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

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SERMONS.
139
John s ministrations at Antioch ;
while his elevation
to the see of Constantinople is described if descrip
tion it can be called in language so metaphorical
that it costs the reader some little pains to get at the
facts implied. "And so,"
the account continues
(c.
ix.),
after spending two years in the cave, keep
ing his soul as well as his body in sleepless watch,
and engrossed, as if set free from the flesh, in the
study of the divine oracles, he banished all ignorance
and gave admission to the light of the true knowledge.
And if he was forced to take some measure of sleep
for nature s recovery and refreshment, he discharged
this duty to nature in such a degree only, as not once
to lie
down, either by night or by day," during those
two years." In this way his bodily passions were
subdued. Then returning back again to his native
place (Antioch), and coming
to be in the rank of a
presbyter of the Church, he repaid the cost of his
maintenance, like a grateful son, to the mother who had
nursed him. And then, in God s providence, he was
transferred to the empress of cities (Constantinople), and
married the daughter of the great High-priest "(c.x.).
We have to recall the words of the Psalmist about
the King s daughter, all glorious within (Ps. xlv. 13),
before we perceive this last sentence to mean that
Chrysostom became bishop of the Imperial Church
of Constantinople, which he thus espoused as a
bride. 1
And, in general, we may say
of the homilies
1
Damascene has no excuse for this high-flown style in the
passage of Palladius, which is clearly his authority. That writer
simply says : "He is thus brought and elected Bishop of the
Church of Constantinople." Gallandius, ubi. sup., p. 272.