Слово 14. О женщинах и красоте

Those who intend to marry, let them first read the marriage laws laid down by Paul, and learn from them what to do when the wife is angry, abusive, full of rage, or has any other similar vice. If you see that the apostle gives you the right, having found one of these shortcomings in your wife, to reject her and take another, then consider yourself free from all danger; If he does not allow this, but commands you to love your wife, even if she has all the other vices except fornication, then get ready to endure all her malice. If this seems difficult and unbearable, then try and take all measures to take a kind, meek and obedient wife. If, when intending to buy a house or servants, we diligently find out and question both those selling and those who previously owned it about the structure of the house, and about the physical health and character of the servants, then we should much more show the same care, or even more, when we intend to get married. In fact, the house, if it turns out to be bad, can be given back; in the same way, the servant, if he turns out to be incapable, can be returned to the seller; but whoever took a wife can no longer return her to those who gave her away. It is bad to take a poor wife, and bad to take a rich one; the former causes damage to property, and the latter deprives the husband of his independence and freedom. Many of the people who were devoted to harlots not only suffered eternal and endless death from this, but also here, as evil ones, they died evil, having been exposed to disasters from dissolute women. The latter, trying to completely bind those who are devoted to them to their love, resort to witchcraft, use love remedies and invent various charms. Then, having thus given him a serious illness, forcing him to suffer and waste away for a long time and subjecting him to countless other disasters, they removed him from real life. So, if you are not afraid of Gehenna, man, then at least be afraid of their spell. In fact, when by such debauchery you remove the help of God from yourself and are deprived of heavenly protection, then the harlot will take you without any fear and, calling on her demons, writing leaflets and setting up intrigues, will with great ease destroy your salvation and make you a disgrace and a laughing stock for everyone living in the city. So, if you want to find entertainment, then go not to the theater, but to the groves, to the flowing river, to lakes, to gardens, listen to the singing grasshoppers, often visit the tombs of the martyrs, where there is health for the body and benefit for the soul, and no harm. Do you have a wife, do you have children? What can equal such pleasure? Do you have a home, do you have friends? This gives great pleasure, and along with chastity it also brings benefits. Tell me what's nicer than children? What is sweeter than a wife for someone who wants to live chastely? They say that the barbarians once spoke a word full of wisdom. “The Romans,” they said, hearing about these wicked theaters and indecent amusements, “invented such pleasures as if they had no wives and children.” When you see a pretty woman with lightning-fast eyes, with a cheerfully shining face, with wondrous beauty that burns your mind and inflames your lust, then think that what you are surprised at and what inflames you is only earth and ashes, and your soul will cease to rage. Remove the skin from this woman's face, and then you will see all the insignificance of beauty. Do not stop at appearance alone, but penetrate inside with your thoughts, and you will not find anything else except bones, nerves and veins. But is this not enough? Imagine how this woman changes, grows old, becomes weak, how her eyes become hollow, her cheeks become sunken, how all her beauty disappears. Think about why you are surprised, and be ashamed of your judgment. You are surprised by the clay and dust; dust and ashes kindle you. Indeed, the essence of visible beauty is nothing more than phlegm, moisture, blood and the juice of chewed food. They water the eyes, the cheeks, and everything else; and if they do not receive this irrigation daily, coming from the stomach and heart, then all the beauty of the face immediately disappears, since the cheeks become too sunken and the eyes deeply sunken. If, therefore, you think about what is hidden behind the beautiful eyes, what is behind the straight nose, what is behind the lips and cheeks, then you will say that bodily beauty is nothing more than a whitewashed tomb: it is so full of impurity from the inside. Seeing rags with sputum or harkotins, or something else similar, you won’t even dare to touch it with the edge of your fingers or even want to look at it, but do you passionately strive for the warehouses and granaries of this sewage? Anyone who loves the body and has a passion for a beautiful maiden, if he wants to know the ugliness of the essence, can recognize it by its very appearance. In fact, many of the beloved’s peers, and often even more beautiful, when dying, within a day or two emit a stench and present worm-like pus and ichor. So, think about what kind of beauty you, man, love, and what kind of beauty you are passionate about. What is the virtue of the eyes? Is it that they should be moist, easy to turn, round and dark, or that they should be sharp and penetrating? What is the