The Cult of the Saints (Popular Patristics Series)
Overview
The cult of the saints is a phenomenon that expanded rapidly in the fourth century, and John Chrysostom’s homilies are important witnesses to its growth. In this volume, Wendy Mayer investigates the liturgical, topographical, and pastoral aspects that marked the martyr cult at Antioch and Constantinople in Chysostom’s time.
The cult’s original point of focus was the Christian martyrs—those followers of the Jesus-movement who died in confession of their faith, either at the hands of other Jews or at the hands of the Roman administration. Mayer pinpoints several conceptual shifts that identified and shaped this cult: the imitation of Christ’s own death; the creedal declaration “I am a Christian”; the sense of privilege bestowed upon martyrs; the ritual purity of relics; public veneration of the departed; and places made holy by martyrs’ blood.
This rich collection includes homilies on martyrs Meletius, Eustathius, Lucian, Phocas, Juventinus and Maximinus, Ignatius, Eleazar (and the seven boys), Bernike, Prosdoke and Domnina, Barlaam, Drosis, and Romanus. It also includes encomia on Egyptian martyrs and on all the martyrs. The volume also includes two letters—one written by Chrysostom from exile concerning the use of martyr relics in a mission context, and one in which Vigilius, Bishop of Tridentum, offers him fresh Italian relics.
Top Highlights
“Rather, they didn’t drown, but were baptized with a new and astonishing baptism. Indeed, if you want to learn that what happened then was clearly baptism, hear how Christ calls his own death ‘baptism.’” (Page 172)
“How is it possible,’ you ask, ‘for us to imitate martyrs now? After all, it isn’t a time of persecution.’ Yes, I know. Yet while it isn’t a time of persecution, it is a time of martyrdom. It isn’t a time of wrestling matches of that sort, but it is a time of crowns. Human beings aren’t in pursuit, but demons are in pursuit. A tyrant isn’t in persecution mode, but the Devil’s in persecution mode, crueler than any tyrant.” (Page 180)
“Indeed, just as when a person entrusts a sharpened sword to someone who is raving and out of their wits, whatever murder the insane person commits, that person who handed over the sword takes on the responsibility, so too a person who places the authority that stems from this office at the service of a person engaged in impropriety draws all the fire for that person’s sins and enterprises on their own head.” (Pages 106–107)
“The welcoming of a martyr is to come together in his memory, to share the story of his contests, to marvel at what happened, to strive to imitate his virtue, to convey to others his brave deeds.” (Page 68)
“Taking all these factors into consideration, let us, women and men, young and old, inscribe her contests and wrestling matches on our heart as if on a tablet and have her endurance stored up in our soul as a perpetual counsel for scorning troubles, so that by imitating the virtue of these saints here, we may be able to share their crowns too there, with us displaying as much endurance in the irrational passions as they exhibited philosophy in their tortures, in anger and desire for money, bodies, vainglory and all other such things. For if we subvert the flame of these things just as they did the fire, we will be able to stand near them, and share the same boldness of speech.” (Page 145)
- Title: The Cult of the Saints
- Author: John Chrysostom
- Series: Popular Patristics Series
- Publisher: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press
- Print Publication Date: 2006
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Christian saints › Sermons; Orthodox Eastern Church › Sermons; Sermons, Greek › Translations into English
- ISBNs: 088141302, 9780881413021, 088141302X
- Resource ID: LLS:CLTSNTSCHRYSSTM
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:24:32Z