Слово 25

In praise of the philosopher Heron 168, who returned from exile Although I am sick in body, I will praise the philosopher (for this is also a sign of wisdom); and I will do it very justly. For he is a philosopher, and I am a servant of wisdom; why is it proper for me to praise him in order to prove my wisdom, if nothing else than, at least, astonishment at the philosopher. And according to my reasoning, we must either be philosophical ourselves, or respect philosophical wisdom, if we do not want to be completely deprived of all goodness and fall into condemnation for foolishness; whereas we are gifted with reason and through the word we flow towards the Word. Show us 169 your wisdom, which is known in everything else, by allowing yourself to be praised, and patiently listen to the praise. For I will begin to praise not out of flattery (I know the lack of love of a wise man; besides, my word will not add anything to deeds, and will it diminish their dignity with its poverty), but in order to benefit myself. And philosophy will no longer neglect this, which works on this and takes care of it in order to benefit our life in some way. And the first of the benefits is to praise the good, because praise paves the way for competition, competition for virtue, and virtue for bliss, which is the summit of desires, the goal of all aspirations of the lover of knowledge. So, come, the best and most excellent of philosophers (I will even add) and of witnesses of the truth! Come, denouncer of false wisdom, which consists of mere words and charms with sweet speech, but cannot and does not want to rise above this! Come, equally skilled in virtue, both contemplative and active, you who, even in clothing alien to us 170, philosophize in our own way. Or maybe your clothes are not alien to us; since angels also tend to be luminous and shining when they are depicted in bodily form, which I consider a symbol of their natural purity. Come, my philosopher and sage (for how long can one love wisdom if there is no wisdom?)! Come, dog 171 ; I will call you this not for shamelessness, but for boldness, not for gluttony, not for limiting yourself to the essential, not for giving, but for preserving what is good, for vigilance in protecting souls, for being affectionate to everyone who is your own in virtue, but barking at all strangers! Come and stand near this Sacrifice, at this mysterious Table, next to me, who through this Sacrifice secretly leads to deification! Teaching, life, and purification through suffering lead you to it. Get started; I will crown you with our crowns, and not among Olympia, not in the small disgrace of Hellas, not for excellence in wrestling, or in hand-to-hand combat or in running, not for other unimportant feats performed for unimportant rewards and in honor of any of the heroes or demons glorified by misfortune and fable (for the like of this is respected and honored by them 172, after foolishness has called upon itself helpers time and custom, which has become law), but before God, before the angels, before the entire fullness of the Church, I will loudly proclaim about you, who defeated the lies of heresy, for the glory of the Living God, who taught us to suffer through our own sufferings, who won for such a reward in order to accept the heavenly kingdom, to become a god not subject to suffering. What kind of proclamation is this? If you want it to be shorter and more specific, then I will say: here is the most undeceitful ascetic of the truth, even to the point of bleeding, a champion of the Trinity and a persecutor of persecutors, who inflicted evil on them with his readiness to suffer; for nothing brings down a persecutor more than the jealousy of the sufferer! And if you want my proclamation to be more complete and extensive, then I will say: here is the best of the best and the noblest of the noble! I’m not talking about the nobility that the mob understands. Get away from him and me! It is not for us and not for philosophers to marvel at the nobility that originates in fables, graves and long-rotten arrogance, is communicated with blood and with letters, and which is given by the night or the hand of a ruler, perhaps an ignoble one, who also prescribes to be noble, as well as to do this or that. On the contrary, I mean nobility, the hallmark of which is piety, good morality and ascent to the first Good, our beginning. Such nobility is one proof. And our valiant husband was not only an ascetic himself, but also descended from martyrs, and had at home a model of virtue. In wisdom he is a citizen of the entire Universe; because Cynic philosophy does not allow one to be limited within narrow limits. But according to the flesh, a citizen of the city of Alexandria, who stands alongside us 173 or follows us, directly, and in everything surpassing other cities, is primarily distinguished by ardor, and what is most beautiful, Christian ardor and such a commitment to Christianity that comes from desire, but is rooted in nature itself. For when piety is inflamed, then jealousy is born; and jealousy is a barrier to faith. Thus he was brought up and received an education befitting his origin and purpose. When the time has come