ON PRAYER

In our prayer books, there are prayers of the Holy Fathers—Ephraim the Syrian, Macarios the Egyptian, Basilios the Great, John Chrysostomos, and other great men of prayer. Being filled with the spirit of prayer, they were able to up that living spirit into words, and handed it down to us. When one enters into these prayers with attention and effort, then that great and prayerful spirit will in turn enter into him. He will taste the power of prayer. We must pray so that our mind and heart receive the content of the prayers that we read. In this way the act of praying becomes a font of true prayer in us. St. Theophan the Recluse

Orthodox, Calendar Company. 2023 Daily Lives, Miracles, and Wisdom of the Saints & Fasting Calendar: Orthodox Calendar (p. 141). Orthodox Calendar Company. Kindle Edition.

The early church

The whole Christian world’s first ten centuries believed exactly the same way as now the Orthodox Church believes. St. Gabriel Urgebadze of Georgia

HIEROMARTYR CYRIL, BISHOP OF GORTYNA.

When Cyril was sixty-eight years old, he was consecrated Bishop of Gortyna in Crete, and he served the Church for twenty-five years. During the Christian persecutions of Emperor Diocletian, Cyril persisted in his teachings to save people from idolatry. He foresaw a vision of his death, that of a large bird carrying away his head and putting it on a high mountain. At the age of 93, he was arrested and brought before Governor Agrianos. Cyril publicly denounced the idols and the myths surrounding them and the bloody sacrifices that were abhorrent. The governor sentenced Cyril to death. He was bound and thrown into a flaming fire, but only the fetters that bound him burned, and the flames turned to ashes. When the governor saw that Cyril remained unharmed, he released him. However, when Cyril continued to convert the Greek pagans to Christianity, it was decided to put him to death. St. Cyril was taken to a remote mountainous place and was beheaded in the year 299. There is a chapel in his memory at the summit of the Asterousia Mountains of Crete.

The Horse of Christ

Whenever I imagine my father, I see him with a yoke around his neck, the yoke of his priestly stole. I see him yoked as a horse, a horse for Jesus Christ. I see him running from one end of his parish to the other, thirty mountainous kilometers, something he had to do sometimes twice a day. He was always weary, ready to collapse from fatigue, as every being that is yoked and subjugated.  It never stopped.

My father would then leave, without delay, following the man who had come to see him. He’d go out of the presbytery before the man had time to knock on the door.  Without fail, it was always something urgent; somewhere a human being awaited God. And my father was always in a hurry. He’d walk beside the man up to the gate. Once outside the stone wall of the fence from the holy place, the man who had come to ask my father climbed up on his horse. My father would walk behind the horse.

A priest never mounts a horse; this is the tradition of our mountain region. Thus my father carried his sack in which he kept the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the cross, and his stole; he’d walk behind the man on his horse. My poor father always walked, although he was so fragile, so weak, and so skinny.  He walked like a horse, behind the man. He followed the horse’s hooves without falling behind at all.

Sometimes, not very often, he’d smile and tell all the kids that, “I’m Jesus Christ’s horse.  God sits on my back, like on a horse…and he told the truth, because this is not so funny as we took it to be when we were young.  My father was transporting the Body and Blood of Christ, just like a horse transports its rider.  Everywhere.  Day and night.  God climbed up on my father’s shoulders every time he went to the depths of the dark pine forests and to the silent core of rugged mountains.

I would tell him that his sons and daughters in Christ don’t love him, as I saw him returning, dead tired.  “You’ve only just returned to the presbytery and already they’ve come to call on you.  You’re trying to lie down a little and they’ve come to see you.  They wake you up.  They force you to go out any time of the day, no matter what the weather, and you walk for hours and hours behind them, while they sit on their horses.  They drag you out without stopping, in the night, in the rain, in mud and snow.  The faithful love you even less than they love their own animals.  They’d never ask their animals to do what you do, as their priest.  Why don’t they feel sorry for you?  Why have they never had mercy on you?”

