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Homilies

St Photius the Great, tr. Mango, 1958

6. The Russian Attack

III

Of the Same Most-Blessed Photius, Archbishop of Constantinople, First Homily on the Attack of the Russians¹

What is this? What is this grievous and heavy blow and wrath? Why has this dreadful bolt fallen on us out of the farthest north? What clouds compacted of woes and condemnation have violently collided to force out this irresistible lightning upon us? Why has this thick, sudden hail-storm² of barbarians burst forth, not one that hews down the stalks of wheat and beats down the ears of corn, or lashes the vine-twigs and dashes to pieces the unripe fruit, or strikes the stems of plants and tears the branches apart (which for many has often been the extent of its most grievous damage), but miserably grinding up men’s very bodies, and bitterly destroying the whole nation? Why or how have the lees (to call them no worse) of so many and great disasters been poured out on us? Is it not for our sins that all these things have come upon us? Are they not a condemnation and a public parading of our transgressions? Does not the terror of things present indicate the awful and inexorable judgment of the future? Is it not the apprehension of us all, nay the sight before the eyes of each, that not one will have been left any longer to survive, so that not even the fire-tender³ can escape the calamity to tell the tale?⁴ Verily, sins diminish tribes,⁵ and sin is like a two-edged sword for those who indulge in it. We were delivered from evils which often had held us; we should have been thankful, but we showed no gratitude. We were saved, and remained heedless; we were protected, and were contemptuous. For these things punishment was to be feared. O cruel and heedless minds, worthy to suffer every misfortune and distress! From those who owed us small and trifling things we made relentless exaction; we chastised them. We forgot to be grateful when the benefit had gone by. Nor did we pity our neighbours because we had been pardoned ourselves. But in being freed from the impending fears and dangers, we became yet more cruel to them, and we neither considered the number and magnitude of our own debts which the Saviour had forgiven, nor did we respect the debt of our fellow-servants, tiny as it was, and not to be weighed against our own even in the measure of speech. Having been ourselves mercifully delivered from many great debts, we unmercifully enslaved others for little ones.⁶ We enjoyed ourselves, and grieved others; we were glorified, and dishonoured others; we grew strong and throve, while waxing insolent and foolish. We became fat, gross and thick, and although we do not forsake God as Jacob of old, yet like the beloved one, we have been filled and we kicked,⁷ and like a maddened heifer⁸ we raged against the Lord’s commandments, and we disdained His ordinances. For this reason there is a sound of war and great destruction in our land.⁹ For this reason the Lord hath opened His treasury and brought forth the weapons of His anger.¹⁰ For this reason a people has crept down from the north, as if it were attacking another Jerusalem, and nations have been stirred up from the end of the earth, holding bow and spear; the people is fierce and has no mercy; its voice is as the roaring sea. We have heard the report of them, or rather we have beheld their massed aspect, and our hands have waxed feeble; anguish has seized us, and pangs as a woman in travail. Go not forth into the field, and walk not in the ways, for the sword lingers round about.¹¹ “What shall I testify to thee, or what shall I compare to thee,” Jeremiah will cry out with me today, “O queenly city? Who shall save thee and comfort thee, for the cup of thy destruction is enlarged? Who shall heal thee?”¹² Now you are weeping. I too was nearly overwhelmed by the misfortune, and cut short in my speech. But why do you cry out to me? Why do you lament? Listen to me. Stop weeping awhile, and give access to words. I too weep with you, but neither do little drops quench a fire that has long been fanning (need I say that they kindle it all the more?), nor has a transient tear the power to expiate God’s wrath fired by our sins. I too weep with you, but we have overlooked the tears of many sufferers—I pass over those that we have caused.¹³ I too weep with you, if the present time be a time for tears, and the misfortune that has overtaken us be not too great for the flow of tears; for there are—indeed, there are—many misfortunes too great for tears, when the inward parts are inflamed¹⁴ by a deep-seated ill, or else violently contracted and stopped up, so that oftentimes even the moisture that distils from the eyes does not flow down.¹⁵ I do not see now any benefit even in the shedding of tears.