THE HOMILIES OF ST. GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN.

From a Greek manuscript of the XIIth century in the National Library at Paris.

The manuscript from which this fac-simile is taken is remarkable for the variety of its ornaments, its beautiful and large miniatures, its splendid headings and titles in gold, and its fine writing. The title and line at foot are in tall close conjoined Greek letters, occasionally enclosed in each other, and mingled with smaller letters all written in gold. This practice of gold writing was very common with the Greeks and very few of their manuscripts lack this embellishment, which was applied either by means of a pen with golden ink, or with a brush and gold leaf.

The translation of the title reads: "Oration of our Holy Gregory, Archbishop of Constantinople (surnamed) the Theologian, upon his discourses and upon Julian the exactor of tributes." The bottom line is the date "December 24," and the letters on the side are abbreviations for the Greek words which indicate that it is the seventh homily of the father.

St. Gregory who wrote the homily, is one of the three orthodox bishops of the eastern church, a native of Nazianzum in Cappadocia. The acknowledged superiority of his works has given them a reputation which is still maintained, and, in the early days caused the scribes to multiply copies. He became Archbishop of Constantinople in 380 A. D. but retired after a few years, and lived quietly in his native town where he died at the end of the Fourth century.