Oration VIII. Funeral Oration on his Sister Gorgonia.

 1.  In praising my sister, I shall pay honour to one of my own family yet my praise will not be false, because it is given to a relation, but, becaus

 2.  Yet it would be most unreasonable of all, if, while we refuse to regard it as a righteous thing to defraud, insult, accuse, or treat unjustly in a

 3.  Having now made a sufficient defence on these points, and shown how necessary it is for me to be the speaker, come, let me proceed with my eulogy,

 4.  Who is there who knows not the Abraham and Sarah of these our latter days, Gregory and Nonna his wife?  For it is not well to omit the incitement

 5.  This good shepherd was the result of his wife’s prayers and guidance, and it was from her that he learned his ideal of a good shepherd’s life.  He

 6.  From them Gorgonia derived both her existence and her reputation they sowed in her the seeds of piety, they were the source of her fair life, and

 7.  This is what I know upon these points:  and therefore it is that I both am aware and assert that her soul was more noble than those of the East, a

 8.  In modesty she so greatly excelled, and so far surpassed, those of her own day, to say nothing of those of old time who have been illustrious for

 9.  The divine Solomon, in his instructive wisdom, I mean his Proverbs, praises the woman who looks to her household and loves her husband, contrastin

 10.  Here, if you will, is another point of her excellence:  one of which neither she nor any truly modest and decorous woman thinks anything:  but wh

 11.  Enough of such topics.  Of her prudence and piety no adequate account can be given, nor many examples found besides those of her natural and spir

 12.  Who opened her house to those who live according to God with a more graceful and bountiful welcome?  And, which is greater than this, who bade th

 13.  But amid these tokens of incredible magnanimity, she did not surrender her body to luxury, and unrestrained pleasures of the appetite, that ragin

 14.  O untended body, and squalid garments, whose only flower is virtue!  O soul, clinging to the body, when reduced almost to an immaterial state thr

 15.  Oh! how am I to count up all her traits, or pass over most of them without injury to those who know them not?  Here however it is right to subjoi

 16.  O remarkable and wonderful disaster!  O injury more noble than security!  O prophecy, “He hath smitten, and He will bind us up, and revive us, an

 17.  She was sick in body, and dangerously ill of an extraordinary and malignant disease, her whole frame was incessantly fevered, her blood at one ti

 18.  What then did this great soul, worthy offspring of the greatest, and what was the medicine for her disorder, for we have now come to the great se

 19.  Such was her life.  Most of its details I have left untold, lest my speech should grow to undue proportions, and lest I should seem to be too gre

 20.  She had recently obtained the blessing of cleansing and perfection, which we have all received from God as a common gift and foundation of our ne

 21.  And now when she had all things to her mind, and nothing was lacking of her desires, and the appointed time drew nigh, being thus prepared for de

 22.  Yet what was I on the point of omitting?  But perhaps thou, who art her spiritual father, wouldst not have allowed me, and hast carefully conceal

 23.  Better, I know well, and far more precious than eye can see, is thy present lot, the song of them that keep holy-day, the throng of angels, the h

15.  Oh! how am I to count up all her traits, or pass over most of them without injury to those who know them not?  Here however it is right to subjoin the rewards of her piety, for indeed I take it that you, who knew her life well, have long been eager and desirous to find in my speech not only things present, or her joys yonder, beyond the conception and hearing and sight of man, but also those which the righteous Rewarder bestowed upon her here:  a matter which often tends to the edification of unbelievers, who from small things attain to faith in those which are great, and from things which are seen to those which are not seen.  I will mention then some facts which are generally notorious, others which have been from most men kept secret; and that because her Christian principle made a point of not making a display of her [Divine] favours.  You know how her maddened mules ran away with her carriage, and unfortunately overturned it, how horribly she was dragged along, and seriously injured, to the scandal of unbelievers at the permission of such accidents to the righteous, and how quickly their unbelief was corrected:  for, all crushed and bruised as she was, in bones and limbs, alike in those exposed and in those out of sight, she would have none of any physician, except Him Who had permitted it; both because she shrunk from the inspection and the hands of men, preserving, even in suffering, her modesty, and also awaiting her justification from Him Who allowed this to happen, so that she owed her preservation to none other than to Him:  with the result that men were no less struck by her unhoped-for recovery than by her misfortune, and concluded that the tragedy had happened for her glorification through sufferings, the suffering being human, the recovery superhuman, and giving a lesson to those who come after, exhibiting in a high degree faith in the midst of suffering, and patience under calamity, but in a still higher degree the kindness of God to them that are such as she.  For to the beautiful promise to the righteous “though he fall, he shall not be utterly broken,”11    Ps. xxxvii. 24. has been added one more recent, “though he be utterly broken, he shall speedily be raised up and glorified.”12    Ib. cxlvi. 8 (LXX.).  For if her misfortune was unreasonable, her recovery was extraordinary, so that health soon stole away the injury, and the cure became more celebrated than the blow.