“Mercy befits people, animals, things, but not the priesthood,” my father would answer.  “It would be silly, inane and irreverent for men to feel sorry for a priest.  Every Christian who knocks on a priest’s door is in reality knocking on God’s door.  This is because a priest is ‘made like unto the Son of God’ (Heb. 7: 3).  No Christian can have the irreverent idea that God is tired, that God wants to sleep, that His feet hurt.  Anyone can ask anything of God and at any time.  I protested:  “But a priest is also a man,” I said.  “No,” replied my father.  “A priest is not a man, but the sacrifice of a man, which is added to God’s sacrifice.  That is what the priesthood is.”

This was a beautiful reply.  I turned red, but added:  “Still, you should rest for a few hours.”  “No,” he repeated.  A priest is not like farmer, a worker or a craftsman.  No man becomes a priest so that he can have many free hours and days off.  He is always a priest without breaks, without vacations, without pause, day and night.

In the same way that men can address God at any time, any hour of the day or night and for any reason, without fear of disturbing or annoying Him, so can men come to the home of a priest whenever and for any reason. Of course, we don’t have priests who don’t sleep, who don’t eat and whose feet don’t hurt. This, however, is an imperfection that we are obliged to accept, because the priesthood is an image or shadow of heavenly realities, as was revealed to Moses, when he was to make the tabernacle. See, he was admonished, that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain (Heb. 8: 5).

The priesthood, mirroring the priesthood of Christ, eradicates the taking of any leave.  It remains permanently and for eternity (Heb. 5: 6).  Even natural death does not end the priesthood.  If this is so, how can hunger, fatigue or desire for sleep keep a priest from performing his duties?

“So is he a priest even after death?” I asked him the first time that he told this to me.  “Yes,” he said, a priest is a priest for eternity, Assimilatus filio dei, manet sacerdos in aeternum. ‘Made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.’ (Heb 7: 3)

Since a priest has been made like unto the Son of God, he cannot die.  He remains a priest within death and despite death, unto eternity.  For this reason a priest is buried in the vestments that he wears when celebrating the Divine Liturgy.  A priest is buried wearing his cross, his stole, his Felonion, Stichar, Epimanikia…everything as if he is dressed for the most splendid church service.  In death, a priest liturgizes in the true and heavenly Church with his bishop, Christ.  For every priest death is a promotion.  He passes from the earthly chapel in which he served on to the heavenly Cathedral in order to serve in the eternal liturgy near Christ.  Thus, the death of a priest must never be mourned, because he never dies, but is rather promoted upon natural death.

For the reason that a priest remains a priest after death, when he is placed in the tomb, he is dressed in the same garments that he performs the Liturgy.  His face is covered with the Aer, the cloth which covers the Holy Cup of Communion, which contains the Body and Blood of Christ.  The Air symbolizes the stone that sealed Christ’s tomb.  This same stone that sealed Christ’s tomb also seals the grave of every priest, because every priest is like unto the Son of God.

Hearing this, I let the tears roll down upon my father’s holy hand, which I bent down and kissed reverently.  I understood the old saying that if one meets an angel and a priest on the road walking beside each other, he must kneel in front of the priest and kiss his hand first, and then kneel to the angel and greet him.  This is because angels are lower than priests in that they cannot make bread and wine into the Body and Blood of God and priests can.

Despite the incomparable happiness that my father felt in being a servant of the Most High, my father lived his life in unimaginable hardship and suffering. Every year that went by, my father lost more and more weight, became more fleshless and immaterial.  At thirty years of age, my father’s hair was white.  At thirty years of age, my father was an old man.  His was losing his teeth, because of misery, malnutrition, and toil.

In contrast to this, his gaze became more and more beautiful, bright, radiant and intense so that his head seemed to be illumined by a halo.  I noticed an unusual fact:  when my father looked at something, it seemed to shine as if it were lighted by secret searchlights.  Seeing this I felt for the first time that when a holy person sees the world, they illuminate and sanctify it.

