Sermon on the Three Youths
A timely remembrance of the martyrs§1
Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, opens a sermon to the congregation on the death of the holy three young men and the all-wise Daniel, urging them to honor the martyrs.
1Beloved, a timely occasion has arisen to bring remembrance of good martyrs. This remembrance imitates the celebration of the heavenly orders, for the intercession and salvation of our souls. So all of you who know God, stretch out your ears here today, so that you may be deemed worthy of the prize of the martyrs now being spoken of. For these are the ones we must praise and marvel at: they had not yet seen the incarnation of Christ, nor the death of the Immortal One, nor the resurrection from the dead, and yet even before the bodily coming they were his confessors and martyrs.
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Providence of the Trinity for the three royal children§2
Cyril is addressing the congregation about the three young men, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, and now states that the providence of the holy Trinity worked for their sake through the prophecy just read.
2For the sake of the royal children of the same race, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, the providence of the undefiled Trinity worked through the prophecy just now read. About these I wish to explain their way of life, their advocacy, their alliance, and their perfection for the Church of God—how these good noble branches, the children proved their courage and were brought to perfection, and so on.
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Cyril's own record of the children's symbol and perfection§3
Cyril, the least bishop of Alexandria, is speaking in his own voice about what he found in Daniel's testament and wrote down.
3I, Cyril, the least bishop of the city of Alexandria, encountered this construction of the good testament in the testament of Daniel. I wrote down the symbol and way of life of the holy and blameless children, and their perfection in Christ.
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Closing prayer for the Church's flourishing through the martyrs' intercession§4
Cyril, the author and bishop, closes the sermon with a prayer that the Church may flourish through Christ's grace and the intercession of the three holy young men just commemorated.
4May it happen by the grace of Christ and through the intercession of the victorious martyrs just remembered, that the Church of Christ flourishes and advances, thriving in the fruit of righteousness. May fathers and mothers produce such plants with self-control and godliness, and may young men and virgins be counted worthy of such a way of life and grow together in such virtue with one another. The holy children are perfected on the seventeenth of December.
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