Sermon on All Saints

Name: Sermon on All Saints
Author: Gregory Thaumaturgus

Sermo in omnes sanctos

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270 AD) · written c. 240–270 AD

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Contents3 passages

1The martyrs' festival compels speech and displays victory over death
2The devil caught on his own hook, and heaven opened
3The devil's short laughter and endless grief

Author

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270 AD) — Gregory the Wonderworker, a student of Origen at Caesarea who became bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus. His farewell address to Origen gives a rare picture of how Origen taught.

All works by Gregory Thaumaturgus

About this text

A sermon for All Saints, attributed to Gregory Thaumaturgus, in a fresh English translation of the whole sermon. Scholars dispute the attribution.

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) was a third-century bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus. He studied with Origen in Caesarea in Palestine for about five years before returning to his native city, where Phaedimus, bishop of Amasea, sought him out and ordained him bishop even though Gregory initially tried to hide from the responsibility. During the Decian persecution of 250–251 he withdrew with his community into the mountains, and after peace was restored he instituted liturgical celebrations honoring the martyrs who had died.

This homily was delivered at a festal assembly in honor of the holy martyrs, a crowded gathering of believers celebrating their victory over death and the devil. The preacher begins by wishing to remain silent because his speech is unpolished, but the splendor of the festival and the zeal of the congregation compel him to speak.

The sermon presents the martyrs as those who strengthen the weak and draw all ages to the celebration. They leap against death, laugh at swords, plunder the tyrant's rage, and make victory their own in their very fall, scattering their own limbs in order to bind their own souls. The opening reaches its climax in the victory of Christ over Hades and death, quoting the taunt, 'Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, your victory?' The sermon goes on to tell how the devil, who brought death in, was caught on the hook of Christ's Godhead when he swallowed the bait of His humanity, how Christ brought Adam up from Hades and opened heaven, and how the devil's three days of laughter turned to endless grief. It ends by calling the hearers to rout him by choosing the opposite of what he chose, and closes with a doxology. A reader should know that 'Hades' is kept as the name for the realm of the dead, not hell, and that the quoted taunt echoes Hosea 13:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:55. The phrase 'the infant age crawling here' means babies and young children brought to the festival.

Datec. 240–270 AD (attribution disputed)

English follows the MGR Greek extract for the whole sermon. ANF 6 was consulted only as a sense check for the opening; the rest was translated from the Greek alone.

Printed text used

Translated from MGR / Documenta Catholica Omnia extract (Greek · Whole sermon; sections 2 – 3 read from this print)
Translated from Greek text of the opening (Greek · Section 1)

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.

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The martyrs' festival compels speech and displays victory over death§1

The preacher opens the sermon by explaining why he speaks despite his unpolished tongue, then describes how the holy martyrs draw all ages to the festival and leap against death.

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1Bless, Master. I wanted to remain silent and not publish a tongue speaking rustically, for silence is a great thing whenever the word is cheap, and stillness is admirable when lack of learning is present; and the highest philosopher is one who hides ignorance through silence. This is what I too chose to do, knowing the weakness of my own tongue. But the sight of what I see drags me toward speaking. Since, then, the festival is splendid and the theater is packed, and our assembly is boiling in faith, I will turn to the beginning of my speech with confidence—especially since the Father prays, the Church strives alongside, and the holy martyrs strengthen my weakness for this task.

For these martyrs persuaded old men to complete a long journey with much sweat, and they compelled them to steady their faltering steps by the staff of the word. They urged the female sex to travel together with young men, and they led the infant age crawling here. The martyrs leap against death, laugh at swords, plunder the tyrant's rage, seize death as the agent of immortality, make victory their own in their very fall, and leap through their bodies toward heaven. They scatter their limbs in order to bind their souls; they break the bars of life in order to open the keys of heaven.

Let the one who disbelieves that death has been destroyed, that Hades has been trampled, that its bonds have been torn apart, that the tyrant has been bound—let that one look at the martyrs tumbling against death and acclaiming the victory of Christ. O the wonder! From the time Christ plundered Hades, human beings have triumphed over death. Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory? (Hosea 13:14 / 1 Corinthians 15:55). Hades has been plundered, and the devil too; he has been stripped of his ancient armor, and he has been cast out from his own dominion.

Greek · §1

The Greek is on each section page: §1

The devil caught on his own hook, and heaven opened§2

The devil, who brought death into being, is undone by death: swallowing the bait of Christ's humanity, he is caught on the hook of His Godhead. Christ brings Adam up from Hades, shuts its gates, opens heaven, and, unlike the angels on Jacob's ladder, comes down and goes up without ever leaving any place, for He fills all things.

2Just as Goliath had his head cut off with his own sword (1 Samuel 17:51), so too the devil, who gave birth to death, is routed through death. He finds that the easy method of his own deceit is a strong instrument of his own destruction. Impaled on the Godhead as on a hook, having swallowed the familiar bait and seized God instead of a man, the one who thought he was catching is plainly caught.

This is why martyrs leap upon the dragon's head and look down on every kind of torture. For from the time the second Adam brought the first Adam up from the depths of Hades (1 Corinthians 15:45–47), as He brought Jonah up from the sea monster (Jonah 1:17–2:10), and to the shame of the deceiver made the deceived a citizen of heaven, from that time the gates of Hades have been shut and the gates of heaven opened, granting unhindered entrance to those who go up in faith.

Long ago Jacob saw a ladder set up and reaching to heaven, and the angels of God going up and coming down (Genesis 28:12). But now the Lover of mankind, who became man for the sake of man, has kicked the enemy of mankind with the foot of the Godhead, has carried man in the hand of His kindness, and has made it possible to walk the untrodden heights of the sky on human feet.

Then the angels went up and came down; but now the Angel of Great Counsel (Isaiah 9:6) does not go up and come down. For from where, and to where, would He move, who is present everywhere, who fills all things, and who holds the ends of the world in His hand (Psalm 95:4)? For He came down once and went up once, not by any shift of His nature, but by the condescension of His kindness and love for mankind: the Word seated with the Father, the Word dwelling in the womb, the Word found everywhere, and never separated from the God of all.

Greek · §2

The Greek is on each section page: §2

The devil's short laughter and endless grief§3

The devil's laughter at human misfortune lasted three days, but his grief is endless. Christ forged in the Virgin's womb the arrow that killed him, and the fallen archangel now crawls like a snake. The sermon ends by calling the hearers to rout him by choosing the opposite of what he chose, and closes with a doxology.

3Once the devil laughed a broad laugh at human nature, and made merry over our misfortunes as though they were feasts. But his laughter lasted three days, while his lament is everlasting. The broad laughter prepared for him a broader lament: tears that never stop, weeping that finds no comfort, an arrow in the heart.

The Commander forged this arrow by fire against the enemy in the furnace of the Virgin, of such a kind as He willed and in the way He willed. He hardened its edge by the working of the unconquerable Godhead, tempered it in the water of the spotless baptism, sharpened it on the sufferings that knew no passion, and polished it through the mystical resurrection. Then by Himself, with His whole force, He put the accursed one to death.

What words, then, could describe either our joy or his calamity? For he who was once an archangel is now a devil. He who once lived in the heavens is now seen crawling on the earth like a snake (Genesis 3:14). He who once exulted with the cherubim is now shut up in the pen of the swine, in anguish. We shall rout him by setting our minds on the opposite of what he chose, through the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen.

Greek · §3

The Greek is on each section page: §3

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