to choose a type of life (which I believe is the basis for both good and bad behavior), he sees something great, courageous, exceeding the choice of ordinary people. He despises luxury, wealth and power more than those who are excessive in this despise others; he ridicules and rejects luxury as the first of all sufferings, wealth as extreme poverty, and power as the height of powerlessness; because he does not consider it a good thing, because he makes those who have acquired it not better, but most often worse, and those who have it do not remain with them until the end. Philosophy entrusts dominion over the passions, strives with all vigor for the good, even before separation from matter renounces the material, fights with the visible, with all the greatness of natural forces, clinging to the constant with all the nobility of will. And when I became firmly established in such thoughts, I no longer considered it necessary to discuss which wisdom was better to choose: the external one, which, under the guise and guise of wisdom, plays with the shadows of truth, or ours, outwardly humble, but exalted inwardly and leading to God. On the contrary, with all his heart he chooses our wisdom, without even turning a thought to the worst and without being carried away by the elegance of speech, which the Greek philosophers think so much about. The first task of his philosophy is to find out which of our paths is preferable and more useful, both for him and for every Christian. For he considered it a sign of the most perfect and wise soul to embrace the particular and the general in every matter; because each of us received existence not for himself alone, but for everyone who has the same nature with him, and was created by one Creator and for the same purposes. Moreover, he saw that a deserted, solitary life, withdrawn and alienated from communication with people, although in itself important and lofty, even beyond human strength, is nevertheless limited only to those who succeed in it, and is denied sociability and condescension - the properties of love, which, as he knew, is one of the first praiseworthy virtues. In addition, such a life, since it is not revealed in deeds, cannot be verified and compared with other types of life. On the contrary, social life, spent in the circle of others, besides serving as a test of virtue, and extends to many, and comes closer to God's economy, which both created everything, and bound everything with ties of love, and our race, after it had lost its goodness through the sin that came, cried out again through union and treatment with us. When he realized and exhausted this with his mind, and at the same time recognized it as one of the good deeds - to humble the arrogance of Hellenic philosophers, who think to give themselves importance with a cloak and beard; then what does he do? And how does one begin philosophy? Observes a certain middle ground between their vanity and our wisdom; From them he borrows appearance and clothing, from us - truth and height. Therefore, the Peripatetics, Academicians, venerable Stoics, and the blind chance of Epicurus with atoms and pleasure, crowned with a wave, like one of them - a poet 174, are sent away and driven away from themselves as far as possible. In Cynic philosophy, he condemned atheism, and praised abstinence from excess, and became, as you see now, a dog against real dogs, a wise man against the foolish, and a Christian for everyone. He shames the arrogance of the cynics by the similarity of appearance, and the shallowness of some of ours by the novelty of attire, and proves that piety does not consist in unimportant things, and wisdom does not consist in gloominess, but in firmness of soul, in purity of mind and in a sincere inclination to goodness. And at the same time, you can have any appearance you want, and treatment with anyone, and remain alone with yourself, hiding your mind from feelings, and live in the circle of people and acquaintances, secluded in society itself, being philosophical among the unphilosophical, like Noah’s ark, which rushed over the waters of the flood, or like the great Moses’ vision - the bush that the blazing fire did not burn, not suffer harm from the treatment of the people, or tolerate not more like a diamond under blows, and even to the best of your ability, correct others by your example. The fruit of such a philosophy was not cities built on words, not some, as they themselves called, skindaps 175 and tragelaphs 176 - meaningless combinations of letters, not categories, decompositions and mixtures, not simvams and parasymvams 177, but a wound on a lame leg - “parasimvama” “., and all the wisdom of names, not some features that have no place anywhere 178, not mutual combinations of stars and constellations, invented as an insult to God's Providence. For he considered all this to be secondary and accessory subjects, which one could do for fun, so as not to become a laughing stock for people who pretend to be experts in such things. The first and most important thing for him was to speak the truth before princes, to have boldness before kings, in imitation of the Divine David, who spoke before “kings and was not ashamed” (Ps. 