Thanksgiving Address to Origen · §12 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Not yet virtuous, but made lovers of virtue

Gregory admits he has not yet gained the virtues, but Origen has made him a lover of them, whose goal is to draw near to God.

And indeed, because of our slowness and sluggishness, he has yet to make us just and prudent, self-controlled or courageous, earnestly as he strives for it. We neither have nor have come anywhere near any virtue at all, human or divine; far from it. For these are the greatest, the lofty virtues, and neither kind can be grasped, nor gained by chance, by anyone into whom God does not breathe power. We are not so well suited to them by nature, nor do we yet profess to be worthy to attain them, since through laziness and weakness we have not done all that those must do who aim at the best and seek after perfection. So we have yet to become just or self-controlled, or to have any of the other virtues. But lovers we are, loving with the keenest love; that, perhaps, was all that lay in his power, and this wonderful man, the friend and advocate of the virtues, made us such long ago. By his own virtue he kindled in us a love of the beauty of justice, whose truly golden face he showed us; of prudence, which all desire; of true wisdom, most lovely; of godlike self-control, which is steadiness and peace of soul for all who gain it; of courage, that most wonderful endurance; and above all of piety, which people rightly call the mother of the virtues. For piety is the beginning and the end of all the virtues. Starting from it, the other virtues too would come to us most easily, if we cared for the rest of them out of desire and eagerness to win for ourselves what every person must, at least every person who is not godless or a lover of pleasure: to become a friend of God and on familiar terms with Him. We would tend those virtues so that we might draw near to God not unworthy and soiled, but with every virtue and with wisdom as our good escort and most wise priest. And the goal of it all, I think, is nothing else than this: to draw near to God, made like Him by a pure mind, and to abide in Him.

Greek

Καὶ δῆτα δικαίους μὲν καὶ φρονίμους καὶ σώφρονας, ἢ ἀνδρείους ἡμᾶς ὑπὸ ἡμετέρας βραδυτῆτος καὶ νωχελίας, καὶ ταῦτα πάνυ σπεύδων, ἔτι μέλλει καταστήσασθαι, οὔτε ἔχοντας, οὔτε ἐγγύς που γενομένους οὐδ' ἡστινοσοῦν ἀρετῆς ἀνθρώπων ἢ θείας, πολλοῦ γε δεῖ. αὗται γὰρ μέγισται ὑψηλαί, καὶ οὐδ' ἑτέρα ληπτέα, οὐδὲ τῷ τυχεῖν, ὅτῳ μὴ Θεός γε ἐμπνέοι δύναμιν· ἡμεῖς τε οὔτε πεφύκαμεν οὕτως ἐπιτηδείως, οὔτε καὶ ἄξιοι εἶναι ἐπιτυχεῖν οὐδέπω ὁμολογοῦμεν· οὐ ποιήσαντες ἀπὸ ῥᾳθυμίας καὶ ἀσθενείας πάντα, ἅπερ τοὺς τῶν ἀρίστων ἐφιεμένους, καὶ τὰ τέλεια μνωμένους χρή. δίκαιοι μὲν οὖν ἢ σώφρονες, ἤ τινα τῶν ἄλλων ἔχειν ἀρετῶν, ἔτι μέλλομεν· ἐραστὰς δὲ ἡμᾶς ὅτι δριμύτατον ἐρῶντας ἔρωτα, ὅσπερ ἐπ' αὐτῷ μόνον ἴσως, καὶ πάλαι κατεστήσατο ὁ θαυμαστὸς οὗτος, καὶ φίλος τῶν ἀρετῶν, καὶ προήγορος· ἐμποιήσας ἔρωτα τῇ αὐτοῦ ἀρετῇ, καὶ τοῦ κάλλους τῆς δικαιοσύνης, ἧς τὸ χρύσεον ὄντως ἔδειξεν ἡμῖν πρόσωπον, καὶ φρονήσεως τῆς πᾶσιν ἐφεσίμου, καὶ τῆς ἐρασμιωτάτης σοφίας τῆς ἀληθοῦς, καὶ σωφροσύνης τῆς θεοειδοῦς, ἥ ἐστι ψυχῆς εὐστάθεια καὶ εἰρήνη πᾶσι τοῖς κτησαμένοις αὐτήν, καὶ ἀνδρείας τῆς θαυμασιωτάτης ὑπομονῆς, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν εὐσεβείας, ἣν μητέρα φασὶ τῶν ἀρετῶν, ὀρθῶς λέγοντες. αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἀρχὴ καὶ τελευτὴ πασῶν τῶν ἀρετῶν· ἀπὸ ταύτης τε γὰρ ὁρμωμένοις, ῥᾷστα ἂν ἡμῖν ἐπιγένοιντο καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ ἀρεταί· εἰ τοῦθ' ὃ δὴ πάντα ἄνθρωπον, τόν γε μὴ ἄθεον ἢ φιλήδονον, τὸ φίλον γενέσθαι καὶ προσήγορον Θεῷ, κτήσασθαι ἑαυτοῖς ἐπιθυμοῦντες καὶ σπεύδοντες, τῶν λοιπῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπιμελοίμεθα· ὅπως μὴ ἀνάξιοι καὶ ῥυπῶντες, μετὰ δὲ πάσης ἀρετῆς καὶ σοφίας, ὥσπερ τινὸς ἀγαθοῦ πομποῦ καὶ ἱερέως σοφωτάτου, προσίοιμεν τῷ Θεῷ. τό γε πάντων τέλος οὐχ ἕτερόν τι οἶμαι, ἢ καθαρῷ τῷ νῷ ἐξομοιωθέντα προσελθεῖν τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ μένειν ἐν αὐτῷ.