¹⁶ For when before our eyes the enemy’s swords are drenched in the blood of our fellow-countrymen, and we, as we behold this, do not take it upon ourselves to help, as we ought to, being at a loss what to do, but instead collapse in tears, — what kind of consolation is this for the victims? Even more copious streams than the tears welling from our eyelids might the blood of the severed¹⁷ bodies have prompted, but since the gory flood that flows therefrom cannot wipe off the pollution of our transgressions, how can the rivers of our eyes wash it clean? It is not now, my beloved ones, that we ought to weep, but we should have hated sin from the start; not mourn now, but have formerly avoided the pleasures which have caused us this sorrow. It is as though we had delivered ourselves into bondage to cruel masters and were unwilling to bear the torture of the whip, if, having given ourselves over to wicked deeds, we were to beg off the punishment which God’s righteous judgment¹⁸ inflicts on us. Not now ought we to wail, but to have been temperate through life; not to scatter now our wealth, when thou dost not know thyself if thou shalt still be¹⁹ its possessor, but to have formerly abstained from the property of others, when the present plague had not yet descended on us. Not to open a booth for mercy now, when the fair of life is about to be broken up by the ills which are upon us, but never to have committed injustice, while the ability remained in our power. Not to attend vigils now, and run to litanies, and beat the breast, and sigh deeply, and raise the arms, and bend the knees, and weep mournfully, and look dejected, when the pricks of death²⁰ are sharpened against us: we should have done these things long ago, we should have long ago devoted ourselves to good works, we should have long ago repented over our evil ones. For in so acting now, indeed before a Judge who is, above all, righteous, and whose heart is not overly inclined to pardon,²¹ it is not to pity, I think, that we are moving God, but we make ourselves the fierce accusers of the sins which were by us committed. Surely those who, as we see, have both knowledge and strength to live soberly and godfully now, yet who, before the tide of ills swept over us, did nothing in the way of virtue and salvation, but with such negligence and indifference stained their souls with their passions, do they not present themselves self-convicted? Thou who mournest now, why didst thou not formerly abstain from incontinent laughter, licentious songs and theatrical plays?²² Thou who lookest distraught now, why didst thou contract thy eyebrows, and puff up thy cheeks, showing a face filled with overbearing? Thou who pridest thyself on pitying the wronged and sympathizing with them, why didst thou fall like an unexpected plague on whomever it chanced to be? In a word, why didst thou, who now art kindly to all and in all matters, treat nobody with moderation in former times? But thou didst boast thyself in the command of unrighteous hands,²³ and if thou hadst not succeeded in taking revenge on a suspected enemy, thou didst think thy life was not fit to live. The poor was cast out of thy doors, hungry and an object of abomination, while clowns, gorging themselves from thy table and thy wealth, took all the more advantage of thy simplicity. Thou didst overlook as being of little profit the love of friends, thou spatst upon the nature of kinship, and brokest the bonds of assistance, eager to become, as it were, a fury, a man who hateth his kind. I am far from enumerating all the thefts and robberies, the fornications and adulteries, and all those other unspeakable deeds, excellent and durable fuel for this fire that has been kindled and poured around us. I know that now as you revolve these matters, you mourn and look downcast. But time is pressing, the Judge incorruptible, the danger terrible, the mass of sins great, and the repentance insufficient. Often have I sown words of reproof, words of threat in your ears, but, it seems, they grew up amidst thorns.²⁴ I implored you, I castigated you. Often have I pointed out to you the ashes of the Sodomites, and the flood that went before, when the earth was covered with the waters, and the universal destruction of the human race was effected.²⁵ Often have I represented the Jewish people, the chosen one, the beloved one, the royal priesthood,²⁶ for its murmuring, its rebelliousness, its ingratitude, and similar trespasses, being lashed and humbled by the foe it had defeated, and over whom it had itself triumphed—diminished, falling, perishing. Often have I admonished you: be on your guard, mend yourselves, convert yourselves; do not wait for the sword to be furbished: the bow is being bent.²⁷ Do not take God’s long-suffering as an occasion for contempt; do not act wickedly in the face of His extreme gentleness. But why do I irritate²⁸ your hearts which are already inflamed? Surely it is better to castigate you as you are now sorrowing, than to send you away unreproached to suffer punishment from above, and to use the present misfortune as a helper in convicting you, rather than, respecting your plight, leave the disobedient and the sinners unreproved. What now? We have admonished and threatened you, using the name of God: our God is jealous and long-suffering, but when He is angered, who shall withstand Him?²⁹

