as the fable says, nor receiving a ^dSybaritic table, nor with sweetmeats that tickle and fatten the belly, but refreshing himself with frugal dishes and such as did not aim at luxury. Who is remembered as having been raised to so great a height of humility among those who ever lived? Phil. 2:7 Who so imitated the self-emptying of Christ, who, without emptying the greatness of His Father's bosom, assumed the form of our poverty, and teaching by ministering how to fly to heaven, made us sit with the Father's majesty?

[16] This very man who is now praised, even though he was tossed amid tumults, not only loved quiet and silence, but also abundantly supplied them to others, drawing them away from the world and making them familiar with God, and making them sons of virtue, as the begetter and producer of this holy life and work. Of this the ^emonastery built on the left side of the Thracian Bosporus, he builds a monastery from his paternal goods from the inheritance of those things which came to him by right of dowry from his father's goods, gives complete testimony. In which, having planted noble shoots of trees endowed with reason, which grew fat with the streams of discipline and were increased by the abundant seasonings of abstinence, he made them the cultivation of Christ, faithfully producing the thirtyfold and sixtyfold and hundredfold fruit of virtues in holiness and justice. From these many were called by him to the pastoral dignity, and, as was fitting, they adorned the possession of the priesthood: and they were immovable pillars of the Catholic faith. Which indeed the dark flood of heresy showed, against which, fighting bravely, and enduring the cloud of many dangers in persecutions and afflictions and sufferings in the open air, they routed and dispersed it toward the splendor of the supernal light: in which they also made known their master, as an ever-shining Morning Star. And these things indeed happened afterward.

CHAPTER V

The Seventh Ecumenical Synod held at Nicaea. Images restored.

[17] He himself, having made use of perfected virtues to the full, since he had first exercised his mind in action so that it might ascend to contemplation, and had been a fitting receptacle for it, applied his mind harmoniously to those things pertaining to the right faith, and strove that those things which had seemed good to God and had been promised to the Emperors might come to effect. This was that an Ecumenical Synod should proceed, and that the Church should not at all deviate from what is just. Therefore, by ^acommand of the Emperors, all the Bishops from every region and city set out for the imperial city, He arranges for the Seventh Synod to be assembled at Constantinople and when the assembly had already been convened in the renowned ^btemple of the divine Apostles, and the ^cBishops were already seated in the appointed seats, behold, a certain swarm of wasps -- I mean men who were of leonine spirit -- from the army of ^dConstantine, who had formerly administered the scepters of empire impiously, rising as if from certain hives of evil opinion, approached the said sacred building, intending to barricade it with military arms. When they had drawn near to the porches of the venerable building, they filled the place with a disorderly clamor, saying that it was not to be endured that those things which had formerly seemed good to Constantine should be weakened and transgressed. For we will not permit, they said, his dogmas to be abrogated and images to be declared worthy of being set up. And if anyone shall have begun this, and we shall have seen before our eyes the ^esynod which was assembled by him being abrogated, which was disrupted by the Iconoclasts we will make the earth purple with the blood of the Bishops. These things they said, and bursting through the doors, they wished to kill ^fthose who were within.

[18] Then, by the nod of imperial authority, the Bishops leave the session. ^gThe Emperors, however, raging with anger against those who had stirred up revolution, quickly came to their palace, considering their insolence and insurrection and the overthrow of the whole order. Tarasius, however, approaching the sacred altar, showing no sign of fear, began the unbloody sacrifice, and having completed the mystical communion, returned home: where he devoted himself to his former labors, namely in sacred Scripture and in constructing demonstrations from the sayings of the Fathers: and again he determined that it was necessary for a synod to be assembled, those men having been cashiered lest the heretical communion should grow worse. The Emperors, having stripped of their military belt and dignity those who had made that seditious conspiracy and had insulted the glory of their imperial majesty, and having rendered them destitute and stripped of all aid of arms, ordered each of them, branded with disgrace, to return to his homeland. For, they said, God does not endure that such authors of sedition should have as defenders and champions the palace that reflects His glory.

[19] When they had wisely determined these things with God's approval, and had judged it good that some time should intervene, by a fair mandate they again decreed that the assembly of Priests and Bishops should convene together in the renowned metropolis of Bithynia -- Nicaea, I say, in which the sharpest sword against the madness of Arius and his followers had been forged on behalf of the ^hTrinity, transferred to Nicaea which is of one essence and free from all matter: in which the Trinity of hypostases shone forth theologically in undivided division and divided unity. And when the most holy fleet had come to the said city with all speed, Tarasius also came from the imperial city, taking with him from the ⁱApostolic Sees certain distinguished and most excellent men: namely, from Adrian the Roman Pope, ^kPeter the chief Presbyter and Peter the Monk and ^lAbbot; from the ^mApostolic diocese, from Politianus, I say, the most sacred Pope of Alexandria, ⁿThomas the monk and Presbyter; and from ^oTheodoretus the Patriarch of Antioch, and from Elias the Chief of Pastors of Aelia, John the monk, Presbyter, and Syncellus: leading also with him certain of those who held magistracies, distinguished for piety and the grace of learning and eloquence: among whom was also Nicephorus, who was secretary to the Emperor: who, having lived in holiness and being adorned with divine virtues and learning and the science of speaking, received the honor of the patriarchal See of Byzantium after the holy passing of Tarasius; and whatever venerable and distinguished monks there were, who were moved by zeal for Ecclesiastical discipline and rule, and ever strove to follow synodal exactness, set out for Nicaea.

[20] On the appointed day (and this was the day on which Thecla opened the stadium for the contests of women Martyrs), each Bishop in his priestly rank and habit he inaugurates it sat in his seat. Tarasius first began to speak, and opened the door of discourse for the Synod. Then, when the imperial and divine edict had been recited in the hearing of all, which proclaimed the right and sincere faith with a great voice, after which there were also the vocal responses of the Apostolic Sees to those who held power, resounding through the synod in the order of canonical sequence, and exhorting all to assent to the sound doctrine and that each should state his opinion and reveal what judgment and will he held concerning this sound faith, the most sacred assembly acclaimed that it was so, and that they so believed concerning the ancient fashioning and adoration of venerable images, the cult of images having been decreed many books of the Fathers being brought forward and synodal decrees, and true judgments and demonstrations being adduced, and impressed upon the ears of all by diligent inquiry. This was seen to be done not once or twice, but up to the seventh session and hearing throughout the entire day: just as also the Acts committed to writing indicate through divine sequence and order. Finally, when Tarasius and the pious assembly of Fathers collected with him he concludes it had committed the venerable decree to the safe records of written documents, and had prayed that it might remain safe and intact, and had invoked God that the Fathers who had won the first victory against the mad Arius might have helpers and guardians of the things that had been rightly decreed, and had separated from the Ecclesiastical court by anathema the authors of this vain and empty opinion and the inventors of all heresy; they brought the orthodox dogmas to the imperial city and preserved them. The Emperors received them with the greatest benevolence.