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About this text

Gregory's farewell speech to his teacher Origen: how a pagan boy bound for law school in Berytus was led to Caesarea, how Origen taught him logic, natural science, ethics and the reading of Scripture, and his grief at leaving. A fresh English translation of the whole address.

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) wrote this address to his teacher Origen. The speech is an expression of thanks and praise, though Gregory feels inadequate to the task of honoring his teacher.

The occasion is Gregory's farewell to Origen's school at Caesarea. He begins by explaining that he has neither spoken nor written for eight years, and has only listened to philosophers who value accurate investigation over polished speech. He then tells how a guardian angel led him, a pagan boy bound for law studies in Berytus, to Origen, and how Origen trained him in logic, natural science, ethics and the reading of Scripture. He ends by lamenting his departure and asking Origen to pray for him.

A reader will meet Gregory himself as the speaker, and Origen as the subject of the speech. Origen is described as a man who appears human, but to those who can perceive the greatness of his character and habits, seems endowed with greater and nearly divine ornaments.

The opening section (to the point where Gregory turns to his subject) was translated from the Latin column of the Opera omnia print (Paris, 1622). Everything after it, to the closing prayer, was translated from that print's Greek column, read from the page images; the facing Latin was used to settle damaged or abbreviated words. Where the print is hard to construe, a few readings follow Koetschau's edition (1894); each one is named in the translator notes. The older Ante-Nicene Fathers English was used only as a sense check for the opening section.

Printed text used

Translated from Opera omnia, Greek and Latin (Paris: Sonnius, Morel and Cramoisy, 1622), page images (Greek and Latin · Whole address: Latin column for section 1, Greek column for sections 2.1-19)
Translated from Latin of the opening section (Latin · Section 1)
Also checked DjVu text of the same print (Latin and Greek (machine-read text) · Opening)

Where the prints differ

Section 1 — Translated from the Latin column; the Greek of this opening was not used. Long-s and column joins expanded (ductu; nec aut scripsi; historiamve; arte nostra); the editor's argument and notes left out.
Sections 5.1, 5.3 and 6.2 — Abbreviated words read from the page images and the facing Latin: 'father' (πατρός), 'toward our sister' (πρὸς τὴν ἀδελφήν), 'through the whole of this life' (διὰ παντός), 'handing over his charge' (τὴν οἰκονομίαν παραδιδούς), 'with difficulty' (δυσχερῶς).
Section 6.3 — The print's doubtful participle (βλέψαν) is rendered with Koetschau's reading βλάψαν ('without doing it any harm').
Sections 7.2 and 8 — The print runs one sentence across the break; it is translated once, at the start of section 8, where Koetschau begins chapter 8.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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