Encomiastic Homily on Saint Meletios (+381), Patriarch of Antioch

by St. John Chrysostomos, Patriarch of Constantinople (+407) [1]

 

 

1. Casting my eyes in every direction upon this sacred company, and seeing the entire city present here, I do not know whom to pronounce blessed first: the holy Meletios, who enjoys such great honor even after death, or your love, because you show such great good will towards your Shepherds even after their decease. For blessed is he, that he was able to bequeath such affection to all of you; [2] blessed are you also, that, after receiving the legacy of his love, you have hitherto persisted in preserving it intact for him who entrusted it to you. The fifth year has already passed since he departed to Jesus, for Whom he yearned, and it is as though having seen him yesterday and the day before that you have drawn near to him today with such ardent love. He is to be envied for this reason, that he begot such sons; you, too, are to be envied, because it fell to your lot to have such a father. The root is noble and admirable, but the fruits of the root are also worthy thereof. For, just as an admirable root, when hidden in the bosom of the earth, while not itself visible, yet displays the strength of its virtue through its fruits, so also the blessed Meletios, who is concealed in this casket, is not himself manifest to us through the eyes of the body, but exhibits the strength of his Grace through you, his fruits. Even if we are silent, the Feast alone and the fervor of your zeal suffice to proclaim more brilliantly than a trumpet the love of the holy Meletios for his children. For he so enkindled your minds to love of him that you feel warmth at his mere name and are aroused at the mention of it.

This is why I now constantly insert this name into my discourses, not casually, but purposefully and in earnest. And, just as someone fashioning a golden crown, who then inserts pearls into it, makes the diadem more splendid through the abundance of precious stones, so I, too, plaiting today a garland of praises for this blessed head, weave into my discourse the constant mention of his name as a profusion of pearls, hoping thereby to render him more beloved and illustrious. For such is the rule, and such is the wont, of those who love, that they embrace the mere names of those whom they love and feel warmth at their very mention; such has also been your experience in the case of this blessed man. When you welcomed him upon his entrance into the city for the first time, each of you called his own son by his name, reckoning, every one of you, that through this appellation you would introduce the Saint into your own home; and mothers, passing over fathers, grandfathers, and ancestors, applied the name of the blessed Meletios to the children that they bore. For the desire for piety overcame nature, and the children born were thenceforth dear to their parents not only from natural affection but also on account of their attitude toward that appellation. Indeed, they reckoned this name to be the adornment of the family, the security of the house, salvation for those who invoked it, and the assuagement of yearning. And just as certain persons sitting in darkness, once a torch has been lit, light many lamps and each brings one into his own home; so also, when that name arose in the city as a kind of light, each person, as though lighting a lamp, then brought the name of that blessed man into his own home, eliciting as it were a treasury of countless good things through this appellation. Indeed, what took place was a lesson in piety. For, being constantly compelled to remember that name and to hold that Saint in their souls, they regarded his name as a means of warding off every irrational passion and thought. Thus did it happen frequently, that this name resounded everywhere—at crossroads, in marketplaces, in fields, and on streets. You were not thus affected only in regard to so great a name, but also in regard to the very form of his body. What you did in the case of names, this you also did in the case of his image. In the bezels of rings, on seals, on drinking-vessels, and on the walls of chambers, and in all kinds of places many people inscribed that sacred image, so that they not only heard that holy name but also saw the form of his body everywhere, receiving a twofold consolation from his banishment.

For when he first entered [the city] he was immediately expelled, being driven out therefrom by the enemies of the truth. God permitted this, wishing to show at the same time both his virtue and your courage. When he entered, like Moses into Egypt, he freed the city from heretical error and excised the rotten and incurable members from the rest of the body, restoring its health intact to the multitude of the Church. But the adversaries of the truth, not enduring this correction, stirred up the emperor at that time and had him ejected from the city, expecting thereby to prevail over the truth and to overturn what he had rectified. There occurred the opposite of that they expected: indeed, rather was your zeal displayed and his expertise as a teacher resplendently demonstrated: the latter, in that in thirty days—and those not in their entirety—he was able to ground you in zeal for the Faith so much that that doctrine remained unshaken even when innumerable [evil] spirits thereafter attacked; and your fervor was shown forth in that in thirty days—and those not in their entirety—you received the seeds that he had sown with such assiduity that your roots reached a depth of understanding and you thenceforth gave in to none of the temptations that assailed you.