“What are you looking at?” my father asks, seeing me deep in thought.  “You are bright like an icon,” I said, turning beet red.  Father laughed.  He was neither prideful nor humble, because in order to feel pride or humility a person must be humanly.  But father was less and less human.  He smiled because my voice reached his ear and that made him happy.  My father didn’t smile very often.  When someone is very tired, he cannot smile.  This time however, he did smile and when my father smiled, one could see that he’d lost almost all of his teeth.  My heart sunk.  I felt so sorry for his wretchedness that I could not hold back my tears.  That’s when I decided that if one day our Lord Jesus Christ decided to allow his priest, Constantine Georgiou, to have all the food that he wanted for the rest of his life, my proletarian father, my revered father would continue—despite the miracle of food at his table–to always be hungry as in the past.  This is because even if he had something to eat, he could not, because he no longer had any teeth…

 

Incense at Hagia Sophia

A Greek journalist writes: “I met Ishmael who is Turkish in 1975, in England, where I was attending university at Oxford. We became good friends and after graduating we kept in touch. Ishmael lives in Istanbul (Constantinople), a stone’s throw from Hagia Sophia. Recently he wrote a letter to me. “In the past year, at night, when we are outside, the smell of incense that you Christians burn in church overpowers us.”

It is of note that there hasn’t been a church service at Hagia Sophia since 1453, the year Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks.

The Divine Liturgy

By Father Demetrios Carellas

The Purpose of the Church

St. Justin Popovitch writes, “The definition of the Church, Her life, Her purpose, Her spirit, Her plan, Her ways, all these are given in the wondrous Person of God-human Christ. Hence, the mission of the Church is to make every one of her faithful, organically and in person, one with the Person of Christ; to turn their sense of self into a sense of Christ, and their self-knowledge (self-awareness) into Christ-knowledge (Christ-awareness); for their life to become the life in Christ and for Christ; their personality to become personality in Christ and for Christ; that within them might live not they themselves but Christ in them (Gal. 2:10).” The Church does not require validation from the world; her relevance is an ontological truth: she is relevant because she is Christ’s body, who is the Living Truth. “…where the Body of Christ is, there is the truth.” (St. Ambrose, On the Resurrection, 2, 108) I am the vine, you [are] the branches! Whoever remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. (Jn. 15:5)

Tertullian Refutes the “Fall of the Church” Heresy

From:

http://orthodoxbridge.com/tertullian-refutes-the-fall-of-the-church-heresy/

The “fall of the church” heresy is widely held among Protestants but not unique to Protestants.  The “fall of the church” was something that early Christians had to contend with as well.  Tertullian answered it in “The Prescription Against Heretics.”

The “fall of the church” refers to the belief that after the Apostles died the early Christians strayed from the original Apostles’ teachings and practices.  This has been known as the great Apostasy, or the BOBO theory – the Blink Off/Blink On of the Holy Spirit’s activity in the life of the Church.

Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 225) lived in Carthage, a North African Roman province.  He was a lawyer by training and one of the more influential Latin theologians in the early Church.  While he did fall into error towards the end of his life and is not considered by many Orthodox a “church father,” his early writings can nevertheless be helpful to understanding early Christianity.

Prescription is one of the more important and highly regarded works of Tertullian for patristic studies.  Quasten wrote in his Patrology:

De praesciptione haereticorum is by far the most finished, the most characteristic, and the most valuable of Tertullian’s writings.  The main ideas of this treatise have won for it enduring timeliness and admiration.  Although it can be assigned no definite date, it was quite obviously written when the author was still on the best of terms with the Catholic Church, probably around the year 200 A.D.  (p. 272)

Apostles of Christ

Defining Orthodoxy

The “fall of the church” was one of several arguments used by early heretics to draw people away from the Church.  To understand these errors it is important to understand the way early Christians understood orthodoxy.  In the early Church orthodoxy (right doctrine) was based on apostolicity.  Apostolicity meant that a local church was able to trace its teachings back to the original Apostles via the traditioning process.

Tertullian wrote:

It remains, then, that we demonstrate whether this doctrine of ours, of which we have not given the rule, has its origin in the tradition of the apostles and whether all other doctrines do not ipso facto proceed from falsehood. (Prescription 21; italics in original; bold added).