These things have I been saying, but, it seems, it was like carding wool into the fire³⁰—a proverb that is timely for me to quote now (would it were not so!).³¹ For you have not been converted, nor have you repented, but you have made your ears heavy so that you should not hear the word of the Lord.³² For this reason His wrath has been poured upon us, and He has kept watch over our sins,³³ and He has set His face against us.³⁴ “Woe is me, that my sojourning has been too long,”³⁵ will I cry out with the psalmist David, short as it has been.³⁶ It has been too long because I have not been heard in my entreaties, because I see a cloud of barbarians deluging with blood our city which has been parched by sins. Woe is me that I have been preserved to see these evils, that we have become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us,³⁷ that the unbelievable³⁸ course of the barbarians did not give rumour time to announce it, so that some means of safety could be devised, but the sight accompanied the report, and that despite the distance,³⁹ and the fact that the invaders were sundered off from us by so many lands and kingdoms, by navigable⁴⁰ rivers and harbourless seas.⁴¹ Woe is me, that I see a fierce and savage tribe fearlessly poured round the city, ravaging the suburbs, destroying everything, ruining everything, fields, houses, herds, beasts of burden, women, children, old men, youths, thrusting their sword through everything, taking pity on nothing, sparing nothing. The destruction is universal. Like a locust in a cornfield, like mildew in a vineyard, or rather like a whirlwind, or a typhoon, or a torrent, or I know not what to say, it fell upon our land and has annihilated whole generations of inhabitants. I deem them happy who have fallen prey to the murderous barbarian hand, because, having died, they have avoided sooner the awareness of the calamities which have seized us unexpectedly. If the departed had any consciousness of these things, then they too would have bewailed with me those who are still left behind for the things they are suffering continually, and because they have taken their fill of so great pain without being relieved of it, and seeking death they find it not. For it is much preferable to die once than to expect continually to die, to be constantly grieved by the sufferings of one’s neighbours, and to have one’s soul lacerated.

