Commentary.-The remembrance of the saints is thus, you see, a glory to God, praise of the saints, joy and salvation to the whole world. Why, then, would you destroy it? This remembrance is kept by preaching and by images, says the same great St Basil.
The same, on the Martyr St Gordion
Just as burning follows naturally on fire, and fragrance on sweet ointment, so must good arise from holy actions. For it is no small thing to represent past events according to life.
Is it a dim memory of the man’s wrestlings which has come down to us, and does not the painter’s picture tally with our present conflict? Now, as painters draw images from images, they frequently depart from the original as much as the image itself does, and as we did not see what they represent, there is no little fear that we may injure the truth.
The same, at the end.
The sun fills us with perpetual wonder, though always before us, so the memory of this man is ever fresh.
Commentary.-It is evident that it is fresh through sermon and image.
Testimony of the same, from his Sermon on the Forty Martyrs.
Can the lover of the martyrs have too much of their memory? For the honour shown to the just, our fellow-men, is a testimony to the goodness of our common Lord.
And again –
Recognise the blessedness of the martyr heartily, that you may be a martyr in will; thus, without persecutor, or fire, or blows, found worthy of the same reward.
Commentary.-How, then, would you dissuade me from honouring the saints, and be envious of my salvation? Listen to what he says a little further on to show that he united the painter’s art to oratory.
St Basil.
See, then, that setting them before us in representation, we are making them helpful to the living, exhibiting their holiness to us all as if in a picture.
Commentary.-Do you understand that both image and sermon teach one lesson? He says: “Let us show them forth in a sermon as if in a picture.” And again: Writers and painters point out the struggles of war; the first by the art of style, the second with their brush, and each induce many to be brave. That which a spoken account presents to the hearing, a silent picture portrays for imitation.
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