On Patience 13
Summary: Patience is also exercised in the body: in fasting and penance, as Nebuchadnezzar showed, in continence and celibacy, and above all in enduring persecution and martyrdom.
Latin text · CSEL 47:20–21
Usque huc de patientia tantum simplici et uniformi et tantum in animo constituta, cum eandem etiam in corpore demerendo domino multipliciter adlaboremus, utpote quae ab ipso domino in corporis quoque uirtute edita est, siquidem rector animus facile communicat spiritus inuecta cum habitaculo suo. quae igitur negotiatio patientiae in corpore? inprimis adflictatio carnis, hostia domino placatoria per humiliationis sacrificium, cum sordes cum angustia uictus domino libat, contenta simplici pabulo puroque aquae potu, cum ieiunia coniungit, cum cineri et sacco inolescit. haec patientia corporis precationes commendat, deprecationes adfirmat; haec aures Christi (et) dei aperit, seueritatem dispergit. clementiam elicit. sic ille rex Babylonius offenso domino cum squalore et paedore septenni ab humana forma exulasset, immolata patientia corporis sui et regnum recuperauit et, quod optabilius homini est, satis deo fecit. iam si altiores et feliciores gradus corporalis patientiae digeramus, eadem sanctitati quoque praecurat continentiam carnis: haec et uiduam tenet et uirginem adsignat et uoluntarium spadonem ad regna caeli leuat. quod de uirtute animi uenit in carne perficitur. carnis patientia in persecutionibus denique proeliatur. si fuga urgeat, incommoda fugae caro militat. si et carcer praeueniat, caro in uinculis, caro in ligno, caro in solo; illa et in paupertate lucis, illa et in penuria mundi. cum uero producitur ad experimentum felicitatis, ad occasionem secundae intinctionis, ad ipsum diuinae sedis ascensum, nulla plus illic quam patientia corporis. si spiritus promptus, sed caro infirma, ubi salus spiritus sine patientia et carnis ipsius? at cum hoc dominus de carne dicit, infirmam pronuntians, quid ei firmandae opus sit, ostendit, patientia scilicet aduersus omnem subuertendae fidei uel puniendae paraturam, ut uerbera, ut ignem, ut crucem bestias gladium constantissime toleret, quae prophetae, quae apostoli sustinendo uicerunt.
English · Claude translation
So far we have spoken of patience only as simple and uniform and as lodged in the mind only; whereas we also labor for it in many ways in the body, to win the Lord's favor, since it was displayed by the Lord himself in bodily strength too; for the mind, as ruler, readily shares the gifts of the spirit with its dwelling. What, then, is the business of patience in the body? First of all, the affliction of the flesh, an appeasing victim to the Lord through the sacrifice of humiliation, when it offers to the Lord squalor and scantiness of food, content with simple fare and a pure drink of water; when it joins fasts to these; when it grows accustomed to ashes and sackcloth. This patience of the body commends our prayers, strengthens our entreaties; it opens the ears of Christ and God, scatters severity, draws out clemency. So that king of Babylon, when he had offended the Lord and had been exiled from human form for seven years in squalor and filth, by the sacrifice of the patience of his body both recovered his kingdom and, what is more desirable for a man, made satisfaction to God. Now if we set out the higher and happier grades of bodily patience, the same patience also watches over holiness through continence of the flesh: it holds the widow, seals the virgin, and lifts the voluntary eunuch to the kingdom of heaven. What comes from the virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh. Finally, the patience of the flesh does battle in persecutions. If flight presses, the flesh fights out the hardships of flight. If prison too comes first, it is the flesh in chains, the flesh in the stocks, the flesh on the ground; it is the flesh in want of light, in want of comforts. And when it is brought out to the test of happiness, to the occasion of a second dipping, to the very ascent to the divine throne, nothing counts more there than the patience of the body. If “the spirit is willing but the flesh weak,” where is the salvation of the spirit without the patience of the flesh too? But when the Lord says this of the flesh, declaring it weak, he shows what it needs to be made strong: namely, patience against every apparatus for overthrowing or punishing faith, so that it may bear most steadfastly scourges, fire, cross, beasts, sword, which the prophets and the apostles overcame by enduring.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “A second dipping” is martyrdom as a baptism of blood (cf. Bapt. 16). The allusions are Dan 4:33–36, Matt 19:12, and Heb 11:36–38; the quotation is Matt 26:41.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (doubled punctuation in the digital text; stray punctuation in the digital text): recuperauit et. quod → recuperauit et, quod; uicerunt.. → uicerunt..
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Pat. 13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-patientia/13/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Pat. 13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-patientia/13/).
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