St. John Chrysostom LETTERS TO OLYMPIAS : Index.

St. John ChrysostomLETTERS TO OLYMPIAS : C.2.repetition of assaults, to inflict upon him that deadly blow, thedestruction of his children, so cruelly inflicted moreover that all ofeither sex were destroyed at the same moment in early youth and bya violent end, and so instantaneous was their death that it involvedtheir burial also. For their father neither saw them laid upon a bed,nor kissed their hands, nor heard their last words, nor touched theirhands and knees, nor did he shut their mouths, or close their eyeswhen they were about to die, acts which tend not a little to consoleparents who are being parted from their children; neither did hefollow some of them to burial, and find others on his return home toconsole him for those who had departed; but he heard that as theywere reclining on their couches at a banquet, a banquet full of love,not of excess, a table of brotherly kindness, they were alloverwhelmed; and blood, and wine, the cups and the ceiling, thetable, and the dust, and the limbs of his children, were all mingledtogether. Nevertheless when he heard these things, and othersbefore these which were also distressing; for they too had perishedin a distressing way; flocks and whole herds had been destroyed,the latter having been consumed by fire sent down from heaven, (sosaid the evil messenger of this tragedy,) and the former having beenall seized together by various enemies, and cut to pieces as well asthe shepherds themselves; nevertheless I say when he saw thisgreat storm stirred up in a brief moment of time affecting his lands,his house, his cattle, and his children, when he saw billow followingbillow, and long lines of rocks, and the darkness was profound, andthe surging waves unbearable, even then he was not tortured bydespondency, and scarcely seemed to feel the things which hadhappened, save so far as he was a man and a father. But when hewas delivered over to sickness and sores, then did he also long fordeath, then did he also bewail himself and lament, so that you mayunderstand how this kind of suffering is more severe than all others,and this form of patience the highest of all. Nor is the Devil himselfunaware, of this fact; for when after having set in motion all thesetrials he perceived that the hero remained untroubled andundismayed he rushed to this as the greatest contest of all, sayingthat all the other calamities were bearable, as loss of child, orproperty, or anything else (for this is what is meant by theexpression "skin for skin") but the deadly blow was when pain wasinflicted on a man's body. And therefore when he had been worstedafter this contest, he had no longer a word to utter, although onformer occasions he had made the most strenuous and shamelessresistance. In this instance however he found that he could notinvent any further shameless device, but hid his face and retreated.file:///D|/Documenta%20Chatolica%20Omnia/99%20-%20Pr...i/mbs%20Library/001%20-Da%20Fare/01/ToOlympias-2.htm (3 of 7)2006-05-31 21:41:26