advantage of the lamp? Is it so that it shines clearly and illuminates the whole house, or is it so that it is beautifully made? True beauty is recognized not by appearance, but by morals and decent behavior. For this reason, Christ reproached those who look at a woman with immodest eyes, in order to save us from great labor. Indeed, it is not so great a task not to look at beautiful women as it is to refrain from looking at them. Anyone who has not seen a beautiful face will be clean from the desire that comes from here; the one who wished to see will first cast down the thought and defile it a thousand times, and then he will already spew out the filth of carnal desire, if only he spews it out. If, therefore, the indicated work for the incontinent is less, and the benefit is greater, then why are we trying to fall into the abyss of these countless evils? So, when you see a beautiful woman and feel something for her, then don't look at her anymore and you will be free from feeling. But how, you say, can I no longer look at her, drawn to her by desire? If you think that what you are looking at is nothing more than phlegm, blood and the juice of digested food. But, you say, her complexion is magnificent. However, there is nothing on earth more magnificent than flowers, but even those wither and rot. Therefore, here too, do not pay attention to the color, but penetrate inside with your thoughts and, having mentally taken off this beautiful mask, carefully examine what is hidden under it. After all, the body of those suffering from dropsy is brightly shiny and has nothing unpleasant in appearance; however, we, amazed at the thought of the fluid hiding inside, cannot love such patients. When a husband wants to leave his wife, or a wife wants to leave her husband, let her remember the following saying of Paul, let her imagine that he is standing before her and, turning to her, says in a loud voice: “A woman is bound by the law as long as her husband lives” (1 Cor. 7:39). Explaining this, the apostle did not further say: “if her husband dies, then she is free,” but: “if her husband dies” (deceases - κ oimhqh), as if comforting the widow, and convinced her to remain with her first husband and not take another. Your husband is not dead, he says, but is sleeping; and who does not wait for the sleeping one? Saying that the wife becomes free after the death of her husband; the apostle showed by this that previously, while her husband lived, she was a slave; being a slave and subject to the law, even if she received a divorce book according to civil laws at least a thousand times, she is condemned as an adulteress. And this is because God on that day will not judge by these laws, but by those that He Himself will establish. And civil laws not only decreed this, but they themselves punish adultery and treat this sin with inexorable severity. In fact, they punish the party who gives rise to divorce with deprivation of property, expelling the culprit from the house without any fortune, empty-handed, They say that one of the pagan philosophers, who had a malicious, talkative and disorderly wife, answered those who asked him why he tolerated such a wife: “In order to have a school at home to teach himself how to fight; After all, by learning from it every day,” he said, “I will treat others more meekly.” And so, this philosopher, having an evil wife, as they say, did not reject her for the reason stated; and some say that for this reason he took her. So, when even the Greeks turn out to be wiser than us, what justification will we have for insulting the one for whose sake God commanded us to leave even our parents? What word can describe the shame when screams and screams rush through the streets, and all the neighbors and passers-by run to the house of someone who behaves so indecently and, as if some animal, destroys everything in the house? It is better for the earth to open up before someone who commits such outrages, than for him to appear in the square afterwards. Let us obey the law of God and let us not reject our wives, nor take to ourselves those rejected by others. Really, with what face will you look at the husband of a rejected wife? With what eyes will you look at his friends, at his servants? After all, if the one who takes the wife of someone who has already died experiences an unpleasant feeling and is irritated at the sight of just one portrait of this deceased, then what kind of life will the one who sees the living husband of his wife lead, how will he enter his house, with what thoughts, with what eyes will he look at the wife of another, who has now become his? Or rather, one can say about such a woman that she does not belong to either one or the other, because the adulteress is not anyone’s wife: she trampled on the agreement concluded with her first husband, and did not come to you with the proper laws. What madness is it to bring into your home the source of so much evil? Are there so few women that you bring such destruction upon your own head? A wife who was satisfied with her first husband shows that she would not have chosen him at first if she had tested the matter well; the one who brings the second husband to the bed of the first represents no small proof of great love for the world and passion for earthly things. Moreover, the first, during her husband’s life, had no passion for anyone