119:46) to stop the recklessness of the worried mob, the power of irritated masters, the exhaustion of dissenting families, the rudeness of the ignorant, the arrogance of scientists, the exaltation of the rich, the arrogance of those living in contentment; poverty leading to crime; anger, swift and depriving of reason; immoderation in pleasures, intemperance of laughter, excessiveness of sorrow; to end the turmoil of youth, the cowardice of old age, the loneliness of widowhood, the despair of orphanhood. Wouldn’t every sane person prefer all this to syllogisms, lines and looking at the stars, judging that if everyone were engaged in inferences, became geometers and astronomers, then no benefit would come from this for our life, but rather everything would be upset; on the contrary, if there is not a single one of the virtues I have listed in society, will everything necessarily fall into disorder and confusion? And is it necessary to say how much better and higher these virtues are than the pride of Antisthenes, the gluttony of Diogenes and the communal womanism of Crates? Let us spare these philosophers, at least out of respect for the title 179, so that they too may receive some benefit from this man. But in order not to dwell on chastity, temperance, humility, friendliness, sociability, love of mankind and other virtues in which our philosopher excels everyone, let us turn to what is last in order of time, and first in importance. There was a time that after the heresies there was silence, and the Simons, Marcions, Valentines, Basilides, Cerdons, Cerinths and Carpocrates, who for a long time had dissected the God of all and for the Good raised a battle against the Creator 180, with all their nonsense and absurdities were absorbed in their own Depth, and were rightly given over to Silence 181; and also left the stage and departed - the crafty spirit of Montana 182, the darkness of Manes 183, the cruelty of Navat 184, and Sabellius’s malicious defense of unity of command 185; and Navat’s teaching was excommunicated along with others opposing the truth, and Sabelli’s, due to its lack of foundation, was completely rejected and despised. Meanwhile, nothing else upset the Church, for persecution made it even more glorious through the suffering itself. But after some time a new storm rises on the Church - this abyss of untruth, the fullness of wickedness, this legion of spirits, the tongue of the Antichrist, the mind that spoke “untruth on high” (Ps. 72:8), which cut off the Divinity, the one whose undertaking is terrible, and whose end is even more terrible and worthy of the betrayal of Judas, which he dared to do against our Savior, this Arius, who decently received his name from fury 186. He, starting from Alexandria, where he conceived his terrible doctrine, after, like an uncontrollable flame ignited by a spark, passed through most of the Universe, he is overthrown by our Fathers and the pious host, which then assembled at Nicaea and confined Theology to precise limits and expressions. Then comes a bad reign 187, and evil comes to life again, as if festering wounds open up and burst through; as if fierce wolves, surrounding us on all sides, are tormenting the Church. Priests arm themselves against priests, classes rebel with fury against classes, the Tsar himself gives impudence to wickedness, writes laws against Orthodoxy, and under him people 188 become stronger who cannot be called either husbands or wives. But who will properly depict the disasters of that time - expulsion, descriptions of property, dishonor, relocation to the desert of many thousands and entire cities, living there in poverty in the open air, suffering from rain and cold and forced to flee even from the desert itself, because it does not relieve danger? Who will depict these most severe disasters 189 - beatings, deaths, bringing to shame bishops leading a wise life, husbands, wives, youths, elders? Who will depict how rulers of the people invent cruel torments, add new ones to those invented, serve wickedness, and often only deserve approval by inflicting cruelty even beyond the will of the sovereign? This famous persecution has recently come to an end, and Persia has perfectly solved our case, destroying the destroyer, and in retribution for the blood of many, satisfying the blood of one. And now a shameful persecution 190 begins, under the pretext of protecting Christians from wickedness, it attacks true Christians; and it is all the more terrible than before because then the feat was famous and glorious, but now suffering is not commendable, at least in the eyes of people who judge suffering incorrectly. Do you want me to draw tears from everyone who is coming, and perhaps even from the most steadfast one, who is not overcome by any passion, by recalling one of the events that happened at that time? The witnesses to what I am telling are numerous, many have heard the sad tale of this suffering, and I think that the history of this time will be passed on to future times. A ship carrying one presbyter 191, in distress not for a bad deed, but for the Faith, is equipped for the sea, so as not to save, but to destroy the sailor. And he, like a pious