Homilies on the Dormition of the Mother of God · §1.12 · John of Damascus

Homily I — The fountain of life passes through death

Oh, how the fountain of life is carried over to life through the midst of death! Oh, how she who in giving birth passed beyond the boundaries of nature now bows to its laws, and her spotless body is made subject to death! For it must lay aside what is mortal and put on incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:53), since the Master of nature himself did not refuse the experience of death. For he dies in the flesh, and by death he undoes death; through corruption he bestows incorruption, and he makes dying a fountain of resurrection.

Oh, how the Maker of all receives with his own hands her holy soul as it parts from its God-receiving dwelling! He duly honours her who was by nature his servant, and whom, in the untraceable oceans of his love for mankind, he made his own mother in his saving plan: he who truly became flesh and did not feign his becoming man. For they saw, it seems, the ranks of the angels waiting to welcome your departure from among men. Oh, most beautiful departure, which grants the departure to God! For even if this has been granted by God to all his God-bearing servants (and it has been granted, and we believe it), yet the difference between the servants of God and his mother is infinite.

Greek

Ὦ πῶς ἡ πηγὴ τῆς ζωῆς πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν διὰ μέσου θανάτου μετάγεται! ὦ πῶς ἡ ἐν τῷ τόκῳ τοὺς ὅρους ὑπερβᾶσα τῆς φύσεως, νῦν ὑποκύπτει τοῖς ταύτης θεσμοῖς, καὶ θανάτῳ τὸ ἀκήρατον καθυποβάλλεται σῶμα. Δεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸ τὸ θνητὸν ἀποθέμενον τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν ἀμφιάσασθαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ Δεσπότης τῆς φύσεως τὴν τοῦ θανάτου πεῖραν οὐκ ἀπηνήνατο. Θνήσκει γὰρ σαρκὶ, καὶ θανάτῳ λύει τὸν θάνατον, καὶ φθορᾷ τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν χαρίζεται, καὶ τὴν νέκρωσιν ποιεῖ πηγὴν τῆς ἀναστάσεως. Ὦ πῶς ψυχὴν ἱερὰν τοῦ θεοδόχου διαιρουμένην σκηνώματος, οἰκείαις χερσὶν ὁ παντουργὸς ὑποδέχεται, τιμῶν νομίμως, ἣν τῇ φύσει δούλην ὑπάρχουσαν, φιλανθρωπίας ἀνεξιχνιάστοις πελάγεσιν οἰκονομικῶς μητέρα ἑαυτοῦ ἐποιήσατο, ὁ ἀληθείᾳ σαρκωθεὶς, οὐ φενακίσας τὴν ἐνανθρώπησιν. Ἑώρων γὰρ, ὡς δοκεῖ, τῶν ἀγγέλων τὰ τάγματα τὴν σὴν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀποβίωσιν προσδεχόμενα. Ὦ τῆς καλλίστης ἐκδημίας, ἣ τὴν πρὸς Θεὸν ἐκδημίαν χαρίζεται. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς θεοφόροις θεράπουσι πρὸς Θεοῦ τοῦτο κεχάρισται· κεχάρισται γὰρ, καὶ πιστεύομεν· ἀλλά γε τὸ διάφορον ἄπειρον δούλων Θεοῦ καὶ μητρός.

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About this text

John of Damascus's three sermons on the falling asleep of Mary, preached at her tomb at Gethsemane: praise of the Mother of God, the story of her last days and burial, and the old account in which Juvenal of Jerusalem tells the empress Pulcheria that the apostles found the tomb empty.

English translated from the Greek of Migne, Patrologia Graeca 96, cols. Where the printed Greek is plainly wrong, the English follows the reading that the sense and Migne's facing Latin require; each such place is listed below. Psalm numbers are given in the English (Hebrew) numbering.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne, Patrologia Graeca 96 (Paris, 1860), cols. 699-762 (Greek · All three homilies)

Where the prints differ

Homily II, section 1 — Printed διαιρέσεως ('division'); the English follows προαιρέσεως ('a good will'), with the facing Latin 'probaque voluntate'.
Homily II, section 2 — Printed ἐνδέδυμαι ('I have put on') is read as ἐκδέδυμαι ('I have put off' the garments of skin), with the facing Latin 'exui'; printed ὑπερέρχεται is read as ὑπέρχεται ('undergoes'); printed ἀχειροτμήτῳ is taken in the sense 'not made by hands'.
Homily II, section 4 — Printed θέσματα ('ordinances') is rendered 'wills', with the facing Latin 'voluntates'.
Homily II, section 10 — Printed 'our hands' is read as 'my hands', since Mary is speaking (facing Latin 'manuum mearum').
Homily II, section 13 — Printed ἀμελητί ('carelessly') is read as ἀμελλητί ('at once').
Homily II, section 14 — Printed ἐλαίου ('oil') is read as ἐλέου ('mercy'), as Migne's own note directs; printed γεύμασιν is read as ῥεύμασιν ('in their flowing'), with the facing Latin 'fluentis'.
Homily III, section 2 — Printed κλίματι is read as κλίμακι ('ladder'), ἐδείξατο as ἐδέξατο ('received'), and 'fruits of the presence' as 'the bread of the presence', each with the facing Latin.

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