[21] Therefore, when the chair of the Emperors themselves and of the entire God-chosen Synod had been erected in the already-mentioned renowned hall of the Magnaura, and the new decree had been recited, when the divine Spirit had filled the imperial ears (for they heard that they had come together into one accord by the aid of Him with great approval of the Emperor who contains all things, and had agreed upon one judgment), they admired the exactness: and wisely judging that the things which had been decreed by them were the doctrine of divine inspiration, they most excellently approved and confirmed them with the imperial pen and hand: and having honored the synod with no mean gifts, they sent each one to his own city and to his rational flocks.

p. In the above-cited letter of the supreme priests of the East to Saint Tarasius, it is said that he who was allotted to govern the throne of James the brother of the Lord was made an exile: the Jerusalem patriarch whose role two other substitutes supplied.

q. Theophanes calls John a great and famous man, a participant in holiness by word and deed, who was also the Syncellus of the Patriarch of Antioch. The supreme priests of the East, in their letter to Saint Tarasius, call the God-beloved brothers John and Thomas "united by divine zeal for the orthodox faith," their representatives at the Synod and Syncelli of the two holy and great Patriarchs. At the beginning of each session they are called most reverend Presbyters, monks, and representatives of the Apostolic Sees of the Eastern diocese. And both Thomas and John subscribed as holding the place of the three Apostolic Sees of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. We shall treat of the Syncelli below.

r. Saint Nicephorus is venerated on March 13.

s. There are found to have subscribed to the fourth session by name one hundred and thirty, nearly all Hegumens of monasteries, which are also specified there. Among them, however, Saint Theophanes is not found, whom the Acts that we are to illustrate on March 12 report to have been summoned to this second Synod of Nicaea with other Fathers. monks in it

t. On September 24, on which day the Greeks venerate Saint Thecla, not on the day before, when the Latins do. The words of the first Session at the beginning agree, where they are said to have convened on the eighth day before the Kalends of October, Indiction 11, in the eighth year of the Empire of Constantine and Irene, that is, the year of Christ 787. Theophanes says "in the month of October," on the 11th day. In Greek, according to Francis Combefis in the History of the Monothelites for the Acts of the Sixth Synod, chapter 1, section 5: "The first assembly and session of the Bishops took place in the Catholic Church of Holy Sophia of Nicaea, in the month of October, the 11th day, Indiction 11." sacred memorial of the Seventh Synod On the same day, October 11 (the words are those of the Greek Menologion published by Canisius), "the commemoration of the holy Fathers who assembled a second time in the imperial city in an Ecumenical synod, which is called the seventh, held under Adrian the Roman Pontiff, in the reign of the Emperor Constantine and his mother Irene, Tarasius being Archbishop of Constantinople, Politianus of Alexandria, Theodoretus of Antioch, and Elias of Jerusalem. The holy Fathers were three hundred and sixty-seven in number, who assembled against the assailants of sacred images, who condemned every heresy and their authors, decreeing that whoever does not venerate sacred images is alien to the orthodox faith. These and other constitutions having been confirmed, each returned to his own Church: by whose intercessions may God have mercy on us." Nearly the same things are read in the Greek Menaea, but they report that the Bishops present were three hundred and sixty-five in number. In Greek, expressed in full words, "three hundred and sixty-five." Furthermore, in them the memory of the synod is observed on the Sunday nearest after October 2, regarding which day Molanus also observed that in the Supplement to Usuard. Authors do not agree exactly on the number of Bishops: some count only fifty beyond three hundred, while Photius counts seventy-seven: in the fourth session the names of about three hundred and thirty are expressed.

u. So at Session 1. The Bishops of Sicily requested, and the Synod agreed, that Saint Tarasius should make the introduction, open the door of discourse, and pronounce what was fitting. In Greek: "that Tarasius should make the introduction, and open the door of discourse, and as presiding officer, pronounce what was fitting." Which the Author copied from there, who also remembered well enough the day on which the Synod began.

x. The Synod calls it "the pious sacra," and recites it.

y. At Session 2, the letters of Pope Adrian to the Emperors and to Saint Tarasius are recited. At Session 3, the letter of Saint Tarasius to the Patriarchs of the Eastern Sees, and their response.

z. All these things were conducted principally at Session 4.

aa. At Session 5, at which the three Patriarchs of Constantinople -- Anastasius, Constantine, and Nicetas -- were also subjected to anathema.

bb. In the month of November, says Theophanes.

CHAPTER VI

The heresy and simony routed by Saint Tarasius: the immunity of the Church defended.

[22] Tarasius, moreover, and the distinguished Initiates of the Apostolic Sees, when they had come to the prefectures of the most sacred Church and had instructed and strengthened the people with divine doctrines, brought no charge of their former evil opinion against those who had been enrolled in the Clergy or held the Episcopate, whether before the Synod, or at the Synod, or after the Synod, nor did they segregate those who had been ordained by heretics from the Ecclesiastical pastures. But following synodal and paternal dispensation, He benignly sustains those who have repented those indeed who had deserted to the pious position they embraced with their hands as brothers and colleagues in the office of the Pontificate: those, however, who had faltered in some matter and had looked upon the things pertaining to the faith with perverted eyes, and had afterward repented of their fall and had renounced the opinion that was to be comprised in written statements, embracing these with the same affections, they placed in their seats: and in the peaceful breeze and tranquility disturbed by no waves, they preserved the Church of the whole world.

[23] And in those things indeed which pertain to the glorious faith, the great Tarasius, being so disposed toward explaining it rightly and openly, and toward persuading those who wavered and limped on both feet to walk with a straight foot, undertook a great contest and immense labor: daily indeed inducing with honorable admonitions those who approached: and if he saw any who were perverse in heart, he set them right through encounters of words, and binding them with the laws of truth, he led them as ^asacred offerings to the Church. He showed, moreover, that the abominations of idols had absolutely no agreement or compatibility, as it seemed to the accusers of the faith, [he teaches the distinction between the idols of the Gentiles and the sacred images of Christians] with the pious and divine forms of venerable images. For the production of the former, he said, is simultaneously polluted along with the original exemplars, and is made full of all turpitude; but since the original exemplars of the latter are venerable, necessarily those things also which are produced from them appear simultaneously venerable. And the former are indeed inventions of pagan false religion, fashioned from what nowhere exists; the latter, however, which are rightly made by Christian sanctity from what exists and directed toward what exists, possess the consequent holiness of the archetypal exemplar.

[24] For when he had found the Church affected and wandering like a juggler and mountebank upon the mountains of heresy, and enduring hunger and thirst -- not for bread and water, but a hunger of hearing the word of the Lord -- feeding it in the pastures of rest and leading it to the paths of justice, he made the flock most fat, fattened with salutary actions and spitting out the bitter harshness of heretical leaven with the sweet milk of faith, and made into a new lump. Amos 8:11 And first indeed, severing the bond of the ^bSimoniac purse, by which the gift of the Holy Spirit is put up for sale, he decreed he routs simony that the ordinations and consecrations of Priests should be made freely: expelling every pecuniary custom from the ecclesiastical court, and casting out whatever was rough, he made straight the paths of faith, provoking the flock with many sermons, and ascending the most sacred ambo, he prepared the table of doctrine, hunting for delicacies useful for nourishing souls from the divinely inspired Scriptures. He expounds the Psalms of David Moreover, gathering in a scattered fashion the songs of David, through perspicuity and evident distinction of subjects, he clearly opened those things which were understood: so that they were as if in plain sight to those who were to read them, and straight to those who find knowledge.