. . . and after first bearing witness to the faith in Jesus Christ throughout Judaea, and founding churches (there), they next went forth into the world and preached the same doctrine of the same faith to the nations. They then in like manner founded churches in every city, from which all the other churches, one after another, derived the tradition of the faith, and the seeds of doctrine, and are every day deriving them, that they may become churches.  Indeed, it is on this account only that they will be able to deem themselves apostolic, as being the offspring of apostolic churches. (Prescription 20.4-6; emphasis added)

Here we see that the Great Commission is basically the transmission of Holy Tradition.  This may come as a surprise to many Evangelicals who assume that the Apostles went out to all the nations with a leather bound Bible under their arms.  But it needs to be kept in mind that all that the Apostles had were Christ’s teachings and deeds carefully memorized and stored in their hearts.  Similarly, when they planted churches the early converts had to learn by heart the Apostles’ teachings.  It would not be until decades later that the Gospels and the Epistles be written down on paper; and even then it would not be until centuries later that a formal collection known as the “New Testament” came to be recognized by the early Church.  The biblical canon came about as the early bishops individually and in councils carefully scrutinized which early writings were indeed divinely inspired and apostolic.

In Tertullian’s time there were churches planted by the Apostles and there were churches that learned the Gospel from the first churches; both could claim apostolicity in light of the fact that they shared the same Apostolic Faith.  Tertullian wrote:

Therefore the churches, although they are so many and so great, comprise but the one primitive church, (founded) by the apostles, from which they all (spring).  In this way all are primitive, and all are apostolic, whilst they are all proved to be one, in (unbroken) unity, by their peaceful communion, and title of brotherhood, and bond of hospitality, —privileges which no other rule directs than the one tradition of the selfsame mystery. (Prescription 20.7-8; emphasis added)

In Tertullian’s time Christianity did not have an elaborate set of institutions like seminaries, bookstores, bible camps, and TV stations.  Basically, early Christianity consisted of the local church under the leadership of the bishop, the successor to the Apostles.  For Tertullian one indicator of theological orthodoxy was being able to trace one’s bishop’s succession back to the original Apostles.

But if there be any (heresies) which are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that first bishop of theirs ] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men,— a man, moreover, who continued steadfast with the apostles. (Prescription 32; emphasis added)

Just as significant is the importance Tertullian placed on the Eucharist as proof of orthodoxy: to be doctrinally orthodox was to be in communion with the apostolic churches. In the early church the claim was made that the teachings one heard at the weekly Eucharist were the same one as that taught by the original Twelve.

We hold communion with the apostolic churches because our doctrine is in no respect different from theirs.  This is our witness to the truth.  (Prescription 21)

In summary, Tertullian’s description of early orthodoxy consisted of: (1) the traditioning process, (2) the local bishop as successor to the Apostles, and (3) the Eucharist as the sign of doctrinal unity.

Holy Tradition or Sola Scriptura?

Tertullian advanced a number of arguments that would make a Protestant’s hair stand.  In Prescription 19.1 he opens with: “Our appeal, therefore, must not be made to the Scriptures. . . .”  Unlike Protestants who view Scriptures as a level playing field that anyone can read and anyone can interpret according to their conscience, Tertullian viewed Scripture as part of the sacred deposit entrusted to Church, recognized by the Church, and safeguarded for future generations by that same Church.

For wherever it shall be manifest that the true Christian rule and faith shall be, there will likewise be the true Scriptures and expositions thereof, and all the Christian traditions. (Prescription 19.3; italics in original)

There is no shred of evidence of Protestantism’s sola scriptura in Tertullian’s Prescription.  What we find is the oral Tradition supplemented by written Tradition, and the two complementing the other.

Now, what that was which they preached—in other words, what it was which Christ revealed to them—can, as I must here likewise prescribe, properly be proved in no other way than by those very churches which the apostles founded in person by declaring the gospel to them directly themselves, both viva voce, as the phrase is, and subsequently by their epistles (Prescription 21.3; italics in original; bold added)

The early Christians never separated the two but saw the oral and the written forms of Tradition as integral to each other.  Naturally, the oral form of the Apostolic teaching preceded the written form and continues to this day to inform the Church’s understanding of the New Testament text.  In other words, early biblical exegesis was rooted in oral Tradition and did not arise from an independent objective reading of the Scripture text.  It was a ecclesial activity, and not something carried out independently of the Church and its bishops.

Early Attacks on Orthodoxy

The early heretics used a variety of arguments designed to undermine the faith of the early Christians.  The heresies are all aimed at attacking the notion of apostolicity.  They make sense if orthodoxy is grounded in the traditioning process; but don’t make sense if early orthodoxy is based on sola scriptura.