2. It is also worth our while not to pass over what happened during this persecution. For while the governor of the city was departing in his chariot through the middle of the marketplace, having made the Saint sit next to him, showers of stones were hurled from all directions at the governor’s head, the people of the city being unable to bear the separation and choosing rather to be deprived of the present life than to see that holy man being dragged away. So what did that blessed man then do? Seeing the volleys of stones, he shielded the governor’s head by throwing his own garments around him, at the same time both shaming his enemies by his exceeding meekness and teaching his disciples how much forbearance they ought to display toward those who wronged them and that it behooved them not only not to do such people any evil but also, should danger come upon them from others, to repel this, too, with all zeal. Who did not shudder then, seeing the ardent [3] love of the people and being awestruck by the extreme self-restraint of their teacher and his forbearance and meekness? The events that occurred at that time defied all expectation. The Shepherd was driven away, and yet the sheep were not scattered; the helmsman was cast out, and yet the ship was not sunk; the husbandman was chased away, and yet the vineyard still yielded fruit. For since you were bound together with one another by the bond of love, neither onsets of temptations, nor uprisings of dangers, nor the length of the journey, nor duration of time, nor anything else was able to separate you from fellowship with your blessed Shepherd. Now, he was expelled, so that he would be far away from his children, but the opposite occurred. Yes indeed, he was bound closely to you by the bonds of love, and he departed to Armenia taking the whole city with him. For although his body was firmly planted in his fatherland, [4] his thoughts and his mind, upborne as it were on the wings of the Grace of the Spirit and ever visiting you, bore this entire populace in his inward parts, as you also have experienced. For, though residing here and being confined by the city, yet taking flight to Armenia each day in a spirit of love and beholding his holy countenance and hearing his most sweet and blessed voice, you thus return again. It is for this reason that God permitted him to be driven at once from the city, that He might, as I just said, exhibit the firmness of your faith to the foes that war against you and his expertise in matters of doctrine.

And this is clear from the fact that when he returned after his first persecution, he stayed here not just for thirty days, but for months, and for a year—one year, two years, and more. For since you gave sufficient proof of your firmness in the Faith, God gave you leave to delight once again in your Father. It was indeed the greatest delight to revel in that holy countenance. For not only when teaching or speaking, but also when simply beheld, was he capable of introducing all manner of instruction concerning virtue into the souls of those who saw him. When he returned to you and the entire citizenry went forth to meet him, some came close to him, grasped his feet, kissed his hands, and heard his voice, while others, impeded by the throng and able to see him only from afar, receiving as it were sufficient blessing from the sight of him and having no less than those close to him, thus went away completely satisfied. And that which happened with the Apostles also happened in his case. For just as, in the case of the Apostles, when their shadows spread and touched those far away, all who were unable to approach or draw near to them drew to themselves the same Grace and went away similarly healed; [5] so also even now, all who were unable to approach, because they sensed a kind of spiritual glory that was emitted from that holy head and which reached those at the furthest remove, went away filled with every blessing from the mere sight of him.

3. Since it seemed good to the common God of all to call him henceforth from the present life and to place him in the choir of the Angels, not even this took place coincidentally, but rather the letter of a king summoned him, God having moved the Emperor thereto. The letter summoned him not to a place close by, but to Thrace itself, so that Galatians, Bithynians, Cilicians, and Cappadocians, and all who dwell near Thrace, might learn of our blessings; [6] so that the Bishops throughout the world, perceiving his holiness as it were in an archetypal image and receiving from him a clear example of ministry according to this principle, might have a sure and most manifest rule by which to administer and govern the Churches. [7] For on account of the size of the city and because the Emperor resided there, many Bishops then streamed thither from many parts of the inhabited earth. All the Bishops of the Churches were summoned thither by imperial letter in order that the Churches, recovering from a long and tempestuous war, might receive a beginning of peace and tranquillity. This man also arrived there at that time. And, just as in the case of the three youths, when they were about to be heralded and crowned, having quenched the power of the fire, having trampled upon the pride of the tyrant, and having confuted every form of impiety, an audience from the whole inhabited earth sat before them (for the satraps, prefects, and governors were summoned from everywhere on earth for another reason, but became spectators of those athletes); so also did it happen that a splendid audience assembled for the blessed Meletios. Though summoned for a different reason, the Bishops who administered the Churches throughout the world arrived and beheld that saintly man. When they saw him and accurately discerned his piety, his wisdom, the zeal of his faith, and all the virtue befitting a Priest made perfect in him, then God called him to Himself.