else; the latter, even if she did not sin with others during her husband’s life, nevertheless felt more affection for many others than for him, and had neither the first nor the second husband as her own flesh. The first husband is banished from her memory by the second, and the second by the first; and she cannot remember the first well, being betrayed after him to another, nor look at this last with appropriate love, since her heart is disposed towards the deceased. Just as we usually devote ourselves diligently to a task when we get a good start, and when from the very beginning and, so to speak, from the first step, we feel failures and difficulties, we soon give up on it because we lose the desire for it, so women who are subject to early widowhood should naturally abstain from a second marriage. In fact, the one who has been in business for a long time and has become well accustomed to it will begin again to the same work as the one who expected to find the same thing; the one who experienced such a difficult beginning, with what disposition and hope will she go back to the experience of hardship? If we all respect and approve of wives who abstain from their husbands during their lifetime, then how should we respect and praise those who, even after their death, show the same disposition towards them? So, we do not reject a second marriage, but only exhort, if anyone can abstain, to be content with the first. And this is because a second marriage is often a source and reason for strife and daily quarrels. It often happens that a husband, sitting at the table, will remember his first wife and quietly cry for her in the presence of the second, and she immediately becomes furious and rushes at him like a beast, wanting to punish him for his love for her; in the same way, if he decides to praise the deceased, these praises are a reason for quarrel and abuse. We make peace with dead enemies and at the end of our lives we cease all hostility with them; with wives, everything happens the other way around: the one whom the second wife has not seen or heard from, from whom she has not suffered any harm, she hates and curses, and even death does not stop her hatred. Who has seen, who has heard that they are jealous of the dust, that they are at enmity with the ashes? But evil doesn’t stop there either. Whether children will be born from the second wife or not, there will be enmity and fighting again. If they are not born, she indulges in great sorrow and looks at the children from her first wife as her enemies who have caused her the greatest offense, since through their lives she feels her own childlessness more acutely. If they are born, again no less evil: the husband, often being tenderly disposed towards the deceased, protects her children, loving them and pitying them as orphans; and she wants her children to be given preference everywhere. Listen, husbands, listen, wives, about the love of the spouses, which they showed for each other, even exposing themselves to danger for it! When Abraham settled in Gerar, he said about Sarah, his wife: “She is my sister” (Gen. 20:2), because he was afraid to say: “My wife,” lest the inhabitants of the city kill him because of her. And “Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.” Imagine the storm of thoughts that the righteous man experienced when he saw his wife being taken away, and being unable to help himself in any way. He endured everything silently, knowing that the Lord would not leave him, but would provide him with first aid. One must also be amazed at the great love of Sarah, which she showed in order to save the righteous man from danger. She could have discovered the deception and avoided the threatened dishonor; but she courageously endured everything in order to bring salvation to the righteous. And in this case the saying was fulfilled: “they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). As if being one flesh, they cared about each other’s salvation and showed such agreement as if they were one body and one soul. Let the husbands hear this, let the wives hear this, so that the latter will show the same tender love for their husbands, and they will have just as much affection for them, and so that they will do everything as if they had one soul and were one body. And God came to Abimelech at night and said: “Behold, you will die for the woman whom you have taken, for she has a husband” (Gen. 20:3). Look at God’s love for mankind, since He knew that the righteous man, out of fear of death, bravely endured the kidnapping of Sarah, and that the king took her as the sister of the righteous man, he finally shows His own care, making at the same time the righteous man more glorious, and delivering Sarah from dishonor, and turning the king away from iniquity. “But Abimelech,” it is said, “did not touch her”; Moreover, he even justifies himself in his wrongdoing and says: “Lord! will you really destroy the innocent people?” (Gen.20:4). Did I do this knowing that she was his wife? Did I want to offend the wanderer? Did you really want to take his wife away from him? I did this with the intention of taking her as a sister and even thinking of doing him honor by doing so. “Didn’t he himself say to me: She is my sister? And she herself said, “He is my brother” (Gen. 20:5)? What about the Merciful Lord? “And I know that you did this in the