St. AMBROSE, L. C.-“If you say to me: what is it that you honour in a body, now dissolved and consumed, of which God has no longer any care? I ask you : What is it that the Prophet means, when he says: Precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints? And when he again says: To me O God, thy friends are exceedingly honourable? It is our duty to honour the servants of God, and much more his Friends, of whom it is elsewhere written : The Lord keepeth all their bones; not one of them shall be broken. I honour, therefore, in the body of the Martyr, the wounds that he received in the name of Christ; I honour the memory of that virtue, which shall never die; I honour those ashes, which the confession of Faith has consecrated; I honour in them the seeds of eternity ; I honour that body which has taught me to love the Lord, and not to fear death for his sake. And why should not the faithful honour the body, which even the devils venerate: which they tormented indeed in death, but to which they shew respect in the sepulchre? I honour then the body, which Christ himself honoured in the sword, and which with him will reign in heaven." Serm. lv. in natali SS. Martyr. Nazarii et Celsi. T. ii. in append. p. 467.
Sr. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUM, G.C.-Speaking of miraculous cures, he says: “The mere dust of Cyprian, if approached with faith, is able to effect them; as those know, who have made the experiment, and have related to us, and who will transmit the remembrance of it to posterity.” T. i. Serm. xlii. De St. Cypriano, p. 285.
St. GREGORY OF NYSSA, G. C.-"Let us consider, how eminent, how glorious is the present state of the Saints. The soul, indeed, having left this earth, rests in its proper place, and freed from the body, lives with its equals; while