This happened so that our city might be spared. For if he had given up the ghost here, the weight of the calamity would have been unbearable. Who, indeed, would have been able to endure seeing that blessed man breathing his last? Who could have endured seeing those eyelids being closed and his mouth being shut as it uttered his last wishes? Who, on seeing such things, would not have become distraught at the magnitude of the calamity? Therefore, lest this happen, God provided that he expire in a foreign land, so that, having prepared for the catastrophe beforehand, on seeing his corpse entering the city, we might not be stricken in spirit, our minds being inured to lamentation. This is, in fact, what occurred. For when the city received that holy body, it mourned in this way and lamented greatly; but it swiftly put an end to its mourning, both for the aforementioned reason and for one that I shall mention.

For God, in His love for mankind, taking pity on our grief, promptly appointed for us another Shepherd, one who upheld his traits with great exactitude and preserved the image of every virtue; who, after ascending the throne, forthwith divested us of our mournful raiment and extinguished our sorrow, and rather renewed the memory of the blessed Meletios. [8] Our pain faded away, while our love was kindled more intensely, and our despondency was dispelled. And yet, this is not wont to happen in the loss of those dearest to us. No, when some woman loses a beloved son or an honored husband, as long as she preserves a vivid memory of him, she nurtures grief more acutely in her soul. But when time supervenes and assuages the sorrow, the vigor of the memory is extinguished along with the severity of the anguish. However, in the case of this blessed man the opposite occurred. Despondency was completely banished, and his memory did not depart along with the sorrow, but was increased still more. You are witnesses who, after so long a time, hover like bees around a honeycomb around the body of the blessed Meletios. The cause was not natural love for him, but the reasoning of right judgment. For this reason his memory was not quenched by death or dimmed by time; rather, it is increasing and advancing to a yet greater degree, and not only in you who have seen him, but also in those who have not. The amazing thing is this, that all who were younger during his lifetime are also inflamed with the same longing. You, the elders, have this advantage over those who have not seen him, that you associated with him and enjoyed holy fellowship with him; but those who have not seen him have an advantage over you, that, not having beheld the man, they show no less longing for him than you who have seen him. Let us all pray together, rulers and ruled, women and men, the elderly and the youthful, slaves and freemen, that having acquired the blessed Meletios himself as a partner in this prayer (for his spiritual boldness is now greater and his love for us more fervent), this love may be increased for us and that we may all be vouchsafed that, just as here we are near his casket, so there too we may be close to his eternal tabernacle and obtain the good things laid up for us, to which may we all attain by the Grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom and with Whom unto the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and dominion, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

 

NOTES

1. This homily was translated by Archimandrite Dr. Patapios, Dean of the St. Photios Orthodox Theological Seminary. It appears here for the first time in English and is taken from the Greek original in the Patrologia Grceca, Vol. L, cols. 515-520. St. Gregory of Nyssa delivered a notable oration on St. Meletios on the occasion of his funeral, in which he called the Saint, inter alia, a “new Apostle” (P.G., Vol. XLVI, cols. 852-864; for an English translation, see The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. V, pp. 513-17).

2. The word that St. John uses to denote affection is “φίλτρον,” which is often used to refer to God’s love for mankind.

3. Μάνικάν: literally “mad,” “manic,” or “frenzied.” My rendition of this word rather inadequately conveys its meaning, that the people’s love for their Archpastor, like God’s love for mankind, though not irrational, is at any rate supra-rational. A bolder word in English might lead to an impious misapprehension of the Greek term.

4. St. Meletios hailed from Melitene in Armenia.

5. “[T]hey brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them” (Acts 5:15).

6. St. John means that the Emperor summoned St. Meletios to Constantinople, which is in fact situated at the easternmost edge of the region of Thrace. The Saint was summoned in 381 to the imperial city for what was to become the Second Ecumenical Synod.

7. The principle to which St. John refers is that of holiness, exemplified by St. Meletios.

8. St. John is referring, here, to Archbishop Flavian, who succeeded St. Meletios on the throne of Antioch in 381 (Theodoretos of Kyros, Ecclesiastical History, Book V, ch. 9). St. John held Archbishop Flavian in profound esteem, as can be seen in several of his homilies (see Archimandrite Cyprian, “The Place of the Bishop in the Orthodox Church,” Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XVI, nos. 3-4 [1999], p. 11; also available online at http://hsir.Org/p/eyv).

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XXXVI (2019), No. 1, pp. 5-11.