ΙΕʹ. Ὤ! πῶς ἢ καταριθμήσομαι τὰ ἐκείνης ἅπαντα, ἢ τὰ πλείω παρεὶς μὴ ζημιώσω τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας; Ἀλλά μοι καλὸν ἤδη προσθεῖναι τῆς εὐσεβείας καὶ τὰ ἐπίχειρα: καὶ γάρ μοι ποθεῖν πάλαι δοκεῖτε καὶ ζητεῖν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ, οἱ τὰ ἐκείνης καλῶς εἰδότες, οὐ τὰ παρόντα μόνον, οὐδὲ οἷς νῦν ἐκεῖθεν ἀγάλλεται, ἃ κρείττω καὶ διανοίας, καὶ ἀκοῆς ἀνθρωπίνης, καὶ ὄψεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἷς ἐντεῦθεν αὐτὴν ὁ δίκαιος μισθαποδότης ἠμείψατο: ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο ποιεῖ πολλάκις εἰς οἰκοδομὴν τῶν ἀπίστων, τοῖς μικροῖς τὰ μεγάλα πιστούμενος, καὶ τοῖς ὁρωμένοις τὰ μὴ ὁρώμενα. Ἐρῶ δὲ τὰ μὲν γνώριμα τοῖς πᾶσι, τὰ δὲ ἀπόῤῥητα τοῖς πολλοῖς: καὶ τοῦτο ἐκείνης φιλοσοφησάσης, τὸ μὴ καλλωπίζεσθαι τοῖς χαρίσμασιν. Ἴστε τὰς μανείσας ἡμιόνους, καὶ τὴν συναρπαγὴν τοῦ ὀχήματος, καὶ τὴν ἀπευκτὴν ἐκείνην περιτροπὴν, καὶ τὴν ἄτοπον ἕλξιν, καὶ τὰ πονηρὰ συντρίμματα, καὶ τὸ γενόμενον ἐντεῦθεν σκάνδαλον τοῖς ἀπίστοις, εἰ οὕτω δίκαιοι παραδίδονται, καὶ τὴν ταχεῖαν τῆς ἀπιστίας διόρθωσιν: ὅτι πάντα συντριβεῖσα καὶ συγκοπεῖσα καὶ ὀστᾶ καὶ μέλη, καὶ ἀφανῆ καὶ φαινόμενα, καὶ οὔτε ἰατρὸν ἄλλον πλὴν τοῦ παραδόντος ἠνέσχετο: ὁμοῦ μὲν καὶ ὄψιν ἀνδρῶν αἰδουμένη καὶ χεῖρας (τὸ γὰρ κόσμιον κἀν τοῖς πάθεσι διεσώσατο): ὁμοῦ δὲ καὶ τὴν ἀπολογίαν ζητοῦσα παρὰ τοῦ ταῦτα παθεῖν συγχωρήσαντος, οὔτε παρ' ἄλλου τινὸς ἢ ἐκείνου τῆς σωτηρίας ἔτυχεν: ὡς μὴ μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τῷ πάθει πληγῆναί τινας, ἢ ἐπὶ τῷ παραδόξῳ τῆς ὑγιείας καταπλαγῆναι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο δόξαι συμβῆναι τὴν τραγῳδίαν, ἵν' ἐνδοξασθῇ τοῖς πάθεσι: παθοῦσα μὲν ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἰαθεῖσα δὲ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον, καὶ διήγημα δοῦσα τοῖς ὕστερον, μέγιστον μὲν εἰς ἀπόδειξιν τῆς ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι πίστεως καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὰ δεινὰ καρτερίας, μεῖζον δὲ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ περὶ τοὺς τοιούτους φιλανθρωπίας. Τῷ γὰρ, Ὅτ' ἂν πέσῃ οὐ καταῤῥαχθήσεται, περὶ τοῦ δικαίου καλῶς εἰρημένῳ, προσετέθη καινότερον, τὸ κἂν καταῤῥαγῇ, τάχιστα ὀρθωθήσεται, καὶ δοξασθήσεται. Εἰ γὰρ παρὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἔπαθεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὲρ τὸ εἰκὸς ἐπανῆλθε πρὸς ἑαυτὴν, ὡς μικροῦ κλαπῆναι τῇ ὑγιείᾳ τὸ πάθος, καὶ περιφανεστέραν γενέσθαι τὴν θεραπείαν ἢ τὴν πληγήν.