Where is now the Christ-loving emperor? Where are the armies? Where are the arms, the engines, the military deliberations and preparations? Is it not an attack of other barbarians which has removed and drawn to itself all these things?⁴² The emperor endures long labours beyond the frontier, and the army has marched away to toil with him; whilst we are worn down by the ruin and slaughter before our eyes, which have overtaken some and are about to overtake others. As for this fierce and barbarous Scythian tribe,⁴³ having crawled out of the very outskirts of the city, like a wild boar it has devoured all round about.⁴⁴ Who then will defend us? Who will array himself against the foe? We are deprived of everything, we are helpless on all sides. What lament may equal our misfortunes? What tears will be able to suffice for the magnitude of the calamities that surround us? Come unto me, O most compassionate of prophets, bewail Jerusalem with me—not the ancient one, the metropolis of one nation, which grew up from a root with twelve offshoots,⁴⁵ but the metropolis of the entire universe, as much of it as is adorned by the Christian creed, which lords it in antiquity, in beauty, size, splendour, in the multitude and magnificence of its inhabitants. Bewail with me this Jerusalem, not yet captured and fallen down, but standing nigh to being captured, and rocked by the calamities we behold.⁴⁶ Bewail with me the queen of cities, not as she is led away captive, but whose hopes of salvation are in captivity. Seek water for the head and fountains of tears for the eyes,⁴⁷ pity her⁴⁸ and mourn for her, since she weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks, and there is none to comfort her;⁴⁹ since Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore has she come into tribulation⁵⁰ and those who had been awed by her might have sneered at her; since the Lord has sent fire into her bones,⁵¹ and has made heavy His yoke on our neck, and has laid pains on our hands⁵² which we shall be unable to withstand. Weep with me since mine eyes have failed with tears,⁵³ my belly is troubled, and my heart is turned within me for I am embittered with much bitterness; abroad the sword has bereaved me;⁵⁴ and the enemy has opened his mouth against me, and gnashed his teeth, and said: I shall swallow her up.⁵⁵ O queenly city, what a throng of evils has poured around thee, as the depths of the sea and the mouth of fire and sword⁵⁶ have cast lots according to barbarian custom for the children of thy belly,⁵⁷ yea, those settled so splendidly outside the town, and are devouring them.⁵⁸ O fair hope of many men, what a calamitous threat and what a mass of horrors have innundated thee all round, and have humbled thy celebrated glory! O city reigning over nearly the whole universe, what an uncaptained army,⁵⁹ equipped in servile fashion,⁶⁰ is sneering at thee as at a slave! O city adorned with the spoils of many nations, what a nation has bethought itself of despoiling thee! O thou who hast erected many trophies over enemies in Europe, Asia and Libya, see how a barbarous and lowly hand has thrust its spear against thee, making bold to bear in triumph victory over thee!⁶¹ Everything with thee has come to such a pitch of misfortune, that thy unassailable strength has sunk to the dregs of extreme infirmity, and thy enemies, beholding thy infirmity and subjection,⁶² display the strength of their arm against thee, and try to bedeck themselves with a glorious name. O queen of queenly cities, who hast saved many others from dangers by thy alliance, who hast with thy arms raised up many that had been forced down to their knees, now lying a prey deprived of helpers! O grace and splendour, size and beauty, elegance and adornment of venerable shrines, O sanctuary of bloodless victims,⁶³ place inviolate and holy of the dread sacrifice and the mystical table, see how enemies’ feet are threatening defilement! O pure veneration, stainless faith, undefiled worship, see how the mouth of the impious and the arrogant is opened wide against us!⁶⁴ O white hairs, unction and ministry of the priests! O me, holy shrine of God and God’s Wisdom,⁶⁵ sleepless eye of the universe! Wail ye virgins, daughters of Jerusalem. Weep ye young men of the city of Jerusalem. Mourn ye also, mothers. Shed tears, ye babes, shed tears; for the magnitude of the calamity forces even you to awareness. Shed tears, for our ills have been multiplied,⁶⁶ and there is none to deliver,⁶⁷ none to help.

But until when the weeping? Until when the mourning? Until when the wailing? Who will hearken, and how will the plague cease?⁶⁸ Who will make atonement? Who will cry out on our behalf? If there were a Moses, he would have said to the Lord, “If Thou wilt forgive them, forgive, and if not, blot me too out of the book of life, which Thou hast written,”⁶⁹ and to us, “The Lord shall fight for us, and we shall hold our peace.”⁷⁰ But there is not, because the godly man hath failed from the earth.⁷¹ There is no Moses, there is no Abraham to open his mouth and speak boldly, and say to God, “Destroy not the righteous with the wicked, that the righteous be as the wicked.”⁷² There is none who will repeat those merciful and wondrous arguments, by means of which Abraham pleaded that a multitudinous town, borne headlong beyond the laws of nature, should find salvation on account of ten righteous men and hear the God of the universe say that, “If there be found ten in the city, I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”⁷³ There is then no Moses, there is no Abraham; but if you will (a strange thing will I say, yet true), you can make unto yourselves a Moses, you can show an Abraham. For it was not strange that even Moses, when his people were heedless, should have been disregarded for all his pleading;⁷⁴ though it was indeed very dreadful that he should have often with his own hand slain many, for whose sake he did everything. Abraham, too, had to see those on whose behalf he had begged and implored God, destroying their life by fire, for they had cultivated the thorns of passion. You are able, if you will, that such an one may say to you, “The Lord shall fight for us, and we shall hold our peace.”⁷⁵

