Funeral Orations
Overview
The Christian funeral oration is one of the most elaborate of Christian literary forms. It represents an attempt to adapt to Christian use a pagan Greek form with many hundreds of years behind it. . . . The Christian masterpieces presented in this volume reflect a long, rich, and varied pagan literary tradition in East and West, and at the same time exhibit modifications and new elements which give them their specific Christian character.
The volume presents the most generally admired ancient Christian funeral orations—four from the Greek (those of St. Gregory Nazianzen), four from the Latin (those of St. Ambrose of Milan). From the Bishop of Nazianzen, we have words spoken in honor of three kinsmen, his father, a brother, and a sister, and of the great St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea. Two of the orations from the lips of St. Ambrose are likewise for a kinsman, his brother Satyrus, while the other two are for wearers of the purple, the youthful Valentinian II and the emperor Theodosius.
For The Fathers of the Church series in its entirety, see Fathers of the Church Series (127 vols.).
Key Features
- Discusses death in light of Christian truth
- Content helps readers better understand characteristics of both the author and the era
- One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers
Top Highlights
“She imitated the woman whose hemorrhage was dried up by the hem of Christ’s garment.15 And what did she do? Placing her head, with a similar cry, on the altar, and pouring abundant tears upon it, as she who had once watered the feet of Christ,16 she vowed that she would not loose her hold until she obtained her recovery. Then she anointed her whole body with her own medicine, even a portion of the consecrated precious Body and Blood which she treasured in her hand, and with which she mingled her tears. O the wonder! At once she felt herself cured and went away relieved in body and soul and mind, having received what she hoped for as a reward of her hopes. By her strength of soul she gained that of body.” (Pages 113–114)
“What is this new mystery concerning me? I am small and great, lowly and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly. I am connected with the world below, and likewise with God; I am connected with the flesh, and likewise with the spirit. I must be buried with Christ, rise with Christ, be joint heir with Christ,34 become the Son of God, even God Himself.” (Page 24)
“Desire, likewise, does not abide when its source wastes away. But those loves which are pleasing to God, and chaste, since they have a stable object, are on that account more lasting, and, the more beauty is revealed to them, the more does it bind to itself and to one another those whose love is centered on the same object. This is the law of the higher love.” (Page 43)
“But philosophy was his pursuit, as he strove to break from the world, to unite with God, to gain the things above by means of the things below, and to acquire, through goods which are unstable and pass away, those that are stable and abide.” (Page 38)
- Title: Funeral Orations
- Authors: Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose of Milan
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 22
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 1953
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 367
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Funeral sermons
- ISBNs: 0813214025, 9780813214023
- Resource ID: LLS:FUNERALORATIONS
- Resource Type: text.monograph.sermons
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:51:33Z
About Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329 – January 25 389 or 390) (also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen) was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age. As a classically trained speaker and philosopher he infused Hellenism into the early church, establishing the paradigm of Byzantine theologians and church officials.