Mr. Roberts, in his “Church Memorials,” speaks of St. Jerome as follows: The various letters of Jerome to Helvidius, Jovinian Vigilantius, and even to Augustine, leave the fact unquestionable that he was a man of great infirmity of temper, disposed alike to depreciate the merits of others and unduly exalt his own. To the exercise of his vituperative talents it must be owned that we are indebted for some of his most vigorous productions. Few of his corresponding friends were without some experience of the rough discipline of his pen. Ruffinus says he spared none, neither monk nor maiden. Ambrose and Didymus and Chrysostom himself shared his reproaches. Those who submitted to the obligation of celibacy on the ostensible ground of religious abstinence were among the rare objects of his eulogy. He breaks out in his writings into gross and unwarrantable sallies against the matrimonial estate, and exalting above all comparison with it the felicity of virgins. His opinions on this subject appear to have arisen out of the self-sufficiency of his own brain, which led him to consult his own fervid impressions and prejudices rather than the teaching of Divine wisdom. But after making all necessary deductions from the dignity and deserts of Jerome on the score of prejudice and passion, our obligations to him remain very great, not only for his admirable contributions to the stores of sacred learning in all its departments, but for his strenuous and efficacious advocacy of the truth as it is set forth in the oracles of God. Lessons of practical piety and discriminating Christian prudence not seldom flowed from his able pen.
ST. CHRYSOSTOM’S ELOQUENCE AS A PREACHER (A.D. 407).
St. Chrysostom became noted for the eloquence of his sermons soon after he was ordained a presbyter in 386. One of his sermons at a time when the people were given to riots ended thus: “When you return home, converse on these subjects with all your house, as some, when returning from the meadows, take home to their families garlands of roses or violets or some such flowers; others branches laden with fruit from the gardens; or the superfluous dainties from costly feasts in like manner. When you depart home, carry admonitions to your wives, your children, your dependants. For these counsels are more profitable to you than flowers, fruit, or feasts. These roses never wither; these fruits never decay; these meats never corrupt. The former impart a transitory pleasure; the latter insure a lasting advantage, an enjoyment both present and to come. Let us thus occupy ourselves instead of the accustomed anxiety with which we trouble to ask each other, ‘Has the Emperor heard of the things that have happened? Is he incensed? What sentence has he pronounced? Has any one appeased him? Can he persuade himself to utterly destroy so great and populous a city?’ Casting these and the like cares upon God, we shall do well to heed only the observance of His commandments. Thus will all our present sorrows pass away.”
ST. CHRYSOSTOM ON THE WEAK POINT OF MONKERY.
Though St. Chrysostom was himself a hermit for six years, he thus, in the height of the mania for monkery, exposed the weakness of that practice in one of his sermons: “Those who forsake the city, the favour and society of men, and cease to instruct others, are apt to excuse themselves by saying that they must not become dead to godliness. How much better were it to become more dead to godliness, and to profit others rather than remain on the heights looking down on their perishing brethren! For how shall we overcome our enemies if the greater part of us have no heed to godliness, and those who have a heed to it withdraw from the order of battle? No deed can be truly great unless it impart benefit to others. This is manifest from the example of him who returned the talent, which he had received, whole, because he had added naught to its value. Wherefore, my brethren, though ye fast, though ye sleep upon the bare ground, though ye strew yourselves with ashes, though ye mourn without ceasing, yet if ye do no good to any one, ye shall have done no great thing, for this was the chief care of those great and holy men who were in the beginning. Examine closely their lives, and ye will see clearly that none of them ever looked to his own interest, but to that of his neighbour. If ye seek not the advantage of your neighbour, ye cannot attain unto salvation.”
ST. CHRYSOSTOM ON PEOPLE SPEAKING IN CHURCH.
St. Chrysostom, who died 407, in his homily on the text, “Brethren, be not children in understanding,” thus rebuked the habits of his people in church: “The church itself is a house, or rather worse than any house. For in a house one may see much good order. But here great is the tumult, great the confusion, and our assemblies differ in nothing from a vintner’s shop, so loud is the laughter, so great the disturbance: as in baths, as in markets, the cry and tumult is universal. And these things occur here only: since elsewhere it is not permitted even to address one’s neighbour in the church, not even if one have recognised a long-absent friend; but these things are done without, and very properly. For the church is no barber’s or perfumer’s shop, nor any other merchant’s warehouse in the market-place, but a place of angels, a place of archangels, a palace of God, heaven itself. As therefore if one had rent the heaven and had brought thee in thither, though thou shouldst see thy father or thy brother, thou wouldst not venture to speak, so neither here ought one to utter any other sound but those which are spiritual. For in truth the things in this place are also a heaven. Here the buffoon who is moving laughter or the giddy woman who collects vast crowds is listened to; but when God is speaking from heaven on subjects so awful, we behave ourselves more shamelessly than dogs.”
ST. AUGUSTINE WITNESSING TWO MIRACLES.
St. Augustine in 426 relates two miracles which he himself witnessed. Two persons, Paul and Palladia, brother and sister, natives of Cæsarea, were afflicted with excessive trembling in their limbs. They had visited many places in search of a cure, and at last were directed by a venerable person, who appeared in a vision to Paul, to go to the church at Hippo, where St. Stephen’s relics had been deposited a year before. One Easter Sunday Paul was praying before the relics, when he suddenly fell and lay motionless, as if asleep, but without trembling. The spectators were astonished, and uncertain whether to raise him up or leave him alone. He rose up soon quite healed, whereon the congregation began to praise God and shouted with joy. They ran to another part of the church to tell St. Augustine, who was already beginning the service. He next day made Paul and his sister sit in a raised part of the church, the one healed, the other trembling, and after a general discourse thus concluded: “Now, listen to what we have heard of this miracle. During the stoning of St. Stephen a stone which had struck him on the elbow rebounded on a believer who was present. He took it up and kept it. This man was a sailor, whom chance at last brought to Ancona, and he knew by revelation that he was to leave this stone there. A chapel was erected there to St. Stephen, and a report was spread that one of his elbows was there. It was afterwards understood that the sailor had been inspired to leave this stone in that place because Ancona signifies ‘the elbow’ in Greek. But no miracles were wrought there till after the body of Stephen had been discovered.” St. Augustine was going on with his discourse, recounting other miracles from these relics, when a great shout arose, and the congregation interrupted him, and some brought before him Palladia, who had just been suddenly healed in the same way as her brother Paul when she went again to pray before the relics. The people were overjoyed, and continued their shouts till Augustine had to pause; and when they were a little silent, he concluded with a thanksgiving.
THE VISION OF ST. AUGUSTINE.