Do you wish to know how afraid I am of your weeping, that it is temporary; your charity, that it is for a short while; your temperance, that it is ephemeral; your brotherly love, that it will last only as long as the threat of the enemy around, being as it is a common ill, compels you to concord; the humility and moderation of your character, that they are while servitude is imminent; that your vanity is suppressed and your anger held in check, and your tongue is the vehicle of spiritual hymns and not of shameful words as long as the shouts of the enemy impinge on your ears; that the litanies, and the all-night standing at prayers, and the fasting and the sighs are while death by the sword is before you? These things trouble and agitate me much more than the barbarians’ arms. This is what I fear, on seeing actions now performed readily and by everybody, which aforetime were not even done by some, even in a corner and grudgingly. It frightens and distresses me that while calamity is standing by, then we take pride in our conversion; that when grievous things occur, then we have recourse to good deeds. For this reason there is no Moses now, nor Abraham. If, when the misfortune that now grips us is passed, you kept the same decorum, order and disposition, then you would have put forward many a Moses and an Abraham to fight for you and make atonement to God for us all.⁷⁶ And why do I say Moses and Abraham? You would make the Lord Himself, common to us and to them, our champion and defender; Him Who has brought on the enemy for our sins, to break the might of the enemy; the Punisher to heal; the wrathful One to be merciful. For great is the charity of our God, and His forgiveness of those that return to Him.⁷⁷ “Make godly and amend your ways and your works,” He crieth out through Jeremiah, “and hearken to the voice of the Lord; and the Lord shall cease from the evils which He has pronounced against you.”⁷⁸ But you do not wish it so. Cry not, nor make ye agitation: it would have been better to give thanks quietly for the ills we did not suffer, instead of crying out vehemently for fear of suffering the punishment that attends those who live perversely; to have done that while those abundant fountains of good things were gushing for us in our lifetime, instead of trying to escape the throng of numberless ills⁷⁹ which is now standing over us on the razor’s edge.

But check the weeping, stop, become firm keepers of these injunctions. I am so bold as to say: I am the surety for your salvation. I say this, encouraged by your pledges, not by my own actions; by your promises, not by my own words. I pledge your salvation, if you yourselves observe the agreements staunchly; I pledge you liberation from your hardships, if you pledge your steadfast conversion; I pledge the retreat of the enemy, if you pledge withdrawal from the passions. Or rather, it is not I who am the surety for these things, but on my own and your behalf I put you forward as the bondsmen and make you the pleaders, if you fulfil the agreements without reservation. For the Lord Who is merciful and repenting of men’s evil⁸⁰ will say to you, “Behold, I am blotting out as a cloud thy transgressions, and thy sins as darkness; turn to me and I will redeem thee,”⁸¹ and again, “Turn to me, and I will turn to you,”⁸² and again, “I shall pronounce an end upon a nation or upon a kingdom to cut them off and to destroy them,” and again, “If that nation turn from their sins, then I also will repent of all the evils which I purposed to do to them.”⁸³

Finally, beloved ones, the time has come to have recourse to the Mother of the Word, our only hope and refuge. Imploring, let us cry out to her: save thy city, as thou knowest how, O Lady! Let us set her up as our intermediary before her Son our God, and make her the witness and surety of our compact, her who conveys our requests and rains down the mercy of her Offspring, and scatters the cloud of enemies, and lights up for us the dawn of salvation. May we be delivered through her pleading of this present wrath, and be delivered also of the endless condemnation to come, in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be all glory and thanks and veneration, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, now and for ever and ever. Amen.

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