[25] But what I had almost passed over, and what, escaping my memory, was not to be left unspoken, and was going to conceal the care of the divine Father which he bore toward those who labored, by which he himself relieved them, and of which, as I think, he himself was the first deviser -- since I have come to this place, mixing it in as a certain seasoning and sweet honey to the remaining body of the discourse, I resolved to insert the bowels of clemency and mercy into the hearts of those who are benign and merciful. For at a certain time, a certain man from among those who held magistracies, distinguished by splendor and glory and riches, who had also obtained the honor of bearing the ^cImperial sword, paying penalties for a great sum of money, when severe and bitter inquiries were being made about him, and no relief was given him, but affliction and torture pressed him on every side, was being cast down into the depths of despair through anguish of soul. This man, having watched for the dead of night, escaping the notice of those to whose custody he had been entrusted, betook himself to the divine refuge of the temple. When he was within the sanctuary, having seized the corners of the venerable altar with his teeth, he defends a defendant who has fled to the sacred altar he held it with great trembling and fear. When therefore they learned that he had escaped, fearing lest they themselves should undergo the same punishment, they came with swift feet to the divine temple, and seeing him clinging to the divine altar, they surrounded the circuit of the sanctuary, opening an entrance for the defendant at mealtimes but giving him no opportunity to avail himself of other necessities: they hoped rather that necessity would betray him, and would expel him even against his will. They therefore applied greater custody. For they entirely forbade access to the altar, so that no one might address him, or any word be transmitted from him to those who were outside.

[26] When these things therefore had come to the ears of the Pastor, they filled him with the greatest anguish of soul, inasmuch as he saw the contempt of the divine sacraments provoking the good-giving benignity of God to indignation. But behold the help supplied to him then by the merciful Father, and admire his prudence. he brings him food For at the time when it was necessary for the afflicted man to take food, putting on his sacred vestment, he would go to the sanctuary: and entering through the right door, he supplied what was necessary for the man's sustenance, bringing it abundantly from his own supply: and then he would depart, leaving him. If, however, the belly, which cannot be denied, compelled the man to do what nature requires, he serves him in the necessities of nature coming down again from above, and leading him to the privy and waiting, and then taking him by the hand, he would restore him to the altar. And this he did not once or twice a day, but as often as he was summoned to this ministry by the one who was gravely imperiled.

[27] The soldiers, admiring this insatiable condescension of the divine man, and thinking that it was impossible for the suppliant to be captured while the hand of the just man guided him, devised against him a wicked plan that surpassed all fraud and cunning. For secretly through another entrance to the sanctuary they set an ambush, having been captured through an ambush, he reclaims him so that when the Pastor drew the sheep from the sacred precincts to serve nature, they might snatch it like wolves: which was indeed done. For when the Saint was caring for the man as he was accustomed, and leading him to the requirements of nature, those who lay securely in ambush, bursting in through another door, seized him and dragged him by force to the palace. But when the most holy Pastor learned of the wicked machination of the wretches devised against him, seized with anger and grief, using no delay, he went to the imperial court of ^dEleutherius (for there it happened that the Empress was then residing). he excommunicates those who will not restore him When they, however, sensed the Father's arrival, and suspected that his presence among them would be full of zeal and like a sharp sword, they left him outside the palace, not deigning even to address him. But he, seeing that his arrival had availed him nothing, bound all in common with the chains of Ecclesiastical punishment, pronouncing them unworthy of communion in the sacraments of Christ, if they should inflict any grave harm on him who had fled as a suppliant to the church. When therefore he had spoken these things freely, as if from Apostolic authority, he returned. They, however, bound by the cords of the master, since they could not escape the sacred nets of Ecclesiastical punishment, no longer questioned the defendant with tortures, but emptying the scales of the monies in question by examinations of words alone, they acquitted him as innocent. Such was the divine man toward all, vindicating and defending divine things, and facing danger for the sheep of the flock.

CHAPTER VII

Saint Tarasius bravely resists the Emperor, who wished to repudiate his lawful wife and marry a chambermaid.

[28] Since he both held the laws accurately and was trained in every kind of canonical rectitude, he judged the disputes that fell to the whole commonwealth, and compelled the parties to agree with one another by the sharpest sentence he could pronounce: not swayed by compassion for the poor man who was summoned to court, nor gratifying the person of the rich man in anything: but in all things preserving the inflexible distribution of justice, he gave no place to those who wished to do injury to their neighbor. Lev. 19 But perhaps he maintained the straight and nowhere-inclining balance of the laws, In deciding Ecclesiastical cases, a most just judge yet despised the rights which are nobly established by the canons? By no means: but since he knew that the severity of the laws is in many things the sister and companion of canonical authority, as a prudent judge he tempered the one with the other, and showed that the legitimate exactness of the canons exists in those things which are canonically corrected; and that the rectitude of the laws in those things which are legitimately conducted is the canonical seal of confirmation. But that he did not betray this precept and divine commandment of God, but observed both canon and law equally, the witness is not obscure, whom the discourse is about to adduce in due course.

[29] The aforementioned ^aEmperor Constantine was called a young man, his mother Irene having desisted from the joint governance of the empire with him, and he alone held the helm of administration. Though he was otherwise good, he did not altogether hold firmly to those things pertaining to the pure and sincere faith, and -- as often happens with the minds of the young -- puffed up with a vain conceit of himself, he deemed what seemed right to him more just than the written laws. He undertook to weaken the laws and that which was spoken by the Lord in the Gospels, using the patronage of his own power: and having determined to make a divorce from his ^bwife, and having ^canother in mind whom he wished to elevate to the height of Empire, the young man contrived a deed unworthy of his authority. Matt. 5:32 This was a deadly plot, prepared for him by his wife the Empress. To the Emperor Constantine, who wished to repudiate his lawful wife He affirmed that this was the poison which, drunk with a potion, would bring death along with it. He endeavored to prove this and to persuade anyone, as he thought. For he thought it impossible that he should not be believed, since he was Emperor and was speaking to those who were subject to his authority. But no one was persuaded, except the one who, currying favor with the Emperor, was induced for the sake of glory to take away the right from the just man.

[30] After the rumor had been raised and transmitted this as far as the courts of the Church, and the nefarious action had reached the ears of the Pontiff, it rendered him very doubtful and perplexed; as he considered within himself how he might arm himself against this contest, and hurl a javelin from quiver and bow against the Emperor himself, a man most skilled in the art of war and a most brave fighter, long since honored with the priestly nakedness of all these things. While the great Tarasius was revolving these things in his mind, and preparing himself to engage with the Emperor and contend with priestly arms, behold, a certain one from among those who held magistracies, instructed by the Emperor, reporting the poisoning that was said to have been fabricated and prepared in vain, approached the standard of chastity: and when he had woven together the matter as accurately and subtly as he could, he affirmed that everything was most true and admitted no calumny: and he urged that he should consent to allow the Emperor to enter into a second contract of marriage. When he had said these things, he waited to receive a response about them. To him, after sighing from the depths and smiling tearfully, he bravely resists the Saint responded: "If the Emperor, as you have said, has conceived these things, and has determined to cut off the flesh conjoined by divine law, which has been made one with him, I do not know how he will bear the most grievous reproach that is to be inflicted upon him by the nations? Or how will his authority compel the flock to temperance, and punish fornication and adultery, when he himself has been convicted of such shameful crimes? For even if we grant that the things adduced by you are worthy of belief, and the woman's misdeed were manifest, even so it would be necessary to guard against this on account of reverence for the voice of the Lord, which says: 'He who dismisses his wife, except on account of fornication, commits adultery.' Matt. 5:32 What person more excellent than the Emperor in authority did she wish to join to herself by the bond of matrimony -- she who proceeded to so great a crime? But this is alleged as a pretext, that the honorable marriage and the undefiled bed may be violated: but that the disgrace of fornication may be introduced, and the legitimate seed made adulterous, and that what is akin may be estranged by the introduction of a furtive and shameful concubinage. Receive therefore this response from us and those like us, and declare it to those who sent you. For we will not yield to those things boasted by you. We will rather undergo death and grievous punishments than wish to comply with him in such matters in any way. Let the Emperor hear that we will not obey this reprehensible counsel."