simplicity of your heart” (Gen. 20:6), that they themselves came up with this deception, and that you did it, being deceived by their words; and so, so that you would not sin as a result of their deception, I spared you, so that you would not sin against Me. Do not disrespect this man as one of the ordinary people, but know that he is one of those who enjoy My special care and have great closeness to Me. Therefore, “return your wife... to the man, for he is a prophet and will pray for you, and you will live” (Gen. 20:7). He came up with this deception and, as it were, contributed to the dishonor of Sarah, fearing death from you; but know that his prayers will bring you life. “And if you don’t return it, then know that you and all yours will certainly die.” Not only you yourself will suffer punishment for disobedience, but also everything that belongs to you. Having risen, Abimelech “called all his servants, and spoke all these words in their ears” (Gen. 20:8). Following this, he called Abraham. Imagine with what glory a righteous man is now brought before the king, who not long before was considered an insignificant person and knew nothing of this. He now learned from the king himself what God had done to the latter for his sake; he said to him: “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you brought great sin upon me and my kingdom?” (Gen.20:9). Would the punishment, he says, be limited to me alone? My entire kingdom was to be completely destroyed by your deception. What did you mean by this? For what? What are you up to? What about Abraham? I, he says, was afraid that you, as still possessed by delusion, had no respect for justice and, having learned that she was my wife, would plan to kill me due to lust for her. Don’t think, however, that I lied in this case either. “For... I am a sister through my father, and not through my mother, so I became my wife” (“yes, she is truly my sister: she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife”) (Gen. 20:12). So don't judge me. Although the fear of death forced me to do this and the fear that you would not kill me for her sake and leave her alive, nevertheless, in this case, what I said is not a lie. With these words the righteous man tamed the king’s anger, discovered his own virtue, and taught them a sufficient lesson in piety. Ashamed of the great meekness of the righteous man, the king rewards the patriarch with a generous gift: “Abimelech took,” it is said, “a thousand didrachms, and sheep, and calves, and male and female servants... and gave him Sarah his wife” (“And Abimelech took flocks and herds, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he returned Sarah his wife him") (Gen. 20:14). Do you see the wonderfully arranged Wisdom of God? The one who was afraid of death and did everything just to avoid it, not only avoided death, but was also awarded such freedom to speak openly everything, and suddenly becomes famous. These are the blessings of God. They not only free those who try to courageously resist attacking temptations from sorrows, but even in the midst of the sorrows they bring such joy that we completely forget about them and receive benefits in great abundance. This is what happened with this righteous man. The king not only honors him with these numerous gifts, but also gives him the right to inhabit his land. “Here,” he says, “my land is before you; live where you please” (Gen. 20:15). Since he learned that life was given to him for his sake and his prayer, he is in a hurry to serve this wanderer, a wanderer, completely unknown to him, as his benefactor and intercessor. And when Abraham reached a very old age, then, wanting to remove Isaac from kinship with the Canaanites, so that he would not take a wife from there, he calls the most prudent of his servants and commands him regarding this, saying: “Put your hand... and swear to me by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but you will go to my land, to my homeland, and take a wife for my son Isaac” (Gen. 24:2-4). Do you see what commandment the patriarch gives to the servant? Think about how in ancient times they tried to look not for an abundance of money, not for great wealth, not for many slaves and tithes of land, not for external beauty and good looks, but rather for spiritual beauty and nobility of morals. This is what the patriarch does, caring for spiritual virtue and wanting to avoid the wickedness of the local residents; now no one even thinks about anything like that, and everyone is looking for only one thing - an abundance of money, yet everything else is considered secondary among them, even if the future wife is filled with countless evils, not knowing that with a corrupted will, even if someone gets immeasurable wealth, he will soon fall into extreme poverty again, and that there will be no benefit from the abundance of money if there is no soul that could properly manage them. So, “the servant... took the camels, and in his hands were also all the treasures of his master. He got up and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor, and stopped the camels outside the city, at a well of water, in the evening, at the time when the women come out to draw, and said: Lord, God of my master Abraham! send her today to meet me and show mercy to my master Abraham; Behold, I stand at the source of water, and the daughters of the