man, willingly enters the ship, fire is given to him as a companion; and the persecutor delights in a new kind of torment. What a sight! What an atrocity! The ship is in the middle of the sea, the shores are covered with spectators, and from them some watch with pleasure, others are tormented. Is it possible to briefly describe a lot to me? - The fire ignites, consumes the ship, and with it the sailor; the flame mixes with water, two opposing elements act together to torment the pious; they both share one body. There is an extraordinary lamp above the sea; another may have approached him as if he were meek and friendly; but, as he approached, he found a sad and incredible sight - a ship without a helmsman, a shipwreck without a storm, a presbyter turned to ashes, or even not to ashes, because he too was scattered across the waters. The priesthood was not given the respect necessary to have an honorable death, and if not death, then at least a grave, which is not denied to the wicked. Such is the ship rigged by the wicked, and such is the end of the godly; and the heavenly and punitive fire is never more luminous than the fire that illuminated this event! But what do I care about a stranger? It’s time to begin your own feat and your suffering for piety, which, like a beautiful seal, you attached to all your previous deeds. The evil of this heresy had full force in your city, where it began. Meanwhile, the most holy eye of the Universe, the Hierarch of the Priests, your mentor in confession, who taught with his own deeds for piety, this great voice, the pillar of Faith, this (if I may say so) second lamp and forerunner of Christ, who rested in a good old age, full of favorable days, after slander, after exploits, after many rumors about the hand, after the living dead 193, to The Trinity, for which he lived and for which he suffered misfortunes, resettles himself (I am sure that from this description everyone will recognize Athanasius). Then a new Egyptian plague or plague invades the Church - a traitor to the truth, a shepherd of wolves, a robber leaping through the sheepfold, a second Arius, “a drink laced with malice” (Hab. 2:15) and strange, a stream of godlessness, which is more abundant than the source itself 194. My tongue is too tired to retell the then iniquities and vile murders, among which this beast occupies the holy throne and which preceded his evil entry. However, out of many, I will pay for a little (which you also mourn and mourned before), crying out in the words of David: “O God, the heathen have come into Your inheritance, they have desecrated Your holy church,” and also with the following: “They gave the corpses of Your servants to be devoured by the birds” (Ps. 79:1-2) and by the beasts. I will also add these words from another lamentable song of the same prophet: “The enemy has destroyed everything in Your sanctuary, and Your enemies roar in the midst of Your assemblies” (Ps. 74:3-4). For how did they not boast! How they did not desecrate the holy church with various adventures and atrocities of all kinds! The leader was a godless and lawless man, who did not (which is the most terrible thing in desecration) even have the name of a Christian, but who came to the church of God straight from idols, from unclean blood even to the most vile and disgusting, and with such desecration of us he performed, perhaps, a service to the demons. A force boiling with rage was being equipped - an extraordinary and ferocious army against unarmed people and non-warriors. The successor of the Holy Priest, anointed by the Spirit according to the law and rank, adorned with gray hair and prudence 196, was expelled, and Taveel reigned (Is. 7:6), the heir of an alien power 197. Weapons are raised against the saints, unclean hands are raised against the sacred, and the chants are drowned out by the sound of trumpets. Look what else followed: men fell dead in the sanctuaries; the wives, even with the natural burden they carried, were trampled underfoot and therefore gave birth prematurely, or, more precisely, became non-bearing; the virgins were dragged mercilessly, subjected to shameful tortures (I am just as ashamed of husbands and wives to describe this and expose the secrets of shame in words, as much as I am ashamed of them themselves, then exposed); some, from the indecency they saw, threw themselves into the wells located inside the church, others rushed headlong from the upper porches, others fell in heaps onto the lying corpses. Murders followed murders, defeats after defeats; the shrine is trampled by unclean feet, the altars are desecrated by disorderly movements and songs, even (as I hear - whose daring tongue will utter this?) dances and antics; blasphemous tongues were preached from the holy thrones, the sacraments were subjected to blasphemy, the hymns fell silent, and howls were heard in their place; Streams of blood flowed, streams of tears; priests were taken away, hermits were tormented - a perfect resemblance to the invasion of the Assyrians when they came to holy Jerusalem! Neither a word can fully depict, nor a hearing can contain this, and in order to mourn this as it should, the soul and voice of Jeremiah are needed, which