[31] The one who served the Imperial responses, stunned by these heavenly words, concealing his sadness with his countenance, came with all speed to the one who had sent him, bringing absolutely nothing of those things which the Emperor hoped that would be pleasing to his heart. But when the Emperor saw that the constancy of the most sacred Pastor was firmer than an oak which is not shaken by the assault of winds, he is summoned and goes to the Emperor he was struck with admiration at what had been done, fearing that the inflexible mind of the renowned Father might be terrified by no commotion. Therefore sending again, he ordered the Saint to be present, believing that if he were present in person, he would submit to the severity of his power. When therefore he had come to the palace and to the Emperor himself, and had sat down with him according to custom, having with him that old man ^dJohn, whom the discourse, when it was dealing with the synodal account, mentioned as having been the legate of the Eastern diocese; and when the Chief of Pastors had used many salutary admonitions with the Emperor and had not persuaded him -- for it was, as the proverb says, to cut the Hydra, to free from his fall the one who was already wallowing in fornication like his own -- impelled by shamelessness, the Emperor used these words to the Pontiff:

[32] "I have indeed referred to your Holiness that which happened to me long ago. For I wished to conceal nothing from you, showing the affection and benevolence of a Father toward you. Moreover, now also through this imperial tongue, I have determined to plead my cause more clearly. unless the divorce is granted, he threatens death to the Empress That I may divorce the one who plotted against my sovereignty, who was not united to me by God, a helpmate, since the law plainly commands it -- no one will gainsay. For since her crimes are manifest, either death will receive her, or, what is more merciful, she will do penance for her whole life. For the crime that was contrived by her was not going to pass to some common person, but to her own husband, the most faithful Emperor, terrible to the nations, and the poisoning was going to pervade the entire world. What could have been more dangerous and more horrible than this, so that henceforth she may have recourse to no defense whatsoever? For she is deprived of all pleading and of the proofs that could commend her, since she has against her the truth of arguments that cannot be evaded, to her complete condemnation. But for the rest, the time calls for me to reveal the poisons of the lethal potion: so that when your holy Paternity shall have seen the magnitude of the crime, holding it as certain and established, you may no longer doubt, nor await any delay or postponement of time: but may as quickly as possible subject her to canonical yokes, and persuade her to choose the quiet and monastic life, if she wishes to remain among the living. on the pretext of a poison prepared for him by her For since this poisoning has been placed before my eyes, it is not possible for me to maintain any longer the rights of marriage with her, or to be amicably joined to her and enter into a covenant. For God too pursues the guilty, as the proverb says." He then nodded, and glass vessels were brought with a turbid liquid carefully composed for the false accusation: which those who carried them placed before the face of himself and of the great Father, by which he was saying that his wife had contrived either death for him or loss of his mind.

[33] The great Tarasius, therefore, seeing the Emperor caught in bonds that by no means fitted together, and wrapped in the labyrinths of falsehood so that he could not escape, slipping into the danger of sin, plunged a most sacred javelin into his heart, speaking thus: "Do not move, O Emperor, he refutes him; shows the crime to be fabricated deaf arms against the laws of God, nor on account of the transgression of these, secretly against your soldiers. For it is the mark of imperial authority to do all things with a free conscience, and to contrive nothing concealed or dissembled in the mind against Him who gave the crown, and especially by overturning His divine commandment and will. For it escapes no one that no crime has intervened to justify what is now wickedly contrived against the Empress, and what seeks to subject her to the poisons of sorcerers, and affirms that she has contrived a death incomparable to your Majesty. For who, as I said before, glorying in the appearance of youth, could have been compared with your beauty, so that the little woman, ensnared by fraud, might offer you poison, and lead herself away from the friendship and true ardor that is in you? Who appears glorying in greater excellence than the ^efourfold purple of your empire, whom, enticed by eyes and nods, she preferred to your supreme dignity? Who in so many battles against adversaries has borne himself so nobly above your more than Davidic valor, that he should be loved by her more than your imperial lordship? It is not so, it is not so. These things were invented and devised to be pretexts for every vice: proposed in order to brand the scepter of empire with a stain, grievously pressing upon you to make yourselves a parable among the nations and a shaking of the head among the peoples. he chooses to die a thousand times rather than consent to a divorce Therefore we do not dare to dissolve the legitimate rights of your conjugal and imperial union, fearing the sentence of God the Lawgiver: nor do we endure to believe the words that aim at accusing your wife, even if we were subjected to a thousand deaths and torments, since we know that your affection is held by a long-standing inflammation toward that little fornicating woman. Moreover, we also make this known before God to your most honorable purple, that within the enclosure of the unbloody altar, at which the sacrifice of the great victim of Christ is venerably performed, he threatens excommunication to the Emperor we will no longer permit your power to enter with us, lest we also hear what was said long ago to the Priests in the curses: 'You shall not continue to tread upon my court.'" These things Tarasius, who spiritually governed the sheep of Christ the chief Shepherd, having pronounced before the Emperor with contrition of heart, concluded his discourse with silence.

[34] The aforementioned John, when he too had used many admonitions to the Emperor, endured the greatest waves of ignominy from those who gloried in the dignity of the Prefecture and the honor of the Patriciate: with John the Syncellus who also threatened to drive a sword through the entrails of the old man, because he spat out words contrary to the imperial power and did not quickly acquiesce to the will of the Emperor. When, however, the Emperor perceived by these words and threats that the resolution of both men remained firm and stable, he suffers adversity inflamed with boiling anger and knowing that he could not speak against these things, he ordered them to be expelled from his presence -- victors without stripes, and Martyrs, as far as it concerned him, he proclaimed crowned with a crown. How far is this from the miracle of John? For John reproved Herod, who after the death of his brother was held by an insane love for his brother's betrothed; but this man, while the wife of the Emperor was still alive, and while she was adorned with the diadem of empire, and then after she had been expelled, judging what had been done intolerable, was, in the manner of the Psalmographer, a most sharp rebuke at the morning, although, as the saying goes, he drew with a sieve and inflated a grape seed, since the mind of the Emperor was wounded and flowing away. Matt. 14:3 Ps. 101:8

[35] For when he had immediately sent away her who was joined to him by the right of marriage, and had estranged her from the imperial court, and confined her in a ^fprivate garment and place, he ceased from the tempest and that dark sea which his mind had undergone, through the separation from his own member. he refuses to crown the concubine he has taken When, however, he was wallowing in the mire of that introduced concubinage, and having done the greatest violence, he had repeatedly urged the Pontiff to weave a crown upon the head of that dark and secret contract, he did not obtain what he desired. For the rest, he went about seeking a ^gPriest who would weave the crown, in order to celebrate that shameful nuptial.

CHAPTER VIII

The patience of Saint Tarasius in adversity: his admonition to the Clergy concerning restraining the illicit appetite of the senses.

