Homilies on the Dormition of the Mother of God · §1.6 · John of Damascus

Homily I — Joachim and Anna, and barren grace made fruitful

Joachim and Anna were her parents. Joachim, like a shepherd of sheep, guided his thoughts no less than his flocks, leading them with authority wherever he wished. For, shepherded like a sheep under the Lord God, he lacked none of the best things (Psalm 23:1). But let no one suppose that by "the best things" I mean what pleases the many, what the minds of the greedy always gape after, things which by nature neither last nor know how to make their owner better: the pleasures of this present life, which cannot gain any lasting strength but run away and dissolve in an instant, even though they had these in great abundance. Away with them! It is not for us to admire these things, nor is this the portion of those who fear the Lord. I mean rather the good things that are truly desired and loved by those of sound mind, which endure for ever, which gladden God and bring forth ripe fruit for those who possess them: the virtues, I mean, which will yield their fruit in their season (Psalm 1:3), that is, in the age to come, the fruit of eternal life, to those at least who have laboured worthily and offered their own toils as far as they were able. For toil goes before, and eternal blessedness follows.

Within himself, as was his habit, Joachim shepherded his own thoughts: in a place of green pasture, making his dwelling in the contemplation of the sacred oracles; beside the water of rest, rejoicing in divine grace; turning them back from what was out of place, and leading them in paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:2-3).

Anna, whose name means "grace", was no less like him in her ways and was his partner in marriage, rich in every good thing, yet held fast, for some mystical reason, by the infirmity of barrenness. For grace was truly barren, having no power to bear fruit in human souls, because all had turned aside, together they had become worthless; there was none who understood, none who sought after God (Psalm 14:2-3). Then the good God looked down, and took pity on the work of his own hand, and, wishing to save it, loosed the barrenness of grace (of Anna, I mean, whose mind was set on God); and she bore a child the like of whom has never been before, nor ever will be again. The loosing of her barrenness showed most clearly that the world's barrenness of good things would be loosed, and that the stem of unspeakable blessedness would bear fruit.

Greek

Ἰωακεὶμ καὶ Ἄννα οἱ ταύτης γεννήτορες· Ἰωακεὶμ, ὥσπερ τις προβάτων ποιμὴν, οὐχ ἧττον νέμων τοὺς λογισμοὺς, ἄγων τε κατ' ἐξουσίαν ὅποι βούλοιτο, ἢ τὰ θρέμματα. Ὑπὸ Κυρίῳ γὰρ τῷ Θεῷ ὡς πρόβατον ποιμαινόμενος, οὐδενὸς τῶν ἀρίστων ἐστέρητο. Ἄριστα δὲ λέγειν μηδεὶς οἰέσθω με, τὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς καταθύμια, πρὸς ἃ ἡ τῶν λιχνοτέρων ἀεὶ διάνοια κέχηνεν, ἃ μήτε παραμένειν πέφυκε, μήτε βελτίονα δρᾷν τὸν κεκτημένον ἐπίσταται, τὰ τοῦ παρόντος βίου τερπνὰ, ἃ μὴ δύναται βεβαίαν δύναμιν κτήσασθαι, ἀλλὰ περὶ αὐτὰ καταῤῥεῖ, καὶ αὐθωρὸν διαλύεται, εἰ καὶ τούτων πολλὴν εἶχον τὴν περιουσίαν. Ἄπαγε· οὐ πρὸς ἡμῶν ταῦτα θαυμάζειν, οὐδ' αὕτη μερὶς τῶν φοβουμένων τὸν Κύριον· ἀλλὰ τὰ ἀγαθὰ, τὰ ὄντως τοῖς εὖ φρονοῦσιν ἐφετὰ καὶ ἐράσμια, ἃ μένει διαιωνίζοντα, Θεὸν μὲν εὐφραίνοντα, καρπὸν δὲ τοῖς κεκτημένοις ἀνατέλλοντα ὥριμον, τὰς ἀρετάς φημι, αἳ τὸν καρπὸν ἐν καιρῷ αὐτῶν, τῷ αἰῶνι λέγω μέλλοντι, ζωὴν αἰώνιον δώσουσι, τοῖς γε ἀξίως φιλοπονήσασι, καὶ προσενέγκασι τὸν ἑαυτῶν πόνων ὅση δύναμις. Πόνος μὲν γὰρ προπορεύεται, ἕπεται δὲ μακαριότης αἰώνιος. Ἐντὸς Ἰωακεὶμ συνήθως τοὺς οἰκείους ἐποίμανε λογισμοὺς, ἐν τόπῳ μὲν χλόης, τῶν ἱερῶν λογίων τῇ θεωρίᾳ ἐναυλιζόμενος, ἐπὶ ὕδατος δὲ ἀναπαύσεως τῆς θείας εὐφραινόμενος χάριτος, ἐξ ἀτόπων ἐπιστρέφων, ἐπὶ δὲ τρίβους δικαιοσύνης ὁδηγῶν. Ἄννα δὲ, ἣ χάρις ἑρμηνεύεται, οὐχ ἧττον ὁμότροπος ἦν, καὶ ὁμόζυγος, πᾶσι μὲν ἀγαθοῖς κομῶσα, μυστικῷ δέ τινι λόγῳ κατεχομένη τῷ τῆς στειρώσεως ἀῤῥωστήματι. Ἐστείρευε γὰρ ὄντως ἡ χάρις, ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχαῖς καρποφορεῖν οὐκ ἰσχύουσα· διότι πάντες ἐξέκλιναν, ἅμα ἠχρειώθησαν, οὐκ ἦν ὁ συνιῶν, οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν Θεόν. Εἶτα ὁ ἀγαθὸς Θεὸς ἐπιδὼν, καὶ κατοικτειρήσας τῆς οἰκείας χειρὸς τὸ πλαστούργημα, καὶ τοῦτο βουληθεὶς ἀνασώσασθαι, λύει τὴν τῆς χάριτος στείρωσιν, τῆς Ἄννης φημὶ τῆς θεόφρονος, καὶ τίκτει παῖδα, οἷα οὐ πρότερον γέγονεν, οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν γενήσεται. Ἡ δὲ τῆς στειρώσεως λύσις ἐδήλου σαφέστατα τὴν κοσμικὴν τῶν ἀγαθῶν λυθήσεσθαι στείρωσιν, καὶ τῆς ἀποῤῥήτου μακαριότητος καρπογονεῖσθαι τὸ στέλεχος.

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