itself demands sources of tears (Jer. 9:1), calls on the walls to shed them for such misfortunes (Lam. 2:18), imposes mourning on the paths of Zion, “because there are none who go to the festival” (Lam. 1:4). The East saw such events, but the West also mourned them, where the exiled priest 198 publicly showed the signs of this madness. How? He presented not the dead, but bloody clothes to the Roman Church, and tried to draw tears from everyone with a silent complaint, in order to express suffering and receive help in disasters, which, as we know, was received. For the strong are most likely to incline towards the weak and, out of voluntary goodwill, take the side of the humiliated. And none of the pious could bear this indifferently, but the more perfect your mind and the more fiery your zeal, it excites you the more. Therefore, you fight for the word, and at the same time you yourself are subjected to attacks of wickedness. After many struggles, in which you fought for the truth in deed and word, teaching, admonishing, stirring up, denouncing, reproaching, shaming commoners and leaders, privately and publicly, at all times and in all places, finally, when the evil power gave in to rage, you were captured and (how noble is your misfortune! how sacred are your wounds!) you give your virtuous flesh to flagellation, remaining as if a spectator of other people's suffering. Although the visible in you fails, the inner is not destroyed. Your courage is revealed to everyone's eyes; and when the tongue has already refused to speak, you become a silent teacher of patience. What then? “You, for whom there is neither your own nor someone else’s side anywhere, are expelled from the fatherland for this reason, I think, so that others will learn piety from you. The place of your imprisonment is the Oasis, a deserted desert, which thanks to you has already become a significant village. Tell us the good fruits of your exile, as we benefit from the fruits of your return. And let your return be a common spectacle for us. Whom did you teach to philosophize there? Who has been distracted from wicked opinions? Whom did he lead to piety? It’s as if I see the school there in front of me, and I see the last meeting around you. Tell me this too: did you have any consolation for the remains of the flesh, or did poverty enter into your wisdom? Did you have accomplices in your feat, or did you willingly tolerate the lack of it? Did you want to see your sisters with you, with whom you learned purity and patience, or were you higher than your affection for them? Did the loneliness of your elderly mother bother you, or were you firmly convinced that you left them the strongest protection - piety? But since you (which is beautifully done) have returned to us, since He is the One who “glorifies those who glorify” Him (1 Samuel 2:30) and “irritates those who provoke” (Deut. 32:21), Who “fulfills the desire of those who fear Him” ( Ps. 145:19) and breathes into the dead the power of resurrection, Who gives life to four-day-old Lazarus and four-year-old you 199 beyond hope; Who, according to the vision of the venerable and most exalted of the Prophets Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:7), to unite bones with bones and joint with joint - and you, and filled with love for us, gave again to those who love you, then continue the same work again and with the same boldness, so that they do not think that suffering has weakened you, and that you are betraying wisdom out of fear. Shame, as before, the superstition of the Hellenes, and their polytheistic atheism, ancient and new gods, and vile fables and even more vile sacrifices, as someone says, of which they themselves are 200, purifying dirt with dirt, that is, flesh with flesh, their own flesh with the flesh of the dumb. Shame both their decent statues and the shameful idols with which, if they limit the Divinity, then what a pitiful blindness! And if they only portray, then what ignorance! Let them explain what is the reason for such disgrace and what a mysterious meaning there is in it! For it is necessary that the expressions of the beautiful themselves should not be ugly, or will they say that there is something besides this? Let them confirm what exactly? What books and theologians are they taken from? Shame the uprisings of heresies, even more zealously, since you have already been tempted by suffering, for wisdom becomes more courageous from suffering, and firmness in adversity is like a red-hot iron in cold water. Enclose our piety within the limits, teach us to know both the One unbegotten God - the Father, and the One begotten Lord - the Son (called God when He is spoken of separately (καθ ' εαυτον), and the Lord, when He is called with the Father, God - by nature, Lord - by unity of command) and the One Holy Spirit, proceeding or emanating from the Father, God for “those who understand the things offered with understanding” (Prov. 23:1), disputed by the wicked, but recognized by those who are above them, and preached by even more spiritual ones. Teach us not to make the Father subordinate (so as not to introduce something that is more primary than the original, and which will pervert