[36] And concerning the Emperor's refusal to invalidate the commandment, and the brave and noble constancy of the divine Father, let this suffice. For it is not right to commit to the records of written documents the affairs of that man any further, which bring no benefit to those who hear them. But this ought to be commemorated: that from the time of that fall, the Emperor greatly oppressed Tarasius with many temptations, assigning to him guards who bore the name of ^aSyncelli, but whose morals were far removed from piety. Unless he had taken these on, He endures injuries inflicted upon him with the greatest patience and unless he had passed through their eyes, it was not permitted for anyone to approach the divine and wise Chief of Pastors, and to speak the things that seemed fitting. I pass over in silence how great a cruelty the Emperor showed toward those who drew near to him and attended upon him with genuine service, afflicting them with blows and condemning them to exile for no just cause, striving to cast him down from the care of divine affairs and attempting to affect him with grief. But he, with a brave and constant and lofty and unbroken spirit, regarding the things that happened as profitable, endured those harsh Prefects, as Egyptian taskmasters, and in every trial and labor showed himself to be ^bproven, armed as it were with the adamantine reasoning of Job, and imitating his unconquerable patience, to such a degree that he never weakly emitted a word of folly from his lips. For that just man did not have a humble and abject spirit in those things which befell him, but one sublime and lofty in virtues, and nobly raised by Pontifical canons and laws, and altogether free from every muddy wickedness.

[37] For nourished by the divine word, and irrigating every sense with clear and sacredly flowing streams, he teaches how to bridle the eye he taught them to have an eye seeing all rectitude, and to shun all theatrical display, restraining it from wandering about external things. Thus he restrained many of those who were in sacred orders, who were wonderfully delighted by horse races, and admonished them to keep themselves at home when these things were taking place, and to attend to themselves and the divine Scriptures: and he persuaded them to admit no shameful or dishonorable hearing whatsoever; but to open the door to the Davidic strings and take greater delight in them, the ears inasmuch as they contained weighty discourses profitable to the soul, rather than in indecorous and dishonorable songs which are sung with drums and flutes. He dissuaded them from admitting all sweet odor of worldly things, which draws death; but strongly encouraged them to attract that which preserved the Apostolic fragrance, hastening toward the scent of Christ's ointments, and to cry out that saying of the bride, which is nobly sung to the bridegroom in the Song of Songs: "I am wounded with love, the sense of smell and I run to the scent of your ointments." He abhorred the dead and foul-smelling abortions of unsound doctrine, as being the causes of the fetid odor of evil opinion -- for this he commanded before all other things -- to decline the rough ways of heresies: and at the same time to be borne without error along with the furrow-axles of the Ecclesiastical track, in accordance with the divine admonition of the proverb. Song of Songs 1:3 Touch, moreover, which is necessarily the minister of taste, he restrained with the bridles of the spiritual law, touch so that as a rational being one might partake of nourishment and saving food, and provide a perpetual feast for the soul: from which there proceeds the digesting distribution of those things which are gathered in immaterially: and all superfluity of evil habit which dissolves the habitation of the soul is excreted.

[38] But who in these things conducted himself so rightly, or better chastised their rebellions, than the pure and reverend conscience of Tarasius? Who was more frequently occupied in divine things than he? For he never gave rest to his ears when the time of prayer called: but always of his own accord promptly coming, he matches his deeds to his words he abundantly offered to God the first-fruits of divine hymns, like offerings of fruits: neither did sluggishness retard or soften him, nor was he drawn away from prayers by whatever multitude of public cares had come upon him: but when he never failed at the proper time for prayers, he would take up the press of external affairs. Thus initiated in the divine mysteries, and thus beautifully performing the sacred rites, the man is recognized as one of those who after grace, and of those who in grace and before grace, have shone in the Church.

CHAPTER IX

Comparison of Saint Tarasius with Confessors and Martyrs. The benefit of sacred images, against the Iconoclasts.

[39] And that our discourse may proceed by a certain method and course, and the rule of comparison may advance immovably, let the comparison take its order at once. For those who have been beautifully reared in holiness and action and contemplation, He attains the holiness of Confessors and who were almost without flesh and blood, he did not allow to have anything more than themselves, except that they dwelt apart in hope and in solitude and exercised only themselves: or that they are known to have kept even fewer: but the remaining privileges of virtue were partly neglected by them, and partly were far distant from them. But the distinguished and incomparable fortitude of the Martyrs, and the most noble phalanx, he invokes the Martyrs as Patrons which resisted sin even unto blood and lavished their bodies and souls for the sake of God -- not by presenting himself at the tribunal of a tyrant, nor going forth into the stadium and arena to contend, did he imitate them and raise the trophy of truth: but those who endured these and greater things than these, desiring them and extolling them with wondrous praises, and crowning them with, as it were, certain diadems of words signifying victory, and reverencing their saving intercessions before God, and calling to his aid the ready scroll and book that offered itself of its own accord in the sacred temples, having honorifically described their contests, he set forth: he sets forth their Acts in the temples that he might open for those who saw them the vestibules of compunction, and introduce athletes, inflamed by their zeal, to seize upon a similar blessed contest, if the time should call for it. For such a thing knows how to win over the eyes, which is a good argument attained, and to precede the hearing. For this sense has obtained the second place of honor after sight, and since the eyes receive evident figures without the exposition of the things set before them, hearing always holds the second place, as a certain wise man has said.

[40] For who, seeing one painted in colors who is contending, and despising fire, and surrounded by a cloud of scourges, and in the midst of these confidently yielding up his spirit to the Creator, is not bathed in warm tears and pierced with sighs and groans? Who, beholding one who has stripped himself for the grievous kinds of tortures and punishments, and was finally racked, does not depart beating his breast with contrition of heart? Who, seeing one who has delivered himself to the executioners for Christ's sake, and raises images that incite to virtue to be bound with fetters and manacles and cords, and then bravely to expire under intolerable torments, does not admire his patience and the unconquerable virtue and faith of his lofty soul? Who, beholding another who, lest he emit any word unworthy of piety, is lacerated both in his sides and in his back, is not softened with compassion? Who is not filled with admiration and shaken with fear, when he sees one who suffers for the faith distributing all his members; while he is cut apart, and has set apart for the sacrifice and oblation of God those which are mercilessly divided down to the muscles and thighs and ankles and tarsi -- does he not admire the most laborious patience in contending? Who, beholding one who is cast to lions to be devoured, and ground by their teeth, and sprinkled like heavenly bread upon the heavenly table, does not participate in the understanding of that martyric spiritual banquet? Who, contemplating one who, agitated by a bitter chain for God's sake, and raised on high, and has extended welts from straps and leather thongs, and at last undergoes death by the sword, does not altogether, contracting himself with contritions of the heart, turn to the pleasing glorification of God? Who, seeing one who is bound upright on the wood, and whose entrails are emptied out by the repeated blows of scourges, and who endures that long-lasting suffering on the wood, and entering without his viscera, dances a certain funereal dance, is not wounded in the heart by a divine javelin and made a tabernacle and temple of piety? Who, seeing one whose head was cut off by tyrannical sentence for Christ's sake, and who is carried in every kind of wave separately from the remaining bark of his body, and by the nod of divine aid these parts are reunited and proceed through the sea as through dry land in a straight course -- even if his heart is wavering in hardness -- does he not immediately come to the port of spiritual tranquility? Who, beholding one whose nails are pierced with sharp reeds, and who is plunged headlong into a boiling cauldron of pitch and again emerges, and is finished by the hostile sword, has not lifted his hands to God and not desired afterward to experience such a torment? Who, attentively considering those who freeze in the winter cold and the chill of the air, and fight naked, and who endure the breaking of their legs, and when they have escaped the burning coals by the strength of their nature, their remains are cast into the currents of rivers -- has he not desired to have them as Patrons, and to attract by prayers their keen and worthy defense?