Heresy # 1 – Christ had Other Apostles (Prescription 21)

Heresy #2 -– The Apostles Didn’t Know All There Was to Know (Prescription 22.2)

Heresy #3 – The Apostles Knew All There Was to Know But Chose to Hold Some Things Back (Prescription 22.2)

Heresy #4 – Peter’s Knowledge of the Gospel Inferior to Paul’s (Prescription 23 & 24)

Heresy #5 – Paul’s Knowledge of the Gospel Superior to Peter’s (Prescription 23 & 24)

Tertullian Refutes the “Fall of the Church” Heresy

Tertullian describes the “fall of the church” heresy:

. . .let us see whether, while the apostles proclaimed it perhaps, simply and fully, the churches, through their own fault, set it forth otherwise than the apostles had done. (Prescription 27.1)

The early heretics cited Paul’s letter to the Galatians in support of the fall of the church theory: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?” and “Ye did run so well; who hath hindered you?”  They also pointed to Paul’s admonishment to the Corinthians about their being carnal and suited only for milk, not meat.  Tertullian points out that the heretics failed to take into account that the early churches likewise responded to Paul’s correction.  In addition, Tertullian pointed to Christ’s promise of the Holy Spirit guiding the Church “into all truth” (John 14:26) as evidence against the fall theory.

Grant, then, that all have erred; that the apostle was mistaken in giving his testimony; that the Holy Ghost had no such respect to any one (church) as to lead it into truth, although sent with this view by Christ, and for this asked of the Father that He might be the teacher of truth; grant, also, that He, the Steward of God, the Vicar of Christ, neglected His office, permitting the churches for a time to understand differently, (and) to believe differently, what He Himself was preaching by the apostles,—is it likely that so many churches, and they so great, should have gone astray into one and the same faith? (Prescription 28.1; emphasis added)

In Chapter 28, Tertullian points out the implication of the fall of the church heresy.  It means a widespread apostasy among the early Christians and that even Paul was mistaken in his witness to the Gospel.  Furthermore, it means that John 14:26 was not fulfilled even though Christ promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church.  Furthermore, it implies that the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the “Vicar of Christ” failed to do his job and that Christ made a false promise!

Tertullian points out that if the “fall of the church” theory held true then the churches would have diverged significantly from the teachings of the Apostles and that in turn would have resulted in theological divergences among the churches.  But theological divergences were not to be found among the churches but with the heretics.

Error of doctrine in the churches must necessarily have produced various issues.  When, however, that which is deposited among many is found to be one and the same, it is not the result of error, but of tradition.  Can anyone, then, be reckless enough to say that they were in error who handed on the tradition? (Prescription 28.2-4)

Where diversity of doctrine is found, there, then, must the corruption both of the Scriptures and the expositions thereof be regarded as existing.  On those whose purpose it was to teach differently, lay the necessity of differently arranging the instruments of doctrine. (Prescription 38.1-2)

Tertullian notes that where error results in fragmentation, orthodoxy results in doctrinal uniformity (unity) among the early Christians.  Doctrinal unity flows from fidelity to the traditioning process used by the Apostles in transmitting the Gospel.

Tertullian sketches out what the “fall of the church” would have looked like if it did in fact happen:

During the interval the gospel was wrongly preached; men wrongly believed; so many thousands were wrongly baptized; so many works of faith were wrongly wrought; so many miraculous gifts, so many spiritual endowments, were wrongly set in operation; so many priestly functions, so many ministries, were wrongly executed; and, to sum up the whole, so many martyrs wrongly received their crowns! (Prescription 29.3)

In other words (at least in Tertullian’s mind) it is unthinkable and ludicrous to suppose that all the good things done by the early Christians were in fact bad things.  Also, Tertullian points out that if such a massive defection had occurred then one logical consequence would be doctrinal pluralism.  To put it another way, it does not make sense that so many Christians would have gone wrong all in the same direction at the same time!

Tertullian Compared With Irenaeus of Lyons

Where Tertullian’s standing as a church father is in question, the same cannot be said of Irenaeus of Lyons who is considered to be the greatest theologian of the second century.  Tertullian and Irenaeus were contemporaries having lived in the latter half of the second century.

