In the
sixth, he speaks of miracles wrought at the relics of St. Babylas at
Daphne, and says, that the devil trembled at the name of Christ, and
fled whenever it was pronounced. In many other homilies he speaks in
raptures on the admirable virtues of St. Paul, whose spirit he had
imbibed and studied in his writings and example. The miracles of St.
Babylas are the subject of a panegyric, which St. Chrysostom has left us
on that holy martyr, (ib. p. 531.) We have his panegyrics or homilies on
St. Meletius, St. Lucian, SS. Juventinus and Maximin, St. Pelagia, St.
Ignatius, St. Eustathius, St. Romanus, the Maccabees, SS. Bernice,
Prosodoche, and Domnina, St. Drosis, St. Phocas, &c., in which he
frequently and strongly recommends the most devout veneration for their
relics. See that on St. Ignatius, p. 593, &c. In homily 1, On the
Martyrs, (p. 650,) he says that the very sight of their relics more
strongly moves to virtue than the most pathetic sermons, and that their
shrines are more precious than the richest earthly treasures, and that
the advantages which these relics afford, are not diminished by their
division, but multiplied. Some being surprised that in this discourse he
had compared the crime of an unworthy communion to that of the Jews, who
crucified Christ, he made another under this title, That we are not to
preach to please Men; in which he repeats and enforces the same
comparison; but adds a serious exhortation to frequent communion, after
a sincere repentance, and the distinct confession of every sin; "For it
is not enough to say, I am a sinner, but every kind of sin is to be
expressed," (p, 667.) Though some circumstances aggravate a sacrilegious
communion beyond the crime of Judas and that of the crucifiers of
Christ; the last was doubtless, as St. Thomas Aquinas shows, far more
enormous in itself; an injury offered to Christ in his own natural form
differing from an insult which he receives hid under sacramental veils,
though it is hard to imagine that any crime into which a Christian can
fall since the death of Christ, can be more enormous than an unworthy
communion. St. Chrysostom, in his second sermon On the Martyrs, (p.
668,) bids the faithful remain a long time in prayer at their tombs, and
devoutly kiss their shrines, which abound with blessings. In that On the
Martyrs of Egypt, (p. 699,) he calls their relics dispersed in different
places, "the ramparts of the cities," &c. In that On the Earthquake, he