Monday, January 15, 2024

Extra patristicum

"God the Word did not move out of himself when he dwelt among us.  Nor did he undergo a change when the Word became flesh.  Heaven was not deprived of what it contained, and earth received the heavenly one within its own embraces.  Do not suppose that the divinity fell.  For it did not move from one place to another as bodies do.  Do not imagine that the divinity was altered when it was transferred into flesh.  For the immortal is immutable."

Saint Basil the Great, Homily no. 2 on the Theophany (or Epiphany, otherwise known as the homily In sanctam Christi generationem, On the holy birth of Christ) 2, as trans. Holman and DelCogliano, St. Basil the Great On fasting and feasts, Popular patristics series 50 (Yonkers, NY:  St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2013), 29.  Greek at p. 850 col. 2E-A of the 1839 De Sinner ("apud Gaume") reprint of the Garnier (or Maurist) edition of the Opera omnia of 1721-1730, though there is also the the edition of Luigi Gambero (L'omelia sulla generazione di Cristo di Basilo di Cesarea:  Il posto della vergine Maria, Marian studies library 13-14 (Dayton, OH:  University of Dayton, 1981-1982), 177-200).