While Tertullian’s apologetics strategy In Prescription Against Heretics may strike Protestants as somewhat odd, it bears strong resemblance to Irenaeus’ Against Heresies.  A comparison between the two shows strong similarities in the way they understood early orthodoxy: (1) both assumed doctrinal orthodoxy to rest on Apostolic Tradition (Prescription 20.4-6; Against Heresies 3.1.1), (2) both understood Apostolic Tradition to exist first in oral then in written form (Prescription 21.3; Against Heresies 3.4.2), (3) both taught that orthodox churches were those who could trace their bishop’s succession back to the original Apostles (Prescription 32.1; Against Heresies 3.3.1), and (4) both asserted that a key sign of doctrinal orthodoxy is the unity of faith among Christians (Prescription 20.7-8; Against Heresies 1.10.1).

Tertullian taken together with Irenaeus gives us valuable insight into the theological method of the early Church.  Their theological method bears a striking resemblance to the Orthodox Church but also striking disparity with the theological method(s) of Protestantism.

Conclusions

The “fall of the church” heresy was not unique to Protestants but something that the early Church had to contend with as well. Protestants have used the “fall” as a way of justifying their breaking away from the Church of Rome, and the early heretics used it as a way creating an opening so they could present their alternative gospel to their listeners.

Tertullian refuted the “fall of the church” theory on four grounds: (1) biblical – it implied the failure of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church “into all truth” which in turn implied the failure of Christ’s promise in John 14:26, (2) theological – it implied the denial of divine sovereignty, (3) sociological – if true the fall of the church would have resulted into doctrinal fragmentation which flies in the face of the doctrinal unity shared by early Christians, and (4) historical –there was no evidence of a massive defection among early Christians.

Tertullian’s refutation of the “fall of the church” heresy is instructive for Orthodox-Reformed dialogue.  It sheds light on how orthodoxy was understood in the early Church.  In early Christianity orthodoxy was premised on apostolic succession and fidelity to the traditioning process resulting from a continuing Pentecost via the Holy Spirit.  Capital “O” Orthodoxy today claims this same basis for its claim to be the true Church founded by Christ and his Apostles.

Protestants have an understanding of apostolicity different from Tertullian’s.  The Protestant principle of sola scriptura assumes that apostolicity resides in the apostolic authorship of the New Testament and that Scripture is sufficient in itself to guarantee right doctrine.  With the exception of the Anglicans, the vast majority of Protestants reject apostolic succession as a marker of orthodoxy.

One of the biggest challenges that Tertullian’s Prescription poses to Protestantism is his claim that heresy results in doctrinal diversity.  This is especially daunting in light of the multitude of Protestant denominations.  There are some Protestants who might point out differences even among some of the Apostolic Fathers, as if this disproves Tertullian’s claim to unity. What do we say to this? Was Tertullian’s sense of broad unity among the early churches wrong?  Was there, as these Protestants must establish, a doctrinal free-for-all among the early churches? No, the early Christians’ unity in the Pentecost promise of the Holy Spirit was real and Tertullian was right. What differences that existed were largely minor for the Church as a whole and did not disrupt the Eucharistic unity among the early Christians.  If there was no “fall of the church” in early Christianity then Protestants will need to reconsider their insistence on the need for the reform of the Church.  Orthodoxy claims that in light of the fact that it has faithfully kept the Apostolic Tradition Protestants need look no further for the primitive apostolic Church described by Tertullian.

Robert Arakaki

Source

Tertullian.  1980.  “The Prescription Against the Heretics.”  In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III, pp. 243-265.  Reprinted 1980.  Translators: Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.  Wm. B. Eerdmans Press: Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Irenaeus of Lyons.  1985.  “Against Heresies.”  In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, pp. 315-567.  Reprinted 1985.  Translators: A. Cleveland Coxe.  Wm. B. Eerdmans Press: Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Quasten, Johannes.  1986.  Patrology.  Volume II.  The Ante-Nicene Literature After Irenaeus.  Christian Classics, Inc.: Westminster, Maryland.

Ευλόγει, η ψυχή μου, τον Κύριον – Psalm 102