inhabitants of the city come out to draw water; and the girl to whom I say, “Tilt down your pitcher, I will drink,” and who says, “Drink, I will give your camels something to drink,”—this is the one whom You appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I know that You show kindness to my master” (Gen. 24:10–14). Notice the servant's prudence. Since he knew the hospitality of the patriarch, and also that the girl who was to be taken from here must be of the same mindset as the righteous man, he does not look for any other proof, but wants to determine the hospitality of the girl by the disposition of her will. If, he says, when I ask her for water, she tilts a waterpot for me and not only fulfills the request, but also shows her helpfulness and says: “I will give your camels a drink,” then by such delivery of water she will provide ample proof of the meekness of her disposition. Then, when he saw in practice the effectiveness of the patriarch’s prayers, he found, as he wished, the maiden and saw her extreme hospitality (because “she immediately poured water out of her pitcher into a trough and ran again to the well to draw, and drew for all the camels” of him (Gen. 24:20), and neither ran away from him as from a stranger, nor rejected the requests under the pretext modesty), - after that he began to scout and ask questions about her. “Whose daughter are you...,” he asked, “and is there a place for us to spend the night in your father’s house” (Gen. 24:23)? And look at the girl's answer. When the servant asks whose daughter she is, she names not only her father, but also her father’s father, saying: “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor” (Gen. 24:24). Likewise, when the servant asks about the place if there is somewhere they can find shelter, she says: “we have not only a place, but also a lot of chaff and hay” (Gen. 24:25). Do you see what complete modesty, greatest humility and boundless hospitality there is at that age? What wealth is it not more valuable than? What treasure would you not prefer such a treasure to? This is the greatest dowry, this is countless benefits, this is a treasure that is never exhausted. Hearing such words, the servant was surprised at the extreme hospitality and, learning that he had not come to some unknown people, but to the house of Nahor, who was the brother of his master Abraham, rejoicing over what the maiden said to him, he bowed to the Lord, who, for the sake of goodwill towards the patriarch, showed such care for him and so easily and successfully arranged everything for him. “Blessed,” he says, “is the Lord God of my master Abraham, who did not forsake my master in His kindness and in His truth” (Gen. 24:27). Now he himself lets the girl know who he is, and through thanksgiving to God makes it clear to her that he did not come from a strange house, but that the one who sent him is Nahor’s brother. Hearing about this, the maiden ran with great joy and told her parents what she had heard from the servant. “Lavan ran out to the man, to the spring” (Gen. 24:29), and, seeing him standing near the camels, said to him: “Enter, blessed of the Lord; why are you standing outside? I have prepared a house and a place for the camels” (Gen. 24:31). Then, when he entered, he “unsaddled the camels and gave straw and feed to the camels, and water to wash the feet of him and the people who were with him; and food was offered to him” (Gen. 24:32–33). But here look at the great prudence of the servant. What is he saying? I will not eat until I explain to you the reasons why I was sent on such a long journey, why I came here from Canaan and how I was brought to your house, so that you, having learned everything, will show your disposition towards my master. "I am Abraham's servant... “, he says, starting to tell, “The Lord greatly blessed my master, and he became great: He gave him sheep and oxen, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys; Sarah my master's wife, when she was old, bore my master a son, to whom he gave all that he had; and my lord took an oath from me, saying: Do not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, but go to my father’s house and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son” (Gen. 24:34-38). He gave such an order; I, imagining the difficulty and realizing the difficulty of accomplishing the task, asked my master: “Perhaps the woman will not go with me. He said to me: The Lord, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and make your way prosperous, and you will take a wife for my son from among my relatives and from my father’s house” (Gen. 24:39-40). Having given such instructions and admonished me with such prayers, he sent me. Now that his prayers have been answered, everything is so clearly arranged by God that I should come to you; and you will announce your decision and, if you show mercy to my master, inform me so that I can know what I need to do; if not, then direct your path to another place. And the maiden’s father and brother said to him: “This work has come from the Lord; we cannot tell you in spite of either good or bad”; and it is impossible that it should come from us. “Here... you have a girl: take it and go; let her be a wife for your master’s son, as the Lord has said” (Gen. 24:50–51). Hearing such words from his father and brother, the slave “worshipped the Lord to the