After the destruction of the towns in the upper region of the Danube, Severin^[1] constantly warned all the people who, obeying his instructions, had migrated to the town of Lauriacum not to trust in their own power but, being intent on prayer, fasts and almsgiving, to fortify themselves rather with spiritual weapons. One day the man of God ordered all the poor to be assembled in a basilica in order to deal them out their ration of oil. This commodity [spice] was hard to obtain in those places because merchants had great difficulty in importing it. Now, as if a blessing was to be gained, a big crowd of needy people had gathered; since this liquid was precious food, it had greatly increased the number of beggars. When the holy man had finished the prayer and had made the sign of the cross, in the presence of all he uttered the words of sacred Scripture: Blessed be the name of the Lord! Then he began to deal out the oil with his own hand to the ministers who carried it around, imitating, as a faithful servant, his Lord, who had come not to be served but to serve,^[2] and, following in the footsteps of the Savior, he saw to his joy that the substance that his right hand poured out without his left hand knowing^[3] was increased. For while the vessels of the poor were filling, there was no less in the hands of his ministers.

Now follows what concerns us: In the holy church. The holy church is what we are; but I do not mean we in the sense of just those of us who are here, you who are listening to me now; as many of us are by the grace of God Christian believers in this church, that is in this city, as many as there are in this region, as many as there are in this province, as many as there are also across the sea, as many as there are in the whole wide world, since from the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is praised. Such is the catholic church, our true mother, the true consort of that bridegroom.

There [on Sinai], after all the legal decrees had been heard, the entire people answered with one voice, We will hear and do all the words that the Lord has spoken.^[1] Here [in the upper room], after the assembly of the church, which was being born, had received the enlightenment of the Spirit, they spoke of the wonders of God in the languages of all countries. Doubtlessly it was thanks to a certain discernment that the observance of the law was given to only one nation, that of the Jews, while the word of the gospel was to be proclaimed to all nations throughout the world, and that the proclamations of the Christian faith were to be spoken in the languages of all peoples, fulfilling the prophecy that says, From the rising of the sun to its setting, praise the name of the Lord; the Lord is high above all nations.

Another psalm that was read says, Who is as the Lord our God who dwells on high and looks down on the low things in heaven and in earth? God, no doubt, casts his eyes on the lowly, he who laid bare the relics of the holy martyrs of his church, lying hid under the lowly turf, their souls in heaven, their bodies in the earth: Raising up the needy person out of the dust, lifting up the poor person out of the dunghill,^[1] placing him, as you see, with the princes of his people. Whom are we to think of as the princes of his people if not the holy martyrs in whose number long ago the unknown Protase and Gervase^[2] were given place? They now cause the church at Milan, barren of martyrs, now the mother of many children, to rejoice in the glory and examples of their suffering.

It is written that there is no glory, if when you sin, you are punished and endure it, but if when you do good and suffer, this is a grace with God. To this, indeed, you have been called, because Christ also has died for you, leaving you an example, that you may follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his month; who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, when he suffered, did not threaten.^[1] And so the just person, even if he is on the rack, is always just. Because he justifies God and says that his suffering is less than his sins warrant, he is always wise. For true and perfect wisdom is not taken away by the torments of the rack, nor does it lose its nature, because it casts out fear by its zealous and loving purpose,^[2] even as the wise person knows that he should say that our sufferings in this body are unworthy of the reward of future glory and that all the sufferings of this time cannot equal the reward that is to come.^[3] And thus, to him, God, who knows the time of the harvest, is always good. Therefore, like a good farmer, he plows his field here with the plough-share of a rather severe abstinence, as it were. He clears his land here with the scythe of virtues that cuts off the vices, so to speak. He manures here by humbling himself even to the earth, for he knows that God raises up the needy from the earth and lifts up the poor out of the dunghill. Indeed, unless the apostle Paul had been counted as dung, he could never have gained Christ for himself. Such a person keeps watch over his crops here, so that he may store them away there without concern. And so, to him, God is always good because he always hopes for good things from God.

Daniel, the prophet, says to Nebuchadnezzar, that the most High rules in the kingdom of humankind, and he will give it to whomsoever it shall please him, and he will appoint the lowest and the basest person over it.^[1] Ask him the reason why he appoints the lowest and the basest person as king and does what he wills; question the justice of the will of him of whom it is written, He raises up the needy from the earth and lifts up the poor out of the dunghills, that he may place him with the princes, with the princes of his people. Is he, perhaps, according to your [the Pelagians’] view, seeking glory and popular acclaim without judgment and justice, so that he raises the lowly to royal power and humiliates the powerful in exchange? Listen to the prophet, who says, All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing before him.^[2] For he has done whatsoever he wished in heaven and on earth, and there is no one who will resist his will or who can say to him, Why have you done this? His works are all true and his ways justice, and he can humiliate the proud.

What lesson, then, results from these remarks?^[1] This: that we should wean ourselves from this life in the flesh, which has an inevitable follower, death; and that we should search for a manner of life that does not bring death in its train. Now the life of virginity is such a life. We will add a few other things to show how true this is. Everyone knows that the propagation of mortal bodies is the work of sexual intercourse; whereas for those who are joined to the Spirit, life and immortality instead of children are produced by this latter intercourse; and the words of the apostle beautifully suit their case, for the joyful mother of such children as these shall be saved in childbearing;^[2] as the psalmist in his divine songs thankfully cries, He makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Truly a joyful mother is the virgin mother who by the operation of the Spirit conceives the deathless children and who is called by the prophet barren because of her modesty only. This life, then, which is stronger than the power of death, is, to those who think, the preferable one. The physical bringing of children into the world—I speak without wishing to offend—is as much a starting point of death as of life, because from the moment of birth the process of dying commences. But those who by virginity have desisted from this process have drawn within themselves the boundary line of death and by their own deed have checked his advance; they have made themselves, in fact, a frontier between life and death, and a barrier too, which thwarts him. If, then, death cannot pass beyond virginity but finds his power checked and shattered there, it is demonstrated that virginity is a stronger thing than death; and that body is rightly named undying that does not lend its service to a dying world or allow itself to become the instrument of a succession of dying creatures. In such a body the long unbroken career of decay and death, which has intervened between the first man and the lives of virginity that have been led, is interrupted.