On All the Saints
Sermo in omnes sanctos
Gregory Thaumaturgus ("the Wonderworker," c. 213–c. 270), bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, was revered across the early church — and, like all revered names, gathered writings he never wrote.
The Sermon on All Saints, preached for a martyrs' feast, moves from the speaker's unworthiness to Christ's despoiling of Hades. It is transmitted under Gregory's name.
This volume holds the opening: silence preferred, yet the martyrs' feast compelling speech, through Christ despoiling Hades.
© 2026 SaneApps. This translation is free to share and adapt, even commercially, as long as you credit SaneApps. Draft translation, prepared with AI assistance and not yet independently reviewed. Verify against the original before citing. Translated from Documenta Catholica Omnia edition (cf. Migne, PG 10).
Opening: silence preferred, yet the feast of the martyrs compels speech§1
1Grant your blessing, Master. I wanted to keep quiet and not make public a rustic tongue. For silence is a great thing when speech is cheap; and stillness is wonderful when lack of training is present; and he is a high philosopher who covers ignorance by silence. I too preferred to do this, knowing the weakness of my own tongue. But the sight of what is before us draws me to speak.
Since, then, the festival is bright and the assembly continuous, and our gathering is fervent in faith, I will turn boldly to the beginning of the discourse — especially as the Father is praying, the Church contending alongside, and the holy martyrs strengthening this weakness for the task.
For these have also persuaded old men, with much sweat, to finish a long journey, and have forced stumbling steps to be steadied by the staff of the Word. They have urged the female sex to travel with young men. And the martyrs have brought here even the infant age that still creeps — leaping against death, laughing at swords, snatching away tyrannical rage, seizing death that brokers immortality, claiming the victory in their own fall, springing through the body toward heaven. Scattering their members so that they may bind their souls tight; breaking the bars of life so that they may open the keys of the heavens.
Let the one who does not believe that death has been dissolved, that Hades has been trampled, that its bonds have been torn apart, that the tyrant has been bound — look at martyrs tumbling against death and celebrating the victory of Christ. O the wonder! From the time Christ despoiled Hades, people have danced upon death. Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55). Hades has been despoiled, and the devil; he has been stripped of his ancient panoply; and he has been cast out of his own power.
Greek · §1
Εὐλόγησον, Δέσποτα. Ἠρεμεῖν ἐβουλόμην, καὶ μὴ δημοσιεύειν ἀγροικίζουσαν γλῶσσαν· μέγα γὰρ σιωπή, ὅτ' ἂν ὁ λόγος εὐτελής· καὶ θαυμαστὸν ἡσυχία, ἀπαιδευσίας παρούσης· φιλόσοφός τε ἄκρος διὰ σιγῆς καλύπτων ἀμαθίαν. Τοῦτο κἀγὼ πράττειν προῃρούμην τὸ ἀσθενὲς τῆς οἰκείας ἐπιστάμενος γλώσσης· ἀλλ' ἕλκει με πρὸς τὸ λέγειν τῶν ὁρωμένων ἡ ὄψις. Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἡ πανήγυρις λαμπρὰ καὶ τὸ θέατρον συνεχές, καὶ ζέων ἐστὶ τῇ πίστει ὁ ἡμέτερος σύλλογος· ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ λόγου θαρροῦντος τραπήσομαι· μάλιστα τοῦ Πατρὸς εὐχομένου, τῆς Ἐκκλησίας συναγωνιζομένης, μαρτύρων ἁγίων πρὸς τοῦτο ῥωννύντων τὸ ἀσθενές. Οὗτοι γὰρ καὶ γέροντας ἔπεισαν σὺν ἱδρῶτι πολλῷ μακρὰν ἐξανύσαι πορείαν, καὶ τὰ σφαλλόμενα βήματα τῇ βακτηρίᾳ τοῦ λόγου στηρίζειν κατηνάγκαζον· καὶ τὸ θῆλυ προέτρεψαν συνοδοιπορεῖν νεανίσκοις· καὶ τὴν νηπιάζουσαν ἡλικίαν ἕρπουσαν ἐνταῦθα παρήγαγον μάρτυρες κατὰ θανάτου σκιρτῶντες, ξίφεσιν ἐγγελῶντες, θυμὸν τυραννικὸν διαρπάζοντες, θάνατον ἀθανασίας πρόξενον ἀνθαρπάζοντες, ἐν ἰδίῳ πτώματι τὴν νίκην οἰκειούμενοι, διὰ σώματος ἀναπηδῶντες πρὸς οὐρανόν. Τὰ μέλη διασκορπίζοντες ἵνα σφίγξωσι τὰς ψυχάς, τὰ κλεῖθρα τῆς ζωῆς διαρρήξαντες ἵνα τὰς κλεῖς ἀνοίξωσι τῶν οὐρανῶν. Ὁ ἀπιστῶν ὅτι θάνατος καταλέλυται, ᾅδης πεπάτηται, ὅτι τούτου τὰ δεσμὰ διεράγη· ὅτι τύραννος δέδεται· βλεπέτω μάρτυρας κυβιστῶντας κατὰ θανάτου, καὶ τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ νίκην ἀνευφημοῦντας. Ὢ τοῦ θαύματος. Ἀφ' οὗπερ Χριστὸς τὸν ᾅδην ἐσκύλευσεν, ἄνθρωποι κατωρχήσαντο τοῦ θανάτου. Ποῦ σου, θάνατε, τὸ κέντρον; ποῦ σου, ᾅδη, τὸ νῖκος; Ἐσκύλευται ὁ ᾅδης καὶ ὁ διάβολος· καὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας ἀφῄρηται πανοπλίας· καὶ τοῦ οἰκείου κράτους ἐκβέβληται.