st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

SERMONS. 129
The first of these exists only in an Arabic version, and
that plainly defective and incomplete. A Latin trans
lation from this was made by the Abbe Du Four de
Longuerue for Lequien s edition, but the piece calls
for no particular remark. According to Langen, the
genuineness of it is very doubtful, while that of the
next on the same subject cannot by any means be
admitted. We should be sorry indeed to think that
this latter of the two was by Damascene. After a
short introduction, calling on all nations to rejoice at
the good tidings, the homily, if such it can be called,
is made up entirely of exclamatory sentences, each
beginning with the first word of the angelic salutation,
Hail ! in slightly varied forms. It would be impos
sible to give, in an English version, any adequate
conception of the turgid, affected style, with its com
pound epithets setting all the resources of lexico
1
graphy at defiance.
The five homilies which come next in order, are
all on kindred subjects ;
two on the Nativity of the
Blessed Virgin, and three on her Assumption. The
genuineness, at least of the first two of these those
on the Nativity has been called in question ; partly
on the ground that the festival which gave occasion
to them was not instituted till a later date. But there
seems good authority for believing that the feast of
the Nativity of the Virgin (Sept. 8th) was observed in
2
the Greek Church as early as the seventh century.
One account even makes it to have been appointed
1
Within the space of three or four lines we have oupa-
Andreas Cretensis, quoted by Gieseler,
ii.
p. 313.
K