[41] But you will see these things happening not only to men but also to women, especially of Virgins who contend in equal contests, and reckon the rack and the wheels and the other torments as nothing. For who, seeing these things being done to the most tender sex, if he reads the colors as if reading letters, would not cast off womanly timidity, and clothed with confidence -- though not rash audacity -- would sing a funereal praise to God and openly pronounce blessed this unconquerable fortitude? Who, seeing the age of immature boys swimming, as it were, in the most bitter pains, and of boys and like curdled milk drawn from the breasts of faith, and bearing every kind of torment and punishment at once for Christ's sake, would not conjecture that this is the work of divine aid, which has made womanly weakness stronger than manly virtue, and has shown youthful and childish imperfection to have been changed in spirit and understanding into the maturity of old age? Who, seeing Thecla and Stephen, who after Christ first opened the athletic gate for Martyrs -- the latter being pelted with stones, and through the intercession of prayers caring before God for his murderers; the former despising even the savagery of beasts, on account of her unfeigned love for Christ, whom she desired -- would not immediately learn not to curse his enemies, but to give thanks to them as benefactors, and to fight against every bestial and senseless heresy?

[42] But I pass to my God and Lord, who has been called a Martyr, and was the dispenser of victory to posterity: whom beholding on the wood, affixed with nails, and given to drink vinegar and gall with a sponge, and pierced in the side with a lance, and emitting life-giving streams therefrom, I shudder and withdraw from myself, and honor His inscrutable and stupendous self-abasement, and admire the sea of His supreme endurance of evils. and of Christ the Redeemer For on account of the greatness of His clemency and the ineffable goodness of His mercy, having taken flesh of the same essence as ours, by no means denying that He is God, He is indeed proclaimed by the word of truth, by the ministers of the Word, with colored ink, insofar as is permitted: but in truth He is circumscribed and depicted in colors by them and their followers, not mixing the simplicity and formlessness of His gross nature -- for He is neither circumscribed nor subject to passion -- but most excellently depicting and circumscribing what by its own nature can be seen and touched. Wherefore, guarding and embracing with all our soul, heart, and thought the things that have been decreed by them, and having the steps of our mind most clearly enlarged by Him who is from God, we strive with great zeal to receive and, as is right, to adore the image of Christ and His suffering, and to show ourselves worthy of the Saints who have been from the beginning of the world. How then is not someone made good from these things, even if his heart be stony in judgment? Who does not revere the painted picture, which bears examples of piety, through which the ancient deeds can be taught, the origin of the world, and the law and the Prophets, and make thought old and ancient? Through which one approaches the meditation of the divine and great miracles of grace, which lead the spectators to the glory of God, who made all things in wisdom and exalted His servants to the greatest honors through His benevolence toward them: and therefore He openly wished them to be depicted and described, and their memory to be perpetual in our hearts. Ps. 104:24 What harm from these things has ever returned to the soul? Who rather has not received benefit from them? Who from the frequent and diligent consideration of them has not acquired a perpetual memory that procures salvation?

[43] [The stupidity of the Iconoclasts who do not distinguish sacred images from the idols of the Gentiles] Tell me, you who praise the order of the infamous and ignominious party, O heretic -- for you have not learned to honor what is worthy of honor -- who willingly assign the same ignominy to idols and to venerable images: when will you know the difference between the profane and the sacred, and assign to the things derived from them what is fitting? For it is proper to law and learning to distinguish the sacred from the profane, and the unclean from the clean: just as, on the other hand, it is the mark of iniquity and ignorance to force together things that are at war with each other, mixing and confounding everything. For if, comparing Jupiter with the Savior in the point of the reverential depiction of the image, you affirm this without any distinction: would you not brand the sacred form of Christ with the contumely and disgrace that you attribute to the falsely-named Jupiter? For I have heard you bring forward and babble certain such empty things, and charge with the crime of idolatry those who are called by the name of Christ and who both sing and render to the glory of the Trinity the cult, honor, and sole adoration of latria invisibly, and maliciously mix together things which cannot agree with each other. Do you not grant a difference between the image of Christ and the statue of Jupiter? Do you not honor Christ because His exemplar is venerable, and abominate Jupiter on account of his execrable lust and wantonness? Do you not pronounce Christ to be God, on account of His incomparable holiness, and admit the likeness of the image which, expressed through matter, has been honored since antiquity, representing God and man; yet consign to the depths that fabulous parricide and the effigy of him who has fallen from divinity, in which image he hurled his father's genitals, which he had cut off? May you have Christ the Savior as propitious, who is delighted by the material representation of the Saints, but hates the abominations of Satan and his wicked satellites: who, when they see the images of Christ and His servants erected, are overthrown, groan and weep, and gnash their teeth against those who willingly do these things, and stir up the dust of calamities. With these words of praise Tarasius, stirring up and honorifically engraving upon tablets the contests and dangers undertaken by them for Christ, followed in their footsteps, even though he remained without stripes; yet he did not follow them from behind.

CHAPTER X

Comparison of Saint Tarasius with the Apostles and Patriarchs.

[44] Let us see, moreover, whether he also contended with those who were in grace. For since the disciples of the Word showed the immutability of their mind toward the Master He is to be compared with the holy Apostles through divine confession, he too preserved it whole and inviolate from his mother's womb, and proclaiming by his deeds Him to be the true God, who was born of Mary in the last times and of the Father before the ages, equal to the Father with regard to the virtue of the same glory of the Divinity. So with Philip and Thomas he brought forth the decree, calling Christ Lord and God, not by touching the hands that had been pierced with nails, with Philip and Thomas nor by seeking the punctures that had been made by the lance. John 20:27 Wherefore he also plainly received a blessed end through his faithful and fervent confession. So he followed the son of Zebedee, who was called the son of thunder: Mark 3:17 because he openly recalled that in the beginning the Word was, and was with God: and by teaching he made others Apostolic in spirit, with John the Evangelist because he commanded that the divinely inspired instrument of the Evangelists, through whose voice the salvation of the world resounds, should be expressed in material colors in the Churches that were throughout the world, in accordance with the divine and paternal tradition: John 1:1 so that the mind, pierced through the evangelical and sacred image and sanctity, might transmit honor in manifold ways to God who had inspired them, and become a receptacle of venerable teachings. with Andrew John 1:40 And of Andrew, who was the first called from among the Apostles, he was so near and joined by a kindred mode of life, that he held the reins of the same pastoral chair, after so many centuries, but greatly multiplied in number.

he received, and through virtue led the flock to the goal of the heavenly course, and was the cause of victory for them against their adversaries. With Paul he was linked in that he held the first place in teaching. For he wisely brought the whole world, enclosed in the bonds of the word, within the Ecclesiastical decrees: with Paul a people acquired for God and a royal priesthood. with Peter Peter, moreover, in that he was called the chief of many fathers, and in that it was entrusted to him to bind and loose whatsoever is worthy of binding and loosing, with John the Baptist he abundantly expressed. With the Forerunner -- in accordance with Him who was foretold by him, and who said that no one greater than John has arisen among those born of women -- it is not to be dared to compare him in many things, except only in the keen and unyielding freedom of reproof, and in the zeal that could not be restrained, it must be affirmed that Tarasius was not far distant. Matt. 11:11