the existence of the original), and not to make the Son or the Holy Spirit without beginning (so as not to take away from the Father what is characteristic of Him). For they are not without beginning, and together in some respects (which is the difficulty) are without beginning. They are not without beginning in relation to the Author, because, like light from the sun, so they are from God, although not after Him. But They are also beginningless in relation to time, because they are not under time, otherwise the fluid would be older than the permanent and the dependent - independent. Teach not to introduce three principles, so as not to introduce anything pagan or polytheistic, and even introducing one, not to introduce any Jewish principle - meager, envious, powerless, or assuming that the Divinity is absorbed by itself (as it pleases those who, although they produce the Son from the Father, but again resolve into the Father), or (which is liked by today's sages) humiliating the nature of the Son and the Spirit and alienating from the Divine, as if It were afraid of confrontation and does not have the power to produce anything higher than creatures. Teach not to recognize the Son as unbegotten (because the Father is one) and the Spirit as the Son (because there is one Only Begotten). Let these Divine properties belong to Them in an exclusive way, namely: to the Son - sonship, but to the Spirit - procession, and not sonship. Teach to truly call the Father Father and in a much more true sense than what our earthly fathers are called; because He is the Father in the only sense, that is, uniquely, and not in the likeness of the carnal fathers, - the Unique Father, that is, not in combination with anyone, - the Father of the Only Son, that is, the Only Begotten, - the Father exclusively, that is, not previously being the Son, - the Father wholly and wholly of the Son (which cannot be reliably said about our fathers), - the Father from the beginning, that is, who did not subsequently become the Father. Teach - to truly call the Son Son, because He is the Only Son of the Only Father, the Son in the only sense and exclusively, and not together with the Father, - the Son entirely and entirely of the Father, - the Son from the beginning, who never began to be the Son; because His Divinity was not due to the use of counsel, nor was His deification due to success, so that the Father was never the Father and the Son the Son. Teach to call the Holy Spirit truly Holy; because no one else is holy in this way and to such an extent, and the Holiness of the Spirit is not something subordinate, but self-sourced; It is not something that increases or decreases, something that begins and ends in time. What is common to both the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the non-beginning of being and Divinity; but it belongs to the Son and the Spirit to have their being from the Father. And the distinguishing property of the Father is ungeneracy, and the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit is originality (εκπεμφις). When you strive to comprehend the image (of birth and procession), then what do you leave to them, who, according to the testimony of Scripture, alone know each other, and are known to each other (1 Cor. 2:11), or what do you leave to those of us who will subsequently be enlightened by the light there? First do one of the things that has been said or something similar, and then you will know as much as They know each other. Now teach us to know this only: the Unity in the Trinity and the Trinity in the worshiped Unity, in which both separateness and unity are incomprehensible. Do not be afraid that, by confessing birth, you will attribute passion to the Divine. The deity, although it gives birth, does not suffer. And I guarantee you this, that It gives birth divinely, and not humanly, because His being is not human. Be afraid to attribute time and creation to God; for if it happened in time, it was not God. Be afraid that, unnecessarily standing for God, you do not reject God, making into your fellow creature the One who is equal to the Father in Divinity, who will free you from slavery if you sincerely confess His sovereignty. Don't be afraid to confess your origin; because God, who is abundant in everything, has no need to either not to destroy or to destroy. Fear alienation and the threat that was announced not to those who theologize, but to those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31,32). Do not give bad honor to the Oneness of Command by shortening or cutting off the Divinity. Do not be ashamed of being accused of tritheism while you can accuse someone else of binary gods; together with him you will either refute the accusation, or you will come into difficulty, or, when with him, together with his speculations, you suffer the downfall of the Divinity, with you it is preserved unharmed, although the word fails. It is better to be exhausted in reasoning under the guidance of the Spirit, than, pursuing ease, to easily agree to wicked opinions. Disregard insistence and objections - this new piety, this petty wisdom, and despise them more than the tissues of spiders, which trap flies, but are