Homilies on the Dormition of the Mother of God · §2.9 · John of Damascus

Homily II — The apostles' farewell hymns

Words of this kind, I think, the apostles, with the whole fullness of the Church, spoke to the blessed Virgin. But when they saw the Mother of God hastening toward her departure from life and longing for it, they turned, filled with divine grace, to hymns for her going forth: they lent their mouths to the Spirit and were carried out of the flesh, longing to depart with the Mother of God as she departed, and departing ahead of her, as far as they could, by the strength of their resolve. And when all together had satisfied their longing and discharged their duty, and had woven a many-flowered and varied crown of sacred hymns, they received the blessing like a treasure given by God, as they spoke their words of farewell, their last words. These words, as far as I know, proclaimed how fleeting the present life is and how quickly it is swept past, and brought into the open the hidden mysteries of the good things to come.

Greek

Τοιαῦτα ἄττα μοι δοκεῖ τοὺς ἀποστόλους σὺν παντὶ τῷ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας πληρώματι τῇ μακαρίᾳ Παρθένῳ προσφθέγγεσθαι. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ πρὸς τὴν ἐκβίωσιν σπεύδουσαν, κἀκείνης ἐφιεμένην ἑώρων τὴν θεομήτορα, πρὸς ὕμνους ἐκδημίους ἐτρέποντο τῆς θείας ἐμφορούμενοι χάριτος, καὶ τῷ στόματι κιχρῶντες τῷ Πνεύματι, καὶ σαρκὸς ἐξιστάμενοι, καὶ συνεκδημεῖν ἐκδημούσῃ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῇ Μητρὶ ἐφιέμενοι, καὶ προεκδημοῦντες ὡς οἷόν τε τῷ τόνῳ τῆς προαιρέσεως. Ἐπεὶ δὲ πάντες ἅμα τὸν πόθον, καὶ τὸ χρέος ἀφωσιώσαντο, καὶ πολυανθῆ τε καὶ ποικίλον ὕμνων ἱερῶν ἐπλέξαντο στέφανον, τὴν εὐλογίαν ὥσπερ τινὰ θεόσδοτον θησαυρὸν ἐκομίζοντο, ἐξιτήριά τε καὶ τελευταῖα προσφθεγγόμενοι ῥήματα. Τάδε ἦν, ὡς ἐμὲ εἰδέναι τοῦ παρόντος βίου τὸ ῥευστὸν καὶ εὐπάροιστον διαγγέλλοντα, καὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν τὰ κεκρυμμένα μυστήρια εἰς τοὐμφανὲς ἄγοντα.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

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.

Report a mistake