[45] But that you may also see him deservedly following those with the holy Prophets who flourished before grace, you will know from this. With the divinely moved assembly of the Prophets he conspired, inspired by the divine spirit: since they indeed, after that divine contemplator of God, were divinely present as saving harbors for the people who had recently been freed from harsh servitude under the leadership of Moses through the Red Sea, and had admirably passed over from the insane worship of idols, loosing the anchors of prophecy, and binding with the strong cables of piety, and leading without error to the land of the knowledge of God. But this man, placing in port the Church, which was being tossed by waves like a boat in the sea and was in danger of losing those whom it carried, because it lacked a skilled helmsman to resist the waves, governing it with the helm of sound faith: and having preserved those who were in it, removing the idolatrous and vain opinion which they had on their tongues against sacred images, he fortified them with synodal, paternal, and upright decrees. With the most sacred psalmist David he concurred in innocence, with David and with him, loving the beauty of the house of the Lord, he did not give sleep to his eyes or slumber to his eyelids, or rest to his temples, until he presented himself as an exemplar to the Lord and a tabernacle to the God of Jacob, just as David did. Moved by zeal with Phinehas, he pierced through heresy and its lovers as if they were introducers of true fornication and begetters of adulterous dogmas. with Phinehas He surpassed the priesthood of Aaron. with Aaron For not bells and pomegranates, not the stones of the breastplate and the ephod, neither the mitre, nor the turban, nor the robe, nor the plate of gold, clothed him as they did Aaron in the manner of a Priest, nor did a sacrifice through the blood of bulls and goats expiate his own and the people's ignorances: but a moderate garment with a spirit of poverty rendered him splendid, and more sacred than the legal holocaust were the things offered by him: since he sacrificed through sacred invocations Christ, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and distributed Him into the hands of the faithful, and sprinkled all with that precious blood, which by showing it he gave for the payment of the debts of the soul.

[46] with Moses He expressed Moses in this, that he was meek, and showed toward none a trace of hatred and ill will, even though the furious and malevolent wrongly conjectured that Father Tarasius's freedom of speech, which aimed at the correction of the foolish, was anger and hatred. He tasted the trials of Job, even if not in similar circumstances. With Jacob as an Israelite of grace, with Job, with Jacob and called a mind that saw God, he was simultaneously purified and sanctified in soul and thought. with Isaac Together with Isaac he was sanctified by faith, even if not by a father, but himself offering his own heart as a holocaust: and having been both victim and sacrificer, he offered a most beautiful sacrifice to God as an odor of sweetness. With Abraham, with Abraham because he was the spiritual father of many tribes and peoples, and believed, and purely served Him who had made him, he attained the fruit of the divine promises. But why do I attempt to cross the Atlantic sea of his virtues? Let us therefore impose a conclusion upon our subject, and from the introduction let us fashion an ending, lest we be accused of not keeping our promise by extending the discourse more than is fitting.

CHAPTER XI

The old age, illness, death, and burial of Saint Tarasius.

[47] For after very many contests, and a profound and boundless depth of doctrine, and the purity of an honorable life, and the confession of the true faith, and the leading of the rational flock toward those things which are more excellent and divine by his admonitions, and the abundant provision for feeding the poor, and the constant attention given to sacred things, and his long continuance in the pastoral office (for he adorned the pontifical chair for twenty-two ^ayears), an illness pressing upon him and bringing him very grievous pain did not persuade him Weighed down by illness and old age to forget his perpetual and divine duty. For though he labored under both illness and old age, he was by no means sated with the celebration of the most sacred mystery: but burning with intense love toward God, he does not cease to offer the sacrifice and reckoning the illness as nothing, leaning with his breast upon a wooden table which was placed before the divine altar, he performed the sacred rites. O faithful and wise diligence in divine things! O boundless love toward God! For he did not care for the body, so that when weariness of divine things had overtaken him, he might interrupt the divine mysteries, but strengthened by his labors, and crying out with Paul, "When I am weak, then I am strong," he keenly devoted himself to the divine worship. 2 Cor. 12:10

[48] The illness therefore prevailed, and henceforth causing him to cease from the performance of divine things, it prepared for him a bed of infirmity -- would that it had not done so before the eyes of those who had never seen him in bed. Then, then a new and terrible miracle occurs, which filled us who were present with admiration and fear, as we saw him as if in ecstasy, and struggling with adversaries who do not fall under sight. Eph. 6:12 For his contest was not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the spiritual forces of wickedness. For as though speaking with certain ones who were examining him and demanding from him an account of his life lived, so he pleaded his cause. Wherefore to many he seemed to be a debtor and to be rendering an account of the demand, on his deathbed he struggles with demons but the just judgment of the heavenly aid was to wash away every stain of his life, and to carry no fault from thence: but to be called a partaker of light, and to depart together with the heavenly powers that are free from matter. For as long as he had a tongue clearly explaining his thoughts to those who heard, he resisted with words and gave ready answers to those things which were objected, saying that he was not conscious of any of those things of which they had wished to accuse him. O union with God, akin to no fault! The malignant enemies could not catch him liable in even a small matter, nor contrive anything against him by their abominable crimes: but he reduced them to complete helplessness of counsel, through a general and terrible denial, so that they could not bring against him any charge that was even plausible in appearance. But when the instrument of his tongue grew numb, and he could not defend himself with words, with his lip, and hand, and nod he was overthrowing them, and did not cease to drive them away. For he seemed to us to be raging fiercely as against enemies, and to be repelling them with anger, until his senses began to close.

[49] Then, in a most tranquil state, while the Church was celebrating the evening praises and crying out, "Incline, O Lord, and hear me," he himself put off this garment of skin: and leaving the bonds of the flesh, he came to the luminous courts of the heavenly dwellings, He departs this life and he dwells in ineffable joy that is perceived by the intellect, bringing no mark of the wickedness that exists here upon his soul. For while he lived here, he had by his virtues put to death this mortal tabernacle, for he was ashamed to have a nature that was only half immortal. ^bHe died, however, and I think that the virtues too died with him -- unless perhaps I am mistaken, saying with remarkable boldness something great and terrible.

[50] with the great mourning of the Emperor Nicephorus The whole city, moreover, did not cease to bewail him with inconsolable grief and tears, as their Patron and defender. And he who then faithfully administered the scepters (and this was ^cNicephorus) did not cease to be tormented with grief. For falling upon the breast of the glorious body, and covering it with purple, he made a funeral lamentation, calling him Shepherd, Father, Helper of the empire, Morning Star that never sets, Guide of the commonwealth toward better things, and divine Master, the unconquerable bulwark of the army, the vigorous Rout of the enemies through his intercession before God. What finally did he not do, what did he not say, reckoning the loss of the Pastor as a loss to the whole world? And she who held the greatest splendor among the authorities and honors, desiring to prevent the departure of the Father, as one who could be held back, stained with tears, bitterly calling him back and embracing him, and as one suffering the loss of many goods, was watered with tears as though with streams.

[51] of the Clergy of Constantinople The joy of the Church was mourning its most useful Steward, Farmer, Planter, him who had given increase toward virtue to every age, who had preserved the priesthood liable to no stain, who had wiped away every wrinkle of evil opinion from the divine courts, who had fixed in the diadem of the Church words for the truth like precious stones, who was an incorrupt High Priest, who could not be enticed by gifts at the laying on of hands, who had shown the gold of Simoniac sorcery to be counterfeit, who was the successor of the Apostles in virtue, who sat and conversed with the Patriarchs and Fathers, who agreed with the chosen Synods, who became all things to all men, of the monks that he might by all means save some, in accordance with the great and divine Apostle. 1 Cor. 9 The most devout assembly of monks, moreover, showing grief toward him as their worthy awakener and supreme guide to abstinence, and weaving hymns with tears, accompanied to the fathers who had formerly shone in the practice of asceticism the father who was an unconquerable bulwark of continence. Those who were needy mourned of the poor their supplier; the blind, their eye; the lame, their foot; the naked, their garment; strangers, their host; those in chains, their visitor; widows, their defender; orphans, their helper. Every condition and every age flowed together like a river, touching the bier and piously striving to enjoy that sacred spectacle. And had not the Emperor quickly suppressed the tumult and rush of the people with a military hand, many would have come into danger of death, as they pushed and were pushed in turn, and showed a praiseworthy desire toward him who was desired.