ground. And the servant took out silver things and gold things and clothes and gave them to Rebekah” (Gen. 24:52-53), and now openly respects her as a betrothed already in words to Isaac. At the same time, he honors his brother and her mother with gifts. And only after he has seen that the master’s order has been carried out in practice, does he indulge in rest. “He and the people who were with him ate and drank,” they say, “and spent the night. When they got up in the morning, he said: Let me go to my lord. But her brother and her mother,” it is said, “said: Let the girl stay with us for at least ten days, then you will go” (Gen. 24:54-55). “He said to them: “Why are you delaying and delaying, when God has given me such success in everything? “They said: Let’s call the girl and ask what she will say. And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said: I'll go. And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her: Our sister! May thousands of thousands be born of you, and may your descendants possess the dwellings of your enemies! And Rebekah and her maids arose, and mounted camels, and followed the man” (Gen. 24:57–61). Do you see what kind of bride the patriarch takes? She draws the water herself, carries the waterpot on her shoulders, and mounts the camels herself. Were there mules here with silver shining on their necks? Was there that string of servants and extreme effeminacy that is observed today? Not at all; on the contrary, ancient women had such masculinity that they themselves mounted camels and thus made the journey. Do you see from what Abraham did for his son how in ancient times parents tried to take wives for their children, how they sought nobility of soul before money? Did they have IOUs? Were there treaties and other laugh-worthy things like there are now? They had nothing of the kind, and the greatest and surest guarantee for them was the girl’s character. And you will know this when you see the girl brought to the groom. “Isaac,” they say, “went out into the field to meditate, and lifted up his eyes, and saw: behold, camels coming,” on which Rebekah was sitting. Rebekah, having seen “Isaac, ... descended from the camel. And she said to the servant, “Who is this man who is walking across the field to meet us?” And when she learned that this was the one who was going to marry her, “she took,” they say, “the veil and covered herself” (Gen. 24:63–65). And the servant approached and told Isaac everything exactly. Look how nowhere there is anything superfluous or useless; there is no devilish pomp anywhere; nowhere are there cymbals, pipes, dancing, or these satanic feasts, but decency is everywhere, wisdom is everywhere, modesty is everywhere. “Isaac brought her,” it says, “into the tent of his mother Sarah, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her” (Gen. 24:67). Let wives imitate her, let husbands compete with him, and let them try to take brides for themselves in such a way that the love of the groom increases, and the chastity of the bride increases, and they would spend their lives in joy, being closely united by the grace of God. If you want to show generosity at a marriage, which would be beneficial, then call on the faces of the poor. But are you ashamed and blushing? And what could be worse than this madness? By introducing the devil into your house, you think that you are not doing anything shameful; and when you intend to introduce Christ, do you blush with shame? But, you say, no one in town did this. So try to start and become the originator of such a wonderful custom, so that subsequent generations will attribute it to you. And if someone competes and imitates this practice, then the grandchildren and great-grandchildren can then tell those who ask that such and such was the first to introduce this wonderful custom; and what is done well by others will bring its fruits as a reward to you, who planted it for the first time. And just as when libertines and buffoons dance at a wedding, the devil rejoices among them, so, on the contrary, when the poor enter, Christ comes. Moreover, there is no benefit from that waste, and there is even great harm; meanwhile, from spending on the poor you will soon receive abundant fruit. And that this is certain, learn from the girl who was in Joppa: she, who once lay dead, the poor people who received food from her, standing around her, raised her with their tears and brought her back to life - in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Ἐκλογαί άπό διαφόρων λόγων . Under this name are known collections of conversations compiled by various persons after the death of Chrysostom on certain topics, from those related to the topics and especially liked by the compilers of the works of the saint. The passages are given partly in a literal presentation, partly in a free retelling and are borrowed both from the original works of Chrysostom, and from works only attributed to Chrysostom, which have not only survived to this day, but have also been lost. These Eclogues (selections) were widespread and were used by both private individuals and kings. Known, for example, is the luxurious collection of Eclogues, owned by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Botaniatus (1078–1081), registered among the codices of the Koalene Library under No. LXXIX. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: