It isn’t a time of wrestling matches of that sort, but it is a time of crowns. Yet while it isn’t a time of persecution, it is a time of martyrdom. “How is it possible,’ you ask, ‘for us to imitate martyrs now? After all, it isn’t a time of persecution.’ Yes, I know. Indeed, if you want to learn that what happened then was clearly baptism, hear how Christ calls his own death ‘baptism.’” ( ) “Rather, they didn’t drown, but were baptized with a new and astonishing baptism. The volume also includes two letters-one written by Chrysostom from exile concerning the use of martyr relics in a mission context, and one in which Vigilius, Bishop of Tridentum, offers him fresh Italian relics. It also includes encomia on Egyptian martyrs and on all the martyrs. This rich collection includes homilies on martyrs Meletius, Eustathius, Lucian, Phocas, Juventinus and Maximinus, Ignatius, Eleazar (and the seven boys), Bernike, Prosdoke and Domnina, Barlaam, Drosis, and Romanus. Mayer pinpoints several conceptual shifts that identified and shaped this cult: the imitation of Christ’s own death the creedal declaration “I am a Christian” the sense of privilege bestowed upon martyrs the ritual purity of relics public veneration of the departed and places made holy by martyrs’ blood. The cult’s original point of focus was the Christian martyrs-those followers of the Jesus-movement who died in confession of their faith, either at the hands of other Jews or at the hands of the Roman administration. In this volume, Wendy Mayer investigates the liturgical, topographical, and pastoral aspects that marked the martyr cult at Antioch and Constantinople in Chysostom’s time.
The cult of the saints is a phenomenon that expanded rapidly in the fourth century, and John Chrysostom’s homilies are important witnesses to its growth.
0 kommentar(er)