[52] Therefore the glorious and renowned body, full of glory, is buried by the hands of holy men, [he is buried in a monastery on the Thracian Bosporus, in the church of All Martyrs] who had made the broad sea into solid ground with boats and barges, while they crossed over to the monastery built by him on the Byzantine Bosporus, in the venerable church of All Martyrs who shed their blood for Christ, when the month of February held the ^dtwenty-fifth day. But a long time will not be able to conceal him, for he is exalted above all time. For the nature of virtue does not endure oblivion: it is not blunted by the canker of envy: for it makes its memory immortal in our souls, and does not allow it to be scattered and covered with silence.

CHAPTER XII

Miracles performed at the tomb of Saint Tarasius.

[53] It is time, however, to set forth for you who are lovers of virtue the noble deeds performed by the Father at his tomb, which no monument will be able to prevent. For the tomb is not his monument: but he is the monument of the monument. For many come to him and are freed from the afflictions that vexed them. O miracle! Even after he departed from here, he cares for those who are here, and by those who seek he is found, He is renowned for miracles and to those who knock he opens the door of his healing visitation. For certain women, once severely afflicted by a long-lasting flow of blood, and undergoing great waves and storms, when they had consumed the greater part of their goods on medicines and could not find calm from the evil, imitating that Evangelical woman who suffered from a flow of blood with a praiseworthy shamelessness dysentery is cured by the oil of the lamp (for it was not permitted for a woman to touch the monastery, since the renowned Father had long ago established this), using womanly cunning most excellently, covering their feminine modesty with manly dress and presenting the appearance of eunuchs, they secretly fled to the casket of this excellent helmsman, which is tossed by no waves: and having drawn oil from the lamp that burns in it, they most swiftly put in at the port of healing. Mark 5 Moreover, a certain man, in one of whose eyes a film was causing blindness, a film of the eye when he had been near the divine casket and had used the aid of the saving unction, washed away the film not very long after, and openly received sight from God. The hand of another also, which was barking against the body and had remained for a long time in constant agitation by the operation of an evil demon, by the sole invocation of the most sacred body and the anointing of the oil of that wonder-working casket, demonic agitation of the hand even though it was far distant, the hand was restrained from that madness, and was rendered healthy like the other.

[54] For many others also who were vexed by evil spirits, the father was found to be a physician. the possessed are freed, even those made mute and deaf He both expelled the operations of the demons and relieved those who endured torments by the will and power of the Almighty. Moreover, certain ones who had been stupefied by apparitions from the adverse power, and who had endured the numbness which made them deaf and mute, and had then remained in faith at the tomb of the divine man -- through the beneficial and saving unction of the shining oil, God visited them, and having freed them from the vertigo of the apparitions, He granted that they might again use their hearing and tongue soundly in those things pertaining to them. Moreover, those parts that were grievously tortured by inflammation and brought intolerable pains to those suffering, through the divine invocation of the oil of the casket which purges and cleanses, obtained relaxation from pain.

[55] Indeed, even against heretics, after he had departed from here, he ardently showed his divine zeal. Saint Tarasius was seen by Leo the Armenian, sending Michael Balbus to kill him For Leo, while still administering the scepters of imperial glory and wickedly embracing the heresy of the Iconoclasts, when the end of his life was approaching, by which sword he was to be struck -- as he himself while still alive declared with his own voice -- saw the Blessed Tarasius in a dream approaching him, and with grave anger commanding a certain person named Michael to drive a sword into him. And that one, obeying the command, ran the Emperor through with a sword. Thereupon Leo was very occupied with this, striving by all means to find in the Saint's monastery the Michael who had wounded him in his dream. Wherefore, having ordered certain of the monks who were in it to be brought to him, he subjected them to prisons and torments, raging that his nocturnal murderer should be revealed to him through them: whom he also threatened would suffer the most extreme penalties as a subverter of the empire. For this persuaded him, even unwillingly, to narrate to the monks what had happened: from whom, since we also plucked the miracle like a ripe fruit, we come to you, the faithful, offering a bowl of joy. For not six days had passed when Michael received the scepters of the empire and slew him. Thus God glorifies His servants even after death, and destroys those who are unwilling to worship Him piously.

[56] But time will fail me if I narrate the great miracles of the renowned and divine Father, which, like roses in a meadow, spring up everywhere and urge us to be borne toward the selection of each one. But since we do not have a tongue that can measure and relate all the miracles performed by the Blessed one, finishing the course of the discourse begun thus far, we prefer to pass to silence, judging that rest removed from danger brings more profit than if we are defeated with danger. For the insatiability of a ready and eager spirit often tends to win arrogance. But you, O venerable foundation of the priesthood, do not censure the vomit of my rashness, who most boldly, but in a rough and unpolished style, relate such great narratives: but reckoning my intense benevolence and faith as a small gift offered, the author of this Life was trained in poetics by Saint Tarasius grant that my words may find a place to be received and rest. For I shall not forget the benefit of your teaching toward me, nor the modesty of my fervent service toward you: since I filled myself with the delights of the former in the flower of youth, and was initiated by you in those things which are best and most excellent from trimeters, tetrameters, trochaics, and anapaestics and heroics: he recorded his discourses in ten volumes but I performed this service in the sacred orations that were elegantly delivered by you daily, for the edification of souls and the increase of the whole venerable Church: which, receiving with a swift pen and noting in ink, and committing to the best scribes, I took care that they be skillfully transcribed into a codex. They are indeed of such a kind that through them the pious and pure worship and faith is set forth for all: and the dream of the heretics is publicly branded with ignominy. For if I forget you, let me fall from the memory of God: and if I do not remember you, let me be cast with stones into the deep: and let my tongue, as the divine Psalmographer says, cleave to my palate; for this is to me the most precious of all debts, always to have a memorial of you in my heart. Ps. 137:6

[57] For the rest, however, it is right that we turn our discourse to you, O servant of God, whoever you are, He wrote the Life under compulsion of obedience who incited me against my will to this contest and compelled me to undertake things that surpass my powers. Let my obedience be acceptable to you, and looking upon the humility and unadorned expression of my discourse, do not accuse me of negligence. For we have not brought anything worthy of the divine Father, nor were we able to approach closely the dignity of these virtues which are near at hand. For the subject surpasses all power of speaking, so that all panegyrists equally fail to attain in discourse the honor that is due to him. But I, who am the farthest of all from praising him as he deserves, offer a ready and eager will, that it may be accepted, as one who is broken both by the poverty of my speaking and by old age and illness. he acknowledges Saint Tarasius as intercessor, defender, champion But you will have received reward and recompense from God, having as intercessor, defender, and champion, and fulfiller of your hope, Tarasius, whom you have loved in God. Who also by his intercessions before God may abundantly and securely provide what is useful for this transient life, and grant that you may so render an account of your life there that you not be found guilty. Which may it be given to all to attain together with you, who have hoped in God purely and sincerely, by His grace and abundant mercies, through the intercession of the immaculate and chaste Mother of God and the heavenly beings and all the Saints. Amen.