Works (Symposium, On the Resurrection, On Free Will, etc.)

Saint Methodius of Olympus · c. 290 AD

Ante-Nicene Fathers (Roberts–Donaldson), Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing, 1885–1887; digitized by CCEL.

Bishop of Olympus in Lycia and martyr under Diocletian. His Symposium (or Banquet of the Ten Virgins), modeled on Plato but Christianized, is the first sustained Eastern monastic and virginal theology in dialogue form. His Aglaophon, or On the Resurrection — a careful refutation of certain speculative Origenian positions on the resurrection body — is an important pre-Nicene witness to Eastern eschatology. Commemorated 20 June.

Contents

1. The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity(87 chapters)
2. Concerning Free-Will(1 chapter)
3. From the Discourse on the Resurrection(4 chapters)
4. Fragments(4 chapters)
5. General Note(1 chapter)
6. Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple(1 chapter)
7. Oration on the Palms(2 chapters)
8. Three Fragments from the Homily on the Cross and Passion of Christ(3 chapters)
9. Some Other Fragments of the Same Methodius(9 chapters)
10. Two Fragments, Uncertain(2 chapters)
11. General Note(1 chapter)