easily broken through by wasps, not to mention a finger or something else heavier. Teach to be afraid of only one thing, namely: to undermine the Faith with your false ideas. It doesn’t matter if they defeat someone with a word; because not everyone is given the gift of speech. It is terrible to be separated from the Divine; because everyone needs hope. You will judge all this on your own, even, as far as I know, more carefully and more perfectly. Your wounds and the labors you have endured for the sake of piety guarantee me this. But I, to the best of my ability, will make love with you. When you set out on your good journey, remember the Trinity that dwells in the tabernacles (if only God lives in man-made churches), remember the small harvest. Although there are many seeds of piety on it, it is still small and meager, and is collected from it little by little. “Like the harvesting of summer fruits” (if, by the way, to use the word of the Prophet here), “like the harvesting of grapes: not a single berry to eat” (Mic. 7:1). You see what kind of fruit harvesting we have, so try to do it; so that the threshing floor becomes richer and the winepress becomes fuller. Tell me about my calling, about the incredible migration that I made not to enjoy luxury, but to suffer, in order to share in glory through the collapse of disasters. Hope that this people will be your helper in prayers and your companion in your wanderings - this flock, meager in number, but not meager in piety, whose constraint I respect more than the breadth of other flocks. This is what the Holy Spirit says. With Him you will go through the fire, put the beasts to sleep, tame the rulers. So set out on your journey, travel like this, and return to us again enriched, crowned a second time, singing with us the song of victory, now and henceforth, in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be glory forever, amen! The philosopher Heron, as can be seen from this word, was originally from Alexandria, according to the teachings of a cynic, suffered from the Arians for Orthodoxy, namely, he was flogged and condemned to exile. Jerome, in the list of Church Writers, by the name of the philosopher Heron means Maximus, also a cynic, famous in the life of St. Gregory the Theologian for the fact that he subsequently attempted to appropriate the throne of the Church of Constantinople for himself. Appeal to the philosopher Heron. According to Elijah's remark, the Heroes, like a cynic, wore a white cloak, which the Holy Theologian calls alien, perhaps in color, for Christians leading a wise life, that is, for monks. The Holy Theologian calls Heron a dog because he was a cynic; and this name comes from the word κυων (dog). That is, Constantinople. Plato in his Republic, recognizing Homer as harmful to youth, says that he should be crowned with a wave and expelled from the city. Skindaps is a genus of Indian plant. Since such a plant does not exist anywhere else; then St. Gregory considers the name to be a meaningless word. Tragelathus is an animal consisting of a goat and a deer, which St. Gregory recognizes as fabulous. Lucian, ridiculing the philosopher Chrysippus, puts the following words into his mouth: “If a lame man stumbles over a stone with his lame foot and receives a wound, then the lameness will be “simvama”: The Holy Theologian says about geometric lines that they have no place anywhere, that is, neither in matter itself, because they are considered in abstraction from bodies, nor in thought, because they are not something only mental. They were cynics; and Heron was also a cynic. Valentine, Kerdon and others taught that the good God was not the creator of the world. Depth (βάθος) and Silence (σιγη), according to the teachings of Simon, Marcion and their successors, were the main of the Aeons. Montanus took a dishonest woman with him and called her the Holy Spirit. Manes taught that unformed matter, or darkness, is coeternal with God. Navat did not allow those who renounced faith in Christ, and even all those who fell after baptism, and bigamists, to repentance. Sabellius merged the three Persons of the Holy Trinity into the single Person of the Father. That is, from the pagan god of war Ares, or Mars. Under Constantius, the eunuch Eusebius, an Arian, had great power. Under Emperor Valens, who was the patron of the Arians. According to the legend of some - Urvana, and according to the legend of others - Theodula. For an explanation of this, see the word to Saint Athanasius the Great. This is the Arian Lucius, who expelled Athanasiev's successor Peter and forcibly took the episcopal throne in Alexandria. Palladius, Alexandrian mayor. Successor to St. Athanasius Archbishop Peter of Alexandria. Taveel St. Gregory the Theologian names the Arian Lucius mentioned above, who expelled Peter and took his episcopal throne in Alexandria. Archbishop Peter of Alexandria, having escaped from the Arians, flees to Rome to Pope Damasus and brings with him the bloody clothes of those killed by the Arians. See Socrates, book 4, chapter 22, and Nikephoros book 11, chapter 26. He was in exile for four years and during this time he seemed to have died for us. You might be interested in: